Today was my last really long run until the Martian Marathon!!! YAY!!!! I did 21 today.  Over the next few weeks, I only have to do long runs of 12, 14, 10, and 12.  I am so happy that the 20 milers are over and done with.  When I started this morning, my legs were sluggish.  I just kept telling them to hold on for one last long run and then I would give them a break.  Thankfully, they held out and I finished in 3:00:28.

I changed things up a bit for my run today and did one big loop rather than lots of smaller loops.  I generally do smaller loops without going too far from home.  It gets boring seeing the same things over and over again, so I decided to do a route I have never done.  It ended up being a great run.  Nearly half of it was on a paved trail or on country roads with little to no traffic.  Very peaceful.  I ran for as long as I could without looking at my watch because I didn’t want to know how far I had gone.  I had a general idea of my distance though because the main roads are all a mile apart and I could count them off in my head as I passed them (44th street, 52nd street, 60th, street… 84th street).

I didn’t look at my watch until well after the turn around point.  I was running low on Gatorade so I stopped at the grocery store to fill up at the drinking fountain using a single serving Gatorade powder package. As I left the store, I broke down and looked at my watch.  17 miles.  YAY!!!! I thought I was only going to be at 15 or so.  17 was a blessing.  I picked up the pace a bit for the next mile.  And then I hit a hill which kicked me in the face a bit and slowed me right back down.

As I hit the driveway, my watched beeped over for 21 miles.  I was very happy to be done.  The run turned out to be hillier than I expected, but I felt strong throughout.

After the run, I took a snow bath and downed a box of Mac and Cheese to refuel before starting my work day at noon.  I made sure to get up and walk around the house every half hour or so to make sure my legs didn’t tighten up too much.

After dinner, I headed up to the pool for open swim.  I figured that the swim would be good recovery for my legs as long as I didn’t push it too hard.  When I got to the pool, it was a ghost town.  I thought that I had the time wrong or something.  Turns out, I was the only person who showed up.  I had the pool to myself for almost a half hour before two other guys showed up.

For my workout, I did:

1 x 500
1 x 400 Pull
1 x 300
1 x 200 Pull
2 x 100 Kick w/ fins
1 x 200
1 x 300 Pull
1 x 400
(1 x 500 Pull Skipped)
2500 yards total

I really wanted to do the last 500 yards to get to a full 3000 yards, but my calves were starting to cramp up and I didn’t want to push it.  It was a very casual swim and I didn’t even time myself.  I just wanted to get the distance in and stay comfortable, so no sense cramping up.

Not sure what the rest of the weekend will bring, but I’m hoping to get in at least one outdoor bike ride if the weather cooperates and another run.

Now, it is time to relax and enjoy a beer (or two).

I had a pretty good weekend to wrap up January. 

I started the weekend with my weekly Friday long run.  It was a light-ish week this week with a long run of 14 miles.  After 20 last week, 14 miles seemed like a dream.  If you remember my post about the 20 miler, I felt great for the first 14 miles and it went downhill from there.  So, I figured that 14 would be a breeze.  The funny thing is that this time, I felt great for the first 8 miles and it hurt for the final 6 miles.  I guess it is always the last 6 that are the hardest even if it isn’t a marathon.  I ended up finishing better than I thought I would in 1:57:59 for an 8:25 pace.

I took all of Saturday off to rest.  While I may not have run, biked, or swam, it was hardly a rest day.  There was no kicking up the feet and sitting on the couch.  Jennie and I spent the day cleaning the house from top to bottom.  At the end of the day we ended up with a sparkling clean house and a pile of stuff to take to Goodwill.  It was a very satisfying feeling.

Today, I got back to action and actually did a mini triathlon throughout the day.  I started this morning with an hour on the trainer.  I did some one leg drills (my new evil friend) at the end of the ride for good measure.  After lunch, I headed up to the pool and did 1800 yards in the pool with 8×100yds as the core set.  I actually hit 1:28 for my first 100 – first time under 1:30!  Unfortunately, I didn’t get under 1:30 again.  The rest were in the 1:34 – 1:36 range.

Later in the day, after getting a few more things done around that house, I headed out on my run.  It was pretty windy, but other than that the weather was a bit warmer than it has been.  I finished the run really strong with the last two miles coming in at 7:34 and 7:37.

In case you weren’t keeping track, that is an hour bike ride (19.6 miles), 1800 yard swim (1 mile), and 6 mile run for a total 26.6 miles in 2:28:57.  Too bad my T1 and T2 times were horrible otherwise it would have made for a good “race” .

Here are my totals for January:

Running was obviously the focus for January (and will continue to the focus until my April marathon). I’d like to get a few more bike rides in February than I did this month, but it is so hard to get motivated to ride on the trainer.  I’d actually even settle for the same number of rides, but for longer rides.

On the work front, things are settling down a bit.  I have put out most of the fires that January brought and things are starting to get cleaned up.  I will be spending the next couple weeks training a new hire, so I’ll have to reschedule my some of workouts because my schedule won’t be as flexible.  Nevertheless, I think I should have more time for training.

