Slight change in plan...

More on that in a minute. First, had a great week, finally kicked the chest cold that has hampered me for the past 10 days or so. Decent shorter runs on Tuesday (at the YMCA on one of the new nice treadmills) and an abbreviated beach loop on Thanksgiving morning, then a great 7 miler on Saturday. Three months ago I wouldn't have been able to run 7 miles, but Saturday it went great. LSD-style, cruised the first 3.5 miles, then increased the pace slightly on the back half with mile 7 the fastest of all for a negative split run. Had I not cranked on mile 7 there would have been plenty in the tank for another mile or so. Eight weeks until the 1/2 marathon in Carlsbad and I'm feeling like I'm in a good position.

So about that change in plans, after giving it some thought, I'm not going to be doing the San Diego Rock and Roll marathon. I don't need to have a marathon under my belt to be able to complete Ironman, and my concern is that given that I'm a big guy the marathon would be really hard on my body, would take a long time to recover from and would set me back on my other training. I'll be better served focusing on some solid long rides that weekend.

On that note, I haven't been able to ramp up my bike training yet. While I need to focus on the run for Carlsbad, there are only 8 weeks between the 1/2 marathon and Ironman 70.3 California, and I need to get some miles in between now and late-January. I will work in some saddle time this week.

This week my training schedule is:

Run Monday (easy), Wednesday (moderate, some speed work), Friday (moderate), Sunday (8 miles)

Bike Tuesday (spin), Thursday (easy 1 hour ride), Saturday (2 hours easy / moderate effort)

Swim Wednesday, Saturday

Signing off.

Registered for Ironman Arizona 2010

General registration for Ironman Arizona 2010 opened at 11:00am this morning. By 11:05 I was registered. When I hit the "send" button to transmit my credit card information, I immediately had chills and a bit of nervous anticipation, and the race is still a year away. In no particular order, as of this moment my thoughts are (1) I need to get over this cold so I can start training again, (2) what an amazing year it is going to be, and (3) the t-shirt and "swag bag" at the race had better be good, as $550 is pretty pricey for an entry fee.

Back to work!

Battling a Winter Cold

The temperature dropped ~ 10 degrees this week, and I came down with a winter cold. Good runs Monday (4 miles moderate effort, 1 long hill), and Wednesday (1/2 mile fast intervals), but had to skip Friday and today. Hopefully back at it tomorrow afternoon. Going for an easy swim at the YMCA later this morning.

Tomorrow is a big day, signing up for Ironman Arizona (which is happening as we speak).

Good week for running

This has been a great week for running. I've switched up the program a bit, running every other day, as opposed to three days in a row then a rest day then another run, and my legs are feeling great. The week started out last Sunday with a solid 5 miles down to the boardwalk and back around the bay. Then medium effort 3 mile runs at Harbor Island on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Harbor Island is a terrific place to run. It's 1.5 miles end-to-end, there are no stop signs or traffic lights, there are concrete, asphalt and grass surfaces, and the scenery is amazing. Aircraft carriers on the harbor, lots of pleasure boats, the beautiful San Diego skyline, and if you're lucky you'll catch the Oracle trimaran, this years U.S. entry in the America's Cup sailing race. I saw the Oracle on Tuesday and Thursday, pretty amazing. My friend Barrett who runs South Coast Yachts on Harbor Island captured it on video, you can see it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KCn_1etPxM

The Oracle's mast is 160 feet tall, made of carbon fiber, and big enough around that a person can crawl up the inside of the mast to the top. In the right conditions it can sail more than twice the speed of the wind.

This morning was my "LSD" run (long slow distance), I did 6 miles, down to the beach, to the roller coaster, and back along the bay. It felt great, nice and strong, the second half was faster than the first. My running is coming along. Can't say the same about my bike training, but will try to get on track next week.

Bear down Arizona and beat Cal today!

How We Got Here

So I haven't always been "couchman." In my youth I was a competitive swimmer, excelling during high school (Arizona HS Champion 100 yd freestyle and a couple of relays in 1990) and as a member of the University of Arizona swimming team for a couple of years. I also used to be an avid cyclist, both mountain and road, and I completed the El Tour de Tucson in 1995 (112 miles). Sadly all of these things happened in the past. Since 1996 (the year I started law school), exercise and competitive activities have been virtually nonexistent for me. Starting a legal career and dealing with a cancer scare had a lot to do with my inactivity, but I also became somewhat lazy and content to ride the couch with a cold beer or two on the weekend instead of getting out and being active. No more!

This year I've started to rally a bit. Since January I've been running and swimming a bit, and in July I completed a sprint distance (short) triathlon. Then Audrey arrived on August 3 and I took a break, and until last week my exercise has been limited to carrying Audrey around the house, pushing her in the stroller around the neighborhood, and doing lots of 12-oz curls.

I'm hoping that once I get a few months into this routine the rust will come off and I'll find some of the swimming form and bike legs I had long ago. We'll see.

Good run last night. Still dealing with an achy right ankle, hopefully working more cycling into the routine will help with that.

Week 1 Complete, 55 to go...

It's Sunday, week 1 complete. I had 3 good runs this week, including a solid 5 miles this morning. There were 4 runs on the schedule, but then I attended an epic Halloween party Friday night and had a bit too much of the devil juice (tequila), and Saturday morning was shot. It probably was for the best though, as my right ankle has been especially creaky and achy this week and it seemed to benefit from the extra rest day. Speaking of ailments and body parts, at the Halloween party the hosts went all out to make turn their home into the house of horrors. I especially appreciated the anatomically-correct "Thorax Cake," seen below. Each organ was a different kind of cake (red velvet, chocolate, carrot cake, etc.), and the ribs were white chocolate. Quite the creation.




I'm liking daylight savings, as it means more light in the a.m. for those early runs and bike rides. Signing off for now.