10K Saturday 9, 2008

Drove the 3 hours to Roanoke Friday night and stayed at the Extended Stay by the airport. I figured I would run a 10K this weekend in preparation for the RocknRoll half marathon later this month in Va Beach. Of course I signed up for the 1/2 marathon months ago, like 9 months ago and at that time had no intentions of the triathlon I will be doing 6 days later. Last year I finished the 1/2 marathon in 1:56, and prior to that had trained and ran 13 miles a couple times. This year I have yet to run up to 8 miles, so I need to get in gear.

Saturday was just a perfect morning for running, there were about 250 runners for both events a 5 & 10k. The race took place in Salem, I think at Longwood park. The gun went off and here we go, I was feeling pretty good up until it was time for the 5k ers had there turn around. As we approach that, it seemed to me I was the only one who kept going straight. I looked ahead and the next runner was like 200 yards away, so it was time to go to plan P, tuned into Pink Floyd's Run like Hell. And for the next 47.5 seconds plan P had worked to perfection, until I layed my eyes on what seemed to be the longest steepest hill I have set my eyes on. Now my mind is wondering back to my high school algebra class and trying to come up with the formula to the shortest point to get my ass back to my car. In the end I passed more people then passed me (started dead last) and I beat my 10K results 2 weeks ago by 4 minutes.

After the race I headed out to Mount Rogers and that place seemed like it would be a good place for a weekend trip and some Mountain Biking. Total for that Saturday : 13 hours of driving and 450 miles on the round.

Cake Mistake, August 7, 2008

Woke up this morning early 11AM, and headed to the mall to GNC to get my discount. Of course I could not find my membership card, so organized I am. Believe me Ukrop's and BJ'S Wholesale's customer services know me by my first name, here he comes again for another card. Well the GNC guy looked me up on the computer and I got my sup's and headed to get some breakfast. MMMMMMMMMMM Sbarro's, I'm a pretty big fan of same, since the days of living in Kuwait. Had a slice of cheese pizza and a slice of chocolate cake and then headed home for a training session.

My first, a milestone in the making, the bike and run combination. Took off blazing on the bike, as always for the first 6 miles, and then lets say, I completed the last 6 miles. The result, not to bad a 17.6 mile pace, drop the bike off on the back yard ramp, made the transition to elite biker to pathetic runner. Took a sip of G2 and headed off on that milestone journey. As the journey began I had forgot one thing, OHH I mean two important things and that were my legs. As I was running, or attempting to run, I just could not come across where I left them and furthermore at the 1/2 mile mark, I was beginning to remember where I placed another item. What could that be, nothing but that infamous chocolate cake and it wanted to leave my body right in front of my tanning salon. Some how I was able to keep it at bay, well at the least at the 3/4 mark of my throat and dispelled the notion to all those teenagers at the salon that I was in full blown midlife crisis. Before you know it, the first mile was done, and the result a 9 minute mile, better than expected and I continued to just stay on that pace for the next two.

Conclusion, stay away from chocolate cake, the bike to run is going to take some time to get use to.

What a day Aug 6, 2008

1st Tri Sept 6,2008

Well got up this morning and decided to go on a 6.2 run before it got to hot. Felt pretty good, considering 2 weeks ago at a 10k race up in DC, I really struggled. I just took it easy this morning and had a pace a little under 9 minutes a mile. So it was around 56 minutes, hard to believe just around this time last year I was doing it around 48 minutes.

After the run I decided to drive to Yorktown Beach and attempt to do an outside open water swim, all this talk on blogs and forums saying how much difference it is from the pool, Yea right. Since I have had a problem getting that breathing technique down, I decided (well Monday I saw I guy at the YMCA pool have a mask and snorkel on) to try it for myself. I surely can now go that 500 meters without stopping, instead of that 100 rest, to 50 rest, to 25 meters rest (out of breathe) intervals. Houston we have a problem, well the first 50 meters were fine, the next 50 not so fine, I was out of breathe and tired, how could this be, I was breathing nice and slowly out of the snorkel. I guess I'm just not in swimming shape, I mean it only like my 6 or 7 training session, but for me progress is pretty slow. This should translate into YMCU at the YMCA pool every morning.

Oh I almost forgot, the yea right comment, it's true, it's true, I was waiting for the Yorktown Police Dept, to breathalyze me when I came out of the water. The people on the beach thought I was playing charades, OK first letter is L, I could not swim 15 meters straight. I'm telling you, I was doing 90 degree turns, and the water was calm. I know I have a lot of work to do when it comes to swimming. This was a wake up call for the open water swim, I'm going to try to actually go to an Tri event next week to see the real deal..

Tomorrow some more swimming and biking