Pre-Half Ironman Training

random wetsuit photo

Wednesday - August 21st

My training buddy from work came over for a morning brick workout.  We left my place at 5am on our bikes, and went for a nice and easy bike ride around the usual route.  We only climbed new Indian Hill Road, so the hill work was minimal.  It was a nice ride though.  We covered 22.87 miles in 1:30:03, with a moving average speed of 15.5 mph.  Nothing crazy. 

Here is the Garmin Connect data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/362616780

After the bike we changed for a quick 5k run.  I have the new quick shoe laces, so it takes about 10 seconds to put my shoes on and "tie" them.  I love it.  The run pace was quicker than we discussed beforehand, averaging 9:33mm for 3.25 miles.

Here is the Garmin Connect data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/362616792


guy from Savage Race in Bane mask (badass)

Thursday - August 22nd

Morning run.  8.49 miles in 1:32:22, average pace of 10:51mm.  Nothing crazy.  Great run.  I normally wear my Fuel Belt for anything 7 miles or over, but I did this run without water, Gatorade, or GU.  I haven't been wearing my HR monitor since it rubbed my chest raw, but I'm guessing the run was anaerobic.  After the 70.3 on September 1st, I will be training for the Little Miami Triathlon and focusing on speed work. 

Here is the Garmin Connect data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/363404624


this poster is how I feel about my doing a half Ironman Sept 1st

Sunday - August 25th

I took Friday and Saturday off so I was 100% for Sunday.  I put a note on Facebook to all of the training groups I'm a member of, currently in 8 groups, to come to the lake for a swim/bike brick.  Spamming all of these groups only resulted in one guy showing up, but it couldn't have been a better person!  Someone from Cincy Express showed up that I've trained with and raced with, he has even done a full marathon and 70.3 recently.  I picked his brain all morning as we got ready for the swim. 

So, my main concern for the half Ironman race coming up, is the swim.  So, it was great to go for a swim with someone I could talk to to help calm my nerves.  After about 15 or 20 minutes, I felt pretty calm in the water and was swimming well.  We swam the Caesar Creek beach back and forth twice, so 4 laps of the beach length.  I didn't quite go all the way, but it was a nice 35 minute total swim workout.  My wetsuit is great.  It would be hard to sink in the thing.  My feet were at the surface of the water the entire time, it was awesome. 

My training partner, Mike, was telling me about his 70.3 swim.  I have always heard that it's a free for all, but he said to expect to get kicked, punched, swam over, etc.  Not on purpose, but some overzealous guys think they're going to win the race and go all out, no matter who is in their way.  Mike said a guy literally swam over him.  That would not only piss me off, but cause me to go into a panic.  He and I joked about giving the guy a kidney punch if that ever happens again.  I am staying overnight before the 70.3 in Huber Heights, about 30 minutes away from Buck Creek State Park, where the race (the Great Buckeye Challenge) is being held.  Packet pick up is from 6 to 7:30, so I'll be sure to get my packet at 6:01 so I can get in the lake and swim around to calm my nerves before the race starts.  I will still go easy off the beach into the water.  Some people sprint into the water and go nuts at the start.  That will spike my HR and keep me from getting into a swim groove.  I will walk casually into the water and try to get into my groove immediately.  If my HR spikes, I can't breath (specifically, it's hard to exhale steadily - which is necessary for pacing), and it throws everything off.  I'll be doggy paddling or something until I calm down.  It's critical to stay calm for the swim, for me anyway.

After the swim, we headed out on the "CC 30" route.  A 30 mile bike route around the state park that Mike and I did with other Cincy Express people a few months ago.  We decided to just go casually, nothing crazy.  The day before, Mike ran 15 miles, so I'm sure his legs weren't in the mood for a crazy bike.  I still don't know if I have a "crazy bike" in me. 

