MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 205)

JOE -

Huh.  I must be losing my mind.  I was sure I ahd responded to your hamstring/B2BIM post........but it doesn't seem to be here.  I sometimes write......and then forget to click "Submit".........and then leave the computer..........and it vaporizes.  I suspect that's what hapeened this time --- or else I'm just delusional in thinking I wrote something!

And if that's the case.............

What I think I wrote was:

1. As for B2B IM, I think you are more than ready for it.  I don't necessarily mean that in a training sense (in fact, i don't mean it that way at all), but you now know that course and know what to expect.  You've got half-iron experience under your belt, and it sounds as if you have worked out some good nutritional protocols.....and now it's just a matter to work over the next 50 weeks to be ready for 140.6.  That should in no way be unusually daunting, and fro most first-time ironpersons, you and they are in the same palce -- sign up fora IM about a year out from it..........and let the merriment begin!  Thats' where our JOHANNE is, having signed up for IMAZ the day after last year's edition, and now it;s imminent for her.  And it's where I was for IMLP '04, signing up for it about thre days after LP'03 finished.   As fro JEFF here, he signed up for Redman fairly late and got ready fo it, so in this particular little world --- youve got LOTS of time to get fuly ready for B2BIM.
2. Post-race is a common time for an injury, or worrisome ache, to surface.  I have lots of examples of how that has worked for me, where all is peachy during a race ---- and then within a day or three the miseries begin.  My most recent episode of this was following my last stand-aklone half-marathon, just about two years ago, when i had a great race and yet --- about three hors after finishing my left bunion was a wreck and my right neuromae were talking to me big-time.  Both of thsoe persisited for a couple of weeks -- but i never saw either of them coming  during the race, or in any training leading up to it.

I don't have a good thought as to what that back-lateral-knee problem is.  There si a common malady rigth behind the kneecap, whose name I can't conjue yup right now, but whn I finish here I will dig out my injury books and see if what I am thinking of can manifest itself as a single point of woe.  Otherwise, yup -- ice and rest, and ibup!  and for the ice part, after a few days try alternating ice and heat.

No, $390 can't be beat.  By ALL accounts they do a stunningly good job, and their refund policy is reasonable, and it will be a superb experience for you.  (Any chance you will bide your time for another year and do the half again?)

JEFF -

Congrats on that win!  No wonder you like this group -- you're one of the studs!

Very nice report, too -- almost sweet in an "enjoy-every-minute" kind of way.  But 37F -- BRRR!   That's about 2.5C, and I have never cycled in that.  (Well, maybe with wind factored in, but I really don't think even then.)

I ahd forgotten how long I kept my IMPL sticker on my bike, but I think it was a year or two.  I took the race number off becauise I did other races after it, but the sticker attached to the stem and was just a second form of "authorization", I guess, that my bike was meant to be in T-zone.  I looke dat that sticker scores of times, and it always plased me to some degree or other.  Thanks for pointing me down that side path of Memory Lane!

That surprises me! I thought this was normal Canadian weather, I even had my Toque(?) on under my helmet, I think. Ive done it before in years past but had better/more cold weather gear than I do now.

My friend and I settled on an April 28 Olympic tri at lake Tawakoni. This fits nicely with my goal of getting fast at short course tris this year and gives him plenty if time to get comfortable with the swim and learn about pacing all three events. I am pressing for him to add a sprint in March with a pool swim to get some race day experience as well. He said he would follow my lead training wise so I wrote a plan that focuses on the swim, and balancing the three sports. We are both running at a sufficient volume to race next month if we could, he is riding at a high enough volume so I built a plan around using this base for speed and specificity. I sort of took an idea I saw here and built a plan around week long emphasis-wk 1 swim, wk 2, bike, week 3 run week 4-pull it all together and then repeat. There will be workouts for all 3 each week but only one point of emphasis for a given week

What do you think? There is not much I can teach him except race specific stuff, I certainly can't do much coaching on the bike unless he slows down long enough for me to catch up!

I've laid off running for a couple days and I've only been going to the pool but not really pushing hard in the pool.  I've been feeling "ponderous" on the run and in the pool so I figured it was time to do a slow week.

I hope that will shake how I've been feeling just last week and today.  In the pool today I just couldn't get up to speed and I was just really functioning at like 3/4 speed if not 1/2.

Steve - I actually saw a woman in the lane beside me swimming backwards (even our coach was watching and wondering what she was doing).  She was kind of sculling with her hands and like a dolphi kick with her feet and she did the whole length backwards like that.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Kelowna to shop for a bike trainer.  Best I could find here is a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine for $380+ tax.  Their Cycleops was the same price.  Hopefully I can get a better deal in Kelowna.

