A Blustery Day in the 100 Acre Woods

Josh and I ran 4.5 today in 25-30 mph winds with gusts in the 40's. I didn't PR but we were fast given the conditions. We also sort of blew up Josh's recovery run. Oh well, on the occasions when I feel fast I want to take advantage.

My legs felt strong and my cardio was good. After last week's series of miserable runs it was nice. It may have something to do with me carb loading for the past 3 days. There is nothing like the Donato's pizza on High Street before an Ohio State game and I took full advantage. And, I didn't gain any weight over the weekend either. This week is looking up already!

Worst. Run. Ever.

Today I was feeling pretty good and thinking I would have a good run. That lasted all of about 3/4 mile. The heat and humidity were as high as I can remember and I ran out of gas f-a-s-t!! The ONLY good thing was I finished without walking. I kept telling myself this was a positive because it's practice for gutting it out on race day. That may be true, but it didn't make it any more fun. Baby steps.

No, I didn't die.

But I could have. I spent this past weekend in West Virginia white water rafting for Josh's bachelor party. I guess it could count as swim training because we did a fair amount of that. Plus, swimming in a Class V rapid is a tad tougher than the pool or Lake Erie. In addition to the gear weighing you down the water takes you where it wants, you have very little control (none) over where you go once you are out of the boat. I thought I was a strong swimmer until I met the Gauley River.

For those of you curious types here are a few links you might want to explore:

This first one is a generic series of videos about the river and the rapids. If you go the Upper Gauley links and check out Sweet's Falls there is a section at the bottom of the rapid called Box Canyon (it's near the end of the video). We went in there and our boat got wedged and flipped by the water. We all got tossed and I got driven to the bottom of the river then came up under the boat. I was probably only under water for 10-15 seconds but it felt a lot longer. When I came up I was at the mercy of the water. It took a few minutes but another boat fished me out and took me to my boat. It took about 15 minutes to gather everyone back up and get moving again. We got dumped a few other times, but that was the most exciting (scary?) one.
http://www.gauleyriverrapids.com/index.htm

This link is to the photos of our actual trip. If you click you can choose between Upper or Lower Gualey and the trip time (you need to give an e-mail address but there is no sign up or registration required). We were on the Lower at 12:00 on the 19th and the Upper at 9:00 on the 20th. Our photos are the first ones in the Upper series, and start at number 39 in the series for the Lower. Unless you know one of us real well it may be hard to find us. I was in the back right of the boat just in front of the guide and had on sun glasses.
http://www.leisuresportsphoto.com/mp_client/pictures.asp?eventid=0&categories=no&keywords2=no&groupid=64

Finally, if you google for videos of the Gauley river and Box Canyon I am sure you can find some good ones of people flipping in there. That may give you an idea of our adventure.

All in all a great weekend. Now it's back to reality and to training. It seems like it has been a month since my last run (a 4.5 miler Friday morning).

Less than one year...

We have passed under the one year banner in the race to the race. Saturday was the actual "unniversary" of the event but I forgot to post. I hope I don't forget to race next year!

So, it's been just over 5 weeks since I decided to give this a go and I continue to make progress. Last week was tough with the holiday and a full day of golf (Progressive scramble event Thursday) but I made it through. I only ran 4 times but I had some good long runs so it works out OK. I have worked up to the point where 4 miles is my short day. That's pretty good (for me) considering it was tough to do 3 a little over a month ago.

My plan is to continue almost exclusively building my running base for the next 4-6 weeks. After that I will get back in the pool and back on the bike trainer. It's tough not doing any biking right now, especially since the weather has been so nice, but I know I need the running base and I need to make good decisions with my time. Plus, any outdoor biking I do right now won't make much difference next spring. I'll just hit the trainer really hard over the winter and get going outdoors when the snow melts (hopefully before May).

4 Days

It's a good thing not every weekend is a holiday weekend. If it was I'd never even sniff the starting line next year.

The good news is I ran 3 of the 4 days and all 3 runs were good ones; 5 miles Friday morning, a quick 3 1/2 on Saturday, and a little over 4 on Monday. The bad news is I ate like I was carb loading for the race. I'm no nutrition expert but I'll bet carb loading for 12 months is not a good idea. I'm glad to get back to work before it's too late. A couple more days and I may not have recovered from the food coma. Salad anyone?

Eye opener

In the 3 1/2 weeks since I made the final decision to do this I have been running pretty consistently. And, that running has made me aware of how lazy I've been over the last several years. Maybe not lazy, but it has definitely opened my eyes to what I can accomplish when I really try.

I was in decent condition when I started, but over the last 3 weeks I have already posted a course best time in the 4 mile route at work and am within about 25 seconds of my best 3 mile time. If that was possible all along what have I been doing? Making excuses, that's what.

Today I had a really good 3 mile run even though I planned to take it a little easy and I didn't feel that strong. That's a good sign because there will be a whole boatload of not feeling all that strong at the end of the triathlon. I'll need lots of runs like today to draw on when it gets down to it.

Finally, my friends Josh and Katie have also entered the race. My conversations with Josh were actually the biggest motivation to do this. We said we were going to and next thing you know we were dumb enough to sign up. Anyhow, Josh started his own blog if any of you are interested. Here is the link: http://gettinchicked.blogspot.com/ By the way, Katie is by far a better triathlete than me and Josh isn't kidding when he says she'll probably beat him too. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

No turning back

Well, the die has been cast. I just completed registration for the race. Up to this point it's all been speculation, now I'm in. I was nervous last night thinking about it as I fell asleep, but this morning I am excited.

As silly as it sounds it really helps that I had a good run yesterday. I had a bad one on Sunday and was doubting whether I should do this. If this is any indication of the roller coaster I'm in for it will be interesting. It doesn't matter though now.

On with the training....