Bike time

The last 10 days or so have being very good as far as bike riding goes. Not only has the Tour de France been very fun to watch. This year there is cool thing you can do with MAPMYRIDE.COM. You can upload the gps info from your rides and they have some sort of Voodoo they do to prorate and compare your ride to that days stage. Everyday that you submit a ride you have the chance to win prizes. Some based on performance and other based on a random drawing. So far I have not won a damn thing but I have been riding quite a bit. I have submitted 8 rides out of 17 so far. I know that sounds shitty now that I type it. But it is what it is.There is also a GC as in the Tour and right now I'm 484 out of 15323. Anyway I have riden about 250 miles since the 10th. This past weekend was really good. 45 mile flat out and back in which I was able to negative split by about 20 min. Then the next day 58 mile ride with Jayne which had about 4 k of climbing in it. Today begins my week off and I will build on what I've done. We are riding in the Loreen Miller 100 miler on Sunday, it supposed to be 101 degrees, so that will be a big day. Today I'm going to do a ~20 mile TT as is the TDF, they are doing 40 k actually.

Another Great Quote

I just came accross this quote from David Goggins. If you don't know who he is Google him before you go to his site. He is a humble and modest guy and his site does not do him or his accomplishments justice. Anyway the quote is something that I think is at the heart of all endurance sports. "I don't train my body on runs, I train my mind and hope my body can keep up". If You have read Matt Fitzgeralds book Brain Training for Runners, this sentence pretty much sums it up.

Fair Swim, Good Ride

Yesterday I participated in the Steve Omi Memorial Swim. This is a well attended as well as well intended event. The race raises money for scholarships for graduating seniors planning to swim at the collegiate level. The race is a 1 mile open water swim on lake CDA. This was my 1st open water swim of the year also my 1st wetsuit swim of the year. I have had 1 other swim this that was 1 mile but it was in a pool with several stops at the wall. So needless to say I took it easy. But who are we kidding I always take it easy when swimming. I finished in 31:47 in 112 place out of 226. To put in perspective for those of you that may not follow swimming. The kid that won is 13 and finished in 19:42. The little shit could have almost lapped me.
After the swim Ron and Virginia(Tri-Fusion team members) and I rode the CDA olympic course. Ron and I stuck with Virginia to the base of the big climb but at this point it was everyman for themselves. This is a tough course with a lot of climbing. My gps said I climbed 1656 ft, Training Peaks says it was 1903 ft. and mapmyride.com has it at ~950 ft. All I know is that it was tough climbing with a fast decent. All in all it was a good training day.

Find fault with this logic, I dare you!

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
-Adrian Rogers

A good week

As the 1st week of July comes to an end it's hard to believe we have already put half of this year in the books. Time seems to flow faster and faster the older I get.
Last weekend as most of you know I played in Hoopfest. For those who don't know this is the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament in the world. This year I think there were 6700 teams breaking the previous record. I played on a team with some guys from my triathlon club. So needless to say we are all in good shape. However swimming,biking and running does not really prepare you for all of the start and stop in a hlf court basketball game. We did manage to win our first 2 games though. Basically our stradgedy was to run them to death. This worked well until game 3 win we came up against a team that could move the ball better than we could run. We got stomped pretty good. Our next game pitted us agianst the team we beat in our first game, and they wanted revenge. Thnaks to some good outside shooting and several made free throws they were able to hold us off. Oh well, it was fun.
The good thing that came out of the basketball was that I was running around like a crazy person and had no foot pain. So after I recovered from the b-ball I went for my first run in about a month. It was not good but my foot felt fine. So I'm going to start real slow and start base building. I'm really starting to ride quite a bit. Pat and I climbed Mt. Spokane this week and Jayne and I got in a ride as well. It's nice to not always ride alone. With the Tour starting this week it's easy to be motivated to get on the bike.Also got out on the lake skied a little this week. We still don't have our course in the water yet but that's ok, I'm not in shape for that yet anyway, but soon. I'm taking my boat over to the Hobbit's next weekend for his daughter's Re-wedding. Don't ask me it's some girl thing. I always thought the renewing vows thing was something you did if you both lived to be 80 or something. These kids have been married about 3 years...wtf.Oh well, free food.

a NON Triathlon related post

This is nothing more than a shameless plug for my son's band Drawing Two. One of our local radio stations has built a webpage for local musicians to upload their music to. This is a cool way for bands to get heard. It's also an opportunity to download some good NEW music. It cost the same as iTunes 99 cents per song. The band with the most downloads gets to open for a concert the radio station is promoting. So go HERE and check them out, if you like it buy it.

