My Life - The Triathlon Way
Bed Sores
Frustration with this cold of mine has reached an all time high. Not only did I NOT workout today, my cold and cough are still here. This has to be the most inactive I've been in almost 5 years. Besides cleaning up the garage this morning, I haven't moved from the couch. I couldn't even go on a walk today because I was afraid of having nature call blocks away. Let's hope I feel better soon!!!
Still Sick
Today makes day number 4 of being sick, and it's no fun what so ever. I can't even go 2 minutes without coughing. To make things worse, I must of slept wrong last night and it hurts to turn my neck. My chiropractor is going to make a special Sunday morning visit to help straighten things out. Also to make things worse, the weather is not getting warmer. I'm sick of doing my bike rides indoor, and need to get outside. 30 degrees with a 10mph wind is no longer fun biking weather (actually I'm not sure if it ever was fun)...
I went to the doctor yesterday and got some antibiotics for the cold. So far, they aren't helping. :(
The good thing is I don't really have an appetite since getting sick, so I haven't put on much weight. I'm sure I lost a little fitness from having my butt parked on the couch or indoors all week.
My week in Los Angeles
Monday night I departed from PIT in route to LAX. Once I got to the LAX airport, I met up with my boss and co-worker Mike and we drove to the hotel. We got in sort of late, but I was starving and hadn't eaten in some time. I had something small to eat at the hotel, and it was off to bed. I set the alarm for 4AM PST, so I could do run #1 for the day. When I woke up, my throat had a little tingle, but I thought nothing of it. I proceeded to lace up for my tempo run, but something just wasn't right. I managed to work through the workout, but my throat kept getting more sore by the minute. By mid-day Tuesday, it was official....I was sick. :(
We worked a really long day at the factory, and didn't get back to the hotel until around 6pm. Mike and my boss Terry wanted to go out to dinner at the beach, but all I wanted to do was go to my room and sleep. But I sucked it up, and thought that it would help if I go out to dinner with my boss since we typically have little interaction. The plan for dinner was seafood in Long Beach at a restaurant called "Parker's Lighthouse". Terry had eaten there before, and had rave reviews, and boy he wasn't kidding. The food was fantastic. We started off with some raw oysters, and sushi as an appetizer, then all three of us had a 8oz Ahi Tuna fillet, and a piece of cheese cake for desert. I'm really glad I went, and was praying that I wouldn't regret it in the morning. And best yet, the restaurant was right across the harbor from the Queen Mary.
As the alarm went off Wednesday morning, I knew I had a long day ahead of me. By this point, the cold had gotten worse and not only was my throat sore, but I now had a wicked cough. We put in almost 13 hours of work, and I was running on fumes. After work I drove my co-workers to the airport, went back to the hotel, and was fast asleep by 9PM.
Day 3 (today) in LA had to be the worst. When I woke up this morning, not only was my throat still sore, but I was now getting the typical flu symptoms (aching body, congestion, that feeling that your head is compressed in a vacuum). NOT FUN!!!
As soon as I was done with work I drove straight to the hotel, and got my butt in bed. I managed to get 1-2 hours of solid sleep in prep for tonights long flight. I'm currently at the airport in LAX, awaiting my 10:35 PM flight. I arrive in Pittsburgh tomorrow morning, and plan on spending another day in bed, and am very excited to get home to my wife. The past two weeks have really been hard.
Talking with coach this morning, he made sure to tell me that I rest up, relax, and do not workout. With that said, I haven't worked out since Tuesday morning, and feel like a complete slacker. Tomorrow is a big 4 1/2 hour workout day and I really hate missing it, but I need to get better first before I get back into things.