Thanks Trina! I'm glad peak week is over and really glad my Mom didn't get sick last week She's doing ok, had some tests today and should be discharged tomorrow.

The HITS races are pretty reasonable right? Worth looking into. We're going to do the Oly for sure. I thought about the HIM but I don't want the pressure of an early season long race after the IM training.

Is the inner city getting revitalized there? I know of some people here in San Jose that fix up the old Victorians. It would be a fun project. You guys must be handy people. We would just stare at the walls and not know where to start!

Sounds like training is going well for you. Run like the wind

Johanne

Sorry to hear about your Mom.   I hope she is OK.  

I'm doing well thanks.  Yes I am in my off season.   After my last race I like to spend the next 8 weeks in a transition period doing some of the fun stuff I miss during tri season - mountain biking, hiking, canoeing, and taking that time to heal and re-balance the body so I can start a winter maintenance program with a clean slate.   I also need a break from sticking to a schedule.  

I almost made it through the season with no issues but messed up by giving myself only 4 weeks to ramp up the volume for the HIM and I think my fall was more serious than I thought.    Along with the bigger volume I was pushing the intensity as well and it proved too much.   Once I started getting some ART and a couple of chiro adjustments, it has taken about 4 full weeks to get my body back.    Seems I developed a few muscle imbalances over the season which was causing muscles, ligaments and tendons to be overworked and/or not working properly.    Sometimes the muscles and tendons get glued right together.   I like how I feel when things are working right - no aches or pains or stiffness.   I don't believe that being a triathlete means we have to suffer.    

I've started back with some personal training sessions to build the hip and core strength and am focussing on that, yoga and race walking with a bit of swimming until December 1st.   Then I will add the biking and running back into the mix.  

Since our big race next year is a sprint we are going to focus on that distance and work on building our speed in all three disciplines.   Kind of excited about it after spending the last few years on the HIM distance for swimming and biking.    I seemed to do fairly well this summer with the shorter races and the body handled it quite well.   

Nice thinking on getting that massage.   I'm sure it helped.   They are usually pretty good at identifying what needs attention and being able to look after it before it develops into anything serious.  

Best of luck with the rest of your training.  It is going to be such an exciting day for you and for your family too.    I know they are going to be teary eyed and emotional as you set off on your swim.  

I'll be back to check on your blog and read all about your adventure.   Take care,

Hey Stranger.     It has been weeks since I was here.   Actually the problems had already been brewed by the last report.    Pretty much sealed the deal doing the running on the HIM.   Oh well.   Nothing super serious that a few sessions of ART and just plain rest and recovery couldn't mend.   I talked a fair bit in the post above to Johanne about my activities or lack thereof over the past month.  

Have had my first 2 sessions with the personal trainer - upper body today - and was surprised that I haven't lost that much strength and I got a gold star for my good form.    Have a feeling that I might be sore tomorrow though.   The lower body work is focussed on rebuilding strength, balance and stability.   My chiro had some input into this.  

Had a mountain bike adventure on REAL mountain bike trails that scared the #$%^&&#%#%$% out of me.   I just kept thinking, Steve would kill me if he knew what I was doing.   And just prayed that I got out of there safely.   I won't be doing that again any time soon!

Sorry to hear about the labrum.  Time for some rest and  recovery?   You went at the races pretty hard core the last part of the season. 

How'd you guys fair with the storm yesterday/today?   We were lucky - no trees down or power outage although there were other parts of the city that had problems.   Today was weird - it actually felt warm this afternoon.    My body must be getting used to the colder temps because it was only 9*.

Plan to keep in touch now and then but with no racing until next May at least, and not starting any structured training plan till probably April, not much to say. 

Are you heading up this way at Christmas?

JEFF -

Well, I only gave partial discredit to myself.  I will and do go out as soon as the first quasi-decent days hit in March, and that just enables me to face the following three weeks or so of back-inside rides whithout quite so much "cabin fever".  For thsoe early-early rides, i do bundle up, and have some decent cold-weather gear -- most notably some "lobster claw" glottens (are they gloves or are they mittens; what do three finger-units suggest??).  One of my favorite nutso rides was a few in March of a very significant snowfall winter, and the plowed piles were about ten feet high, so riding on the shoulder i was right next tio a big, snowy wall.  It was a gorgeous sunny day, quite warm overall --- but riding next to the snow chilled my right side, while my left side was toastily sun-warmed.

