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.

CHANGING PLANS

Due to a work conflict I will not be able to do Troika this year. So instead I 'm going to do the CDA Scenic Challenge. This is an Olympic distance tri. It is actually the first "big" tri I ever did back in 1998. Of course the definition of big has change quite a bit since then. In 1998 I defined a long swim as a mile, a long bike was 30 miles and a long run about 8 miles. That same year I ran my 1st 1/2 marathon and it nearly killed me. The day after the race I went deer hunting and my legs were so toasted all I could do was walk out into the woods about 110 yds. and take a nap.I digress, I remember back then as I was training for that 1st oly. thinking how big of deal this was. Yea I've come a ways since then. Of course that makes me wonder what "big" will be in 2018.
This weekend I'm also going to run a little 8k cross country race that a friend of mine puts on The Toaster Splash after the race I'm heading up to Deer Park for our tri clubs kids triathlon to help out, should be fun/funny.

T.Boone Pickens

I like the sound of this.

MAF Test

Yesterday I did a MAF test prior to doing some 800's with Bob. The results of the test are pretty amazing. First though let me show you what my previous test results were.
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 as you can see I was making progress. This was doing exclusive MAF training. Of course since Jan. I was building up for IMCDA so most of that training is pretty low intensity as well but alot more volume. Then as you get closer to the race you add more intensity.

test # 3 7/15/08
mile 1 @ 144, 8:09
mile 2 @ 144, 8:14
mile 3 @ 144, 8:29

notice that my 3rd mile is faster now than my 1st mile was back in Dec. I guess that's progress.

Sharing Ideas

In the past couple of days I've some interesting,at least to me, interactions on the Internet. A couple were simple Q&A kind of things with Lucho another was a little support/pat on the back thing with Angela. The one that I found the most interesting though was a discussion with KP. He had quoted something on his website that I had commented on over at Alan's blog. The discussion in general is about aging as an athlete. Attitudes about it and attitudes in dealing with it and the like. So I wanted to share part of our discussion. You can go to the specific sites to piece it all together if you like but the last couple of emails should give you the gist.

KP-"Thanks for your post on my forum. I like to have lots of ideas on there and they don't all have to agree with me. However, I understood that you and I mostly agree on this subject of aging; but I wanted to comment to you privately so that it doesn't look like I am at odds with you if we are actually agreeing.

The point should be made that as we age and slow down we may be performing better than ever relative to our competition. Gordo's blog article on the 'aging athlete' http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2007/11/aging-athlete.html uses Ron Ottoway as an example. At 65 he went 11:57 and was second in Kona by 3min. At 70 he went 13hrs and was first by 60min. If he had stopped training and racing because he would never go sub12 again he would not have been the champion and missed great experiences along the way.

Are you sure you meant to convey the message you wrote about "aging big time athletes that won't quit and move on" to be part of your post? That doesn't sound like part of what I have been talking about and goes against what I hope we continue to see from Gordo and Molina, which is staying in the sport and maintaining great perspective."

Me-"Thanks for the chance to clarify my meaning. I'm talking about athletes whose prime in their sport is behind them and there is no room for future growth. For sports like football and basketball where there really is no way to continue to compete past a certain point.It would be great if MJ could play forever but I don't want to see him get smoked by Lebron. For Gordo and Molina and you and I we can continue to compete. Our times may get slower relative to our previous times but we can improve within our AG.Actually just continuing to push our bodies this way into the later years is a huge victory in and of itself. I'm kind of banking on that very thing. Like I said on AC's blog I did not even start this until I was 43 so I have lots of room for improvement. I'm kind of hoping that if I can stay healthy that at some point I can go to Kona. But hell at CDA this year I was 180/332 in my AG. Not exactly competitive, but an hour better than last year. This year I plan on qualifying for the Boston marathon not because I've gotten so fast but because I turn 45 on the day of the race and the required time decreases by 10 minutes.
I can see in Gordo's writing that he is coming to grips with the reality of age. I think he is dealing with all of those questions we all have as we get older in a very public way with alot of people watching and with an enviable amount of class. I personally can't wait to see what he is capable of accomplishing. He and Molina and all of you Epic guys pushing yourselves is one of the things that motivates me on a daily basis. I'd like to see Gordo be the first 60 yo go under 10hrs or whatever. It is about perspective. Even in the example I used above I would like to see MJ play with a bunch of guys his age. I'm sure he can still dominate them.
Does that make more sense?"

