Bricks 'R Us

Finally got a freakin' run in. After not having run for another week straight, I finally got my feet on the pavement yesterday. Went for my normal Thursday morning bike ride, but decided to start a little earlier so I could do a run after. With the time change, it was dark for the entire workout.

Started out with a 15 mile ride on my normal route. It was pretty windy, so I only averaged around 19.5 for the ride. I hate freakin' cross winds. Give me a headwind and tailwind any day over a cross wind. Felt like I was fighting the wind the whole ride. At least with a headwind, there is a point where you know you'll get a tailwind. Got off the bike and transitioned right into the run. I try to keep it under 3 minutes so that it is truly race conditions (No, I don't take 3 minutes for transitions in a race, matter of fact, my T2 times are normally under a minute so shut up).

Wanted to run for 30 minutes. Went out fairly easy to make sure the heel was feeling good. Picked it up on the way back in. Negative split the run by 5 seconds, woohoo...Guess I wasn't taking it as easy on the way out as I thought. Ended up going 3.6 miles for a 8:30 pace. Pretty decent for me for an easy run after a bike. Probably could have been in the 7:45 range if it was actually a race. However, the heel is still not good. Had some light pain in it the rest of the day and it felt sore after sitting at my desk all day not moving it.

Going to try and run 8 to 9 miles today and see how it holds up. Don't want to go into the half iron only having run a 10 miler 2 months before the race. If it doesn't do well, then I am going to just have to run a bunch of short runs for the next 3 weeks leading up to the race. That will make my race goal be very tough to meet. I need to be able to go sub 9 minute pace on the half marathon to have a shot at my "A" goal.

Report Continued

Got onto the bike course and got passed the two speed bumps and the no passing zone with no problems. The course was along the Galveston seawall for a couple of miles and then turns and is shielded from the coast by homes, condos and the like. The wind actually was pretty much straight out of the south, so 90% of the wind was a cross-wind. The bike leg was about what I expected. There were a lot of people flatting though. Don't really know why either. Road wasn't rough, wasn't wet and there wasn't any debris or anything in the road. Saw no less than half a dozen flats including my buddy Kevin at about mile 16. He ended up sitting there for 32 minutes since he had no tube or pump. He had to wait for the support crew. Nothing special to report. Just put my head down and hammered (for me anyway). Got back to T2 in 1:25 for a 19.8 mph average for the 28 miles. Fastest average in a race by me so far by a full 1 mph. Jumped off the bike and made my way to my spot. Got my run gear stuff on and out of transition in just over a minute. Then came the run...

Felt good coming out of T2 and looked down at my watch to see around 1:51. My goal coming in was 2:55ish, but after seeing the 1:51, I thought somewhere around 2:45 was attainable. Wrong!!! I have been doing a ton of run training since we did the 10k last week and to get my run faster in Tri's. Thought to myself that I could run 8:30's. The 10k last week was at 7:52's so I didn't think 8:30 would be too hard. Never could get going. Started out at 9's to get my HR down a little since I believe I had gone too hard on the bike. Couldn't get it below 92%. Kept trying, but I just couldn't recover. Started to see the 2:45 slipping away, quick. After about 3 miles of running 9 minute pace, I was quickly realizing that was all I had in the tank for the day. So, instead of getting down and ticked off, I started high-fiving everyone.

First saw my kids around the 3.5 mile mark and gave each of them a big wave and two huge high-fives. That is my son in front and my daughters hand in the back.

High fived countless people after that. High-fived one race volunteer and she said "Finally, my first high five of the day!". There was a row of about 6 ladies sitting on the curb at one point and I high-fived all of them in a row. Gave shout outs to kids along the course and to the pirates at the turnarounds. My only complaint about the race was the run course. It is too cut up, has too many turns and turnarounds. You never had just long straightaways where you could get in a good rhythm. Aid stations were well stocked with Gatorade, water, defizzed cola, gels, cliff shots, cliff bars and other stuff that I always passed up. Had one shot of Gatorade and a cup of water on the head at every aid station. Between aid station after about mike 4, they had sponge handouts. They were glorious. It was getting warm around that time and the sponges felt great. Never got below 9 minute miles and ended up running 9:09 pace for the 6.5 mile run. Wasn't happy with it, but at least I didn't walk at all and I finished at 2:50:50, which was 4 minutes ahead of my goal. Ended up 307 out of 730, which met my goal that I made at the start of the year to be in the top 50% at every race. I believe in making attainable goals.

