9/30/2006 Final Prep for Little Miami

The clothes are layed out. The race number is secured to the strap and layed with the clothes. The Clif Shots flavors have been chosen (orange cream, strawberry, and mocha). The bananas are secured to prevent cramps. The bike was taken out for one final ride to loosen up and listen for any problems.

Odo: 1563.2 miles
Dist: 9.83 miles
Time: 39.22
Avg: 14.9 mph
Max: 30.1 mph

The bike was then cleaned and prepared. The tools, pump, helmet, gloves were secured with the bike so I can grab them later on and put them in the car for the early start. The hydration plan is ready. I've gone over the course map; particularly the kayak part on gmap pedometer so that I can pick out some points along the route as markers for distance. That is the worst part of the race being out in the kayak and having absolutely no clear indication as to how many miles I've travelled or how far there is to go. I can add it to my list of reasons to seriously consider GPS technology for racing and training.

The plan for the race is to get up at 5:30 and get something to eat, bagel, maybe some eggs for breakfast. I'll then get my items secured in the car and head over to my buddy's house that is also racing and pray that he is ready on time. Hopefully we'll be on our way by 6:30 and arrive at Fort Ancient by 7:30. That will give me an hour to set up my bike, maybe cruise for a minute and make any last minute adjustments, get my kayak and paddle secured, and stretch. Start time is 8:34 am. Now it's just the hard part. I wait.

9/29/2006 Getting Ready for Little Miami!

After a few days off for rest, and mostly to spend a lot of time at work and driving back and forth to Florence I was able to get out and do a little running this morning. I just wanted to do enough to loosen up and see how my neck, back and knees were feeling after a couple of chiropractic appointments. I ran about 3 miles in approximately 25 minutes. I forgot to start my watch so I'm not entirely sure. It just felt good to get out and run at a nice easy pace.

I had my first visit with the chiropractor on Wednesday. Ever since I pulled a muscle in my upper back last week my neck and left shoulder haven't felt quite right. They've been a little stiff and achy. Instead of risk doing further damage I decided to seek help. It was quite an eye opening experience. Of course I'm out of alignment and I have lots of little issues from old injuries in soccer and a car accident, but all in all the body is in pretty good shape. He suggested a couple visits a week for about 6 weeks, or one visit per week but it will take longer. After that I can continue with well visits if I'd like, and I may just do that because going in there after a long day of work and getting crunched, cracked and rolled by this massage table felt quite fantastic! If it keeps me healthy enough to keep competing, riding and running for a long time it's well worth it.

My favorite event of the year is finally here! The Little Miami Triathlon is in 2 days and I am totally stoked for this race. Well, I was totally stoked for the race because of many reasons one of which was that a good friend was supposed to come into to town and compete in the race. He has since had to bail out, which is a bit of a letdown, but I'm still 97% stoked.

I've been thinking about this race for a year now and have some high expectations on my performance this year. Last year I was just starting to see improvements in my conditioning, and I was riding a borrowed hybrid bicycle. It was still a lot of fun, but I was at a disadvantage. Even with my disadvantage I still pulled in a time of 2:59:48 meeting my 3 hour goal.

I'm setting a goal this year for 2 hours and 30 minutes. I've thought about dialing it back a bit and setting my expectations a bit lower, but I really think I have it in my to make that mark. I've met most of my goals this year, and this is a big one for me so I'm gonna set my sights high and do my best. The deciding factor will be in the first leg. I can pretty accurately determine what my run and bike time will be based on my experience on the course and knowing my fitness level right now, but the kayak is my weakest event. I am more prepared this year for the kayak than I was last year, but I'm still not good in the kayak.

Here are the splits I'm shooting for:

6 mile Kayak - 60 minutes
5.5 mile Run - 45 minutes
18 mile Bike - 45 minutes

9/25/2006 Cycling Hills

I tried out some new roads in Northern Kentucky the other day and have found my route for hills! I didn't really know what to expect when I set out on this ride. I really didn't even know where I was going. I just wanted to ride. As I set out it quickly became apparent that I had found one of the most challenging routes I've ridden. Out of the 30 mile out and back route easily 15+ miles was going up hill or down hill. I drove back over the first 5-7 miles of the route to see how long the hills were. On the way out I went down 2 hills and up 2 hills, so on the out and back route I encountered 4 major hills. The shortest of the hills was .75 miles long and the longest was 2.5 miles long. None of these hills were the steepest grades I've ever encountered, but the sheer length of the hills more than made up for lack of grade. I will definitely be using this route in the future to do some hill work.