So what is so interesting to me about this?? For one thing all of us are spread all over the place and still able to have essentially live conversations. Secondly, people can actually have civil discussions and truly share ideas. And 3rd is the old idea that if a butterfly flaps it's wings in Japan does that cause the wind to blow in California. Sometimes it does.

POST IM GOALS

Well now that I feel fairly recovered and have started hitting it again. It's time to lay out the goals for the rest of the year. The original plan was to waterski a lot. With the new boat sitting in the garage all winter and spring it was calling loud. However thanks to $4/gal gas I can't seem to hear it calling as much. That combined with the fact that our ski clubs slalom course got totally trashed over the winter. Thanks to the people in the club that used it on a daily basis but seem to think that they shouldn't take it out without the help of those of us that have always done it. I digress. Next race Troika 8/3, local 1/2 IM with great point to point route. I've never done a half, but all the while I was training for CDA I was thinking that a 1/2 sounds like the perfect distance. One that I actually feel like I should be able to race, not just do, like IM. After that it's Portland's marathon 10/5. This just happens to be on my 45 birthday. Which means that my qualifying time for Boston gets pushed back by 10 min. So I need to run 3:30 to go to Boston, and that's the plan. My run fitness has gotten so much better since my only other marathon. Not to mention that I've learned so much about fueling and hydration. I know I can break 3:30 and I'm going to.

JAYNE

Let me tell you about my girlfriend. She IS an Ironman. To some of you her times may not sound to impressive. But those in the know, know just how impressive they are. Jayne finished this years IM in 14 h 20 min and some change. That is a modest 6 min. improvement over last years times. But a 6 min improvement is still pretty good. Most people that know her know she is a good swimmer and might think that she improved her swim time. Wrong!It actually was about the same. But because the water was pretty cold and she was fighting leg cramps she swam way wide in the course to minimize contact with the other swimmers grabbing her legs.
So was her improvement on the bike?? No that actually was slower this year. She too did not have as much bike time this year. With her longest ride also 82 miles,not the same 82 miles though as mine. She also had a few more stops this year.
No much to my surprise and everyone elses including Jayne herself. She improved her marathon by about 30 min. This is huge and I'll tell you why. 8 miles, that's the distance of her longest run leading up to IM. I'll bet she did not run 30 miles in the last 2 months. She had been fighting a nagging leg injury basically all year. Every time she ran she would re-injure her leg. A few days before the race though she was thinking that the seat height on her bike just didn't feel right. She had worked with Steve at 2 Wheel Transit on getting position dialed in, but the seat height had slipped or something. Anyway, the day day before the race we stopped at the bike shop and they made a cm increase in seat height, that's alot. So her plan for the race went something like swim her best,bike her best, then walk the marathon. We were expecting a midnight finish. But every time I saw her on the run, she was running. I thought cool, but she was way back. So after I finished and Tony and I loaded the bikes. We got a call from Janine,who had driven out on the course to see where Jayne was. She said Jayne has about 3 miles left. "Get the Fuck out of here" or somehting like that was my reaction. So we hobbled, I guess I hobbled, Tony was fine, back to the finish area and met up with Janine. And about 10 min. later here she came. Totally running and stroking it pretty good. Grinning ear to ear, she said "I'm going to beat last years time" and she did. I have never been prouder!! what a studdete!!
Lots of people would have never started that race given her prep. Not doing it was never even an option for Jayne. She is as tough as they come. She is an IRONMAN!!

