Here we go...

It's been a while since I've hit up the blog, but it's time to post a pre-Freshman Tri message. 5/1 is the big day for the Windcrest Freshman Tri. It's a sprint tri, 200m swim/10 mile bike/ 2 mile run. It doesn't sound too tough, except for the fact that my training has been minimal in the last couple of weeks.
Most of my "running" has been done on the soccer field, and now I'm paying for that. Not only do I think I'm going to suffer through the short, 2-mile run, but I'll be suffering with a fractured orbital. Soccer is not for sissies!
I'm hoping I can tough it out and stay relatively close to Rick. It looks like he'll be starting the time-trial style swim, right before me. I just want to keep him in sight throughout the race.
Follow-up to come this weekend...

Du Results

The bad news is that all that typing about my offseason workouts was a complete waste. I think I worked out for about a week and stopped. The blame will be placed completely on the weather. It is SOOO hard to get motivated to workout when it's in the 30's or 40's. Maybe I'll have better luck next offseason.

The good news is that the Calaveras Duathlon was on Feb. 20th and I am happy to report that progress has been made. My running pace has improved by about 3 minutes per mile. During the marathon training, my pace was about 10-11 minutes per mile. The Du results have my pace at 7min 13 sec per mile! Don't believe me? See here:

http://redemptionrp.com/Calaveras2010Results

Look for me under the "short" course. I know I'm still not blazing any trails and the Du was a short distance race....but progress is progress and has me confident and excited about the upcoming tri season. Right now, for the immediate future, the plan is to do the Muddy Buddy in Austin on May 16th and the Xterra Sport Triathlon in Waco on May 23rd. The major concern is the swimming and trying to find a place to train. Hopefully this weekend I will decide on a place.

Still Slacking...

With only 11 days left before the Calaveras Duathlon, I've been slacking! I hope to follow this post with several post about some good runs, in the next few days.
We had a decent 20+ mile ride yesterday, but we definitely took it a little easier than we should have.
Let's see how the next 11 days go...

WTF Mother Nature?!?!?!

Ok, so I'm trying to get back into regular workouts. I've put in 3 decent runs this week and I'm anxiously awaiting the weekend so I can ride. But the weather may not cooperate! I'll be on the bike one way or another, and I'm hoping it won't be on the trainer. It looks like Sunday will be clear, but who knows?!?!? I'll be hitting the streets early tomorrow a.m. to get a run in. Mtb'ing could be messy even if the rain stops, so I'm hoping the Felt in my garage will get to come out and play. Angela already told me she doesn't want me riding in the rain. Her words "...but what if you fall on your face again???" She couldn't just say "but what if you fall again?" It had to be what if you fall ON YOUR FACE again? Nice.

Let's Du this!

Danny was out of commish last weekend so I took advantage of a MTB riding excursion with my bro and some of his buds. We rode about 9.5 miles at OP Schnabel Park. Good times! Still love my bike. Can't wait to do it again.

As for my calf injury, I've ran two straight days and have had no pain. Time to kick it up a gear for the Du on Feb. 20!!

I'm a slacker!

So, this last week of training has included...wait, let me add it up...ZERO workouts! I guess I could blame it on the uncommonly cold weather we're having, but that excuse doesn't really apply to the gym, bike trainer and weights at home. So I've just been slacking. This weekends runs and bike rides were replaced with a Friday night dinner and night-o-cards with the guys. That night pretty much rendered me useless Saturday. I had to struggle through dog and baby-proofing our house. At least I was able to get everything done by the evening, just in time to watch Dallas destroy Philly! (I may count watching the game as a semi-workout)
My diet also went to crap this weekend. If the Friday night pizza wasn't bad enough, I also found myself craving a burger and Coke! I had to admit it, but I gave in to my cravings. The good news is that I'm now thoroughly disgusted and I don't think I'll have to worry about eating meat, especially fast food meat, for a verrrrry long time.

Challenging Weekend

First off, I want to talk a little about Danny's crash. He covered most of the details. Here is a pic.

It looks like a funny picture but it was actually kind of scary. I was riding behind him (probably a little too closely) when he dove face first into the ground. First thing on my mind was not to ride over him. I swerved to the right and threw my bike down. I actually heard a "thud" and saw that he couldn't bring his arms around (probably because they are too small) to break his fall. I could see that he was going to be ok when he turned over and only had a few scratches on his nose. Still, it could have been a lot worse.

Other than this crash, the MTB ride was nice. It was a Friday and a great way to start the new year. First time out at OP Schnabel Park and I can't wait to go back. My GPS said that the ride was 8.23 miles. Hopefully next time we can go a little further and improve on our pace per minute. This was also my first ride with my new MTB and I'm in love with it. I wish I could ride it to work!

We also did a road ride on Sunday starting out at IH10 and 1604. The ride was 20.5 miles and (as always), the first half seemed a little tougher. Once we got warmed up, our pace picked up and I was satisfied considering it was 48 degrees outside. This week is going to be even colder. Supposedly it's going to get down into the 20's this week. My brother wanted to go for a MTB ride later in the day, and I wanted to go SO BAD! But I felt guilty because I had already been away from home for a few getaways.

The challenging part of the weekend involved my beautiful kids. I love them to death and I feel honored to be their Dad. But it's tough. I don't know how Jess does it with them all day. I understand that siblings bickering and fighting over toys is natural, but it takes a toll on me. I feel like I am either breaking up little shoving matches all day or following them around everywhere paranoid that one of them might get hurt. For me, its more mentally draining than physically. I was actually ready to get back to work. Of course, while at work, I missed the hell out of them and Jess. That's the way it goes.

I'm going to try to test out my calf injury and go for a short run at some point during the week. If I feel good, the plan is to run with Danny this weekend and throw in a ride at some point. Also, this week, I'm going to start a strength training program for 3 months. The program was created by Dos Remedios. He's a strength and conditioning coach from some college in California. I've tried the program for 2 or 3 weeks and have liked the results. Hopefully I can stick with it for 3 months. Basically, it's 3 workouts during the week. Because of my busy schedule, and me not being a morning person, my workouts start at 9pm during the week. We usually put the kids down between 8 and 8:30p. Jess will be joining me so we'll be able to spend quality time together!