Memories...

I got an email from an old friend today remeniscing about the days when we were young.. and worked construction all day in the summer... then went to my house to play hoops on my 8 ft goal... we lowered it so we could dunk like the pros...

yep... that's me in the candy striped dolfin shorts... the other dork is Casey Weldon. He went on to play football at FSU and the pros.

Transition

Saturday will begin my 12th triathlon season…

It’s hard to admit how poorly I perform in transitions after all these years and all the races I’ve done.

I want to do better, and to this end I have set aside 15 minutes or so tonight to do a little practice. J

Now for my delimma:

Running Shoes – I have for many years run with OTC orthotics (Downunders)
http://www.zappos.com/product/7329925/color/574

They work great and have for many years with the exception being when I don’t wear socks. They are slippery on the bottom and if I wear them w/o socks my feet tend to slide slam into the toe of the shoe.

I have some options:

1. Just HTFU and wear my regular shoes.
2. Wear a pair of old Nike Velcro strap running shoes that I wore last year… they aren’t too bad… just fugly…. Look like the shoes James Bond wore in Moonraker.http://www.greencine.com/images/static/moonraker_poster.jpg
3. Put the original footbeds in my running shoes.

I’m not sure how many of these I can fit into my 15 minutes tonight… Any advice?

“DAMMITTT!!!!”

DAMMITTT!!!!

In a single breath my training for the weekend was over…

I didn’t crash my bike… or twist my ankle… but it was over all the same.

I slowed down… dropped my focus… I’m sure I slumped my shoulders… turned off my iPod. I knew I had about 10 seconds to compose myself… to go from the serenity of training… and being in the groove… to anger at dropping my workout goals… and finally to being a nice and supportive partner…

I fall in next to her…

“What’s wrong?” I ask

“I suck”, She answers.

“No, you don’t. You just rode 50 miles pretty strong and you are running at what… like a 10 pace now?”

“I just suck, I can’t keep up”

I started to ask her just why she felt the need to keep up in the first place

I decide that silence is the best alternative…. Oh, silence, and running with her… my plans of lighting it up for 4 miles at an 8 minute per mile pace were over.

We ran together for another mile… I told her again how strong she rode etc… but inside I was still unhappy… she told me she wanted to cut the loop short and head home earlier than last week… she then told me that I could run the regular loop if I wanted but I was far too deep in my martyrdom for that… so we ran two and walked a half home.

We’d had a nice 50 mile ride… 17ish average… We rode the powers Ave to Mandarin to Fruit Cove and Durbin route…. Basically the same as the week before but with a lollipop loop at the end….

I had paid close attention to my heartrate… knowing that if I go over a certain number it’s too much for her and she’s off the back… Beautiful morning, almost no wind… traffic wasn’t a problem either… The only real problem was my mouth… I’d had a toothache for close to a week and I had woken up with it hurting a bit… and the ride made it no worse… but no better either… I contemplated whether or not to run at all… but, since my legs felt good… and with Mother’s Day looming I thought I’d best get in the mileage while I could….

I got off the bike ready and raring to spread my wings… to take off like Wiley Coyote when he got the Acme roller skates with the rocket boosters…

As usual, my transition had been a bit slow…. And my little blonde partner had left a minute or so before me. That’s okay. It’s better to just pass her than it is to start running with her and dread the awkward moment when I tell her that I’m running ahead.

I always try to figure out a way to loop around and run the last mile with her… as kind of a cooldown… so we can finish together…

About a half mile in I caught her… I slowed a bit and asked her how far she planned to run… she said “Oh, you aren’t ready to turn around now?” in a kind of kidding way… but she was not about to budge on an actual answer… she did, however, pick up her pace… I ran with her for another 100 meters or so and asked again “you running the same loop as last time?” Her answer was “I don’t know”….

Man… nothing… she’s not going to give me much to work with here… I casually say…. “I’m going to run a little bit different loop”

truth is… my plan is to run 4 miles to her 3… I can do it… but I’ve got to hit the gas… my plan is to turn two blocks after her turn from home and do an extra loop that will add a mile and still dump me off about a half mile from the finish for the aforementioned cooldown.

