Well it's official. I'm sick. After reading Amanda's and Michael Lovoto's blog the past couple of weeks I felt very fortunate that I've stayed healthy so far this year. Yesterday morning I woke up with a little scratch in my throat. I went into work but was heading home by lunch time. Once I got home, I made a couple more work calls, then met my parents for lunch. I still planned on working out but talking with Coach he suggested that I take it easy the rest of the night. I laid down on the couch, fell asleep, and didn't wake up till 7ish. The Pens were playing Boston (which we lost 5-1) on TV so I watched the game flipping back and forth between Survivor. Jen and I are huge Survivor fans. Not long after we were done watching TV we went to bed.
As I woke this morning I couldn't even swallow. I had a terrible nights sleep and kept waking up every 30 minutes it seemed. I really don't feel rundown nor do I have any flu like symptoms, just a sore throat. I guess it could be worse, but I opted to stay home one more day from work to try and kick this thing in the bud. The nice thing about my job is that I can work from home and still get my work done, so it's not a complete bust. So yesterday was the first time I missed a scheduled workout in three months. :( I guess it's okay though since coach said so. I hope to be better by tonight or at least well enough to make it through my workouts. Go figure that I get sick two days before my 1/2 marathon race.
As I woke in my hotel room just 50 miles from the ocean I knew it was time to head back to cold, snowy, wet, did I mention cold, Pittsburgh PA. The six hour drive actually wasn't that bad thanks to my Sirius Satellite Radio. Listening to Howard Stern all morning kept the 5 1/2 hour drive very interesting. I've been a Stern fan since my high school days and ever since he moved to Sirius I just can't imagine a world without it. On my way home I stopped at another outlet mall to stretch my legs and do a little more shopping. Typically I'm not much of a shopper but when it come to the Polo store, look out. I'm a shop a holic!!! I seriously think that 75% of my wardrobe is Ironman stuff, and the other 25% is Polo stuff. I got home around 3:00 PM, unpacked the Xterra, did a load of laundry and waited anxiously for Jen to get home from work. I was happy to be home. Mainly because it was Wednesday, and Wednesday's mean "Spin night"!!! This week it was Drew and Sandy's turn to host. My bike workout was actually short and easy which meant more time for eating! (I know, it's pretty pathetic that I think a 1 hour ride is short)
So on to dinner! Bob's girlfriend Val was the chef tonight and made a pan of vegetable lasagna, and also a pan of regular lasagna....Not to mention a huge bowl of Sandy's awesome mixed salad, wheat bread, and sour dough bread. We even had Pumpkin bread and thumb print cookies for desert.
After dinner Bob made a bet to see who had the strongest hamstrings and demonstrated doing this goofy exercise where you kneel on the ground and lean forward towards the ground without hitting, then while inches from the ground you come back up. Jen actually was the only one that could get close. We then somehow got into doing goofy yoga moves like Eagle's claw. So that was it. Another fun spin night. While we were biking and eating and doing goofy stuff, little did we know it snowed ANOTHER 2 inches. REALLY STARTING TO GET OLD. Off to bed we went dreaming of sun. :)
As I woke up this morning I felt a scratch in my throat. Oh no. I haven't been sick at all this year, and right now is no time to get sick especially with my half marathon race coming up this weekend. I've been trying to drink as many liquids as I could this morning, but the throat isn't getting better, it's getting worse. I sent a frantic email to coach telling him that I was getting sick. :( I have over 90 minutes of training tonight, and lots of work to do today. This is obviously no time for me to be getting sick. So I went from an awesome ride on Monday, an even better run on Tuesday, Spin night on Wednesday (best of the week), to sick.......worst of the week....worst of the year so far.
Well after work today I again drove into Cambridge MD home of the Eagleman 70.3 course. The entire drive there it poured cats and dogs. I really did not want to run in the rain but sucked it up and dealt with the miserable weather. Today's run goal was to maintain a pace in upper zone 2. For me this is still an easy pace, but not a "jog" pace. Maybe think of it like a nice easy tempo run.