On the ride, Clarksville Road totally sucked.  Like, a lot.  I cannot say this enough.  Bikers should avoid Clarksville road from 73 to Wilmington Road until the fresh 'chip sealing' is worn away.  Chip sealing is basically when they pave a road nice and smooth, then throw a bunch of tar on it and toss gravel on top to stick.  It's freaking annoying to ride on.  I still don't understand why they do this to nice country roads.  Mike even slid out at a stop sign from the loose gravel.  It's dumb.  We went from riding at 16/17 mph to 14.  Also, my bike vibrated like crazy the entire way.  Luckily, Clarksville Road on our route was only about 4 miles, so it wasn't the end of the world.

After Clarksville, we turned onto Wilmington Road to join some kind of bike race in action.  Everyone was going slow, about 14 or 15 mph, and everyone around us was a little heavy and older.  Not sure what this was.  We passed many people in this group.  My guess is it was something like a MS150 where people do this one race (versus race a lot) and they're going far (75 miles over two days, for example) so they keep the pace easy.  I told Mike to excuse my ego as I was about to crank by these people.  Gotta represent Cincy Express!  Mike and I were both in full team tri gear.  We passed more people and I think one of the younger and fitter guys jumped on our tail and rode with us until our paths split. 

After the chip seal and MS ride, it was a nice and casual stroll through quiet country roads.  We rode 30.28 miles in 1:54:54, with a moving average speed of 16.1 mph.  I headed to Chipotle on my way home and had a nice burrito.  Delicious!  When I got home, I followed the Ironman Louisville race online.  Several people from my triathlon groups finished the race.  A full Ironman is no joke!  2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, then a 26.2 mile run.  140.6 total miles in one day.  A decent time is 12 hours.  Could you imagine exercising for 12 hours?  And that's a decent time.  They kick people out after 17 hours, I think.  Wild.  Not sure if I'll ever do that, realistically, but it is amazing.

Here is the Garmin Connect data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/364931095


my favorite Ironman finish photo: Craig Alexander winning 2009 Kona Ironman (flexing like a beast!)

Monday - August 26th

Nice and easy morning run.  4.8 miles in 49:17, average moving pace of 10:12mm.  Nothing sticks out about the run. 

Here is the Garmin Connect data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/365968870

Tuesday through Wednesday, I didn't do anything.  Just chilling.  I ate some Busken cookies and had some Bud Light one night while watching my new favorite show, the Jeselnik Offensive.  But I did think about my race a lot.  So, I'm staying at my brother's house in Huber Heights the night before the race, so I'm only 20/25 minutes drive away from the race.  This is better than the 1.5 hour drive from Cincinnati.  My half heat, Clydesdale division, starts at 8:17am.  I can do the swim in the pool in 45 to 50 minutes, but I'm just hoping to get through the swim part in an hour.  I'll probably stumble through T1 in about 10 minutes, same for T2.  I will probably take the 56 mile bike ride easy and shoot for an average of 15 to 16 mph.  Actually, looking at my bike splits, as much as I think I'm a better biker, I'm still not cranking out 18 mph average 25 mile bike rides.  So, the 15 to 16 mph is probably all I can maintain for 56 miles.  My slowest 13.1 is just under 3 hours, so let's say I run the last part in 3 hours.  So, 1 plus 4 plus 3 plus 20 minutes = 8:20.  I think they'll kick me out at 8 hours, so I need to find some extra time somewhere.  I might get lucky and swim in 50 minutes, or maybe the bike will go well and only take 3:30.  Who knows.  My first one, so I just want to finish.  If I like it, I'll go for another one next year with faster time goals.  If I like it, I might try to get a triathlon specific bike next year.  If I dislike it, I might try to get a nicer road bike and just stick to shorter races like a sprint and Olympic.  I definitely want to do triathlons, but the short versus long debate rages on in my head. 

Here is the Strava data for all of the above training sessions.

Monday - Aug 20th - AM Bike Ride

Monday - August 20, 2013

AM Bike Ride

I've been out of town for a few days.  Family trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Lots of hiking and good food, but not much "training".  But, since my kids are 3 and 5, I usually had one of them on my shoulders while hiking.  So, that's better than nothing.  Here they are:




Since I've been biking a lot (for me), I thought I'd try to ride with the BAM Racing guys again today.  We met at the Blue Ash YMCA parking lot at 4:55am.  There were three of us at 5am, and we headed off on the usual route.  In Madeira, we picked up a 4th rider. 

