You know its windy when....

1. You are running/biking significantly slower than usual.
2. Your hat flies away.
3. You can't hear the music in your earphones.
4. You start swearing and wishing for it to stop.
5. You get passed by a tumbleweed!

Well, we have officially reached spring and with it comes the wind. Gotta love Kansas weather! On Thursday I was running in 35 degree weather in the rain with full tights. Today it was 80 some degrees and I felt like I might pass out before I reached home. 2 Hour Run in 80 degrees and 20 mph wind, not fun. I made it 18 miles, but then had to lay down for about 15 minutes and drank about a gallon of liquid. Meg and I both bonked hard with the heat. Not enough water for that long and that amount of heat when we are not used to it. the wind didn't help as I went the entire first hour against the wind. My thought was that I would feel better when I turned around, but that was not the case. I struggled my way back as best I could. I caught Meg with only a few minutes left on the run and we were both looking pretty rough.

Saturday we did a long bike ride. We went out on south 57 for 2 hours, straight into the wind for 2 hours! At that point we were only at 30 miles and we hit a tiny little town called Dwight. We were hoping for a gas station, but nope, at least not one that we saw. So we turned around and then we finally got the benefit of the wind. We were flying on the way back. We made the round trip in 3:42. Shaving 18 minutes off on the way back. It was a tough ride, as we were both sore afterward.

The rest of the week before that was pretty normal. Tuesday was a 10 mile run. Wednesday was an hour and a half bike with a swim in the afternoon. Thursday was a 10 mile run, with a short lifting session after. Friday was 2 hours on the bike.

Swim, Swim, Swim

Two swims in two days. Pretty good for me. I mainly have been working on my stroke. It feels very awkward at times, but hopefully it will get better. I know that it takes a lot of practice to make my stroke better. Just hope I don't go crazy waiting to see the rewards from it.

This evening will be probably about 35-40 miles on the trainer. Another beautiful day of snow yesterday means more rides inside. Its an easy day on the bike, so won't be bad.

Sunday, lazy Sunday

Saturday was a 2 hour run. Made it 18 miles and it was nice and easy. First half with Ben and then solo the last hour. I made sure not to push anything as I had a pretty hard week of running.

Today Meg and I got up early to bike on the trainer. Made it 3 hours and it felt pretty good. It has been awhile since I went that long on the bike. Glad it is over and nice to have the whole day left. Unfortunately, I will have to spend it alone because Meg is leaving for a conference this afternoon. It will be lonely without her.

Planning on making it to the pool for some much needed drills to improve my stroke. As long as the pool is open I am there.

St. Patty's Day 10K Race Report

Hey all! I know its been awhile since I posted and I apologize. The last couple weeks have been so busy, which is always I guess. Things have been pretty typical. Biking on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sundays. Runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The only real difference was last Saturday when Meg and I ran in the 10K in Manhattan for St. Patty's Day.

I had been dealing with a stomach flu a couple days before, so I wasn't sure how it would go. I talked to Kory and we thought we could go around 33:30. I thought that would be pretty good considering I haven't really done any fast runs in a long time.

During my warm up, I felt pretty tired and wasn't too sure on how it would go. When the gun sounded, Kory and I were off. We had a few people that we knew were going to be pretty fast, including last years winner who had run 32:30 previously. We had your typical couple guys who went out way too fast in the first few blocks, but weren't really worried about them. After a half a mile it was Kory, last years winner and myself.

We cruised through the first mile in about 5:12 and to my surprise I felt good and the pace felt easy. Kory and I flanked last years winner on both sides as the wind was coming from our right side and wasn't really affecting us. We passed the two mile in another 5:12 mile. As we rounded the turn at the 2 1/2 mile mark last years winner put in a little surge, but we were quick to catch back up as we started to go up a hill. At the 3 mile mark we were still maintaining pace and were at 15:40. We were started to drop the other guy and at this time I realized that if we kept this up, we were going to run pretty fast.

We blazed past the 4 mile mark as we came to the downhill portion of the course. We were at 20:50 at this point. We flew through the middle of campus and Kory started to pull away a bit on the downhill leading to Manhattan Ave. I was able to pull him back in as we turned right and headed back toward the park. With a little over 1 mile we had dropped down to about a 5 minute mile. We were really starting to push at this point and I could hear Kory and myself breathing hard. Neither of us wanted to give an inch. When the 6 mile mark came into view I told Kory to go if he had it in him. He put in a little surge and I didn't feel like I wanted to sprint it out with him. We finish a mere 4 seconds apart with Kory running 31:59 and myself at 32:03. It was a great effort and much faster than either of us had anticipated. It was a 30 second Pr for Kory, so I was really excited for him.

Then I was off to cheer my wife on. She came around the corner with only a straight away to go and I looked at the clock. It was in the low 41 minute timeframe. I urged her to go for under 42 and she sprinted past another racer. She crossed the finish line in 41:50 a 30 second PR for her as well!!! Good enough for 3rd overall in the female division!

Since the race, Kory and I have had one more really good workout. We did a 6 lap increasing pace run at Anneburg park. We went for about 6:20 a mile pace down to 5:20 pace the last mile. Finish 10 miles in 57:43. Great workout!! I told Kory that I felt like we were like Rocky and Apollo in the the Rocky movies, always going at each other, pushing each other to be better.

What just happened?

Monday was a good workout. Rode 1:30 on the bike trainer. Covered 35 miles. Watts were up around 250. Felt good after not biking for a few days.

Evening swim was good. SKIMPS with 5 x 200m (100m kick rest). Avg. 3:19. Not bad for such little swimming, but needs to get better.

Tuesday I had a good 10 mile run. Ran 10 in 1:02 and felt good. Then a quick lifting session.

Then something hit me. It was almost instantaneous. My stomach started hurting and to spare you the details, I will just say, it was still hurting when I went to bed. Going to have to take Wednesday off and hope I feel better.

Sleepless in Seattle

This last week was wonderful and crazy at the same time. Ben and I spent Wednesday through Sunday in Seattle, WA. We were at a Brooks Symposium. It was a wonderful time and the people at Brooks are amazing. They are very passionate about running and it comes through in all that they do. We learned a lot from them and the other store owners that we met. It was a great experience.

I did get some training and it went like this:
Monday: Bike 1:30 covered 35 miles.
Tuesday: Bike 1:15 covered 27 miles
Wednesday: Bike 1:10 10x20 seconds all out. I actually felt like I was going to throw up the last interval, so that was something i hadn't felt in a long time.
Wednesday: Ran 6 miles
Thursday: Ran 10 miles
Friday: Ran 8 Miles
Saturday: Swam 30 min. and ran 2 hours
Sunday: Rest
Monday: Bike 1:25 covered 35 miles

A case of the Mondays

This morning I did a 27 mile bike trainer ride through the French countryside. At least that is what the computer showed! It was a good ride. It was mostly uphill the first half and then down at the end. My HR was about 107 and 200 watts.

I was planning on swimming after work, but work ran very long, which is a good thing! You can tell its spring!!