Weekly Results:

A so-so training week, capped off by a PR run. I suppose that works.

The job got in the way of a lot of training this week. I skipped Pilates on Monday, as I was already sore and tired from the previous weekend’s workout. Tuesday, I didn’t get up in time to get in the run. I worked from home, and spent the whole day in front of the computer dealing with problems until it got too late to go swim. Another big goose-egg. Wednesday, I got the brick done. Thursday, I got the swim, but got home to late to get the bike ride done. Friday was another work-from-home day, and I didn’t get the break to even get out for the 40 min Z2 run that I had on the schedule. I was able to do the short ‘loosen up’ run on Saturday.

Sunday was my first race of the ’08 season. I raced at the Giralda Farms 10k. The day was perfect; clear and cold. This is a good race with less than 400 people each in the 5k and 10k. We only run together for a short time at the beginning, so there isn’t a lot of crowding.

I went as hard as I could hold for the distance, and feel pretty good about my results: 49.27, 7:51 pace per my Garmin, which had the distance at 6.3 miles. This is about a 1:29 PR for me at this same race in 2005. That felt pretty good.

It seems that I must have missed the timing mats at the start, because there aren’t any official times for me. Just in case you need visual proof, here I am at the finish.

A the finish Giralda Farms 10K Run

I got home from the race, had some lunch and went out for my 1:30 Z1 “recovery” ride. Well, I got out a bit late, then got out a bit too far, then I got cold, and then it got dark. So I ended up with a solid 21 mile ride, totally in Z2, with over 1800 feet of climbing. As a result, I’m pretty sore today.

Looking back at the previous week, I realize that I’m skipping workouts when my job has me so frustrated that all I can do it flop in the chair and watch the boob-tube. What I need to remember is that just getting out there and “gettin ‘er done” is a lot better therapy than sitting around and letting my mind stew in the problems. That way lies madness.

So this next 4 weeks will be all about being more self-aware. When I’m headed into the dark side, I need to pull myself out of the chair and go train.

One more reason why cockroaches, dolphins, and bacteria will inherit the earth…

employee put on leave after wearing ‘offensive’ costume – CNN.com

If people like these (Chertoff, Meyers) are the best and the brightest that we can put in charge of our borders and our homeland security, and if this is the best action we can expect, then the terrorists have won.

Please, for the love of America, get out and vote stupidity off the island..

Another great training week, capped off by a fun weekend.

The training was solid. I only missed a part of one workout. On Wednesday morning, during my the bike portion of my brick, my rear tire blew out on the trainer. Since I was training before work, I didn’t have time to change the tire and complete whole workout, so I jumped on the treadmill and completed the run portion. I only lost 25 minutes of cycling time.

Friday’s workout was tough. The 15min Z4 was really hard. I still need a lot of work on mental focus during the tough stuff, in order to maintain form and pace consistently.

As for weekend fun, Saturday night was “boyz night out” so Hootus, Callaghan and I hit in Somerville for Dinner. It’s always a great place to eat, plus we got a GREAT bottle of pinot noir to go with dinner.

Sunday I got a lot of the yardwork done, and we closed up the patio for the season. It’s sort of sad to see all the patio furniture put away though.

Sunday night, Weazer & I went to the Somerset Hills Adult Day Care benefit “A Taste of The Hills”. We went with mom, and one of her sorority sisters who was in town for a visit. It’s always a great event, with tons of tasty nibbles from all of the local restaurants. This year, there was a great selection of wines to taste as well. We got a lot of new wines to try!

Bonus! Weazer once again showed her skill and great fortune and picked up two gift baskets in the drawings. I also won one of the two silent auction prizes.

Gotta love full, fun weekends like this!

Wow! honors and accolades!

TH3 WALL: TTW Challenge Breaking News

And a very cool t-shirt design to boot!

(he, he, get it? “to boot?”)

Funny stuff..

Lee Gruenfeld Ever do an Ironman? Not likely! – IRONMAN.com

and very close to the truth!

Another solid training week:

One of the things I need to work on this season is conquering the fear of pain. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the fear of pain while riding MTB, but I do need to get over the fear of pain during a hard run or race.

Yesterday’s run was going to be the 1st HARD run of the season. My had me scheduled for a 60 min Z2 run with a 5 min Z4 set at the 45 min point. All through the first part of the run I felt tense and hesitant. My body wanted to go, but my head was holding me back. I finally realized that I was feeling fear. I was afraid of the hard effort and discomfort. Once I got through the ‘a-ha’ moment, I was able to focus and hammer the 5 min run. I think I was averaging 7:30ish mile pace for the 5 minutes. I even saw a 6:46 pace flash up on the Garmin. Woah! that never happened before!

I left the “paper tiger” burning behind me.

Last week was a solid training week for me:

Week Totals
Type Distance Duration
Stretch: 01:30
Weights: 01:25
Bike: 109.3 mi 07:07
Run: 20.0 mi 03:11
Swim 4450.0 yd 01:23
Total Duration: 14:36

Went longish on the run on Saturday, and VERY long on the bike on Sunday at the CBBC Covered Bridge Tour. I’m tired, but feeling good for gettin’ er done…

Lessing’s reaction on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature:

Gotta love a skeptic..

Ok campers, here we go… 100% recovered from the flu, and ready to rock. I’m participating in Wil’s Through The Wall Off Season Shape Up so here are the numbers and the before pic:

Weight: 159.0
BF% 11.9%
Muscle Mass 133.0 lbs

Yeah, I know it looks like a mug shot. Gimme a break, I took it at about 7:00am, and I had a hard time balancing the camera on the treadmill.

My goals for this event is to bring my BF% down under 10%, weight down under 155 and increase muscle mass, all by January 1st. I don’t think I have a prayer of winning the contest, because I just don’t have that much to lose, but it will be fun trying, and watching the rest of the virtual team go after their goals.

What’s my plan? Basically getting back to IronFit eating & training

(1) Portion Control
(2) Cutting out “happy hour”
(3) Increase volume of workouts
(4) Hitting weights hard, adding a weekly Pilates class.

Pretty simple eh?