I am alive!

Well, delays and a crazy spring have kept me very busy wrapping up the school year and heading into the summer.  The ING race went well with a final time I was a bit disappointed in of 2:20.  At the 9 mile mark I was right on pace and felt great, but the last four miles were mostly uphill, and my lack of hill training caught up to me and slowed the pace down.  All in all it was a good day and the run with my friends Dawn and Michelle was great.  My goal in the beginning was to try and become more proficient at the run, and enjoy it.  I can say unequivocally that I met those goals.  The main thing now is that I enjoy my running workouts and look forward to them.  I think that incorporating speed work for the first time has paid great dividends, and now 10 min per mile is my warm-up pace, not my race pace.

The past two months involved a nice week off in Florida after the ING, and two four week cycles of a build program in my triathlon training.  I am swimming about 4,000 yards a week, running about 4 hours and biking about 4 hours.  Next week begins the first real strenuous test in training and the updates will begin again.

I am officially entered in the Augusta Half Ironman, and have four other friends who are in the race along with me.  One of them is a full Ironman already, one has completed several half-Ironman's, and the other is a newbie (he is a 3:10 marathoner already).  Needless to say I am the least accomplished of the group.

I am also thinking about using the race as an opportunity to raise funds for a group who assists visually impaired athletes compete in triathlon.  The Augusta race will be the debut of Operation Refocus from the C Different Foundation .  This group will consist of visually impaired veterans and I think it is a great cause.  I will update a little later as to what the plan is, but I think that raising money for a group like this should be an easy ask.

Lastly, a health update.  I have finally broken the mythical 200 barrier.  I have not weighed less than 200 since before I was married (1998), and mostly stayed around the 205-210 region.  My “winter coat” this year had me at close to 220 in January before my run training began.  This week I clocked in at 199.6 lb.  That is a big milestone for me, and I would love to be close to 190 by race day.  I am also doing ab work as well as some quick circuit lifting while at the gym.  I feel great an look forward to the challenge that training will bring over the next few months.

Ready To Go

One day to go and all looks well for Sunday's half marathon. It has been raining for three days straight but the forecast calls for showers to end Saturday and race day low of 47 and high of 56, so good running conditions as long as we don't get any rain. I am shooting for a sub 2:10 time for my first half, and will be a bit disappointed if I come in over 2:15. I will take some photos and video along the run and post Sunday night.

One week to go

One week to go to the half marathon and then after a week of leisure at the beach the real training begins for Augusta this fall. I started with the idea of working on my worst discipline, running, and getting that base out of the way first. I can now say that I feel like this has been a good start to what will be challenging season this year. Employing some speeedwork for the first time ever in my running has allowed me to get my miles per minute average down below 10 min on all my runs, so I am shooting for a 2:15 half, and if I feel good I will pick it up at the end and try for 2:10. Overall my running and my attitude towards running has greatly improved in the past three months and I am actually enjoying it now.
My training has been on par and I had my first double digit run a week ago of 11 miles in 1h 55min. This last week is a few 2-3 milers with intervals to keep the legs fresh, then the ING Atlanta half marathon on Sunday.

March 11

Nothing big to report since the last update, just keeping the training up. I am scheduled to do my first double digit run Saturday or Sunday of 10 miles so that will be a milestone for me. I have also changed my diet a bit in the last week and a half since I seem to be stuck at the same weight since January. I was a big lunch/big dinner eater, and am trying the 5 small meals/snacks each day. Also have not had a Coke (or anything carbonated) since the month kicked off. So far it has helped me drop 4 more pounds.
I have my car back so that interruption is off, and spring is in the air in Atlanta with some 80 degree days this past week. And we had snow 9 days ago. Crazy weather. We are 2 ½ weeks to go to the ING half marathon then the real plan kicks off for the half-Ironman.

February 22

I got out on the bike for the first time in 2009 on The Silver Comet Trail west of Atlanta. Weather was great and I did a little over 38 miles in close to 2 hours. Temp was in the low 60’s and I felt great up to the last 10 miles. I think the spin classes have definitely helped keep my base thru the winter.

There are some great sections on the trail once you get outside of Atlanta. The Silver Comet was once a train from Birmingham, AL to Atlanta and they have converted the Atlanta to Anniston, AL portion to a ride that can stretch over 100 miles. If you start about 15 miles off the trailhead you don’t get near as much traffic and there are very few street crossings. One of the best rides you can do in this area if you are looking for a ride without any significant climbs. There are also some great trestle crossings over 100ft up from the ground and this 700 foot tunnel at Brushy Mountain.

Good ride to start off the year. Scheduled to do a 8 mile run today so we shall see how that goes following the ride today.

February 16

It has been a crazy and trying two weeks since the last update. I have somehow managed to keep the training despite the fact that my 1999 Tahoe finally died on me after 220,000 miles. Our family has turned into a one car family for a few weeks here as we work to a solution. New engine or Used Car? Neither is a good option, but we probably will keep the old Hoe’ as it has been around as long as our family. Then this past weekend my wife came down with a strep/flu combo, so I was tasked with taking care of a 2 and 6 year old for the weekend as soon as my regular job ended on Friday evening. I did still manage to get my Sunday run in somehow!
I can really tell a difference in my running already by incorporating Intervals and some other drills in my mid-week runs. I have mentioned before that I have always been a plodder at 10min/mile, but my last two runs over four miles have had sub 10/min averages over the entire run including a 37:50 four miler this past Thursday. That one really surprised me as I felt like I was taking it pretty easy the entire run. As I have started running more regularly than I have even with my past triathlon training I have noticed that even if I struggle, once I get to about the four mile mark I am starting to feel good and can keep up a strong pace and stay in a lower HR zone. This is exactly what I was hoping for in this half-marathon plan. If I can get the run base there then all of my other swim and bike training should be a bit easier
I have also managed to hit the pool at least once each week, but I have skipped on a few spin classes the past two weeks. I plan on picking those back up this week.
I logged a short week the first week of Feb with only two runs at a total of 8 miles. Last week I hit all my goals with a 4.7 mile interval run on Tuesday, a 1000 yard swim that evening, a 4 mile run with intervals then another mile of GP’s on Thursday, and finally a 6 miler on Sunday. The 6 miler on Sunday was pretty tough as I incorporated some significant hills, but I felt like I could have gone farther when I was finished. I am slated for 20-24 miles this coming week with a 8 miler on Sunday, so let’s see how that goes.