I am not a snob.  I want to get that out there early.  But the good/bad thing about cycling is it's very easy to "size someone up" quickly.  Occasionally, I'm wrong.  Often, I'm right.  I say it's easy to size people up because you can view someone's fitness level, as with running and swimming, but the person's bike is a big indicator.  Of the three disciplines, biking is the easiest to be snobby about.  Again, I'm not snobby.  I'm riding a 10 year old entry-level Fuji Newest with Tiagra/Sora components that I bought used for $500.  So, I don't think my bike stuff is good.  I also have a spare tire (gut) I'm still working on removing.  But, when I see someone on a high end bike, my first thought is that they must be a good rider.  Right?  Otherwise, why spend the money for a nice bike?  Like I said, occasionally you'll find the guy that isn't that good and has the nice stuff, but usually only the very serious/good riders have the nicer bikes.  I've seen a few heavy guys trying to run in Newton shoes - which are expensive for shoes.  But the 4th guy today was on a Pinarello Dogma with Champy gears.  By the end of the ride, I felt pretty confident that this was the same guy that climbed Kugler Mill last week and made me feel like an infant when he easily passed me.  Again, high end bike and I immediately think, "This guy might be a beast.  This could be good."  I turn into a spectator and enjoy the show!

From the start, we're going faster than I would go solo.  This is good.  This is why group rides are great.  But once we got onto Loveland-Madeira (relatively flat with a slight down and up hill), Pinarello was leading and pushing a strong pace.  I stayed right on his heels, in 2nd, and just cranked away.  It felt like we were flying and I was so excited to keeping up with these guys.  I glanced down at the backlit 310XT (which is awesome!) and saw 29.1 mph at one point.  This is WAY faster than I normally go.  Looking at the mile splits, I had one mile here at 25 mph and one at 27 mph.  Awesome pace.  I felt like a little kid who is tagging along with his older brother.

It was awesome, until we got about 10 miles in, and I blew up.  My legs were dead.  Amateur move.  They pulled away, while I was going 18 to 19 mph, so I popped a quick GU hoping it would get me back in the game.  They were doing a different route than I'm used to, but the GU finally kicked in and I was more or less able to keep up with them on the flats.  They lost me on Kugler Mill's hill, but otherwise the ride was awesome.  I'm normally in the mid 15's for average mph, but today my moving average speed was 16.8.  Granted, we only did one big hill, which will raise the average compared to my two or three hill route.  But, I got props from one guy who said I've come a long way since I first rode with them.  I hope to keep improving and maybe one day be able to keep up with group for the entire ride.  My competitive side wants to become the Pinarello guy.  He was a damn mountain goat!  It was really cool to see someone just tear up hills like his did. 

This is really the first season I've taken cycling serious, so I have a long road ahead of me before I'm a "regular" with group rides.  But I'm encouraged after today's ride.  Just two years ago I was 50 pounds heavier with zero endurance, and now I'm almost an average triathlete.  We ended up going 27.5 miles in 1:38:57, with an average speed of 16.6 mph (moving avg of 16.8 mph).  I didn't wear my HR monitor, as my last run with it had me bleeding a lot.  The regular monitor never did that, but the premium one tears up my rib cage.  But Garmin estimates I burned 2044 calories on the ride.

I'm planning to ride tomorrow with a co-worker before work.  Nothing crazy, as we're both sore.  Just an easy 23-25 miler with one hill.  I'll run Thursday and Friday morning.  I am going to hit the lake for an open water swim Thursday night and Sunday morning.  I hope these two trips, where my goal is to just get comfortable in the water, will help me get over my fear of the lake.  My half Ironman race is next Sunday, so just a few more days of training before I taper and relax for the big day.  I think I will finish without much drama, but my time will probably be north of 7 hours (which is painfully slow).  I'm excited to get this one over and behind me, so I can focus on shorter distances (sprint and Olympic).  I think I'll do much better at the infamous Morgan's Little Miami Triathlon (LMT) in October.  My bike has never been better and my run is a hair better than the last LMT.  I'm excited.  A flat 18 mile bike ride should feel easy after my morning rides!  Watch out LMT bike course!! 

