uphill climb

Wow great week! Hopefully your leg won't give you any issues this week. Smart to hit the mill but I've done 15 on the mill before and it sucks!! Great job sticking with it!

Nice treadmill run, glad it didn't hurt while you were running.

Nice tough run on Friday with the heat/humidity, too!

Great job on the Peachtree! I've never run it, but I've heard how hard it is to run a decent race with it being so crowded. Even in the seeded corrals I've heard it's really hard. Great job on the PR! And glad to hear your rib is feeling better. Interesting story about the geese. Anyway, keep up the great training!

Natalie Wolf wrote:That's a nice little latent talent you got there. Wow!!! Congrats!

Thanks Nat (I think?)

Kenny B. wrote:Nice run on the DM. Takes a real man to run 15 on the DM. I should know.

Thanks - to make it worse, I was running at the gym when the cable went out - halfway through a movie I had just started to really get in to. What a drag!

ChasMcG wrote:Wow great week! Hopefully your leg won't give you any issues this week. Smart to hit the mill but I've done 15 on the mill before and it sucks!! Great job sticking with it!

Thanks Chas - I figured out what the leg thing was today by accident. I don't know why I didn't realize it before, but I had tightened up my cycling shoe clips and I guess I tweaked something unclipping - realized it while riding today. Leg is fine now.

Julie wrote:Nice treadmill run, glad it didn't hurt while you were running.

Nice tough run on Friday with the heat/humidity, too!

Thanks Julie - it was tough for me, but now I just feel like a big wuss after watching the movie Running On the Sun! Can't even imagine 135 miles basically uphill in the desert summer

Penelope wrote:Great job on the Peachtree! I've never run it, but I've heard how hard it is to run a decent race with it being so crowded. Even in the seeded corrals I've heard it's really hard. Great job on the PR! And glad to hear your rib is feeling better. Interesting story about the geese. Anyway, keep up the great training!

Thanks P - the race was a lot of fun and after I sort of got through the first wave of people it wasn't too awfully crowded. I am really encouraged about the rib thing - it only really hurts anymore when I swim, but I think it will just be that way for a while - it really is slowly getting better - it will be fine, but thanks!


Ran Monday at lunch 6.15 miles, 90 degrees, dew point (that was for you Schuey) 76. 6.15 miles 49:48, avg HR 142. Felt like an easy pace...

Mile	HR	Pace
1	139	8:13
2	136	7:56
3	138	8:06
4	141	8:18
5	147	8:05
6	151	7:58
.15	158	7:48

After work, swam 3750 yds (about 2.1 miles) 1:05:45. Avg pace 1:45/100 yds.
I learned a lot from this swim - I just picked up a lap counter/timer that straps to my index finger and I can use it to look at lap times. I didn't realize that I slow down that much when getting tired, but it broke out like so (50 yd pool):

laps	average time (seconds)
1-10	49.8
11-20	50.3
21-30	52.6
31-40	53.8
41-50	53.4
51-60	53.7
61-70	54.4
71-75	53.2

looks like something I need to work on is my swimming stamina - I'm hoping that will come with time...

Tuesday: start temp 95, dew point 75
cycled 43.8 miles at 20.5 mph (2:07:40). Avg HR 130
hopped off the bike and did a short run that felt really slow, but spiked the ticker pretty good (probably the heat)...
3.47 miles, 27:16, Avg HR 163, 7:51 pace


After evening workouts in the heat I know I need to eat, but usually feel half nauseous and don't feel like eating for an hour or two. Then the problem is then it gets late (for an old guy like me ) and I know it is supposed to not be very good for you to eat late/right before you go to bed. Oh well - I will try to choke down a bowl of gnocci in a little bit...

Those are some good workouts - glad to see you're taking the longer runs a little slower.
My 2 cents regarding your swimming - you might just be going out too fast, because after 30, you really don't slow down much. Just ease off the gas on the first 10-20

Good work outs, I wouldn't worry about not eating in the evenings if you don't feel like it, I'm sure once you cool down you'd just want to eat more the next morning. Yeah some people can make you feel like a wimp if they're running over 100 miles but I'm sure you make 99% of Americans feel like wimps with your workouts, too.

Good looking owrkouts, John.

John I'm catching up but I have one word for you buddy "STUD"! keep it up man you sure are getting me pumped and inspired to do my training.

Holy cow John, just reading what you did in 1 day made me tired! How do you get the energy? I agree with Martin, you are completely a stud! Keep up the AWESOME job, John!!

Mike MacLellan wrote:...glad to see you're taking the longer runs a little slower.
after 30, you really don't slow down much

I'm learning... Glad you pointed that out - I am going to pay closer attention to my splits now that I have the timer, but I actually like being able to go out pretty hard at the beginning - everybody else does at the swim starts and you get beat to hell if you don't. I would like to see the other times drop a little though...

