This one hurt

By far the hardest run workout so far. 4 x 800's with three minutes rest between sets, 100% effort. This is the first workout I have done with 800s. I find 400's and miles both to be easier than 800's. 1- 3:03; 2 - 3:03; 3 - 3:08; 4 - 3:11 max HR 171.

Quick post

Swim went well last night. Did about 40 minutes of the 45 minute workout - got kicked out of pool by an excersise class. Warmed up with a 500, did five 100s on 2:00, rested two minutes, did three more, rested two minutes, did 10 50's on 1:00 warmed down with a slow 100 (that's all I had time for).

Rode 90 minutes at aerobic pace this morning. 18.2 average. Legs felt a little fatigued but not bad.

Exciting times

I volunteered to work an aid station at Ironman Lake Placid. I have always appreciated the volunteers at events as I know they work hard, but I now have a new found appreciation for the volunteers. I fully recommend that all athletes volunteer at some point in time to give back to the sport.

Dave has told me about the Lake Placid experience, but there is nothing to compare to actually being there. To begin with, the area is absolutely beautiful. Top that off with a big event taking place and you have one packed little town thriving with activity. You could feel the energy in the air.

I signed up to be a participant at next year's event and am both very excited and questioning my sanity. I don't want to just participate, I want to do something special. I have not quite decided what that is yet, but it's being formulated.

I have new found energy to put into my training. I did not do my workout yesterday as I was exhausted from the weekend, but got up bright and early to do all but the swim portion of my workout before work. Somehow it felt different to be training with a different type of goal in mind. I pushed really hard - started by adding 10 pounds to the deadlifts and then just pushed each set hard. I am leaving for my swim workout in a few minutes and will push that hard as well.

I am going to finish out this year with the races that I had scheduled earlier in the year (Greenfield, Litchfield Hills and Hartford Marathon), but next year is going to be totally different. My whole year will be planned on two epic events rather than a bunch of local races. I will not be surprised if I only race three times next year (not counting a local road race or two). I will do a half IM as part of the preparation for IMLP, IMLP and the Hartford Marathon. I may put Hyannis Marathon on the schedule as well if coach agrees that it is a good base building thing to have on the calendar. I would like to do Patriotman again; however, there may be others that are better preparation for LP. I will get some input before putting next year's calendar together.

By the way - way to go Dave!! I know you were having a miserable experience, but you refused to quit. I wish I could go to Florida with you this year (to watch), but it's not in the cards.

Later - gotta swim.

The week in review

Monday - I did the workout called Kelly today. 400s, box jumps and wall ball - substituted thrusters for wall ball as I do not have a 20 pound ball at my house. five sets took me 35 minutes and I worked up quite the sweat.

Tuesday - Mixed up the order to make sure that I got the swim in before I had to leave the gym. Did the run and bike first, then the swim (60 laps straight - no sets), picked up my daughter at gymnastics and then finished the workout at home. I felt very good with the weights portion of the workout - worked abs real hard - sore today still (Thursday).

Wed - Aerobic one hour ride - did what Dave and I call the regular route. Finished in slightly over an hour with an 18.7 mph average. Felt loose - HR was anywhere from 120 to 150 but mostly below 140.

Thursday - Ran 5K for time. Warmed up a little over a half mile then ran the 5K. Did it in 24:40 (7:57 pace) which is probably not a PR, but I doubt I have run this fast in quite some time. I think my warm-up needs to be longer next time as it took about a mile to get into a good rhythm. Warmed down and then headed for the pool. Planned on warming up with a 400, doing 100s on 2:00 and then warming down with a 200 or 300. I had to stop after 200 as my shoulders were very tight. I stretched for a while and tried again - still very tight. Swimming was miserable and felt like a real chore - I bagged the workout after about 3 100s. Tomorrow is another day.

Friday is generally an off day but I am going to Lake Placid this weekend and will not get a workout in on Sunday as I volunteered to work an aid station at the race. I am moving Saturday's workout to Friday and Sunday's workout to Saturday.

Vacation is over...in more ways than one

Vacation week was...well...vacation. I did not vacation from training. As a matter of fact, I was sore for most of the week. Angie on Monday and Burpees on Tuesday made sure that my triceps were sore for most of the week. They were so sore that I had trouble getting my shirt off one day. I did not get in as much swimming as I would have liked - I did some good sets on Tuesday, but the pool was pretty busy on Thursday so lap swimming was out. I even got there early, but I think a lot of people decided to spend the day at the pool instead of going to the parks. Tomorrow is a swim day so I will make sure I get a good one in.

Running in the Florida heat and humidity was a real chore. You can't get away from it - the day starts out humid and the heat comes on fast. It still beats running on a treadmill though, so I suffered through it. I ran 10k for time Thursday. I was convinced that it would be a pretty pathetic time due to the heat and humidity, but I finished in 53 minutes even. I believe that is better than I did at Suffield last year. I run 5k for time this week and I think there must be something wrong with me because I am looking forward to it. I have the perfect course for it as there is a sanctioned race a short distance from my house every year - I will run that course.

I somewhat took a vacation from my diet last week. I stayed on it as much as I could, but there was a little drinking, and well, some snacking, and perhaps some fried foods......I'm back to being strict this week however and can already tell the difference energy level wise.

Yesterday was my first time on a real bike in over a week (had to ride a stationary on vacation). I rode hills followed up with a run. I don't think I have ridden hills this well in quite some time and definately not this year and maybe not even last year. I ran harder than I was supposed to yesterday, but felt so good I just had to push it. I will follow the plan going forward - just did not want to waste the feeling.