Here is today's Garmin Connect data (I hope the link works): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/362064099

Here is today's Strava data:

Sunday to Tuesday - Aug 11 - 13, 2013 - 2 Runs & 1 Bike

Sunday - Hueston Woods Sprint Triathlon

I took the day off after the Warrior Dash and headed to Oxford to watch a buddy race in his first sprint triathlon, the Hueston Woods Sprint Triathlon.  It was a 750 meter swim, 20K bike ride (12.4 miles), and a 5K run (3.1 miles).  My co-worker, in green in photo above, was racing his first triathlon and I wanted to check it out.  I'm glad I went.  He rocked it and won his age group (males 30-39).  I also saw some Cincy Express and BAM Racing triathletes.  Awesome atmosphere, like at all races, and I learned a couple things I can use in my own races.  Great times.

Monday - AM Run

I was charged from the excitement of the day before, so it was easy to get out for a run.  But, I only got out and ran 4.8 miles.  I also took it easy at lunch, and my wife has her work meetings Monday evening, so today kind of sucked as a whole.  Here is the Strava data:


Tuesday - AM Bike & PM Run

I love my Tuesday rides.   I got out and headed to the YMCA at 5am to see if the BAM guys met.  No one there, so I went for a ride on my usual route.  I was debating if I would do the three hills or two.  I kept thinking that Given, though it's a badge of honor, really kills me.  It's a beast and a half and I was curious how fast I could do the two smaller hills. 

Sadly, Given came and went without me.  But, I did step up the overall intensity of the ride.  If you look at the Strava info below, I set a few PR's on segments and even tied the #1 spot for the Madeira Downhill Dash. 

During my PR ride up Kugler Mill, I saw a light behind me in the rear view.  I have a rear view mirror in my left drop bar - I love it and highly recommend cyclists with drop bars get one.  I thought it was a car, but only saw one light so thought maybe it was a motorcycle?  Then, I realized it was a fellow biker!  Awesome to see other bikers out in the morning.  So, I was going up this hill faster than I've ever gone up it before, and some guy was gaining on me.  Out of nowhere, he's on my left, passing me!  He says, "Hey", then passes and pulls away like I was a little punk.  I imagine he was climbing 12-14 mph, to my 9.  He had a Pinarello bike, which is extremely high end (think Ferrari of bikes).  So, at least the guy was kicking ass on a nice bike - which tells me he's a serious cyclist. 

Here's the Strava data:



I felt like a run after work, and headed out for a 6.8 mile run.  My HR was climbing as I went, but I was able to hold my pace around 10:00mm.  It was a beautiful day and running on tired/sore legs was a nice little workout.

Here's the Strava data:

Saturday - Aug 10, 2013 - Warrior Dash Ohio II

Warrior Dash Ohio II



Tiny, Dad, Leah, and myself after the Warrior Dash

Today was the fun mud run, known as the Warrior Dash.  We entered the "Ohio 2" race, held in North Lawrence near Canton/Akron/Massillon at Clay's Park Resort.  We ran this same race last year and came back for more!

This year, my wife and I talked my brother and his wife, Keri (nicknamed 'Tiny') and my dad into running it with us.  A nasty softball injury knocked my brother out, but the four of us went up ready for a muddy 5K - with my brother acting as the full time photographer. 

Our start time was 9am, and we loaded into the starting chute with about 500 other people.  They wanted to avoid bottlenecks at the events, so they cut our heat in half and sent half of us at 9 and half of us at 9:15.  The halfway line was drawn right in front of our group, and my dad and Tiny decided to join the end of the 9am wave and my wife and I took the front row of the 9:15am group.  Before they sent us off, a guy next to my wife was wearing track shorts and running cleats without a shirt.  He said he ran this in about 25 minutes last year (very fast time) and was hoping to do better this year. 