5AM wake up call (with a 1 hour snooze)
I knew last night that today was going to be an extremely busy day for me. The alarm went off this morning at 5AM, we snoozed for an hour, and I finally got up, dressed, kissed Jen goodbye for the week, and was off to the pool. Today's workout was really good with a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of 300 intervals. After the swim I headed home and braved the cold elements outside once again. I checked on the internet and the outside temp was a chilling 30 degrees with 5 mph winds....not too bad, so I went for it. I decided to stay close to home just in case I really started to get cold, and that's exactly what happened about 45 minutes in. The wind started to pick up and it was time to call it a day....or at least a call it a day for outdoor activities. I headed home, ate a quick lunch then climbed on the trainer for the rest of my 3 hour bike ride. I'm really addicted to renting movies off of pay-per-view, and the movie of the day today was something called "Hitman". A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 hired by a group known only as 'The Agency' is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Eastern Europe. Sounds exciting right? Well it was. Non stop action which really made the time fly by as I spun and spun my legs downstairs. So another 4 hour training day is in the books, and I'm now sitting in the Pittsburgh airport waiting to board my flight to Los Angeles. I'm really looking forward to another week of 70+ degree weather, but hate being away from home and Jen. Coach has some good solid running in store for me this week and I'm looking forward to another hard week of training!
Happy Easter
Since I got home Thursday afternoon it's been non stop training. I got home around 5PM from Fort Lauderdale, and strapped on my shoes for a quick and hard 8 mile run. I was off work on Friday afternoon I went out for another run. This time it was a little longer and I racked up 12 miles total. Friday night I took Jen out to a new Japanese restaurant in Greensburg for some raw fish (my favorite!!!). Now for the busy, busy, busy, days (the weekend). Saturday started off with a bang and Jen and I along with a crew of about 10 other runners set off on the long run of the day. I was very surprised at how my legs felt after another long week of training, and they responded quite well. The first 5 miles of the run were somewhat of a warm up with the group. The 8 minute mile pace was a little too slow so I decided to break off from the group and run my own run. Over the next 3 to 4 miles I picked up the pace and ran a couple miles closer to 7 minute miles. Once I hit mile 10, coach wanted me to run 20 minutes at 10K pace. I picked it up and knocked off 2 1/2 miles at a 6:30 pace. Again, the legs were responding well to the high miles. I finished the morning run just shy of 16 miles, and met some of the other runners at Panera for a much needed coffee and bagel. As the morning came and went, so did we. We were wisped away in the Honda in route to the pool. Nothing too crazy today in the water, just a typical hour swim. After we got home it was time for my nap. I was out faster than a light and woke up around 7PM, just in time for the Penguin Hockey game. I still had one more workout before calling it the day, and climbed on the trainer for a easy 90 minute recovery spin. It actually went by rather quickly, the Penguins won BIG, and it was time for bed.
As Sunday morning arose the schedule called for a 4 hour ride. It's been again cold here in Pittsburgh, and I dreaded the though of a 4 hour trainer ride, but unfortunately I had no other choice (so I thought). Jen and I started off the ride biking to the new Will Smith movie "I am Legend". It was ok, but I'm not much of a movie critic. After the movie I looked at my watch and it read "1:36". Are you kidding, I thought. I'm not even half way. Ok, enough is enough I thought. I'm going to put on my cold gear and brave the elements and no one can stop me! The temperature still read in the 20's, but there wasn't any ice on the roads, so it was a go. Over the next 2 hours I managed to enjoy life in the saddle OUTSIDE. By the time I got back home it was hurry up mode, as we were heading over to my parents house for Easter dinner. Dinner was really good this year, and it was really nice having the entire family get together as usual.
So tomorrow is Monday, and again I have a lot on my plate. My plan is to wake up early, swim an hour at the Y, home by 8:30, bike for 3 hours, head to the gym for some weight training, pack for my work trip, drive to the airport, board a plane to Los Angeles by 6:15, arrive in LA by 11:30 EST, drive 45 minutes to the hotel, and go to sleep, then do it all over again on Tuesday. And people out there say I have it easy..... :) Good night all!
