Endorphins!

I finally got my fix. Oh yes, I got my fix!

After about two weeks off (not counting last Sunday's 1/4 mile swim), going back at it felt AMAZING! After being pretty much shut down for that long, nothing can quite describe how pumped up I am right now, so I'm not even going to try.

Since I've been a bad blogger lately, here's a summary:

• Finals are DONE!
• Exercises for my knee are a go
  
• Swimming works again
• I don't have a care in the world
• I'M GOING TO HAWAII IN SIX DAYS!

I thought I could make a full post about how pumped I am right now, but nope, not quite. Just know that I am. This thing is turning around.

Life is good.

Bwick!

I've been a triathlete in training for several months now, but I've never actually submitted myself to doing a brick (bike + run) workout just yet. And, technically, I still haven't. But I'm getting closer.

Today I HAD to take advantage of the beautiful weather. It was a requirement that was written in the stars. I absolutely had to be outside today. Since I just ran on Saturday, the only option was biking. So I hit the bike for 10 miles. Not so much as a peep from my knee; there hasn't been much noise from it lately!

But that wasn't all on the agenda today. I also wanted to get in some water running before class so I headed to the pool with my chlorinated Mizuno's and got to work. So, lets call it a "bwick"!

Judging from the time and his pace, I'm pretty sure I was doing the water running while Bill was tackling the Newton Hills in Boston; I sent him some good thoughts. Once again, not so much as a peep from my knee even after 30 minutes of water running. Right on!

Clock check.

Fifty minutes til class. I'm not tired. I'm in the pool. Conclusion? It's swimming time.

I started swimming, then decided I was feeling good and did 8x50 on a one minute interval (for non swimmers: that means one minute to both swim the 50 and rest). The interval was 5 seconds faster than I did a couple weeks ago, so I'm seeing some improvement. Right on (again)!

All is good in my world for now, even with it being dead week. I get my Garmin back tomorrow. My next run is scheduled for Wednesday; planning 1.5 miles at an easy pace. Will push it to 2 miles this weekend if all goes well.

Pooped

No, Jess. I didn't join your team. (Yeah, I went there!)

But I am pooped after a tough night of workouts. Toughest in a while, but you all know thats how I really enjoy it.

Here's the play by play:

At 6:00 I got out to the YMCA we meet at to ride. The weather was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L! Mid 70's. Not a cloud in the sky. A little windy, but nothing to outweigh the perfect weather. I rode 12 miles, practicing a lot with riding with one hand so I can eventually learn to drink while riding. It's a slow process, but I'm making progress! It took every bit of self control I had not to stay out there twice as long.

After that, TNT headed to the pool. Nothing too notable there, but I'm still a bit sore from that mile on Monday. That really kicked me in the butt! I ended up swimming half a mile and stopping because...

It was time to water run! I actually had company this time, which was nice. Another TNT'er, Susan, has a knee injury (skiing accident) and is water running to help build it back up. That lasted about 30 minutes before we called it a night.

All in all that was 2+ hours of working out and although I would have laughed at that a couple months ago, after these past several weeks thats just unheard of!

Hope everybody else is getting to enjoy some great weather! Good luck to Bill, Nitmos & Reid running Boston on Monday, you're gonna ROCK IT!

Broken Mile

This morning I headed to the pool before class to put in a couple laps. I got there, got changed, grabbed a workout; you know the drill (or do now). Then, once again, coach stopped me and said thats not my workout today. Today I got to do her fabled "Broken Mile*"

The Broken Mile consists of 11 lengths, then 10, 9, 8, down to 1. Fifteen seconds rest between each of them; enough to take a short break but not really enough to catch your breathe.

I had never swam that far with that little rest, but I figured it was doable, so I went at it. I warmed up 100 yards (to make sure I swam a real mile today) then got going.

Thirty-three minutes and thirty seconds later I stopped. Then found out I get to subtract the rest off to predict my mile time and BAM!

31 minutes!

