Much too long since an update

I've been training, but not to the mileage volume I need to be. As the weather warms, I'm getting more motivated. I got in a nice hour run up in the catskills on friday. Its amazing how great a run can feel when you are in the mountains. The air feels fresh and you are surrounded by nature. I really wish I would have taken my bike with me, as there was plenty of great riding up there, however, I really wouldn't have had much time to ride.

I drove back today and got in an hour and a half. I ran from my place to the Williamsburg Bridge. I went over and back twice and then wound my way back home along the water and around McCarren Park. Not bad, but I need to get in 2-3 hours tomorrow. Hopefully closer to 3, but we'll see what kind of endurance I have on the second day. I haven't built up to back-to-back long runs being the norm again, so its a fairly daunting task as least for the next couple weeks. Eventually I will be knocking out 3-4 hours on back-to-back days and not even thinking about it twice.

TIR Results

Well, it didn't go as well as we had hoped. We finished 3rd overall. I'm disappointed, but I had a lot of fun, so that's what really matters in the end. We averaged just over 6:33/mile as a team, which is pretty fast.

I was one of the slower guys. My fitness level is/was way down, but even in good shape I still would have been on the slower side of things for our team.

My results:

Leg 5: 2.45 miles, 6:39 pace
Leg 14: 4.69 miles, 6:57 pace
Leg 24: 5.43 miles, 7:18 pace
Leg 35: 5.18 miles, 7:17 pace

Not bad for being "out of shape."

I'll try and get some pictures and a race report up soon.

Three down

I just finished my third leg and I feel awful. My fitness just isn't there after these months of recovering from injury. The heat isn't helping either.

Overall, we are still doing good, but its going to be hard to recover from a mess up earlier where a runner missed a turn and we lost about 15 minutes. There's a couple other pretty good teams.

At least I only have one more leg, so I'll just leave it all on the course...whatever I have left anyway.

Looking good

We've definitely got more competition than we thought, but we are cruising along. Currently at exchange number 8. My first leg was awful. It was short, but the wind was blowing in my face the entire time. However, I ended up running faster than I thought, so that is good. We've already passed a number of teams.

Terrible workout

I did speed work with Run Club last night and it was awful. I ended up doing about 4 miles and it felt slow and difficult. I hope its not indicative of my performance in the relay this weekend.

Then I managed to miss my flight this morning, somehow sleeping through my alarm, but I'm on a flight now.

Sick days...

Developed a sickness yesterday, which is still lingering today. I stayed home from work today, but I'm hoping to be back at work tomorrow. The foot feels fine today, we'll see how it feels when i hit the pavement tomorrow. I've got one week before I start training, so we'll see.

In other news, it looks like there will be a new Ironman in St. George starting in 2010. We rode through there during TX4K, and I think its an excellent area for the race.

Long run saturday

I took a quick run around the block to test out my foot and it felt ok. I met up with Chad and we did a little over 10 miles through the park. I switched back to my Lunars and it seemed to help with the pain. I didn't really feel it much at all. My foot felt "sore" after the run, so I iced it down pretty good. I'm really not sure what to do at this point.

Friday Workout

I went and picked up a new swim suit, which proved to reduce drag significantly in the pool. I lifted biceps and back and the filled 15 minutes with the stationary bike before hitting the pool. Got in 30 minutes and then sat in the sauna for 15 minutes while doing some planks (which left my abs very sore). Afterward I tried out the new Nike Start shoes, which proved to not help my foot condition at all. I think they run a little small, but my foot was hurting pretty bad after only 30 minutes. I came home and iced it down, but it remained pretty sore.

#1 Seed

The start times for the Second Annual Texas Independence Relay were released today.

Guess what? City Coach is the number one seeded team in the race.

2:10 pm on March 7th will be time to start our domination...

Catching up

I've just been continuing with the usual 30 minute swims and 5-6 mile runs. Been doing a few 7 mile interval runs with Run Club on wednesdays.

Last Thursday we had Chris Bergland come speak to run club. Chris is my old boss from JackRabbit. The group really seemed to receive him well, and I think the event went great. People were intrigued. It was good to see Chris and to catch up.

The biggest recent news is that I'm very likely going out to Badwater this year to help crew and pace for Pam Reed. One of our runners, who I talk to quite a bit due to a Texas connection, was Pam's book agent for "The Extra Mile" and crewed for her last year. It was mentioned that Pam was possibly looking for crew for this year if I was interested. Well, I am/was. Information was exchanged and Pam called me the next day.

I went XC Skiing and Snowshoeing at saturday, which was nice cross-training. I ended up with some weird illness that struck mid-day saturday and led to almost uncontrollable shivering, fever, and aching pains for most of saturday night. I woke up yesterday feeling fairly normal, so I'm not sure what it was. However, it caused me to miss an opportunity to go snowboarding yesterday.