Wednesday

Always on my mind, which is good

Good morning! How are you on this Wednesday? There could be some bumpy weather later on, so keep an eye to the sky.

I have quite the busy day today. I have a couple of meetings that will dictate my presence at certain times, so between those I fill in all the other stuff on my list to do today. I like the challenge of productivity. Yes, I know, I am a bit sick, but confession/admission is the first step, right?

Last night was one of the worst night's sleep I've had in a while. I am not sure what went wrong. I got up for a while, and then I think I dreamed I was not sleeping the rest of the night. Oh well, it just makes me appreciate all the good nights more, and I have had a lot of good nights lately.

Part of the sleep problem may have been the good, hard workout on the bike last night. It was a great night--Great with 8 (Strava data)! Let's see, who showed up? There was Tim, Jim, John, and Tim, along with Troy, Rand, and Roy and me. Everyone was in a good mood and ready to work hard. We are fighting darkness now, so we got after it.

Once we hit 337, Jimmy said we would roll out east easy at about 18-19 mph. Liar! We made it to the P tree at average speed of 22.1 mph. I was pleased I hung onto it. Miller saved me coming out the Lost River Bottoms, bridging me back to the line.

After the usual county line stop, there was a little trash talking and then a Sullivan-like start to the pace line back to Orleans, meaning a bunch of guys took off without waiting for the line to form, meaning I was off the back before I even started. Miller, again, saved my day, bridging me back. From that point on it was a fairly smooth ride back to Orleans. We averaged 23.4 for the return trip.

I did about 17 miles before the group arrived, so I ended up with a nice ride of nearly 54 miles, not bad for a Tuesday evening. Here is my Garmin data. After the ride most of us went to Wendy's to recap and laugh for a while. I took Troy and his bike home. He and his "user-friendly" (and very nice) wife had some kind of communication break-down.

Today is an easy 5 miler, I hope. I have a meeting at 8.30, so I should have plenty of time. Tomorrow, I am taking off. Jimmy and I are planning on another 100 miler. Roy is doing one too, but like Fleetwood Mac, wants to go his own way, down highways Jim and I do not want to experience.

Have a great day!

Tuesday

Tuesday Night Ride

Good morning! What another amazing morning we have! And the day ahead looks perfect in my view. I love cool mornings and warm afternoons. Tonight's ride is going to be blessed with nearly perfect conditions: warm with a light southerly wind.

I wonder who will show up tonight? Troy is out, and Jim is in. Beyond that I am not sure. My guess Tim the Elder will show, along with Rand da Man, perhaps. John will bring the Heat, I bet, since he is an Ironman and all rested up now. Will it be (Tim) Miller time? Will stranger Scott show? Roy the Ritter Rider? Should be fun.

Yesterday morning was so very nice! I was on the cool side for almost 2 miles. That is the first time I can say that since spring. I got going a little after 6:30, and after my last 10 miler--a breakthrough run of sorts--I had some expectations I would do something similar. The weather conditions were much better than last time.

I ended up averaging one second faster per mile than last run. Here is my Garmin Connect data. I was a little erratic, which is fine. I am trying to find a groove. My guess is it will be this way for a little while. I was pleased to see a sub-9 mile at the end. Encouraging. I hope to get my training runs back to sub-9 and start running with the group again. I have not run with anyone since mid-March. Ah, the loneliness of the long distance runner.

Do everyone a favor and have a good day by having a good attitude! ha ha Not sure where that came from, but, hey, it is pretty good advice, even if I do say so myself.

Monday

Rebecca, Maddie, Kedra & Baby Cora

Good morning! Monday. Again! Yes and I like it. Everything starts anew, and I think I am ready for a big week of endurance events. Last week I did about 11 hours, which is the lowest week I've had since early/mid July. It worked out to be somewhat of a rest week, so I decided to roll with that.

