Anyone north of the Mason Dixon is feeling the chill today. When I woke up at 4:45 it was in the single digits and negative double digit wind chill. Right now at 8:13 A.M EST it is 5 degrees and -10 degrees wind chill. Not much has changed. You aren't here for a weather update. Maybe you don't know why you're even here. It's time for some tri talk.
I picked up the pace from last week's laziness. Friday I did some weight training to rid myself of the wretched man-boobs. (SIDE-NOTE: I debated whether or not to say the word man-boobs. I found council with my wife and two nephews that I'm watching today. Aimee didn't care. The boys were all for it. Man-boobs it is!) As of yesterday I was still sore. I've been running a couple years now but cross training was never something I did. Aside from the initial tour of the apt complex, I had not been in our gym. It's not the biggest gym but it gets the job done.
Saturday I had big plans to wake up early and go for a run. Yep, didn't happen. Apparently I turned off my phone when my little one woke up during the night. I made an effort to run Saturday but a lot of small things piled up to distract me from my goal. In the past this would bum me out but I'm not letting small hiccups bring me down. Especially since I'm not in a training plan.
Speaking of training plan, I signed up for the sprint tri in April. Woo! We did get to go out to dinner and watched "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" with Steve Carrell. I enjoyed it. Nice to have a movie without huge plot twists or big drama (if you don't count that the world is ending).
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| Good flick. |
After service on Sunday I made my way to Mr. York's house for some basic bike maintenance and a three mile run. I wrestled getting my bike frame into my Ford Focus for a good fifteen to twenty minutes. This experience reminded me that during my childhood we had a bike rack for our family vacations. I called my mom and sent her a text about it but no response. Answer your phone!! Anyway, since I rid the Nike watch from my life whenever I run I am thinking about pace. I only asked once during the run where we were in terms of distance and held back a few hundred times from asking how fast we were going. A watch is handy (no pun intended) but it's stifled my ability to judge my own pace. I relied on my watch a little too much. We hit the three mile mark and Bryce decided to have us finish by running uphill. More often than not our group runs end with me saying "I hate you". I finally asked what our pace was and for the first half of our run we were sub, or close to sub, 8 minutes a mile. To put that into perspective during my year of Nike watch running my average pace was 9:36 a mile. This year is looking to be a breakthrough year. I can feel it. It's going to happen! The run ended with an average of 8:50. I slowed down a bit the second half. No biggie. Again, this is supposed to be the off season from training.
Sunday night I took part in a Twitter chat called "#trichat". For any unversed in the Twitter it's talking to each other through the hash tag. Until a couple weeks ago I never took part in anything like this. It's safe to say I'm now hooked. Nice to hear from other folks in the sport. After utilizing Twitter to its full power, Aimee and I watched another movie. This is unprecedented for the two of us. We almost never watch movies, let alone two nights in a row. Sunday night's selection was "The Dark Knight Rises". Not as good as "The Dark Knight" but it was a great watch. I used a good portion of the movie working on my Bane impersonation.
Monday I had off work for MLK day. To celebrate my mom sent me a text saying "yes". Just yes? I needed more information than that. I don't like calling people necessarily but this was important (not really). Success! She has the bike rack! See ya later Focus backseat! You are once again reserved for my children.
For the first time since Italy in 2011, I was back on the treadmill Monday. Similar to weight training, I haven't done anything more than run a few miles at a time during my workouts. Monday I did some interval training and I didn't hate it. Throughout the last few years I have told people to do interval training to help with endurance when I had not used my own advice since I was in basic training in 2006. Which in turn makes it not my own advice, but the military's. When I got back from my run my friend Matt informed me that my shoes had been sold. One attempt to sell the Newts and they were gone. Au revoir. With the money I was able to purchase a bike trainer. It's a two point swing. Sunday: no bike rack or trainer. Monday: BOOM. Bike rack and trainer.
I took today off work to have a four day weekend. The day started like other Tuesdays with a trip to the pool. The first few laps I did as good as I had been and then I had a breakthrough. Last week I made it three fourths of the way down the 30 meter pool before needing a break. Today I was able to swim the length of the pool and then back to the other side. That's 60 meters! I took fifteen to twenty seconds exclaiming my accomplishment and did it again. 120 meters! Double woo!
That felt like a long post. Thanks to all those still hanging with me.
Friday is my Cleveland Marathon post. As I've mentioned many times before, I'm excited for the opportunity. Especially since I haven't been too consistent with this blog until November and December. I was selected to share one post over people that I'm sure have been blogging much longer than I have. I'm going to make the best of the experience.
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