Excellent Bike Ride

  I switched up my weekend long workout to add the 5k Bun Run race this Sunday so I biked today instead of this Sunday. Tomorrow will be a long run and long swim. I am excited about the Bun Run but I don't plan on race-racing it. Sound familiar Amy? My good friend Escooby who is new to running wants to do the race and I told him that I would go with him. I just really like the atmosphere on race day. There is an excitement in the air that just isn't there on a "regular" run day. Although I still hope to set a PR (currently holding a 22:19 for 5k) my intention is to not go for broke. But having good intentions is one thing...
  The ride today with Mark was great. We went out Bee caves road and 620 to Mansfield Dam and back. There are a few big hills out there and I was trying to push my pace. I ended up averaging 17.9 mph for a total of 35 miles. Mark as always is a wealth of information on triathlons so I got to pick his brain a bit for some of the ride.
  In local Oskar news we took the canoe out on Lady Bird Lake yesterday for about an hour. He did very well and is learning to be calm in the boat. He will jump in when he can see the bottom and swim around for a bit. I am feeling a river camping trip in the near future with old Oskar pretty soon.

Included here are pics from my Bike ride last Sunday out between Decker Lake and Manor.

Rest day here I come

  I am done till friday. Thursday is a rest day so Oskar and I are planning on taking the canoe out for a couple of hours tomorrow.

Yesterday was an amazing run and much needed after Saturday's grueling trial. Oskar and I went down to the greenbelt and did a 6 mile trail run from twin falls to the top of "The Hill of Life" and back. It took us under an hour. Oskar did great. I started him off leash and let him sprint ahead. He would wait until I caught up to him and then sprint ahead about 20 or 30 yards. Every 1/4 mile he seemed to get more confident and sprint farther up so eventually I put him back on the leash so he would stick with me. I let him go at "The Hill Of Life"  and he ran ahead of me but just right ahead of my steps. He didn't seem interested in sprinting up that rocky hill and neither did I. I came home and did an easy 45 minute spinout on the bike.

Today was bicycle hill repeats. I parked at Deep Eddy pool and got a 2 mile warm up before I tackled the scenic hill 6 times. Hill repeats are not complicated. Fist you find a big hill. Then you go up it. Then you go down it. Then you repeat. See easy right? I rode back to Deep Eddy and swam about 2/3 a mile before the cold forced me out again. Finished for the day and now Oskar and I will be playing at Shoal Creek for the next hour or so.

Back to Earth

   Okay so I am learning. I will admit that much. I did my long swim, run and bike this weekend but fell short of all three distance goals. It went down like this.
 
Friday was supposed to be a 2 mile swim. That is almost twice as far as I have gone before but I am trying to push myself. I swam at Deep Eddy and got in over a 1.5 mile swim but actually ran out of time and had to go to work. I am glad I got out when I did because I think I was feeling some ill effects of the water temp that was pretty cold. They say the water is somewhere between 62-68 degrees and I swam for almost an hour. I felt really weird for the next couple of hours and couldn't feel my fingers or toes for quite a while.  Driving to work an hour later with the windows up and no a/c in 90 degree heat for 20 minutes and my skin still felt cool by the time I got there. Oh well. Another lesson learned...I think.

Saturday was supposed to be a long 14 mile run with Rogue but ended up a 12 mile slog fest alone. That was one of my more difficult runs in a while. My head and heart were just not in it and every step seemed like a chore and not a blessing. I got through it and rested for the remainder of the day. I love running but every once in a while a run is just plain hard. It could have been I was missing my running friends, a warmer than normal start time, or a lack of Oskar yanking my arm...who knows. But it did make me stronger mentally and physically.

Now Sundays ride was my favorite workout of my long three. I orginally wanted a long slow 50 mile ride but settled for a hilly, windy, 30 mile ride out around Decker Lake to Manor and back. It is so beautiful out there. Horses, cows and a dog that chased me for a bit. I am usually out there for the Decker 1/2 marathon in November and it is usually cold, rainy, wintery weather. This time the sun was out in the mid 80's and except for the 18 mph wind gusts it was perfect. I could hear Amy's sweet voice in my mind riding up the hills with a pretty nice headwind, "Wind only makes you stronger"

So far today Oskar and I did a casual 5 mile run on Lady Bird Lake and got quite a surprise. I passed my friend Christina on the trail whom I have known since my first Rogue Running training group Bobby Garcia's "Sole Survivors". She said she reads this blog all the time and that made me feel pretty darn good. I smiled for the whole next mile. Thank you very much Christina.

 Now off to swim then my core workout and I can call it a day.

