CLUMSY BASTARD

Well I really screwed up on my long run on Sunday. 10 miles into a 16 miler and I roll my ankle and end up tits up on the sidewalk. After I get up and finish cussing at myself. I see Tony crossing the street ahead of me, he didn't hear my rant. So I start walking back towards where we started. After about 1/4 mile or so I decide to test it with some easy jogging. It goes ok as long as I land on a completely flat foot. so I plod along @ 9:30 pace taking a shortcut through the ghetto for 3.5 miles. I still only beat Tony by about 10 min.
So when I got to work I had my foot x-rayed,which was negative. So just a good sprain. So I'm icing it and resting it. Not sure if I'm going to run Bloomsday or not. I won't decide until Sat. Going to swim today and try my bike on the trainer to see if it hurts to pedal. If I can I will ride outside but I'm betting on the trainer for now. Just have to keep my fingers crossed. I'm just glad it's not broke. That would have ended the IM plan. Worst case now is that I will miss a little running. But I have built a lot of running fitness over the past 6 months so hopefully I won't lose much.

Back to Work Day

This is my least favorite day. I have to go back to work tonight. Not that I mind working, that's not exactly true. If I didn't have to work I wouldn't. I have plenty of things to do to keep me busy. But since Jayne is not independently wealthy and refuses to win the lottery. Then I must work. I am grateful though that I have a job. And that my profession is in such high demand. I got called by 4 head hunters last week. There are ~16 hospital pharmacists jobs here in the Spokane area. So it's good to be needed. But it's still a drag to go to work. Pharmacy, as you can imagine is a very boring tedious job. It's all about details, no mistakes,ever. It has it's excitement, going to codes always gets the HR up a little. And sometimes I know the outcome was improved because I was there. And that does provide some satisfaction. But this is not a fun job. Satisfying,gratifying,needed,important yea it's all of those but it's not fun. I guess that's why it's called work. I guess we all can't fly jets or play baseball for a living. And I know that everything becomes "work" after a while. Hell when a I was on the the ski patrol I got paid to ski and cause avalanches with dynamite, how great is that. But I also had to babysit people that couldn't ski and would get themselves into predicaments. So yea it's all work. So what does this ramble have to do with triathlon.....It too is all about work. It has some fun times with friends and the satisfaction that comes from a great workout. And don't get me wrong I like training. But bottom line it's work, hard work! The difference is that this is work I choose to do as opposed to work I have to do. So before I have to go to work tonight, I choose to get off my ass and run and ride my bike.

Weeks Highlights

Well this was a week of transition of sorts. From this point forward most of the workouts will be longer but less frequent. Thursday was a long day in that I worked all night Wed. stayed up and then met up with Stan and his buddy Tim at 1 pm for a ride. I had only planned on about a 30-35 miler. However I felt good and kept going. When we got to CDA I decided though that I had better not continue to hammer with these guys because I didn't want to screw up the rest of the weekends training. To ride from Spokane to CDA is very slightly uphill. The issue here was one of knowing my own fitness. This was the longest ride of the year, which totally sucks. So it was more important for me to get the saddle time without killing myself. The first 25miles I hammered with them and felt great. As the fatigue of the 25 miles@ 19 mph combined with the nearly 24 hrs without sleep began to get the better of me. So I made a choice. I told Stan and Tim to go on and I cruised at a comfortable yet steady pace. We had a pretty good headwind which upped the challenge and I also picked up a tail. Some guy that got on my back wheel and I pulled for about 10 miles.
Every time I would slow up a little he would then pass me thank me for the pull then ride ahead. But he was not able to hold his pace then I would catch him again and he would latch on again. Probably good for me.
Friday was a good 8.5 mile tempo run through the woods,caveman style. Felt real good. Swim later on Friday didn't go as well as I had hoped but I logged some time. Saturday was weights and fun. We got together with the Hobbit and his wife and took the dogs up to their lake place. The pups had a blast as you can see in the picture. Those 2 love to play with each other. The cool thing was since we were on neutral and new territory. They actually stopped wrestling a few times and just explored together. Which is what Tony and I hoped would happen.
Sunday was a 20 mile run. Hard! that's just along run. It went ok though. My training plan called for me to run this at 8:36 pace. I pushed it a little and was on pace to run it at 8:10 pace. The last 3 miles were a bit of a challenge and my pace fell off. Total for the run was 8:18 pace. I plan on doing this run 2 more times so I hope to run this more consistently as I get closer to IM.