I won't be setting any records any time soon, but its a lot better than I (or she) expected. Afterwards I'm pretty sore. I had a few muscles cramp up afterwards and my right shoulder is hurting a little; although I'm still really hoping this is a good hurt, and not the bad hurt from a couple weeks ago.

It was a rewarding workout, and I plan to do it again in the future just to see how low I can go. Its approximately the distance I'll be racing in triathlons all summer too, so hopefully if I can get good at it in the pool I'll be ready to rock when races roll around!

* This is referring to a swimmers mile (1650 yards), not a real mile (1760 yards).

Problem with Swimming

This time when I have a problem, it has nothing to do with any of my joints or muscles; no worries!

I learned something at the pool today that blew my mind. Let me crunch some numbers for you.

1 mile is 1600 meters, you could call it 1.6k if you want to (maybe thats what they would call it in Canada, but you'll never hear me say "I just ran 12 kilometers eh?" (Take that Canadian!) ) Everybody knows this (or does now). Junior high kids know this.

Also, at one point you all knew that a mile is also 1760 yards. I remember this because in The Perfect Mile, they sometimes measured a track in yards and it was 440 yards. 440 yards times 4 is 1760 yards. A mile is 1760 yards no matter how you dice it. No matter freaking what.

Unless you're swimming in a pool (open water is different).

In a pool, they call 1650 yards a mile. Thats weird, because I call 1650 yards 0.9375 miles. I don't get it. Anybody have some answers for me? Are swimmers just slackers and 93% of a mile is good enough?

Anyhoo, thats the end of that rant. I'm still calling 1750 yards a mile because I'm no slacker!


After my first time out on the bike post-injury, I was a little worried today when I woke up. I thought maybe I'd over done it, just by going out there. Maybe I'd put my feet on the floor and feel pain shoot through my knee.

Nope. No shooting pain.

Walking felt 100% fine today, and I did a lot of it, about 7 miles, since I had to be all over campus. Then tonight, swimming was fine. Swimming normally, without the pull buoy. Even swimming intervals. Shoulder felt good too. Hells yes!

I'm taking it easy tomorrow, biking Thursday, and swimming Friday. This weekend will be played by ear a little bit, but I'm planning to up the distance on the bike by a few miles; nothing huge. If that goes good, I get to ease back into what I really miss: running.

Thats all I got today. Glad you guys like the new design and aren't going to shun me, except for our (not-so!) favorite cheese head!

Mental Toughness

My motto lately has been "uncomfortable never hurt anyone." Its a good motto for me, especially at the pool. With swimming, for the longest time I had always erred on the side of caution. I didn't have confidence yet, at least not like I do with running.

But thats been changing these past couple weeks, in case you couldn't tell. Now, I know what it feels like to have lactic acid build up in my arms. I know when I'm actually pushing too hard, and need to slow down and recover. I know that to get better, I have to push a little. I know I'm not going to drown. I know uncomfortable never hurt anyone, but pushing through discomfort sure can make the difference.

Today's swim wasn't planned to be remarkable. In fact, looking at the numbers it is anything but remarkable. I swam a mile, as usual. I didn't swim more than 400 yards at a time, less than usual. I swam part kind of fast, but that isn't what made today stand out.

I got in the pool today, swam my first 400 and my arms were shot. Especially my triceps. My God, my triceps. I kept going at it, because thats all I know how to do. Around 1000 yards, my arms were demolished.

I took a short break after that, stretched out and what not. I got back in, swam another 100 and thought about quitting for the day. I came up with a dozen excuses. They were all logically sound in my head. I could leave early almost feeling like I had a reason, and not an excuse.

But... I couldn't do it. I couldn't consciously make the decision to get out of the pool. What would I do? Sit around for 20 minutes before class started because I couldn't finish a workout? Yeah, I can't do that to myself. That would be like putting myself in time out to think about what I'd done. That was a no go.

So I swam. I counted down the yards. I took more rest than I have in several days. But damnit, I finished my workout and nobody can take that away now. Not even me.

Count it!