What i know longer suffer, though, are cold/windy rides post-season.  It's just far easier to avoid them on the grounds that it's my off-season, an dreally and truly --- anything i do now will confer nothing on next season.  In the past, when i was keen 24/7/52/365, i would go into the fall as far as was tolerable...but nowadays I chicken-out real early.

I'll be right back.

JEFF again -

I am really pleased for you that you have a reliable and compatible playmate for this stuff.  You might''ve been the last other holdout in the Loner category........and now it's just me, truly alone-alone.  So sad!

Good work on committing to the April 28 tri, and for "his" sake, I think the pool race in March would be useful.  (That's from the guy who's never done a pool tri...........)  Still!  if you two could do it, it would be good, and I know you have done several pool tris, so it's nothin' for you to attack!

That week-long rotating emphasis is a good one, and I have done it from time-to-timer over the years.  I really enjoy it a lot, as by the time each discipline comes around again, I am keen on hitting it hard again.  Putting it together every 4th week has validity, but I never (maybe once or twice) emphasized that.  My 4th weeks were usually designated as rest weeks..........but usually I just continued with rotation.  The wheel of traithlon samsara spins 'round and 'round and 'round!

I think you can teach him more than you give yourself credit for.  The race-specific aspects are huge, and it'll be a gift to him to receive that knowledge from you, but beyond that you have a better idea of what types of training make sense, and which make less sense, and which make no sense at all.  That is hardly intuitive (it sure wan't for me, for way too many years), but I think that if we compared how you approached things this eyar compared to last, there would be significant differences, with differences meaning "improvements".  You think?

Nice situation you're in, having run volume that would allow you to race next month.  Cool beans!

GEORGE -

A slow week is in order; embrace it!

I do a lt of off-aseason sculling work, all in the (so far futile) hope that it will trigger some long-unearthed "special feel" for the water that I can then apply to my freestyle mechanics.  I like the sculling work, maybe mostly because I can treat it as a "thinking-man's breaststroke".  Breast usually makes me feel either lazy or weary, whereas sculling makes me feel admirably S-E-R-I-O-U-S.  I feel especially righteous and informed when I use all three of the sculling "positions".

Best of all, I guess, is that I never go backwards!!

Terrific photo of the pie-making!

Yeah, good points. When I was perusing the USA cycling page I also discovered/remembered I was a level 2 cycling coach! Suddenly a long forgotten weekend in Houston came back to me when i studied for and earned my license-funny how that works.

I re-read some old race reports noting a few patterns, most notably pacing errors and early swim struggles-hopefully I can convey that

TRINAJOHANNEANNE --

See you tomorrow!

(hint:  yawn)

ANNE -

We made it through outfall from sandy 99% okay.  we had a few brief power outages, the ones that zap-and-shut, and then within seconds or a minute or two, it's back.  It messes up things such as posts here and email stuff Lynn does, but that was the extent of it.  Big winds on Tuesday, subdued some yesterday, slightly slight today; rain/showers/drizzle periodic, nothing wicked at all.

I ahd a cortisone shot mixed with another lubricating supplement yesterday, and it is much better.  But i gotta tell you, they are real ordeals.  it was two needles yesterday, and there is no way around the discomfort from the initial penetration....and then a gradula pressure to get it a bit deeper.......and then a thrust into the joint.  I'm not sure how much is nerves and how much bone, but it is an awful jolt.  and then, at least for the supplement, he keeps the needle in pace for at least a minute.  It almost makes me want to have a branch in my mouth to sink my teeth into.  I emerged feeling shaken, literally, and stayed that way for close to an hour.  it is very uncomfortable, and at some level(s), draining.

I am REALLY hoping this provides a decent amount of relief, as I will return for at least two more repeats of the supplement over the next couple of weeks if it doesn't; right now, I couldn't do it again tomorrow ---- although I am less shaken now than i was 24 hours ago.  That said, I'm not sure when I could even remotely look forward to it, as my likely stance is accept it with fear and trepidation.

I am using this time with the past ten days or so of hip deterioration as my "official" run off-season.  I guess that's a good thing.  i have done one ride since Oct 7 last race, and that was about 41km outside; I have yet to get on the trainer or rollers, although that might come fairly soon.  And I have "kept" swimming, 2-3x a week for the past three weeks.  Being in the pool is still a big come-down, and it's not as if I'm getting much from any of the 25-30 minute sessions I am doing.

