THE PUPPY IS GROWING

I took Otis to the vet this week for his last set of shots. 3 months old and the vet said he looks a month older. He weighed in yesterday at 28 lbs. Here are some pics.

YEAR END TOTALS

Well this is a little late due to holidays and going to see Ron and his family. At any rate here are my totals.

Swim Distance: 72.88 miles Swim Time: 51:18 hrs 73% OF GOAL
Bike Distance: 2567.95 miles Bike Time: 165:28 hrs 64% OF GOAL
Run Distance: 1256.98 miles Run Time: 200:02 hrs 84 % OF GOAL
Total Miles: 3897.81 miles Total Time: 416:48 hrs.

I'll tell you the truth it sure seemed like more than that. I fell short of all of my goals, but was pretty close on a running. My goals were swim 100 miles, run 1500 miles, and bike 4000 miles. And its pretty easy to see that time on the bike is a problem. 64 % of my bike goal directly correlates to my less than great Ironman. If you average out the % of goal for all events that would give me a ~74 % a low C, that's about what I think about my Ironman a low C. So needless to say I have a lot of room for improvement. So goals for this year will stay the same as far as my distances, but I have to improve on the completion rate. My emphasis though has to be the bike. I think a 10%-15% improvment in the bike would make a huge difference in the race. We shall see.

HTFU

I found this video and had to share it.....Man after my own heart.
Hey Hobbit HTFU

Fell off the Wagon

Well today I was at the end of my rope. I just couldn't take it anymore. I got on the treadmill and started my daily slog. But 2 miles into my Max HR of 145 running I couldn't take it any longer. I pressed the button to increase the rate thinking I would speed up just a little. But as I sped up it felt great. The faster I ran the better it felt. I quit when I got to 6:58 pace. I ran at that pace for 1/2 mile, then 1/2 mile at my slog pace. I repeated this for 3 reps, then a mile of cool down at slog pace. It felt so good to feel my lungs just beginning to burn a little. I got my HR up to ~176 on the last rep. This is just below my LT .I was a little worried that I may have screwed up the past 2.5 months of MAF training but Lucho assured me that it will be fine. I new that if I was at a plateau that it was time to start adding some speed work. I'm actually due to do anonther MAF test this coming week. But after this past weekend long run, 13.1 miles. I felt totally stale. I needed something,I hope this was it. We will see on Saturday when we retest.

1 WEEK WITH OTIS

This week has been fun with Otis. We have got to discover so many new things. He got to play in the snow and play with his new toys. Today we are taking him with us over to Tony "the Hobbit's" house. As it turns out Tony and his family got one of Otis' brothers. They got a yellow one and after much debate have piked a really bad name, I think. His name is Hudson.....I know a river, a crappy car.....Hudson stupid....Tony had come up with a great name....Miles. That is perfect...after all one of the reasons we wanted these dogs is to run with us, hunt with us and in general cover alo of MILES. I thought it was a great play on words but his stupid girls out voted him. Oh well. Here is a great video of Otis with one of his toys.

Tough 12 mile Run

The long run this week was a 12 miler. It was a crisp 27 degrees with cloudy skies, snow didn't start until we were done. The weird thing about this run was that my HR seemed to creep a little higher than I thought it should have. This then made me run a little slower. The tough part was that "the Hobbit's" HR was low....meaning he could have left me in the dust. We are pretty sure that his HR monitor is a piece of crap. Hopefully Santa will bring him a new one.
Otis got his first exposure to snow and loved every minute of it.

My New Training Partner

With Tony "The Hobbit" getting slower I thought I should get a better training partner. And like Tony this one too shits in the woods ,but does not need to rip off his sleeves to wipe his butt. I would like you to meet Otis. He is not quite as fast as Tony yet, but he is almost as tall.

MAF TEST #2

Last week marked the fourth week of our MAF only training. We had planned a test for Sat. but as luck would have it the track had about 6 in. of snow on it. Thanks to the pineapple express we had 2 days of rain and today's temps were ~50. So off to the track we went. We did have about 25 mph winds to contend with but it was OK. The wind was blowing such that we either had it in our faces or at our backs on the straits.
test #1 11/3
mile 1 @ 141, 8:51/mi
mile 2 @ 144, 9:08/mi
mile 3 @ 143, 9:16/mi

test #2 12/4
mile 1 @ 143, 8:34
mile 2 @ 145, 8:48
mile 3 @ 145, 8:58

So I have improved!! Bottom line. Even though I actually thought I was getting slower, I wasn't. Tony improved as well but not quite as much as I did. I think he is running with a slower cadence to run slower. With his little hobbit legs he always ran with a high cadence but now that we have slowed down I think his cadence has as well, which is making him work harder, ie increased HR. It's not a big difference but by the end of the 3 miles I was about 3/4 of a lap ahead of him. Well I guess if you extrapolate that out over 26 miles....that would be a little over 1.5 miles...I'll take that.

PICS FROM CANCUN

Here are some pictures from our trip to Cancun.

ANOTHER 50+ MILE WEEK

Tony "the Hobbit" and I had another big week. I had 51.3 miles and Tony had 56. This was a pretty big jump for us from last week. But we both feel pretty good. My left ankle is a little tender. My new shoes are not quite right for me. I bought a pair of Saucony Trigon 4 shoes this week. They felt great out of the box but not so great after 30 miles. I hate trying find new shoes. I wish the Newtons had a little more support. They are good for the 1st 13 miles. I just don't think I could run a marathon in them. They do make me faster though.

Dr.J had a real nice post on his blog about he and his brother's. It got me thinking about Ronnie and I and the fact that we have spent all of our adult lives living so far apart. Despite our differences when we are together we have alot fun working out together. We always play some basketball, he is tough on the boards. When he was up here a couple of years ago I took him mountain biking over in Idaho and we had a blast. He sucking wind on the 7 mile ride up this logging road but ripped it up on the singletrack through the woods. He even had a pretty crash. My friends that went with us were amazed that it was his first time on a mountain bike. But Ronnie and I both rode a million miles on our bmx bikes when we were kids.We also have had alot of fun running together. I'm lookng forward to running with him in January. I'm going down to San Diego to spend a little time with him before he heads back to Iraq. This will be his 3rd tour over there, this war. He was also there in the first war. We should all sleep better knowing that he is one of Marines helping protect our country, I know I do. As for my other war hero/daughter, Shandra will be getting out of Navy soon and be coming back to Washington as a civilian. She has been in Iraq/on the carrier for the past 6 months. I'm really proud of her!
I guess this is what Thanksgiving is about, for me anyway. A brother and daughter

