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 went out for a bike ride this morning.  It was like riding through soup.  It is like 3000% humidity out today.  Ok, well not that high, but probably the worst it has been all summer.  On top of that, it is relatively windy (23 mph with gusts up to 30mph), but that hasn’t seemed to help with the heat and humidity.

I headed out towards Caledonia into the wind for the beginning of my ride.  I really didn’t have a course in mind, just that I wanted to get about 30 miles in.  I really enjoyed the ride out in the country.  The roads were fairly well maintained with very light traffic.  The only downside is that it is the countryside with lots of farmland which meant zero shade.  My legs felt extra tired today for some reason, but that might have been just another ill effect of the heat.  I made it out to 84th street before deciding to turn back.

On the way back, I found a short trail that I later found out is part of the Paul Henry Thornapple Trail.  After looking at the future plans for the trail, I can’t wait for it connect all the way through.  It will eventually be a 42 mile trail that I can jump on at the trailhead which is only about 3 miles from our house.

Anyways, back to the ride.  The ride back was much faster than the ride out (probably because of wind) which made me wish I had gone further south before turning back.  As I got closer to home, I was only at 27 miles on the odometer.  I thought about making one more lap around Reeds Lake to get above 30, but my water bottles were almost empty and I was beat.

The totals for the ride were 28.72 miles in 1:43:34 for a lousy 16.6mph pace.  One of my slowest paces on a ride yet, but I can chalk this up to a mental toughness ride for not letting the heat get me too down.

July Totals

I realized that I never posted my totals from July.  Getting lazy I guess.  I made it almost every day with some sort of workout activity.  The only day I missed was July 31st, the day before Steelhead.  I would have liked to have done something little just to stretch my legs, but the chips didn’t fall into place and I just ran out of time.

Strength Training

Thanks to the responses I got from a previous entry about needing to start weight lifting, I have put together a game plan.  I am going to wait a month before starting to do strength works for 3 reasons.  Number one, I am going to scour CraigsList, Play it Again Sports, and other 2nd hand options.  I have found a couple of things on CraigsList, but they were posted a few weeks ago and my inquires were never responded to, so I assume they are no longer available.  If, after a month, I haven’t found anything, I may break down and buy a set of new weights.  I really like the PowerBlocks (www.powerblocks.com) based on their website, but am going to look into them a bit more before I make my decision.  Number two, I am in the middle of tri season and don’t want to change things up too drastically.  In the past, when I have attempted to add a strength routine to my workouts, my arms are sore for the first few weeks while I adjust.  I don’t want end up with tired arms at the start of one my races.  And number three, I am procrastinating.  There.  I said it.  At least I can admit it.

This Week

I don’t have a firm plan for this week yet.  I like to at least get down on paper what I would like to do each day so that I don’t talk myself out of exercising when the time comes around.  I will probably end up picking a random week out of my tri schedule book and do that.  I only have one more definite triathlon scheduled (Reeds Lake), but am hoping to find at least one other one to do before that.

After having a few days to reflect back on Steelhead, I have come up with some areas in which I need to improve.  These are strictly triathlon related, so no comments from the peanut gallery please – I know that I am deficient in other areas as well .

#1 Core Workouts

I need to focus more on core workouts (eg. crunches, weight lifting, etc.).  I really don’t enjoy lifting weights, but I think it will help with some of the soreness I had in my arms and back during the race.  I have a book (The 12-Week Triathlete) that has a great section of strength exercises that can be done with only dumbbells; no fancy equipment needed.  So, it looks like I am going to have to buy some dumbbells.  Any recommendations on what to get?  I really like the Bowflex SelectTech for their convenience and space savings, however, the price tag is a little steep.  I’d sort of like something adaptable rather than individual dumbbells of specific weights.

#2 More Running

With the training plan I was using, I don’t think there was enough running.  I maxed out at something like 25 or 30 miles a week with long runs of only 8 or 9 miles.  I would be much more comfortable upping the long runs so that I was doing at least the full 13 miles once every other week.  Coming from a primarily running background, I miss the long 15-18 mile runs on the weekends.

#3 Train Longer

Eight weeks isn’t quite enough to fully prepare for the half Ironman.  I was sort of pushing the limit to get ready because I had been training for a marathon in early June and didn’t start focusing on swimming or biking until after that.  I thought that the number of miles I was putting in running would offset the shortened training period, but I really needed more brick workouts to fully prepare.  The only thing that really saved me for Steelhead was the two triathlons I did in preparation for Steelhead.

#4 Get a Proper Bike Fit

While not necessarily a personal improvement, this is probably something I should look into investing in.  I struggled a bit earlier this season with pain in my upper leg after getting off the bike.  I seemed to have solved this by lowering the saddle about a half inch or so. However, it still isn’t quite as comfortable as it should be.  Also, I am wondering if an improper fit led to some of the back pain I incurred during the race.

Recovery

As for recovery from Steelhead, I am just about back to 100%.  I have done a few light workouts the past couple of days, but nothing too strenuous.  My left hamstring is a little sore, but it seems to loosen up once I walk on it for a bit.  I’ll continue to do a couple more light workouts this week; just enough to stay ready for the Millennium Triathlon on Saturday.