We’ve come a long way over the past years babe.  You probably didn’t even know what you were getting into during those first days.  And now, along with becoming my best friend and beautiful bride, you have have also turned into:

My personal photographer,

Support crew,

Cheerleader,

and pack mule.

Somehow, I even talked you into joining me on this crazy endeavor a few times.

But I found that the best way to keep you happy is to keep you well fed.

All kidding aside, you mean the world to me and I couldn’t do any of this without you.  Thank you for everything you do for me and putting up with my crazy training schedules and races.  I am so glad that I have you in my life!!!! Love you princess.

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

After a couple days of light workouts, I jumped back into the fire today.  My last big workout was on Tuesday, and I was really sluggish.  My legs just weren’t cooperating on my bike ride. I took the next two days light; a 3 mile run and a 6 mile run.  The 3 mile run was in Englewood, CO (Denver adjacent) while I was on a work trip.  The thinner air was definitely noticeable, but then again, it didn’t help that I had to go running first thing in the morning, which isn’t something I normally do.  I headed out from the hotel and found a nice subdivision to run through that had some decent trails.  There were a lot of winding roads, so I didn’t want to be adventurous and find myself too far away from the hotel.

Yesterday was an easy 6 miles around Gaslight Village and Aquinas.  I had only planned on doing 4 or 5, but felt pretty good and was keeping the pace light, so I figured why not.  Plus, with all the unhealthy eating out I had to do the previous two days, followed by sitting in an airplane for 6 plus hours, it just felt good to be moving.

On to today.  I started off with a 3000 yd swim; my longest ever.  I did one of the workouts from the Swim Workouts for Triathletes book.  It consisted of 6 x 75 for a warm up followed by intervals of 2 x 200, 1 x 100, 2 x 300, 1 x 100, 2 x 400, 1 x 100 and a 6 x 75 cool down.  After the swim, I got a bit of work done and mowed the lawn before I headed out on a run.  I ended up doing a little over 10 miles.  It was great weather for it – overcast and not too warm.  It really feels great to be able to tackle these long runs again.  At this rate, I think I can be ready for the Grand Rapids Marathon in October.

Not sure what the plan is for this weekend (other than celebrating the lovely Jennifer’s big 2-6), but depending on how I feel, I may try to get in a longish bike ride and another medium distance (8 miles or so) run.  Hopefully the weather cooperates.