February 2

Another week down and the actual half marathon plan has started. The basic outline will be Tuesday, Thursday drill runs, Saturday intermediate run, and a Sunday long run until the end of March. I want to make at least one spin class and one day of long swimming each week as well as leave open space for one additional spin or swim each week. I also picked up my new toy, the Polar RS800 watch, so I now have a new heart rate monitor. It also has GPS for plotting distances and some sweet software that plots your pace, heart rate, and distance over your workout. You can graph these results over time so it will be interesting to see how my efficiency improves over time this year.
To last week’s efforts. Last Tuesday I covered 4 miles on the treadmill with 5 one minute intervals after the 20 minute point. I felt good during the entire workout. I followed that with a 45 minute spin class on Wednesday, then another run Thursday. That was a GP run (gentle pickups). I did 4 miles at easy pace then you run 5GP’s where you first get your heart rate to recovery (139 or below for me) and then run 100 yards while increasing your pace then holding the max pace for another 20 yards. Five of those brought my total run distance to 5 miles even. I was struggling a bit on the regular part of the run, but really enjoyed the GP stage. I did nothing Friday or Saturday, as I had kid duty with my wife out of town all weekend, but when she returned Sunday I got out and did a 7 mile endurance run. I covered the 7 miles right at 1h10min, so kept a steady pace and felt like I could go farther. That is the longest run distance I have done in quite some time so I was pleased.
I am very curious to see how much my running improves following a training plan that has interval work in addition to just logging miles. I think I have always been a slow runner because all I have ever done is log miles, no speed work before. If I can get down closer to a 9 mile/min pace by the half marathon that will be a great sign of improvement and my worst triathlon discipline, running, will be set for the year. That is the hope right now.

January 24

Do you know how in your mind you picture a good workout or result and when it comes time to deliver you just don’t have it? For some reason that has been the sum of my week. Earlier in the week I had some sessions where I just didn’t feel like I had the gas to get thru a very easy workout. Same thing yesterday with my swim. I had 1,000 yards scheduled (which should be easy) and did complete it in 23 minutes, but it was a difficult finish. That could also be contributed to the fact that my company bought us Chinese Food for lunch and of course I indulged about 90 minutes prior to hitting the water. So after promising to eat a good dinner in preparation for my Saturday run what do we do? We go out with a few other families and have some beers and Mexican! It was good, but once again not the best of willpower.
My intentions this morning were to do at least 6 miles easy, but when the alarm went off, the first thing I did was hit snooze, and second thing was I debated my sanity as to why I want to get up at 6am on one of the few days I can sleep in. However the overall goal got me out of the bed within 15 minutes. Once I was up and caffeinated I realized it was raining so I changed my plan of action. The run today was only 3 miles but I did it at 29min, which for me is good. Any sub 10 minute mile time is a good pace, but for three miles I will take it every day. I qualify for the plodder club, not the gazelle club but I hope that plays into my cards for the longer distance race later this year.
So the goal for the last month and a half has been to get out, load up on some easy pace workouts in all three disciplines, and get on a semi schedule to prep for the year. Any improvements in fitness or form were an afterthought. Now the fun begins. Next Tuesday I start the “official” plan for the year with a 9 week half-marathon workup for the ING Atlanta in March. After a week off from that it’s off to the full 70.3 plan. I am looking forward to it all, but I think I am coming closer to grips as to the challenge that is ahead. I am not a gifted high speed runner or cyclist, and it is going to take a lot of patience to get where I need to be. However I am fully confident that I will get there and work thru the challenges of time, training, family, and reality.

January 21

It has been a little more than a week since the last update and a lot has happened. Not all that much on the training end, but small things like a new President for our country among other things. Hopefully the refreshed leadership will roll over to refresh my diet. Who knows!
Since the last update I have been able to do a few varieties of spin/swim and spin/run. I am going to try and run for a few minutes after all my rides even if it is not a formal brick. I had a real hard time at Tugaloo last year coming off the bike and into the run and it kept me from hitting any kind of stride during the entire run. We shall see. I would like to have had more workouts over the past 11 days, but I had a sales conference that took up 2 ½ days last week, combined with a trip out of town last weekend. I still feel good about my workload since this is really more about waking up the body at this point in time, not about serious planned work.
So, since my last update on 1/6 I have had 6 workouts. The 7th was a 45min spin class and 250m in the pool. (I wanted to hit 500 but did not feel good in the pool that day). The 8th was 3.1 miles on the treadmill with some intervals at 6.6, 7.0, 7.6, and 8.0 mph; total run time was 31 minutes. On the 10th I was able to get out on the road for a 5 miler. The 12th had my second spin class of the year (45 min) and did 10 minutes running after. The 16th I was able to run a mile and then swim my first mile of the year (30:19). The swim felt great, but I was coasting most of the time, not pushing the pace at all. This Monday I also got another 45 min spin class with a 10 min run after and felt good as well.
I will drop back in later this week and update.