IM CDA

it's that time of year again for IM CDA. This year though we will be sitting on the side lines cheering on our friends. For anybody that has been around an Ironman event you know how contagous it all is. How the excitement is everywhere. The inspiring stories of obstacles overcome and countless hours spent in preparation just suck you in. You can't help but want to DO something. This week I was able to go over to CDA and ride the bike course with Kevin Purcell a coach from San Diego. We had chatted a few times here in the blogosphere but had never actually met so it was great to get to put a face with the web page. He is up here coaching I think 5 different athletes that are doing the race. He was here to race last year but double flatted and was not able to continue so he wanted to ride the course. So after a little phone tag we were off for a windy 56 mile ride. We headed out towards Higgins Point and I was sort of playing tour guide and at the same time getting to know Kevin. The whole while he is making mental notes to pass on to his athletes. We slightly modified the course to avoid a little of the midday traffic through town. As we headed north on 4th street the sun was shining and we were cruising, then came the hills. Me being me, not to smart, I'm cranking up these hills like I've been training for months, instead of like this going to be first ride farther than 40 miles of the year. For the 1st 35 miles this was no problem. By the time we hit ~ 45 miles I was hurting. It's about this part of the course where there are several miles of relativly flat terrain that is just a grind. This is not my strength. I have not had much success with high cadence steady cranking. This was kind of timely because Kevin had just been talking to Gordo about this very issue. As a matter of fact he just published an article about it on xtri.com. After reading this article it's clear, not that it wasn't before, I have alot of work to do.
As for the race on Sunday I'll be there cheering on my friends and planning on my next IM, Canada 2010.

Plantar Fasciitis

As you can tell I have not had much to say lately. Well I have had things to say but have been to busy doing everything but training to to take the time to write anything.Jayne sparked a fire under my ass this past week and we have been working in the yard, alot. This is the problem with over an acre of yard, not to mention the other 4 acres. It has all kind of taken the back burner for a while but we are getting it dialed in. At any rate the training has morphed into swim and bike only. My left foot is still pretty painful to the touch. I'm 98% sure that it's plantar fasciitis but need an x-ray to rule out a bone spur and maybe an MRI to rule out the other possible but very unlikely causes of my pain. So I need to talk a few people and see what I can get done. So for now I'm swimming 2-3 days a week and biking the same. The 1st real race I care about isn't until Aug. so I have some time to turn it around and the biking and swimming should keep me fit.

Back to the Drawing Board

What can I, other than I didn't qualify. I had a terrible day, plain and simple. I struggled from early on in the race, with my foot. By the time that settled down I had already run a few miles mile an inconsistant gait. But it wasn't a pain issue as much as it was just a stuggle. My effort felt high eventhough my pace was not. I was right on pace throught the 1st 13.1, at which point I had to pee. This put me back just a little I made it up within the next mile. That increased effort combined with the very slight hill after crossing the river really zapped me. When I crossed Argonne I new I was in trouble. My pace had fallin off and my legs were just not responding. I had also some moderate GI stuff going on through out the race but it was just uncomfortable. But by the time I turned on Upriver I was in pain. I was nearly doubled over a few times with some "diarhea" type cramps that I thought may lead to a Spokane river ass washing. By the time I reached Green street I was at a mear shuffle pace. I was in complete survival mode. Which I did, survive, I mean. To say that I'm dissappointed is a gross understatement.
Unfortunatly The "Hobbit" also had a crappy day. We both about 25 mins slower than predicted. The thing is we both understand that the Marathon is not like any other race, at least at our level. It can and will humble you, did me.
As for the inaugral running of the Windemere Marathon....it was Just ok. For their 1st try I guess it was a good effort. There is one thing that I just don't understand though. How in the world do you screw up the mile markers on a 26 mile point to point race. There is only 1 of each number..... but they did.

