Coming off a terrible week of training. I had a good race on Saturday at the Nutri Run 20k and hit my goal pace for the marathon. This was a very hilly course and it felt good to still stay on pace or under. I then spent 2 days with De and Gavin at an indoor waterpark and had a blast. Unfortunately I woke up Tuesday morning with a really sore throat, a sure sign that my bi-yearly sinus infection was about to start. I loaded up on Zinc/Vit C tabs and took another day off hoping to catch it early. By the time I got home on Wednesday I was still too tired to really work out. I finally got some short runs in on Thur and Friday and decided to go shorter than planned on Saturday as well. Today was a good day, ran 6 this am and went to the weight room then took advantage of the sunny weather and rode a quick 12 outside after work. Feeling good tonight so hopefully back on track this week with 4 weeks to go until the marathon. Sorry about the whining there, I guess my wife is right I don't take illness well at all. I'm going to post my race schedule some time this week so it feels more official and gives me more of something to shoot for in training. It's too hard to focus on an Ironman that is still 5 months away.

Coming off of a recovery week. Reduced mileage but attempted to keep the intensity up. It's always interesting to see how my body reacts with some days off. Some weeks I feel like a million dollars with some time off and others I feel as if my legs will seize and not work correctly. Last week was a seize week. I still had trouble getting out of bed this morning to go for a run but when I was done, as always I felt much better. Last week was good in that I managed to get to the pool twice. I worked on my summer schedule some more and that always helps to get me pumped up for the season. It probably also helps that the weather is starting to get much nicer. Of course with the infinite wisdom of our government we had to start daylight savings again last week so it's back to the dark ages here in Indiana.

A good weekend of everything

I had a great weekend. Managed to get a little bit of everything in and felt good about all of it, mostly. Friday was the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show in Indianapolis. I took the day off from work and drove down early. Saw some amazing bikes and met a few guys that I get to ride with from time to time. Of course I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any pictures of my favorites. I still managed to get home and run a few errands before getting home to spend the evening with Gavin and De. Saturday I slept in a little and then took off with my best friend for Indy again. This time we were heading for the Supercross races and a day of drinking with another college freind of ours. The Ram's Head brewery has some excellent beers and great food that make it easy to spend an afternoon there. The main races don't start until 7:00 but we usually get there around noon to have lunch, drink, bullshit, and drink some more. It's a great day that we've been doing for close to 10 years now and I look forward to it every year. The hard part is getting home at close to 2:00 am and having to do anything on Sunday. But in my effort to stay BALANCED I got up fairly early with De and Gavin for some quality time before heading out for a 20 mile run with some great runners from Ft. Wayne. Doing this run was a good challenge for me. We start with a steady pace for the first 10 miles then a quick stop for drinks and clothing changes as needed. We then went back out for another 10 miles with a gradual increase in speed. We went from a 6:54 down to a few 6:35's for 8 miles then slowed for a cool down of 2 miles. Home in time for Gavin to wake from his nap and then play until dinner at my mother-in-laws. A great weekend with a little of everything. It is going to be harder to fit in everything as the training picks up for Ironman but thankfully my wife understands and she makes it easier for me to chase my dreams. For that I am eternally grateful that I found the perfect woman. I love you De.

Good solid week of training. Put in some good hard efforts and managed to get into the pool once. Finished with another quality long run yesterday. Started with 10 mile loop with the guys at ~8:00 pace stopped for a quick drink, bathroom break, and 1/2 a powerbar. Went out for another 8 mile loop and gradually upped the pace. Finished the last 2 1/2 miles at 6:40 pace and felt strong. The fatigue is not there at the end of the run and I'm very pleased about that so far. Of course the start of these runs is slower than I would normally do. After this next recovery week I'll attempt to do the entire long run at a slightly faster pace and still up the pace at the end. I'm looking forward to a down week with more rest. I'm glad that I was able to push this week as the fatigue was building. That contradicts what I said about not being tired at the end of the run but the fatigue between runs is what I felt. During the run it isn't like I can feel the accumulated the fatigue, yet.
In family news it looks like we're heading back to the Outer Banks in June. Our friends are going along with us and we have a house close to the dunes right on the beach. It is always nice to play with the boys on the dunes and at the beach. Running along the coast is nice as well. I may have to see if the XTERRA race in Richmond, VA is going to be on one of the weekends we're out there. It's a really tough course and I would like another crack at it. My first time there was not pretty at all. More on that later.