Run/Bike/Core

  I am very thankful for my recovery day today. Everything seems to be sore today. I take that back. My fingers don't seem to be sore so that's pretty good right?
  Yesterday was Fartleks around Lady Bird Lake with Oskar. Fartlek is just a fancy name for speed work. I basically ran fast for 30 seconds and slowed down for 2 minutes and repeat for 4 miles. Oskar loved it actually. Or at least I think he did. After that I came home and did an hour on the trainer followed by about 30 minutes of core work that I tried to remember from my day at Jack and Adams.
  Seriously I am sore from head to toe, minus the fingers and well my toes aren't sore now that I think of it. Today is a total rest day. All I will do is rest, hydrate, and stretch a little.


Friday=long swim 2 miles
Sat= long run 14 miles
Sun=long ride 50 miles

hopefully

Halfway There...well sorta

    The goal is to build for 3 weeks and recover for a week, rinse and repeat for 5 months. Right now I am in the middle of week 2 so just another week and a half until recovery week. At the end of recovery week is my first race, The Rookie. May 9th at the Texas Ski Ranch. It is a super short sprint race consisting of a 300 meter swim, 11 mile bike and 2 mile run. I cannot wait but I am definitely a little nervous.
  Yesterday was another big day. On the bicycle I only did 6.67 miles.......but it was hill repeats up Mt. Bonnell. I could only scrape together three of them but they were quality runs for sure. After that I came home ant did 3X20 Tire Flips with rope pull ups and push ups. Next it was dog park with Oskar for an hour then Big Stacy time where I got out the pull buoy and pulled (swam) a mile.
   The lane etiquette at that place is so funny. They have three roped off lanes and then an open swim area. So if it is crowded there it kind of sucks. Not to mention that if you ask people to swim 3 in a lane doing circles they look at you as if you just ran over their cat. Yesterday was a strange one. I had been waiting for about 30 minutes for a spot. There were 6 people in 3 lanes. One guy got out of lane 2. Right then a women, who didn't know I was waiting in line, made a move for the lane. I politely pointed out her mistake and proceeded to lane 2. Right then this creepy dude from lane 1 moves over to swim with the girl that was still in lane 2 but spent most of her time chit chatting with the lifeguard while a few of us were waiting for her to get out. Frustrating right? Well once creepy guy showed up she got out. I moved my stuff to lane 1 to take his spot.Before  I got in the water a women from the open lanes just moved over like there was no line. I asked her, "Soooo I guess you are going to move over and swim here?" And she goes, "Oh sorry, yep." ARRRGGGHHHH! So I go back over to the open swim area where you can still swim laps but you gotta dodge other people veering into your path. It was quite comical actually.
  Now today is bike/run/core day. Woo Hoo!

Two-A-Day Time

   Oh man was Monday a great workout day. I got started a little later than I wanted to because I was keeping tabs on my friends running Boston and watching the Nascar race. I started off the swim at Big Stacy. I did a 200 (264 meter) warm up followed by 12X50 (66 meter) sprints resting 20 seconds and then another 200 (264 meter) cool down. By the last couple of sprints my lungs were on fire and today my shoulders are definitely sore. Total distance was 1320 meters or .82 miles.
  After that it was a quick drive home to scarf down an egg and cheese bagel sandwich before my core class at Jack and Adams. If you have the time and are ever in the mood for a humbling core workout I highly recommend Jack's free core class. It was probably about 40-50 people lying on towels or yoga mats in the middle of their parking lot being tortured by a very sick individual. I joke about the sick individual part because he was actually great and demonstrated all of the moves. Talking with my roommate Steven I have decided that there is no way that I could push myself on my own to do the amount of work on my core as I did in that class. So it looks like Jack's core class is on my list of reoccurring activities, and nightmares. So yes an hour of soul searching on the pavement of Jack and Adams and I was done.
  Except for a still had a run scheduled. Oskar and I did a easy 4 mile run around Lady Bird Lake and that was my day. Man I am tired just writing about it.  Today is Bike/Swim day. Hooray!

Weekend Workouts

Thursday: Rest Day (ssshhh...hangover day as well). To be fair it was the day after I went to see Old 97's and I had already scheduled it for a hangover..I mean rest day.

Friday: Crappy weather no long swim, so an hour on the trainer.

Saturday: A 10 mile run with Rogue averaging 8:40 minute miles. I felt great.


Sunday: A 41 mile bike ride from my house to Buda and back. Rode by a friends house who I haven't seen in about 4 years. Stopped for a quick break and a rapid catch up and then back on the rode.

