Monthly Archives: September 2010

Checking in…

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Our new puppy Tula

Tula on adoption day

First and foremost, I’d like to introduce you to Tula:  She’s a rescue puppy from Doggy Dog World Rescue.  She has some cattle dog or possibly Aussie shepherd in her, but we really don’t care what her past was.  We are more excited about her future as our little girl.  Jaco the cat is withholding judgment until he has collected more data.

We are re-learning what it means to have a puppy in the house.  Our last experience was over 20 years ago with little Dexter.  We are both looking at a lot of information (books, on-line) and figuring out what we did right (lots) and what we did wrong (some) with Dexter in his training.  One thing is for certain, we will be enrolling all three of us in classes at St. Huberts soon.

On the training front I managed to hit all my running workout and only missed one of the strength/stretching sessions.  A bit over 17.5 miles for the week makes this my longest run week in many months.  Feels good to be back in the groove.

Picking up heavy things

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Started back to strength training today.  Per my usual routine, I’m starting with the Body For Life strength training for the first three weeks, then launch into P90X, but only the strength training/core routines.  I find that after a long lay off from strength training, I need to rebuild some strength before moving into P90X and the BFL workouts are perfectly suited.  I can usually knock them out in about 45 minutes, hitting all the major muscle groups in each session.  I’m going to skip the P90X aerobic workouts since I’ll be getting plenty of aerobic work with the 1/2 marathon training.

Dusting off the cobwebs

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The MAFW picnic rides were cancelled today due to rain.  I was really looking forward to my first brick workout in a long, long time and was pretty disappointed when the rides were cancelled.  On the way home I suddenly realized that Ironman Wisconsin was going on today, so I decided to do an “indoor brick” on the CompuTrainer and the treadmill.  When I pulled the tri bike off the hooks in the basement I noticed that it still has the IMWI and Tri-Bike Transport stickers on the frame, both tires were completely flat and the bike was covered in a thick layer of dust.  I don’t think I’ve been on that bike since the race.  So I pumped up the tires, and loaded up the IMWI course on the CompuTrainer.  I also noticed that the workout room had cobwebs hanging from the corners and most of the light fixtures.  I supposed that was fitting as my workout room and my body appear to be in the same shape.

I rode for an hour at a nice aerobic pace, then hopped on the treadmill for a planned 20 min run.  After about 13 minutes the achilles started to ached so I cut the run short (15 min).  It’s a long way from being Iron Fit, but I’ve dusted off the cobwebs, literally and figuratively.

The lost year

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Fitness wise, I’ve lost an entire year.  I made some attempt to train and race through the 1/2 marathon in April, but after that I didn’t do much at all.  This was mostly due to total mental block, but increased work stress, heavy school loads and a slow-to-heal-injury played into the mix.

Now that vacation is over, and I’m healing up fast I’m considering signing up for the 1/2 marathon in Philadelphia.  I’ve got a copy of Hal Higdon’s training plans and it looks do-able, though possibly a bit of a stretch considering my current lack of fitness.  I’m meeting with the doctor tomorrow for a follow up from my PRP 6 weeks ago.  If it looks like my achilles is healing up well, then I’m going to go for the November race.