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.

Busy, busy, busy.  That is how to explain this past weekend.  A little Christmas decorating, a visit from the in-laws coupled with a trip to Holland filled up the weekend quickly.  I managed to get in a short ride on the trainer and an easy 4 mile run.  I also managed to cut down and wrestle a Christmas tree on top of the car which was more strenuous than the ride and run combined.

Yes, I know the tree looks bigger than the car.  Getting it off the ground on on the car
was the hardest part of the whole ordeal

It was worth it though.  It is a perfect fit in our living room.
The actual decorating will come later this week.

After getting the tree setup, we spent the afternoon with the Jennie’s family.  It was a day filled with college football, fajitas, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (hence the title of this post) – the greatest Christmas movie ever made, and gingerbread houses.

Jennifer showing off her work of art

After a weekend with limited exercise, I jumped back into the swing of things today with a 2900 yard swim followed by an 8 mile run.  I had hoped to get a swim in over the weekend to make up for missing Friday’s swim, but there was a USA Swimming event at the pool on Saturday and Sunday and no open swim. 

Today’s swim was mainly 200 yard intervals followed by 10 x 50 yard intervals.  I rounded out the intervals with some kick drills which really tired out my legs.  I didn’t realize how tired they were until I started my run.

Later in the afternoon, I headed out on my run.  I wasn’t planning on doing 8 miles today, but I decided to switch up my marathon training plan.  Rather than following Hal Higdon’s plan again, I am switching to another plan I found here.  I like this schedule a little better because the rest weeks have an extra day off for rest and it incorporates 22-23 mile run rather than only 20 milers.  We’ll see how it goes, I’ll keep you posted!

I ended up finishing the run in just under an 8:00 min/mile pace, so I can’t complain.  My legs felt very heavy and lethargic though.  I think I overdid it with the kick drills in the pool today.  I’ll have to plan better in the future so that I can make the most out of my runs during marathon training.

And finally, a huge congrats to Alli and her friend Roxanne for finishing her first marathon – the Memphis Marathon – on Saturday.  She kicked butt and is already looking to do another one.

As anyone who has taken Psychology 101 knows, Pavlov was able to condition dogs by ringing a bell when he fed them.  After a short period, the dogs would begin to salivate merely at sound of a bell and thus conditioning.  I too found myself conditioned.  However, I was conditioned to reach for my iPod on my way out the door before every run.  I, however, have fought my conditioning and beat it down.  I went for a run today and was miles away from the house before I realized that I didn’t have my iPod with me.  It felt freeing.

It’s been almost a week with out my iPod and I can’t believe how much I was missing, the trees are greener (well, actually browner) and the sky is bluer (well, it would be if it wasn’t so overcast).  I feel more connected to the running process with my mind open and free.  Jennie asked me the other day what I think about on my runs and I found it hard to explain.  I told her it was almost like dreaming.  My mind bounces around from subject to subject and then when I get home, I can’t remember any of it.  There are times when I am thinking about how my arms are swinging and others were I am focused on my foot falls and still others were my mind completely wanders away from running and to the abstract.

Anyways, enough rambling on about the zen of running iPod-free and on to the rest of my week.

Monday

Monday was a typical swim & run day.  I did 2500 yards in the pool and felt extremely sluggish the entire way.  I just couldn’t get into a groove.  I felt like I was sinking the entire time and couldn’t find good positioning for the life of me.  I wanted to quit earlier, but made myself keep going.  I felt somewhat better using the pull buoy; at least I didn’t feel like I was sinking at that point.

That afternoon, I went on a 6 mile run.  Towards the end of my run, my stomach started to act up.  This hasn’t happened in a couple weeks, but unpleasant nonetheless.  I decided to push through the pain rather than walk.  I have found that despite the feeling, when I get home, it never – how can I put this delicately -  comes to fruition.  I was able to make it the final mile back home without being forces to find a emergency bush; very thankful for that.  It gives me some encouragement that I don’t need to worry about it so much and to just HTFU.

Tuesday

Yesterday, I did 90 minutes on the trainer.  I had hoped to bike outside because the weather was decent, not great, but nice enough to ride outside.  Unfortunately, I got caught up in work and by the time I could break away it was 4:30.  By that time, it would be getting dark within in a half hour.  So, on the trainer it was.  I caught up on some back episodes of This Old House which made the time go by fairly quickly. 

Wednesday (Today)

Today was another swim/run day.  My swim went much better than Monday.  I did a series of 200 yard intervals with some drills totaling 2500 yards. It was busy at the pool today, so I shared a lane the entire time.  At least I shared it with another good swimmer, so it wasn’t too bad.  Then, later in the day, I went out on a 5-6 mile run and ended up doing 8 miles.  It was one of those days where I just felt great the entire way.  I comfortably held an 8 minute pace with the final mile at 7:22.

So far, it has been a great start to the week.  Hopefully the rest of week follows suit.