Now it's time for some lunch with Oskar. I am currently looking for dog friendly eating establishments. End of a great week of training. New week starts tomorrow.


GOOD LUCK TO BOSTON MARATHONERS ON MONDAY!!!!

I've found an Angel

If you have never seen an Angel then pan your eyes to the right and look at this wonderful woman. Today she donated almost 2 hours of her time to coach me through a tough brick workout. So if you happen to see this amazing lady on the street give her a hug, or cookies, or a smile or something else just as nice.
  The workout went like this: 4 mile bike loop followed by a 1 mile run. (Actual distances are slightly lower, I am rounding up)
Sounds simple right? Well hang on there for a sec there friend. The effort level wasn't all out gut busting as Amy put it but a strong pace. So I did a warm up loop on the bike at an easy pace then sped up for the workout. The point of the workout is that the lactic acid buildup from the cycling has to be worked out of your legs while you are running. Your legs feel like "bricks" for at least the first 1/2 mile of the run. I did 4 bike loops with 3 run loops right after. So basically it was bike, transition, run, then rest and repeat. Whew! What a workout.
   Thank You again AMY!!!!
On a side note I just bought a new watch for my race the other day. I usually use a Timex but switched to the Soleus 10K because it is a lot easier to see your times as you a going. I wear it on the bike, swimming and running. Here is a link if you are interested:

2 day catch up

Race is over and now it's back to work.
  Monday was great. I started with a 21 mile bike ride on the modified inner city loop. I averaged 16 mph, felt strong the whole time and got to use my aerobars once  I got onto shoal creek and Great Northern Blvd. I came home and did some core work on the swiss ball followed by 3X20 tire flips. After all of that I drove down to Big Stacy for some laps. I grabbed the pull buoy and swam (pulled) 1000. An hour later I was hiking walnut creek with Oskar, Lucy and Emily. I had no trouble sleeping last night.
   Today Oskar and I did a quick 4 mile loop around Town Lake averaging 8 minute miles. He wanted to go faster but I kindly disagreed. Oskar did really well on the leash. It was a late morning crowd so there weren't that many people, more importantly dogs, on the trail. I met Emily at Big Stacy for day 2 of swimming. I did a 200 warm up followed by 8X50 sprints on 1:10 with 20 seconds rest. I did them a tad too fast and ended up getting a 26-30 sec rest on most of them. I finished by pulling easy for 400 while working with Emily on her stroke. Oskar and I came home to some more swiss ball core work. If you want to do something really hard, lie on a swiss ball in the plank position on your elbows. Now draw the alphabet slowly with just your elbows without falling off. Mucho difficult. I decided to mix up the tire flips so instead of 3X20 I did all 60 straight through. Off to work and then another good nights rest.
  Tomorrow is a brick workout with Amy. I'm sooooo excited.

