I haven’t posted in a few days, so now it is time to play catch up.  Enjoy!

Ride to Grand Haven

On Thursday, I did a long bike ride out to Grand Haven where Jennifer works.  I have done this in the past and will leave the house around 2:00 so that I get to her work just as she is getting out and then ride home with her.  I left a little earlier than normal this time because I knew that the most direct route was under construction and I would be detoured.  The detour ended up taking me further out of the way than I had planned, but it was fun to find a new route.  The new route also added a few miles on to the trip which I can’t really complain about because it was great day for a bike ride.  I averaged just over 19 mph on the 41 mile ride.  Someday, I will set aside the time to actually do both legs of this ride (out and back) rather than just the one way trip.  I’ll just have to make sure it is a day with little to no wind because 40 miles into the wind in one direction would be a little much.

Light Friday

On Friday, I did my normal run and swim routine.  I tried running in the morning to get it out of the way, but my legs still felt a bit tired from the previous bike ride.  I managed to get in 5 miles and a very casual pace.  My swim was a bit more uplifting.  I did some sets of 100yd and 150yd intervals for 2600yds total.  I did the 7 100yd intervals at a hard pace with little rest between them and averaged about 1:42 / 100yd which is pretty good for me especially since I still had about 1300 yards to go after them.

Happy 26.2 to Me!

Friday/Saturday was my 26.2 year birthday.  Earlier this year, I had thought that it would be fun to run a marathon on my 26.2.  It was a good thought, but not meant to be.  There were a few options available, however, my run training hasn’t quite ramped up to marathon levels yet.  My longest run has been 15 miles and I would like to get a little bit more under my belt before I do my next one.  At this point, I am hoping that I’ll be ready for the Grand Rapids Marathon in October.

Nevertheless, we celebrated my 26.2 in style.  On Friday, we had dinner out at Olive’s in Gaslight Village. After that, the always wonderful Jennifer made me delicious marble chocolate cake decorated with M&Ms.

Mmmmmmmm……. Cake…..

Go Irish!

On Saturday, I took the day off from running and biking, but it was by no means an easy day.  I headed off to South Bend in the morning to tailgate before the big Notre Dame – MSU game.  I was thankfully able to score a ticket at the last minute from MM.  After hanging out with the guys; drinking beer, tossing the pigskin around, and catching up, we headed off to the stadium.  It was a great day for a game and we couldn’t have asked for a better game.  It got a little hairy a couple times, but in the end, ND pulled out a 33-30 win.

A very happy scoreboard

Sunday

After missing out on my Saturday run, I went out on a long run today.  I did 10 miles and felt awesome.  It is the best I have felt on a run in a while.  I finished the 10 miles with an 8:03 pace.  I started off fairly slow and really picked it up at the end.  My last three miles were 7:39, 7:48, and 7:10.  With these last few miles, I ended up negatively splitting with 43:08 and 40:24 halves.  I would have liked to have done a bit of a longer run this week, but it just wasn’t in the cards.  If tomorrow ends up being a light work day, I may try to do another 10 or 12 and have back to back mid distance runs to make up for the lack of a long run.

As for now, Jennifer and I are headed up to the park for a picnic and to relax for the rest of the day.  She has been busy decorating and interior designing all weekend (it is fun for her for some reason), so I am sure she needs a break as well.

I have had a great end to a light week of training.  I cut back on a few days because of work obligations and to give my legs a bit of a rest.  I picked it back up the past three days and have had great workouts.  I had a 10 mile run on Friday followed by a 40 mile ride yesterday.

Today, my goal was to do an 8-ish mile run just to get the miles in.  I ended up doing 7.5 miles in 59:48 accompanied by the lovely Jennifer on the bike.  I really thought the course was going to be the full 8, but my distance estimations must have been a bit off.  Nevertheless, it was a very strong run.  There were 3 decent sized hills and I was able to push it all the way to the top without feeling sluggish.  In fact, two of my fastest three miles included hills: 7:44 and 7:47 respectively.  I had a strong finish as well with another sub 8 mile and a 6:59 pace for the final half mile.

This run put me above 30 running miles for the week again.  I am aiming to do a fall marathon of some sort, so it is good to get this base mileage in.  I haven’t decided which marathon, but the Grand Rapids Marathon will probably be my fall back because it is in town.  The OBX Marathon sounds like a lot of fun, but I don’t know if I am up for the travel.  Either way, I really need to nail down a decent training schedule for the next few weeks.  I am sure that I can get my mileage up where I need it to be, but I like to have weekly goals written down so that I don’t get off target.  In the past I have followed Hal Higdon’s wonderful training plans, so I may just use those again.  However, I was thinking of trying something new that I read about in Runner’s World a few months ago.  The gist was to focus less on long runs (18 – 20 miles) and more on medium distance quality ones (12 – 16 miles).  It even suggested that rather than doing a 20 mile run, to do back to back 12 miles with the second day at a faster pace than the first.

Weekly Report

Birthday Wishes

On a completely unrelated note, Happy 26th Birthday to the bestest, most wonderful, wife, supporter, and best friend.

 
A cake complete with a tub and a half of frosting and Jennie’s first wetsuit

Today is my 26th birthday.  And, in true nerd form, I calculated when I will be exactly 26.2 years old.  I will be 26.2 years old on September 19th, which is a Saturday.  According to MarathonGuide.Com, there are 8 marathons on the 19th.  How cool would it be to do 26.2 on your 26.2.  Maybe I would even get a free entry!  One of the races is even relatively nearby.  It is the North Country Trail Run up in Manistee.  I have heard lots of good things about it and have been wanting to try a trail marathon.  I am going to keep it in the back of my mind and after Steelhead decide if I can ramp up my running enough to be ready by mid September.