Back at It

There really hasn't been much working out lately with Jenn's surgery and all. But now she is much better and now I'm back at it. I did go ride the race course again on Saturday and it was somewhat better. I'm still having a problem with my heart rate jumping into overdrive within like 5 minutes of my ride but I finally think I have it figured out. I'm mashing on my pedals. I need to be working on smooth circles instead of what I have been doing. This will take some work or just me thinking about it while riding. One of the philosphies of "Chi Running" is to body sense or to be aware of what your body is doing. Well I will need to apply that to my bike and not mash on my pedals. Hey maybe I can write the book "Chi Cycling".

I was actually able to double up the workouts today. Yes I made my way to the pool today and had a good set. Now I just need to work on going back like 3 more times this week. It is in my plans. This has been my biggest struggle in preparing for my next triathlon. In my first one I stuck to my plan religiously but since I am not following a plan I have skipped out on the swim one too many times. This is all going to change (I think). I was also able to get in a 2 mile tempo run with a half mile warm up and a 3/4 mile cool down. After my walk to continue to cool down I decided to do another quarter mile speed session. I just felt like running fast. "Big Pimpin" was on my Ipod so what was I supposed to do. That is about it for me the past week.

Since that is all I have for a whole week I thought I would leave you with this poor guy.

While I can't take credit for finding this picture but what do you think was going through his mind. Where is his other shoe? With the time on the clock it couldn't have ben a long race. I just wonder what he ate or drank before his race to make him do that. Why didn't he kick off his other shoe? Caught up in the race I guess. Props to that guy!

I have been thinking alot about my triathlon lately and I am already getting nervous. Why? I don't know. I guess I'm nervous about my swim. Nervous about the bike course that I haven't mastered. Nervous about my Dad being there. I'm probably most nervous about that. Being the son of a football coach who still tries to prove himself to his Dad athletically just makes me nervous. Always has and always will. Speaking of my Dad. Happy Birthday Dad! 69 years old and still no grey hair. I'm sure lots of people are jealous.

Labor Your Legs

Before I get to the race report I need to get to Saturday. Usually on Saturdays I'm out the door by 5:45. The boys were leaving early with their Grandmother so I slept in and helped Jenn get them dressed and off. I headed out at 9 or so but didn't go to my usual spot. Since my next triathlon is here in Hattiesburg I will get to practice on the bike course and that is what I did. It has been somewhat cooler here if you call low 90's cool and that was the case Saturday morning. I believe it was 80 or so that morning. Perfect (I guess). On my way out I saw a huge group of people riding the course already and they looked as if they were struggling. I started out right on the course with no warm up. This bike course is somewhat hilly. Not my strength. Up a big hill right at the beginning. Great. I made my way up and it is just a bunch of rollers all of the way to the first turn. The pavement is really good on the whole course which is good. I'm sure the race director checked this out and I'm glad he did. I was making decent time. I was even going 44 mph at one point in full aero. That was awesome. I made it through most of the course with no problem until I headed back in. The last road is the hilliest. Curse you Knight Road. This one has a long gradual hill in the middle of it only to be followed up by a hill that is steep in the beginning then slacks off in the middle then a long gradual one again at the end. Let's just say I was stru-ga-lin. I was in my granny gear and maybe going 8 mph. Most of the other hills I was still making ok time but not this one. I will need to work on this. No more trips to the flat "trace" to ride. This is ok by me because it is like 5 minutes from my house and I can park at the community center and just ride Knight Road. I will find a place to do my "T" runs later. Needless to say I wasn't pleased by my ride Saturday but I know what it takes to make them better.