We have about 5 weeks of hard training ahead and then taper begins. I want to be careful, smart, and work really hard over the next 5 weeks to get stronger and more efficient, especially in the swim. I plan to do 3 more centuries on the bike and start the 20 milers on the run.

Saturday saw us do 70 miles -- Rand, Dr. Lucky & me. I have dubbed Jimmy Dr. Lucky because, well, he is so stinkin lucky. The latest? He and his buddy Steve won a contest for Colts' season ticket holders. The result was an all-expense paid trip to Denver for last night's Colts Broncos game. Dr. Lucky did not even know there was a contest until they called to tell him he won.

That lucky trip dictated, somewhat, the length of our ride on Saturday. Actually we really only needed about 70 anyway, but on the ride Dr. Lucky brought his influence. The predicted rain did not show up, and the highway crossings, and there were several, were all clean and easy. We had a pretty good ride. You can see it here, if interested.

I felt good after the ride and worked with firewood in the afternoon. Rebecca came in from Nashville on Friday, so I got to spend some relaxing time with her too. She, along with the other girls pictured, did a girl shopping thing on Saturday morning. They are teaching Cora the ways of women, I suppose.

Yesterday, between church activities, Rand invited us out to Crane to swim. This was a great experience. The distance across the lake is about .5 miles, which is similar to what we will swim out into the Gulf of Mexico before turning to go parallel to shore for a little while. It was the longest distance I have covered without turning. It was challenging from a sighting standpoint, plus there were ski boats and wakes to consider, along with some wind.

I did ok. I had no fear or panic, but I am slow. I have a few weeks to work on this, and yesterday was really good for me. On my second lap, on the return leg, I saw Rand coming back to me. I thought he was just going to escort me in. He grabbed my foot to stop me, telling me I was in the boat lane. Oops! Evidently there was a ski boat headed my way. I once had an encounter at Kenray with a pontoon boat. I am attracted to boats evidently. Anyway Rand saved my life, and now I live another day!

This morning I hope to get a 10 miler in, starting pretty soon. I have a busy day and week ahead and want to get a jump on it. The temps are really nice and cool this morning. Hopefully this will translate into a decent run.

Have a great day!

Friday

Good morning! Yes, I am considerably later than usual. Two things: I slept a little later (5:15) and I needed to get my run in before a scheduled activity. I'm glad I waited, because I can go ahead on report on this morning's run, which was a little bit surprising.

Before I get to this morning's run, I will give a brief report on yesterday. It will be brief because there is not much to report. I had a very product day in other areas but not so much in the endurance athletic world. I was kinda cuing off Jimmy, and he had several variables to work. Bottom line: no ride, just a 1.2 mile swim last night. I was good with that.

Now this morning's run... I am not sure what happened, but I started feeling like a runner again. I am still a ways away from where I used to be and want to be, but I did 10 miles in a 9:13 pace on a warm and muggy morning. Of course I want to train sub-9 and will, I think, but for now, when I've been closer to 10 minute miles or slower, I am pretty pleased with this run.

Tomorrow we are riding 75, I think, starting at Lighthouse at 7.30, I think. Can you tell Jimmy is involved? ha ha ha! It should be a good ride, but the weather may have something to say about it. And did you see the extended forecast? Cool weather is on the way.

I hope your day and weekend goes well! Talk to you on Monday.

Thursday

Good morning, Thursday!

It's going to be another nice day in the neighborhood. I am hoping for a super productive day in lots of ways. Hopefully the day will include a swim and bike ride this evening. All of that will take shape as the day unfolds.

I got out early and got a 10 miler completed before 8:15 yesterday morning. It was considerably cooler. It was foggy in places, but the cool temps easily compensated for the humidity. I think it was my best 10 miler of this training cycle. I threw in a few accelerations, striving to get a little faster. I am very pleased with my relatively low heart rate and how quickly it recovers. This, hopefully, will serve me well in the marathon at Ironman.