Odo: 1553.4 miles
Dist: 30.8 miles
Time: 2:11.49
Avg: 14 mph
Max: 35.6 mph

9/24/2006 Adding miles

I decided to head out for a really long run on Sunday. I feel like I can add on mileage to start working toward marathon distance. I ran my typical long route starting in through Meghan's Run, down the hill to 222 to Batavia, back to 132. Instead of turning back on to Filager I continued up 132 to a subdivision at the top of the hill and ran through there and back down to Filager. It's interesting to place the long hill more toward the middle of the run rather than close to the end of the run. It changes the perspective on it. I knew I still had a lot of running to do after the hill so the focus became less on the hill as a final push and more on it as just getting through it to get to the next stretch.

I kept the pacing comfortable and just tried to enjoy the run. The route was 8.5 miles and it took me 1:10.47.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=454907

9/23/2006 Strength and Speed

Strength Training

I really like getting to the gym on a Saturday morning when I can take my time enjoy the workout and chat with some fellow gym members and cyclists. Unfortunately, it's a rare occurence with my schedule, but I was able to do it today. It keeps me motivated to be reminded that I am part of a small community of friends that I've come to enjoy at the gym.

Elliptical = 15 minutes on Fat Burning
JC Bands Lunges with rows, Grey Bands - 12 each side.
Wall sit w/25 lb. wts.
2 sets bicep curls = 60 seconds each
2 sets shoulder press = 60 seconds each
Walking lunges = width of court/back doing lat raises with 15lb. wts
Hip adductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Hip abductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Clamshell crunch w/overhead 8lb ball 2x25

Intervals

It was speed work day on the track. I ran into Lisa and talked to her a bit about the intervals on the track, and she mentioned not sprinting on the turns or I might screw up my knee. Of course once I heard that it was on my mind the whole time. I sprinted the straight aways and eased up on the curves extending my stride to make it less steps on each turn. I brought it up to 5x400 with walking in between this time. I walked about 150 meters in between each. The whole thing took about 25 minutes.

9/22/2006 Tempo Running

It was sputtering and spitting rain at 6 am that morning and I really didn't feel like running. Honestly, I was hoping it would just unleash and pour down rain as I stepped outside so I could legitamitely bag the run. I decided to keep it flat and quick. I ran the first mile up and down Filager thinking I'd still bag the run. I turned around and hit the 2nd mile thinking that I might slow down and jog to the end. By the third mile I was feeling loose and hoping the rain would unleash so that I could challenge the pouring rain. It never really unleashed on me, so I finished up a 3 mile run in 25:30 on the all flat part of Filager.

9/21/2006 Strength Training & Cycling

Strength Training

I got up early; I worked out; I went to work. yeah.

Elliptical = 10 minutes on Fat Burning
JC Bands Lunges with rows, Grey Bands - 12 each side.
Wall sit w/25 lb. wts.
2 sets bicep curls = 60 seconds each
2 sets shoulder press = 60 seconds each
Walking lunges = width of court/back doing lat raises with 15lb. wts
Hip adductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Hip abductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Clamshell crunch w/overhead 8lb ball 2x25

Cycling

I got out on a nice spin with my buddy Rick yesterday evening. He's been trying to get in some riding before the Little Miami so he doesn't completely fall apart on the final leg of the race. I rode alone for a while before meeting up with him. It was the first time on the back on the bike since the century, and it felt really good. The highlight of the ride was my encounter with "hell hill" on Filager. I rode up the entire thing seated and powering it the entire way. At the top I told the hill "you're just another hill now." So hell hill is no longer. It's just another hill.

I met Rick and we took a nice short flat route of about 10 miles through Owensville and on the flat part of Benton to get in a nice ride before dark.

Odo: 1522.24 miles
Dist: 21 miles
Time: 1:22.34
Avg: 15.2 mph
Max: 36 mph

9/19/2006 Going Long

I had some time today while I was waiting for my daughter to get out of school, so I decided to go to a local park and check out there running/walking path. It was an absolutely stunning day of 65 degrees and sunny. Two days off after the century ride and I am ready to go again. Actually, I hadn't intended to take 2 days off but that is just how things worked out with scheduling. I think it was for the best, because I needed to lay off a bit and recover.