The Streak Ends at 38

Well as much as I hate to admit it life got the better of me on Wednesday. I ran out of time then motivation. So 38 days in a row of running. By far the most I have ever done. So since I had had a day off Tony "The Hobbit" and I ran 12 miles on T-day. It was a great run. Cold, about 22 when we started,may have warmed up to 25 by the time we were done. Still on track for a big volume week with 27 miles heading into Friday. I started back to work today though so that will slow me up a little.
But I should be able to get 7 a day for the next 3 days.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

The Streak Continues

Well, now that I have successfully completed the 30 in 30 I'm well on my way to the 40 in 40. As it stands right now it's 36 in a row. What is surprising to me is how well I feel. What is frustrating to me is that my HR has yet to respond. But as I've been told over and over, I need to be patient. I have been logging alot of miles, for me anyway. This past week was no exception with just over 37 miles. Tony "The Hobbit" Dibartolo and I have been talking about increasing the volume. After talking to some of friends that are better runners than we are. As well as my continued reading of Chuckie V, Lucho and Gordo. We are convinced we need to get closer to 70 miles. However we also think we need to build up slow, 10-15% per week. This of coarse was totally screwed up a few weeks back when I jumped from 30 miles to 51 miles then back down to 35 miles. So I will just add them as they feel. I'm going to increase the daily runs to > 1 hour and the long runs to > 1.5 hours.

Great quote

I just read this quote and thought it was profound enough to share with the world. Or at least the people in my world.
I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all. -- Leo C. Rosten (1908-1977) American Writer
As hard as it would seem to be able to sum up a human life in a single paragragh this comes pretty close.

FINISHED THE 30 IN 30

Today wraps up the the 30 in 30 challenge. I had to run a double today. Which meant I had to run this morning after I got off work, then slept about 7 hrs and got up and ran again. It also meant that I missed my son's band, Drawing Two, second live performance. But they have another show on the 28th that I will go to.
As for the last few runs they were all run on the treadmill. We have a new treadmill that has been in the garage since early Oct. We had no place to put it in the house until Kellen got his drum kit out of the way. But now it's set up and has already made life easier. It's a pain in the butt to go to the gym before work and about half the time when I try to use the treadmill we have at the hospital some fat chick is walking on the damn thing.
Anyway the last 2 runs went like this.
29 /4.65 /45:00/141/9:40
30 /4.32 /45:00/140/10:25
This treadmill has a program that allows me to put in a target HR and it will make adjustments to keep it there +/- 3 BMP. All but 2 of ther other runs throughout the month were outside using my Garmin 305. So I'm sure that there is some variability between those 2 HRM's and also pace calculations via gps and treadmill.
If you read the comment Lucho put on my last post you'll see that he is suggesting that I continue as I am. When I whinned about not taking a little break to recover. he said "Taking your fatigue and muscle breakdown to the edge of "too much" and then resting is the true art of training. In order to stimulate growth we need to force our bodies to adapt and that's never a comfortable thing". And if you have taken a trip over to his blog and seen the kind of numbers he puts up then you know that I'm going to keep plugging away. Of course I'm listening to my body because unlike Lucho, I'm old. And I haven't been doing this endurance stuff most of my life. Tony is being a bit of a sissy about the whole thing though. Whinning and crying about how he has been looking forward to a break. I told him to take his skirt off and put his running shoes on.

30 IN 30 UPDATE

Well, I think I'm going to make it. Right now I've done 28 runs in 29 days. So with a double either on Su or Mo I'll have done it. Here are the numbers through run 28.
23 /5.3/51:10/138/9.39
24 /5.63/55:46/140/9:54
25 /4.85/47:04/138/9:42
26 /5.32/50:59/139/9:35
27 /4.85/45:00/141/9:16 on treadmill at work
28 /4.59/45:00/144/9:48 on treadmill at home

I think my body is feeling the cumlitive effects of this challenge. Not that I feel tired or sore or anything but I don't feel fresh. So when this comes to an end on Monday I will take 2 days off then start my next phase. I'm not sure exactly what that will entale but I think I will run 5 days a week 1-1.5 hrs with 1 long run closer to 2 hrs. I want to keep my milage up above 40 and my running time >8 hrs. I will also begin to focus more time on swimming. DR.J and his crew have started 30 swims in 30 days....that ain't happening. But I will get to the pool 3-4 times a week. I will also ride the mtn bike, nothing technical just climbing and spinning. The Serotta will be on the trainer for 4-6 hrs of spinning per week.

BIG WEEK

Wow this was my biggest week ever in terms of miles ran and number of runs. Total miles for the week 51.6. Total number of runs for the week 10. So I was able to make up 3 of the runs that I missed earlier. I also did a MAF test yesterday. For those of you not familier with this test it is a way to gage your fitness. After a warm up you run 3-5 miles at a constant heart rate (HR) as your HR increases you slow your pace to maintain the HR. You do these tests every 3 weeks or so and watch the trends of each mile. The HR that is used is based on a formula 180-age. There are also some adjustments that can be made. So for me 180-44=136 then based on my current fitness I added 5 beats. This gives me a max HR of 141. However I have also had some physiologic testing done that measured my lactate thershold (LT) at a HR of 177. Based on this number, using Joe Friels/Training peaks this calculates the top end of my zone 1 at 151. So what I did was split the difference and set my Garmin to a range of 135-145. And this is what I got when I did the test.

mile 1 @ 141 8:51/mi
mile 2 @ 144 9:08/mi
mile 3 @ 143 9:16/mi

So we will repeat the test every 3 weeks for a total of 12 weeks. All of my runs will be at this slower lower HR as well. As for the 30 in 30 challenge here are the runs to finish out his week.
16 /5.33/ 47:16/157/8:52 this was the 1st make up run, 2nd run of the day
17 /5.3 / 49:39/144/9:22
18 /5.29/ 45:00/146/8:30
19 /5 / 45:00/143/9:00 MAF test with wu/cd
20 /5.04/ 49:06/138/9:44 2nd run of the day and 2nd make up run
21 /5.24/ 52:43/138/10:03
22 /4.94/ 51:11/141/10:21 2nd run of the day and 3rd make up run also went for short mtn bike ride in between the 2 runs.
So this puts me at 22 runs in 23 days. A little sore but not to bad. Lucho gave me some needed encouragement with regards to the discipline and patence required for this low HR training. And for some great reading check out Chuck V