Miami Olympic Tri Race Report
The alarm buzzed very early this morning at 4:00 AM. I managed to get myself out of bed shortly after, and proceeded to get ready. I didn't have much to do in the morning since I laid out all my clothes and gear ahead of time. My hotel was on Miami beach and the race was about a 10 minute drive south onto Key Biscayne. I arrived into transition around 5:00 AM, and was ready to get the day underway. My bike was racked next to the Pro rack, and it was really cool only being a couple of bikes down from Chris Leito, Matty Reid, JoAnn Zeigler, Nina Craft, and some of the other top athletes.
After body marking and 20 minutes of transition prep, my bike and I were ready to roll. I put on my running shoes and ran about a mile to get the legs warmed up. By now 7:00 AM was closing in, and it was time to head to the starting line. The Pro men athletes wave went off at 7:00 AM, quickly followed by the pro women, then it was my wave. My wave consisted of both men and women that were registered in the elite division. I really felt good simply because I'm not a fast swimmer and didn't want to get left in the dust (not that there aren't some good women swimmers out there), but at least I now had a chance to hang on. Just as the sun broke the horizon, the horn went off and I sprinted into the water. I quickly got into a rhythm and found two swimmers that I picked out of the crowd to draft off of. About half way into the swim I decided to pick up the pace and see if I could move up a little. I found another fast swimmer to draft off of, and hung on for the ride. Before I knew it I was exiting the water in just over 16 minutes. Okay, so I really didn't swim a 16 minute mile, the swim was a little short. But regardless I had a great swim and felt good the entire way. Off with the wetsuit, and it was time to hammer the next 25 miles on the bike. I was quick through transition and on the bike in less than 2 minutes. I wasn't sure how far back I was from the leaders, but decided to set into a comfortable pace with my heart rate in the low 170's. I moved up a couple spots in the beginning and held my position over the next 25 miles. I felt good on the bike averaging around 24 mph. There were two (two minute) climbs on the bike course, but besides that it was pancake flat. When I finished the bike I knew that I was going to PR at the distance unless I had a very bad run. After another quick transition (just over a minute), I was off on the run. Right in front of me out of transition was Female Pro, Heather Gollnick. I was shocked to see that I had made up ground on her and this meant I was actually up by a couple of minutes. I tried to hang onto the heals of her feet, but quickly started to loose ground. For some reason I had this really bad pain in my stomach area every time I started to push a faster pace. The run was on a half dirt / half pavement path around the bay filled with potholes, and lots of tree roots to trip over. My running style is not meant for trail running and I actually tripped and fell twice on the run. It was sort of embarrassing, and I'm happy that no spectators were there to witness my falls. It took about 3 miles for the cramps to go away, but by now it was too late. My goal of running a sub 40 10K was gone. After the race coach and Beth reinforced that I had just come off a 60+ mile running week, and I should be happy with a 41 minute 10K. When it was all said and done I finished the Olympic Tri in 2:06:51. That's almost five minutes faster than my previous Olympic race. Plus the best part was I didn't finish last in the Elite division. I actually placed 9th overall out of 19 Elite racers. That means I beat 50% of them right?
So overall it was a good start to the season. This week is another plus 20 hour training week, and my focus now will shift to the marathon at the end of April, and more importantly Ironman training.
Time to come home
As much as I've enjoyed the 85 degree weather, and sunny sky, I'm ready to come home.