IM CDA 2008

Well I did it, again. If you have been following along on this blog then you know I was less than optimistic about this year. With my work schedule 7x 10hr nights in a row then 7 days off it was hard to be consistent. Working nights adds an element of sleep deprivation that cannot be good. This combined with the addition of Otis, our Chocolate Lab puppy in Dec. made for many days with 4-6 hrs of sleep. The weather also took it's toll on my training plans. With the limited number days that I could ride my bike to start with being ruined by rain,snow and freezing temps. My pre race mileage was down over 900 miles from last year. with my longest ride being 82 miles.
The icing on the bike riding cake though was being hit by the car 3 weeks prior to the race on what was to be the beginning of my biggest week. My running, the 1 bright spot in my training early on, had fallen on tough times as well in the last 6-8 weeks. Minor injuries and a slightly mistimed peak had left me feeling a little flat and less than fast. As for the swim, I hate swimming! I never have like to swim. As far I can tell the only good thing about swimming, other than keeping you from drowning, is girls in swimsuits. The SWIMP3 made the training bearable but still not something that I looked forward to.
Ok so enough excuses you get the picture. Ironman is not for pussies,excuses or whining.
Race day morning came early 0330. Jayne and I opted to stay at home this year vs staying at her mom's house. We stayed at her house last year, and it did save us about 40 min, but sleeping in our own bed is sure nice. So after we both had some coffee and a successful BM we were off. We were about 8 miles from the house when I realized I had forgot my IRONMAN swim cap, shit! But it was not worth turning around for and we were sure they would have extras for all the other morons, they did. When we got to CDA we were a little concerned as we drove down Northwest blvd because the flags were flapping in the wind. But after parking and getting a look at the lake a feeling of relief no real waves to contend with. Compared to last year it was glass.
We dropped off our special need bags and drinks and helmets at our bikes. Filled our tires and double checked all the gear. I made sure my bike was in a lower gear so I could start off easy. After the body markers we put on our wetsuits and headed for the beach. We got to see Al and wish him luck. Boom! and we're off. The mass start of an Ironman is a clusterfuck beyond belief. Imagine 2000 people thrown into a 2 million gallon washing machine, and everyone trying to go to the same place. I think this actually works to my advantage though because it's the only part of triathlon which is a contact sport. For the 1st 1000 meters it's basically a fight for a place to swim. By the time we made the 2nd turn and headed back to shore it had spread out and I was able to get into a rhythm. I finished the 1st lap in 37 min. WOW! for me that's great. The 2nd lap was uneventful. But I was getting hungry, swimming makes me so hungry. Out of the water and to my surprise my legs felt springy, so I ran up the beach and to the wetsuit peelers. After they peeled my suit and stood me up I got one of the best head rushes of my entire life. Re-caged the giro and I was off to the change tent again with springy legs. I was actually high stepping over the other t1 bags on my way to the tent. T1 went faster this year but not much. swim time 1:17:07 T1 11:13
The plan for the bike was to start slow enough that I could eat a pbj, then hit it. Well I ate 1/2 the pbj, the rest was blob of mushy goo in the bottom of the baggy. Lesson learned do not cut into quarters. Time to cruise, now this is where I get confused. I passed tons of people all day long. Up hill, down hill and even on the flats. Now I did get passed but it sure seemed like I passed alot more people than passed me, but my bike time relative to others in my age group pretty much sucked. The difference between bike split and my bike computer was 8 mins. so with stopping to pee and getting my special needs bag that's not to bad. My garmin was a huge disappointment. About 3 hrs into the bike it starts telling me it has a low battery. The damn thing had been on the charger for like 4 days straight without being used. I don't understand what the idiot that designed a recharging system that actually loses a charge while being plugged in was thinking. I would think that the software could assess the charge and act accordingly, but what do I know. The Garmin issue was not that big of a deal on the bike but the run would suck without the pacing info. I digress. Towards the end off the 1st loop as you head back into town the head wind was brutal. I remember thinking that if this wind keeps up the 2nd loop will kill me. The wind must have subsided a little because the 3rd 1/3 of the ride was faster than the 2nd 1/3 but not as fast a the 1st. make sense?
