Long Run, More Snow

I can't believe we are almost to April and it is still snowing. We got about 4-5 inches today, almost all while I was running. It was beautiful, but a little annoying. The flakes were huge and kind of wet. Towards the end it was balling up in the heel of my shoes. So it was like running in high heels. No I haven't actually run in high heels but you know what I mean. Part of my run was on a trail through Riverside State Park and that really slowed me down. The new snow was covering the frozen mtb tracks that are left from the winters snow in the shaded areas. So it made for some treacherous running and a few close calls. It would really suck to sprain and ankle or tweak a knee at this point.
As for the run stats, 16.5 miles 2:26:40 with avg HR of 149 and a max of 166. Pace was off due to that trail section I was nearly walking a few points. All in all it was a good run. When I was done I had about 2 inches snow on the bill of my hat.
This gave me just over 40 miles for the week running only 30 miles on the bike,what a puss.

More Snow

2-4 more inches are falling as we speak, or as I type. So it will be bike on the trainer again.....shit! The running is going ok though 24 miles so far this week with a 16 miler planned for Sun. Today my legs were a little tired the goal for the workout was 1 mile warm up then 5 miles at tempo pace ~ 7:30/mi. but after 3 miles at pace I was struggling a little. I think this is because Tony and I did speed work on Tues. with Bloomsday Road Runners at the SCC track. Then yesterday we ran most of the Bloomsday course, including the hill. So, long story, longer, I was tired.
Also on Tuesday I went to the doc about the elbow. I actually saw the PA. She shot an x-ray which shows a spur, but that's not the problem. She thinks,and the doc agreed, that I have a messed up elbow. So she shot some depo-medrol, steroid, into the irritated area and sent me to talk to the PT guys. The PT guy did some ultrasound, then some message,hurt like hell. Then some electrostimulation thing while it was wrapped in an ice pack. I'm continuing my NSAID and seeing the PT guy 2x week if it's not better in 2 weeks it may have to be scoped. But so far it is feeling better with the current regiment but I have yet to swim. We will see if I can't get to the pool.

Take the Test

This is a great video.

March in Spokane

So far I have missed 2 bike rides this week because of this weird spring weather. Yesterday it rained,snowed,haled, was sunny and windy. My plan was to ride after I did my intervals at the gym. The run was 8 miles total. 3x 1 mi @ 6:49 pace with 1/2 jog, warm up and cool down at <8:41 pace. It went well but was tough. Will have to put the bike back on the trainer, it going to rain again today. So I will ride and watch college hoops.

GOOD WEEK

This week was my first real build week. It was also the first outside bike ride of the year, sick of that trainer. Totals for the week 37.5 mi running, 67 mi biking. No swimming, my elbow is dorked up. You may remember I broke my elbow a few years ago wake boarding. And out of the blue it started hurting a couple of weeks ago. Then 1 day in the pool I was cruising along and it was sore, but bearable. Then my hand hit the wall,not hard, but it sent a shock through my arm and my elbow was done. Ever since then I can't even do a push up. So I go to the doc on the 25th.
The running is going well. I actually ran a 5 mile race yesterday, The St.Paddy's 5 miler. I had worked all night then ran from the hospital to where the race started, 4 miles. Then ran the race, then ran back to the hospital. This gave me 13 miles for the day with a Heller 5 mile tempo run in the middle. The race went well for me 34:10 6:50/mi. I was happy. The Hobbit wasn't happy. He went out a little to fast and was sucking ass by mile 4. He still beat me though,bastard. All in all it was a good race, great temp. They do not have results posted yet so not sure how I ranked, except I know BOOB beat me, but not by much.