So as I started my run surprisingly enough the rain started to let up, but not until I was 2 miles in and completely soaked. Go figure. After my so-so bike ride yesterday I wanted to redeem myself with a good run. The Eagleman run course it flat as a pancake and a out and back easy course. I set into a nice easy rythem and before I knew it I was at the turn around and 6.55 miles in. I thought wow that was fast. A quick glance at my watch indicated that I was under a 1:30 half-marathon pace, and really didn't think a sub 1:30 was possible for me in zone 2....but I thought okay maybe it's doable. As I made the turn around and ran the next couple miles I kept waiting for my HR to rise...but it didn't. I kept waiting for my legs to get heavy, but they didn't. I was actually going to do it. A sub 1:30 in zone 2. I started to get excited but not to excited to the point where my HR would go up from the bottled up enthusiasm. As I rounded the last bend I looked down at my watch and it said 1:29. I finished the half marathon training run (IN ZONE 2) in 1 hour and 29 minutes!!! Ok, Ok....I know, the course was flat you say....I don't care. I was way over dressed and soaken wet. Take this in mind and I should of been a couple minutes faster. :)
So that's my day. I celebrated with some Sushi at a local Japanese shop and a very exciting call to Coach Kevin. I'm glad to see all this hard work I'm doing starting to take shape!
Today was my long ride for the week and I got to do it on the Eagleman course in Cambridge Maryland. Luckily I'm working on a job close by this week and got to bike 63 miles today, and plan on running 10+ miles tomorrow night! So how was my ride you might ask......well just okay.
The day started off early at 5:45 AM. I was in the car, Dunkin in hand and on the Turnpike headed East. I made very good time and got into the Cambridge area around lunch time. Just in time for some Maryland Crab Cakes right before my ride....maybe not the best of ideas. But then again anyone that's biked with me knows that my stomach is made of steel. Two years ago on a century ride with some friends I stopped half way, chowed down two hot dogs, and a Pay Day candy bar....not one GI stomach issue. So as I got into the Cambridge area I had a little bit of time to kill and made a pit stop at the Outlet Mall. I did some much needed clothes shopping at the Polo - Ralph Lauren store (my favorite). Found many 50% off bargains and really feel like I made out!
So the bike ride started off good. The goal of today's ride was to keep the entire ride in upper zone 1 and lower zone 2. In other words, a heart rate between 135-145. This is some very easy riding in my opinion. For anyone that hasn't ridden the Eagleman course before let's just say it "can be fast". That all depends on the wind. It's like Hawaii. Wind gusts have been known to blow upwards of 30-40 mph. Today wasn't too bad actually. Sure there was wind, but it was nothing to write home about. I was feeling good today up until about the two hour mark. Around mile 40 my legs started to cramp. This never happens to me either as I'm typically a light sweater and my electrolyte levels stay pretty stable. I wasn't sure why they were cramping. I gave up guessing why, and attributed it to a day at the Penguin game yesterday, pizza, and beer (just two). That could have been the cause, or maybe it was the 5 1/2 hour car ride. Either way my legs just weren't here today.
After I got done and back to the hotel I uploaded my GPS and noticed that it wasn't that bad after all. I was still able to average 19.4 mph and I took it easy the last 10 miles, and also the ride was done in my easy zones. So with that said I think if all goes well I should be able to ride better. Here's what will be different the next time I tackle the course:
1.) I'll have 3 more months of hardcore Coach Kevin training under my belt. 2.) I'll have my Zipp's on instead of my heavy Velomax wheels. 3.) I'll have fresh legs (taper) 4.) I'll have that Hawaii spot dangling like a carrot in front of me. 5.) Aero helmet, and skin suit. (three layers of clothes today surely slowed me down) 6.) I'll be working about 10 times harder and not in Zone 1 & 2....try 3-4!!!
Ok, so with that said I was very happy with todays ride even though I didn't feel that great. Tomorrow after work I plan on running the Eagleman course. Hope that goes a little better! :)
There's just no better way to put it. Snow and Triathletes just do not mix! Again I spent the day indoors for my 2 1/2 hour bike workout. The morning started off good as I met my dad at his shop and we (mostly my dad) changed the oil in both Jen's car and my Xterra. I head to Cambridge on Monday and hope to bike and run the Eagleman course and an oil change was much overdue! :)
Once I got in about a gallon of coffee in me it was time to go to work. I'm in the process of helping redesign my local running club's website and spent a good 2-3 hours on it today. Be sure to check it out if you get a chance....and if you're a local in the burgh we now have "online" membership!!! :) The website is www.thegreaterpittsburghroadrunnersclub.com . Trust me, it wasn't my idea for the incredibility long url.
