1. May 20, 2013



    So how long can I go without a race before I can’t call myself a triathlete anymore?

  2. This is beautiful

  3. Tentative race schedule

    May 5, 2013



    I’ve finally worked out my schedule although I still need to register for all of these.  I want to do more than one 70.3 this year, so the schedule is a little tight in the middle in order to fit it in. 

    6/16 - OLY, Ashland MA

    7/14 - OLY, Mass State Tri

    7/27 - Mascomaman 70.3

    9/8 - Pumpkinman 70.3

    Not sure about having just two weeks between the Mass State olympic and Mascomaman.  I’ve been on my training schedule and think I can make it work.  Mascomaman won’t be an A race, but will give me a good idea of what to work on so I can kill Pumpkinman.  There’s plenty of time between those two races for recovery, a good 3 weeks of training and a nice 2 week taper.

    Once I work out my training plan, I’ll post it.  I’d love to get feedback and thoughts.

  4. Run streak or junk miles?

    April 17, 2013



    Coming off of a 2 week illness, I managed to get in a 7 mile run on Sunday. It was pretty slow and I took a lot of walk breaks, but I’m pleased to be able to get in a long run.

    Normally, I only run twice a week, occasionally three, and always take the day after a long run off.  

    Monday was different.  

    First, I had to write a check to the IRS that could have bought me 2 tri bikes.  My grandmother has been in a hospice without an IV, feeding tube and was unable to swallow after suffering a stroke.  For days, I’ve been struggling with how, when and paying for a trip back to Pittsburgh to see her and my family.   I got a text from my mother around 2:45 telling me the doctors found out she has breast cancer and has probably had it for a long time.  At 4:00, I heard about Boston on the radio.

    It was just all too much.  I felt like the only thing I could do is go out and run.  So it got in 3 slow miles.  Felt much better.

    Afterwards I got the call she passed away.  I think having gone out on that run gave me the strength to get through the rest of the night of making travel plans and figuring out the rest of the week.

    Yesterday, I  felt the urge to run again.  3 more slow miles. 

    Not only do I rarely run that much in a week, I almost never run on consecutive days (which is probably why my legs are toast).

    So….   Do I keep my running streak alive?  I’ve done some math and think I could probably get in 12 days easily.  If I really, really wanted to, I think I can schedule in a run daily for the next few months.

    Coming off an illness, not sure this is the wisest decision.  Plus, as a triathlete, its not necessary for training and could possibly be detrimental.  

    But it could be fun.  And I think it’s my way of dealing with all of the stress  and sadness. 

    My legs are exhausted, will they catch up?  Will I get enough recovery?  I’m slwoing down, can I work on speed properly doing this?  What’s even the point?

    Thoughts?????

     

  5. Major league downtime

    April 12, 2013



    In the last 12 days, I’ve only gotten in one 4 mile run.  I’m not sure how much my exhaustion is related to still being sick and how much is because of loss of fitness.

    This is going to be a tough one to bounce back from.  Hoping to hit the bike in the morning.

  6.

  7. (Source: steveinaspeedo)

  8. A few things

    April 7, 2013



    1)  I’ve been sick for 6 days now and have logged zero workouts since last Sunday.  I’ve actually been handling the lack of workouts well.  Usually I get pretty upset when my schedule is thrown off.  I guess I’ve grown enough as an athlete to know my entire season isn’t lost because of this.  Think I’m going to try to run a few miles later today which may reverse any recovery I may be having, but I gotta get out!

    2)  I was looking at race results from the 70.3 Texas race today and Timberman last year.  Seeing the results for the fastest people in my age group, I can’t help but think that’s not entirely impossible for me.  It’s obviously a crap load of work and time, but for the first time I feel confident about my ability to improve dramatically.  May never be the fastest but I don’t need to stay at the back.

    3)  Someone please come to my house and throw out my Easter candy.  I can’t bring myself to do it and I’m eating ALL OF IT.

  9. Ready for Ragnar

    April 4, 2013



    Here’s something I haven’t blogged about yet:  I’m signed up for Ragnar Washington D.C.!

    One of my FB friends (who I only know from twitter and have never met) posted that she was looking for a few more people for her team.  The race is on Oct 4-5 which is my 40th birthday, so clearly I had to do it!

    This past week, we were assigned our legs.  Actually, we were supposed to pick but we all kind of himmed & hawed, unable to make a selection.  So Leslie, in her brilliant leadership, assigned us legs.

    Check out where I ended up:

    Oy vey!

    It’s nice that she has such confidence in me, but I’ve got a lot of training to do.  I don’t want to disappoint my teammates. First step: stop avoiding hill work.

    This is going to be very hard but I’m really looking forward to it.  I figure this will likely be my only relay so I should do it up right.  Plus, it’s a great way to kick 40 in the face!!

  10. March goals follow-up

    April 3, 2013



    I’m home sick today which is a perfect time to work on my year-long race & training schedule.  I tried sleeping but my mind is racing with thoughts of racing.

    For March, my primary goal was to beat last March.  My secondary goal was to do 2 IM’s worth of workouts.  Here’s how it shook out:

    Running:  
     Goal:      31 miles
     Actual:  64

    Biking:  
      Goal: 149 miles 
      Actual:  226 miles

    Swimming:  
      Goal:  9 miles
      Actual:  4.1 miles

    Did great on everything except swimming.  I missed by double IM by 1350 yards in the pool.  Those 4.1 miles represent only 3 or 4 visits to the pool.  I need to work on dragging my ass to the pool when I don’t feel like it.

    Next steps are to finally finalize a race schedule and to start logging workouts more consistently.  I’m finding I’m not logging everything DailyMile.  Plus DM only saves info for a year which makes it hard to go back in time to look stuff up.  I think I’ll dig up my Training Peaks password and get that started.

    What do you use for tracking workouts?