17 MILES

Today the Hobbit and I set out to run 17 miles. That's a long way! Beautiful day here in Spokaloo. This morning it was a crisp 39 with a layer of fog that would burn off about 6 miles into our run.Now my goal for the day was to keep my HR below my MAF at 145. The Hobbit, being a lying piece of poop said he too was going to run off his HR. I wasn't until we were about 4 miles into the run that he fessed up that he didn't even have his HR monitor on. Which would explain why when I looked down we were running 8:20/mi and my HR was 153. So I gave him the 1 finger wave and proceeded to run my run. There were quite a few people out walking their dogs and riding bikes and even a few other runners. It's always nice to see alot of people out using our great resources here. For those of you that have not been to Spokane. We have a paved bike/walking/running path, The Centennial Trail that is protected from traffic for most of it's length. It starts out by my house in Nine Mile and goes all the way to CDA,Id. about 65-70 miles. I digress, stats for the run are 17 miles 2:40:47 9:27/mile ave HR 145

SNAKE RIVER HALF REALLY BLEW

But I mean that in a literal way. The freaking wind was crazy. Not sure how fast it was blowing but there were white caps on the river. The temp was great about 44 but because of the wind blowing off the water it felt about 24. So I started out wearing to many clothes. By about 4 miles I was stripping. There are a couple notables with this race for me. First off this year I ran 7 minutes faster than last year. That is a huge improvement. Now the Hobbit thinks that last year I ran like a puss. Which is possible but I don't think so, maybe a little, but not 7 minutes worth. Last year's condition were also perfect,cool, no wind, perfect. Which means this years result are that much more meaningful. I know what your thinking the wind was at your back going one way and in your face going the other. No! the first 6.5 miles the wind kind of swirled, sometimes at our backs sometimes in our faces but mostly hitting us sideways. But on the way back particularly miles 7.5-11 it was dead in our faces. At mile 10 with the exact same cadence and stride length my pace dropped from 7:10/mile to 8:15/mile and my quads were on fire definitely above LT. Needless to say I had to back off a little. I was saved at about 11 miles when a woman who was pretty tall passed me. I was able suck in behind her and draft for about a mile to recover. Then I passed her and left her, it's a race right. I think I beat her by 55 sec.
The Hobbit beat me again,Bastard!!!. I think he benefited from being 3ft 6". the wind went right over his nappy little head. At any rate he ran a 1:35:25 and I went 1:37:44.

TRAINING

I know I have not been writing much about the training, mainly because I've been busy training. Last week was pretty big ending with a 15 mile run on Sunday with the Hobbit. I've been riding on the trainer about 3x a week with the long ride being about 1.5 hrs. It really sucks too. I don't know how these people put in 5-6 hrs on a trainer and go 20+ mph. The sun is suppose to come out pretty soon and melt this snow then we will be able to put in some good miles. As for swimming well I still suck but I suck less than I used too. This Sat. we are running the Snake River Half Marathon. This is a totally flat run right next to the Snake River. Last year was our 1st time running it and we had a great day. From what I've been told though when the wind blows down there it really rips. Forcast for Sat.....windy and rainy., Should be great! I'll post our results on Sat.

PUPPY PICTURES

Just a couple of pics of Otis and his brother Hudson. Jayne has taken about 1000.

BEEN BUSY

I have been real busy. If you have been paying attention to the weather, we got pounded with snow. So like any good triathlete I have been cross training. And by cross training I mean I have been running, biking, skiing and swimming in just about that order. This past weekend my best friend from high school came out from Indiana, with his son, to go skiing. The week was quite full before they got here on Thursday. We skied Friday, Sat. at Silver Mt.
Then Sunday the Hobbit and I met at 0700 for a 13 miler. We had a great run even though Tony had to make 2 trips to the crapper. Must be some kind of record. At any rate I was home and in the shower by 0930. Then I took Mike and Vader up to MT. Spokane to ski. It was alot of fun to ski with Vader, he is 13, so pretty fearless. So I took him with me for most of the day and made him ski off the groomed and in the trees. We had a blast hitting the jumps in the woods then racing to the lifts. By about 3 pm though I was toast. I was at that dangerous stage wear your brain sends the signal and body says yea, sure, right.....were you with us when we went for that run this morning????? Maybe we miss this turn here and run your dumb ass into that tree. So I quit. The rest of the day didn't go quite as planned thanks to a car malfunction but Tony and Laura came over and spent most of the day at our house and brought Hudson, Otis' brother. And I don't care what anybody says, 2 puppies playing is one of the funniest things on the planet. These guys beat the crap out of each other for hours. So much so that the next day Otis layed around all day. Dogs too need recovery days. I'll post some pictures later this week.

I Needed This

This week has been tough. Coming off last weeks cold/cough and limited training. This week it has been hard to get going. But I think this video is the spark I needed

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.