Training - 26 Miles

I can't believe how fast time is flying!  Training is going very well, and I'm starting to string together some decent distances right now.  Since July 4th I'd been tossing around in my head about doing my own 'little' dualthlon.  Run - Bike - Run (3.1 Mile - 20 Mile - 3.1 Mile)  Well this weekend I did it.  The final 5k really hurt and I'd forgotten how difficult it is to transition into running after being on a bike for an hour, but I did finish the whole thing only having to walk a few mins over the final 2 miles.

I was kind of stupid to start this endeavor at 1:00 pm on Saturday in 82 degree heat, but I dressed for the occasion and drank plenty in the transitions and while I was out on the course.  I'm kind of surprised on how easy it was to complete the distance (just not very fast), and I'm starting to believe that I'm going to be able to finish my half marathon in September without walking.

My other workout have been pretty good also - my long run last week was 8.23 miles at a 10:23 pace.  The run itself wasn't too difficult, I did get a blister on my left pinkie toe for the first time in over 10 years..... While I was out on the course I'm guessing I could have run over 10 miles without stopping so I was happy with the workout, but my recovery afterwards really surprised me.  I ran my long run on Monday night and on Wednesday night I was still really sore.  I wasn't prepared for my body to be so slow in recovering from that effort, so I'll have to keep that in mind.

Abby and Cade in the rain.

Coming up this week I most likely will take it pretty easy.  I'm tossing around another 8 miler in  my head most likely toward the end of the week, depending on how my body reacts to my 'big' weekend this week. If I recover nicely I'm pretty sure I throw in an 8-10 miler, but if not, I'll most likely put some miles in on the bike and try to take it fairly easy.  I'm still looking at about 6 weeks before my run so I have plenty of time to get some long runs in, but the more I get in, the better my confedience will be when I toe the line on Sept 11th.

On my smaller runs/walks of 1-3 miles I've been searching out the local hills in the area to trek up.  I'm doing pretty well with this so I'll continue this practice unless my legs really need a break.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

Running / Softball and its Getting Late

I know I wanted to write some about my upcoming races, but it's already 11:30 pm and I'm pretty tired as I type this.  So the telling of the race plans is going to have to be put on hold for a day or two.

Today I got in another 2.2 mile run with the same old .3 mile cool down.  I ran fairly well and felt pretty good.  In fact, over the final mile I really slowed down on purpose because I didn't want to have two tempo (sub 10 min miles) on back to back days.  Granted the sub 10 min mile is pretty slow, but I feel pretty good overall, and I want to get in 4 miles tomorrow night.

This weekend looks like a 4 miler on Friday, a 16 mile bike ride on Saturday, and hopefully either a 20 mile bike ride or 5-6 mile run on Sunday - just depends on what the family has planned though.  If all goes to plan I'll have a eight day running streak going and I'll be feeling pretty good about my gearing-up for a 4th of July race I have planned.

I played softball tonight with my long standing Thursday night team - we're playing much better recently.   Actually we've won 4 straight and 5 out of the last 6.  I might have mentioned before, but I play second base for the team, and lately I've found my fielding range.  Somehow I'm getting really good 'reads' off the bad and I'm getting to balls that I couldn't have even dreamed of getting to last year.  Shoot tonight I almost made a play on a grounder that went to the left of our pitcher and left of second base.  If I hadn't hesistated as the ball passed the pitcher I could have dove for it and most likely made a play on the ball.  Still I made 6 of the first 9 putouts in a low scoring game.  Season ending game is next week - if we win we get second place, not bad for starting out loosing the first 4 games.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

Workouts Going Good

I haven't posted in a few days, but I'm still working out hard.  I've missed a few planned workouts so I have the 'guilt' thing going on, but I have to keep telling myself that in the big picture it's not going to matter that much.  My streak ended at 14 days - just too much rain to get out of the house over the weekend.  California just isn't used to getting 2-4 inches of rain in a 12 hr period.  The ground is just too hard (or made of concrete) to let that kind of water soak in.  And add the 4-6 inches we got last week; and the ground is totally saturated - I'm sure we'll get some more mudslides later this week when the next cold front rolls in (thursday).

P90x is going pretty good - week one is over (yesterday) and Beth and I only missed about 2 hrs of workouts during the week. Half of that was the day off stretching workout they have.  Bodywise I'm sore all over, and actually during my long run Sunday I was barely able to move my arms due to the fatague in my back and shoulders.  Still that run was nice.



My long run was 6.8 miles of 'hilly' terrian around my house.  Other than my shoulders and back I felt ok.  My legs were a little tired, but I was able to fight through that and I finished the run very strong (9:43 pace).  That's pretty fast for me and puts me right at a sub 60 min 10k that is my goal for March.  Considering that I was trying to keep the pace rather slow I'm pleased with the results.  Once again I'm going to go back to my improvement that is related to P90x.  With only a ween my pocket, I can attest that the program has given my confidencein my ability.  I'm pushing myself to the brink during the program workouts so I now know just how hard  can push myself during a run.  I thought I knew this already, but I didn't.