It's time to get back to my wonderful wife, and time for the weekend of which I'm looking forward to spending some time with my family at Easter. As for my week here in Florida, it was fun to say the least. Even though I had to work a lot while down here, I was able to find time to enjoy myself. Sunday night was spent celebrating over some Miller Lite's with my co-worker, and Monday was a full day of work and an off day in the my training life. But it was all back to business on Tuesday. I woke up Tuesday morning around 5:30 AM and went out for a easy 6 mile run. My legs felt extremely heavy during the run, but I didn't care because I was running along the ocean and it was fantastic. After work on Tuesday I met up with my friend Laura about 20 miles north of Ft. Lauderdale for a 8 mile tempo run. Laura is a fantastic runner and actually qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon back in 2000, and missed the qualifying race in 2004 by only seconds. Our run Tuesday night was at a comfortable talking pace and I really enjoyed running and talking with Laura. She even invited Jen and I back to Boca offering up a room in her condo (which was absolutely gorgeous and overlooked the Atlantic)! After the run I met back up with my co-worker, Brett, and we headed down to the beach for a very nice seafood / Italian dinner right on the beach. I thought to myself, now this is the way I should be living every day!!!
So Tuesday came and went, and Wednesday was here before we knew it. I decided to take the morning off (I really am not a morning exercise person), and opted to do my two workouts in the evening after work. So after we returned from a hard day at the office, I quickly changed into my bike shorts and headed up the coast on A1A Blvd. The wind really has been strong the past couple days. There aren't many hills here in Florida, but to tell you the truth, I'd take hills any day over the strong head winds. I biked 25 miles up the coast and met up with Laura again at her condo in Boca Raton. She hanged tough on my back wheel as we battled the wind. Laura ended up doing 20+ miles with me, and by the time I was back to the hotel I had in 50 miles in 2 1/2 hours. To put the wind in perspective, I did the entire ride in a very easy comfortable heart rate and averaged close to 26mph with the tail wind, and then averaged way less than 20mph on the way back.
After the bike I headed over to the Lauderdale Yacht club for my swim. It felt soooo good to swim outdoors. I almost forgot what it was like. The fresh air, the clean water, and that overall feeling of freedom. I had the entire pool to myself, and it was great. At the end of my workout I actually didn't want to get out.
So it's Thursday now, and time to head back to the Burgh. So after a really nice get a way to Southern Florida, I'm anxious and ready to get back to life as normal.
I'll leave you this morning with a shot of the big E. The next letter in the alphabet is P right?
A very happy me after the race.
I do belong
So today marked my first ever race in the elite division. I didn't place top 3 overall, but I already knew that was the case coming in. Basically I wanted to see if I could hang with the big boys and basically try not to come in last. There were about 25-30 guys who went off with me in the elite swim wave. My goal was to not be #30. And now for the "un-official" results. They aren't posted yet on the web, but here is what I remember from the posting hung up at the race.
3rd Overall Elite Amateur age 25-29
9th place Overall Elite Amateur
32nd place overall - (very deep pro field...Chris Lieto was there, and so was Matty Reed)
Finish time of 2:06:53
Average Speed on bike - 23.6 mph
Pace on Run (6:43 / mile)....only disappointment of the day....details to come in the race report!
Times I tripped and fell on run - 2 (again details to come)
Race update
Itoday I clocked a 2:06 at the Miami Tri. That's a PR for my by over 5 minutes! More to come later.
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Pre Race Check In
Wow what a long day. After checking into my hotel, it was time to unpack my bike and get ready for the big race in the morning. Here's a picture of where I'm staying tonight. Nothing great, but what do you expect for free!
I was some what disappointed at the race venue actually. The surrounding area is very nice, but the expo and transition area is in this really run down old park and there was broken glass everywhere in the parking lot. Not to mention all participants were charged five bucks to park in the abandon lot. Very strange.
So after I checked in and got my race packet I put on my wetsuit and jumped into the bay. I've been doing so much pool swimming that it really felt different in open water and especially different with the saltwater. I went pretty easy in the water and swam for about 15 minutes. After the swim I got my bike out of the car and went for a 30 minute ride followed by a 15 minute run. My legs really felt good on the bike, but my heart rate was way too high on the run. I really think it was because of the heat, and my body reacting to the enormous temperature shift. I was done with all my workouts by 4PM, and left my bike in transition overnight.
