Rainy Days and Mondays

This is a picture from our deck. I would put our sunsets up against any in the world.

Well today is a rainy day and a Monday so it is a good time blog. This past weekend I had the whole house to myself, except for the dogs and cat. Jayne went up to Penticton to watch IM Canada. We had several friends doing the race one of which Jess is a good friend who has always been so supportive of Jayne. She, by the way took ~ 1 hr of her previous IM times. They were on different courses but it is still a significant accomplishment. Jayne is such a good friend to people. The most selfless person I have ever known. Jess did not finish until ~8:30-9:00pm and Jayne stayed until the end to see her finish. It's about 4 1/2 hr drive from Penticton and Jayne had to be at work this morning at 0745. She got home at 0220 and the alarm went off at 0600. She is going to be dragging her ass today. But to her it was all worth it because she got to see the look on her friends face when she finished. And I'm sure there are a 20-30 pictures to document the occasion.
Another friend Jon Moen did his first IM. Jon and I met last year at IM Canada. We were there to watch and he was signing up for this years race. Jon and I rode the course together, kind of, he kicked my ass. He had a great race 10:45 with a 5:19 bike split, good job Jon. Jon is on our tri team Tri-fusion. We had a couple of other people from the team do well as well Martin and Vicki Scates both went ~ 10:50.
The weekend did give me time to paint and to run. I ran a total of 32.5 miles. Friday was an easy 6.5 Sat. a fast 10 and Sun. 16. 16 miles is just hard. I held my goal pace for 14 but the last 2 had a couple of good hills and they spanked me. I ended up a little slower than planned and mentally I was whipped. This was ~ 30 seconds/mi slower than what I need to run in Portland to qualify for Boston and right now I don't see it. We will see what happens the next long run is 20 miles, that doesn't even sound fun.

addendum

I went to see a ENT(ear nose and throat doc) yesterday. Apparently the ER doc was wrong and I did not rupture the eardrum. Instead it is bruised with a bit of a blood clot behind the eardrum. Bottomline good news, I'll be skiing today.

Pleasantly Confused

Today I planned on doing a MAF test followed by some 1 mile repeats,which I did. However, the results have me a little confused. The MAF went terrible, from a pace vs HR standpoint. A total backslide from my last test. I don't know if this means I'm ready to add more intensity. Or did my drop off in volume last week have that dramatic of an effect. Or was it just a bad day, dehydrated etc. I don't know. But since I'm 8 weeks out from Portland I will assume it is time to add more intensity. So I did that today in the form of 5 x 1 mile repeats. The plan was to do a ladder off sorts with times not distances. So I would adjust my pace for each mile. I was to start at 7 min/mi for 1 st mile then 6:45, 6:30, 6:45,7:00. This is how it turned out.
mile 1 6:50 HR 169
mile 2 6:38 HR 172
mile 3 6:21 HR 175
mile 4 6:41 HR 171
mile 5 6:49 HR 170

Now the part that is cool, to me. The last 2 miles felt easier and not just because I was going a little slower. The pace seemed slower and easier with each rep. My 9th and 10th mile of this whole workout felt good. I've always had a tough time with the concept of perceived exertion. Hard is hard and easy is easy and all the rest is either not hard or not easy....I know you'd think I was smarted than that. but I'm not. But today I actually could tell that miles 9,10 were easier from an effort standpoint than miles 6,7. I liked this workout and will repeat it a few more times before the race. I will track them and see if there is any trend.
AS for the MAF here are those numbers. As I said a little disappointing.

mile 1 8:40 HR 141
mile 2 8:49 HR 145
mile 3 8:46 HR 147
mile 4 9:00 HR 149
mile 5 9:29 HR 147
So HR's are a little all over the place and this was my 1st 5 mile test as opposed to the 3 mile tests I've done in the past.

WHAT! I CAN'T HEAR YOU

Well the best laid plans can often go to shit. So yesterday I went skiing,as I often do this time of year. Actually before I got into the triathlon thing this was how I spent most of my time in the spring,summer and 1st part of the fall. The past few years though I have stayed off the water until my major race was over.This is because I didn't want to take a chance on getting hurt. If you have ever watched competitive water skiing then you'll understand this. But suffice it to say that the combination of speed and water can prove to be very painful. The picture is of a pro showing what the turn should look like. My turn coming out of the 4 ball did not go quite as planned. As I came around the ball my ski washed out and I basically smacked the side of my head on the water. The force was enough and the angle just right to cause my eardrum to rupture. OUCH! Long term prognosis is good. However I do have to stay out of the water for a week or two. So no race today. No water skiing for a while. So needless to say I'm pretty disappointed in how my summer is turning out. Next week I will go see a ENT and see how it is healing and find out if it will have to be surgically repaired. This could really screw up a dive trip planned for October but I will wait until I know for sure before I get pissed about that.


On a better note I am very happy to report that my brother has safely made it home from Iraq. I know his wife and 2 kids are thrilled to have dad back in the house. Welcome home Ron and thanks for all of your service to our country and the sacrifices that I know you have made.

TOUR DE 9 MILE

I went on a great ride yesterday with my buddy Pat. We always have great conversations with lots of laughs. It was Pat's longest bike ride ever, with just a little climbing. Needles to say he is in pretty good shape for an old man. And if you ever find yourself lost in the back country he IS the man you want looking for you.