Tonight's run was sandwiched between my back/arm workout and my ab workout.  I only ran 2.3 miles plus a small cool down.  I started out just taking it easy, but I felt so strong after about 5 mins, I cranked it up a notch.  Then I cranked it up another - and finished with a 20:10 or a 9:03 pace.  That's 5k race pace for me!  And I did this on a hilly course!  My form near the end of the run was good, and I felt really strong.  I'm guessing if I really tried I could break 20 mins on this course - before too long I'll be logging a sub 9 min mile and that will be a major goal reached for me.

I'm thinking tomorrow I'm goig to try to get out on my bike.  It's been a month since my last ride - so I want to get some miles logged in the saddle.  Maybe 12-15 miles would be good.  I haven't decided if I'm going to add a run with this, but I'll have to play it by ear.  We'll see how I feel after my P90x morning workout.

I'm still following my 10k training plan but it being followed VERY loosely.  I'm getting the mileage in and maybe I'm doing just a few more tempo runs and now quite enough slow mileage.  I'm adare of this, and will try to adjust over the next few weeks.  I've also made another adjustment to the plan.  This weekend calls out a 5k race.  I was going to do this becasue I wanted to attempt a PB at this distance, but another blogger, (Becca) is holding a virtual 10k run over the weekend (12th, 13, or the 14th) so I decided I'll enter this.  If you want to join up, you still can, just check out the link and be ready to report your 'race'.

This week will be most likely mimial with posting - I'm working on taxes this week and I HAVE to get this finished.  I started this weekend, and hopefully I'll finished in the next few days bt until then I might not post as much as I'd like to.

Finally I'd like to welcome my new followers/stalkers.  Thank you for dropping by and reading what I have to say.  Seeing new followers always encourages me to write more and to share more.  Please feel free to ask questions, I'll try to answer anything brought to my attention - what I'm doing right, and what I might have done wrong.  I've been running now on and off for 30 years so I do have a lot in my head that I'm trying to get out. :)

Keep Steppin'
Bob

A So Called Rest Day

So yesterday was a rest day for me.  No I didn't break my streak (12 days now), I just took it really easy.  A couple walks and an easy 2.3 mile run.  Because I have put so many miles in for 2010 so far I wanted to take it really easy today but I didn't want to just sit on my butt.  Once again we had beautiful weather so I got out the door for the 2 miler around 7:30 pm.  With just a smattering of cloud cover, I did a VERY easy 9:50 pace.  This is pretty much what I want for my easy paced runs right now.  Just a tad under 10 min miles and I'll recover nicely.



This morning I woke with an upset stomach coupled with a pretty bad headache.  I know I haven't written about my headaches before, but I suffer from them daily.  I manage the pain pretty well and usually within 5 mins of waking I can tell how bad its going to be.  I've done everything possible to have this condition checked out but about 10 years ago I decided that I'll always have them and I'll just deal with it.  Most of the time I can just pop a few excedrine and I'm fine but every once in a while they just lay me out.  I try not to complain to my wife because I'm sure she doesn't want to hear it, and there's nothing I can do about them so complaining won't help.

Anyway this morning I could tell right away that it was going to be a struggle, hopefully when I get my run in today, it will clear my head a little, but with the stomach ache on top of it I'm a little worried I'm comming down with a little bug.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Today the plan is to get in a 4 miler with Bogey at about the same pace as yesterday's run (9:50).  That with the cool down and my walks to Abby's school should give me about 7 miles for the day which is exactly what I want.  On Wednesday (tomorrow) I already know I won't have any kids in the morning so I'm planning a duplicate of my cycling distance from last week (27 miles).  That ride took a lot out of my legs last week and I want to see a few things:

• Thursday and Friday last week were pretty tough - can I recover a little faster this time?
• The ride itself was pretty rough on my quads, can I do this ride on back-to-back without my body crashing during the ride?

I should have answers to these two questions by the end of the week.

On my last post I mentioned that I was concerned about getting in a 'long' run and a trial 10k before my 10k training schedule kicks into play - well another blogger Casey who writes Running After Violet is doing a virtual 10k run on the 23rd of this month so I signed up for it.  It fits my schedule pretty well and I'll still be able to get my attempt at 9-10 miles in this weekend.  So I get the best of both worlds....... :)  (BTW I don't think it's too late to sign up, come join us.)  So the plan is to do a 27 mile bike ride tomorrow and a 9-10 miler this Saturday, then the following Satuday I'll be attempting a PB at the 10k distance.....  Hmmmmm all the runs in-between are going to be VERY slow.  On top of this, I'm looking at my PB's yesteday thinking it would be nice to attempt a new PB at the 2 mile distance....... Maybe I can work this in next month.

I almost forgot to welcome my new followers!  Thank you for stopping by, leave comments, thoughts, questions - I'll most likely incorporate them into a post (or two).

Keep Steppin'
bob

I Did 26+ Miles - Cycling

The title says it all - yesterday was a very nice day.  I got out and walked a few times and also found myself without any kids so I got the bike down and went for a ride.  Just a little over 26 miles logged and I feel pretty good.  My quads are a little tired but nothing too bad, and my lower bad feels good also.  I'm a little surprised at how well my body has handled the increase in mileage so far this week.

