Race #1 and Baby Girl #3

April 19th was my first race of the year. Most spring races in the places where I have lived have been indoor. The water is just too cold and the weather in unpredictable. Since my January high, my February low, and my March rest, I had done a few workouts but nothing major. I had been focusing on work and family. The race was a layup because it was at my gym, it was short and was using a stationary bike.

I fully expected to have the baby before the race so I was a minute by minute decision. I woke up that morning, grabbed my gear and headed off. I took a couple gels, a six pack of Gatorade, and my swimsuit. Other than that no prep. The swim was 400 yds, bike was 8 mile on a trainer, followed by a 2 mile run.

I am always nervous about the bike. I had not been in the saddle since January and felt a little uneasy. I got a decent warmup on the swim. When the gun went off I pushed off like my life depended on it. At 200 yds, I was totally out of gas. I felt like someone was pulling on my suit. I finished the leg in second place but I was pretty tired and a little dizzy.

The bike was 32 minutes of boredom. My only goal was to stay in a good gear, avg about 16 mph and get off the darn thing. I lost some ground to some folks on the bike. With a two mile run, there is pretty much no hope to catch anyone so I finished nicely at around 17 minutes and was satisfied with my times of around 6:45, 32:30, and 17:00.

The victory here was that I got off my butt and did the race, as small as it was. In addition, I was totally pumped by the day itself. It felt great to do a short, doable race to get my blood flowing and heartrate up. It was a tremendous boost to come out of the water before most of the field. Overall a real success.

The next day baby #3 came, healthy and everyone is doing very well. I absolutely love being a Dad and would welcome many more. It had been a long, challenging 9 months and I was just thankful the pressure had been lifted off my wife physically and we can begin the next chapter. The first month has been a little tiring but I have been able to squeeze a few runs in with th kids and a few swims. I will follow up tomorrow with a report on Race #2 and some thoughts on where I am headed this year and next.

Singing Sweet Home Alabama All Summer Long

Ultimate hack song by an ultimate hack musician. But so catchy.

Yesterday I had a very good swim. I did a 400 warmup, then a 100, 200, 200, 100 pyramid. After two months off I still feel like someone is dragging me from behind but my endurance is decent so I am happy. I still have not committed to the race this weekend but it would be a good race to get done...even if it is my only race of 09.

Short Birthday Run

For my birthday I ran a mile and a half very fast. I was short on time while waiting for my daughter's gymnastics class to finish. So I hit the track and did a few warm-up laps and then tried to chase down some kids that were doing a fitness test ahead of me. I was able to go a mile at a pretty hard pace. It was a really good speed lesson to raise the endorphins.

There is an indoor sprint race on Sunday. I am a gametime decision. My fitness is fine. But the baby is not here yet and its 35 bucks for a race that should be much cheaper. I'll play it by ear and decide the day before or the day of.

Got a Garnett Celtics T-shirt as a present which was pretty cool.

Good Week So Far

After my March hiatus I am back at this working out thing. Today I swam for the first time in a while. I have gotten my work stuff out of the way and got some other stuff taken care of so the only thing left to do is start training. As mentioned on Monday, I ran on Sunday. I ran a couple miles again on Tuesday and today I swam about 1000 yds. Pretty easy workouts but who cares? There is a triathlon at my gym next week I am thinking of doing. It is really easy and would be a nice break to see if I have any fitness at all.

I am getting an idea of how I want to proceed this summer. I am thinking of doing a weeks worth of sessions over a two week period. That would allow me to train every other day on sport specific stuff and do alternative stuff such as weights, yoga or rest. I complained to my coach about needing more rest each week and he felt I would not be able to get my sessions in with more rest. But I thinks it amounts to over training, at least for me and my lifestyle, to crunch in 6 days over working out a week.

I am going to give this a shot and see how it works. But I feel great getting back out there again, I am pain free and stress free.

Baby Stepping back on the Horse

The last two days had beautiful weather so I got back at it. I did some backyard stuff with the kids hanging off me on Saturday and I ran a few miles yesterday while pushing the stroller. My muscles had atrophied to the point that I was nearly dead so I am sore today. But I am ready to get back in it. No more hip pain and no more stress. I am going to follow a one on, one off schedule and keep it simple. Hopefully I get my smile back.

Not April Fool's

Ok I am going to run either today or tomorrow. Its been a long enough time, I don't want to lose fitness and I need to get some fresh air. More on that later...

Derailed

My training for 2009 is officially off the tracks. I have not posted in about a month, I can't remember the last time I cycled, I have not run anything meaningful since mid-Feb and have been bothered by some hip soreness, and I quit using my coaching service because I don't have enough time to get my workouts in.

I think my problem was the stress associated with getting the workouts in each day, family, work, tax season, and a million other things. I was pretty sick yesterday and have been feeling really depressed and stressed out. I have a trip back to Boston next week and a few other work and family obligations to get settled before I re-evaluate.

My training had stopped being fun and started really bothering me physically and mentally. I'm going to see if I can get past this low and get back on the horse. But not for a few days.