2.28.13 Tempo Run

Last day of February and I'm glad to see it go.  One month closer to some better weather.  Once again today, the temperature this morning was in the 30s with wind chill in the 20s.  Sorry, not happening so I went back to sleep for another hour and decided to run this evening.  Jeff gave me a strange tempo run workout for tonight.  Two warm up miles and then five sets of :30 at 8:00 pace, :30 at 7:40 pace, :30 seconds at 7:20 pace, :30 seconds at 7:00 pace, and a 2:00 recovery.  After that, I ran one mile at 7:50 and a cool down mile.  It was really hard trying to figure out if I was on the correct pace or not.  I tried to stay with it but it was tough.  My fast mile afterwards was in the 7:40s and then I took it easy coming home.  The speed work for this week was kind of tough on my hamstrings and I was feeling it a little.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/278764727

For the month of February, I had the following totals that are not too bad considering I had to take a full week off due to injury.

Swim:  19,300 yards
Bike:  183.39 miles
Run:  72.67 miles

2.27.13

It's a double workout day today.  I swam 2400 yards this morning at the CARC.  Fast swim today.  My arms seemed a little fatigued from the get go.  It didn't seem to affect my speed too much but I just didn't feel right all morning.  Tonight, I rode the trainer for an hour.  10 minute warm up and 4x (5 minutes moderate, 5 minute recovery), followed by 10 minute cool down.  I run again in the morning with a new tempo run that I haven't seen from Jeff before.  Should be interesting. 

2.26.13 Speed Work at the Track

This morning the wind was blowing 20+ causing the 40 degree temp to dive into a real feel in the high 20s.  I stayed in the bed and decided to run after work.  Jeff sent my workout yesterday and the speed work at the track looked a little daunting.  Today's workout was a mile warm up, three 2000 meter runs at 9:10, and a cool down mile.  The fast runs equated to about 7:20 pace per mile.  After the past weekend, I had my doubts as to whether I could maintain that pace.  One of these days, I'm going to stop thinking so damn much and just do what Jeff says.  He knows what he's doing and I should trust in that.  My 2000s were 9:18, 9:13, and 9:24.  I was a little slow but not by much.  My hamstrings were a little tight after the run but I feel pretty good now.  I like the way this is going right now.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/278097444

2.24.13 Trail Run

I woke up this morning at around 7am.  Our plan was to meet at Joe's house at 8:30 and run at Northshore today at Lake Grapevine.  We hoped to run at Cedar Hill state park today but park closes that trail when it sprinkles so Cedar Hill was a no-go.  It was about 44 degrees to start and a little windy and cold again today.  Rich has been sick all week so he wasn't feeling great today and took a short cut out at about 4-5 miles in.  My legs were feeling a little weak after the long ride yesterday.  I hung in there pretty good for the half of the run to the MADD shelter but really began to feel it on the way back.  GU and stingers every 30 minutes today.  Four bottles of water in my fuel belt and I needed them.  I went with the potassium pill this morning and shark salt before I left and borrowed one from Joe after an hour.  I think some dehydration kicked in yesterday and the run today wasn't making it any better.  I had problems thinking straight for some reason over the past few miles.  I couldn't figure out which way to go at trail intersections and tripped again on the trail.  I was glad to get off to be sure.  We covered almost 11 miles in a little over 2 hours.  It was much warmer for the last 30 minutes.  Of course, I had too many layers at that point.  This weather sucks.  I'm ready for Spring.  Glad to give the legs the day off tomorrow with only a swim planned tomorrow.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/277206526

2.23.13 Bike

It was really cold this morning when I woke up.  It was in the mid 30s but the real feel was 29.  I decided to give the sun some time to work some magic and leave a few hours later.  I started watching the History of the Eagles but it was 3 hours long so after about 90 minutes in I decided to get ready and leave.  I left the house at 10:15 and it was still cold.  The wind was supposed to be about 6-8mph from the north but it was at least 10mph.  I ran into a guy named Chris in Coppell and he was meeting two guys at one of the warehouses on Lakeside Parkway and he asked if I wanted to ride with them today.  I said ok and we picked up Chase and Jacob and took off.  We rode to downtown Denton and stopped at a coffee house there to warm up before heading back.  It was right into the wind the whole way out but at least it would be nice to get the wind on the way home.  We took Hilltop road on the way back it was leg crushing for me.  We were 30+ miles on the way out and close to two hours.  I was only supposed to do 3 hours today so I was definitely going over plan.  After Hilltop, every hill was a struggle today.  I haven't been riding alot lately so my riding fitness is not where it needs to be.  These guys were all pretty fast so it was challenging to stay with them.  Once I got about 7-10 miles out, I was happy and could feel the warmth of the house.  It was just raw out there today.  I'm ready for winter to go away at this point.  65 miles in four hours and five minutes.  I hope my legs aren't shot for tomorrows run.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/276796331