After I got back to the hotel I took a walk down the boardwalk right on the ocean. It was great! I had a very nice pasta dinner at a local restaurant, and headed back to my room.
I'm going to try to get to bed early since I plan on being in transition by 5:15 AM.
I made it
So I just landed in Ft. Lauderdale and it has to be 40 degrees warmer then back home. It also feels very humid. This airport is absolutley nuts right now at baggage claim.
I've already been waiting about 20 minutes for the carasel to start and it still hasn't gone. Ok finally. Both my luggage and bike made it in one piece...I hope. Now I need to get my rental car and head to the hotel so I can build up my bike!
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And we're off
This morning the alarm went off at 5:00 AM, packed the X-terra, and I was off to Pittsburgh International Airport. Yesterday was pretty uneventful. After Jennifer got home from work, I did a quick spin on the bike before cleaning it up. The airport was crazy this morning. Typically Saturday's aren't very busy, but I'm glad I planned to get here early so I didn't have any check in problems with the bike. It took about 20 minutes to get to a ticket agent (and that was even in the First Class / Preferred line). It's always a huge hassle doing out of town races. I have no idea how the pro's do week in and week out. As I checked in, I had my fingers crossed and was hoping that the agent would wave the bike box fee ($80 bucks), but had no luck. CHA-CHING! Ahhh, the sound of US-AIR taking more of my hard earned cash. I really need to invest in some airline stock!!! See they don't charge you extra if you travel with ski's, snowboards, guitars, or golf clubs, but for some reason flying with a bike doesn't fit in this category. Do they know that my bike only weighs 17 pounds??? I seriously think my golf clubs weigh more than my bike.
After I checked in at the ticket counter, I wheeled my bike to the TSA security baggage check. 50% of the time the TSA guy will open my box which is a major pain in the a$$, but to my good fortune today decided not to open it. I think this was mainly due to how crazy the airport is for St. Paddy's day weekend. I watched my bike get wheeled away, and I'm praying that when I get to Fort Lauderdale (where I'm flying in to) my bike will appear at baggage claim.
I really wish I had a picture of me lugging myself through the airport with my bike box, suitcase, laptop, and carry-on bag. I got many strange stares of course. Well that's that. I'm going to try and take a bunch of pictures today and post frequent updates. I'm really starting to get excited for tomorrow!!!
Nothing exciting to report
I think all my blog entires are starting to look the same, so I decided to take a couple days off from posting to see if something new and exciting happens. Well unfortunately, nothing new or exciting has has happened since Monday.
I had a couple good encouraging conversations with coach the past couple days about Miami. We briefly went over race strategy, and how I should approach the race.
As far as training goes, this week is sort of a scaled back taper week. Coach still has me training over 10 hours, but sorry to say 10 hours seems like a break! I got a good intensity workout in at the track Tuesday night and recorded some sub 2:40 800 intervals! It was actually quite funny because we have some runners that do the track workouts with us who never ran track in High School or college so don't know the track lingo. So when we say we're running 800's, we always get the question, that's two laps right? So from this point on, 800's are now called twosy's, mile repeat's are now called foursy's, and so on. It's also fun to mess with the others after they say their running twosy's, I'll say, "you can run twosy's but everyone else is running 800's". Okay, I'm sure that non-runners would find absolutely no humor in that, but that's what makes us runners unique. :)
Last night was spin night over Drew and Sandy's, still my favorite night of the week. Sandy made some awesome home made pizza with spinach salad! I must of had 3 or 4 pieces (they were really big). I couldn't get enough! I couldn't get enough of the chocolate chip cookies either. Sandy swears they were actually healthy cookies, but I'm still skeptic.
Also last night I took my Zipp 999's out of storage, blew off some of the dust, and realized that my rear disc is missing its tire. NOT GOOD. I'm planning on making an emergency pit stop at the bike shop today at lunch. I hope there aren't any surprises (other than the high cost of those stinkin tubulars ) and hopefully no flats this race!!!