A Few Thoughts

So the marathon is in 3 days. Wish me luck!! At this point it doesn't really matter if I'm ready or not, it's here. I'll just have to give it my best shot. My foot is pretty sore, but I think it will be fine for the race. Afterwards though I will need some time to let the thing heal.
Last week was Bloomsday. I had a less than stellar performance 54:43 to be exact. That is about 3:20 slower than last year. And I can only attribute about 1 min to my starting position in the yellow section. From back there the amount of zigging and zagging does slow you up and probably does take its toll but no excuses. I just was not as fast this year. I have been consistanly slower in all races this year.
Ben Greenfield had an interesting post on his page asking the question "Why do you do Triathlon" his article was thought provoking and the comments posted were interesting. This was what I came up with.

To me life is all about experiences. The anticipation leading upto an experience and the memories of experiences past. Triathlon offers physical and mental challenges that are unique yet also transend all other aspects of life. Like Al, I'm often humbled by these endurance activities. kind of like standing at the edge of the ocean or at the foot of a mountain. The precipice of an Ironman, while overwhelming, can put things into perspective.There is order even in the most chaotic but there is no easy way, ever, at anything.

So Cool I had to steal it.

Long, long run

This past Sunday the Hobbit and I were set to do the dreaded 20 mile run. I really hate this run. Mainly because up to this point I have never had a 20 mile run that did not leave me feeling like I had been hit by a bus. This run was a little different. Again we ran the race course but this time we moved a little closer to where the race will actually start in Post Falls. We did make a slight miscalculation though, which became evident when we reached Liberty Lake. That was where we started from a few weeks back when we ran a little over 16 miles. The problem we had this time was when we got to Liberty Lake we had already run a little over 6 miles....oops, that would be my fault. The Hobbit then started whining about how this was going to be 22 miles....cry,cry,cry, whine, whine. And when I stopped to pee, for the second time, the little girl took off without me. And not only did he go on without me, he hiked up his skirt and picked up the pace too. So the rest of my run I was alone with my thoughts. It was just about the perfect day for running about 50 degrees and overcast. For the most part I had the whole trail to myself. There were 2 races here in Spokane that day so most runners were running one those races. I needed a long run more than I needed a race,which is why I wasn't racing. I felt pretty good during the entire run. I was even encouraged by my ability to accelerate to cross Argonne, a busy road, for those of you that don't know Spokane. That was about mile 16 or so and I remember thinking at the time that mile 16 of the Portland marathon I was in no shape to accelerate. I did finally catch Tony at mile 21. The big pussy was walking!!! and had been since mile 20. He then started running with me again. But now that he was all rested and recovered he wanted to talk. I had to tell him to shut the f**k up. At that point it took every bit of brain power I had left just to keep all my shit going in the same direction. The cool part though was we ran the last 1-1.5 miles at about 8:30 pace, which meant I sped up. Another good thing to come out of that run was that I ran a negative split, which I've been able to do on all of my long runs this year. So when it was all said and done it ended up being 22.77 miles in 3:12 and change. And all and all I felt pretty good. I went home ate and then helped Jayne's dad run the sawmill for a few hours.
Monday was a total rest day except for painting my house, I was a little worried about climbing ladders and tired legs but it went ok.
Tuesday Pat and I road our bikes. When I hit the first hill, my legs quickly reminded me about my long run. So we just cruised and chatted it's always great to ride with Pat.
Today the Hobbit and I ran most of the Bloomsday course nice and slow and still felt pretty spanked on the hills. Tomorrow I plan on a tempo run with 7 miles at 7:43 pace. That will hurt, I'll let you know.