2.21.13 Tempo Run

I was supposed to ride the bike on my trainer for an hour last night.  I ended up working late and couldn't get the energy to do it.  I had a hard tempo run today and decided to rest.  I did swim yesterday morning for an hour and covered 2400 yards.  The swimming seems to cause me the most discomfort with my back and hip.  I don't know if it is body position related in the water or the constant movement in my torso.  It usually does not hurt while I'm doing anything but it says hello throughout the day.  It is getting better but is slowly healing.  My tempo run was tough today.  After a week off, the Tuesday speed work was doable but I figured to pay the price later in the week.  I didn't feel great going out the door.  Thunderstorms were heading our way but I figured to get an hour in before anything bad happened.  Wind was pretty stiff out of the SE so the mid 40s seemed like 30s.  Miserable conditions all the way around and my joints weren't too pleased with being asked to do this work today.  2 warm up miles, 2x (1 mile 7:45-7:55, 1 mile 8:30), 1 cool down mile.  My route is about 6.7 miles so my last mile today would be a few tenths short.  The first pair of tempo miles are the uphill side of some rolling hills making it extra tough.  My first two warm up miles were 9:43 and 9:50.  I wasn't really feeling it today at all and a sense of dread started to creep in for the next two miles as I knew they were uphill.  As I passed the Kroger and looked at the long uphill climb in the dark, I tried to not worry too much about the hill and just focused on form and cadence.  My first fast mile was disappointing at 8:10.  I cross alot of streets and sometimes the cars slow me down if I have to stop.  I wish that was the case today but I never had to stop once.  I was a little bummed out.  The second mile was 8:34 and had some steeper hills but I knew the next two had some downhill so I had that going for me.  Four seconds off target wasn't too bad.  The third mile has about a .5 miles of downhill that always makes for good time.  I was able to maintain pace once it flattened out and finished in 7:56.  Slower than I wanted but close to target.  I didn't know if I could knock out the last 8:30 mile or not.  I was pretty tired.  The terrain was really flat so it was time to focus on form and cadence.  Keep the legs turning over.  Knocked it out in 8:27.  I stopped for just a few seconds to get my breathe and lightly jogged out the last .7 miles to the house.  Bittersweet today.  I knew coming off a full week of rest this would be a tough day.  I wish I was a little faster but I'll take it for now.  Felt some early blister type thing on the bottom of my left foot.  It wasn't an actual blister but kind of felt like it.  I didn't wear my toe socks today so maybe that was the problem.  Something to keep an eye on.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/275956705

2.19.13 Training Again

I have been shut down since February 10.  The pain around my hip and back was very uncomfortable last weekend.  I went to see a doctor and he suggested a specialist but he couldn't quite tell what was going on.  Doctors always suggest rest but I don't have time to be shut down long term unless this is something serious.  At about Wednesday, I felt pretty good.  We left for Minnesota to see my daughter and I decided to not do anything through the weekend.  St. Paul was cold and reminded me that even though I think it's cold in Dallas, it's really not.  No way I would run outside there but I did see a few hearty soles running.  Getting to see my daughter compete at the University of Minnesota was alot of fun.  Pretty big crowd.

In order from left to right is my daughters roommate Briana, my daughter Meghan, me, one of her friends on the team Tasha and my wife Patty.  She fortunately gets her good looks from her mother.  She even got to sign a few autographs.  Kind of cool.