Race Report, Warning! it's kinda long

Cap Tex 10K Race Report:
                     Weather: Muggy, humid, upper 60's bleech.                          
  I went to sleep the night before at about 1 am. That sweet little puppy dog of mine really didn't want me to get a restful night, so at about 4 am I had to crate him and I moved to the couch. I woke up at 6:30 to start getting ready for an 8:45 am start time. I drank two cups of coffee, a bowl of granola with blackberries, loaded the ipod with race day music and headed to Rogue to park my car. I met up with some friends before the race (introducing super Joe in this picture) and jogged the 2.5 miles to the race start for a warm up. My run to the start was with my good friend Scooby who is nursing a reoccurring knee injury and is running the Eugene Marathon in a few weeks so his plan was to run real easy and not race it. I on the other hand was looking to run fast and set a PR (personal record). I had a race bib that allowed me to start in the third corral so it was near the front. It was nice to start in the corral because with nearly 20,000 people there my fear of crowds was on full alert. I loaded some relaxing tunes on the ipod to get through the 15 minutes of waiting in the crowd. Thank God for Townes Van Zandt. Seconds before the start I met up with my friend Paul and we crossed the starting line together. He had run a 20 miler the day before.
  I did not have a solid race plan. I did have a general sense of what mile splits I wanted to run. It was basically start slow and finish fast. If I could keep my splits in the 7:30-7:40 minute range I would be happy. Paul said he was looking to run 7:15's so I knew  we weren't going to be pacing each other. I also received some 3rd person advice from Panther, coach extraordinaire of Riff Raff, to run 10-15 seconds slower the first 2 miles, hit goal pace for the middle 2 miles, then speed up 10-15 seconds the last 2 miles.
   Now to paraphrase Robert Burns, "The best laid schemes of mice and men/Go often askew." From the moment I crossed the starting line I was just going to run and try not to collapse before the finish. I knew I was in trouble when I quickly pulled away from Paul who was planning on running 15 to 20 seconds faster than me and I didn't entertain for a moment that he was off pace. Oh well I thought just go for it. The humidity made it hard to breathe but the excitement of the first mile helped me get past that.
 MILE 1: 7:23.
    Oops. I was a little too fast. Surely I would calm down by mile 2 right?  Nope. I saw my friend Craig ahead of me as we were rounding the Capital. After inviting him to the post race celebration I went steeply down San Jacinto really fast. I freed up my hips and surged down that series of hills.
 Mile 2: 7:01.
   What the hell was I thinking? Coach Amy would be yelling at me right now but "friend" Amy would be laughing, right Amy? Luckily 15th Street was hilly, did I just say luckily, and I could slow down a bit because I was worried that I couldn't keep up that pace. At the top of the hills my lungs were burning, quads were on fire and I could not really feel my calves any more. Only 3 plus more miles to go.
  Mile 3: 7:42.
     Ok ground control this is major Tom and I feel a little more grounded now. I caught my breath and evened out my pace for the next 2 miles.This was the tough mental part for me. The middle is always the hardest.  I was already very tired at this point. I missed my mile 4 split so I just hit the watch at mile 5.
  Mile 4 and 5:  14:42.
     I ran the first half on the shoulder of who I thought was my friend Karen. As I passed her I smiled and said, "Hi Karen!" Whomever it was smiled back but I am not sure she was who I thought it was. At mile 5.5 good old Paul showed up behind me and waived hello as he passed. I was already happy with what my race finish time was going to be but when I saw Paul I sped up to finish with him.
  Mile 6: 7:26.
     The last .2 is always my favorite part. The crowd is cheering. You can run all out because you know just up ahead it won't matter what you have left in the tank because it is about to be all over. I gave it all I had and the last 50 meters was an all out sprint to catch Paul. I didn't want to pass him I wanted to finish with him.
  .2: 1:16.
     We literally crossed the finish line at the same step. So we both had the same race time. How awesome is that? I crossed the finish and leaned on the nearest rail until my heart rate dropped and I could breathe again.
                                                
                                                  Finish Time: 45:33. 2:20 PR 

                                               This was the last 50 meters.
  It was a tough race but I am very happy with my time and performance. I was a little concerned with only running 2-3 days a week that my running would suffer but it appears that swimming and cycling are also improving my overall fitness. Congratulations to everyone who raced and either won, PR'd, had a great race or all three. Team Rogue Elite had and awesome showing in the men's and women's division. Wow Desiree won a record 3rd time in a row and Allison finished just 3 seconds behind her.
  Now back to our regularly scheduled training program.

Long Swim Day

  Today got off to a slow start but I was able to swim which was great. I was down at Red Bud Isle with Oskar and friends. My lovely friend Katie was in from Portland so Emily, Lucy and Katie met Oskar and I at the park for some K-9 shenanigans. Lucy just got a new haircut and looked quite proud of herself the whole time.

  After I left I was trying to convince myself to go swim and was headed for good ol Big Stacy. Then I thought that I might need a change up. Well another Austin gem was on just down the street from Big Stacy. I present to you for your consideration, the frigid waters of Deep Eddy. It is a Aquifer fed pool that maintains a constant water temp of 68-72 degrees. I swam a mile and never warmed up. It was AWESOME! Too bad Deep Eddy isn't free like Big Stacy. But it was only 3 bucks.
  Now I need an easy night at work and then my 10K in the morning. WooHoo!

It's Friday Everybody.

  Today was only a 45 minute session on the trainer. No swim yesterday or today. Long swim is tomorrow with a 4 mile shake out run before my race on Sunday. I am running the Cap Tex 10K this sunday and I am trying to go for a PR (Personal Record). I have to beat 47:54 for me to have run my fastest 10K. The Cap Tex is very crowded and pretty hilly so we will see what happens. My last 10K was the IBM Uptown Classic and I averaged 7:43 per mile. If I can shave off about 15 seconds per mile then I will be happy. Even if I don't I will be happy because I try to celebrate all of my races with friends at Polvo's with a couple of Mexican Martini's.
Wish Me Luck!