For my first workout I decided to do a nice long slow run. The running/walking trail was flat with a few rolling hills, but nothing major at all. It was the perfect setting to put on some nice long leisurely miles. I guess it was because the course was so flat, or maybe the combination of that and the beautiful day, but I had the best run I've had all year. I put in a very solid 7.5 miles in about 60 minutes. I did start to feel some pain in my knees in the last mile which concerned me a bit. This mileage is a bit above what I usually do, so I'm hoping if I keep at it and I'll get used to the distance. If I don't get used to it that could be a problem for my plans for a spring marathon. Since I was feeling some pain I stopped at 7.5 miles and walked another 2.2 miles for a total run/walk of 9.7 miles in 90 minutes.

9/16/2006 Oxford Odyssey

It has been 2 days since the ride, and I've had a bit of time to digest and mull over my first century. It was a great ride, and a terribly painful experience all at once. The painful part is more or less my fault. I'll get to that in a moment.

First, let me talk about the course. It was okay, but I've ridden better routes. It started just outside of Oxford, OH at a park and went out in 3 separate loops to make the 100 miles. The first two loops totalled a little over 62 miles for the metric century folks. These first two loops were almost entirely flat and we spent 99% of the time staring at rows of corn. It wasn't until the 3rd loop that things started to get hilly. We finally escaped children of the corn hell and got to see some nice scenery as we swept down into some valleys along a creek and back out across some soy bean fields that at least allowed for a view. We rode one nice long descent, some rolling hills, and finally they saved the best for last: a steep climb in the last 5 miles of the ride! It was brutal.

How I brought myself the pain. There is a very simple formula for undoing your training a preparation for a century or any endurance event. Take one excited individual riding said endurance even for the first time. Throw 2 riders in front of him that are a bit above his riding ability for that distance and watch him jump into a line with these two riders and burn up a ridiculous amount of energy and muscle cruising the first 25 miles at speeds between 23 and 25 mph. Speeds at which I would've been thrilled to reach in any one of my duathlons! After a break, while said rider is still feeling fresh, toss in a group of 5 riders that are once again riding at speeds above his ability and watch as her struggles to keep up for 10 miles before fading off the back of the pack. Once you've done this you can sit back and watch as his avg drops from 19.5 mph in the first 25 miles to 18.4 up to the 50 mile mark, and then drift down to 16.1 mph by the end. It is an easy recipe to blow up a silly rider.

There was ass pain, neck pain, and exhaustion in the last 25 miles. I really don't want to focus on that though. Hopefully it will be a lesson learned for my next century ride. I'd rather remember the beautiful, sunny day of riding and meeting some nice people including a couple of great guys from Pennsylvania who I rode with for most of the day.

Odo: 1501.5 miles
Dist: 100.44 miles
Time: 6:13.24
Avg: 16.1 mph
Max: 36.6 mph

9/15/2006 Running

Rick suckered me in to a run Friday night. I was really just wanting to rest that day for the ride on Saturday. But hey, when a buddy calls you up to run, what are you gonna do? He has definitely improved quite a bit in his running over the last couple of months. I let him set the pace, and he set a quick one. I made it my job to maintain the pace for the run. We ran the normal 3 mile route on Filager and Meghan's Run and finished up at a nice time of 21:45. Man I'll probably pay for this tomorrow during the ride. :(

Avg HR: 165
Peak HR: 176
Min HR: 111
Total Cal: 384
Time: 21:45

cyclebration cat 5-1

cyclebration cat 5-1
Originally uploaded by ABIker.

With the upgrade to Blogger beta, I've been checking out some of the new toys and options. Some of these options may have been available before, but they're new to me! I'm working on revamping the blog a little bit, and will probably give it a whole new look sometime soon. I just haven't decided how far I want to take it yet. This blog started out as a little down and dirty way to keep track of my fitness, but as things often go with me I start to see more potential. We'll see...

This is a photo from Newport Cyclebration Criterium races that were held in Newport, Kentucky back in August. I was able to hang around for the first few races and snap some photos. Check out some more through the flickr feed.

9/14/2006 Running

This morning I realized I need a new route to run for my tempo runs. I'm just getting kind of bored with this run, and that is not a good thing. I'm going to crack open the gmap pedometer and work up a new route to keep things fresh. I didn't have any problem getting out to run this morning, even though it was early and I was, and am, fairly exhausted from working late last night.