Afterwards I scarfed down leftover's from our pizza night last night and proceeded to head downstairs for my ride. Yes another long, boring trainer ride parked infront of the TV set. The good news was, the Pens were playing on TV. It was a really exciting game even though they lost 4-3 and before I knew it I was done!
I'm really looking forward to biking outdoors on Monday especially since it's on the Eagleman course!
This week marks the first week of my build session leading to my Marathon in April. Intensity has risen, in addition to total training time. The week started off good on Monday as I got out of work a little early for my 2600 yard swim. I finally got my watch back from Polar and was pleased to see some of my splits stored in my watch opposed to having to keep eye on the wall clock. The workout was a bunch of 75's. Odd distance, but fun to mix it up from the norm. After the swim I headed over to the gym. The gym workout was pretty standard. I've really enjoyed lifting this year for some reason. Maybe it's because I'm no longer intimidated by the Steroid folks in the muscle head room. The weights are still a little light when doing arm workouts but when it comes to leg presses "look out"!
Tuesday was again a blink of an eye. Tuesday was my first taste of whats to come in the months ahead. After work, I biked on the trainer. The workout was a 40 minute warm up, then 40 minutes steady in Zone 3, followed by a 40 minute cool down. After the ride I put on my running shoes and headed out in the freezing cold. Yep still 10 degrees here in the burgh. :( I ran from home to the track (about 20 minutes), and began my interval workout. Tonights track workout was 5 x 800's. It was cold and there was one killer head wind, but I was still able to run all of the 800's between 2:46 - 2:48 in Zone 4. I was pretty happy with the results especially 2 1/2 hours into the workout. After the five hard intervals it was easy sailing as I cooled down and ran home.
Wednesday is by far my favorite day of the week because Wednesday's are "SPIN NIGHT". Our friends Drew, Sandy, and Gary came over to our place again and we did a Coach Troy workout. I think we did Time Trial Special.....but the all seem the same to me after awhile. Oh forgot to mention that I did another killer weight workout before the trainer ride.
Now for tonight. After work I headed to the pool for a 2100 yard swim. So far the swims are sort of light this week and trust me, I'm not going to complain. I headed home and put on my running shoes and cruised an easy 9 miles. Well that's about it.
Now for the exciting news....hopefully you didn't give up on my boring post and you're still reading!!! :)
1.) I talked to coach today and two good things came up. I'm heading to Cambridge MD next week for two days and we worked in my long bike ride for Monday. I'm anticipating that weather will be moderate and I'll be able to bike the Eagleman course. In addition he wants me to run the course on Tuesday! I'm really excited and can't wait to bike and run the course.
2.) I booked our weekend get a way trip to Lake Placid for the 4th of July weekend. This is a big training weekend for me and where better to train other than on the IM course!
3. ) Coach Kevin invited me for a weekend of training at his house in Omaha NE. He's going to help me out with the homestay, meals, and transportation. Here's an exceprt of his workout plan for me that weekend in Omaha!!! It hurts just thinking about it!!! :) Very excited about this one!!!
"My basic plan, subject to when you arrive / depart - will be to watch you swim on Friday / get a swim workout in with you. Then on Saturday we will do a 5 - 6 hour ride (outdoors - hopefully) followed by a short run. Then on Sunday we will do a longer run - approx 2 hours long."
Wow what another crazy and busy weekend for Jennifer and I. Thankfully I was in town Thursday night and got to spend Valentines day with Jen. After work on Thursday the two of us drove t0 7 Springs for a comedy show. The show was sort of a last minute thing, but ended up being very funny. I guess a lot of you have seen the show "Who's Line is it anyways?". Well Colin and Brad are two of the guys on the show, and that's who we saw. It was quite funny and the two did skits that mimicked the show...without Drew Carey of course. We ended up not getting home till around 10:30, and I was beat. There was no way I was getting on the bike that late, so obviously I skipped my trainer ride. That's okay though because this week was a light training week for me. After work Friday we headed home and went out for an easy 8 mile jog. I was in bed by 9:30 that night, and we got almost 12 hours of sleep. Trust me, it was sleep much needed!