bike time 6:29:27 t2 4:31
I do want to thank all of the volunteers that helped with this race. Having been a volunteer in the past myself I know that I liked feeling like I really helped someone have a good race. And for me it was the guy who helped me in T2. I don't know his name but this guy was great. He dumped my bag and was taking my bike shoes off. After changing socks he put my running shoes on my feet and my hat on head while I was eating and drinking. I know he saved me 2-3 minutes and allowed me to relax a little. I got to talk to Mike Bresson a friend who was also helping in the tent and got some words of encouragement from him. Which means alot coming from a guy that can run a 2:20 marathon. Got some sun spooge rubbed on me as I left the tent and back on the road I go.
With no gadget to tell me my pace nor a watch to figure it myself I was left to be a caveman. I ran on feel. I have no idea what pace I was running at first, or at second for that matter. But I did have an idea. When I would get to a mile marker I would ask someone standing there what time it was. Now this was not going to be a very good system for figuring my current pace, but it would allow me figure out roughly when I might finish. When I felt like I had settled in I passed my buddy Stan only he was going in the other direction. He is great rider and had pretty good day on the bike in retrospect he was about 41 mins ahead of me. Stan's a big boy though and I thought I could catch him if just stayed consistent and tried to push myself. I would know when I got back towards the second turn around if I was going to be able to run him down or not. It was a pretty nice day for a run the wind was a non factor and the support was great. My feet were killing me though. One of the nagging minor injuries I had been dealing with just would not go away. Of coarse my fix...a new pair of shoes... a model that I have run in but still brand new and a 1/2 size smaller than the other 2 pairs of those shoes that I have. So now not only do I have the normal soreness of my right foot, but now I have a whole new soreness of the big toenail of my left foot, gotta have balance. Like I said Ironman is not for pussies. keep plugging away counting my cadence in my head. People yelling "good job" "nice pace" "your doing it" for the first 5-10 miles I would say "thanks alot" or "thanks for your help" but by mile 10-20 it was reduced to "thanks". And from mile 20 on it was more of a grunt. By the time I got to the third and final turn around I knew I could catch Stan if I could maintain my pace and keep the wheels from falling off. We high fived each other as we passed, what a great competitor. 5 more miles of pain, I was drawing deeper and deeper into my own head. Counting cadence focusing on form the the occasional grunt towards a spectator. Now I have intentionally left Jayne out of this blog because her story deserves it's own blog entry. But I will mention her here just before mile 25 I saw her, we kissed, that's all I needed. I could see Stan in front of me now maybe 2 blocks. Right at mile 25 I caught him. I told him he was one tough MF to catch. What a great race he had. Last mile gotta pick up the pace, finish strong. I was passing people some with a second loop still to come and others on their way home with me. But nobody was going to pass me in the last mile no matter what, and they didn't. Now when I made the last turn and headed toward the finish line I would have sworn I running 7 min/mi pace. But according to the Hobbit no not quite 7 min pace, maybe 9:30. I felt fast, to bad that doesn't count. I was able to get the crowd fired up though which was fun and when I came down the shoot this year I did hear him call my name and call me an Ironman. run time 4:34:53 total time 12:37:09
For those of you keeping score that's a 57 min improvement over last year.
After the catcher helped me out of the finish area and I was waiting for Tony an Janine. I actually got a little choked up. Knot in the throat, watery eyes the whole thing. So for those of you that say I only have one feeling, I found it. Huge thanks to Tony and Janine for being there and Tony for helping me load everything up and Janine for keeping track of and continually motivating Jayne. Thanks to everyone that sent the good vibes my way it was appreciated.

