Day 86: 7/9/2010

Again I'm done in the early afternoon :) This morning I ran a warm up solo before practice then met the kids and soon started :20 of tempo running. Total run time was 1 hour with warm up and cool down. The run felt good and I have noticed my tempo pace come down from around 7 minute miles to 6:40 minute miles average.

Then a 3000 in the pool at lunch. I have 2 books that I choose workouts from and the one I happen to pick today was a good one. It had some dps (distance per stroke) sets and some 3-4-5- breathing sets (breathing every 3rd stroke, then every 4th...).

Total for the day was 2 hours and total for the week is 9:55. That is a real good total time considering I took Monday off.

This weekend does have a nice long ride scheduled and a 7k run race up a mountain. Lots to look forward too!

Day 85: 7/8/2010

Yep it's 1:30 in the afternoon and I'm done working out for the day. Rode this morning for 1:30 with a couple of :15 intervals. The weather was overcast and drizzly throughout and it was awesome and refreshing but now I have a dirty bike.

Swam an hour at lunch and got in a 3000. I was hoping the water would be cooler with the rains and all but they sure do a god job keeping it at 82 degrees.

Total for the day is 2:30 and total for the week is 7:55. Legs feel a little tired after 2 close bike rides but things are good.

Day 84: 7/7/2010

Started off at 5:45 so I could get in :45 of running before XC practice. Then, I met the kids and put in another :35 for a 10 mile total run.

I had stayed up late watching a movie and I was dragging all morning so I was looking forward to the afternoon so I could take a nap. The weather was windy and drizzly anyways. The weather finally did clear up but not with enough time for my ride so I had no choice but to ride my trainer in the living room. I rode for 1:45 with some :15 intervals. By the time I was finished, my clothes, bike, aerobar pads, everything was soaked with sweat!

Total for the day was 3:05 and total for the week is 5:25.

Day 83: 7/6/2010

Back to work and I am looking forward to a solid month of July. Now with XC started I am faced with making everything workout smoothly. I need to get my workouts in and the kids need to get their workouts in and I need to be there to guide them. This morning started off with a run at 6:00 AM and I met the kids at 6:30 and I finished the remainder of my workout with them. Total run time was 1 hour.

2nd workout was a swim during lunch. The pool felt so good today as it was cooler than usual so I took advantage and swam a 4000. The main set consisted of a 200, 400, 600, 400, 200 pyramid and I couldn't figure out why I swam so slow in Tucson. I am a faster swimmer than that but for whatever reason I didn't swim as hard as I should have. I realize this is a re-occurring theme with me and racing; only going comfortably hard. At some point along the way I lost my mental capacity to go hard from start to finish and actually race. I am desperately trying to get that ability back.

On another note, I weighed myself this morning and I was at 158.5 lbs and body fat % of 9. Getting leaner and meaner!

With the day off yesterday, weekly total is 2 hours and 20 minutes all from today.

Day 79, 80, 81 and 82: 7/2 - 7/5/2010

Happy Fourth of July weekend!

On Friday I was up really early as the plan was to get in an hour bike before XC practice at 6:30 am. I was exactly half way through the ride and getting ready to start some intervals when I crossed some railroad tracks and my crankarm fell off! In 15 years of riding this has never happened to me before. My left shoe was still attached to the pedal, which was attached to the crankarm, but the crankarm wasn't attached to my bike! It sucked but I suppose it could have been worse and I could have crashed or injured myself. On Friday we also left for Las Cruces to make the drive to Tucson a little shorter.

Saturday consisted of driving, checking into the race and hotel.

The Tucson Firecracker Triathlon was on Sunday. The race consisted of a 750 LC meter swim, a 12 mile - 3 loop bike course, and a 3 mile run. I finished the race 7th overall and 1st in the 30-34 age group. I was really happy with my bike but my swim didn't show up and my triathlon run is still awol. I swear I can run during training! All in all I was happy with my race and it was really fun to be finished in an hour! My bro, Mike, placed second overall. We'll see if he does the third race of the series as the final race in Tucson is the same day as the Hawaii Ironman. Hmm... Tucson or Kona, Kona or Tucson????

Today is Monday and we're still in Tucson and getting ready to make the trip back to Socorro. No training today but I'll get back on schedule tomorrow. July is the start of the "real" IM training as the clock is ticking fast and October 9th isn't too far off. It'll be here before I know it and that scares me because I know it's true.

Day 78: 7/1/2010

July 1st means the start of the XC season for SHS. I made it to the morning practice and I made their run be my warm up and I let the captains lead the post-workout stretches and strides while I continued on and put in some intervals on a ditchbank. I had a good run workout and was surprised to see my Garmin measuring the intervals at 6 minute pace. It felt good though, I just wish I could have had a better run at BSLT (Errrrr). Total run time was 1 hour.

The afternoon was spent in Albuquerque visiting my mom who just had a hip replacement yesterday. We left to just get back in time for swim team pictures and Lindsey was able to make it to the evening XC practice so she could get her run in. I played mom and had the kids and even made dinner! Unfortunately, no 2nd workout which was supposed to have been an hour and a half bike ride (which could still happen on the trainer).

Day 77: 6/30/2010

The last day of June; Time is flying by! I finished off the month with an hour run in the morning and an hour swim in the evening. With that last effort, I was able to have a 60 hour month, the best monthly effort I have EVER had. During the month of June I swam 43350 yards or 24.6 miles, biked nearly 500 miles, and ran 135 miles. I accomplished these distances with 17 swims, 16 bike rides and 20 runs, also the highest number of workouts I have ever done in a month in each discipline. Everythingabout this month was great minus my run at BSLT and who knows, maybe all this training had something to do with it. But this month did more good than harm as my main goal at BSLT was to finish and validate my slot. The ultimate goal is Kona.