I stated to pick it up just a little… She falls a step behind… then two… 10 meters… then 20…

DAMMITTT!!!!

Weekend... and scary traffic

Brick Friday Night - 25/3

We did a few intervals on the bike. Mostly with a tailwind. Hit 30 mph a couple of times.

Felt really good on the run. Mile 1 was a 9:15 or so and managed a 6:59 for mile 2. Sometimes coming off the bike... when I'm warmed up vs tired.. I can really fly (well in a relative sense). Cooled down on mile 3.

Saturday we got up early and left the house at 0715. The goal was to make our way to Durbin Crossing in Fruit Cove and back. This required navigation of the Philips/University intersection and a left turn at the base of the bridge onto Powers Ave... pretty busy even early on a Saturday but we made it through unscathed.

We had a nice ride through Mandarin... pretty much zero wind. Crossing the river from Mandarin to Fruit cove wasn't too bad but crossing the busy 4 lane highway to make a left onto Bishop Estates sucked. Add to that the fact that I was on my Tri bike which I hadn't ridden in almost a year... I'm not quite so comfortable on it in traffic.

The scariest part was yet to come... We were tooling down Bishop Estates... which is right along the river... canopy road... decent road surface... we round a corner and see a big group headed our way... looks to be the A group from Open Road (a local bike shop). Big group fills the lane... before I get a chance to check out their bikes or anything... I see a Green SUV headed my way... She was trying to pass and headed right for us... well we ended up stopping and pulling off the road... To her credit the driver slowed to a stop as well... albeit in the wrong lane.

Once that little fiasco had been avoided the worst was over... This route is really nice except for 3 intersections... about 1 mile total of scary traffic... in a 50 mile ride... but that 1 mile might lead me to drive 20 miles to somewhere safer to ride.

Sunday was a wash... literally... washed cars and went to the beach... no training. I also checked off my most dreaded task of the year... taking my 15 yo daughter bikini shopping...

I did manage to sneak in my long run at lunch today... 10.5 miles in 1:36

April Totals

Swim 0 miles

I did think about swimming a few times... even asked a swimming related question on TRI-DRS... I tried to do some lower leg stretching too

Bike 442 miles
Run 101 miles

Total training time (weights etc included) 2535 minutes

My goals for April were to ride as much as possible, run more than 100 miles and train for over 2500 minutes.

Success!


ORN: 8 miles yesterday including 4x1mi @ ~7:15

Another trail running report

Running thru the woods today I saw a 3 ft snake... Mama always said that wild animals are more aftraid of us than we are of them.... lemme tell ya... that snake was scared! When I came back thru later I made sure to make a lot of noise... I wouldn't want to scare *him* again.

160

I guess that's my anaerobic threshold (AT)...

Out doing my tempo run today.. it was supposed to be 7 mi with 5 @ ~7:45

Summer has arrived in North Florida. Right at 90F today.

The heat... and the fact that I hadn't run a tempo run like this in a few weeks did not buoy my confidence.

After a nice warm-up mile I cranked up the pace and knocked out 2 in a row right on pace. The third mile was right on pace as well but I could feel that I was laboring a bit.

I was also really thirsty... not a good sign...

On Mile 4 I started to get stomach cramps... a couple of minutes later my heart was really pounding and I was not feeling so well. I slowed to a walk for about 30 seconds or so and when my heart rate came down I felt much better. I decided to just skip the last mile and head home.

When I started running again I felt okay and by the end of mile 5 I was close to being back on pace. So I changed my mind again and finished my workout although the last two miles were 30 seconds or so off pace.

Looking back over my training data from today... and my logs... I see the number 160 and it being a heart rate above which I cannot run for more than a couple of minutes. That's where I was at 4.5 miles today... and once I backed off... things were better.


Tip: I don't recommend letting your barber put hair gel on your head an hour or so befor you run in the heat. When I slowed for my cool down mile the gel ran into my eyes... ouch!