Half way There

Well I'm half way to my goal of 30 in 30. Well sort of, I have run my 15th run but it has taken me 19 days. Since I already got my run done for today, and it's still early I will make up one of the runs today. So it will actually be 16 runs in 19 days.
14/ 5.06/47:42/145/9:25
15/ 5.32/45:31/152/8:33

Back from Vacation

I will write about the trip later for the family and friends and post some pictures Jayne took as well. But on to the more important matter at hand. The 30 in 30 challenge. Tony and I both did great in Cancun as far as consistent running. I ran 8 out of 9 days and Tony I think was 7/7. This included 1 day following a binge of tequila that would have made Jose Quervo proud. All but one run was done on the sidewalks of Cancun. Each of us tried running on the beach, once! Man that is brutal.
All in all at this point I have run 13 times in 17 days. I lost 2 days to travel and 2 to my work schedule. But I am off for the next 11 days and intend on making them all up.
run/dist/time/avg hr/pace
5 /4.23/48:36/155/11:29 this was in the sand
6 /5.05/46:05/152/9:07
7 /5.15/46:15/143/9:07
8 /5 /43:26/157/8:41
9 /4.94/46:15/151/9:21
10/5.3 /46:07/145/8:42
11/5 /43:29/161/8:41
12/4.99/45:32/141/9:07
13/5.04/45:05/154/8:56

what's interesting is that run 10 was with the hangover, run 11 was in the afternoon and it was quite a bit hotter. This was after a morning of deep sea fishing. And no we did not catch a thing, 1st time we have been skunked. As for the hangover I did not feel bad....I was lights out at 8:30 pm and slept until 0800. Maybe the extra rest helped????
B

30 IN 30 UPDATE

Well here are the numbers so far. I did miss monday do to this crappy work schedule of mine. But I will make it up.

run#/dist/time/avg hr

1/30/5.1/46:41/157
2/30/5.13/45:05/155
3/30/5/49:37/????forgot my gaget
4/30/5.1/45:27/158
so far so good, legs feel fine. I actually swam today too....wow It does not take long to loose that. My shoulders got tired pretty fast.
With regaurds to the hr's being so high for such a slow pace....This is what happens when you don't run for 5 days, then run a 1/2 marathon, then don't run again for another week. We ran the Colbert Classic Half on 10/6. I ran a pr 1:41 with avg HR 176 and max of 186 it was a very hard course, big hills. And my legs were sore for about 4 days. But hopefully by the end of the week the HR's will begin to come down again.

We leave for Mexico on Friday. Can't wait to dive Cozumel. I will post some dive pics when I can.

ANOTHER YEAR OLDER

Well as the title points out I had another birthday. And by the way I have not gotten your present yet, but I'm a patient man. It's one of the many facets of my character that I've been working on lately. It seems, much to my chagrin, that you can't get everything you want right when you want it. This has become evident to me as my 1st year as an "Ironman" is coming to a close. After all the hard work I've put in it turns out that I still suck. Not as bad as I used to suck but suck nonetheless. As I have been reading some other blogs I see some of things that I think I have always known. 1st and foremost no matter how hard you think have it someone else has it worse. This has multiple meanings too. No matter how are you are working, your competition is working harder. No matter the size of your obstacle, someone elses is greater. And no matter what your gifts, or lack thereof someone has it better or worse. But bottom line it's never easy and not all paths are the same even if the destination seems to be. So what does all this mean, probably not much to alot of people. For me it means I need to quit my whining and bitching and work harder. This requires patience this is a slow process. I spent most of my younger life as a power/speed type of athlete ie: wrestling,skiing, football etc. I did not even begin this endurance stuff until I was 35. And didn't really start getting serious about it until 2 years ago. And by serious I mean ran 1 marathon and then decided an Ironman would be a good idea. Bla bla I know it is was it is and I am were I am. So from here I enter the next phase, a concerted effort to improve as an endurance athlete. Beginning with consistent training. And by consistent I mean I am going to step up to a challenge posed by an athlete who's stuff I read, Dr.J. His challenge is 30 runs in 30 days. Each run 30-45 min depending on your beginning fitness and goals. For me it's 45 min/run. Gordo then upped the ante by suggesting swimming twice a week as well lifting once a week. Which with respect to time and job and all the other things that are life he states "just do it". I love that. bottom line there is no easy way, just like he always says. I will keep you posted on my progress.

The New Boat

Here are a few more pics of the new boat. There is also a picture of one of the coolest houses over in Post Falls. Enjoy!

Kellen's Band

Check out Kellen's band's myspace page. Click on the link Drawing Two on the right hand side of the blog. You listen to 5 songs I think. Let me or them know what you think.

SUNDAE SUNDAY

This past weekend was the Sundae Sunday, a 10 mile race here in Spokane. Jayne and I both did it. Tony tried to poke his own eye out with a stick on Saturday, so he could not run. I had a good run 1:13:54 which is over 6 minutes fasted than I've ever done this race. And man I was sore on Monday. There are some pretty good hills on this course and on the long downhill I was doing about 6:17/mile. I have to take advantage of my long legs.
Jayne ran with her friend Amy. And they had a good run as well 1:32. probably would have been a little fast if Amy had not trip and fallen down at about the 4 mile mark. Scraped her leg up pretty good.
The remander of this month is going to be dedicated to increasing my run milage. I am going to run the Colbert 1/2 marathon on Oct. 6th. That will probably be my last race for this year. Then it's base building time to get ready for next years Ironman.

END OF SUMMER

Well, as the end of summer approaches and I reflect on the year so far I'm amazed at how fast it's gone. With all the prep for Ironman and then the recovery. It was the middle of July before summer actually started for me. With the old boat gone and new one not here yet lake time has been sparse. I skied more when we went to Moses Lake than I think I have the rest of the summer. The trip to Indiana was busy more than relaxing. It was good to see some of the family and as with family there were a few that I could have done without. It was great to see an old friend from way back in 8th grade. Nice to see that his life is going well and he has a nice family.
It was nice to stay with Mike and Patty. Only 1 real hangover to deal with but it was a good one. Barefooting on the river was fun. But it had been a couple of years since I last footed and my feet hurt for a few days. All in all glad we went, glad Jayne got to see where I came from.
As we head into fall the training is started to pick up again. We are going to watch IM Canada this weekend. We are taking the bikes and wetsuits and plan on trying out parts of the course. I really hope Gordo has a great race, he is a pro that has a blog that I follow, www.coachgordo.com. He and his training partners have become my inspiration. And I hope to get to meet a couple of them in Penticton.
Next month we go get the boat. Tony and Lo are going with us and we are going to make a Montana exploration trip out of it. Hopefully the whole place won't burn down before we get to see it.