Labor Your Legs 5k


I woke up Monday with none other than a stomach ache. Great start. It was so bad I couldn't even eat anything. Not that I needed to but it just hurt that bad. Jenn and I headed out and got to the race start at 7. We both checked in got our bibs. The weather was nice. It was somewhat cool but so humid. So humid. Some friends of ours were running to so I just hung out and talked until the race start. No warm up. This is one of our running clubs biggest events and there were a good bit of racers there. We made our way to the start. I had a time goal of under 25 minutes going in but I would settle for under 26 minutes mainly because a friend of mine just ran one in 26 flat and I wanted to beat him. It was a typical 5k start. Everybody goes out too fast. Me included. My plan was to not do this. I finally settled and just ran my race or so I thought. We made a couple of turns and headed down a fairly long hill. I look down and I see my shoelace flapping in the wind. Great. Now I have to find a place to stop so I don't get run over. I stop in a driveway and tie it again. I have a way to tie shoes that won't come undone and it really works. It even works on Jacob's shoes so I KNOW it works. Well that morning I tied one shoe like normal and one with the good knot. Well guess which one came undone. Yep the normal one. I even have some Yanks laces that you don't even have to tie but I haven't put them in my new shoes yet. That will change before my next race. So I get them tied and get back going. Ok so now I'm mad. I just wasted time and now I have to catch back up to where I was. Unfortunately I did just that. I ran faster than normal to catch back up and lost my rhythm. I settle back in and keep going. I hit mile 1 at 8:16. Ok that is good. I am on track for my goal. The next mile was pretty much down one road and all flat. Some girls that I knew were just ahead of me and I used them to pace off of. I am making good time but I am laboring. I looked down and see 183 on my heart rate monitor. Not good. I make it to the second mile at right at 17 minutes. I'm still ok. I can crank out an 8 minute mile and hit 25 minutes. The last mile was a disaster. I believe in that mile I gave up running, eating and triathlon all at once. I was done altogether. I was making one minute promises to myself left and right. I wanted to stop and catch my breath but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. There was one long road until we turned in back to the finish and guess what happens again. Stupid shoelaces. The same shoe. Now I'm really mad. Mad at myself for not tying my shoes correctly and mad at my luck. I would say those 2 shoe re-ties cost me about 45 seconds. Not so much in actual time of having to tie my shoes but wasted time in catching back up and losing my rhythm. My pacing partners were way ahead of me now. I was too far back to catch up. I couldn't even catch the guy that was carrying water on a 5k that I HAD to beat. Stick a fork in me cause I was done. I limped my way to the finish line in 26:33. I was really pissed but you know what that is ok. After the race it looked like I took a shower with my running clothes on. A guy took pictures and posted them on the web and I was wet from head to toe. I had some bad luck that won't happen in every race and I was able to push myself and I didn't walk. The worst thing about my 5k was that I can run 9 minute miles comfortably but couldn't run just under that comfortably in my race. I will have to work on going out too fast. More races=more experience. All in all after the race I calmed down and I was okay but the bad luck didn't end. I was playing in the yard with the kids and went to kick a ball barefooted and kicked the ground first. The result.....

















Bruised toe.
It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks. I can still run on it.
I have to. I have someone in my next tri that I have to beat. I'm gunning for him and he was even at the 5k. Yes, he beat me but that won't be the case come October 10.

Did I hear that right?

With less than 5 weeks to go until my triathlon I guess it is finally time to get to the pool. I did that on Monday. I have been putting it off for a while. For the next few weeks I have to be in there a minimum of two times a week. I actually had a good swim. My form is slowly making its way back and I actually had an aha moment in there too. I applied the concept of no tension and body sensing from Chi Running to my swimming. I didn't have relaxed arms in my recovery and that is why I was tiring so easily. I really had to make myself not do this but if I can remember maybe my endurance and form can return even sooner. That would be nice.

On Tuesday I was ready. I was ready to run a PR for 2 miles. Our local running club was having the last of our "Trek the Trace" series for the year. This one was to be decided by whomever could go the lowest under their PR for 2 miles and you didn't have to predict anything. Or so I thought. I was wrong and reminded of that by Jenn. Yes you could run and smash your PR but you still had to predict it and you had to be UNDER your PR to win. I had even gotten out my Ipod and loaded all of my "fast" music but I couldn't us it. Oh well. I was still getting ready to go fast at least by my standards. I even drank a bottle of Accelerade before. We get out there and write down our times. I wrote down 17:40. No that isn't my personal record for 2 miles but I wasn't about to write down how slow it really is. I found my pacing partner and we were off. I could tell I wasn't going my customary 9 minute miles but I wasn't pushing too much. There were a few people ahead of me that started dropping off but my pacing partner was just ahead of me staying strong. Also, a few people disappeared. I believe one guy ran 11:39. Anway, I could tell I was pushing myself but I wasn't feeling winded or like I needed to stop. I kept my pacing partner right in my sights and she was keeping it up. Later she said she knew someone was on her heels especially in the tunnel where she could hear me. As we were approaching the finish I started to pass her but held back and finished right behind her. They were telling us our times as we finished and he said 16:20. It didn't register with me until I let it sink in. 16:20!! Seriously? I can't believe it. I don't think I have ever run 8:10 for one mile much less for two. Wow! My fat butt ran 8:10 miles. This only makes me wonder. Am I pushing myself hard enough in my workouts? Or can I sustain that for a 5K? We will see Monday at the Labor Your Legs 5k.