TAPER???

This year has been weird. With the new job, doing part of the job not getting paid for it though. The new puppy, nearly 8 monthes old now. And weather that it indicative of the end of times. My training this year has been marginal at best. So there is no real need to taper. Trying to make sure that I'm getting enough rest. I'm not pushing if I feel tired. I am trying to make sure that all workouts are on pace though, after a warm up. I'm also trying to eat right, not just a lot, but good stuff. Big salads almost everyday with chicken or tuna. Fresh fruit and veggies as much as I can. And I've really cut my ice cream intake, one of my only vices. The other being coffee, forget it, maybe I can cut that down when I get off nights but not now.
On June 10 it snowed ???? WTF crazy weather.
The bike is dialed in I just got some new Pro race3 tires that I will mount later today. I plan on riding today and Sunday ~ 3hrs each with a short brick run. Next week will be a couple of short bricks a few open water swims and some strides. Then it's time to step up and see what happens.

POTENTIAL

This morning,as most mornings, I read Chuckie V's blog. He had a link to Kevin Purcell's page and a discussion about potential. They raised some very good points and below is my 2 cents.


As a 44 yo man preparing for his 2nd IM, I have been giving this a lot of thought. And not to be to argumentative but I think the question should be "what is my eventual" rather than potential. According to wikipedia,sum of all universal knowledge, Potential,n.1.Currently unfulfilled capacity to improve, develop, and achieve impressive feats. adj.2 Existing in possibility, not in actuality. Therefore a potential can never be reached. However if one asks himself/herself "how good will I eventually be if I".....fill in the blank.
1.continue this protocol
2.get a coach
3.spend more time on the bike
4.etc,etc,etc.
Chances are you still won't get the answer you probably want. We all want some finite answer and there isn't one. But you would be asking a better question of yourself. As for "knowing" if your close to your potential or not, I'm not sure. I do think we all have a sense of whether we are ready or not. Even then as Chuckie pointed out"HR does not not measure heart". Until the deed is done and we reflect upon it can we then say we did EVERYTHING we could, and got the most out of ourselves at that particular time. But I could potentially do better next time if I change xyz.
At this point in my life I just want to get the most bang for the buck so to speak. If Gordo is right and it take 10yrs/10000 hrs to get good. Then I won't be good until I'm 50-52. Hell, if I can still do this when I'm 50-52 that WILL be good.

Another First

Well today June 1st I had another first in my life. I joined the ranks of thousands that have gone before me. And, as with most things, it never quite turns out the way you thought it would. I'm not sure if it is unrealistic expectations or misinformation or just plain naivety that leads to that surreal feeling after a first time experience. Your head swims. Replaying the event over and over trying to figure out exactly where it was that what ended up being fate became inevitable. At what point was it destined to happen and/or could you have affected the outcome in some other way. So what "Cherry" did I have popped today.....I got hit buy a car. Yep, t-boned complete with a ride on the hood of he car. And just like on TV when the car came to a stop I went flying off the front. But being the stud athlete that I am...yea right. I was able to hit the ground running... sort of. I don't think I went down to the ground. My confusion has nothing to do with a head injury or loss of consciousness or anything I'm pretty sure it was anger. I saw the whole thing develop I knew it was going to happen. I was watching the girl that hit me as she watch the bikers I was following pass in front of her. And as is the case far to often she did not look back to the left before pulling out. The weather was crap and it was raining. I was on the brakes hard and was skidding slightly sideways. My years of motorcycle riding paying off so that I did not lay the bike down. Which would have allowed her to run OVER me, rather than into me. I was yelling at her NO!!!!! to late...BOOM! Time slowed way down as I was riding on the hood I swear I saw her mouth the words "I'm sorry" right before I launched off the front. She was terrified, poor girl was about 17. She was crying and apologizing. At first I was so pissed I told her not talk to me. The people that I was riding behind had heard the crash and had turned around to see if they could help. Thanks, to the 2 members of Badlands Cycle Team for helping me out. One of them tried to calm the girl down while the other tended to my bike, after I assured them that I was ok. The girl said she would pay for any damage to my bike to which I exclaimed "you don't understand I have Ironman in 3 weeks and you may have just screwed up a year of training". But as I began to understand that I truly was ok and that my bike was ok I calmed down. I then tried to interject a little humor by stating that the worst part is that I blew a hole in the toe of my favorite sock. Which is true I love those socks. I apologized to the girl for losing it and said "you had every right to lose it". We exchanged information and I told her it was ok, I was fine. My only real injury is a very sore left quad, she hit me on the right side. I think my quad hit the top tube of my bike. I climbed back on my bike and headed down the road. This happened at about 20 miles into a 100 mile charity ride the Loreen Miller Ride . I rode about 4 miles further at which point I decided that the pain in my leg was getting worse not better. So I thought it would be better if I called it a day and got some ice on my thigh. So at the next intersection I waited for Jayne and Jeff and Sean, who I started the ride with. Jayne decided to bail with me so she could drive me home, she IS the best girlfriend...ever.
Hopefully this will heel fast and I can ride by Tuesday at the latest I need a 100 miler.