One Thousand

These past couple weeks my body has been keeping me from doing the running and biking I enjoy so much.

The result? The pool has become my friend. I've caught myself more often thinking "man, I want to go swim!" more often than I've caught myself thinking "man, I want to go for a run!"

The result? Progress. Gobs of it.

One month ago my swimming was going pretty good. I was getting to the point where I could comfortably swim 50 yards, and could swim 100 if I really pushed it. One practice Treacy talked me into pulling 300 yard with her, and practice drafting. We would switch off every 100 yards. I had to stop every 100 for 10-15 second to catch my breathe. Doing 300 yards almost killed me dead.

Fast forward to last week. All I can do is use the pull buoy in the pool right now, normal swimming hurts my knee. So I've been swimming nearly every day with my friend the pull buoy. Last Friday I swam 500 yards non stop, which was my goal to hit by the end of the month. I was pumped!

Fast forward again. Saturday I swam again, matching my 500 yard record. Monday I broke out with 600 yards, mmmm, progress! Tuesday I worked more on speed, but still swam a 400 (4x more than I could a month ago!) Today I broke loose. I jumped in and warmed up. Then I told myself "Hello self! Time to swim 700 yards!" So I did. Then I kept going. 700... 800... 900... 1000!

I don't plan to stop this progress I'm making in the pool any time soon. I'm really enjoying myself in the water now that I'm seeing improvements. I'm going to keep at it, because right now what I need and what I enjoy are exactly the same thing.

-----------------------------------

On a completely different note, Marcy is a butthead (in other news: they just found massive quantities of water in the Pacific Ocean) and tagged me! Here are the rules of the game: Write your own six word memoir, link to whoever tagged you, and tag five people. There are more rules, so if you want to be a good boy or girl read them on Marcy's blog.

Here are six words that describe my waking hours (I had to say waking to cut it down to 6 words):

Eat        Teach          Learn
     Swim           Bike            Run


And I am using the powers bestowed upon me to tag: YOU!

Weekly Recap 03/17/08-03/23/08

Monday: Ran less than a mile. Found out this knee isn't in working order yet.

Tuesday: Swam half a mile with the pull buoy.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Swam half a mile with the pull buoy. Had Tracy look at my knee, she thinks its ITBS and has me doing a lot of work to fix it up.

Friday: Swam a mile with the pull buoy, more below. Ab workout in the evening.

Saturday: Swam a mile with the pull buoy.

Sunday: Rest day, pool is closed for Easter. Boo!

Total run: 0.77 miles
Total bike: 0 miles
Total swim: 3 miles

------------------------------------------

Despite the disappointment early in the week when I found out my knee wasn't better, my attitude has really taken a turn for the better these past couple days. Why? Its the swimming.

This injury is from biking or running, or some combination of the two. Which leaves me right where I should be anyways: in the pool. With regards to triathlons, I have no worries about the running. Thats what I do. It's what I'm good at. My biking has some room for improvement, but I can tough through a bike ride. I've done it in the past and I can do it again.

Swimming is where I need the work. I haven't even completed the race distance yet in the pool, but I've done so several times with the bike and run. The pool is where progress is going to be made. Not just in terms of time, but in terms of being able to finish a race.

So I hit the pool. I swam with TNT using that damn pull buoy for a half a mile two days. I hated it. Each time, though, my knee felt better afterwards. It was like a 30 minute ice bath.

Then I mixed things up: I swam on my own, without the team. I swam when I had no obligation to do so. I swam for me, and it was amazing! I actually enjoyed it. I got in the pool with an intent of pulling 300 yards non-stop, which would have been tied for my longest yet, but after a several week break. Bam! 300 yards. Then I kept going: 350, 400, 450, 500.

I stopped at 500, but was starting to "get it." I started to see what it meant to be in the zone while swimming. If I swam too fast, I could simply slow down to recover, rather than needing to stop. I was able to fade out, but have my body do what I've taught it these past several months.