Saturday was a jammed packed day. The weather is still crappy out so that meant 2 1/2 hour trainer ride indoors :( After we ate our typical Saturday morning waffles, it was time to climb on the bike. We again rented a pay-per-view movie, and decided to watch Oceans 13. It was actually pretty good believe it or not. That took up a good 2 hours of the ride, and I cooled down while flipping through the channels. After the ride we were quickly showered and off to my niece's birthday party. My brother has two twin girls, and they turned 4 on Saturday. The party was held at the Gymnastics place. There were tons of little kids there and overall it was fun to see them having a good time.
Afterwards Jen and I went our separate ways. She had dinner plans with her girlfriends and I still had plans for two more workouts. It was off to the pool. Today's pool workout was 2300 yards with 1800 yards of swimming with tennis balls (i.e. no pull) and a combination of back stroke and breast stroke. This was the first time I've ever swam back stroke for more than a couple yards. It was tough, and I took in way too much water at times. After the swim I headed home and threw on my running shoes. By now it was dark but the good news was that I only had a 30 minute run. 30 minutes seemed to go by very fast. After the run I met up with my buddy Gary, and his wife Christina for dinner. We went to the Outback since they were craving steak.....I got fish!
Sunday marked another full / busy day. It started off with a wake up call at 7:00 AM. After breakfast we headed to Mt. Lebanon for a Greater Pittsburgh Road Runners Club run. I met up with Tammy Slusser (very awesome runner who qualified for the Womens Olympic Trials in 2000) and we ran a nice 5 mile tempo run around 6:30 pace. We finished together in first and second overall (very small race). After the race we headed to Panara to discuss future goals and club objectives to promote running in Pittsburgh. Overall I thought it was a good meeting!
Afterwards Jen and I were off to the pool for our 1000 T-Pace Swim. I dropped about 5 seconds per 100 yards off of my time from a month ago. Very exciting stuff.
Well that's about it. Monday's here and it's just another day at the office.
I really love when I'm in town on Wednesday's because Wednesday means spin night with our friends. Every Wednesday night we either travel to Drew and Sandy's house or we host spinning at our house. This week it was our turn. The gang arrived around 6:15, and five of us were all pedaling hard by 6:30! We ended up doing a 90 minute trainer ride to the Spinerval "mental toughness". The video consisted of many 1 minute intervals, 2 minute intervals, and some sprints near the end. Overall a good base builder workout.
Now for my favorite part. Jen cooked this really awesome whole wheat lasagna stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, turkey, and topped with my favorite sauce from DeNunzio's (local Italian restaurant). I had two HUGE pieces and am officially stuffed!
Oh I almost forgot. I think my neighbors officially thing I'm nuts. In addition to the trainer ride, I had to jump rope for 5 minutes. I shoveled off my back porch and away I jumped. As I was jumping, I saw a neighbors head peak out the window and stare! Okay I thought. He knows I'm a triathlete, so no big deal. After I was done I went out front for two more small workouts. My next exercise was skipping. I must of looked ridiculous. 5 sets of 50. Here I am skipping up and down my road in 30 degree weather, wearing shorts none the less. I counted two other neighbors that just looked at me with a blank stare. I gave a simple hello wave, and skipped my heart out. Next was the two legged hops as high as I could jump. Again, I must of looked like I was from Mars. Regardless it was a fun night and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Wow are my predictions good. In my last post I predicted that I'll be home and about to eat around 8:45 - 9:00. Dinner is just about ready, and my life is starting to sound like a broken record going around and around and around. Playing the same tune over and over! But that's alright, because I really do love this stuff. My run on the treadmill wasn't as bad as I though it was going to be. I ran a quick 8 miles and then began my lifting circuit. Well that's about it for the day. I'm starving, we'll soon eat, and I'll be in bed before you know it.
It's snowing again and it's for real this time. No more snow in the morning, gone by the evening stuff. Today we got a good 2-3 inches and it's still freezing out. The forecast for the next 3-4 days calls for a mix of rain and snow. This is truely the worst running conditions in my opinion.