I told my wife that I would meet her at the finish line, as I wanted to beat my 2012 time.  The gun went off and a few of us shot off, all behind the guy in track shorts.  I was more or less going at full speed and he kept pulling away from me.  This guy was flying! 

They had us running on trails through the woods until we came to the first event, an over/under thing.  Very easy for taller people.  I flew through with some other guys and onto the next event.  More running, then we came to some water.  After all of my triathlon swimming, as I approached the water I thought, "Here comes my Baywatch moment - I'll just show off a little."  I'm in the water about half a second when I realize my HR is sky high and I cannot control my breathing at all.  No freestyle swimming for this guy.  I just did a casual breast stroke, trying to calm my breathing.  The water was actually very deep (I couldn't touch) and I saw lots of people struggling to just dog paddle the thing.  In the middle of the water was a floating platform with cargo nets that we had to climb over, then swim to the other shore and get out.  Not too hard.  I just took the swim easy and got my composure. 

After the race my dad was saying this event almost killed him.  He isn't a big swimmer, and we discussed how there really wasn't anyone there to help people in trouble.  Just one clueless teenager/volunteer with a yellow shirt.  No lifeguard or life raft or anything to help someone actually drowning.  Kind of concerning.

After the water, more running to a teetering thing that was like a flat board you walked over, tight rope style to an incline/decline to another thin flat board to balance on.  Very easy.  After that, more running to some trenches.  I took an empty one and actually had trouble getting out of it.  It was muddy and slick with a wood roof.  I could not climb out, so I pulled up on the roof with my back against the wall and feet pressed against the other wall.  Talking to my dad after the race, he and Tiny had to pull each other out of this same trench (furthest left trench). 

There were a lot of other events.  They all sort of blurred together.  I was running hard until the 2 mile sign, when I actually thought, "Oh... I think I might puke.  Wait!  That means I'm pushing it!  Awesome!  I hope I puke so I can tell the guys!"  See, I normally regret not pushing to the point of puking in a race, and then agonize over the time and wonder how much faster I could have/should have gone.  So, when I felt a puke coming, I knew I was maxing out my effort and I couldn't go much faster.  There was a water station there, and after a drink of water the puke sensation vanished - unfortunately!  I never got it back, which means I didn't push as hard as I could have on the last mile.  :(

Overall, I never saw the track shorts guy again (until the very end, at the rinse off area) but I am happy with my race.  I am tall and lanky and surprisingly coordinated, so the obstacles were very easy.  Very easy.  Nothing at all like the Tough Mudder.  The Tough Mudder is nearly 10 times harder, if not more.  I mean, the Warrior Dash is basically a fun, mud run of 3.2 miles with about 12 small, easy-to-do-solo obstacles, and I was done in 37 minutes (beating 2012's time by about a minute).  The Tough Mudder was a 5 hour struggle through 10+ miles of ankle deep mud with giant obstacles, many of which had to be done with others helping you.  Huge difference.  Also, the Tough Mudder crowd looked to be in better shape on average.  Like the difference between half marathoners and 5K'ers. 

The fastest time of the day was 23:14.  My time was 37:28, ranking me 491 of 5,343 overall (top 9%!!) and 136 of 945 males aged 30-39.  Tough age group.  Many of the top times were from my age group.  Last year I was about 1 minute slower, and the top time then was 22 something.  So, that and my memory make me think the course was a little harder this year, so I'm very happy with the time.  I don't have much speed in my run, so I did about as good as I could.  My wife was done in 40:14, dad in 50:45 and Tiny in 51:40. 

I wanted to lap my dad SOOO bad.  He had a 15 minute head start and I would have loved to approach him, tap him on the shoulder, and then smoke him.  He and I had a 40 meter sprint last weekend, where he beat me by a step.  So I really wanted to catch him today.  I knew I would beat him at the Warrior Dash, as he's a sprinter and I'm more of a slow and steady guy.  But I would love to learn to sprint and take another crack at him.  Before you think I'm a geek, I get my competitive side from my dad and he competes annually in the Police Olympics with people from all over the state in track and field events.  He has about 100 medals from podium finishes over the years and sprinting is his specialty (though, he would say he's good at everything!). 