So that's that. Only 3 days till the Miami race, and only 2 days till I'll be in sunny warm southern Florida! I go after work today for a massage, and hopefully it'll be a good one. I really haven't found anywhere close that gives a good sports massage. Afterwards I'll be swimming and running. Typical Thursday night stuff.
Am I ready?
Well today I officially changed my registration in the Miami Tri from the "age grouper" category to the "Elite Amateur" category.
http://www.mitriathlon.com/Registrations/MIT_list.aspxEven though I haven't raced an Olympic distance Tri in over a year and a half, I feel that my training is progressing quite well, and it's time to at least give a shot at the next level. My heat will go off seconds after the Pro's and it might be a little intimidating actually. Considering I'll be in the heat right behind Chris Lieto (top American in Kona) means again I'll be lining up on the beach with some of the best athletes in the world.
I already know I'll get left in the dust in the water, and my only hope is to hold on as long as I can and keep the gap to a minimum. The course is pretty fast and flat and I plan on giving it 110% playing catch up. I'm really hoping that with the miles I've been putting in at the pool, I'll be less tired starting the bike and have a step up on the competition.
One thing I've learned through-out the years of racing triathlons, playing ice hockey, and any other competitive aspect of my life is the fact that you will never reach your goals if you don't challenge yourself or set high expectations.
I'll never know if I can make it to that next level in the sport of Triathlon if I sit back and watch from the side lines. Let's just hope I don't embarrass myself this weekend. :)
Just one week till Miami
I'm just one week out from my first Olympic race of the year, and I'm really excited. Even though there is still snow on the ground here in Western PA, I know that spring is right around the corner, and that means race season is right around the corner as well!
So with only one week before my first race, coach decides to give me two hard workouts to do this weekend. Well first off, this week by far is my longest training week of the year just shy of 20 hours. In addition I've logged a weekly high 61 miles of running. Not too shabby! So now for the weekend recap.
Yesterday started off as normal with a large helping of Jen's now famous whole wheat blueberry waffles topped with almond butter and pure maple syrup! By far my favorite meal of the week! After our food digested we came to the conclusion that the weather here in the Burgh just isn't going to get any better. We packed on our layers, tights, gloves, and hat for a long 16 mile run. Coach wanted me to negative split the run on an out and back course. The first five miles when by pretty quick, and the weather was cooperating with me. The wind was at my back, and there wasn't any rain....yet. But with less than 6 miles into my run the rain started to come down. By mile 7 the rain turned to sleet and I could barely open my eyes, yet I kept moving on. Now by mile 9, I was extremely sick of the sleet pounding off of my uncovered face, and the weather gods must of heard me. Not long after mile 10, what was sleet now was a winter wonderland of giant snow flakes. I mean the snow flakes were so big that my black shirt looked white only after a couple minutes. By now all I wanted to do was get home. Unfortunately there weren't any shortcuts except for the way I came. I put one foot ahead of the other and tried to pick up the pace, but by now it was useless. The headwind was brutal, and there was absolutely no way of negative splitting this run. I was about 14 seconds slower per mile on the way back, but was happy to survive the Saturday afternoon weather extravaganza. Saturday night we headed to the pool for a cool 3K yards. Nothing too exciting to report here. :)
Sunday morning marked the start of a long brick workout. Horray, my first brick of the day and I'M YET AGAIN STUCK INDOORS ON THIS STUPID TRAINER!!! My friend Drew came over around 9:30 this morning, and kept me company for 3 hours. We popped in a Spinerval (Tough Love)...you got to just love the names of those DVD's, and biked till we were blue in the face. After the 3:15 bike it was time for a speedy transition and out to the freezing cold. It's really a shock at first coming from a hot stuffy indoor basement where the average temperature is well above 70 degrees, to a frigid outdoor run where the temp is in the 20's. I clicked off a six mile run with all miles at sub 7 pace, and even a couple at sub 6:40 pace.