Definitely a race I would recommend and will do again. Maybe next time it will be the half. Most likely will have to skip it next year since I plan on doing the New Orleans half IM which will be right around the same time as Lonestar next year.

Did speedwork this morning, 1 mile @ 9:00, 2.65 @ 7:24, 0.35 @ 7:41, and 0.5 mile at 10:00. Lifted weights after that since Big Poppa was in spin class, the Hornet was a sellout after a late night on the town, and my new training partner Dr. Roy couldn't make it. Taking tomorrow off before the Fatboy 5k on Saturday and then off to Alexandria for camping/mountain biking for Saturday and Sunday.

Slackin'

Only been bloggin' for a few weeks and I am already slacking. Wednesday was supposed to be 4 mile easy run and swim. Went at lunch and ran my 4 and skipped the swim. Got home that afternoon and the wife wanted to run. So we loaded up the kids in the stroller and put in 2 miles with me pushing.

Thursday was scheduled speedwork, but we moved it to Friday since it was going to be in the low 30's Thursday morning. Ended up using Thursday as a rest day since I had other things to do and I had to go out of town for the afternoon with some work stuff. Got to bed late and still have a sleep debt from this past weekend and early week.

Got up Friday to the perfect run weather. 54 degrees and breezy, couldn't ask for any better. Met the Hornet for our speedwork, which was a 1 mile warm-up, 6 mile tempo at 8:14 and a one mile cool down. We ended up going 1.2 on the warm-up and then on to the speedwork. Started out fast and then had a slower mile 3 because of a "big" hill (big hills in LA do not exist). We were on pace though since we got out quick. Got to mile 4 right on pace and the Hornet started trying to push me to leave her behind. I use to be the slow back-of-packer of the group, and they never left me, so I make sure to never leave my training partners behind even if I'm feeling like I can push it. Finally convinced me with about 1.5 miles to go, so I picked it up. Ended up running 7:25 pace over the last 1.5 miles which was smokin' for me. Finished at 7:59 pace for the 6 mile tempo, and the Hornet at 8:14 pace right on target for the run. I think I'm getting a little overconfident. Thinking I can maybe push for a 48 minute 10k later this month, if I'm feeling good that day. We'll see. Worried about pushing it too much and hurting myself. Met some co-workers, BP and Ali, at the Lakes on Friday afternoon, along with my wife and kids. Me and the kids played soccer while the wife pounded out some miles with the group.

Yesterday I had the kids and no babysitter, so riding was not an option. Ended up taking the kids to the park for some playground time and soccer ball time. They love seeing how high I can kick the ball and then seeing if they can catch it on the 2nd or 3rd bounce. Only hit them on the head once or twice with 20' high kicks!! Spent the afternoon napping with the kids and then on to church for the evening.

Got up early this morning at 6:15 to get in 50 miles. Loaded up my nutrition, which today consisted of 2 gatorade bottles, a powerbar, nutri-grain bar and some M&M brownies that my wife made last night. Nothing like comfort food on a semi-long ride. The two 25 oz. gatorade bottles are not enough. Only went 45 miles at 17.8 and was out of liquid with about 8 miles to go and it wasn't even that hot at around 60 degrees. Guess I need to get me a behind the seat bottle holder. It was tough riding today. I was definitely feeling the soreness from the tempo run on Friday. Normally we do it on Thursday and my recovery run on Friday takes out the soreness for the weekend. Had a tough time getting above 18 mph for about the first 20 miles. Got home and with some arm-pulling and threatening I convinced my wife to put in some running miles with me. Loaded up the kids and put in 2.5 miles with me pushing the stroller.

The run schedule for the day has 11 miles @9:30 pace on it, so I have 8.5 more to put in tonight. Getting ready to go to a birthday party and then over to my parents house for the evening. Guess it will be another 9 pm run tonight, WooHoo, my favorite time to run!! Seems like all our friends had kids at the same time since we have had three parties in the last 2 weeks with more to come in the next month. At least they are young and the presents don't cost so much. Hate to see when all these girls are teenagers and they all want some high-dollar purse or clothes. We'll be going to less parties...

Cold

Woke up this morning to head to the Y, and got blasted by the cold. On the way, checked the weather on my blackberry (of course only while I was stopped at red lights, my wife teaches driving school and always uses me in examples of how not to drive) to find that it was a sweltering 32 degrees. The schedule had us doing 7 miles with a 5 mile tempo run at 8:14 pace in the middle. Stopped in and talked to Big Poppa on the treadmill for a moment and then off to run in the cold outside.