I did my first Yoga today since June 20, and it was a good thing to do.  i'm disgustingly rusty at it, and it is kind of shocking how much I've forgotten, gie=ven how deeply i went into it from March '11 to about May of this year.  I now have to figure out how I will balance Yoga and swimming and lifting, with thr latter two being a two-for-one kind of deal with City of Ottawa facilities.  i missed lifting a lot last year and would like to do it, but I'm not sure I can afford all three.  it would be maybe easy to keep away from Yoga.......but my only "friends" are folks I see at Yoga.  So sad!

Thank you for your honesty about the MTB ride on real MTB trails.  I will reward your upfrontness by not scolding you.......but you and TRINA both really need your heads examined.  Seriously!!

I'm glad that you're pleased iwth your pers. train.; this is good!  And I'm VERY pleased that you got the gold star for form..........although remember that I thought your form looked good at Ottawa.  But, of course, i didn't give you a gold star, and she did, so she's obvioulsy the good cop and I'm obviously the bad cop.  Harumph.

My USAT rankings game did not go as I wanted, and I will not get any A-A status --- not even H-M.  This is the result of (a) chaotic training, (b) no truly stellar races, and (c) a rally hot crop of 60-year-olds who seemed to have swamped the top 10% of the a.g.  So, it turned out that my "score" was the lowest it's been in about six years, although not all that far back from the past three.  i am disappointed some, but can see where I undertrained, and how injuries affected me, and where i was just "outperformed" on that national-comparison level.  the good news is that in the two races in which I was not a.g. 1st, but 2nd, (a) the guys who beat weren't turning 60 until this fall, and (b) I ranked higher than both of them.  Silver linings, amybe?

Are you looking forward to a year of sprints and all?  I would guess so!  I know how you must feel about the role Ottawa played in your end-of-season injury/ache problems, and that sort of things ALWAYS leads me to questioning how much I want to continue with long-course efforts.  the answer has been not enough, as for the past two years it ws just sprints and olys.  And this year was 8 sprints, 1 oly, and one "hybrid" of the two.  (If I keep up at this rate, i'll be doing supersprints and try-a-tri races exclusively by 2015!

Keep a lookout for a PM or email; maybe?

Not much to report. 

I was swimming yesterday and I started out feeling pretty rough but then we swam a timed 30 minutes and I kind of felt like my old self again.  I got stuck behind a woman at first who was a fair bit slower than me (same woman I couldn't keep up with in January) and once I got passed her I moved out pretty good and was able to keep going for the entire time.  It was fun running up the laps but I'd like to try it again without someone holding me back.  Certainly not fast but definitely improving.

Today I did some running sprints again.  Nothing fast but fast for me.  It took me 20 minutes before I felt warmed up but from then to the finish I felt pretty good - dare I say,"Like a runner".  On my 6th sprint I knew I'd be glad to finish and I didn't have much left had I wanted to continue.  I can tell I don't dare do too many of these sprints so I'm not planning to increase my speed or number of sprints for a while.

I did buy a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine yesterday.  If I can I'll set it up tomorrow and try setting it up a couple times to get comfortable with it.  I'm not positive but I believe it was Jordan Rapp who almost helped me but was called to the phone so another salesman helped me out.  I would've liked to meet him.

 Steve - I hope you get some enduring hip relief.  Your description doesn't sound very nice at all.

GEORGE -

Merci for the well wishes.  I am usually a rock when it comes to medical treatments (but a big baby with dental), but this one is tough for me.  I mentioned to the doc's secretary that it works, but is not at all pleasant, and her eyes got wide when she said "I've seen how long those needles are, and they just creep me out."  It also tells me something that my sports doc, with vast experience over the years, will not do those injections himslef.  He says he is uncomfortable doing them, and leaves them to the specialists.  This is just too much on the edge for my tastes, and I think it is difficult even for the doc doing it.  Sigh.

Congrats on the Kurt, and I hope yours is as pleasing for you as mine has been for me.  Did you get a front-wheel thingy for it, plastic with a groove for the wheel so your rides on it are not all "downhill"?

Too bad about Jordan Rapp splitting the scene before he could get to you.  He is universally loved and respected, and his presence on the often unsupportive Slowtwich forum is unwaveringly supportive.  He deserves every race win he gets!

Yup, as I've been telling you for a while, you sound like a runner to me, so you sure can "dare" to say "Like a runner", as it applies to you!  As for thsoe sprints, feeling the alst one is good, and better still that once you flet it, you made it your last.  Perfect timing and instincts!