Next week? Lots of swimming. I'm going to focus all my energy on it. Once I can swim without the pull buoy, I'll think about giving running a shot again. Until then, I got a date with the foam roller!

The Diagnosis

Well, I have good news and bad news.

The good news: I talked to my friend Tracy, who is about to get her PhD in Physiology, and now know what is wrong with my knee. That means I have a game plan to tackle the problem. Something to preoccupy myself with and to make myself stronger again. I know the likely cause, and with enough patience I know the solution.

The bad news? It's IT band syndrome (ITBS). Yuck.

Here is the gist of what is going on with my knee. My IT band got tight, either from the race or too much biking. Also, the muscles above and to the right of my right knee are significantly weaker than on the other side. Now that she's pointed it out, I can tell that it's actually visually noticeable. I can see the problem.

Great. We know the problem. Now, what to do about it?

• Foam roll the shit out of it (thats the technical term), twice a day
• Dig into the trigger points to loosen it up
• Incorporate some of my old PT exercises back into my routine
• RICED (Thats RICE + drugs)
• Do some balance exercises too, to strengthen the leg
• Get back on top of my core workouts

Sound like enough to keep me busy? Yeah. I think so.

I'm also going to keep at it with the swimming. I've swam twice this week just using the pull buoy (no kicking), and although its extremely boring my knee always feels better afterwards. It's all I can do to get an aerobic workout in, so I'm going to force myself to go at it with all I got.

So there's the game plan. Now all that stands between me and running is to do it. Time to get on top of it!

Snow Day, Swimming, & Progress

Okay, so its not an official snow day with the university, but its close. This morning class was canceled, and the corresponding exam was postponed due to the insane amounts of sleet/ice we got last night.

The snow started around 6 last night, but then close to 11 it switched over to ice. All. Night. Long. It is still spitting ice right now, but it should be switching over to rain fairly soon according to the radar and temperature.

My run this morning is going to get postponed a little bit, as well. Rather than slipping, falling, and breaking my hip I thought I'd wait a few hours and let the rain melt some of this stuff off. Sounds like a good idea, right? I think so! Although even if it doesn't switch to rain, you'll find me out there running in a little bit. I am NOT going to be a gerbil for 6 miles today!

In other news, my swim on Sunday was absolutely amazing. It started out so-so, with my coach telling me to work on the usual things: Don't turn so much to breathe, arms at 11 and 1, smaller breathes, relax your arms, etc, etc.

Then, it clicked. I don't know why or how, but I stopped turning so much to breathe; I didn't have to turn so far, it felt natural, I wasn't worried about swallowing water. My arms were relaxed, I was relaxed. I was finally confident enough to start an interval even when I was out of breathe. I was able to push myself in the pool, just like when I'm running.

Then, my swim coach said five words to me, "You look like a swimmer." I thought nothing of it. I'm in the water. Swimming back and forth. Of course I'm a swimmer.

Not so fast.

The two people in the lane next to me heard it too. They told me thats one of the biggest complements she gives. Both Ruth and Treacy can recall the first time Coach ever said those words to them. Pretty huge, huh?

Progress.

You know what progress does.

Computer Scientists make me sick

Today I was going to post something about half marathons for Runner's Lounge, but I've opted out. I feel like crap. You will find very little insight on running in this post.

Computer Scientists make me sick. Literally.

I'm becoming convinced that the average student in my department is sick a strong majority of the time. There is rarely a day in class when half the class isn't coughing, sneezing, gagging, or making a miserable moaning "please pity me!" noise.

Why are they sick? I know why. It's because they ran in the rain. It has nothing to do with:

• The fact that they'll only eat a stick of gum up until dinner time
• The majority of their exercise coming from pressing the 2nd floor button in the elevator
• The 4-5 hours of sleep they claim to get every night

Being around them every day has finally started to take a toll on me. I don't think I'm sick, yet, but my energy is getting sapped, which really made tonight's swim suck.