So yesterday went pretty good. After work I picked up Jen and we drove to the pool for an easy recovery swim. We finished the workout with 1900 yards and headed home. Once we got home, Jen started cooking dinner and I headed over to the gym for a 45 minute weight workout. When I got home to much suprise it was only 8:00 PM. I couldn't believe I actually had an hour to relax before bed. I had an hour to lay there and do absolutely nothing!
Today is a different story. It's 4:15, and I'm about ready to leave the office. I have to pick Jen up, and we'll probably end up at the gym for our run indoors (which if you read my blog, you know I hate treadmills). I figure my run will start around 6:00 PM, I'll run till 7:00. Cool down for 10 minutes, then start my 1 hour lifting workout. Home at 8:15. Dinner at 8:45-9:15. Bed by 9:30.
Here they are. The long awaited, long overdue, much proclaimed, ICE BATH pictures. I really do feel better now that I can no longer feel my legs. So get this, I was listening to the Penguin game today in the car on my way to the pool and they were talking about "ice baths". I thought no way! Paul Coffey was the first Penguin to start doing it in the early 90's and not before long Mario Lemieux was even taken the polar bear dip after every game. They went on to say that they would only do 5 minutes because it hurt too bad and they had to wear neoprene socks to keep their toes warm. I always knew Triathletes were tougher than hockey players. I think the Penguins need to HTFU! (then again they did win 2 Stanley Cups...)
So today marked another busy day in Irwin PA. Jen and I were up around 7:30 this morning because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. We had a long bike ride, and we had a long swim workout. When we finally got our butts out of bed and finished eating breakfast we moved downstairs for our 3 1/2 hour trainer ride. Going into the ride I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it the full duration. My legs were tired from my recent trip to the west coast, and from the endless miles of running, biking, and swimming that we've already done leading up to today. Regardless I was on my trainer with coffee mug in hand (Kona coffee that is!)
I knew going in that the only way I was going to make it through the ride was to have something distract my mind for 3 1/2 hours! We turned on "On Demand / Pay Per View" and decided to rent the New Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis. Actually believe it or not, the movie was quite good. Tons of action, and John McClane (Bruce's movie name) can still kick some major bad guy ass. I got 3 hours in and had to HTFU and tough it out for 30 more minutes. I kicked it up a gear, made my heart rate rise, and layed down the hammer.
I was cooked. There was nothing left, but regardless we showered and drove off to the pool. The swim workout today was 3600 yards with a bunch of 100's and one long 1000. I nailed all my splits, and am really starting to think that this swimming thing is coming along...that is until Jen laps me!
After we were done swimming we were to drive to Jen's rents house to return their car that Jen borrowed and eat a little dinner with her family to celebrate Jen's birthday that was 4 days ago. Instead the power was out all morning at her parents house so we opted to host dinner at our place.
I'll leave you all with a Happy Birthday Picture of Jen and her brand spankin new Phaltzgraf dining set. Seriously though, I bet you've never seen someone smile that big over two plates, a bowl, and a coffee mug! Maybe I really do need some coffee.
So I just checked the forecast for tomorrow and it calls for snow, wind, and more snow. I have a 3 1/2 hour ride scheduled for tomorrow, and absolutely do not want to do it indoors. It looks like I have no other choice! I might as well get mentally prepared now, get a good nights sleep, and HTFU. You'll have to check out Marit's blog if you don't know what HTFU means!
So as for today we woke up around 7AM and peeked out the window. Yep you guessed it, SNOW! About 2 inches of snow were laying on our road so we opted to do our run later in the day. I headed over to the gym after breakfast for a quick lifting session.
Our friends Mike and Lynne picked us up around 10:30 and we were off to the Penguin game. What a great game it was! The pens are really coming on strong down the home stretch especially with Sidney Crosby out of the lineup. They ended up beating the Kings 4-2 and are in 1st place in the division.
After we got home we suited up for our run. With the roads now clear our workout called for 40 minutes in Z1-2 and then run back in Z3-4. I negitive split by 4 minutes coming back and was running 6:30 miles in lower zone 3. I was very happy considering there was one killer head wind out there on the way back.