5 WEEKS OUT

With just under 5 weeks until the race every workout counts now. So even though this is a work week Sunday morning was a long run, 16 miles to be exact. Long runs after working all night are tough and hopefully they will make me tougher. It was touch and go for the 1 st couple of miles until I got warmed up. Then I settled in to a pretty comfortable pace ~8:25-40 or so. I ran an out and back from the hospital which puts me on the actual race course for most of the run. Of course on the out part I'm running the course backwards. So at the turn around I was trying to motivate myself by reminding me that this IS the course. On race day when you are right here you will be at about mile 19, "lets practice that strong finish"!!!! I think it helped because for the 2nd week in a row I was able to negative split my long run. This weeks negative split was not as profound as last weeks but I'll still take it as moral victory.
After my run Jayne and I watched the movie Seven Pounds before I went to bed. What a great movie I highly recommend it. Guaranteed to provoke a whole host of emotions/feelings. This coming from the guy described as the man with 1 feeling.
This next week will be my biggest week for training with the dreaded 20 mile run on Sunday. I hope that won't be to big of a jump but I need to get it under my belt.

Up and Moving

My Achilles and I have kissed and made up. Last week was an ok week on volume, I was able to run 30 mile for the week but 15 of those were on Sun. The other 15 came from a 7 mile easy run and an 8 miler that was made up of 3x1 mile intervals. I ran this with the Hobbit on the Centennial trail. Our goal was to hold 7 min/mi. pace. It went more like 6:45, 6:48, 6:55. The other 5 miles was run ~ 8:30.
Our long run, as I mentioned, was a 15 miler. Well actually I ran 15. The Hobbit was suffering from the sandy gina on Sunday. Whining and crying about how tired he was, he turned around at 7 miles. And later when we/I stood in the lake to "ice" my legs he cried little Hobbit tears and got out after about 30 seconds. Even after 2 real girls, I mean 18-19 yo girls, came and stood in the water. He was not able to nut up and stand in the cold water. No worries, he knows he totally pussed out, and he would admit it. We ran, for the 1st time, but not the last, on the Columbia Plateau Trail . We started/stopped at Fish Lake and ran to Turnbull. This is a trail we will run a lot more this year. This is a converted railroad grade. The 1st 3.75 miles was paved then it turned gravel, but good gravel. Along the paved part it was very cool. Due to all of the runoff this year there were small rivers running along each side of the trail. But the most spectacular sight was a ~10-15 foot waterfall that came cascading down the basalt, very cool. The geology along this section is really cool too. Basalt columns 20-30 ft high in places lined both sides of the trail. I can't imagine all the work that went into building this back when they were laying the track. We also ran passed several small lakes. When we entered Turnbull we both were hoping to see some Elk. There is a huge herd there. Looking forward to running there again.

My Achilles is Mad at Me

This past weekend the Hobbit and I thought it would be a good idea to run part of the marathon course. We were to start at the Liberty Lake trail head and run to Mission Park. We thought it we be ~17 miles, turned out to be 16.2. At any rate it was not a very nice morning. The temp wasn't that bad, but when you add rain and wind and shorts.....no gloves and a ball cap. Not the best planning. The run itself went OK though we were chugging along at a pretty good pace ~8:00/mi. until about mile 14. It was at this point I started feeling my Achilles of my left leg. Not a sharp pain like a tear but more of dull constant pain of a strain/generally inflamed tissue. It did help, at first, if I really focused on foot position at the time of foot strike. But towards the end of the run it just plain hurt no matter what I did. Since then I have only been able to run once, 5 miler, and it was uncomfortable from about 2.5 miles. So I've been on the vitamin I and rest and elevation. I have been able to ride my bike some, outside once, which was great. I plan on a short 3 miler in the am when I get off work. If it feels OK I will go a little longer on Sunday. If it is still sore in the am, I'm screwed. It's to close to the race to have a long rest period, I'll begin to lose fitness. The bike and pool will help but I need to run. Keep your fingers crossed.

St. Paddy's 5 Miler

Sunday was not only the St.Paddy's 5 mile race,my 2nd race of the year. But also the last day of my biggest training week so far this year. The race was hard...cold and raining the whole race. To compound the conditions, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the Hobbit met me at the hospital when I got off at 0800. We ran from the hospital to the race ~ 5 miles, ok 4.6 miles, in the cold rain. Then we stood around and waited for the race to start, in the rain. Then we ran the race, in the rain. If that wasn't enough I ran back to the hospital, and yes it was still raining. Total for the day just under 15 miles. As for the race I was a little dissappointed. I was 2 minutes slower than last year. My time was 36:21 on my garmin. This year I had a few more mile on my legs leading up to the race. This past week I ran 49 miles and 12 miles on the bike. This same week last year 27 miles, but about 100 miles on the bike as well. All in all I think my progress is ok eventhough my 2 races so far have not had the results I would like. The next big race is Bloomsday I really want to break 50 mins this year. Last year I ran 51:36.
This week is rather ominus in that I have my 1st 20 miler scheduled for Sun. I don't care who you are or how fast you run. 20 miles is a long way and it is always hard!!!
I'll let you know how it goes.