So what does the rest of today bring for me you ask? Sleep, rest, and FOOOOOD!!!
Weekly update
All has been well here in Western PA except for the fact that Coach Kevin is beginning to really kick my a$$. So let me start off finishing my airline saga from Monday night. I was flying to Minneapolis and was already rescheduled on a Midway flight through Milwaukee. Well that flight got delayed and I missed my connection in Milwaukee. Once I got to Wisconsin I went back to the United counter and said "GET ME TO MINNEAPOLIS"! Luckily there was a flight open on Northwest and I got one of the last seats. I also count the Milwaukee lay over as my interval workout for the week because I sprinted from my plane, outside security towards United ticketing, then to Northwest ticketing, then back through security, and sprinted to my new gate in a new terminal. Simply awful.
So Tuesday was a double workout with a treadmill run in the morning (temp was -1 in Minnesota), a afternoon flight back to the Burgh, and a track workout in the evening. I had some good 800 times but my legs are still tired from the half on Sunday.
Wednesday Jen and I slept in a little before work, headed straight to the pool for an hour, and then jumped on the bikes for 90 minutes.
And for tonight. Again another treadmill workout in the morning, a quick chiropractor visit after work, and a 10 mile tempo run after work. Jen just got home from the grocery store with dinner, so I'm looking forward to scarfing down everything she just bought!
The sun actually shines in the Burgh
Out of nowhere the weather in Pittsburgh took a complete 180. Just 24 hours ago the temperature was in the upper teens and low 20's. When we woke up this morning Jen said to me, you better come feel this. It was 7:30 in the morning and already 50 degrees! Where did this come from? It looked like Bree shared some her Hawaii heat with the northeast for Monday! I was excited. And best yet, I was flying out of town later in the day so knew that I didn't have to spend another 2+ hours indoors on the trainer :)
I layered up, opened up the garage door, and then took a couple layers off. I forgot what 50 degrees felt like. I was way overdressed!!! I couldn't believe I was only wearing one layer. I didn't even have to wear something on my head under my helmet. I thought, this was amazing!!! I didn't want to quit riding this morning. The sun was shining, and I was having one fantastic ride. My legs barely felt sore after yesterday's run. I actually think my body is getting used to the abuse day in and day out and is recovering super fast!
Unfortunately after 130 minutes, it was time to call it quits. Quick shower, a 5 minute pack of the suitcase and I was off to the airport. I have this ridiculous work trip tomorrow in Minneapolis. It'll seriously take me less than 20 minutes to do. I'm flying home tomorrow around noon and hopefully will be home in time for our Tuesday night track workout. I love doing intervals. I must be crazy...
So where am I now you might ask??? I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my flight. I was booked on a United flight through Chicago, but for some reason Chicago is running behind and delayed my flight. This means I would miss my connection if I fly United. United then switched me to a Midwest flight and now I fly through Milwaukee....and guess what DELAYED!!! They claim that the plane is in the air and I'll make my connection to Minneapolis...but I'm skeptical. We shall see. Oh yeah, one more thing....Current Temp in Minneapolis reads 16 degrees (feels like 1). So much for the sunny weather.
Mill Creek Half Marathon
318 brave souls lined up on the starting line this morning of the Mill Creek Classic Half Marathon in Youngstown Ohio. Jen and I got to the race about an hour before the start. Weather conditions were a bone chilling 22 degrees with a wind chill that made it feel like 17. We both knew it was going to be a tough day. Not only was the cold weather a factor, the announcer on the PA system kept repeating over and over that this course is the hardest half marathon course in Ohio. In addition, there was a talented field of runners there competing for the RRCA Ohio Half Marathon Championship State Title.