The couse in itself wasn't too difficult, but I just wanted something fun. I wanted t go out and just enjoy myself on my bike. That I did - but now my rear end is just a little sore :).  But the best part is, I finally got my bike out of the rafters, and rode it for the first time in about three months.  I really need to incorporate riding into my workouts more.  I can really tell that it would help my overall fitness, and it keeps my workouts interesting...

This morning my body feels pretty good, I didn't take the girls to school (I had an interview instead) but I do plan on picking them up and doing an easy 3 miler with Bogey later this evening.  So far for the month I've logged 60+ miles and I can envision myself doing over 200 miles if I get another bike ride in later in the month.




Other than the ride, I did get in a few walks, to and from school, dropping off and picking up the girls.  But by about 7 pm I was shot and was asleep within a few hours of that.

So far this month I haven't missed a day, and I'mgoing to see if I can keep this going thoughout the month.  I've always liked streaks and maybe I can get a good one going here with all the nice weather we're having. 

Finally welcome to my 'new' readers.  Please take some time to read their stuff - very helpful, inciteful, and entertaining.  Hopefully my readership continues to grow as I because faster and stronger.


Keep Steppin'
Bob

Change of Plans.....

I kind of changed things this weekend. My knee was still tender to the touch, so I decided not to run my planned mile TT. I'll reschedule this for sometime in the next week. Instead I took the opportunity to pull out the bike and go for a ride. I always forget why I don't ride more - I enjoy it so much and yesterday was no exception to this. I started pretty late (5:00 pm) and tried to 'race' home the setting sun. 19 miles later I made it home just after the run sun dipped beyond the ridge that dominates the skyline at my house. I can't even start to describe what the sky looked like and I didn't have my phone so I couldn't even try to capture a picture.

I'm pretty pleased at where I'm at with my conditioning right now. I have plenty of room to improve but I'm making good progress. I think I'm going to have to try for a PB on Thanksgiving, I'll be in a better position to gauge my goal once I get in that mile TT though so I'm waiting until I get that run in before I set any concrete goals for that race.

Stock wise, I got caught with RIMM stock last week and took a pretty big hit before I dumped it. I did capture back some of my losses by getting in on a option put with RIMM, but the damage was already done. Today is another day and the market is doing well and I'm about 1/3 of the way back as of right now so I'm doing ok. My buy stock today is YGE. Chinese solar stock that does pretty well fundamentals are ok, but I'm looking for a move off the $12 range up to about $16. The big investors are putting money into the account, and if I can capture just a single point here that would be nice.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

10 Days and Counting + A Lazy Day

Well I'm deep into a consecutive day streak now - 10 days and going strong. Yesterday I only did 2.7 miles though. Instead I played about an hour of B-ball with Alex. Damm he's good - I'm just not fast enough on my feet as I used to be...... Still it was a good workout.

I just found out that the whole factory is taking this Friday off, it was supposed to be a half day so I'll have to use a few hours of sick pay, but that also means I'll be able to put in a long run on Friday. Originally I had planned for a long run on Easter (7 miles) but I just may attempt this PB in distance this Friday.

Currently I'm on pace for 85 miles this month, so once again I'm off to a good start. My average pace is off quite a bit though - but I'm not worried about that because I'd rather get more constant in my month mileage than average pace. I figure pace will come down over time.

This week I hope to log about 30-35 miles if everything goes according to plan - that means I'll extend my current consecutive days streak to 15 by this Saturday. That would be a PB also. Today my legs are a little sore and tired - but not too bad considering how I've upped my mileage over the past two months.

I have about 25 miles run on my new Brooks GTS 8's so far. I want to have about 50 miles done before I write a fair review on them - so hopefully sometime next week I'll post what I think.

Also I'll be treating my 7 miler on Friday like a race and include a full race report for you guys - hopefully it will be an interesting read for you all.

Finally - in regards to my cycling neighbor...... I still owe you guys the 'full story' but I haven't gotten it yet. (Actually I'm kind of afraid to ask.) But I'll make a few inquiries on the block this weekend.......

Keep Steppin'
Bob

BIke Ride

Sunday was a good day. I got on my bike and rode 13 miles with my neighbor. He's about 10 years younger and a former tri guy. In fact I've been told through the grapevine (street gossip) that he tried out for the US Olympic decathlon. This I haven't confirmed yet but sooner or later I'm going to have to ask him. Either way I was glad for the company - he's a good guy. And he helped me power up the hills.

Monday I ended up running about 6 miles total. Legs feel pretty good, and my conditioning seems pretty good also. Actually I'm surprised because I've only had 3 days off this month. I was sure two weeks ago when I upped my mileage that I was going to get fatigued in my legs but that hasn't happened. If fact yesterday I felt stronger overall that I had in a long time. Hopefully this will continue for a while.

The rest of the week should be the same as last week - I'm shooting to log another 12-15 miles this week putting me at 30 for the week (including cycling). Another solid week so I can't complain.

Keep Steppin'
Bob