8.1.13 Tempo Run

Out for a 4 mile Tempo Run this morning.  Scaled back slightly because of my race on Sunday.  Summer is definitely in full swing now.  It was hot and humid this morning.  Usually, August is warm but the humidity isn't very high because we get no rain.  Not today.  Felt like a little bit of Houston dropped in on us.  I'm still not feeling very good after Mexico but I made it today.  Not a stellar performance but it will do.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/351872297

7.30.13 Track Run (Sort of)

Tuesday is usually a track workout and that is what I got from Jeff.  However, I wasn't feeling great after the trip so I made an attempt to create the workout from the house.  I measured around our block and it is .4 miles to make one loop.  My workout called for a warm up mile, 5x 800 at 3:35-3:45 with 2-3 minute recovery, and a cool down mile.  Easy enough.  I backed up one tenth from my house and ran a half mile before backing up down the street to do the next interval.  I'm sure anyone looking outside was wondering why I kept running by at 6:30am.  I doubt anyone was really paying attention.  My pace was good and I was faster than the designed time.  All of my laps were in the 3:25-3:32 range.  I didn't remember what I was supposed to do actually and just ran at about 90%.  It was hard but I was encouraged with the times.  I think my legs are finally coming back to me.  Hopefully, I will be back for the race on Sunday.  Nice improvisation today.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/350663578

7.29.13 Swim

Monday is swim day.  I picked one of my shorter 2100 yard swims for today.  I was still a little tired this morning so I didn't want a heavy swim today.  The first 10-15 minutes were a little sluggish but I felt pretty good after that and got into a pretty good groove.  Jeff sent my workouts for the next two weeks today.  He is going to be in Colorado for the burro race in Leadville this coming weekend.  My first Olympic distance race for the year is on Sunday and it is race #4 in the tri series.

7.28.13 Northshore Trail Run

I was going to ride the bike on Sunday since I had not ridden in a week.  When we got home from Mexico, my bike had a flat on the bike tire and the wheel was out of round.  I decided to run with my trail crew on Sunday morning and get my bike fixed later in the day.  The Matrix is going to do the Leadville 100 race in Colorado in a few weeks and he was doing his last long training run at close to 50 miles.  Joe and I were going to pace him for the last portion of his run.  I think Joe was picking him up with twelve to go and I was going to meet them at Murrell Park for the last seven.  I wasn't real intersted in speed so a nice easy pace with Rich was fine with me.  I was still really tired from the plane trip home.  I won't see these guys for a few weeks so it was good to get a run in.

Back From Mexico

 

I spent last week in Mexico but was able to get some work in.  I took Monday off since it was a travel day.  It was my wife's birthday on Tuesday so I wanted to get everything out of the way as soon as I could, so happy birthday to Patty.  I woke up at around 6:30 and swam for 50 minutes.  I estimated the pool at 70 yards in length based on stroke count.  The pool wasn't really built for swimming laps but it worked out just fine.  It had an island in the middle with a fountain that had to be avoided. 

Another obstacle each morning was the pool cleaner.  It was a bummer swimming over the top of the hose. 

After my swim, I went back to the room.  My wife and I had breakfast next to the pool.  I decided to go ahead and do a five mile run.  The sun was up and it was getting warm.  I found a bar next to the pool and asked the bartender to have a glass of water for me each time I ran by.  It was a mile and a half from one end to the other so I just ran back and forth until I got to five miles.  My guy in the bar was right on each time by.  It was a really tough run that day.  Each day was happy hour at the pool.  We met a bunch of people at the swim up bar and pretty much hung out with them all afternoon every day we were there.  It was alot of fun.  The next day, the resort was putting on a 5k race around the resort.  They actually called it a 5k marathon, which was kind of funny. 