Great trip and I was able to rest.  On Sunday I was pretty wiped out so I didn't do anything.  On Monday morning I slept in with the intention of swimming on Monday night.  I did 2400 yards in about 55 minutes last night.  My back was a little sore after the swim but not bad.  I set my alarm clock for 5:30 this morning.  Once I got up and moving and I got out to the track at about 6:30.  I did the usual warm up and cool down miles at the beginning and end.  I book ended a set of 4x800 between 3:15 and 3:25 with mile runs at 8:00.  I didn't know how the layoff would affect my running.  I'm not going to lie, it was tough today.  It was cold and my body just does not react well in colder temps.  It takes me awhile to get warmed up.  My warm up mile was 9:23 which is about right for warming up.  My first 8 minute mile was 7:51.  I was pretty fresh and the first 400 was too fast.  I slowed down a little and was pretty consistent through the last 800.  My set of 800s were pretty tough.  My first was a 3:38 but my pacing was comfortable.  The second was 3:36 and I had to push a little harder.  Mentally it was downhill from here so that helps.  My third was 3:34 and I felt the best on this interval.  I was a little tapped for the last one and really had to push hard to get 3:37.  My last 8 minute mile was 7:56.  I'm still amazed at how effortless an 8 minute mile can be after pushing through intervals at 7 minute pace.  Despite the time away for injury, I was able to finish the workout Jeff sent.  I felt a little soreness in my hip and groin area but it didn't last long and I feel pretty good today.  I need to make sure the week goes well the rest of the way.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/275250746

2.13.13 Down and Out

I hurt myself again over the weekend and decided to take Monday off.  It didn't feel a whole lot better on Tuesday so I went to the doctor.  From reading, it appears to be a sports hernia but there are conflicting signals that may indicate something with my back.  My doctor took xrays and the results were somewhat inconclusive.  He is referring me to a specialist.  I have decided to shut everything down for this week and see how I feel.  I was given some hydrocodone.  I took one last night to help me sleep.  It is the first night in several weeks that I have slept through the night.  I feel a little better today which is making me want to work out but I am going to resist the temptation.  I have to get this resolved soon, one way or the other.  If it's a surgical resolution, I need to get that over with.  It is very depressing.  I was making really good progress and my running was really coming together.  Bummed to no end at this point.

2.10.13 Trainer

We had some heavy rain last night.  I woke up at 7am and checked the weather radar.  The main storm had passed but there were a few storm cells out west.  I didn't want to get caught in something bad so I decided to wheel out the trainer and go that route.  I rode the trainer for about 3 hours and 15 minutes.  The trainer is kind of brutal.  I watched a few movies but it was long and arduous.  I think it will work well for 60-70 minute sessions but the long ride stuff is hard.  You can't get out of the saddle and break up the monotony.  I have no idea how many miles this translated to.  Every 30-40 minutes I would try to increase the cadence and shift to a lower gear.  Next week is another build week and we are going to see my daughter in Minnesota so I will need to figure out how I am going to get workouts in.

2.9.13 Trail Run

As expected, I switched the run and bike this weekend.  The weather look ominous tonight and tomorrow morning so if I wanted to get in a trail run, it had to be today.  I met Joe at his house at 8:15.  We decided to run to the MADD shelter and back.  It's a little over 5 miles in and the route out is about 6 miles.  I haven't been to Northshore in a few weeks and it has been my nemesis when it comes to tripping me.  The trail reached out and grabbed me a few times today but I did not go down.  The water level is coming up at the lake.  I forgot my phone so I don't have any pics.  We kept a pretty steady pace today.  We stopped a few times to take in a gel but that was about it.  Lots of bikers towards the end of the run but it really wasn't a problem.  I pushed the pace pretty hard for the last mile or so.  We ended up around 11.25 miles in a little over 2 hours.  The portion of the trail we run is very difficult terrain but is very good for endurance training.  Weather was high 40s with a strong wind that made it feel much colder.  I guess winter is back again.  If the weather does not improve, I may be riding the trainer tomorrow.  That would be a beating.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/271375431

2.8.13

I woke up this morning and had to decide whether to swim or ride the bike.  Had I got up early enough, I may have been able to do both but I didn't.  Jeff brought the bike trainer by the house last night so hooked up road bike into the trainer.  I didn't have a chance to try it out.  I settled on going to the pool since my swim workouts have been light for the past few months and I need to get back in the water mentally.  My son and I are going to the Stars game tonight so I probably will not get a chance to ride on the trainer this afternoon.  I was able to knock out the 2400 swim pretty quick today.  The kick board part of the workout used fins today so that goes faster.  I don't really like using the fins.  I'm not sure why, it just feels awkward.  I guess it has a purpose so I'll do what the workout says.  I was supposed to do an hour on the bike or a short 4 mile run tonight but probably not happening.  I am going to reverse the workouts this weekend.  Run on Saturday and ride on Sunday.  We are supposed to get heavy storms on Saturday night which would wash out a trail run.  I like my weekend trail runs so opting for Saturday at Lake Grapevine is more appealing.  I have seen where there are varying theories on whether long runs should come before or after long rides.  Jeff has me do the long ride on Saturday followed by the long run on Sunday.  Every now and again, I swap the days but usually stick to the plan as much as possible.