Well I made it home from LA Thursday morning and got to see Jen for just a couple of minutes before she headed off to work. The flight was horrible. Just incase you don't fly very often, here are a couple of rules you should follow when taking the red-eye (any flight that is overnight cross country) flight.
1.) Absolutely under no circumstances shall you bring small children onto the plane. Thursday night one kid screamed for 5 hours straight. Even with an iPod, it still doesn't block everything out. 2.) If you do decide to bring small children on the plane, keep them under control. For example, on one red-eye flight I had a kid (3-4 yrs old) sitting next to me, and the parent was on the other side of the kid. The parent was sound asleep and I spent the entire flight getting kicked and hit by the kid while trying to sleep. 3.) Know what seats are the good seats in this order only. First Class is always the best option. Sencond if you're sitting in coach, the best seat is typically the second row emergency row. In this row you can recline your seat, the row in front of you can't recline, plus you have more leg room. 4.) Never choose the middle seat on the red-eye. It's always easier to sleep in a window seat. 5.) The bad seats on the plane are always the last row, and on 737 & Airbus planes row 9 is bad. It doesn't recline, and they'll never tell you this ahead of time!
So anyways like I said, I got home Thursday morning and got some sleep. I woke up around 1:00 PM in the afternoon and headed to the pool. Today's swim workout was a ladder set. 100,200,300,400,500,400,300,200,100 with a nice warm up and cool down. Later on Thursday night I went for my run and did some strength building hill repeats.
Friday came and went as fast as any other workout day. Jen and I decided to wait until after work to do our training. I had a really long day of meetings and busy work and didn't get out of there till around 4:45. I left work and headed straight to the pool. I met Jen at the pool and we swam 18x100's. I really like doing 100 intervals since I don't seem to get too off of my form. I did all the 100's around a 1:25 - 1:27 pace. Much better than my swimming 2 months ago.
On our way home we stoped at Jioio's for some take out pizza. I was soo hungry that I couldn't even wait till I got home and ate 4 pieces before I ever got home. Once we got home it was time for workout number 2. We climbed on the bikes for an easy 2 hour ride. Afterwards we were quickly off to bed.
Now this morning the plan was to get in a nice long run but to much suprise when we woke and peeked out the bedroom window we saw absolutely nothing but white. Snow covered trees, snow covered lawn, and worst of all, a snow covered road! Good thing I have two workouts today and one of them is lifting which I can do indoors. My friend Mike and his wife are picking us up in a couple hours and we're going to head into town for the Penguin game. They're playing the LA Kings, so how appropriate! I'll have to defer my run till later this afternoon...
Can we board the plane yet??? I'm ready for bed!!!
Well it's 11:30 EST, and I'm offically beat! I still have 2 more hours till I get on my plane and I don't know if I'm going to make it. My eyes keep closing on me....just 2 more hours and I'll get to sleep in the most uncomfortable bed known to man, also known as US Airways seat 10A.
So here is how my day went today. I got in a good 9-10 hours of sleep and put a call into the shop I'm working at. See I needed to find out what time the parts are going to be there. I heard back from them shortly afterwards and they said to come in around 10AM! Perfect! I'll have time to relax, have a nice long breakfast, and I'll be able to get some other work done.
Work actually went well today and I was back at the hotel by 1PM. It was time for my tempo run. I managed to get in just shy of 10 miles on this 1.5 mile loop I typically run when I'm in LA. It was really awesome running in short sleeves and shorts again. After the run I showered, packed my things and headed south to this really sweet shopping complex "The Block at Orange". I ate dinner at this fish resturaunt and had one of the best yellow fin tuna filets I think I've ever had! After dinner I headed to "Hilo Hatti". Hilo Hatti is a store dedicated to Hawaii and also my west coast supply for 100% Kona Coffee! I loaded up the suitcase with two bags of Kona coffee and four boxes of Chocolate Macademia nuts. Don't worry the nuts aren't all for me :)
So here I am. Only 10 minutes has passed, and yes I'm still tired. Do I get a Starbuks to keep me awake? I wonder if they can brew me a pot of my Kona Coffee? Ummmm that would be good!
I'm really not looking forward to the next 8 hours of my life. 2 hours of sitting here waiting in the terminal, 5 hours of trying to sleep in the plane, and then 1+ hour drive before I walk in my front door! Booo!
