Papa John's 10 miler

Ok, so I did not register for any of the triple crown race series this year.  Just registered for the mini.  Since Jen broke her foot I have been running with her numbers though.  I did the 10 miler, the last race of the triple crown today.  I had not done a double digit run yet so even though I have been running quite a lot I figured that this was a good chance to get in a longer run prior to the mini.

So I set out to make this just another long run.  Plan was to keep the HR below 155 and just take it easy, and not get caught up in the race day emotions.  I did just fine.  Av HR was 151 and max was 167 (on the hills in the park).  I felt completely comfortable the whole time, even on the overpass on Central at mile 9.  Ran onto the field into Papa John's Stadium with strong legs that could have gone plenty more.

A good week for me, did miss one shorter run due to work, but still logged 26 miles last week.

Have a friend coming over shortly to look at my bike fit and I am excited to hear what he has to say.  Looking forward to suggestions to find more power/better aerodynamics on the bike.

Can't believe that the first 10 weeks is almost up!  Thanks for reading, and congrats to all my buddies that finished the triple crown of running today.  You guys rock!

Good week seven

So I had a pretty good week 7.  Now into a stepback week with week 8.  Then two more build weeks and I am done with the first 10 weeks. 


Sat I had a great bike ride.  Spent 2:26 or so on the bike for 42 miles.  Very little climbing until the last 30 min until I had to go up Paoli Pike to get home.  That was a lot of fun with 2 hours or so of riding already in my legs.  Went pretty good though.

Monday I did my long run and felt pretty good despite lack of sleep.   It was somewhere around 8 miles or so.  an hour, 21 min. 

When I first started this I felt like I was going so slow to try and keep my HR down.  I was wondering if I was ever going to get any faster.  Yesterdays long run I was very, very comfortable with a HR of about 143.  I was running much easier and faster than a couple months ago.  Back then it seemed as if I were just plodding along with a HR of 155.  I just could not keep the HR down then.  Now it seems like I am fighting to keep it up more often than not!  This is good progress. 

The only bad thing is my feel/heels that I have to keep icing every night, other than that I am feeling pretty dang solid. 

Heading out for a 2500 M continuous swim now.  Take care and thanks for reading.

Much better

Felt much better today.  2900 in the pool this morning at a pretty good tempo.  This afternoon I went to a St Patty's day run down in Jeffersonville and ran with my next door neighbor Diana.  It was only 2 miles so I did 40 min before the race started then I ran the 2 miles.  Finished strong and felt great. 

I think that I just needed to get my legs moving yesterday and have a good stretch. 

I get to get back on the bike tomorrow so I am happy about that.  May even get the good bike off the trainer and take it out on the road.

Thanks to everyone that texted, replied, facebooked, faxed, emailed, whatever the kids are doing these days, about my post yesterday.  Helps me to know that people are actually reading and supporting.

ugh

Last week being week 6 I may have overdone it.  I skipped a workout due to work and was OK with that.  I had been up all night and no sleep.  Just did not have it in me.  So I decided to make it up by running a race Sat.  I took Sunday off and was going to do my long run tonight.  I spent 25 minutes on the treadmill and just could not get into it.  Stopped 35 min early.  Knees were hurting, legs felt dead.  I just did not want to push myself into getting hurt going into a build week (week 7) so I opted to ice down my feet and do some stretching. 

I felt great last week too.  Sure hope that I bounce back tomorrow.  I feel fairly certain that I will.  My main concern was that I would push it too hard today and still be suffering tomorrow, snowballing into a crappy week.  I know that I am probably doing the right thing but I feel pretty lousy sitting on the couch when I know that I should still be finishing my run right now.

Oh well, weather is getting warmer.  Soon I will get the good bike off the trainer and take it back outside where a bike belongs.  My winter bike has really been getting hammered.  Rain, snow, sleet, mud.  It really needs a good cleaning and lubing. 

Feet are still bothering me a bit, but not too bad.  As long as I ice and stretch it is manageable.  I hope I can keep it contained for about 20 more weeks until I start my taper. 

Thanks for reading.

Almost 1/6 of the way there

So almost done with week 5.  Getting into a pretty good groove.  It goes like this...

Monday - off.

Tues - pool in the morning, run in the afternoon.

Wens - Bike/run brick

Thurs - pool in the morning bike in the afternoon.

Fri - run

Sat - long ride

Sun - long run.

This pattern will repeat over and over until the race.  I just add time and intensity to the workouts.  Still feeling fairly good right now.  The biggest problem is squeezing in my workouts between work requirements and kids duty. ( Yes, I actually do work from time to time).

Right now it is all zone 2 stuff (easy, base building miles).  The second 10 weeks is when I start to add more intensity.  I am anxious to start that.  It is kind of a grind to have to keep my HR below a certain number all of the time.  I look forward to "stretching it out" some more.

Another challenge is that my wife fell and broke her foot.  That means that she is spending more time sitting with her foot up and I am doing more things around the house and with the kids.  Like I needed one more thing to distract from training;)

I actually do really well in the morning and afternoon, but the evening hours are hard for me.  On occasion I have to run/ride in the evening once the kids are in bed and that is a real drain.  That is when I want to settle down, watch some TV and unwind.  It takes a lot of self discipline to do those workouts.

I am icing my feet/heels right now because I seem to have developed some plantar fascitis.  It stems from the achilles tendon area being too tight.  At times it is hard to even walk after I have been sitting for a while.  So I ice my feet ever night, especially when I run that day.  I have to stretch quite often, nightly and several times a day.  I can handle some discomfort walking around...I just hope that I can continue to run if I baby my feet.  I still have a long way to go.

I am not down to my goal weight yet, but pretty close.  I am at roughly the same weight as when I ran the full marathon last year. 

Just over 25 weeks to go!  Thanks for reading.