More IM pics

Some action pics

pre race pics

All of us the day after the race.

Jayne and I with Victor, the guy that won the race in 8 hr 33 min.

More IM Pics

Jayne and I found this truck parked on the street a couple of days before the race.



Jayne running through the woods near our house

Me on my last ride prior to ironman.

IM CDA

Well we did it!!! here are my stats. Not exactly what I was hoping for but I'm still proud of the accomplishment. I will write up a full race report in the next day or two along with some pics from the race.


SWIM BIKE RUN OVERALL POSITION
1:24:01 6:39:31 5:08:04 13:34:25 1225

RACE LEG DISTANCE PACE POSITION
TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:24:01) 2:12/100m 1154


FIRST BIKE SEGMENT: 34 mi 34 mi. (1:52:25) 18.15 mph
SECOND BIKE SEGMENT: 90 mi 56 mi. (3:22:56) 16.56 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT: 112 mi 22 mi. (1:24:10) 15.68 mph
TOTAL BIKE: 112 mi 112 mi. (6:39:31) 16.82 mph 1252


TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (5:08:04) 11:45/mile 1225

TRANSITION TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 15:34
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 7:15

These are Jayne's Stats for the race. She had a great bike leg.

SWIM BIKE RUN OVERALL POSITION
1:20:26 6:53:00 5:56:20 14:26:09 1529

RACE LEG DISTANCE PACE POSITION
TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:20:26) 2:07/100m 922


FIRST BIKE SEGMENT: 34 mi 34 mi. (2:00:20) 16.95 mph
SECOND BIKE SEGMENT: 90 mi 56 mi. (3:29:06) 16.07 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT: 112 mi 22 mi. (1:23:34) 15.80 mph
TOTAL BIKE: 112 mi 112 mi. (6:53:00) 16.27 mph 1288


TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (5:56:20) 13:36/mile 1529

TRANSITION TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 8:20
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 8:03

Ironman swim

Well yesterday prior to registraion we were able to swim the official swim course. Let me tell you 1.2 miles is a long way. And in white caps it's even tougher. The waves were relenetless. A swim that should have taken about 35 min. took 47. Hopefully race morning will bring calm water. The water temp was 63 degrees which is up a little from Sunday when we swam. And the air temp is going to be in the 80's for the next couple of days so the water may warm up a little more.

New Boat

Here is a picture of the new boat. We don't get until sept. but we are still excited. And we will get to go ski behind her the week after Ironman.

IRONMAN REGISTRATION

This is Jayne and I getting ready to pick up our race packets.....When they put Jayne's id bracelet on her wrist she almost cried. It has been quite the emotional journey.

SOLD MY BOAT

Well today I am a little sad, and excited at the same time. I sold my boat today. I love my boat. She was my 2nd boat but I had a real bond with her, way more than with my 1st boat. I bought her brand new in 1994. I have had some great times in that boat. I taught my kids to ski behind her and to barefoot on her boom. I broke my 1st bone, my elbow, doing a 360 behind her. I have romanced a lady or two in her. It's funny before Jayne and I met she saw my boat sitting at my dock and thought she was beutiful. Little did she know that a few years later she would spend her summers in that boat. Jayne and I actually spent our 1 st together in that boat. It was a drizzily day and we went skiing, Jayne didn't whine at all. How cool is that. But now it's time for a new chapter. And the people that are buying her are great folks a father and son that I know will take care of her. Maybe not as well as I did but they will love her too. And the son is a good wakeboarder and he will be able to go big on her wake, better than I ever did. I will never forget the day we had 4 of us long line barefoot behind her. wish I had a picture of that. But now I get to but a new boat. I think I may already have found it but we shall see if the deal comes together. With 11 days until Ironman and 4 days until Kellen graduates, this just seems a fitting close to this particular chapter of my life.

TAPERING IS FUN

Well 2 weeks from today and we will find out if I'm an Ironman or not. I feel pretty good this week kind of sucked for biking, due to weather. Last sunday Jayne and I did a charity bike ride. Jayne did a 50 mile rIde and I did 100 miles. Jayne only did 50 because she had done 112 miles 2 days prior. Anyway it was about 95 degrees that sunday. On monday it had dropped to 60 and was raining. Tuesday was a little colder and raining again. Then it was back to work on thursday. I was able to get enough running in though as well as swimming. We actually got some open water swimming in as well. But the bike did suffer this week a little. So the plan for this week is to ride the bike more frequently but not as long on each ride maybe 75 miles total for the week. We will see if this works out. I'm also going to get in some more open water swimming this week. Jayne swam in cda lake yesterday and I guess it was very windy and the water was real rough. Our friend Jess was with her and I guess Jess freaked out a little when just as she tried to take a breath a wave hit her in the face. A little disconcerting I'm sure.
So the next 13 days are mostly about rest and recovery. Eating well staying superhydrated and as little stress as can be managed....Next weekend Kellen graduates from high school......wow!!! that could really freak me out if I let it.... But with Ironman a week later i'm kind of preocupied with my own little thing. I will try to make Kellen feel like the focus on his big day. I know it's a big deal. Eventhough right now I have tunnel vision.

BIGGEST WEEK EVER

Well this was a very tough week. I say tough beacuse the volume was huge for me but I actually feel really good. Totals for the week swim 3.3 miles, bike 202 miles, run 30 miles. Thursday was a huge breakthrough day for me a did a 7 1/2 hr brick. For those of you that don't know what a brick is, it's a workout with multiple parts. ie: swim then bike or bike then run. So what I did was a 100 mile bike ride, which by the way is a long way, then ran for an hour. The ride was pretty tough too I had 7200 feet of elevation. The Ironman course only has ~6300 ft. So it was a little tougher than the race course. I still don't have my nutrition dialed in though,but it's getting better. I need about 500 kcals/hr on the bike and at least that much if not more on the run. This ride I had about 900 kcals total for the whole brick. But I really am getting better. Last week When Jayne and I did our mock half IM I only had about 900 for the whole day. The brick was longer from a time standpoint but the mock half had twice the running, and a 1.2 mile swim.
We have 1 more hard week then we begin our taper. I'm taking the taper very seriously, I think my old ass will benefit greatly. The nerves have started as well. when I start thinking about race day the old stomach starts getting all queasy. But all in all I think I'm ready.....ready or not here it comes. My time goals have wained a little 12 hrs would require everthing to go perfectly for me 13 is a safer bet but I'm not ruling out 14. Hell I just want to finish it on my feet.