So I found out last night that my job is going to finish up a day early. So that means I'm going to fly home tonight on the red-eye and will be back in the burgh around 6:00 AM tomorrow! This is good news because now I can hopefully get home, take a nap, and then go for a bike ride outside! That would mean 3 straight rides outdoors if I can make it happen. I'm going to go to work now, hopefully finish up around 1PM, head back to the hotel for my lift and run, and then head down to the beach and relax until my 10:30 flight!
So one of the many joys of being a triathlete is being able to eat anything in sight...well sort of. Even though we all work out like crazy, we still have to be careful. I mean you'll never see me at McDonalds ordering a Big Mac, or at Burger King ordering me a whopper, but I do eat a lot and have no fear pigging out over normal food. But today being an off day, do I take it easy? Heck no! I just got back from dinner and here's what I ate. I started off with a shrimp cocktail (keep in mind, work is paying for all of this), got a order of chips with authentic mexican salsa and guacamole (my favorite), and a bowl of chicken pasta soup. Now for the main course! After I already felt stuffed, the waiter brough out my grilled Tilapia with carrots and a baked potato. For desert I waddled back to my room with two chocolate chip cookies in hand. Now I'm ready for bed!!! Good night! Oh PS, here's a shot of my kick A$$ room! It has a huge flat screen, jacuzzi, and even a fireplace. One of the many perks Hilton offers it's frequent guests!!!
Will I be the first one to do an ice bath ice bath with the jacuzzi jets on??? We shall see!
So today was my off day, but you really didn't think I could actually take a day off and do absolutely nothing after work? Look at those blue skies!!! It doesn't get any better than golfing in February....ok maybe racing a tri in October on the big island is better, but this is good too. :) I didn't golf very good, but it was fun anyways!
So I got into Los Angeles around 9:00 PM PST (midnight my time), and had to drive about 45 minutes before I got to the Hiton Garden Inn in Montebello. Once I checked in I was hungry so I ordered a pizza. To make a long story short I didn't get to bed till 11:30 PST (2:30 AM my time) and was up early for work. I'm going to take it easy the rest of the night and enjoy my rest day. I'm going to try and get to bed early tonight and do my run in the morning. I love running in diffrent parts of the country and this is definately no exception!
With that said, I'll leave you with a tiny video of my Tiger Woods like golf swing. Enjoy.
Well after a disappointing workout weekend with high heart rates, and missing swim workouts I got it together today and got in at least 1 solid workout. See Sunday from my last post, Jen and I were heading to the pool for our long swim, but when we arrived we soon found out that the pool was closed to us lap swimmers and was rented out by the freakin boy scouts!!! WTF. They could have at least kept one pool lane in.....so on to plan B. Skip the swim and EAT!!! We made plans to meet up with our friends Mike and Lynne for dinner at a new Japanese restaurant in Greensburg and we had a great time. We ate sooo much food it was ridiculous. We started off with a tuna Maki roll, and an assortment of sushi. For our main course we all had hibachi style food served and cooked in front of us. I always enjoy this part and tonight wasn't any different....but we enjoyed it for a different reason. None of us couldn't stop from laughin after dinner. See we got the only chef that wasn't Japanese (ok, no big deal) but the funny part was the way he acted. He acted as if he was straight out of the movie Boyz in the Hood, and was doing some of the strangest things. At one point he put a egg on the fryer (uncracked), spatchula underneath, and catapulted the egg into his shirt pocket. I'm sure you can guess what happened....egg everywhere. All over him, and almost all over Jen. He was the most clumsy chef I've ever seen, and almost slipped twice right on the hot fryer. Just hilarious!!!
We got home just in time to watch Tom Petty perform at the half time super bowl, and I was so happy to see the Giants win and knock off the Patriots. There's only one team that should be labeled as a "Dynasty", and that team's the Steelers!!!