2.7.13 Tempo Run

I felt a little sluggish this morning when I got up so I didn't know what to expect.  My water bottles for my fuel belt were in the dish washer waiting to be cleaned so I had to go with a hand held bottle.  I don't like the hand held bottles because I don't like holding anything in my hands when I run.  I checked the plan last night because I forgot what the times were for my tempo run.  They were faster than I remembered and I was having a hard time wrapping my head around completing this workout as designed.  The plan was 2 warm up miles, 2 miles at 8:00 pace, 1 mile at 9:00 pace, 2 miles at 8:00 pace, and 1 cool down mile.  I spent some time this morning trying to figure out how to work in the 8 miles and trying to find fairly flat sections for the 8:00 miles.  It was making my head hurt trying to figure it out so I just ran a route and whatever was coming, so be it. The two warm up miles were through a neighborhood and were pretty flat and my times were mid 9s.  I stopped at Lakeside Elementary School to eat a Cherry Lime Gu.  I tossed it in the dumpster before the fast miles so my pause resulted in a slightly higher time for mile 2.  I hit the Kroger at MacArthur and Sandy Lake and went west.  This is basically rolling hills that are predominately up hill.  I have never come close to running 8 minute miles up this stretch.  I decided to just dig in and go.  These two miles were completed at 8:15 and 7:52.  I did have to stop once for a car before I crossed a street so I think the first mile was really closer to 8:00.  I was really surprised at the speed.  My 9:00 mile would be mostly downhill so my route planning was either real good or real bad.  At the corner of Sandy Lake and Denton Tap, the Frost Bank had a covered wagon in the parking lot with some guys dressed up like cowboys and they were cooking breakfast.  I would have loved to stop, eat some breakfast and take a picture with them but I had to get going.  I had a conference call at 8am.  Bummer.  The downhill recovery mile was completed in 8:47.  A little fast but it was all downhill.  Staring at two more 8 minute miles, I got on the gas again going east on Parkway.  The first mile is a slow steady up hill climb for the entire mile.  I crested at Samuel and the next mile was a steady slow downhill.  If I could just work through the first one, the second should be ok.  I was able to maintain 8:02 throughout the first mile.  Once I went past Samuel, my pace picked up and I felt pretty good.  I misread my watch at about a half mile into the second 8:00 mile and thought I was almost done.  Once I realized I had another half mile left, I wondered if I could maintain the pace.  No problems though, I finished at 7:55.  Once the watch went off, I did stop and walk for about 100 yards and then picked up a nice recovery jog back to the house.  I don't know what to think of this new found speed.  It was really hard today but felt really good to continue getting good results.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/270618599

2.6.13

I have two workouts on the plan today.  I swam this morning and I am supposed to ride the bike for 70 minutes.  I don't know if I can get my ride in or not.  I don't have the trainer from Jeff yet and it will probably be too dark by the time I get home.  The swim went well today.  Lots of speed work.  Fast 25s and 50s going up in number of repititions.  I started checking the time on the fast 50s for the last set of 6 with :10 rest in between.  I was able to do all of them under :50.  The first few were at :45.  Not too bad, I think.  I haven't really paid that much attention before.  I am going to dedicate myself to working harder in the swim workouts for the next month to see if my ability to hold speed for a longer distance improves.  Jeff has me on a build cycle for the next few weeks so it will obviously be a few hard weeks of work.