My coach kept telling me everything I was doing wrong, but for once I really didn't care. I was counting my strokes, I knew it was taking me 4-5 more to get across the pool. I just wanted to get to the 3/4 of a mile I promised myself I would do. I made it, but I wasn't happy about it. You might even say I was anti-happy.

Sorry for being a downer. It happens sometimes. Hopefully I'll feel better after clonking out for 10+ hours. For once I'm looking forward to taking full advantage of my rest day.

Progress Across the Board!

Yeah, thats right! I used an exclamation point in the subject line, you know you're in for it today!

These past few days have spelled progress in all three sports. All of them! Remember the Driven post I had a few days ago? Yeah, the engine is going full steam! Here's the breakdown:

Swimming

Thursday night we did a bike-swim session with TNT. I rode my ass off on the trainer for about an hour, then headed straight for the pool (don't worry, I rinsed off!). I got in. It was just another day. Then my coach said five extremely obvious words that completely made things click: "relax your arms on recovery." Duh. Perfectly obvious, right?

Relax when you recover, so you can recover. As soon as I started doing this, it knocked my stroke count down to 14-15 per lap, even when I was swimming hard! The real kicker? Swimming got a lot easier. Its amazing how 5 words can change your life!


Running

This morning I headed out to Todd's Road to run with everybody. Once again, a new post-injury milestone: 8 miles, 100% pain free. I finished feeling completely fresh. I could have kept going, easily! However, I'm increasing nice and steady just to make sure I don't have a relapse, or cause some new injury. This was also my first run that lasted more than an hour (barely). Here's the numbers for today's run:

8:22
8:02
7:57
7:24
7:27
7:12
6:57
6:57

Avg HR: 163
Garmin data


Biking

I also had a new high average speed for biking! The kicker? I did it just a few hours after an 8 mile run. I set out with the intention of just riding really easy. The result? I paced myself better because I was focusing on high cadence rather than high speed! The wind was killer on the way back in, too, but I managed! Here's the stats:

Time: 1:12:24
Distance: 21.23 miles
Speed: 17.6 mph
Cadence: 93 rpm
HR: 160 bpm

Garmin Data


Needless to say. I'm revved up. Progress feeds the engine, right?

Complete Randomness

Today is another day with no coherent theme. It happens.

• Swimming last night was phenomenal. I think something clicked. For you experienced swimmers, it'll sound like no big thing. For the past week or so, I've been able to swim 25 yards, then usually take a break to catch my breath, and I could occasionally swim 50 yards, but the thought of 75 made me feel like I would vomit in the pool (I hear they don't like that). Last night, however, 25 felt trivial, 50 was doable, and 75 was challenging. But hey, its progress right?!
• I need to post about running basics for Amy & Tom but haven't come up with anything yet, hopefully I come up with something tomorrow!
• Last night I called home all excited to see what my parents thought about the Team in Training shin dig. They sounded kind of put off by the idea, which surprised me since my dad is in the medical profession. They're supportive of it if I decide to do it, but were by no means saying "All right! Great idea!" etc.
• I did better than average on my entry exam for my CS505 class, without taking the prerequisites. Americans represent! (There are 3 Americans out of about 40 students in this class)
• Tomorrow I'm attempting to wake up to run with some friends at 5:30am. Why did I agree to something like that? Something is wrong with my brain. The sun doesn't even come up until 7:30!
  

And finally, workout news for the day. This is a step back week, so the volume and intensity are getting pulled back a little bit, although I'm keeping the frequency of workouts the same. Monday I was feeling so great I had to go with it, but now I'm taking it easy until next Monday, promise!

Distance: 17.06 miles
Time: 45 minutes
Speed: 22.67 MPH
Average HR: 148 bpm

I'm wishing bike trainers weren't so expensive ($200 or so, I think). I'd much rather ride my own bike for my indoor workouts, plus I can trust the distance part of it, because Garmin calibrates it on my outdoor rides so it also works indoors. I have a feeling these numbers from the stationary bike don't mean anything compared to outdoor numbers, but they are at least meaningful when compared to other distances on the stationary bike.


