Shenny Beach

Today I went out for a run and was fortunate enough to catch up to a work collegue of mine who was going in for a swim at a beach I hadn't been to before. It was great - the lengths were long (0.1 miles, ~200 yards), and we did four of them, good for about 2.5 eq.miles. With the run 3.2 miles, we covered about 5.7 total today. The water felt great. I even said 'hello' to my first jelly fish of the year (bicept of the left arm). More important was my ailment seems to have faded some - I felt good hitting the road for the first time in a while.

Sick Week

Not in the good way either. My daughter had me up all night Monday night with some stomach bug and I think I've had it since Wednesday. The run Wednesday felt horrible. I skipped Thursday and then did the same loop again today (3.8 miles around Avery Point) - but at a snails pace. Not the best week. Nevertheless, I managed 17 miles. Hopefully I can come back strong on Monday.

First Open Water Swim!

First of the year - just beat the thunderstorms. The run too and from the beach is 1.5 miles each way and the swim was probably a little of 1/4 mile (good for another 1.5 equivalence miles). The swim part felt difficult. I wasn't use to the current and hadn't went swimming in a few weeks - hopefully it'll get easier. And for the kids - if you'd like to dress up as a running dork for halloween - feel free to copy the costume shown to the right: complete with Richard Simmons shorts.

Triathlon Training Begins

So my next goal is the Pfizer sprint triathlon, to be held Thursday August 7th. This 'goal' is more of a training schedule designed to make the summer a little more tolerable. The real goal is week to week: keep up the overall mileage and aerobic conditioning with at least one swim/bike/run per day. This will last for about 6-8 weeks, then I'll start thinking about getting faster for my fall runs.

Today, I did ~5 miles running. We have some thunderstorms rumbling through our area, so I wimped out of biking or swimming. I have to be home early tomorrow, so I'll probably do another run or swim at lunch.

JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

Last night I did the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge with the team. A good run for most, but I think I didn't do so hot. I had a good start: 6:40 first mile, ~13:20 the second, but then I had to stop for water and coasted in at 24:22 for the 3.5 miles. That's a 6:57 pace. I should mention that map my run has a post with the distance at 3.66 miles - which would drop the pace to 6:40, it's probably somewhere in the middle. The weakly total was ~15 miles - I'll get back to normal next week.

CWS.

Well, my first College World Series was awesome. I was able to hang out with my dad and nephew for four full days of baseball, baseball and more baseball. It was almost too much baseball: we didn't eat out once (just ballpark food) and saw nothing but Rosenblatt stadium - I suppose that's why they want to move it to downtown Omaha. We stayed across the river in Council Bluffs Iowa at a Holiday Inn. Unfortunately, we never figured out how to get to the trail along the river, so I had to do my runs in a brutally hot gym on the treadmill. I was also stuck in flood-ravaged Iowa Saturday morning, so I missed my interval run. In all, I did 4.5 Sunday, 3.5 Monday and 3.0 miles on Tuesday. Of course, I can't feel sorry for myself after seeing first hand the devistation in Iowa. Cedar Rapids was completely underwater and the 'surge' is slowly moving south - wiping out towns along the way. Having said that, the detour route through Iowa proved to be many miles of beautiful country side - I surprisingly loved Iowa. On the flip side, I'm big time pissed at Southwest Airlines. I never felt completely stranded by an airline before, but that's basically they're plan for us (many of us) stuck at Midway last Friday. SWA - fu!

Three runs and off to Omaha

I managed three runs in the last three days. Tuesday's involved sweltering heat and I couldn't get out until 3:00 PM. It was miserable, but I managed about 6 miles at a relaxed pace. I felt pretty overheated the rest of the day and crashed that night - but felt fine the next day. Yesterday I went out for a quick 3 miles down to Easter Point beach. I had heard that the water was warm the day before, but it felt pretty cold - not ready yet. Today I did 4.5 miles including a 2 mile 'time trial'. I think I ran 2.1 miles in about 14 minutes - but it felt hard. I don't think I can hold that pace for the 3.5 miles I'll need next Thursday.

Tomorrow I'm off to Omaha for the CWS. Neither the Sun Devils or Wildcats made it - so I'll just have to chill and enjoy the experience.

Another Knarly Ride

So I've pretty much put to rest my reservations about biking in. I love it now. Did the to and from work ride again - 18 miles round trip (4.5 eq.miles). I still need to get use to my routine - I remembered to shave yesterday, but forgot my belt this morning, so I was walking around work like a belt-less dweeb. Tomorrow I'm crunched for time, so I'm aiming to knock-off work a little early and do my 'long' slow run - but it's pretty hot and humid so I'll be holding it to ~6 miles.

A Few Days Off

I took advantage of the rain to bag my bike in yesterday. I'll take today and tomorrow off from training as well. I still managed 24 miles - in four days! Not bad. Next week's schedule looks like: Bike, Long or Trail run, Swim and 2 mile time trial (4 total). Then I have a travel Friday to Omaha for the College World Series. Once there, I still plan on running: a 5x1000 interval session Saturday, a long run Sunday, a short run Monday and another short run with 6x40 second intervals Tuesday.

The remained of this weekend will be spent eating, napping, watching the NCAA Baseball Super Regionals (i love college baseball) when I'm not attending to the kids needs. Oh, and a ball room dance tonight with my lovely wife.

Long Run at Bluff Point

I made it over to Bluff Point after work for a 51 minute run. I did the normal Bluff Point loop in about 32 minutes, then headed over to Haley farm for 8 minutes, before coming back to the parking lot (8 minutes + 3 from the original fork). It was probably 6 miles, or a little over. It felt good, although my running shorts really shafed my legs.

Swim Night

Nothing much. Just 1250 yards at the pool. ~4.5 eq. miles. I'll probably run tomorrow and bike friday.

Tempo-ish Run

Today I had planned to do hills, but opted instead to do a 1-mile break, 1-mile interval/tempo run. I did this last year for the 1/2 marathon (3-mile intervals), and I decided to bag the hills because my friend said that the NYC JP Morgan course isn't very hilly. So I did 1 mile warmup, 1 mile sub-seven, 5 minutes of easy jogging, 1 mile sub-seven and 1 mile cooldown - good for ~4.5 miles. The intervals felt very challenging. However, the workout was easier than what I've done in the past (either 3x1mile or 3 mile tempos).

After 2 days, my mileage is up to 14. I'll probably try and swim tonight, bike tomorrow and long run Friday.

Another Combo Day.

Monday morning. My car is in the shop. So I bike in (9 miles), run at lunch (5 miles) and bike home (9 miles). This is getting easy. Tomorrow may be more difficult. I hadn't really planned on biking into work 2 days in a row. But the car isn't ready, so why not? My 'equivalence' mileage could be getting up there this week (I'm looking at 24 miles with a day off!).