BEEN BUSY

Well it's been a long time since my last post. That's because I've working my ass off trying to get ready for Ironman. I have been train 12-20 hours a week for the past 3 months. With 6 weeks until d-day I'm getting nervous. The other day I was figuring out my training plan for the last 3 weeks prior to the race. When I was entering the worouts for the last week, race week, I thought i was going to throw up. This has most definitly been a test of my self discipline. It's real easy to come up with 4-5 good reasons to skip a workout. And I do admit to change a few mainly cutting some of the long bricks down, do to weather or feeling very tired. But for the most part I've been doing it all. Last week I road my bike 148 miles, ran 27 miles and swam 3.5 miles. This week is a recovery week. Which I kind of need but I really don't feel that tired. Jayne has been doing great as well, She is a little tired though. I'm real proud of her, and she is very proud of herself. A couple of weeks ago she and Janine road the whole Ironman course, all 112 miles, then ran for 30 min. That made for about an 8 hr 15 min day...
Starting next week we begin our last build before we start to taper for the race. Jayne just took her bike in for it's final check up and change out her rear cassette to give her an extra low end gear for all of the hills, and I take mine in on monday. Having 1 more gear will be nice I have been having a tough time spinning up the hills. I tend to want to hammer them, and even when I stay in the saddle I try to power up the hill. Which will make for a great bike split but a real shitty marathon. Swimming is getting better I still suck but I'm not getting passed by old fat women anymore. Today I was actually the fast one in the pool....but believe me I'm not bragging.....I still have a firm crasp on reality when it come to swimming. I predict Jayne will beat me out of the water by 20 min. I may try to draft off of her for a while but I don't think I will be able maintain her pace. In the pool I can stay with her for maybe 600 but that is side by side not sure how would do drafting....we will see. Hopefully we will test that in the lake pretty soon. Bike is coming along I just need a lot of saddle time aerobic work. my running is going quite well, I think. 2 weeks ago we ran this 12 k race here in Spokane called Bloomsday. It's a very big race this year 41000 finishers. And it draws world class runners for some reason. It is a very tough course with several minor hills and 1 big hill at 5 miles that will hurt you.
Jayne and I each posted pr's Jayne at 1:03:53 and me at 52:57. Tony beat me by 12 seconds, little bastard. And of course we still hate Bob 48 min.
Well I'll try to write more later.

Snake River Half Marathon
pics of Tony and Jayne and the scenery. No pics of me though maybe next time.

BACK TO THE POOL

Well I started swimming again :( I started on tuesday actually with a 1300 m workout set up by Scott Roy the coach of the masters program and also the head of a triathlon club here in Spokane called Team Blaze. Jayne has already joined the club not sure if I will though I'm not much of a club joiner....The waterski club is about all the club I can handle. It's sad but in every club I've ever joined or hung out with for any length of time, the club seems to become mired down in what seems to me to be an inordinate amount of politics..... And as most people reading this know,I'm not so good at the polical things in this world. I digress
So far this week I have swam twice the 1300 I mentioned and tonight it was 1750 with 250 of those as kick only. If you have never had the pleasure of using a kick board it is torture device in which you hold on with your hands to help float the front of your body while your legs kick like crazy. I have size 10.5-11 foot depending on the shoe and it's a fat Fred Flinstone foot. You would think they would motor me right along.....Not!!! But I'm sure it will get better.Running is going well, tony and I ran 14 on sunday....it was tough,alot of hills but a good run.

BACK AT IT

Well we are home from vacation actually got home on 10/21, so I'm a little behind. Cabo was great as always.Stayed at a great place www.HILTONLOSCABOS.COM
as much as I hate to support Paris hilton in any way the place was nice. Ran on the beach a couple of days and on the treadmill a couple. It was about 90 by 0900 so we had to be up and running early. Running in the sand has to be good for you it requires so many aux muscles to maintain balance and footing. At a min. it's a great core workout as for running about 10:30/mi was as fast as I could go. That pace had my hr at red line. But for the week we were in Cabo I still got 26 miles. This past week wee increased again and I ended up with 29.6. This gave me a good mix of hills,tempo and long and slow. Sundays long run was 12.2 @ 9:45 pace. It was tough because I had worked all night and it was about 35 and rained for most of the run. But Tony and I pounded it out. The plan for this week is a total of 33 miles. Speed work on wed. and 14 mile long run on sunday. I also start swimming with the master swim club on tues night....Whoopee.

NEW STRADEGY

Recently Tony ran the Portland Marathon. This was his 3rd marathon all of which were in 1 year, oct-oct. In all 3 he has bonked. Bonking for those of you that don't know is a very weird thing. Basically you run out of fuel. But it can manefest itself in alot of ways. But the worst symtom, in a race, is that you can't run fast anymore. I bonked at the CDA marathon and it took me 1 hr and 3 min. to run the last 6.2 miles. to put that in perspective I ran the 1st 20 miles in 2 hr and 50 min. And you are in this sureal frame of mind. I literally thought about grabing this kids doughnut as I ran by him....a little kid.... about 3. Anyway my past bonk and Tony's 3rd bonk have caused us to rethink our training. All of our train to this point has had us running between 20-30 miles a week. Whick we thought was enough but I don't think that forces the body to adapt eneough. These guys that are serious and fast runners are doing 50-100 miles a week. We are not quite that whacked out but tony has Boston in April and With me doing Ironman next June adding some weekly milage makes sense for base building if nothing else. I think it will help me alot. Time will be the biggest factor. I'm going to have to start swimming pretty soon, as much as I hate it. Bikeing will be almost all indoor pretty soon, which actually saves a little time, since I don't have to load up the bike and go somewhere. I will keep you posted.

KELLEN'S PICTURES

OK MOM GET OFF MY ASS..... There are also some more on my flickr badge on the right. Just click on the badge and you can see all of them. The ones on the badge are the ones we liked the most.