I ran the typical 3.3 mile route up and down Filager, back Meghan's Run, and one more trip up Filager to complete the distance. I decided to use my mp3 player to listen to some tunes for a little motivation, and felt like I had a strong run.

Avg HR: 156
Peak HR: 179
Min HR: 71
Total Cal: 440
Time: 27:14

My neck felt pretty good this morning. It's still a bit stiff, but running doesn't seem to bother it that much. It is more holding it in the position for cycling that seems to irritate the muscle that I strained. I also found that switching pillows helped. I think my old pillow was to flat and was putting my neck at a weird angle aggravating the strained muscle.

2 Days til Oxford Odyssey Century

I've been a bit deflated about this ride over the last couple of days. I'm definitely still riding and am excited about completing my first century, however the people I was supposed to ride with have bailed on me so I'll be tackling it alone. It won't be nearly as much fun, but screw it! I've been riding alone for many years now, so this won't really be any different than how I've spent the last 12 years on the bike. bitter much? naaaahhh, just disappointed.

Anyway I'll be spending this evening and tomorrow evening getting some things together for the ride. I need to stop at the shop and pick up some Gu and a new set of tires. My tires are starting to look like swiss cheese after all the punctures from road debris on my commutes. It would give me better peace of mind to know that I'm riding on a nice new sturdy set of tires when I'm in mile 75 out in the middle of nowhere on Saturday.

9/13/2006 Bicycling

After a couple of days of pouring rain I caught a break today and nothing was going to stop me from getting out for some cycling miles! I really wanted to get out and ride to see how my neck was feeling as well. Monday, while I was at the gym, something in my neck popped. Actually, the source of the pain seemed to come more from just above my scapula, but it hurt all the way up through my neck and is not allowing me full range of motion especially looking to the left. This can be especially troublesome when trying to spot traffic over my left shoulder, as I found out today. All in all it was okay, other than trying to look over my left shoulder, for the first 15 miles, but got stiff and sore toward the end. Hopefully with a couple of days off the bike it will be okay for my big ride on Saturday!

Back to the ride, I took the short loop around Rt. 222, to Owensville with the added on trip down Benton Rd. and back. It was a cool, but windy day. I faced a strong head wind on many of the flat stretches. It was tough riding, but I was really happy with how I was able to handle it. Last year or the year before I would've been lucky to hold a 14-15 mph avg. on a good day, but now I was able to keep up a good pace of 18-19 mph in the head wind and keep up the average above 16 mph even with the hills.

Odo: 1400.8 miles
Dist: 28.53 miles
Time: 1:43.17
Avg: 16.5 mph
Max: 36.5 mph

9/11/2006 Strength & Speed

Strength Training

There is nothing particularly interesting about this workout. I didn't bring up the weight on the lat raises today like I thought I might. I did think of a possible idea for bumping it up without going the full 5 to 20 lbs. I'm going to see if they have some 1 lb. or 2 lb. ankle or wrist weights and use those. I don't know if it will work, but I figure it is worth a try.

Elliptical = 15 minutes on Fat Burning
JC Bands Lunges with rows, Grey Bands - 12 each side.
Wall sit w/25 lb. wts.
2 sets bicep curls = 60 seconds each
2 sets shoulder press = 60 seconds each
Walking lunges = width of court/back doing lat raises with 15lb. wts
Hip adductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Hip abductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Clamshell crunch w/overhead 8lb ball 2x25

Speed Work

I cranked out some more speed work today. It is terribly fun to try and run fast after doing strength training....not. It seems to be working out to be the best day to do the intervals though since I'm already at the gym with the track. Today I ran 4x400 intervals with a 400 meter jog in between sets. I'll crank it up to 5x400 for the next two weeks, and probably take a week off the first week of October. After that I'll be ready to kick it up to 6x800 in the first week of the 8 week training schedule for the Thanksgiving Day Race.

Only 4 days left until my first Century ride!

9/09/2006 Running & Softball Tournament

Running

In true Adam fashion now that I've decided to start the 8 week training program for the Thanksgiving Day Race I've kind of become obsessed a bit with it and will probably be starting the basic workouts with 3 day a week runs a little early(Long run, paced run, intervals). It is actually what I should've been doing all summer, but you know how that goes, intervals aren't really that fun, so it was easy to skip those.