Since I'm flying to LA this afternoon I decided to get up and head over to the pool for my workout that I missed yesterday. I got 1600 yards into my workout, and lifeguard told me it was time to get out. Lap Time over! I was thinking to myself, not again. NOW WHAT!!! You guessed it....Water Aerobics. You got to be kidding me. You mean to tell me that they need the entire pool???? It's six lanes wide. WTF!!! Ok, so now I'm pissed. I get a shower and drive back home for workout #2 of the weekend that I missed. Ahhhh, jump rope. My neighbors really have to be thinking I'm crazy. I went on my back porch and jumped rope for 5 minutes. Did some double leg hops, and then headed out into my street where I skipped for about 10 minutes.
After the Plyometric routine, it was time for my bike workout. Another break through workout on the bike and even though the roads were wet from the rain last night, there was no way I was staying indoors for this one. I put on my layers, cranked up the iPod, and off I went. I warmed up for 15 minutes before I got into my 1 x 45 minute set of constant HR Zone 3. I decided to do two 18 mile loops with some half decent climbs. I was very happy to see that I cold hold my HR in zone 3 today, and was really happy to see I averaged 21 mph on a rolling course for 45 minutes straight.
Well that's about it... My flight leaves for Los Angeles at 6:15, and I still need to go pack and get everything organized for the trip. I'm sure I'll write more from sunny southern Cal!!!
The weekend started off very promising as I got home from a work job in Erie on time around 4PM. I headed straight over to Blazers (my gym) and started my lifting workout. I really enjoy doing this workout because it makes me feel like I'm really getting a good workout out of it. No messin around in other words. The workout takes about 80 minutes to complete and is turning into one of my favorite workouts of the week. After the gym I got home and Jen and I ate some pasta with my favorite Denunzio's homemade sauce. After dinner I climbed on my bike for what was to be a 90 minute workout with 40 minutes straight in zone 3. After a good 30 minute warm-up, I turned up my motor and set into a comfortable 155ish Heart Rate. I felt good for the first minute or two, but after that my HR started to drop. What was going on here? For some reason I just didn't have it tonight. No matter how much energy I put into each pedal stroke, the harder it got to keep my HR in zone 3. I finally gave up, and realized that tonight’s workout just wasn't to be. I got an hour in, and decided that rest would be a much better solution then spinning aimlessly for another 30 minutes on the trainer.
Saturday morning was a little bit better. After laying around the house all morning, Jen and I decided to get in our long run for the week. Saturday's run was a 75 minute run in zones 1-2. Very easy!!! Very doable. We ran a nice and moderately hilly course (we live in Western PA so every course is hilly) and finished up around 1:30 PM. We opted to reschedule our swim workout for Sunday and took the rest of the day off. My body was telling me, enough is enough therefore my afternoon consisted of laying on the couch practically dead to the world. There were times where I would hop onto the web continuing to work on the Pittsburgh Road Runners new website (www.thegreaterpittsburghroadrunnersclub.com) but besides that I didn't lift a finger. Around 8PM we were both hungry and drove about one mile from our house (I know we should have walked....but it was cold out) to the Mexican restaurant Los Campincino's. It's my favorite!!! After we got home I went straight to bed (around 8:30 PM) watched the Pen's game, and fast asleep for the long bike ride in the morning.
The alarm clock went off way too early today as I could have slept another 2 or 3 hours, but regardless it was time to bike. It was cold all day Saturday and today was no different. When Paul showed up he warned Doug and I that there were patches of slush and ice in spots and we had to be careful. I've never biked outdoors in January or February so this was all new to me. I bundled up and off the three of us went. Not even 10 minutes into the ride I knew it was going to be a hard one. My had a very hard time keeping my HR below zone 3, and on the hills it spiked into zones 4 and even zone 5. It wasn't like we were going 23 mph...we were going 17-18. I'm going to take it for what it was and just say that I need some recovery and I've really pushed myself the last 2 months. So as the morning finished out, we ended the morning with a little over 51 miles. It was a great ride and you sometimes forget how nice riding outside is after being trapped in the basement on the trainer night after night. Here's a link to our ride today!!! http://www.trainingpeaks.com/tny.aspx?a=sw&key=L7II1B4RKgXtEIxJ9x4UIV%2Bf7ZRm67p7
Jen and I are off to the pool soon to get in our 3500 yrd workout. I think afterwards we're going to go out to dinner with some friends for some sushi!!!! Maybe that with some saki will help these weekend aches go away. :)