And WOW! -- How good is it to breeze past someone you couldn't keep up with back in January?!?  Moreover, in doing that you prove to yourself that you do, in fact, have more than one gear (I think I have one-and-a-half.....).   So that means you can make some judicious moves in races when you need to get around someone, or escape a pack, or best of all -- draft of someone else.   SWEET!!!!

STEVE's comments about USAT ranking spurred me to look up my own. And wouldn't you know it, I did 2 sanctioned triathlons, one sanctioned aquathlon, and several unsanctioned races, so no ranking for me . I did get scores for North Park (76.52469) and Pittsburgh (75.96226) and Cranberry (1.127695), but I haven't spent any time trying to figure out what those numbers mean, if anything.

I basically took the month of October off of training with the exception of a couple of weekend runs and biking some Dirty Dozen hills. I focused on sleeping in and drinking beer; it wasn't nearly as satisfying as I would have liked.

But on a whim, I signed up for an indoor triathlon on November 8th: 500 yd pool swim, 4 mile aerodyne bike, and 2 mile treadmill run. Should be fun and interesting with a one month taper! I'm hoping they let me do it during the workday since it's held at one of the hotels downtown.

DAVE -

Give me a day or so, and I can give you a rough ida of what those numbers mean -- at last the two triathlons.  As for the 1.12.... one, i'll have to look that up.  Scores for tri and du are based on a 100-scale (BUT DON'T THINK IN TERMS OF "SCHOOL" GRADES!!!!), so the 1.12 doesn't jive with those.  Hmmm.

DAVE again -

I'm getting closer, but just keep getting rebuffed as I try to find your "projected" place amongst 4433 USAT members in M40-44.  That shoes where attrition will get you -- there are only 733 card-carrying M60-64! 

DAVE once more -

And of your 4433, in time a whole slew will be removed because they are pro or elite.   (I can't remember if the elites get removed.)

Did you notice who is #2 in your a.g.?  First name Lance??

First is Greg bennett -- great pro.  Third is Joe Umphenour -- pro who hs been around forever.  Same for Jamie Cleveland, who is 7th or 8th, and I'm guessing that the ones between Umph and Cleve are also professionals.

Onwards!

I just logged in my swim today.  It felt much better today and the coach even complemented my form a couple times (she doesn't give complements very often).  In the latter half of the session she had us swim a timed 400m and when I started I was trying to hold myself back to pace myself and I avoided paying attention to either side of me so I wouldn't get caught up in racing.  My turns at the ends of the pool added a lot of time because I turn so slowly.  By the end I was 9:38 for 400m not fast but I was pleased.  After a short recovery she then had us do another 200m timed.  I figured being shorter I'd push myself as "all-out" as I could and it really felt fast.  At the end I hit the wall and stood up fast to try and catch my breath only to find out that the coaches watch stopped mid 200m so no time!  Darn, I'm sure I beat my 100m time but I'll have to find out some other time. 

I'll have to work on my turns to cut some more time.  I'm sure I lose several seconds per turn or more. 

DAVE -

Okay, I'm ready!

It helps to know that the time you finished in, in each of those two races, was given a rankings value that paid no attention to your age.  Stated another way, if you finished in a dead-heat tie with two other guys, one 23 and the other 57, say, you all would've received the same rankings score.  Where it shakes down differnetly is as it factors into each age group. 

Your two USAT scores average out to 76.24360, and for the ske of a workable example, let's just say that was your average for three USAT races.  (Remember that your "final" USAT ranking value is based on the average of your trhee highest races; more on that later.) 

Your score works very nicely with my score for this past season, which was 76.29126 (we should be training partners!).  But here is how the age-group difference works:

For me, in M60-64 with 733 registered USAT members, my 76.29 places me at 95/733.  Your 76.24, which is very, very close to my score, places you at 1646/4433 in M40-44, and I'm sure you are already drawing some conclusions.  One of them is that in each of the three age groups between yours and mine, the number of USAT members will decline moving upward/older, and the other is that as one would move from 45-49, then 50-54, the 55-59, "our" score of 76.2something would rank comparatively higher in the a.g.  So, i'm at about top 13% of my old-guy a.g., while you're at about top third.  Big difference, eh?

Remember, too, that your a.g. is a studly one, full of guys who are not only in their physical prime but have been at this for a very long time.  So I'd say that top third is pretty darn good for a relative newcomer to this stuff -- and who doesn't yet have a serious tri bike.  So, congrats!

