Jennie and I attended our first Grand Rapids Beer Run tonight.  Don Kern, the race director for the Grand Rapids Marathon and all around kick ass dude, along with New Holland Brewing Company have been putting together a beer run once a month at local bars.  We weren’t able to make it to either of the first two events.  The third event though was only a mile away from our house and we didn’t have anything else on the calendar.

So, as soon as Jennie got home from work, we headed up to the Derby Station in Gaslight Village.  I couldn’t believe how many people were there!  The final count was 155 runners.  It cost $5 per runner, but half of the $5 was a donation to the American Diabetes Association.  The other half bought your first beer, covered the snacks, and entered you in a raffle.

After we “registered” it was time to take off.  We actually got a bit of a late start because we were the last people in line.  I headed off on a 4.5 mile route around the lake while Jennie went off on her own for 2 miles.  Because I had late start, I was motivated to catch as many people as I could.  The first two miles were spent catching people.  After that, it thinned out a bit and I spent the next half mile trying to catch up to a single guy in the distance.  When I reached him, we chatted a bit.  I recognized him from when I have run with the Grand Rapids Running Club in the past.  We pushed each other for the final mile or two.  I ended up finishing 4.56 miles in 32:23 for a 7:06 min/mile pace.  It was actually faster than I had planned on going, but that is what happens when I run in a group. 

Jennie had finished up her run shortly before I got back and was walking around Gaslight Village.  This was her first completely solo run (she had one half solo run a couple weeks ago).  I’m very proud of her – she is doing awesome!

After we chugged some water, we headed into the Derby Station for our beer.  We each got a glass of New Holland Mad Hatter IPA; absolutely delicious – Jennie (a non beer drinker) even drank about half a glass.  Then they started to put out appetizers which was a surprise to us.  The giant platter of nachos was my favorite.  I could have eaten the whole platter by myself.

Next up.  The raffle.  I totally wasn’t paying attention when they called my number.  Thankfully, Jennie’s ticket was number off of mine and she realized that I was the winner. I won a cool New Holland Brewing Company t-shirt!!!  As we left, everyone got a New Holland Brewing Company bottle opener.  All that for $5! 

Also, today I did a quick workout in the pool.  This was my first swim since Saturday.  I was really just testing out my sunburn to see how healed it was.  After doing a little warm up and feeling pretty good, I decided to do a 500 yard time trial.  The sprint tri on Saturday is a 500 yard swim and I wanted to get an idea of what to expect.  This was the first 500 yard time trial I have done in about 3 months.  Last time I did one, I clocked 8:1X.  Today, I knocked out a 7:46! My first time under 8 minutes for 500 yards!

All around, a great day!

Over the weekend we had weather in the low 40’s which not only melted most of the snow left on the ground, but also let me break out shorts for my run on Sunday.  It was actually pleasant enough out that Jennie and I were able to walk up to Big Bob’s Pizza in Gaslight Village to have lunch with her brother, his fiancé, and his room mate.

So much for our heat wave.  Today was back down in the 20’s with a single digit feels like temperature.  As I sat in my office, I was dreading my run as I watched the wind blow the snow all over the place.  I sucked it up and headed out around 4:00.  Even though it was still light out, I decided to go with the reflective gear because the blowing snow as reducing visibility and I didn’t want to become someone’s hood ornament.

It was slow going – especially into the wind – but it was a relatively good run. 

On top of running, I did a long swim today.  For my workout, I did:

800 yard warm up
3×300 yards (30 second rest)
200 yard kick
3×200 yards (30 second rest)
200 yard kick
3×100 yards pull (20 second rest)
100 yard cool down
3100 yards total

I stayed almost perfectly consistent on all of the intervals (5:10 for the 300’s, 3:30 for the 200’s, and 1:40 for the 100’s)which was the goal. 

Also, at the pool, I had a “small world” moment.  I found out that the husband of one of the women I swim with works at the same company as Jennie.  We are both regulars and see each other two to three times a week and chat while we wait for the lifeguards to get ready and didn’t realize it until today.  It is amazing how we are all connected in some way or anther.

As for my strength training, it is progressing nicely.  I absolutely love my new weights.  I am still hoping to find some good strength routines to mix things up though.  For now, I have just been doing a set from the 12 Week Triathlete book.  It takes me about 25-30 minutes to go through and I feel so good after doing it.

On the non running front, Jennie and I cleaned and repopulated our aquarium.  It turned out to be a pretty big project because I neglected cleaning it for so long.  We still need to get some new plants to replace ones that didn’t make it through the cleaning and I have to build a new hood because the old one finally bit the dust, but here it is.

Kind of hard to see all the fish, but there are: 4 Giant Danios, 4 Red Velvet Swordtails, 5 Tiger Barbs, and 1 Pelco (Algae Eater).  I will hopefully do a better job at preventive maintenance so it doesn’t get so bad this time.