2.5.13 Track Baseline - New Record

This was a pretty good day.  It was going to be a good day anyway because it's my son's 17th birthday today and that is something to smile about.  Happy Birthday Lance!  As mentioned in yesterday's post, Jeff had me take the day off and do a baseline this morning on where I am at.  I left the house around 6am and drove to the track.  I wanted the truck pretty close in case this wore me out and I had trouble getting home.  When I got to the track, it was fairly busy.  I think the Dallas Athletes are back and hard at work getting ready for the season.  They pretty much cleared out by 6:20 this morning so I had the track to myself for most of my run.  It was foggy and really damp today.  The temps were right about 58.  My workout was a warm up mile, one mile at 80%, 400 recovery (walk/jog), one mile at 90%, 400 recovery (walk/jog), one mile at 100%, 400 recovery (walk/jog), one mile cool down.  I was kind of hyped up for this and my warm up was a little hot.  My warm up mile was 9:19.  I really tried to go slow and just get loose and ready.  So here comes the first mile at 80% effort and the question in my mind is "What is 80% effort?"  I don't really run in those terms so I was just winging it.  I went with effort that was harder than a normal 5k or 10k pace but I still had something left in the tank.  I never looked at my watch.  I didn't want to be influenced in any way.  I had wind in my face on one straightaway and with me going the other direction.  I tried maintain the same pace running in either direction.  When my watch went off, I looked at the time and it was 7:36.  I had really anticipated being right around 8:00 so I was worried this was too fast.  How could I do two more miles faster than that?  I walked the 400 and geared up for the next mile.  I knew how hard I ran the last mile and tried to maintain a pace that was a little faster but knew I still wasn't maxed out.  I refused to look at my watch again.  I didn't want to be disappointed if my pace was slow due to being tired.  I felt pretty fast and once the lap finished, I thought it said 8:03.  It's hard to read the times without my glasses in the dark.  At that time, I was really pissed which was probably a good thing.  I had visions of going sub 7:00 for the last mile and I figured that dream was over at this point.  I actually ran 7:17 and was much closer than I thought.  I walked the 400, grabbed a gel and a drink of water, and fired myself up for the last mile.  Since I thought I was really slow on the second mile, I really amped it up this time.  After 2 laps, I seriously wondered if I could keep up the pace.  Any time my mind would wonder or try to give in, I picked up what I had and went faster.  At the end of the second lap, I glanced at my watch.  I was probably 50 yards past the second lap mark and my watch was in the 3:30s.  I was on pace to break 7:00 but I had 2 laps left.  I just ran at this point with anything I could muster.  I didn't look at my watch again until the curve before the last straightaway.  I was at something like 6:30 or so with a little over a 100 yards left.  This could actually happen.  Time to dig deep.  Once the watch signaled the mile was over, I hit the lap button and checked the time.  6:51.  Are you kidding me?  I have never run this pace for a 400, much less an entire mile.  I was very excited.  I haven't been that excited over running in a long time.  It felt like a big accomplishment.  I was beat.  My cool down mile was something like 10:12.  I remember when I started all of this 2 years ago.  10 minute miles were all I could do.  It was really hard to break through the 10 minute barrier back then and now I am breaking 7:00.  WTF?  That was alot of work to get to this point.  Jeff wanted me to let him know how this went today and usually I just send an email.  Not today.  I called him and delivered the good news.  It was much more noteworthy for me than just the run of the mill workout update.  I'm not exactly sure what this means yet.  I guess Jeff knows and will get me where I need to be.  I have no idea how it translates to race speed and at this point, I'm not sure I care.  All I know is I ran 6:51 mile today and that's cool. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/269969597

2.4.13 Off Day

Jeff suggested I take the day off for recovery purposes and get a baseline tomorrow on where I am at.  Tomorrow, I am going to the track and will do a warm up mile, one mile at 80% effort, 400 recovery, one mile at 90% effort, 400 recovery, one mile at 100% effort, 400 recovery and a cool down mile.  He is interested in the times for the 3 miles.  I really don't know what to expect so it will be interesting.  I figure to be somewhere in the high 7s to mid 8s as a pure guess.  I will be driving to the track tomorrow instead of my 1.5 mile run to/from the track as the warm up and cool down.  I figure this will be a really hard workout and driving home or at least having my truck close by is more comforting.  Jeff has my neighbors bike trainer and may drop it off with me tonight.  If he does, I will be able to get my bike workouts during the week in at night in the cozy confines of the house instead of braving the dark, mean streets of northwest Dallas County.

2.3.13 Trail Run Adventure

The Matrix and me decided to take a new route today, at least new to me.  Behind his building at work close to Trophy Club are some trails.  Rich knew his way around some of them.  I needed about 11 miles or 110 minutes.  We ended up doing 10.9 in 109 minutes.  He thought we may not have enough trail for that so we considered alot of different options.  Once we got about 4-5 miles in, there were trails that Rich did not know anything about.  We decided to venture into new territory and see where it went.  Hey, they were trails, you can't get lost right.  When we entered the new area there was a map.