I did a long run yesterday. It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable runs I've done all year. Using the suggestions for the program I kept my pace fairly slow. It turned out to be a little more of a moderate pace, but I felt comfortable with the pace. I could've easily carried on a conversation during the run, and felt that I could've kept going even at the end of the run. I found the trick for me was to load up the mp3 player with some mid-tempo to slow tempo songs (and a few fast for variety) and concentrate on sort of matching the tempo of the song. It was also an incredibly beautiful morning, so taking my time and enjoying the day was helpful.

Some of the tracks I was listening to while running:


Birds of a Feather - Phish
KT Tunstall - Black Horse & The Cherry Tree
Pickin' up the Pieces - Widespread Panic
High Speed - Coldplay
Saving Grace - Tom Petty
All These Things that I've Done - The Killers
Holes to Heaven - Jack Johnson
Smiley Faces - Gnarls Barkley
Last Tube - Trey Anastasio
Daylight Robbery - Imogen Heap
Shut Your Eyes - Snow Patrol

This was a nice long 7 mile run, and here are some stats from my hrm.

Distance: 7 miles
Avg HR: 157
Peak HR: 240 (have to question this reading)
Min HR: 83
Total Cal: 1048
Time: 1:04.05


I ran my typical route looping through Meghan's Run then down the hill to Rt. 222 to 132 up the hill and back toward home. I did a second loop through Meghan's Run to finish with 7 miles. Like I said I was comfortable the whole time, except for maybe the last mile I could feel my calves tightening up a bit and my right knee aching just a bit. It's not really surprising though for this distance.


Softball Tournament

The softball tournament was a lot of fun. I was able to play in the first two games, before leaving to go to my daughter's soccer game. We had about 20 players, so I didn't get to play a full game in either game. I did get to bat once in each game and pulled a single and a triple. I don't think I'm going to be running out to join a softball league anytime soon, but I'd definitely be up to play if it happens again next year! That's me cracking my triple! woo hoo!

9/07/2006 The Good, The Bad, The Ugly & Commuting

It was quite an interesting ride in yesterday morning, a bit scary even. It's been dark more and more often as I'm leaving which is no big deal. I've ridden in rain plenty of times, and while unnerving at times I can still deal. Yesterday morning it was foggy. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to see the road and worse yet the drivers wouldn't be able to see me. I decided to get off the main route and take one of the side country roads that would get me out of traffic. This was a mistake as I knew it would be darker, but I had no idea how dark and foggy it would be. With no street lights and no lines on the roads I propelled myself through the soup with only a vague knowledge of where the edges of the road were and the turns in the road. It really took all my concentration to stay on the road and squash thoughts of would happen if I hit something or mistakenly made a turn where there was no turn to make.

After I made it back on to the main roads I was at once relieved and thrilled by the ride and being on high alert for the last 20 minutes. It was the first time that day that I brought my own sanity into question, but not the last. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. I made good time.

Morning Commute:
Odo: 1,341.3 miles
Dist: 25.92 miles
Time: 1:38.59
Avg: 15.7 mph
Max: 25.5 mph

The minor ordeal that followed really brought me to think that it's time to check myself in to the nearest mental institution. After a couple hours at work someone pointed out to me that my front tire was flat. That's okay! I was prepared with a patch kit, spare tube, and a pump. Certainly I was covered. Let the series of unfortunate events begin. During lunch I changed my tube out with the spare I had brought along. The change went smoothly, and I spent the next 45 minutes pumping up the tire with my tiny air pump. While it is nice that it's so small and portable it really isn't that practical for trying to pump 100 psi of pressure in to a road tire.

Once I got it pumped up I set it aside to see if it was going to hold air since it was a patched tube. After about 10 minutes there was a sudden pop! and the familiar sound of air escaping. I took a look at it, and the tire was still inflated. Turning the wheel to inspect it I realized I had pinched the tube and the pinched part had inflated and then popped leaving a whole about the size of a contact. DOH! Back to the first tube which was also a patched tube. After examining it I realized the air was escaping from the edge of the patch, not good. I tried to double patch it, but it was just no good, it wouldn't hold air. At this point I probably should've just called it a day, but I will not be defeated! There is a bike shop a couple of miles from my workplace, so after work I got changed, packed up, grabbed the bike, and jogged it over to the shop. Sounded easy at the time, but it turned out to be quite a tough jog, up and down hills, across a college campus, and finally to the shop.

After a quick tube change I was on my way. By this time My shoulders are tired from fighting with the air pump, and my legs are tired from the run to the shop. You know what? It was a beautiful afternoon, so I decided to suck it up, swing on my 15 lb. backpack and take the long way home. It's official I'm insane, send out the men in white coats.