IM CDA "uniform"

I've decided what I'm going to wear for this years IM CDA. Now those of you that know me know I generally put about 3 seconds thought into what I'm going to wear anywhere. But IM is different for one thing I'm going to wear it a long time. And for another I want to wear something that is meaningful in someway. Last year I wore a University of Washington jersey. And that was great I got a lot of cheers from the local Husky fans and some jeers from the local Cougar fans. And it's purple so it stands out and people can find you easier. This year however instead of making it all about me I've decided to do something for my brother. As you may know my brother is over in Iraq right now with the Marines. Now what you probably don't know is that I was in the Navy 20 yrs ago. And anyone that has been around either of these two branches of the service know of the love/hate relationship between the two. Very similar to Ronnie and I's relationship. At any rate to show my support for our troops and in particular my brother this is what I will be wearing come race day.

Been Busy

Yea it's been a few weeks since my last earthshattering entry. I've been busy trying to make up for all the time I lost due to crappy weather. Since I got off work Thursday morning I have road ~194 miles, run 31 miles. I have also missed 2 swim workouts. But trying to get time on the bike, takes time. I work with a guy, Eric, who's younger brother Brian is somewhat of a cyclist. Now when I say somewhat I mean he is the #1 ranked CAT 1 rider in Washington. Last year while riding for Western Washington University he took 2nd at the Nationals.A real Puss, if you know what I mean. He has been nice enough to ride with my old slow ass on a couple of rides during this 5 day stretch. We rode 82mi this morning and a had great ride. What's really cool about this kid, kid being 24. He seems to have a really good head on his shoulders. We talked world politics and religion and economics and relationships. 80 miles is along way and it gives you time to cover a vast array of material. At any rate we plug along at my slow pace and he never complained. He was just accepted into med school starting in 2009. So he is planning on riding his bike from here to Glacier National Park then down to Boise on ever to somewhere in Oregon then back here. All in all about 1600 miles...wow!! So until he leaves on that journey I hope to be able to get in a lot of good miles with him.

Bloomsday 08

Well Sunday's Bloomsday race was interesting to say the least. On the worldclass side of things a new course record was set by Micah Kogo in a time of 33:51. Which for those of you that don't know is superhuman fast. But on the local and frankly more interesting front, I ran a 51:36. I know what your thinking.....33:51 vs 51:36... you suck!!! and you're right I do. However, I sucked less this year than last. So I consider it a victory. In all seriousness though I had a pretty good race
and it was a 1:31 improvement over last year. But I did not meet my goal. I had hoped and really thought I could break 50 min. Now I'm not going to make any excuses but I do wonder if last weeks ankle injury and subsequant rest days without any running hurt me. I did run short 2 mile run on Saturday just to make sure the ankle was ok. But even on that run my heart rate seemed to go through the roof. At any rate I executed my race plan nearly flawlessly I went out a little to fast in the 1st mile 6:12 vs 6:30. But by the 2nd mile I had settled in at 6:31. When I rounded the corner at the college I was right on track at @ 6:42. Here is where I screwed up. This section is pretty flat so I should have been able to speed up to 6:30 pace again. Operative word being should. I did not. I actuallly slowed a little.So that when I started the down hill towards the bridge I was actually a few seconds behind. I did make this time up on the down hill. Thank god for long legs. So as I started up doomsday I was in pretty good shape. I think I was right around 6:31 pace(average). By the top of the hill my average had dropped to 6:52 and my HR was 174. But the hill had taken a toll and I slowed a little. I was able to pick it up again but it was to little to late.
The Hobbit and I were talking about why it is you just can't seem to make yourself push sometimes. It's so mental at that point. I mean hell I had even planned for this. The only reason I wore my HR monitor was so that when I got to the 2 flatish spots in the course that I could look down and see that I had plenty of room to push. In the case at the top of the hill my HR was 174. My LT is 177 so I should have easily been able to push 4-5 beats harder. Probably would have made the difference. Definitly would have allowed me to beat Tony, he got me by 21 seconds. All in all it was a good race. The weather was perfect. I continue to learn and I continue to improve. So I guess I'll keep trying.

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.