Wow

Wow, whatta week

I ended a heavy week workout wise and a hectic week work and personal wise with a 10 mile run. My program did not call for a 10 mile run, rather a 1.25 hour effort. I decided to kill two birds with one stone so I ran to my daughters gym to watch her practice gymnastics - gym happens to be 10 miles away. I did not know how I would feel after such a heavy week, but was surprisingly loose. I'm not going to say it was easy - I definately felt it especially near the end, but I kept a decent pace throughout - finished in 1:38.

Unfortunately, my schedule did not allow for a swim.

I'm on vacation next week, but not from training - I hope to keep the faith througout the week.

Mixed results

I did the Pat Griskus sprint last night. Results were mixed. It was by far the worst swim I did all season. I swam unbelievably crooked. I must have swam an extra 200 yards. As much as this is bothersome - it is in the past and I will use it as a learning tool. In the event that I do this race next year, I will have a much better idea how to swim it.

My first transition was very slow - I need to work on this. The wetsuit came off slow - I lubed up good before the race, but still had trouble getting it off. Could be because I"M SO WEAK FROM FOUR HARD DAYS PRIOR TO THE RACE. Or it could be that I need to practice this aspect of racing as well. I think I can pick up at least a minute by improving my transitions.

The bike was hilly as advertised. I did some passing on the hills and got passed a few times on the hills. Not sure what my average was - probably between 19.5 to 19.7. This is why I like the longer bikes - I was starting to get the average up and then the ride was over.

I like what I did on the run. I'm still not a great runner and probably never will be, but my running continues to improve. There was a good hill near the end of the run - I ran it hard - it definately slowed me down, but I was able to run it hard and roll off the top - I passed a few people who passed me earlier in the run on the hill and shortly after the hill - that's a good feeling.

I'm not racing again for 3 and a half weeks - gives me a chance to focus on swimming straight and better transitions - also it's a race I have done a couple of times - it will be a great guage of where I am compared to last year.

I'm bummed

Today was one of those days where no matter how well you plan it, it just doesn't go right. I was on the road at clients all morning and in the early afternoon and was expecting to work a little late and then get my workout in at the gym. I received a phone call late in the afternoon that my daughter's taxi was not going to make it on time. Apparently Grandma got "delayed" at the casino. Well, I'm closer than my wife so I lose the coin toss.

I picked up my daughter, ran an errand for my niece, got my daughter fed and then delivered her to her gymnastics practice. I headed home, and oh yeah - I forgot to mention that I had to stop after my second client visit to pick up a new modem for my house as my other one crapped out. I figgered it would only take a few minutes to get back online after plugging in the new modem - I was wrong!! With Cox you have to call and give them some informtation off of the modem before you can get online. The process does not take long, but I was on hold forever!! These days you need the internet to function, plus I occasionally work remotely so it was imperative that I get this fixed which I did or I would not be posting this blog.

I finally got to the workout (at home, no gym) and did 1.25 hours of a two hour workout. I would have kept going, but I would have had to drive to a pool, swim 45 minutes and then drive back. That would have put me finishing around 11:00 p.m. I skipped the swim which is why I'm bummed.

This was a heavy week and I have a race tomorrow which I am planning to push real hard, but I'm still a little sore. My arms and back are sore from pull-ups, my legs are sore from about four days of hard workouts and I feel it in my triceps from yesterdays thrusters and today's burpees. I think this race is going to be a test of mental fortitude.

It Hurts!! or.....Max is trying to kill me again

O.k., I thought that as you got in better shape the day after soreness goes away. Well....apparently there are still workouts that can put you over the edge. Yesterday's workout was a fairly short, yet intense workout. On paper, it looks like a piece of cake (yes, I was fooled again!!). The workout was four four hundreds with each four hundred followed by 100 squats. The first four hundred went smoothly as I started relatively conservatively with the knowledge that I had four hundred squats and three more four hundreds to go. By the second set of squats I knew I was in trouble. Then I started thinking, there's no one watching, who's to say that I have to do the whole workout - you know, I can change it to 50 squats - still a decent workout. Well, I would have known and it would have really rubbed me the wrong way to shortcut a workout. I will say that Max had a few extra words thrown in front of his name as I completed this workout. And today........well....................yeah, I'm still cursing him. Ironically, I don't curse him on race day.

Surprisingly, I rode well today. I could feel the soreness when I stood up, but other than that, I was fairly comfortable riding.

Now, to go back in time a couple of days. Thursday was a swim day. Again, the workout looked good on paper. Warm-up, six one hundreds, warm-down, go home. Four minutes rest in between 100s - the catch, each one hundred has to be all out. Once again, sounds easy, four laps all out gets rewarded with four minutes rest - awesome! The first two went pretty good, but I really started feeling it on the third set. I finished the third set and I was gasping for air. Only three more sets though - how hard could that be (pretty hard I found out). My lats were a little sore Friday, but nothing compare to how my legs feel today!!! I hope the foam roller can help with this.

Diets still going well, but with three parties in three days, it has not been easy this weekend. I would say, however, that I remained 75% in the zone over the weekend and considering that my stomach has shrunk considerably due to eating smaller meals more frequently, I physically could not overeat - I did have a piece of cake and a couple of beers and maybe a marguarita (or two). I can't wait to go back to work as I behave better when I am responsible for my own meal prep.