LONG RUN

Sunday Tony and I met for what was to be a 12 mile run. We started out at a nice pace real easy for Tony and easy for me. The coarse we ran though was less than easy. Hilly, very hilly, some off road and some on a giant loop that we thought would acheive the 12 mile goal. At about 5 miles my left calf began to hurt. This is the same pain I have had for the last couple of weeks. It hurts but not so bad that I can't continue. And after a while it quits hurting altogether. The difference this time was that when I woke up on Monday, it was very sore. To the point that I was favoring it a little. The sad thing is that our run ended up being short of our goal in fact was only 10 miles, and we had to run around the outside of the prking lot to squeeze out the last 1/4 mile. Now here it is Wednesday I'm supposed to run a little today maybe 3 miles, the calf is a little sore but not as painful Monday. Maybe an easy run followed by some stretching will help. we'll see. I also have physical therapy today. I'm about tired of giving them money. I just hope my flexibility comes back pretty soon. I can't scratch my left shoulder with my right hand, which totally blows. The really weird thing is I'm constantly having to try something with my left arm to make sure it's something I should be able to do. Frustrating!!!

contruction progress

This is the other project occupying my life right now. This started as a simple reroof. But as the project has progressed we have added on to the other side of the house as well as what you see here.I will continue to post pics here to show our progress.

Good Week

Well this has been a good week, considering it's a work week. With my weird schedule that how I break things down now days, work week or not a work week. On my off week the possibilities are limitless 7 days to do whatever I want and everything I need to do. On my work week anything I do other than work is a major victory. If you have never worked nights you should try it, if you have then you should try 7, 10 hr shifts in a row. Not that I'm whining, I do this by choice. But none the less It leaves little time for training, errands or whatever. So on those rare weeks when I seem to get a lot accomplished I'm pretty happy. This week I was able to run ~ 20 miles, more about that in a minute. I also got to go to Kellen's football game. Kellen is my 17yo son who is a senior. This was also the 1st game in which he had the opportunity to kick his 1st field goal a 27 yd.kick which he easily made.
I also am starting to feel like I'm making progress at physical therapy. My flexibility is increasing and so is my strength. But it is a slow/painful process.
Now back to my running I ran 4 days this week. With a back to back workout yesterday. I actually ran 4 miles on sat. night before work. I did interval on the treadmill. Then when I got off sun morning I ran ~ 8 miles at a little over 9 min/mi pace. The beauty was that my hr stayed pretty close to what was 2 weeks ago. However 1 ran over a min/mi faster this week. So all in all it was a good week. Jayne ordered the part for my aerobar for me,so hopefully that will come in soon and I can hit the bike.

Sundae Sunday

This past weekend was the Sundae Sunday 10 mile race. It was hard for me this year. Last year, my 1st, was hard as well but I ran so much better. My time last year was 1:17:something this year 1:27:something. 10 min. slower, 1 min/mi. Most people have said it's no big deal you are just coming of an injury. And I understand that coming back from an injury, especially one that took me out for 7 weeks, is going to take some time. Patients is not my strong suit. Just the opposite, I'm very impatient. Maybe that's the real challenge for me here. Maybe that's what I'm going to be forced to learn here. Patients, wouldn't hurt. To bad I did not learn this when I was 22 not 42. I just hope I learn it now. I digress, the race was great, perfect weather. I think over 400 runners/walkers. Tony set a PR by a whopping 10 sec. I think he is ready for Portland. We are all ready for CABO, 1 month.
Physical therapy is going ok....once again patients is key. My strength is shit my right arm is 50% as strong as my left. My flexibility is less than that. The human body was not meant to spend 6 weeks in a sling. But it is getting better. I have PT this morning and then it's a 5 mile run.

CLEARED BY M.D.

Well yesterday I went to the doc for my 6 week check up post op. All is good. The x-ray looks good and can start lifting weights and really working on range of motion. So I should be able to get into the pool pretty soon. He said I could start riding outside but thought that it would be better if I rode my mtn bike on the road instead of my road bike. the upright postion will be more comfortable. I still can’t ski or wakeboard though and if I do ride I can’t crash, again. I was able to do 3 push ups, wow!!

I ran long on Sunday a 10 miler with Jayne and Tony. I ran most of it with Jayne at her pace which unfortunatly now seems to be my pace as well. I ran 8 mi. with her at a hr less than 150, which was damn slow. At 8 miles Tony and I took off trying to catch these 2 girls that had passed us at mile 6. We caught them within 3/4 mile but it was hard. We passed them on this tough hill that had my legs burning and my hr at 186. Needless to say I was hurting, but able to finish strong.

Long??? Run

Sunday was my 1st long run since the crash. If you can call 6 miles a long run. But it was the longest I’ve run since the end June. It felt good, however my HR was too high. But I was really trying to give Tony moral support. He ran 17 and I tagged along for the last 6. It was a beautiful morning here temp was great. My legs do feel a little sore tonight though. Tommorrow I will rest maybe an easy spin on the trainer

Making progress

Well today I made a little progress, I think. I was able to run 5 miles on the treadmill. Not fast but faster than I have been running outside. Hr was a little higher it stayed right at 160, went to 167 towrds the end by I think that had more to do with the van halen song I was listening to. Going to try 6-7 on Sunday. Tony is going 15 and I told him I would go for part of that with him. Since I got hurt he has had to all of his long runs alone and I think he misses the company. We’ll see how it goes.

Another Slow One

Well yesterday was another slow run. Trying to keep my hr below 160 is harder than I thought it would be. I can’t hardly run that slow and can’t walk that fast. Shoulder is a little sore today not sure if it’s the running or not.

I was able to read “START TO FINISH IRONMAN TRAINING” BY HUDDLE AND FREY. Not a bad read alot of good info. I’m also reading “BE IRON FIT” BY FINK. Have not read enough to form an opinion yet. But I think in the end I will end up stealing pieces from several training programs most of them seem to have something to offer.

Out of Shape

Well today was the beginning of my post crash training. Wow it’s amazing what 5 weeks of sitting on your ass can do to your aerobic capacity. I started by putting my bike on the trainer in the basement. The plan was to ride for 15-20 min and see how the shoulder felt. It hurt….but was tolerable, and I was able to go for 20 mins. But I was breathing hard and sweating like a pig. But it felt good to be doing something. Then about 4 hours later I decided I would see if my shoulder could take a little jog. So I got my running shoes on put on the hr monitor and Gus(my lab) went for a little jog. Prior to the crash I would have to leave gus at home because my runs were usually to long and to fast for his 10 yo body to take. Today though I knew that he would be fine running with my old busted ass. My should did ok, not great but ok. My hr though was rediculous. I had a hard time keeping below 160 and I was running so damn slow the dog was waiting for me. Oh well still good to back to the land of the living. The good thing is there is really only room for improvement. So at least for a while I will feel like I’m making great progress with every workout. That is always a good feeling.