Tough Finish

Sunday was a tough day for me. The plan was to work all night ride for ~2.5 hrs then run 9 mile brick. However, Jayne wanted to swim before our bike ride. So it was decided, notice I didn't say I decided, that I would run with the Hobbit then we would ride. So I met Tony at his office after I get off ~0815. It was a gorgeous morning. Sun shinning bright, actually warm in the sun. My run plan called for a 9 mile run since this is a run recovery week. Dumb dumb on the other hand wanted to go 12-14 miles. We compromised on 10-11 miles. So as we start out I fell like crap. My legs felt tired and heavy no springiness at all. Felt like I was running on a couple of salamis. But I figured I would loosen up an all would be ok. NOT!! the whole run was hard. My HR was ok, low 138-145. But my legs sucked. But it was a beautiful morning we saw AL, twice actually. We were running the same loop but Al was going the "wrong" way. In any event I logged 10.6 miles that felt like 26. Tomorrow will be a day off.

Finally Some Sun

Wouldn't you know it, now that I am back to work the sun is going to come out. I had 7 days off and saw the sun maybe twice, for a few minutes. Then the day I go back here comes the sun. The forecast is sunny and in the upper 60's this weekend. So we are looking forward to some riding outside.
Jayne and I rode today. I drove out to her work dropped off her bike and some clothes then I went ahead and started without her. I was able to get about 45 min. in before she got there. I actually could have got about 1.5 hrs before she finely got there, but that's another story. The ride went well for my longest so far this year a whopping 39 miles. But hopefully the weather will hold and I can really start to hit it hard.
The swimming is going ok. Elbow seems fine,for swimming, it still is screwed up though. I think I will be able to hold off until after IM to get it scoped.
The 18 mile run on Sunday was F&*^%*G hard. The Hobbit is no longer allowed to pick the route on long runs. This is not just me being a pussy either. We did a combination of the Sundae Sunday and a backwards Bloomsday. My gps is retarded so I won't tell you the elevation info that it showed but we did some climbing.
Speed work on Tues. went well, except I was late and really did not warm up. Unless you count my jog to the bathroom to pee before we started. We started with a mile, then 3x 800, then 2x 400. I tried to be smarter this time at least on the mile and the 800's. I let it rip on the back half of the 400's.
This is an easy run week. More of a bike and swim focus. I think this will be the first week that I ride more than I run. That's sad!

Back to the Pool

So on Friday after my PT appointment I went to the pool for the first time in a month.
The elbow felt fine but my swim fitness was crap. After about 800 my form started to waiver and by 1200 I'm sure it looked like I was having a seizure. But I know that will come back pretty fast. Now I just have to figure out how to fit the swimming back into my schedule. Jayne won't admit it but I think she was a little happy with my swimming performance. Not that she wants me to do bad or anything. Those of you that know her know she has never had a mean thought. But she likes being better than me at swimming. Before my elbow issue I was more than giving her a run for her money. But on Friday I could not keep up with her. And I think I saw a little smile on her face. Good for her.
We woke up Sat. to snow again!!! So it was bike on the rollers. I'm determined to figure those things out. I as able to ride with 1 hand and pull my water bottle out of the cage, take a drink and return the bottle without crashing or grabbing the wall. I was quite impressed with myself.
Today, as I'm typing this at the crack ass of dawn on Sun. is pretty much going to be hard. 18 mile run.....no matter how you slice it or the route you run,that's a long way. The route the "Hobbit" and I are going to run will totally suck. Lots of hills, but at least it's not snowing.....yet anyway. I will post more after the run as well as some pics of the puppies, Tony an LO are bringing Hudson over to play with Otis. As of Friday Hudson got off of his grounding by the vet. So we are looking forward to a fun play day.