Afternoon Commute:
Odo: 1371.7 miles
Dist: 56.33 miles
Time: 3:47.16
Avg: 14.8 mph
Max: 30.6 mph

9/05 - 9/06/2006 Softball, Strength & Speed

9/05/2006 Softball

I haven't played baseball in 20 years. I've only played softball a couple of times since then on co-ed teams. In general I don't have a lot of interest in softball or playing on these types of co-ed teams. When we got the request for players in the interdepartmental tournament at our company picnic I decided to take them up on it. I figured it would be a good opportunity to meet some employees from other areas of the company, and maybe meet a few of the managers and directors. I found out two things at our practice last night. The first thing was, that hitting a softball is fun, and I'm not so bad at it. I thought that I'd get up there and whiff it a few times. It was okay, I was prepared to look like a fool. Turns out, I can smack a big, fat, slow moving softball pretty well. Second thing I learned was that I need to do some more core work. Later last night after practice my lower back was pretty sore. It's really not surprising considering I haven't swung a bat in so many years, but it was a bit of a sign that I need to do some more work to strengthen those muscles up so I don't hurt my back.

I would definitely consider it a good workout. When I wasn't hitting I played centerfield, so I got to run down quite a few hits. Chalk up 2 hours of softball practice as my Tuesday workout!

9/06/2006 Strength Training & Intervals

I had some extra incentive to get up this morning and get into the gym. Today is my father-in-law's birthday, so he wants to go to a buffet for dinner. I'll try to restrain myself, but you never know what's going to happen when faced with all those delicious dinner choices and dessert choices. I'll drink a big glass of water before dinner to try and fill me up a bit. Must. Not. Gorge.

The strength training went really well this morning. Moving up to two sets on the wall sit with bicep curl/shoulder crunches has been really tough. It's not so much the bicep as the shoulders. I was able to complete the first 60 seconds without to much trouble, but that second set is a real challenge. I lasted about 40 seconds today before having to bring the weights down for a moment. I was able to get them back up for the last 10 seconds. I just keep telling myself that it will pay off in the kayak on race day. I'm gonna try to bring up the weight on the lat raises to 20 lbs. I wish they had 17 or 18 lb. weights to make the move up a little easier. Going up 5 lbs. on those has turned out to be a real challenge.

Elliptical = 10 minutes on Fat Burning
JC Bands Lunges with rows, Grey Bands - 12 each side.
Wall sit w/25 lb. wts.
2 sets bicep curls = 60 seconds each
2 sets shoulder press = 60 seconds each
Walking lunges = width of court/back doing lat raises with 15lb. wts
Hip adductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Hip abductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Clamshell crunch w/overhead 8lb ball 2x25

I also wanted to work in some speed work today. I have not been good about doing this part of my running regiment at all. With that training schedule for the Thanksgiving Day Race and what I've been reading in Runner's World I decided I should start working that back in. I need a little more structure to my running program now that I've got my base level of fitness down. Of course in my haphazzard first attempt at using the program I screw it up. For some reason I thought I was supposed to do 800's, but the program calls for 400's. I probably read the 800's in the Runner's World. Anywho I ran on the Healthplex's indoor gym which is 1/6 of a mile and ran 3x800 intervals with a 1 lap jog in between sets.

9/04/2006 Mercy Metric 10K

I wrote: "Last year I finished this race with a time of 52:29. This year I'm fully expecting to bring in about a 45 minute time. I've been training 6 mile runs at about 50 minutes, so maybe it's expecting a little much, but we'll see." - me

Official Results:

Overall: 26 Time: 43:41 Pace: 7:02 Age Group: 3/6 Sex: 23/70

I really could not be happier with the results of this race. I decided that when I went out there this morning that I was just going to leave it all on the course. I was going to push it as hard as I could and hope for the best. It wasn't the easiest strategy, but it paid off in the end. One thing that was different about this race was my focus. I got off to a fast start, bringing in the first mile at 6:41, and I really thought that it was going to hurt me later in the race. Instead of letting myself get down though, when I would feel my breathing start to get ragged, or my stride start to tighten up I would relax. I used the same method that I've been using on the bike. I mentally went through a checklist and relaxed my body and controlled my breathing. I concentrated on the little things that I could control and let the rest go.

