Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Recovery? What recovery.

How sad. I had a whole week off and no update.

Truthfully though, I didn’t follow doctors orders and take the week completely off. I threw in there a few extra workouts and some long ones to boot.

I have pretty much given up on the catch up game (being as I am so far behind I’d have to run an ultra and bike a century or two just to make it all up), But I’m still feeling guilty for missing the workouts, so I am making the ones I do even longer or better.

My boo-boo while not serious, seemed to have a debilitating effect. I couldn’t run. At first it was the vibration of the impact hurt too much on bruised skin and once the bruises went away, it was the ankle wound that hurt too much from the shoe rubbing it.

I think that I’m pretty much over it all now, but it turned my ‘Monster’ week into a ‘Ghost’ week. Followed that by a week of recovery and I feel like I haven’t had a decent workout in ages!

Upcoming is the final build for the plan. It marks the “competitive” phase. I think it will call more on the mental endurance than the physical. Technically, I pretty much have it in me to do the distance now. I’ve done the workouts (most of them) and have conquered the distances so far.

I still can’t imagine running for 13 miles after being on the bike for 56, but technically I ‘should’ be able to do it.

Blue ribbon winner…I am not! YET!

Friday, August 15, 2008

A disturbance in the force

Did you feel that? Did you feel the force? It felt like there is some new presence amongst us.

It feels like…no, it couldn’t be. I think there is a new blogger in our sphere!

HOLY COW! Run and tell the neighbors, the Mrs. is in the house!

Maybe it was my constant badgering. Or maybe it was the fact that she was already virtually blogging. Or maybe she just wanted a voice to defend herself in this blogosphere.

Either way, head over to her site and see why she is my BETTER half.

(Dang, that’s a cool url)

Hm…apparently she has brains as well as a knockout body. DAMN! The complete package!


P.S.

Ask her what she is doing on the 30th!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Fall down - go boom

I am now one step closer to becoming a real cyclist!

Yes, I took my first real spill.

I was coming home and hit the corner too fast. I had crap in my hands and couldn't feather the brakes. By the time I was able to get my hands on the brakes, I hit them HARD! Locked up my rear tire; my bike went out from under me and I did my best first-base slide.

It's no biggie, but it did a number on my bike (the poor baby!).






Again, it's no biggie and I'm sure I'll be back to good before I know it, but I have a n.i.c.e. road rash and a sweet strawberry on hip and on my ankle too (I ruined a pair of socks [boo]).







On a side note: Remeber when as a kid you put Peroxide on? No pain right? HOLY CRAP!!! The pain radiated down through the nerves into the bone and seared my soul!! OUCH!! (and I used to luv peroxide).

All told I got off easy for my first baby crash. Unlike Kayvee who took a major crash and still went on to do her 70.3! Tough!


Funny thing, now that's bandaged up and the next day, it hurts more now then when it happened!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Run Formulaic! Run!

Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was ever going somewhere, I was running! – Forrest Gump

Yes, indeed! I said I needed to run more and guess what??

Wow! Good guess! Yep, I’m running more.

In fact, in this last week, I ran more than half of my total distance from all of last month!

Whew!

Somehow, the dates conspire against me and half of my mileage was also in the last month, but for the week as a whole, I got in 27+ miles. And the good news (or the bad) is that I get to do the entire thing again this week! Yippee!

To keep on the run note, not only did I run Egads worth of mileage (for me). I also got in my longest distance ever.

It was hard, it was a struggle, it seemed like the distance would never end. I prevailed against insurmountable odds and overcame all. Yeah me!

What? The distance? Oh...um…

14 miles.

Yes, I realize that this is only 0.8 above half marathon mileage but still….give a boy some credit would ya??!!

Yes, it’s sad to say but I don’t think I’ve ever run 14 miles before. 13.1 sure, maybe even 13.3 or13.5 if the course was long, but never 14 miles.

So I have officially run farther then I ever have!

But wait! There’s more ground breaking news!

It involves my swim…no, no sharks…no, no banana hammocks (Thank GOD)…yes a new distance PR too!

I finally broke down and swam the Iron distance.

2.4 miles

Yippee for me again!

What? The time? Damn! Why do you ask so many questions??

OK, OK. Fine!

2.4 miles = 2:09 hours.

Yeah, yeah. Not rock star status. BUT, I did make the time cutoff (barely).

Now…actually getting on the bike and riding…yeah, I don’t think so. Don’t even get me started with the 112.

But I still have 10 months to get faster. (And I plan on using every minute, thank you very much!)

Friday, August 1, 2008

Where has the time gone?

I can’t believe that it’s already Friday. And it’s also August. Holy CRAP! 7 months of the year – GONE!

Better make the best of what is left, right?

So I have been SLOWLY catching back up with missed workout. IronTriTim once said, "don’t worry about trying to catch up on the missed workouts" and his logic never made more sense.

This week and next week are monster weeks for me. Both weeks include midweek 30+ mile rides and not one but two long distance runs.

Whew! Still….I can’t help it, I W.A.N.T to get ALL my workouts in. Even if it kills me!

On a side note, we had a nice little meet up with Calyx on her way to an awesome Half Mary run.

It is so nice to meet people and instantly connect.

I think that blogging really brings us all closer together. We instantly feel like we’re talking to family. All the pretenses fade away and we are relaxed. Blogging and Triathlon providing the bridge between strangers.

OK. Enough of the talk on with the numbers!

July totals:

10 Swim – 10:39:31 hours – 18,800 yards (11.75 miles)
16 Bike – 20:53:59 hours – 273.9 miles
13 Run – 08:46:15 hours – 41.0 miles

Total:
39 workouts
40:16:46 hours
325.6 miles
23,423 Calories Burned!

Despite my promises, it looks like I still need to work on my run mileage. It’s actually lower than last month’s! But this month does hold a lot of promise (or pain – depends on how you looks at it).