Sorry it's been a while. I've been really busy getting the website for the Tri club updated and I know very little about computers. Amazing the whole thing hasn't crashed yet. This week was a very good week of training. My first real hard workouts in a while and I could tell while I was doing them. The surprising thing is that I don't feel it after the workout is over. Am I not going as hard as it feels like? Do I have it in me to go harder? Today was my long run and that is really going well. I've been able to start the last 2 weeks long runs with friends for a 10-11 mile loop and then go out alone for 6 more miles. The new part for me is picking up the pace for the last 6 miles to marathon pace + :25 and holding that steadily. It is going surprisingly well and I hope to push the pace even more as my tolerance picks up. The nice part is that I'm not really that tired at the end of these runs. I think the base mileage from Chicago is still in my legs and making it easier to go longer. Hopefully this holds true going from the marathon in the spring and into Ironman in September......

Last week was overall a good week of training. I had some good runs and swam once and rode the bike twice as well. It was a challenge to do anything outside with the avg. temp something like 10 degrees all week. It was -16 on Friday when I went to work. I was contemplating going with a coaching service for the season and looked at a few different possibilities. Overall though I feel that I have the knowledge to train properly. I have a degree in Kinesiology and have been running for over 20 years now. I'm not saying that I know it all but I definately feel confident in setting up a plan that will work for me. I think I was just looking for someone to be more accountable to, someone that says why didn't you do the intervals yesterday or should you maybe take a break? For now I'm not going to sign on with a coach.
It's definately time to make some solid decisions on races for the season besides Ironman Wisconsin. I would like to find something to race at every month. I've always said I would do this and then the first few months get away from me and then I get into full training and hate to take a day away from that. This year I'll try again and if I have to I'll add to the race to get a full training day in. Foolish? Maybe but it may be fun. Reading some posts over on Jog.Hard have me thinking that it's to easy to be a great trainer but a bad racer. I think if you race more often it helps develop that feel. That "killer instinct" that is needed to chase down competitors. I've felt that lacking a bit over the last 5 years. Am I getting soft? old? or am I just afraid to hurt like I used to? Hopefully more racing will rekindle that instinct. Time to find a race for January!!!

Well I managed to get to the pool twice this week. Yesterday I was at the end of my set doing some 100's and noticed that my arms were so ridiculously pumped that they didn't want to bend normally. I guess that months off will do that. Today was going to be a rest day but we got 3 inches of new snow. The new XC skis were just screaming to go out for a trip around the golf course. Oh how nice it must be to live in an area with groomed trails. At least here I can take Kona along and let him run free. We went out for a relaxed 45 minutes. I realized this is the kind of workout that a GPS would be nice to track. That's a lot of cash for an occasional off road workout though :) That's the nice thing about this time of year. Workouts are very relaxed and if I wander a bit it's okay. When the meat of the season gets here I get more concerned about hitting the workout as planned and hate to miss sessions. It is getting close to time to start building more base miles. I'm also considering finding a triathlon coach this year. The problem again being the cost. Why is it that this sport continues to get more and more expensive? I guess it always was but 20 years ago I had no money and just did what I had to so that I could race. Going to the bigger races like Ironman have their associated costs but it seems that the farther I go into this the more I think I "need". At least I continue remind myself that you can't "buy speed", that for every fancy gadget, I have to train that much harder to justify the expense by working even harder. I was lucky enough get a great deal from a friennd on a PowerTap. Sadly I have yet to really learn how to put it work. I had it for all of last year but with the limited training that was completed I really didn't learn how to use it. That is on of my goals this year to train with more purpose. Do what I need to do and not let the whims of others dictate my training.