Marcy - I'm feeling just fine "down there," the seat on the stationary bike is like a lazy boy compared to the seat on my usual bike! Also, thanks big time for the encouraging words about TNT! I'll find out more at the meeting on Saturday, but you have it about right. Raise X amount of money while training for the race, then do the race. I'll post more details when I get them on Saturday!

Nancy - Thanks for the words of caution. I've thought about it quite a bit, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it right? I feel like I know a lot of people all over the place, even outside blog land. Also, my family is quite large, has had quite a few run ins with cancer, and is generally rather generous. Although I do see myself having two disadvantages. First, I don't know anybody closely with Leukemia, so I don't have a great story to get emotions going. Second, with me most people won't think "wow! I can't believe Doug is doing a triathlon!" so they may not think its that impressive.

Jess - You do realize you, a college professor, just (jokingly) asked me, a college student, for money, right? Just wanted to make sure! ;)

Taryn and POM - Thanks for the good words about TNT! So far, I haven't heard of a single person having a poor experience with them. I don't know about you guys, but I'm all about meeting "cool peeps" as POM so accurately put it!

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Yep, its doable! Today the UPS guy delivered my Garmin cadence sensor for my bike, and now my Garmin does new tricks!

I got it all hooked up to my bike after class, and tested it out a little bit in my apartment (pedaling backwards, not around my kitchen table). Seems like it works, now I have even more numbers that should help me train just right on the bike!

Last night I went swimming for the first time in over a week, and it went fairly well. I only swam for a little over 30 minutes, but right now I just need to get in the habit of getting in the water again. Also, with my time split between swimming, biking, and running now, my energy level is a lot lower when I'm actually in the pool than it was before break. Over time, my endurance will get better, though, just gotta be patient while my body gets used to the workload.

Today was finally a rest day, and I needed it! My legs were starting to feel rather worn out the past couple days, but this day off is just what the doctor ordered. I'm still going to do a core workout in a little bit, so the day isn't a complete bust.

Following the rest day, though, is a pretty grueling weekend. Saturday I run in the morning and bike in the evening, then Sunday I'm swimming in the morning and running in the evening. Lots of busting my tail, but my carefully calibrated schedule seems like it will let me balance school and working out ump-teen times a week!

I'm Pooped

Tired. Spent. Worn out. Dead. Too pooped to participate!

I think it has been my diet these past few days, or maybe I'm just increasing my volume a little too quickly. But no matter what it is, I'm drained.

This morning I woke up and jumped on the bike trainer for an hour; we'll call it 20 miles because the effort was good. Then I spent most the day being a bum. I had a pizza for lunch and my mom made cheeseburgers for dinner, so I had crap in the tank when I went for my swim tonight.

The game plan was to swim a mile, but after half that I was completely drained. My form was falling apart, each lap was sending my heart rate up to 170+, and my arms were dead. Rather than toughing through it I decided to call it a night and come back another day. Since I'm still trying to get my technique down, swimming half a mile with poor technique would have only done more harm than good. On the bright side, though, I'm glad it isn't injury holding me back this time!

Then I had a super-fun adventure trying to get my registration sticker on my license plate. I followed the directions, but apparently the glue doesn't stick when its around absolute zero outside. So I decided to try out super gluing it to my license plate, and so far so good. Although now I have super glue all over my fingers, and I'm probably going to spend the rest of the night trying to peel it (and my skin) off my hands!

Planning the New Year

Yesterday a friend put an idea in my head: The St. Louis Half Marathon.

At first I discounted it as a bad idea, but then I really got thinking about it. Currently I'm running the River to River Relay on April 19th which will consist of running three legs of 3-4 miles from sunrise to sunset. The half is on April 6th, just two weeks before the relay.

I'm really thinking a half is doable by then. This week it looks like I'm going to have 17-18 miles total, which is pretty respectable looking at my training log these past few months! I think a half marathon is easily doable on just 30 miles a week, so building up to that over three months doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to me! What do you guys think, good idea? Is anybody else be up for it? eh? eh? They have a full marathon too.

