8.30.13 Swim

I'm resting the legs today and only had a short 34 minute/1300 yard swim today.  I took the regular workout and split everything in half hoping to get 30 minutes.  It worked well.  My efficiency and SWOLF was much better today than it has been.  I only did half the usual work so that may be the reason for the improvement.  My 910xt does not pick up my kickboard work because my arm isn't moving but the data is still good to have. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/367534420

8.29.13 Taper Run

My plan was a slow and steady four miles for today.  I got my route confused again and added an unnecessary mile.  One of these days I'm going to get this right in the morning.  My heart rate monitor was freaking out and I spent too much time trying to fix it so I got a late start.  My miles were all in the 9:16-9:38 range.  Very slow but deliberate.  I am backing off the intensity for the rest of the week.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/367211579

8.28.13 Taper Double

Wednesday is a double workout day.  I swam in the morning.  My plan was for about 40 minutes today.  I ended up going a little long at 55 minutes covering 2400 yards.  It's been a week since I was in the water and felt like a few extra minutes would be ok.  I definitely felt a little sluggish to start but picked it up towards the second half.  Lots of speed work today in the workout.  This evening I rode the bike for an hour.  Interval work today.  I started at the Flower Mound Rec Center and rode out to Murrell Park at Lake Grapevine and back.  Intervals were 3 minutes moderate, 3 minutes hard and 4 minutes recovery.  I repeated four times book ended by a 10 minute warm up and cool down.  It was still 95 degress at 6:45 but the heat was not a problem at all.  Legs felt good tonight.  It is the start of my taper for TriRock Austin so the workouts will be easy for the rest of the week.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/366896041

8.27.13 Track ??? Run

I was supposed to do a track run this morning but I didn't feel very good this morning.  One time around my block is almost a half mile so I decided to make my track workout a neighborhood loop workout.  Pretty simple today.  One mile warm up, 800 at 3:20- 3:30, 1200 at 4:45- 4:55, 800 at 3:20-3:30, 400 at 1:40-1:45, 1 cool down mile.  Doing the math, these intervals are all below the 7:00 mile pace which would be tough.  I think the math on the 1200 was a little off as this would have been a very hot pace and is the only one I missed.  All of the others were really good.  800-3:22, 1200-5:26, 800-3:28, 400-1:37.  Happy with the effort but I'm not sure my knees will be after a fast run on the concrete.  I hope it wasn't too much today.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/366211358

8.26.13 Damn Cell Phone

My wife and her boot camp crowd are having a rest week and she was looking for something less intense to do.  I asked Shelby if we could join the Enduroshark crew for his Monday boot camp.  He was good with that.  Since the boot camp we both were going to in the winter closed, I haven't had a chance to do too much with Patty, so that was fun.  Monday is a swim day so I was going to hold off until later in the evening.  It was the first day of school so the turnout was light.  I got burpees again on the blind tennis ball draw.  Happens every time.  I think half the balls in the bag are burpee balls.  I like doing the big rope during the station work.  In the afternoon at work, my phone wouldn't come on.  The touch screen was dead.  On further review, the LCD screen was cracked and I was screwed.  Patty and I had to go to the Verizon store and get a new phone.  Full price since no one was eligible for an upgrade.  I can't live without it.  I decided on insurance this time since I take it everywhere including the bike and running.  What this meant is I missed my swim workout.  Since it's a taper week before TriRock Austin, it probably isn't that big a deal.  First my Garmin falls off in the lake and now a cracked cell phone.  I'm on a bad run of luck right now.   

8.25.13 Northshore Trail Run

After missing a few days of work while moving my daughter into her house, I decided to get some work in on Sunday.  Our plane was due to arrive from Minneapolis at 9:20am.  I asked if my trail running crew could hold out until about 11am to run.  Joe confirmed, the Matrix decided to run coming off Leadville and so did Fred.  Excellent, I had some company.  Since I haven't logged much mileage on the bike this week, I rode my bike to Joe's house (~13 miles), run for 75 minutes on the trail, and then ride back home.  26 miles round trip riding the bike along with approximately six miles of running on the trail.  I left the house on my bike at 10:35am.  The wind was blowing from the east so it was a quick trip to Flower Mound.  I put my running gear in my camelback.  I took the water bladder out.  This worked great.  It was really hot as a downside. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/365085628

We took off on the trail at 11:28 by my Garmin.  I'm not sure if flying creates problems running or not.  I was sluggish but I was also tired from getting up early for the flight and moving stuff for the last few days.  I really had no intention on setting any PRs.  The heat really took a toll by the end of the run.  I don't think anyone was real happy about waiting to run with me but I appreciate the company.  I think we almost lost Fred.  He went into the hurt locker in the last mile.  When we got to Joe's, he turned on the hose in the back yard and we all cooled off in the shade pouring water on our heads.  I wasn't sure about the ride home but after a few minutes of cooling off and getting my body temperature back down, I felt good about heading home.  Rich started to feel good again and he was smoking fast for the last few miles.  I stayed with him for awhile and then let him go when my heart rate was spiking in to zone 5.  I needed to back off and have some reserve for the ride. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/365085653

It was almost 1:30pm when I headed back home.  45 minutes of really hot temperatures to ride through.  I had a full compliment of cold water bottles so it was fine.  One to pour on my head and one to drink.  I wasn't fast but I made it back easy.  I'm not sure if this was the brightest thing to do a week out from the race but it's in the books now.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/365085679

8.23.13 Minnesota River Tempo Run

We had to get my daughter moved into a house for her second year of college in St. Paul, Minnesota.  We left on Wednesday afternoon and arrived on Thursday evening. 

 

 

 

I was able to get a swim in on Wednesday morning but we were just too busy to get my bike workout in.  It was good to get a little rest and take my mind off of working out even though I have race #5 of the Tri Series on Labor Day.  One very cool workout was running in Fort Snelling state park on the Minnesota river.  It was very pretty along the river.  Patty went with me to run which was great.  On the way into the park on Friday morning, she took a picture of me with some wild turkeys.

We parked under the Mendota bridge which was at the end of the line for driving our car.  We decided to climb up to the bridge and walk across before starting our run. 

View from the Mendota Bridge

 

Downtown St. Paul



Downtown Minneapolis

Me and Patty on the Bridge



Jeff had a fairly tough tempo run for me to do.  One warm up mile, 7:30 mile, 8:00 mile, 7:30 mile and a cool down mile.  It was about a mile climb out of the park and across the bridge so I didn't really count that mileage.  The trail led downhill almost the entire way to my turnaround.  The first 7:30 mile was fairly easy.  The 8:00 mile was ok.  It was downhill for the first half but the last half was going back up the hill.  I was close to time.  The last 7:30 mile was a beast.  It was at least 100-150 feet of elevation gain basically going slowly up hill the entire mile.  I was good until the 20 yards or so of the climb.  I really felt a little dizzy and had to walk a little bit.  I wasn't going to make 7:30 but was around 8:00 pace until I walked.  Blew the last mile but wasn't too unhappy.  Met up with Patty for the cool down mile and then we walked the last mile over the bridge and down to the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 



I was tapped out.  Good work though.  Saturday, we spent the day shopping and moving Meghan in.  I don't know if you get credit for going up and down stairs.  If you do, I had a busy non documented workout on Saturday.  It was good that we were able to spend our last few hours with our daughter before heading back to Dallas.  That was more important to us than anything.