I was supposed to do 3 miles on Wednesday, so it was right on plan and was a good opportunity to stretch my legs and see where I was.  The resort did not do a very good job of keeping everyone on the right path.  There were alot of twists and turns.  I was with the leaders for the first mile but a few guys were faster than me.  I ran with a woman who was training for a real marathon in Hartford.  She was fast and was turning miles at the same basic 7:30 pace I was running.  The two guys in front took a wrong turn and headed towards the highway.  We did an extra loop somewhere as well and fell behind when the gate wasn't open we were supposed to run through.  We caught the rest of the group and were in the lead again.  I actually won the race despite not being the fastest runner.  The funny thing was the 5k ended up being 2.25 miles.  I asked the woman running with me if she wanted to run an extra mile so we did that and called it a day.  My miles were all in the 7:20-7:30 range.  I was happy.  We took a tour into the jungle and climbed a Mayan ruin.  I don't know what that counts for in the exercise department but it was really cool.  Over a hundred steps to the top of the ruin.

We swam in a Cenote and zip lined across a lake as well.  It was a full day. 

 

On Thursday, I only swam in the morning.  This time I swam for 62 minutes.  It was probably at least 3000 yards in the pool.  On Friday, I ran another 5 miles as soon as the sun came up.  Much better running before the sun starts beating on you in combination with 100% humidity.  It was a nice easy pace.  I was too early for my bartender so I just powered through the five miles and grabbed some water afterwards.  Saturday was a travel day so no workout.  I was happy with getting some work in early in the morning and was able to have the whole day for having fun.  I gained a few pounds while on vacation but it should fall off quickly once I get back into a good routine. 

 

7.21.13 Bike

Since I will be on vacation next week, I decided to ride the bike again today instead of running.  My legs were shot from yesterday.  My neighbor Justin went with me today and we met Brandon who was going to do 100 miles today.  We rode a loop through Irving that is about 30 miles and takes around 2 hours to complete.  Perfect for me, it's all I wanted today.  The hills in Valley Ranch were an ender for me on the day.  My legs were dead after climbing.  They broke off close to the house and I headed home.  I will not be doing anything tomorrow.  I'm not sure if I will have internet access for the next week or not.  I'm mostly going to be relaxing but I should be able to get n some short runs and swims this week.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/345909717

7.20.13 Long Ride

I sent Jeff a text and asked him if he was riding today and how fast.  He is training for the World Championships in Vegas.  I can't hang if he is going to go smoking fast.  He was going on a longer slow ride today so I met him at Andy Brown park at 6am.  He was having problems with his rear wheel.  We were going to ride for about an hour and then come back to the park to pick up some others.  When we took off from the park, his wheel was making some weird noises and was out of true.  We headed back to my house and gave him one of my wheels not in use right now.  Seemed to solve the problem.  I forgot to air my tires so we got that taken care of as well.  We were able to ride for about 30 minutes and headed back to the park.  I didn't plan on going with the group that was doing 70+ miles today so I took off with Marie and Tom.  They planned on doing 40ish.  We kind of got lost a little bit and next thing I knew Jeff made an appearance behind us.  We rode out to Highland Village and then worked our way west to familiar roads.  A guy named Lane hooked on with us and we headed out towards Hilltop Road.  I suddenly felt my back tire going a little soft.  I had a slow leak and was going flat.  Bummer.  After changing my flat, we headed on down the road.  I decided to stick with Jeff since I didn't have a spare.  We headed out over 35W to Robson Ranch and then started to work our way back.  We came across a woman Jeff knew that was having a problem with her bottle cages.  We got her fixed and then headed on back.  I only planned on about 3 hours and I ended up going 4:15:21 for 70.68 miles.  I'm not going to ride next week because we will be on vacation so I need some miles.  I'm going to ride tomorrow morning with Justin instead of running.  I was definitely tired at the end.  I don't know what I have left in the tank for tomorrow but I'm sure it will be ok.  The weather is awesome for July.  Hard to pass up comfortable riding conditions.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/345447292