Last night after my church activities, James came to my office. He had offered to work with me a little bit on fitting me better to my bike. He brought a level, a plumb bob, a tape measure, and seemed to know what he was doing. We moved my saddle forward considerably, creating some better angles. I appreciate him working with me, and now I need to ride it a few times to see how it feels.

I hope you have a great day!

Wednesday

Good morning! Raise your hand if you feel like it's Tuesday? I like holidays, a break in the routine, but they throw me off the rest of the week -- ha ha. Oh well, that's pretty minor stuff.

In July I only took 2 days off, in August I took 3, and in September I've already taken 1. Yesterday worked out to be a good day to not work out. I had to take my bike to the Bike Doctor. I left home around 7, so I could be there when he opened. This meant my usual practice of running before 7 wouldn't happen. Generally, I try not to do anything during "work hours," except on Thursdays, so I didn't want to run later. Plus it was raining...

Rest days are good. Rest days are good. Rest days are good.

Today, here soon, I am going to run 10 miles, I hope. I have a pretty busy day ahead, so it will be a great way to start the day.

My bike has a headset problem. It is fine to ride until the new one comes in. This is good. I was wanting a tune-up at the end of this month, so I will get the repair at the same time.

OK, let's have great days, shall we?

Tuesday

Good morning! How was the long weekend for you? I had a good one, measured in different ways. Since this blog is about my endurance athletic life, then that's what we'll talk about. I will say training for Ironman is difficult.

The workouts are tough, but tougher is maintaining a balance between the workouts and the other things that are far more important. I vowed from the beginning to not let it affect my ministry, and, I think, I have kept that vow. I have had to cut other things, which I'm not crazy about, but we are in the home stretch now. I think we have 6-7 more weeks of hard training and then begins taper.

The long weekend was a pretty good one for training. Friday Rand, Jim, and I swam long. Rand and I did the Iron distance of 2.4, while Jimmy went ahead and did the 3 mile workout. My 3 miler is coming up. I will have to find a good time to do it. I did this 2.4 miler about 3 minutes faster than the first time, so I was happy about that.

Saturday I had (soft) visions of doing a 20 miler. I was still feeling Thursday's 100 mile ride and Friday's long swim, so I didn't know how the run would go. I took off around 6:30, knowing rain was on the radar. I did 7 and went back to grab a quick drink and a gel. The plan was to do another 7 and then decide if I would go on. It was very humid but pleasantly cool.

On my way out to the Amish Super 2, I was feeling pretty good but the sky was growing more ominous by the minutes. Then I saw it, the deal breaker for me: lightning. I continued on for about a minute before turning back to town. Before I could get back the rain came and came pretty hard. I kept going. My shoes were soaked, so I made the decision at about the 12 mile mark I would go 15 miles.

I did not really need 20 at this point, though I wanted it and would have done it if dry. I was fairly pleased with the run, though all of my running is about a minute per mile slower than I wish. Part of that is coming off my double hamstring problems, but now it is more trying to manage one training event in such a way it does not hurt the next one too much. This, to me, is one of the arts of training for Ironman. It is about managing fatigue. I like the challenge.

Sunday afternoon several of us gathered at Kenray for another swim. I went 1.6. Why 1.6? Because it gave me 5 miles of swimming for the week, of course! The swim went OK, not great. I still have lots of work to do.

Yesterday Rand, Roy, Jim and I gathered at church at 7:30 to ride. Several of us have conflicts tomorrow evening, so we decided to do our usual workout today, on Labor Day. We had a decent ride, rolling out on 337 at 20 mph and coming back around 23 mph. The southwest wind was significant. After the workout I did some things around the yard (see above about cutting things out) before a family cookout.

If you look carefully (click on picture to enlarge) at the photo above, a screen shot of my Beginning Triathlete log, you can see my August totals, as well as yearly totals. I am pleased with the swim miles and bike miles. My running miles are low, due to injury earlier, but I am increasing them now.  OK, this turned out to be a longer post than I planned. Oh well... Have a good day!