Speaking of planning, I got my training log spreadsheet all setup for 2008. Maybe you weren't aware of my dorkiness, but its bad! New in 2008, it now tracks swimming and biking too, as well as combining all of them in one graph so I can see where I need to pick up the slack and also see how my total volume is doing. This Garmin might be bad for my health, since it gives this number addict all the numbers I could ever want!

Today I headed back to the pool and swam for about 45 minutes. I'm not doing anything I would call a workout just yet, just practicing technique. Once I get my technique down and make all the little things habit, I'll start thinking about doing real workouts again. In the end, having the technique down will help me more than anything!

Now I'm going to hide up in my room with a book for the next few hours, my mom and sister are both still pretty sick and I don't have many excuses left to get out of the house!

Delaying the Inevitable

Yesterday my sister woke up feeling sick. Today, both my parents were feeling a little under the weather. I still feel okay. But its practically guaranteed that, save a miracle, I'm going to be getting sick in the next few days. Ugh!

I'm doing everything I can to hold it off. I've been drinking lots of orange juice and water to boost my immune system and flush out my system. My hands have probably been washed more today than they have in the past week! Also, I spent as little time in the house as possible today.

I made a trip to the nearest running store, which is 60 miles away, to get some new running shoes since my current ones are wearing out. Then I further postponed coming back to this germ-hole by browsing around Borders for a while, looking at cycling and triathlon books.

After secluding myself by reading a book on swimming, I did the only logical thing and took a trip to the pool for the first time in a few weeks. I'm trying to incorporate some techniques the book talks about in order to make my stroke even more efficient. So far I've gotten my freestyle down to just 15 strokes per lap; a HUGE improvement over the 27 it took me a few months ago!

Tonight I have to start getting ab workouts going again. I've been slacking big time on the goals I set a while back! The stability ball and medicine ball I got for Christmas are really encouraging me to get on top of it now.

And, this just in... (Literally. I got an email while typing this.) I'm officially teaching next semester. Really teaching. Last semester I just taught a lab, but now I'm actually going to be lecturing a classroom of students. I'm excited and worried about it. Its a great opportunity, but how much time is this going to require? I'm hoping it doesn't keep me from training as much as I want to!

And, some responses to comments:

Bill - I use the Garmin Forerunner 305. I love it and how it tells me every possibly thing I could want to know about my running. If heart rate data isn't important to you, the 205 is a bit cheaper.

Vickie - Yeah. That weather sure is fun! Wasn't as bad as the Illinois winter last year, but I'm sure Michigan had it even worse! Luckily I shouldn't be back to Michigan until its nice and toasty again.

Marcy - Yep. I'm definitely trying to make you jealous! But I've earned this break big time, I'll go back to being a sleep deprived college student soon enough!

Everybody else - Thanks so much for the encouraging comments lately! But be careful, your enthusiasm only pushes mine to increasingly dangerous levels!

Relentless

It's more than a number of miles. It's more than taking on the heat, cold, rain, snow, ice, and wind. It's a mindset; and one that I've missed. But its back! And I'm back!

These past few months the theme has been "don't over do it." It was a theme I needed, but all and all I think it started to make me weak. I noticed this on the bike the other day. The game plan was to go for an hour, and after just 15 or 20 minutes a little voice kept telling me it was time to quit. Over and over "don't over do it", "you might hurt yourself," yadda, yadda, yadda.

Well, I've had it with them. I told them to can it. Forget relenting. I'm relentless again!

Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm still going to increase my running nice and steady, but the other parts of my training are going to start increasing in intensity. In the past, biking and swimming have been cross training to me; but thats not the case anymore. They're a part of my training that needs the same amount of effort as before; not just recovery days anymore!

These past few days have been good days. I've been working out every day, sometimes twice. Running hasn't been aggravating my hip, I've even run two days in a row without any pain whatsoever. With the rest of my time I've been pretty lazy, but I've earned the break after busting my butt these past few months.