Scores are given based on how one finishes compared to so-called "pacesetters", and for any given race there can be from one to many of those.  Theoretically, scores are bassd on 100, and when you see scores such as those 100-plus ones in yoru own a.g., I think you can assume that those guys consistently beat the pacesetters, as pacesetters are always (I think) age-groupers -- not pro or elite. 

My score this year was based on my three top scores of 76.32088, 76.29704, and 76.25588; that should average to 76.29126.  I had no stellar races this year, and I needed at leats one to bunmp me up to the All-American levels (top 10%).  I can't find my last year list, but in '10  had top scores of 79.16024, 78.93182, and 78.03931.  That averaged to 78.70747, which put my two palces out of straight All-American (as opposed to A-A Honorable Mention, or viewed in numbers diff, it was something like 0.013 behind the last guy in straight A-A. 

This year, though, i am well out of even H-M, the last guy being 73/733; I am at 95.  And for those designations, A-A is top 5%, A-A H-M is the next 5%.

It si also worth noting that one's "best" race of the season might not be the one that ends up with the higest rankings score -- although some people (and I waver on this) will put the final assessment with USAT values, as it compares best to who all showed up on any given day.  Without those values, i might think my best race was the one in which I had the fastest time, or had the largest gap between me and the next guy in the a.g., or where my combined bike and run paces were the strongest. 

Usually a good indicator of how I wil score rankings-wise in a given race is how far behind the overall winner I finished.  If I am behind him by "just" 20 minutes in an oly, or "just" 12 minutes in a sprint, my rankings score might be high-70s (77-79?).  That is not a perfect guideline, but it's not bad.  So here's what you can do to test this system -- loook at Pittsburgh, which was your 75.96 one.....and my guess is you were 25-28 minutes behind the overall winner, and for North Park (sprint, right?) I would guess about 16-18 minutes back.  (Am I close?)

Finally, I find that for guys I have actually raced against, the ones who have beat me in a race or races finish with huigher USAT rankings, and those I have beaten finish below me.  So, I tend to think it is quite accurate on a national level, comparing oneself to thsoe guys they will never race against due to geography.

Finally-finally, there is no weight based on distance, with sprints counting as much as irons.  There is also a slight advantage to "cherry-picking" small or new races (due to not attracting top-drawer pacesetters), as well as choosing races that tilt towards a person's strengths.  One that works great for for is Tupper Lake "sprint", which is actually a hybrid of .6milr swim, 19mile bike 6.2mile run.  For you, it might be Diamond In The Rough, in MD, with a 1mile swim, 20mile bike, 5mile run -- just anything where the swim is proportionally longer. 

And I had one more for finally-finally-finally, but i have forgotten it.  I think i'll get it back later, though, so stay tuned!

The rankings baffle me, I found my name when I search by races but not in the overall, I supposedly have 63.xx points?

Another little 5k, 2nd AG 8th overall. My AG winner passed me late, he looked like he was in his thirties so I ignored him-my mistake

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=466850

The Texoma Cycling Club rode in some sort of parade in my town today, "Day of The Dead" or some such, we were behind a lawn tractor pulling a train with a mariachi band-slowly. Then a fun 30 mile ride on a perfect Saturday afternoon weather wise.

The ride

The Race

Am I doing this right?

Five weeks from the Dallas Marathon. I just finished a 45 mile week, 1 5k race and a 16 mile long run. Also 2 short swims, and a couple of bike rides. about 7 1/2 hours of running this week, not quite 3 hours cycling. I am not tired, I am not sore, I am not particularly injured-just a weird little ankle/foot thing I have been coddling. Two-perhaps 3 more long weeks planned with long runs hitting 20, perhaps 22 (monitoring the foot/ankle situation).

Granted the weather has been nearly perfect for an extended time and I haven't taken my cycling or swimming very seriously-just doing what I feel, BUT: I get the nagging feeling this should be harder? More painful? I was arguably more trashed and wore down in July/Aug building toward Redman, or recovery from Kansas.  Logs are current, I suspect I need a couple of longer "bookend" runs (Tuesday/Thursday) on either side of my mid distance run or, perhaps, doubles-some short easy evening runs.

Today I just focused on running slow and wore my HRM to keep me honest, walked 60 seconds each mile then at the 12 mile point cut to 30 second walks and turned the pace up just a notch to get a negative slip-the run was almost too easy/fun.

I suppose the coming 18 and 20 milers will rain on my happy little parade of puppies and rainbows and that would almost be a validation that I haven't really screwed up this training cycle, or The DM will turn into another Death march and confirm my suspicions.