Back to Blog

Well I’m back to blog, but that’s about it. Since the last time I wrote anything in my blog a lot has happened. Back in May I ran my first marathon, The Couer d’Alene. This was the focus of my training and my life for that matter everything else took the backseat. My goal was to finish in under 4 hrs. The good news was that I actually ran a 3:53:13,so I met my goal. However I was at mile 20 at 2:50, so it took me over and hour to run the last 6 miles. My first race bonk. It all felt good until that 20th mile. Then all of a sudden every step was hard, and I couldn’t seem to understand what was happening. It wasn’t until it was all over and I took an inventory of all of my nutritional goodies that I figured out that I simply ran out of gas. I ran the hole race on 1.5 GUs, 10 oz generic gatorade, and 2 Shot Blocks. Not enough for a 180 lb man running ~ 8 min/mile. Lesson learned, I hope.

The next goal was to be a half IM called Troika here in Spokane. So starting about June 7th it was time to hit the pool and the bike. Training was progressing and all was going well. I was increasing milage and feeling the benifits. Towards the end of June Ironman came to Couer d’Alene. My girlfriend and I volunteered as we did last year. This year we knew 7 people that were competing so we also there to support our friends. And what an experience to watch those people cross that finish line. The flood of emotions when the announcer says “joe blow you are an ironman” and the crowd is screaming, people are crying, hugging, kissing throwing their fists in the air claiming victory….. Victory for themselves and a victory over their former self. Very powerful!

Well now I’m relly fired to train for Troika. I have the 1st 3 weeks of July off from work. The race is 1st weekend in August so I am going to log some serious miles. The first week after Ironman I road my bike 98 miles. The next week was to be 120. On Sat. 7/1 all of that changed. 50 miles into a 60 mile ride with Jayne, my girlfriend, I made a huge mistake. I was more worried about the line Jayne was riding and not enough about my own line. And you guessed it I crashed. Not only did I crash but as I slid accross the pavement on my head,face,but and eventually back. I slid right in front of Jayne who had 2 choices, hit my bike and do a front flip or run over my head. Lucky for me she chose the bike. Unfortunatly for me though I hit the ground hard. Hard enough that when I jump up I knew right away that I either broke my collar bone or dislocated my shoulder. Jayne had her cell phone,as she always does. She called a friend and they were able to come pick us up and take me to the hospital. When I walked into the ER at the hospital, where I work. I knew all the docs and nurses working and was able to get right in. X-ray confirmed what I thought I knew, collar bone shattered. 3 visable breaks even to my untrained eye, I’m a Pharmacist so x-rays are not my gig. In that moment I knew my summer was over. A hell of a way to start my 3 week vacation. Not to mention the house remodel I was in the middle of and race I was training for, all gone. The following thursday I went to my orthopeadic guy, great guy and a friend. He called it a weber type 2 b fracture. And the only real option is surgery, tommorow. So I crashed on 7/1 and I was on the table on 7/7. lucky number what??? Anyway long story short the first week post op sucked. I slept in a recliner, which I had to go buy. The next doctor appt. 10 days post op. suture removal and x ray went great. The xray looked perfect, and the incision, about 4-5 inches doesn’t look like it will leave much of a scar. That’s the good news, bad news 6 weeks in a sling. The other pseudo good news, 2 more weeks off work. I say pseudo because I have never called in sick in my whole life, I’m 42, and have been working since I was 12. So this was the end of that. Oh well.
Well now I’m back to work, 3 more weeks with this sling. I get my bike from the shop tommorow $ 148.11 not bad. I’ll write more about my bike later. The doc gave me permission to put the bike on the trainer to spin. He also said I could get in the pool and use a kick board, this will help in more ways than 1, I’m a crappy kicker, the practice will help.
The other big thing that happened during this time and while under the influence of some very good drugs, legally obtained I might add. Jayne and I both signed up for Ironman CDA next year. more about that later as well,as that will be the focus of this blog for most of the next year I expect.
Anyway sorry for my bad grammer and horrible puctuation and any spelling errors, have not figured out how spell check works on this yet.
Bryan

BLOOMSDAY 2006

For those of you that don't know Bloomsday is one of the largest timed races in the country. This was the 30 th year for this race here in Spokane. It draws world class runners and wheelchair athletes from all over the world. As has been the case for the last several years the Kenyans won. This is an odd distance 12 km/7.46 mi road race with some pretty tough hills and > 40000 runners. I think the biggest year was like 67000. Anyway this was my 2nd year running the race and I beat last years time by over 4 min. with a time of 54:59. My goal was to break 55 min which I barely did. It's amazing what a few seconds can make. On my watch I had my time at 55:02 and I was so dissappointed. but when the offical results were posted and I saw that I actually beat my goal I was so pumped. 3 seconds difference and I went from feeling like a failure to king of the world. Amazing what your ego can do to you, if you let it. After the race,and a nap,food etc. I went for another run this was a slow 9 miler. I did this in lew of the 26 I was supposed to run according to my marathon training plan. All in all a good day.

END OF APRIL

Well another month has come and gone. Been working hard main on running but did get out on the bike a few times.
Running: 129.8 miles
Time: 18h 28m 22s
Avg. Pace: 8:32/mile
MTN BIKE: 10.3 miles
Time: 1h 31m 27s
Avg. Pace: 8:51/mile
NEW BIKE CYCLING: 35.9 miles
Time: 2h 25m 56s
Avg. Pace: 4:04/mileI can't wait until this marathon is over. I'm looking forward to training for Troika 1/2 IM in August. But now the focus is only on the marathon. Still a little worried, not that I'll finish, I know I will, barring anything weird. But will I be able to break 4 hrs??? that's the big ???? The shorter races I've been doing have been great in that my pace has been nearl a full minute faster than last year. But the longest race was a 10k 3 weeks ago and my pace was 7:16. But on the long runs on Sundays my pace @ ~9-9:30. with my longest run being 20 miles. Just not sure how it will all hold together at sub 9 min pace for 26.2. but I guess we'll find out soon eneough, 28 days to be exact.