The race started at 8:45 this morning and the first mile flew by. There was a pack of about 8 or 9 runners up front so I tried to go with them. I hung tight for about the first mile with a pace just above a 5:40 mile, and quickly realized that I'm in no condition to run at this blistering pace. It was time for me to run my own race keeping in mind that I've been sick the past three days.
The first 10 miles were really consistent for me. Even though a couple more guys passed me I was happy that I was running my own race. I kept my heart rate in the upper 170's, and tried to hold back a little on the hills (which I tell you, there were many).
As I crested the last hill and came across the finish line, the clock read 1:27:28. I was happy because according to my GPS there was just about 3000 feet in elevation change. That's about 230 feet of climbing per mile. Some hills were 1/4 to half mile long. My time unfortunately wasn't good enough for a top 10 finish. I had to settle with 13th. Ironically enough Jen finished 13th Overall Female with a time of 1:44:21.
Overall I was very impressed with how nice the course was. By far some of the most scenic views I've seen in a while!
Quick update on my cold
After laying on the couch all day yesterday I somehow convinced myself that exercise, not rest is the best way to cure this thing. So once Jen got home from work we headed to the YMCA for an easy swim workout. I figured that if I got started and began feeling crappy I would just quit. The workout was easy anyhow so I started to swim around a 1:30 - 1:35 pace (remember I'm not a fast swimmer), and felt good except for the occasional under water cough. Before we knew it our workout was over and it was time for a easy run. The weather here has been just plain bad! It actually took us twice as long as normal to drive to the pool and the weather was a mix of rain and snow. This gave us no other option but to hop on the treadmill. It's not that I don't mind running in the cold or rain, but I didn't want to risk getting more sick.
After our workout's we got take out pizza (which is starting to become a Friday night tradition), but this time we decided to get the extra large size. As I walked out of the the pizza shop all I could see was Jen's smile from ear to ear. This thing was freakin huge. Seriously it only fit in the car door one way, and the box barely fit through our house doors. We hardly put a dent in this thing and I have this funny feeling that we'll be eating pizza for the next 2-3 days.
Yes, that's my door way going upstairs from my basement. Just barely fit! :)
So I'm going to try and get another light workout in today and hopefully I'll feel better for my race tomorrow. If not, I might throw in the towel and skip it all together...
The 40K Bike
The 10K Run
A Personal Best!!!
As the alarm went off Wednesday morning, I knew I had a long day ahead of me. By this point, the cold had gotten worse and not only was my throat sore, but I now had a wicked cough. We put in almost 13 hours of work, and I was running on fumes. After work I drove my co-workers to the airport, went back to the hotel, and was fast asleep by 9PM.
It's time to get back to my wonderful wife, and time for the weekend of which I'm looking forward to spending some time with my family at Easter. As for my week here in Florida, it was fun to say the least. Even though I had to work a lot while down here, I was able to find time to enjoy myself. Sunday night was spent celebrating over some Miller Lite's with my co-worker, and Monday was a full day of work and an off day in the my training life. But it was all back to business on Tuesday. I woke up Tuesday morning around 5:30 AM and went out for a easy 6 mile run. My legs felt extremely heavy during the run, but I didn't care because I was running along the ocean and it was fantastic. After work on Tuesday I met up with my friend Laura about 20 miles north of Ft. Lauderdale for a 8 mile tempo run. Laura is a fantastic runner and actually qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon back in 2000, and missed the qualifying race in 2004 by only seconds. Our run Tuesday night was at a comfortable talking pace and I really enjoyed running and talking with Laura. She even invited Jen and I back to Boca offering up a room in her condo (which was absolutely gorgeous and overlooked the Atlantic)! After the run I met back up with my co-worker, Brett, and we headed down to the beach for a very nice seafood / Italian dinner right on the beach. I thought to myself, now this is the way I should be living every day!!!
I'm going to try to get to bed early since I plan on being in transition by 5:15 AM. 
Yes, that's my door way going upstairs from my basement. Just barely fit! :)