Julie wrote:I'm sure once you cool down you'd just want to eat more the next morning

Thank Julie - my problem is that I usually want to eat more in the evening, morning, lunch, and about every other time of the day!!!

Jim Lentz wrote:Good looking owrkouts, John.

Thanks Jim

Schuey wrote:John I'm catching up but I have one word for you buddy "STUD"! keep it up man you sure are getting me pumped and inspired to do my training.

I don't know about stud, but thanks and likewise!!!

Mrs. Schuey wrote:Holy cow John, just reading what you did in 1 day made me tired! How do you get the energy? I agree with Martin, you are completely a stud! Keep up the AWESOME job, John!!

Thanks - see above - reading about your improvements gets me pumped up too!

Tonight - a completely Blechh workout. Wanted to do a brick workout with a 1.2 mile open water swim, 25 mile ride, and a 4 mile run with relatively high intensively, but it wasn't in the cards tonight. Felt like crap - I don't know if it was the heat or what, but I was bushed after just the swim. Water temp is around 90 in the lake I was swimming in and the air temp was 91 with a dew point of 77. Another day in paradise...
Swim: 1.2 miles 37:59, pace 1:45/100 yds - I was OK with the time, but it took way more effort than it seems like it usually does
Bike: Rode 25 miles in 1:15:01 - pedestrian pace of only 25 miles an hour. I was ready to quit after a few miles - had no power in my legs at all. Almost quit after one loop of the curvy course I ride at the lake, but took a gel, felt a tiny bit better, decided not to be a wuss and did my second lap.
Run: my plan to run 4 miles evaporated before I ever got off the bike. Decided not to feel bad, but just do a mini run. Felt like I was going to hurl, but stuck it out through an only 2 mile run at a 8:15 pace. Was very glad to make it back to my truck and call it a night.

Tomorrow is another day - I logged a few miles, had (a tiny bit of) fun and just move on...

Because this is my first real year of training any sort of distances, I think I'm going to stick with mostly base building while keeping an eye on a spring 2012 marathon and an attempt at a full ironman next fall. Still trying to learn what my body is telling me (other than feed me more pizza ) but I'm getting better. I realized today that I have made it a pretty good stretch with no hamstring issues at all, something that plagued me last winter and into this spring.

I'm hoping when the triathlon is over with I can eventually ramp up to 50+ mpw without getting hurt this time and nail a marathon.

When you're nauseated after less than 2 miles, your body is telling you to stop. Discomfort can be good; pain and misery are not. But I completely understand why you didn't stop.

Nice runs! Glad to hear the leg is better. Funny how those little things can be so big.

John, nothing run with cutting that run short after the swim and bike in such tough temps and humidity. I'd still consider that good and productive workout.

Great job in that race. I think you definately have a sub-40 in you. Also, great job in the workouts. Smart doing that run on the mill.

Sounds like a tough training session for you with not feeling well. Could be a 24 hour thing or your body telling you something. Hope today brings you success.

Mike MacLellan wrote:When you're nauseated after less than 2 miles, your body is telling you to stop

I think it is finally a confidence thing - I always felt like I had to push every workout to the max because I was really afraid if I quit I would fail myself or something... I'm finally feeling the confidence that on a day to day basis I have nothing to prove to anyone and and let down if I need to - live to fight another day!

ChasMcG wrote:Nice runs! Glad to hear the leg is better. Funny how those little things can be so big.

Thanks - I've been really blessed that I haven't been really cut down with anything (knock on wood).

Seth Harrison wrote:John, nothing run with cutting that run short after the swim and bike in such tough temps and humidity. I'd still consider that good and productive workout.

Thanks Seth...

Alex Kubacki wrote:Great job in that race. I think you definately have a sub-40 in you. Also, great job in the workouts. Smart doing that run on the mill.

That is an awesome shot of confidence from Mike and yourself - thank you so much! I will definitely keep at it...

Kenny B. wrote:Sounds like a tough training session for you with not feeling well. Could be a 24 hour thing or your body telling you something. Hope today brings you success.

Thanks Kenny - felt better today - just felt a little bonky yesterday for whatever reason.

For today - stormy outside, so went to the gym for today's workout:
Cycled 60 minutes on a spin bike, doing 3 minute intervals (3 hard minutes and 3 backed down minutes). Kept HR up around 150-155 and then back down to 125-130. Overall average was 139 bpm - good workout if not very long...

bricked a 5 mile run on the dreadmill @1% incline at a pace of 7:22 - HR avg 145. One of those times where I had more in the tank but decided to quit while I was ahead. Feel good about a decent week of training behind me and Friday is a day of rest before the weekend longer stuff.

congrats on another good training week. What do you have planned for the wkend?

Spinning can be quite the work out! I thought it would be easy when I did it in a group but it was really challenging.

Pedestrian pace of 25 miles per Hour! I biked 23 miles this morning averaging 15 mph - I'm the pedestrian, John. It is hilly here too, so that's why I get 15 mph - downhills!