We went out fairly fast on the first mile of the tempo with a 7:45 pace. Ended up at 39:57 on the tempo run, which for you math buffs, is just under 8:00 pace, 7:59 to be exact. May not be fast to some, but was blazing for me. Didn't hurt too bad and actually felt like I could have pushed a little harder the last mile if I had needed to. Felt like I could have kept up with SS, another local triathlete who is training for the Boston Marathon and runs the same route except at a much faster pace. No use in burning it out on a training run though. When we got back to the Y, I looked down at my long sleeves and the sweat had turned to ice!! Not something you see too often in Louisiana is ice on your sleeve.

Tempo run made me feel better about the goal of running the Crescent City in 50 minutes. That's 8 minute pace and until today, it didn't seem reachable. Don't think it will be all that hard now. Maybe the goal should be 48...

Skipped my swim and run on Wednesday. Good thing about training 6 days a week is that there is really no time to fall in the trap of making up workouts. That is another hard thing to do. Convince yourself that missing a workout here or there is not going to affect you. I hate putting a red line through a day that I missed, but I think it is better than trying to kill yourself by doubling up and just getting injured or tired. I will make up the swim since I am only swimming twice a week, which is not much at all. Already running close to 30 miles a week, so missing the run is no big deal. Did the double on Tuesday, run and spin class, so missing Wednesday actually helped this morning I think.

Numbers

What a great weekend for training. The weather was wonderful this weekend. Sunny, breezy and in the mid 70's. Everyone was outdoors enjoying the sun and having some good times.
Normally the weekends are tough to train because of the better half teaching on Saturdays. Rules out Saturday for training unless I can find a free babysitter, which normally doesn't happen. That means my long ride and run have both been happening on Sundays. It's tough riding 50 miles during the day and then running 8-10 at night. My mom called on Friday and offered to keep the kids. We settled on Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.

Big Poppa, co-worker and training partner, has been taking part in a little get in shape challenge put on by one of the local running stores. Part of the challenge was on Saturday to run 6 miles in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. He emailed to see if the rest of us wanted to meet him for the afternoon run to give him moral support/ make sure his butt finished! Since I had secured someone to watch the kids, I was in. CCC 10k schedule had us running 10 miles @ 9:36 pace. So some of the rest of the training crew, The Hornet and her roommate, met me 30 minutes earlier to get in 4 miles before the 6 with BP. Couldn't have been a better day to run the loop around the LSU lakes. The three of us pounded out the first 4 in around 35 minutes. The roommate was done and we met up with BP for the last 6. We all ran together except for the last 2. Ended up at 10.1 @ 9:16 pace. BP finished and that all that counts, great job!

That is the one thing that I am very meticulous about in my training, knowing the numbers. I would rather skip training than train and not know how far, how fast, and at what heart rate. My training log is a spreadsheet with planned and executed workouts. Every time I train I have to record the numbers or it's like it doesn't even count. I never leave home without a training watch, I have 2 now just to make sure.

After the run, hurried home to get dressed to go to church and out with my wife since we had a night of freedom. After church we went and had some cheescake and coffee and then saw the movie 27 Dresses. Good chick flick. Got to bed late after loading up for a ride in St. Francisville.

Got to Big Poppa's house around 7:15 am Sunday morning and transferred the bike and gear. After making the drive to the ride spot, put in 45 miles (17 mph) in the hills on the bike with BP's better half and the Hornet. It was good to get back to the hills and ride with a group, albeit a small one. Most of my recent longer rides have been loners since I am normally pressed for time and ride on such short notice. Another great day for training. Of course any ride day where you don't get chased by a dog is a good day. Is it just here that every dog out in the countryside is unchained and like to eat bikes or is that everywhere?? Tried to run after, but got a major pain in my side after about half a mile. Don't know what it was, but I was doubled over in pain, thought I was going to pass out. May have been lack of fluids.

It is so hard on such nice days to make sure you are drinking enough. You feel good the whole time, forget to drink enough and then pay for it later. Do they make training watches with an alarm that I can set every 15 minutes to remind me to drink? There are way too many things to think about that can go wrong. As long as I finish though and I can record some numbers, than mission accomplished. Who cares if I passed out doing it??