Friday

I had two great workouts on Friday.  For my swim, I did 2500 yards with the main workout being 4×300yds followed by 6×50 yard sprints.  I felt great through the entire workout.  I consistently got faster on each of the 300’s with the 4th one being my fastest (5:03).  The 50 yard sprints were the same way; I consistently increased my speed.  I did start to feel my calves cramping up on the cool down. However, they would only tighten up when I pushed off the wall, so as long as I was gentle pushing off it wasn’t too bad.  I started bringing a water bottle with me this week thinking that the cramping is caused by dehydration, but it hasn’t seemed to help.  Oh well.

After my swim, I did an 8 mile run. I wanted to do some speed work at the same time.  So, I did miles 2, 4, and 6 at a tempo pace.  I averaged 6:53 min/mile for 3 intervals while maintaining a 8:00 min/mile pace for the other 5 miles.  I felt great during this workout.  I really felt like I was pushing hard when I needed to and was still able to hold back and comfortably maintain a decent pace the rest of the time

Today

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  I am digging this whole global warming thing.  I had really wanted to go out and do a long bike ride and make the most of it, but my legs just weren’t feeling it.  I ended up doing 20 miles in just over an hour.  I think part of my lacklusterness was worn out legs on top of not eating a substantial enough breakfast before heading out.

While on my ride, I passed by the East GR football field and the smell of burgers and other grilled goodies was wafting over the fence.  The game was just getting started, so after my ride, I showered up and Jennie and I biked back up to watch the rest of the game.  We got there just as the 2nd quarter was starting.  The food was as good as it smelled and the game itself was a lot of fun.

Burgers, brats, popcorn, football and a beautiful wife… does it get any better?

Jennie had to make a stop at the Sugar Shack for a ring pop.

Twitter

You may have noticed the new Twitter side bar item (unless you are reading via an RSS reader) for my latest tweets.  Keep up on my latest tweets by following me at http://twitter.com/kevinneumann.  I’m just getting (re)started with Twitter so I’m looking for people to follow too; leave me you twitter handle in the comments if you have one.

After a long relaxing weekend, it is back to work and the normal old routine.  I was able to get in two workouts today, both a run and a bike.  I headed out on my run this morning hoping to beat out the hottest part of the day.  While it was cooler than it has been the past couple of days, it was still a tough run.  I don’t know if it was the temperature or that my body was trying to rid itself of the all the crap I ate this weekend.  If this were a food blog, I could recollect about the delicious homemade pizza with every topping under the sun on Friday; the over abundance of fresh chips and salsa and tacos at On the Border on Saturday for lunch followed by the grease-tacular fish and chips at Boatwerks in Holland for dinner.  Add in a wonderful Bourbon St. Chicken Panini at Arnie’s on Sunday.  Top that off with an amazing spread from Noto’s on Monday, and I was afraid to even look at the scale.  But because this isn’t a food blog, I stop there.  I’m sure the lovely Jennifer will have a full report on her blog.

It felt good to run and sweat it all out.  I did my standard 6 mile loop around Reeds Lake.  I am getting to the point where I could probably do this run blindfolded with one arm tied behind my back.  It’s a great route with plenty of bike paths, little traffic, and a couple of hills to make you work.  Always a lot of runners, bikers, and walkers out too.

After the run, I got some more work done before heading off on the bike.  Before my run, I had my car towed to the mechanic because it was acting up on me again.  About 10 minutes into my bike ride, I got a call from the shop saying that it was all fixed (and for free nonetheless!).  So, I headed straight there, threw my bike on the bike rack and headed home.  Then it was back on the bike for another 45 minutes or so to get in a full hour.

Back to the pool tomorrow and hopefully another run.  If I can get out early or late enough when it is cool, I am going to try for a full hour on the run or around 8 miles, whichever comes first.