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Pedestrian pace of 25 miles per Hour! I biked 23 miles this morning averaging 15 mph - I'm the pedestrian, John. It is hilly here too, so that's why I get 15 mph - downhills!

LOL. I think John is underselling himself. Nice job.

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Pedestrian pace of 25 miles per Hour! I
biked 23 miles this morning averaging 15 mph - I'm the pedestrian, John.
It is hilly here too, so that's why I get 15 mph - downhills!

Ha! That was a huge wishful thinking typo on my part - what I meant to
type was 20.5 mph. I WISH I could average 25!!! I'll probably get
there the same day I beat Dave-O and Greg in a marathon (or any race for that matter). That is to say it ain't gonna happen

In reality, my Wednesdays I had been trying to hit the shorter brick workout pretty had and would like to average 21.0.

Julie wrote:congrats on another good training week. What do you have planned for the wkend?

Spinning can be quite the work out! I thought it would be easy when I did it in a group but it was really challenging.

I have only done what I consider one "true" spinning class - it was an awesome 2.5 hr triathlon simulation with Kona images on a big screen. The swim was simulated by coming out of the pedals every 10-15 seconds or so to take a "breath" for about 30 minutes, the ride was I guess a standard ride simulation for about 2 1/2 hours, and the run was the last half hour standing on the pedals. It was incredibly hard and incredibly awesome - I did it after a 22 mile run. I thought it would be good to do a brick workout afterwards and hop on a treadmill - I lasted about 5 minutes and had to stop! I like the spin bikes better than riding my bike on a trainer, though. It is about the only thing I can stand doing interval workouts on - I guess it is too easy for me to wuss out on them if riding outside. This weekend I'll do my usual longish ride on Saturday and longish run on Sunday. Basically everything I've seen in print says that you shouldn't do that, but it works out logistically best for me that way. I'm really trying to simply get through this summer with a good base of training to hopefully launch me into some better things next year... Augusta = 70 days and a wakeup away!

Hey John, playing a little catch-up here. Sorry about that!

Congrats on your PR in the 10K - and I continue to be impressed with your progress. Since, as you say, this is your first year of real distance training, you are probably just starting on an improvement curve that should keep going up for several years. Keep at it -- and don't accidentally burn yourself out in all your enthusiasm -- and you will be surprised at what you can achieve.

Keep it up! (But don't forget recovery!)

Mark B wrote:Hey John, playing a little catch-up here. Sorry about that!

Congrats on your PR in the 10K - and I continue to be impressed with your progress. Since, as you say, this is your first year of real distance training, you are probably just starting on an improvement curve that should keep going up for several years. Keep at it -- and don't accidentally burn yourself out in all your enthusiasm -- and you will be surprised at what you can achieve.

Keep it up! (But don't forget recovery!)

Thanks Mark - I hope you are right! I started running early last year and I will never forget taking off and running what I considered a really long loop last fall. It was about 11 miles and took me what I thought was a long way from home - I was committed to actually finish this thing. Of course, I did and never looked back, but what a great feeling of accomplishment! I have heard that a time or two to remember the recovery aspect of training - I am learning all of the time, but (usually) enjoy it all (or at least enjoy the feeling when the day is finished!).

For today: rode about 64 miles in 3:06:45. It was raining cats and dogs when I left the house and had to ride the first part into a pretty good wind, but at the turnaround the wind died down and I rode home in a gentle rain - actually felt REALLY nice. Broke a spoke at about mile 35 and had to watch my front wheel wobble and scrape my brake pads the whole way home, but no big deal - it is at the bike shop getting fixed now and I should be back in business by Tuesday.

The wind really killed my overall mph, but it felt like a good ride. Not that long ago, a ride like that would really wear me down - now it doesn't feel to bad when I'm done - sort of a comfortable tired. It is good to see the HR staying reasonable during these rides and hopefully should translate into decent running after the ride.

Distance (miles)	Avg. Speed (mph)	Avg. HR
5.0	18.0	126
5.0	19.4	127
5.0	20.3	130
5.0	19.9	132
5.0	18.7	130
5.0	20.9	127
5.0	20.2	129
5.0	21.2	129
5.0	22.1	131
5.0	22.3	137
5.0	21.5	133
5.0	22.0	135
3.75	21.0	135

Sweet ride today John! You have to love the fact that you are now doing things today with less effort then when you started. With everything I have been through I'm now reminded why I loved partaking in sports when I was younger and why I decided to leave my demon years behind because how great it feels to be fit and to continue to gain fitness. There is no other better feeling, well maybe to still see Jerry playing is guitar any day of the week. Oh lets not forget the wonderful women in our lives!

Nice ride! I can't imagine getting on a bike or anything after a 22 mile run. I barely want to get my shoes off and sit down after a 20 miler! You definitely have ambition!

Just over 2 months till Augusta, then and you are counting down the days already! You'll do great.