Hump Day Frump Day

   So isolated t-storms and high humidity won't keep me from going for a bike ride.  Okay I had a little help getting out of the door this morning. I have discovered that being a self trained triathlete comes with it's own set of obstacles.  Self-motivation has always been one of my lesser traits and on a morning like today with a high chance of thunder boomies coupled with an ominously dark sky made for a tough figurative mountain to climb. Luckily I had help.  I could have easily broke in my AeroBars on the trainer and skipped my planned trip to the Veloway. I read my friend Glenda's facebook post about seeing bunnies down at the Veloway and had to see for myself. But upon waking up this morning and seeing the weather I wavered a little on my commitment. Like I said I had help. Oddly enough my friend Emily's training group was planning to do a ride down there. She had recently purchased a new pair of cycling shoes, Oskar decided the $10 kong was no match for the $100 plus cycling shoes of Emily's, so they needed replacing. The problem was the fact that she hadn't switched out her cleats from her old shoes to the new ones and did not have the right tool to do it. I did and despite her modest amount of protest I drove down to the Veloway to get her new shoes read (Oh that Oskar) and get an 18 mile ride in.
  To those reading this who aren't familiar the Veloway is a paved trail that is open to cyclist and skaters only. It is a tad over 3 miles long and there is no pedestrian or automobile traffic. Apparently there are bunny rabbits as well but I cannot confirm this just yet. The trail is next to the end of Mopac, Texas State Highway Loop 1 and what most people do is ride a lap or two around the Veloway to warm up and then do a loop south on Mopac for about 8 miles and come back for a loop or two again on the Veloway for a cool down. It is a great place to ride if you get the chance to.
  After cycling we had some breakfast and went to Big Stacy for Day 3 of a full swim week. The same dark clouds from earlier worked to our advantage and kept a lot of the regulars away so we had the pool almost to ourselves. Emily's learning curve for her swimming is in the full upswing (i hope that makes sense). In other words she is rapidly improving her form and swim economy. I am very proud. I pulled 400 warm up, 8X50 sprints and another 400 cool down.
  Long day so far. Now off to engage in a serious discussion with Oskar about which shoes to chew up in the future.

Swimming, swimming, swimming

  As the title might allude to this will be a swim heavy week. Monday and Tuesday workouts are finished. I did some technique training with Emily yesterday in the pool and then swam a quick 600. Teaching somebody else to swim really makes you concentrate on your own form so it's working out all right. The dogs got a nice workout in at Pease Park between our workouts.
  I went to Jack and Adams yesterday to get my AeroBars installed. Jack (the owner) did the install and was super friendly. Actually everyone there was very friendly and helpful with all of my questions. I plan on going back there for all my gear needs. Oh and they do a free core workout class Monday and Weds evenings.

  We got a fast 4 mile run around the neighborhood and called it a day.
  Today was only a swim day. Landlords needed to come by for some more maintenance on the house and it's just one of those things that has to get done. At Big Stacy I pulled 1000. I am trying to ease back into the water after my arm issue. So far so good. I haven't felt any pain.
This is Lucy, Oskar's best friend. If you look closely you can see the sticky grass stuck to her face. Apparently she didn't mind it at all.

Here is another picture of my bike with Mark's AeroBars installed. I can't wait to take them out for a spin. And thanks again Mark for the use of your AeroBars. I hope you enjoyed your cookies as well.

New Week

  Out with the old and in with the new. Last week did not see a lot of progress on the tri training. I got a few good runs and a couple of sessions on the bike but that was all. Between allergies, dog sitting, landlord's house repairs, work, arm injury and well life in general I will declare last week a "recovery" week. Excuses excuses I know I know. Here's a conversation I had with my friend Case a few ago about excuses:
  
  Colin: (Me coming up with some excuse for something I didn't do)
  Case: Hey Colin excuses are like ***holes.
  Colin: Why? Because everyone has got one right?
  Case: No, excuses are like ***holes and I don't want to hear yours either!


 My friend had such a way with words but he's right. So this week's plan is to focus on the swim all week to rest my legs for the Cap Tex 10K this Sunday. It is a very crowded race, largest 10K in Texas, but it is a ton of fun. So I will be doing some running and cycling but no breakthrough workouts for me in those two disciplines.
  So on Saturday morning I ran my 10 miler with Rogue and my friend Peter. Again I was reminded about the benefit of training with friends. When we hit the hilly section I wanted to back off the pace a bit but Peter pushed us through the tough section. When I got back to Rogue my friend Barb, who is currently at the top of my favorites list, gave me her transition bag that she used for her tri training for a few years. This thing is way cooler than I could have imagined. It is divided into sections for running shoes, cycling shoes, and swim gear. The swim section is waterproof so after you are done swimming,  you pack your gear and the rest of your stuff doesn't get wet. It's awesome and thank you again Barb and I hope you enjoy the cookies.
  Today I swim and then head over to Jack And Adams to have my bike fiited for my aero bars. WooHoo!