Half-Ironman Training - Week 9

I've been complaining all week that I haven't had time to work on this post; however, I just realized I had it ready to go on Monday but forgot all about it.  Since I'm about to head out for lunch with my brother, I haven't had a chance to review it.  I'm just posting it and will fix all those normal "scotty" grammatical errors later (sorry Ken).

Weekly Training

• Swim: 4750 meters (4750 meters planned)
• Bike: 105.84 miles (105 miles planned)
• Run: 18.04 miles / 2:32 hours (3:10 hours planned)
• Weights: 0 
• Volleyball:  0-3.  
• Overall: 126.84 miles in 10:25 hours

Ugh... I totally bonked on my run Wednesday night.  Lesson learned.

I had races this weekend, so my schedule got mucked up a bit again.  I don't have another race for the next 6 weeks, so it will be all about focusing on my training plan.  Love it!

If you follow me on twitter, you've probably read that yesterday I missed a sub-20 minute 5k by TWO SECONDS.  Ugh!!!  I decided to run this race completely "analog", meaning that I left my Garmin at home.  The only non-human electrical current on or in my body was my footpad attached to the shoe and that was because I just didn't want to take it off.  It has to be re-calibrated if you reinstall it. I do wonder that if I had worn my trusty Garmin 301xt, then I would have noticed the time and really kicked it up.  Either way, looking at a 6:27 pace makes me smile!

Considering my 7:40 pace during the North Face Endurance challenge marathon relay, it really makes me think that maybe I can run hard and be successful.  I really started diving into doing this athletic type stuff a few years simply to find out what my body is capable of.  How far can I push it?  I'm starting to dig a little deeper into that experiment.  Maybe I'll start evaluating my goals for 2012.  Always have to keep looking forward.

Upcoming

• The next two training weeks will be my longest in terms of number of miles and time.  After Week 12 I will start doing speed work, which will probably reduce the miles and time in favor of anerobic workouts.  Although, I hear you do have a tendency to workout the same number of miles but just in less time.

I'm just stoked about getting the training in!  I don't think I'll miss a SINGLE workout for the next two weeks.  It's going to be GREAT!

• Labor day weekend is 5 days away and that means spending lots of time with friends and family.  For once we don't have any traveling going on.   I hope to get my miles done in the morning and good times in the evening.  Well, not too much good times Saturday evening as I have a group ride on Sunday.

Random Thoughts

It's been great meeting all these people doing triathlon and races.  I spent some time with Ryan during the North Face Endurance challenge (which I should have the race report completed by Wednesday at the latest).  Something else that comes to mind is how fortunate I am to have all these great routes to take just in my area of the city.  Within 15 minutes I can get in a pretty challenging hill workout or find a route with 20 miles of flat-ish roads.  That's the same for biking and running.

It's just wonderful to have a YMCA within five minutes of your house too.  The place is amazingly clean and I can always rely on it being open at 5:30 in the morning and have the pool open.  They hardly even have a case of some kid taking a deuce in the pool.

For example, take traffic circles

(or round-a-bouts)

.  There are tons of them around here and they are great! I was initially annoyed by traffic circles.  It was difficult to tell if a car was going to exit or plow into you but I've grown to appreciate them.  You don't have to worry about slowing down for a stop sign. In addition, the pain that traffic lights give are gone as well.  You don't have to worry about waiting at a light that may never change because you don't have enough metal to trip the sensor in the road.  Yes.  I'm declaring it now: I love traffic circles.  They are flawless and NOTHING wrong can happen with them.

And finally, it's amazing that I've never been injured doing this stuff.  I feel invincible!