ALMOST 40 MILES

Well this week I had to deviate from my training plan again. My long run that was slated for Sunday was to be a 22 miler. However I decided to run a 10 k race on Satuday and had planned on doing a duathlon on Sunday. The duatlon was a short one 2,10,2 run,bike,run. So I thought I would do it in the morning then go for a 10 mile run later in the day. But Sunday morning it was raining pretty hard with no signs of letting up so I decided not to do the race. I'm not going to intentionally take my new bike out in the rain for a little training race. So then I was stuck needing to do a longer run to make up the difference. So I decided to run 16 miles. Now you have to remember that I ran a 10 k race the day before. This 10 k was a PR too 45:10. Fast for me. And after the race rather than go home and drink my recovery drink, I went to a friends and had coffee. So needless to say I was not 100% for the 16 miler. And I felt it too. At the beginning I was stuggling, but kept going thinking that I would loosen up. And I did, for about 8-10 miles. But 11-13 were hard, and 14-16 were torture. So I learned that long runs should not follow races, and that after races you need your recovery drink. Not smart I know,now. But hopefully this week my life will fit my training a little better

END OF THE MONTH

Well this is by far the most I have ever run in a month.

Running
148.5 milesTime: 20h 45m 01sAvg. Pace: 8:23/mile
INDOOR CYCLING
20.0 milesTime: 1h 00m 00sAvg. Pace: 3:00/mile
Now that the weather is getting better i will be able to get some time on the bike.

20 MILES IS A LONG WAY

This weeks long run took me a long way, 20 miles to be exact. This is the farthest I have ever gone. My intention was to run 18 miles. My training plan did call for 20 but I had made some adjustments a few weeks ago to fit in a race. So Sunday was going to be 18 miles. Jayne was going to ride her road bike and provide any extra support I might need. She's the best by the way. I bet she rode her bike 40-50 miles while I ran. I got to use my newest gaget the GEL-BOT, check it out www.gel-bot.com . The thing works great. Jayne also had a couple of bottles of gatorade for me on her bike, as well as an extra gu. Now you must also know that I'm working real hard at running these long runs slow 9:30-10 min/mi. So when I got to 9 miles I felt great, despite the very hilly coarse that I choose. So I thought what the hell I feel great, the program actually calls for 20 at this point, so I went for it. By the time I got to 15 miles I was even picking up the pace just a little. At mile 17 Jayne ditched her bike and joined me for the last 3 miles. The last 2 miles I tried to pick up the pace alot. Mile 19 was a 9 min. mile and mile 20 was at 8 min. At about 19.5 it took all of my concentration to keep the wheels from falling off. I could tell that if I did not focus all of my attention on each step it could all go to crap in a hurry. But there it was I could see the last mile marker. I got a big grin on my face, yelled f*&k yea. and finished felling great. Total distance for the week 36.5 miles. And monday morning when I woke up I felt ok. I could definitly tell I had done something but really felt pretty good. The beauty to me at this point is I can actually see me running the marathon now. Before Sunday I had serious doubts. Now I know I can do it. Now, can I do it at pace?

A WEEK OF FIRSTS

This week had a couple of firsts. First first, this was the 1 st week I ran all 6 days my plan called for. It was also the 1st time I have ran 6 days in a row. It was also the 1st time I have ran 35 miles in a week. All of this and this is my work week. I have an odd work schedule in that I work 7 nights in a row then have 7 off. So any of you that work nights know how hard it can be to fit workouts in with sleep and work schedules. But this week all the planets lined up or something and it all worked out. At about the 7th mile of sunday's 10 mile long run I was a little worried that maybe I was pushing to much. I had a weird pain in my right knee that kind of came out of no where, but after a little limping and a little stretching it fixed itself and I was able to finish. A little slower than I wanted but ok for a long slow run.

ST. PADDY'S 5

Well Sunday culminated a busy week. Mon. was a rest day, Tues. was a killer hill workout. I pick a steep hill 0.25 miles long and ran 7 repeats the first 5 were run in 2 min each followed by jogging down, the last 2 were a little tougher and 2:17, 2:24 was all I could manage. My lungs hurt for 2 days from breathing so hard I think I actually strained my intercostal muscles. Wed. was a 7 mile tempo run. Thur and Fri were spent at silver mtn skiing in knee deep powder, awsome snow. Sat was my my long run 14 miles, on the treadmill no less, pace was nice and easy 7 mph x 2 hrs. And last but not least was the St.Paddy's Five. I actually set a pr with a time of 35:34 on my watch, they had me at 35:46. Oh well, 31 miles for the week and I felt great.

END OF FEB.

Well as another month comes to an end, I'm forced to reflect on my training. I feel pretty good about my running. Yesterday I ran my first real hard long run, 16 miles. Man that marathon just seems impossible at this point. But I know it's not so I'll keep on training and stick with the plan. As for the biking still only doing the spinning class thing once a week, but that's about to change along with the weather. oh and pretty soon I'll have to get in the pool too.
Running
101.2 milesTime: 14h 01m 17sAvg. Pace: 8:19/mile
INDOOR CYCLING
65.0 milesTime: 3h 15m 00sAvg. Pace: 3:00/mile

GYM DUATHLON

Thursday was a duathlon workout.... I got off work at ~ 0745 at the gym by 0815. On the treadmill for 4 miles 7:40/mi pace. Then spinning class, killer hill workout, nearly puked towards the end. Then back on the treadmill for 2 more miles. Then to bed. Not a bad workout I think I will make that a regular gig on thurs. since I can go to that spinning class.

PARTNER'S IN PAIN

Well this past week was another good running week, culminating with Partner's in Pain race. This a 5 k race in which male and female teams times are added together along with there ages to determine the winner. I ran a PR 5 k at 22.26, Jayne,my girlfriend and partner in the race, did not do so well so we did not do well as a team. Not that my time help much either since I finished 104th out of 450 or something. But a PR is still a PR and I was happy. Some friends and I ran the course once before the race as a warm up and once after the race as a cool down, for a total of 9.3 miles for the day. That put me at 24.3 miles for the week.

SO FAR SO GOOD

Well as the 1 st month of the new year comes to an end, I'm on my way to fullfiill my goals. The running is going fairly well. I ran a total of 71.3 miles in jan. the biking has been a little less productive as the weather has not allowed much outside riding and what there has been has been on the mtn bike. However, I have been going to a spinning class once a week and that is sure to help me once I can get outside. I have yet to get into the pool though and that;s ok with me.

NEW YEAR PLAN

Well I have been putting this off but here goes. my goals for this year are to run 1000 miles, ride my bike 4000 miles, compete in and finish my 1st marathon, and compete in and complete my 1st 1/2 IM. wow I get tired just reading that.Ambitious yes but totally doable.