After the race, we hosed off and grabbed a beer while watching some live music and reliving the race with each other.  We had a great time and I recommend anyone thinking of doing a mud run to try this one first.  Not really hard and the atmosphere is great.  Forget about the Tough Mudder unless you are in fantastic shape and the Warrior Dash isn't much of a challenge.  Again, 5 hour Tough Mudder versus 37 minute Warrior Dash.  Also, the Warrior Dash didn't require much upper body strength, while the Tough Mudder did. 

I'm not sure if we will do this race again.  I enjoyed it, but I want to focus more on triathlons so I don't know how this will fit into my 2014 schedule.

Here is the "course map", though only the first couple events are ordered correctly.

Thursday - August 1, 2013 - Bike/Run Brick

Bike/Run Brick


Random Johnny Knoxville photo

Hey guys!  Where have I been?  No where.  I just thought I'd quit blogging, but then after talking to some readers I decided to keep it going.  So, last week I pretty much kept the momentum going and this week I did the following:

Monday - 3 mile lunch run on treadmill
Tuesday - AM 27 mile 3-monster-hill bike ride and 3 mile lunch run on treadmill
Wednesday - AM 1.4 mile swim at YMCA (100 laps in indoor 25yd pool, 2500 yds), and 3 mile lunch run on treadmill

Also, I've dropped about 5 pounds and 1% body fat in the last two weeks.  And, I officially registered for my first half Ironman race.  I will be doing the Great Buckeye Challenge on Sunday, September 1st in Springfield, Ohio (near Dayton).  The race is 1.2 mile swim, then a 56 mile bike ride, and then a 13.1 mile half marathon run.  Of the three segments, I'm only really worried about the open water/lake swim.  I've only swam open water once, and it freaked me out.  I imagine race day adrenaline will get me amped up, and being surrounded by hundreds of others will help.  If a great white shark can somehow survive in a fresh water lake in the middle of Ohio, then surely my odds of being eaten are something like 1 in hundreds.  Hah ha.  I'm good at zoning out and blocking things, so I might be fine and I just won't think about the snapping turtles or snakes in the lake and get through it.  My 100 lap swim yesterday was in 58:26, a new personal best by over 3 minutes - and I wasn't pushing it.  I was just cruising along. 

Anyway, so that's where we are.  My wife has been busy with work and decided to NOT do a race this fall and I have full schedule access.  I have about 3 weeks to train before I taper for a week, so it's time to keep hitting it "hard".  Tapering is basically tapering off the training to rest and get back to 100% for race day.  So, 3 more weeks to hit it. 

A co-worker (Andy) and I decided to meet at my place today and get in a bike/run brick before work.  I got up at 4:15am, and he was here at 4:45am sharp.  We geared up and took off.  Our plan was to bike the normal route and hit two hills: Kugler Mill/Galbraith and Old Indian Hill.  I figured I would have jelly legs from hitting Tuesday morning hard, and Wednesday's swim normally zaps all of my energy.  But I did fine, pushing the pace from 18 to 20 mph through the route.  It did rain over night, so the roads were wet.  But we were fine and just needed to take turns slow.  At Kugler Mill, Andy and his fresh legs shot up the hill at about 10mph, while I was churning around 8mph.  I felt fine on the flats and rollers, but after a bit I felt my legs struggle on the hill.  By "struggle", I mean "keep up with Andy".  But he was solid on the climb. 

After the climb, we cruised down Given to the base of Indian Hill Road and popped a GU.  We started up Old Indian Hill and again, Andy pulled away and climbed about 1-2 mph faster than me.  Tuesday's ride up Given was great, as I didn't zig zag and stood the whole way, but that strategy didn't work today with dead legs.  I was zig zagging all over the place, trying to get my rear derailleur to shift to my 25 tooth sprocket (still haven't adjusted it again).  That damn thing hates that lowest gear!  But, like all things, Old Indian Hill's evil side came and went.  The hill part at the beginning is short and sweet.  It's a punch to the stomach, but it is quick. 