But what did busting my butt result in? All A's, 4.0. Hells yeah! I've earned this mental vacation!


SLB - I think its too late to put a trainer on Santa's list. Although, we have one at home that I'll be using for the next couple weeks if the roads are bad. I have enough other biking stuff on my list to keep Santa plenty busy!

Bill - I've never heard that I look like my dad. Honest. I don't hear it from everybody that has ever seen us side by side! A lot of people say the same about me and my sis. Last year at her Christmas party a friend of hers greeted me with 'LOOK! ITS BRENDA WITH A BEARD!' By the way, how does Sunday morning sound for our run? I'm thinking 4-5 miles.

D-O-N-E

Thats right. The semester is over. Completely. Holy crap!

Grading, check
Finals, check
Sanity, check

Now I just need to wait for grades to come in. Oh the waiting!


I made it out for a run this morning, but I feel like going out again. Its how I like to wrap up every semester. I ran 15 miles right after graduating college; it was great! I guess I kind of blew it by running this morning, huh? Oh well. I'm not gonna go out again, can't risk the hip! I'll get business taken care of at the pool tonight; my ankle better behave itself or we're gonna have some SERIOUS problems! It never hurts when I run, though, so I'm not complaining too loudly.

The hip is holding up nicely. I made it out for about 3.5 miles this morning to shake the cob webs loose before my final final. I've adopted a strategy this semester that has worked pretty well for me. None of that sleep deprived, studying till the last minute crap that everybody else does. I've been getting a solid 10 hours of sleep, a nice lunch, and exercising before my exams. While everybody else crammed in last minute stuff, I was reading the excerpt from "Again To Carthage" in December's Runner's World.

Splits this morning were:

7:35
7:14
7:08
3:10 (7:25 pace)

Great run, hip didn't hurt at all. Doesn't hurt now.

Tomorrow I drive back home and am stopping at Eastern Illinois on the way to see some old friends and a few professors that nudged me to go to school at University of Kentucky. Then I get to surprise my parents who aren't expecting me until Sunday night!


Nic - You have yourself a deal, my friend. Chicago '08 the barrier will be broken side by side!

Marcy - According to my Garmin, it wasn't THAT fast. Not as fast as Bill anyways; that speed demon!

Bill - Yeah, I'm getting pretty close to muttering those sacred words myself. Maybe next week sometime... I can't get ahead of myself! Soon, very soon!

Something in the mail!

Yesterday I finally got my video from the Chicago Marathon. It was supposed to ship a month ago but got delayed for some reason. Regardless, its finally here! Which means you get to see the finishing shots:

I'm pretty happy with the finishing shots, although I was hoping it would be a little higher quality. Most of the rest of the video is really great quality, then anything I appear in is kind of pixelated. I guess they don't want us taking screen shots of it instead of paying $60 a picture for the official pictures of the race.


The weather here in Kentucky is pretty freaking crazy lately. Two days ago it was in the 30's. Yesterday it was up to 70. Today its down in the 40's. I wish it would just make up its mind so I could get used to it one way or the other!

I had my amazing run yesterday, thanks to the weather, but last night my swim was pretty crap-tastic. I got through the warm up (which is still basically a full workout) alright, but then my left ankle started hurting. I kept trying to massage it out, but it just got worse every lap I swam. I decided to call it a night early. The weird thing is, it doesn't hurt at all when I walk or run. I'm just counting it as an off night, I'm giving it another shot tomorrow.

The hip is hanging in there perfectly, even after my too-quick run yesterday. It didn't pipe up at all last night or even today. Sounds like I'm really starting to recover now! I'm still planning for this to be a repeat of last week, then next week I'm going to add in one extra run. Slowly but gradually I'm going to build back up to where I was. So I can kick Bill & Nic's butts.. eventually! The next time Nancy directs a race, they're gonna have to watch out!

All I have left with school this semester is one final. A final I need a 50% on in order to get an A in the class. And its over material I know inside and out. I'm pretty much out of here for the winter!