I arrived at the pool today at my normal time for my 11:30 swim.  A few of the regulars and I jumped right in and began swimming.  As I swam, I noticed a few wanders along the pool deck.  Newbies.  Resolutioners.  Unsure of what the next step should be, they walked back and forth in their baggy suits that no doubt still had the scent of sand from their last trip to the beach.  A few would hesitantly approach a lane and timidly stand at the edge hoping someone would stop so that could ask if they could share a lane.  The bolder ones would dangle their feet over the edge of the pool hoping to get the attention of a fellow swimmer.  And still others took a seat in the bleachers and simply waited for a lane to open.

After the swim, a couple guys in the locker room were talking about all the additional people at the pool lately.  They were all wondering how long the resolutioners – the people swimming because they made improving their health a New Year’s resolution – would last.  It reminded me of Shawshank Redemption.  You may remember the scene.  The one where the new prisoners are arriving.  Morgan Freeman’s character, Red, and the other prisoners are taking bets on which new prisoner will be the first to break down.  Now, no one was placing actual bets, but most everyone agreed that it would be back to normal by February.

Don’t get me wrong.  I hold no ill will towards the newbies.  I’d love to see them all keep up swimming – the more the merrier (unless it turns into this or this).  And I am sure I was the same way when I started to swim 2 years ago.  But still, I find it amusing to watch.

Any ways, I had a great 2500 yard swim today.  My workout was:

6 x 75 warm up
1 x 400 pull
1 x 300
1 x 200 pull
1 x 100
1 x 300 kick
1 x 300
6 x 75 (50 free, 25 back) cool down

After my swim, I did a 6 mile speed workout.  I started off with a mile and a half warm up followed by 5 x 800 with 400 active recovery and then a warm down to round it out.  My 800 intervals came in at 3:31, 3:25, 3:24, 3:23, and 3:12 and overall I had a 7:47 pace for the entire run.  After the last interval, I had a coughing fit that almost made me puke.  As disgusting as it may sound, it felt great. 

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more."

-Steve Prefontaine

I had my best day of workouts since the marathon today.  It really took a lot out of me though and now I am exhausted. 

It started out with a swim this morning.  I did a speed workout from my book.  It was a total of 2900 yards.  The warm up alone was 800 yards.  Good Lord.  I remember when my entire swim was 800 yards.  After the warm up, it was a series of 7 200’s followed by 10x50yds.  I did the 200’s at a better pace than I expected: 3:21, 3:23, 3:26, 3:27, 3:24, 3:33, 3:33 which equals out to between a 1:40 – 1:46 per 100 yards.  The last couple of intervals really took a lot out of me and struggled to get through them. The 10×50 yards weren’t as bad, but I started to feel my calf cramp up on the 7th one.  So, I took it really slow for the last 3 to let it rest.  Overall, it was a great swim and one of the harder workouts I have had in the pool in a while.

I followed up the swim with a run this afternoon.  As I planned yesterday, I did an 8 mile out and back route.  This was my longest run since the marathon and I was worried that my hamstring would act up on me.  Luckily it didn’t.  I knocked out the 8 miles in 1:05 for just over an 8:00 min/mile pace.  It was also a good mental run to do the longer out and back rather than the shorter loop that I usually do. 

I think I am going to try and add a couple of speed workouts into my running the next couple of weeks.  There is a Thanksgiving Day 5k that I might do and I would love to go under 20:00 (which I haven’t done since high school).  I think I could do it if I put the effort into focusing on speed rather than distance a couple days a week.

That’s all for now.  I have to try and get some more work done before I fall asleep on my keyboard.

I have officially passed 100 miles swimming this year.  It only took me 63 hours and 26 minutes.  Actually, I passed the 100 mile mark a couple days ago, but apparently the Buckeye Outdoors website doesn’t do conversion from yards to miles very well.  According to them, 185,882 yards is equal to 99 miles.  It is actually 105 miles, so there must be a rounding error somewhere.  The math geek in me wants to figure out where the problem is and let Buckeye Outdoors know about the error, but the procrastinator in me is going to put that off until later.

Nevertheless, 185,882 yards over the course of 99 swims averages out to better than a mile per swim.  I’m pretty amazed the average is so high being as I didn’t start swimming a full mile at a time until earlier this year.  I started swimming just a year and half ago, barely making it 4 lengths before needing a break.  I eventually worked my way up to 20 lengths (500 yards) and then to a half mile.  Not long after that, I felt ambitious and took on a full mile.  Now, I do at least a mile each visit, although most of my workouts are around 2500 yards.

Most importantly though, I am really enjoying swimming.  I started out swimming simply so I could finish a triathlon.  I did it because I had to.  I didn’t love it, I simply got through it.  Now, I look forward to my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday lunchtime swims.   It is fun to see improvement.

Obligatory math geek joke… (apologies)

 Courtesy of XKCD