It was definitely not an easy race. The race takes place every year at Lunken Airport around the airport and golf course. It is a flat fast course with long stretches of straight path. Along some of these stretches the path is lined with trees on both sides. This makes for some pretty boring running. It's kind of like running in a tunnel where you have no sense of how fast you're going. It made the stretch between the mile 2 marker and mile 3 marker seem to take forever. After that third mile I was definitely wondering if I had pushed it to hard early on. With a 20:41 for my first 3 miles I knew I was either in for a 10K PR or a blow up in the last couple of miles. Fortunately for me it was in those last couple of miles that I caught a break, or more correctly a break caught up with me.


A guy pushing a running stroller comes cruising up alongside me. I was obviously a little surprised at first, because he was cruising along so easily. I gave him a nod and made a comment at how well he was doing as he cruised by and right behind him a guy came along. He said to me "he's my pacesetter". I said cool, and let them move a little ahead. I heard one of them say something about a 7 minute pace. At that I picked up my pace and let the pace setter lead me in to the last mile. I hung with them as long as I could, but fell off a little bit in the last mile or so. Without that little boost though I probably would not have been able to hold that pace until the end. So my thanks go out to the mysterious pace setter that I never caught up with after the race.

Here are my splits from my watch:

mile 1: 6:41 mile 2: 7:04 mile 3: 6:56 mile 4: 7:14 mile 5: 7:13 mile 6: 7:05 mile 6.2: 1:25

With this new personal record I have really set the bar for the Thanksgiving Day Race! It has me pumped though, so with this 8 week training program I'm hoping to bring my running game up to the next level and maybe break 40 minutes.

9/03/2006 Kayaking

With my 10K race coming up tomorrow I knew I didn't want to do anything today that would wear my legs out, but it was a beautiful sunny morning. I couldn't take it! So, I decided to ring up Rick and go do some kayaking. The Little Miami Triathlon is less than a month away! I need all the kayaking I can get, seeing as this is definitely going to be my weakest leg of the race. I've decided to approach this leg of the race like Melanie McQuaid talked about the approach she takes to the swim portion of the triathlon. The approach is to just get through it without losing to much time and expending to much energy. That's not exactly what she said, but it's the basic idea. I definitely feel stronger in the kayak than I have ever before, but I'm still not good. I'm just going to try and relax, stay hydrated and bide my time until the run, and even moreso the bike.

We got in close to 3.5 miles of kayaking up and down the lake in about an hour and a half. This included a few stops to relax, chat and enjoy the morning, the weather, the wildlife of course.

9/01/2006 Bicycle Commuting

All I can say about the morning commute is it was cold, wet, and dark, and I loved every moment of it. Weeeell almost every moment. There was the moment that I almost ran off the road because I couldn't see, and the the other moment when I was almost run down by the driver that wasn't paying attention. But, you know, that's pretty typical. For the most part though it was a good ride despite the rain. I was definitely soaked and began to think that I might need to look for a different route if I'm going to commute in the early morning darkness. It's just too busy on Rt. 50 and the drivers aren't very appreciative on a good day.

1st half of the commute:
Odo: 1288.0 miles
Dist: 25.19 miles
Time: 1:30.20
Avg: 16.7 mph
Max: 28.1 mph

The ride this afternoon replaced rain with wind. I think I prefer the rain, maybe. It was still very cool, maybe mid-60's which is such a shock from the heat that we've had all August. It felt more like October weather. It got me thinking about the end of the riding year. I'm gonna get quite a few miles in for September, but will start easing up in October. I know I'm going to do an 8 week running program up to the Thanksgiving Day Race. That will probably cut in to riding time, and honestly I don't know how much commuting I'll be able to do after the end of September. The weather can be so unpredictable that it might be a lot and then again it could be very little. I am so not a fan of cold weather....so we'll see....

Odo: 1315.4 miles
Dist: 52.57 miles
Time: 3:11.17
Avg: 16.4 mph
Max: 34.2 mph

With the holiday coming up, and the sudden blast of cold on Friday has really gotten me thinking about the end of summer and the end of cycling season. I still have a lot of cycling to do in September and October, but it feels different than pounding out the miles in the summer heat. It's been an incredible summer where I've cycled, and ran for that matter, more than I ever have. It makes me kind of sad that it's coming to an end, but really makes me excited for the year to come. I'm hoping to use this year as a springboard for even bigger and better things next year. Now that I have a nice base level of fitness I want to do some cross training over the winter, so that when spring comes I'll be ready to be more competitive.