Another part of the balance routine....

At the lake this weekend with the family and freinds. Besides our family of three, my freind is here with his son and their 3 dogs. On top of that his brother in law is here with his three kids his two dogs and the grandparents dog that they are sitting for. But wait that's not all he also brought two freinds of his son, His sister with her daughter and the daughters boyfreind AND another dog. So for a grand total in the ~1200 sqft cottage we have: 7 adults, 5teenagers, 2 kids, and 7 dogs! Good times for all. I did manage to get in a very hilly 6 mile run yesterday morning. And hopefully will go back out again this afternoon before we leave.

Big day in the mountains

Not for me but for the boys in le Tour. I'm home watching the Tour live. I started doing this a few years ago. Each year there is a "Queens Stage" that has the huge mountain stages and will most likely decide the race. Got up early this morning to ride a little and now just watching the stage with a big cup of coffee. Training is starting to pick up with my consistency going better this week. The heat has been miserable this week and no real end in sight.

Not much happening here lately. Since pulling out of IM the motivation to really train has been low. I've kept running a little and get on the bike once or twice a week. I did a sprint race last Saturday and took third overall. I told myself that I would get back at it this week but when the alarm went off this morning I didn't stick with it. I've been staying up to late and my internal clock is off. I had finally gotten adjusted to DST after a month of struggling but now it feels like I'm back to "real" time. Maybe once the Tour is over I won't stay up watching so much TV. Speaking of the Tour John Hoogerland is a STUD. See the pics below.

Ironman is out

It is official, I have withdrawn from IM Louisville. I've just accepted the fact I am not meant to do long races in hot conditions. I fooled myself into thinking I could learn to overcome it this summer. However the mild temps at Racing for Recovery putting my in the hurt locker for 6 hours proved otherwise. I gave myself 3 weeks to really think it through and the decision feels right. I'll get back in the swing of things here and find some shorter (Oly and Sprint) races to do. That has always been my real strength. I want to really build some fitness for a fast 1/2 marathon and then cyclocross season. Unfortunately this mornings run felt really sloppy not hard but not smooth either. I guess that is what comes with "variable volume trainging"(borrowed that term from Joghard) the last 2 1/2 weeks.

Pokagon Triathlon

I had decided to do this race if I didn't get hung up running registration. Besides the timing guy oversleeping and getting us the chips 30 minutes late packet pickup went very smoothly. I decided to jump in the race and see what would happen. I wasn't really expecting much since I left the park at 8:30 on Friday night drove home and then let De talk me into meeting her at a school party. We got to be around 11:30 and were up at 5:00. Water was cold at 64 degrees but not a problem after the first few minutes. I lost some time taking off my wetsuit but still came out of the water around 24 minutes. For the bike I didn't have time to set up the race wheels and then forgot to pump up my tires before the race. Still felt strong and made up ground on the leaders. Actually I think I pushed a little to hard on the bike and didn't have the speed I wanted for the run. This is a very tough run course with lots of turns and constant hills. Felt good overall with my performance.

Results: 2nd overall 2:16.xx

16 years ago today......

I pledged myself to the most wonderful woman in the world. I wouldn't be the man I am today without her and I feel thankful everyday that she has stuck with me. I love you De.

Feeling pretty good lately. The weather is starting to warm up and we had 2 days in a row with sunshine! That is almost unheard of around here lately. My training is going well. Despite having missed some workouts, I feel stronger/faster. The six week focus on VO2 was more difficult than I expected. I liked that style of workout at first but it seemed to wear on me more as the block progressed. I didn't make any gains on the bike but cut 32 seconds off my 5k test. Now it's back to threshold work and I'm feeling strong again. I think it's down to 18 weeks until Louisville but I've managed to not focus or really even think about it yet and that is good.