Unfortunately, this map was useless.  We saw these in several locations but they never gave you the "You are Here" arrow.  We spent some time looking at these trying to figure out where we were but they never seemed to help.  Rich kind of knew where we were so we just kept going and decided if we went past the time or distance I needed today, we could always just walk out.  We crossed a few fairly large creeks, one led to another set of trails that we ran for a few miles.  I had just said to Rich, I am surprised we haven't seen any deer, when 5-6 does came running through the woods and crossed the trail about 100 feet in front of us.  It happened so fast, I couldn't get a picture with my phone.  One more doe followed the main group, I guess she got dropped from the group.  We kind of thought a buck may be in tow, but never saw another deer the rest of the run.  Here is Rich right after we saw the deer:

 

 

Kind of reminded me when I was a kid and we would explore trails and creeks all day long.  We had a blast today.  It's fun running new areas.  Breaks up the monotony.  I don't know where we are going next week.  May have to go back to Northshore next week.  Rich will be tapering for Cross Timbers.  We did some starting and stopping today, mainly because we were trying to figure out where we were, but we got a solid run in.  Nothing like a nice run in 60 degree weather in February.

 



http://connect.garmin.com/activity/269298905

2.2.13

Not a bad day for February.  It was a little cold this morning in the 40s around 8am.  By the time I left at around 9:30 it was sunny and in the 50s.  It looked like the wind was going to change from the South to the North at around 11 or 12.  I planned on 3 hours today so I tried to time it right so I would get the wind at my back.  It didn't exactly work out like I wanted.  My route goes basically to the NW going out and the S
E coming back.  The wind was from the E/SE on the way out so I was fighting it a little bit.  Once I got to the lake, it turned around from the N and started blowing hard.  Pretty hard work in that wind.  It didn't favor me too much on the way home as it seemed to shift to the NW.  Oh well, I should pay less attention and just go.  It was worth a shot.  I saw Jeff going the other way this morning.  I yelled at him but I don't know if he heard me or not.  I was pretty much on my own all day today.  I stopped out at the lake to check on my chair at our trailrunning turnaround spot.  It was underwater.  The lake looked like this from the Marina.

I tried to take the dreaded self picture with my new phone at the marina.  Much easier than my old phone with the camera that faces the screen.  The wind slowed me down some today but I was able to put 52.4 miles behind me in 3 hours and 22 minutes.  A little longer than the plan but what are you going to do.

2.1.13

It's been a few days since the last post.  Pretty busy at work and around the house this week.  I have picked up my usual schedule and will be swimming on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

1.30.13
On Wednesday, I completed the 2400 yard swim Jeff gave me.  My injury is better and the swim on Wednesday felt pretty comfortable.  The swim had some longer sets.  I have been toying with my swim stroke to try and get a little more power and speed.  Sometimes in the longer sets like a 3x300, it's hard to maintain focus and not get a little lazy.  I was supposed to ride the bike for an hour on Wednesday but I just can't get home in time to get out for an hour before the sun drops.  I hate the stationary bikes at the CARC and I don't have a trainer at home.  I guess that needs some reconsideration although in about 4 weeks, I should be able to get enough daylight to finish an hour on the bike.
1.31.13
Jeff had me scheduled for a Tempo Run at the track, actually more speed work.  I woke up at 5:30 and the temperature outside was 34.  My joints just don't work well in cold temps and certainly when I wake up due to the arthritis.  I checked the afternoon and it was going to be in the 60s.  No brainer.  Wait until after work.  I had not run this type of speed work and tempo together in a workout and it looked hard.  It was.  I had a mile warm up.  After the warm up, I did 4x400 at 1:45 (less than 7:00 mile pace) with 200 recoveries in between.  After finishing those intervals, I was to do 2 miles at 8:30 pace.  When those were complete, do another 2x400 at 1:45 with 200 recoveries.  Finally, a mile to cool down.  I did well.  The last two 400s were about 4 seconds slow at 1:49.  My 2 mile tempo run were under the expected pace.  It was a lot harder than I anticipated but what would you expect.  Jeff doesn't let me get comfortable and you don't get any faster slugging along at the same pace every day.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/268319558

January Totals:
Swim: 17,050 yards
Bike:  197.98 miles
Run:  84.10 miles
Strength:  9 hours

I had the injury that stopped me down for 4 days and my swim and bike are a little light.  I will probably roll out of the strength stuff and will continue more triathlon training for February.

2.1.13
I had another 2450 yard swim workout this morning.  My swim was pretty strong.  I had some speed sets in the swim today as well.  Several fast 50s.  I faded a little bit at the end of the 50s but were turning them over in :45-:50 seconds consistently.