So, normal 2-hill route with Andy.  After Old Indian Hill we finished uneventfully, having a little fun on the Drake Road rollers.  We ended up biking 25.53 miles in 1:40:18 (avg speed of 15.3 mph), avg HR of 136 bpm, burning 1,069 calories.  My Garmin 310XT is pimp.  I mount it to the handlebars and keep the backlight on at 50%, with the following data fields: ride time, current speed, distance traveled, and time of day.  Time of day is nice, as I can keep tabs on getting home.  Remember, I need to get these workouts in and get home to shower, make the kids' and my lunch, get them ready and then take them to school, all so I can get to work by 8am.  Also, traffic picks up at 6am.  My only two complaints really, are how thick the watch is with the quick release kit (nearly 1.5 inches), and the Garmin ANT+ USB wireless sync.  The Garmin ANT software sucks and I actually have to reinstall it each time I upload a workout.  I deleted Tuesday's ride trying to get the thing to work.  Google the issue and it seems EVERYONE feels the same way.  Hopefully I'll find a reliable way to upload my stuff.  It's such a pain I almost gave up on today's brick data.  Do I really care that everyone can see my stuff?  I'm over it.  I keep everything in Excel for my reference, which I look at a lot, but if the ANT keeps acting up I may quit adding the data links here and just summarize it for you.

Here is the Garmin Connect link (it may not work): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/351894277

And here is the Strava data:


At the house, we changed for the run.  Andy got some quick laces and it took him about 10 seconds to put his running shoes on.  I took about a minute to get mine on.  So, I'll be picking up some quick laces soon.  We both felt fine from the bike, though tired and a little sore, but nothing crazy.  Our plan was to run a 5K at about a 9:00mm pace.  He's a damn deer, so our agreement was I'd pull him on the bike (which I did on the flats) and he'd pull me on the run.  He ran a 21:40 5K Tuesday at lunch, so he's got the legs to do some damage. 

We might have looked like geeks, running in bike tights and I had a bike jersey on.  But we held pretty close to our 9:00mm goal and even turned on the gas at the finish.  We covered 3.23 miles in 29:19, avg pace of 9:04mm, burned 485 calories, and HR avg of 161 bpm.  Yes, it's not an aerobic pace.  I'm going to put the aerobic runs on hold.  I want some speed for my next three races, and I'll go aerobic over the winter. 

Again, it was pulling teeth to get the Garmin data, but here's the Garmin Connect data for the run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/351894289

And here's the Strava data for it:


At lunch, I went to Subway for a 12" (Italian) Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki with no cheese or mayo, but loaded with veggies.  Only 720 calories to stuff myself.  I also had two bags of baked bbq chips.  I also snuck a couple Busken cookies for a 2pm treat. 

During the run, my right foot big toe started hurting.  Luckily, it wasn't in the usual arthritis way, but in a "these shoes have hundreds of miles on them and need replaced" way.  So, I ordered another pair of Asics Gel Kayano 19's in the black/red/lime color.  I get 40% off through Promotive.com, but it takes 4-6 weeks to ship. 

I also had a rear brake caliper fail on Tuesday, so I ordered new Tiagra brake calipers for $25 each.  My bike fund is almost gone.  But, I've decided to just replace pieces over time and swap out the frameset once I find one I like.  Nearly half of my bike is new, parts I've replaced in the last year.  So, when everyone is looking to dump their old frameset this winter, I'll find a gently used 58cm frameset to order. 

My family is going camping this weekend, so I hope to sneak in a short "recovery" run (read: easy/slow run) Friday morning before we leave.  I may drink about 50 Bud Lights this weekend and not train much, but I'll let you know after I return. 

Peace out mofo's!!!!!

PS. Next weekend is the Warrior Dash!  Should be fun.  I'll look to set a new land speed record, but settle for just beating the average.  Hah ha.