MORE Pictures from Snake River

If only I was in front of everyone. Cool backdrop though.





Here comes the Hobbit, he is #129.





I want you to take a good look at the Hobbit's hands......hmmmm Gloves????, Mittens???? Socks aha! clean socks??? let me just say.... it was his ONLY choice :)

Training is in Full Swing

Now that I have the 1st race of the year out of the way, and have a pretty good feel for were my fitness really is right now. It's now time to pick up the volume. So this week has gone like this. m-8 miles,tu-8 miles(3x1mile@7:05),w-9 miles,th-brick 45 min bike,5 mile run. If all goes well,and so far it is, I will get another 1 hr on the bike and 5 mile run on friday, sat rest. Sunday is the 2nd race of the year, The St Paddy's 5. The beauty here is that I work this weekend so I will work all night then run from the hospital to the race, about 5 miles, then run the race, then run back to the hospital. This will give me a 15 mile run with a fast tempo session in the middle. It will also give me about 50 miles for the week. For me this is a good week. I hope to be able to continue to maintain this volume and increase the bike time and oh yea I may even swim a little too. 9 weeks until the marathon!Shit

Snake River Half Marathon

Well as expected I did not set the world on fire at this years race. I did however do a little better than I expected. First let me set the scene a little. The Hobbit an I left Spokane at 0730, because he was late,again. Then we had to stop because his bowels make most of his decisions. So we get there with 15-20 min. to kill. This time is needed to go through the gym bag and find just the right combination of warmth/wind protection. I had a few options and if you ever run this race you'll want to make sure you have a few options too. It was a about 24 degrees with a biting wind. As it turned out this year we started the race running into the wind. The wind speed was between 10-15 mph with some gusts a little higher. This is just a guess by I've read that for there to be white caps on a body of water you have to have at least 15 mph winds, and I saw white caps. I did run this race caveman style. Which was kind of a pain not really knowing what your splits were. I did asked this guy what time we were at a few times during the race. And they had someone calling out the time at the 1st mile, kind of dumb really, half way would have made sense but 1 mile into a 13 mile race???? at any rate my 1st mile was 7:23. The guy said at 4 miles we were right at 32 at 9 miles ~1:08. From that point on I just ran. The wind was helping now but it had died down quite a bit. But I could feel it pushing me. I was really focusing on my cadence and my breathing. I only got passed by 1 guy on the way back, more about him later. I was trying to constantly reel people in that were out in front of me. With 1 mile left I really started to pick up the pace. If I had to guess I would say the last mile was run at about 6:50 pace. So with about 100 yds to go I passed that guy back that had passed me. However with about 50 ft to go he sprinted back in front of me. I tried to answer but I was to little to late. The clock at the finish shows me crossing at 1:40:22, but they have me listed at 1:40:20, whatever.











oh yea and the Hobbit did beat me, bastard. And we had to stop on the way home too.

13.1 miles fast hmmm

Well with just a few days left until the race. Yesterday I threw in a little speed work on the treadmill. After a mile to warm up @ 8:30 pace I sped up to 7:30 pace and held that for 2 miles. Then I sped up again to 7 min pace for 0.5 miles then 0.5 miles at 6:30 pace. At this point I can say with some certainty that breaking 1:30 for this 1/2 marathon aint happening. Last year I ran 1:37 at this race. This year I'll be happy with 1:45. Well maybe not happy but Since my real goal is the marathon in May I don't want to risk an injury and I think I will be better served by running again maybe 7-8 miles the day after the race. This I won't be able to do if I go balls out. The Hobbit is running pretty good right now so it will suck to get beat AGAIN by the little furry bastard but oh well, eye on the prize.