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Sunday, November 30, 2008

This Week in Training

Monday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts, 4xbounding 10 steps
6xflying 30 3 min rec
?, 4.85, 5.09, 4.89, 5.03, 4.90
(still not exactly 30- Gordon doesn't have football markings)

Tuesday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
4xbounding 10 steps
4x120 6 min rec
17.66, 18.04, 18.03, 19.24
Weightlifting (8-6-6-4-4)

Wednesday:
.5 mile warmup & drills
8x100m strides 100m walk rec

Thursday:
Knee swollen no running
Swiss ball routine

Friday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
4xbounding 10 steps
6xflying 30m 3 min rec
4.23, 4.23, 4.22, 4.09, ?, 4.26
(Actually 30m, I bet it's accurate within 1 m!)

Saturday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
4xbounding 10 steps
4x120 6 min rec
16.81, 16.69, 16.76, 17.14

Sunday:
Off

My first meet is next week and my knee has been a little sore and swollen, so I'm trying to give it a little extra rec this week. my workouts have been going pretty well, so maybe my first meet won't suck!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Rainy day


Imagine this but on a track.

Today I had a hard track workout that I couldn't switch up because of the things that I have to do the rest of the week. So after school I put on my waterproof jacket, pants and shoes and headed to the track. It had been raining all day, so the track was pretty wet and it was still very rainy and windy, so I zipped up tight and pulled the hood down so tight that only my nose and mouth were sticking out.

20 minute warmup goes well, get everything down, not too cold and not too wet.

Repeat 1, felt good, still fast and still warm. 6 minute recovery.

Repeat 2, starting to feel tight. As I finish repeat 2 I notice that my waterproof pants have given way (these kept me dry at Pumpkinman and Muskoka!) and my legs were definitely wet.

Repeat 3, still tight and hard to run in wet clothes. As I finish repeat 3 I notice that my waterproof shoes are now full of water. It must be water running down my pants into the cloth part of my shoe and capillary action is bringing it right into the protected, dry part of my shoe. Conveniently, the fact that the shoes are waterproof actually prevents the water from getting back out like it would in a normal shoe. Each step is now like stepping in my own little puddle.

Repeat 4, my shoes are so wet that I honestly think that my shoes will fly off at any moment. I have to run slower and very deliberately to keep my shoes on. Worst repeat ever!

Back to the car and all of a sudden it is raining way harder! I'm trying to get my drench outer layer off so that I can get in my car and get dry. As I'm struggling to get off my pants (after my jacket is off), I get drenched on another layer of clothing. I threw all of my wet clothes into my umbrella to protect my car and hopped in the front to throw on my dry clothes. This whole process must have taken 10 minutes and then I headed to the gym to finish my workout.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Late Fall Sunrise



6:20am



6:40 am

I hate getting up early, but I do get a beautiful view eating breakfast, especially in the late fall/winter/early spring months.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

This Week in Training

Monday:
Off

Tuesday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts, 4xbounding (10 steps)
6xflying 30 3 min rec
?, 5.24, 5.36, 5.24, 5.29, 5.20

Wednesday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides,
4bounding (10 steps)
4x120 6 min rec
17.13, 17.33, 17.68, 17.82

Thursday:
1 mile warmup
12x200 40s each 30s rec (treadmill)

Friday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts, 4xbounding (10 steps)
6xflying 30 3 min rec
?, 5.28, 5.53, 5.52, 5.79, 5.48

Saturday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
4xbounding (10 steps)
4x120m 6 min rec
17.25, 17.57, 17.80, 17.33

Sunday:
Off

PS- After running inside on a track marked for 50y races, I realized that the 30m workouts that I have been doing since this summer have actually been just about 50y also. I thought I was crazy, then I went and checked the track, at some point I must have measured from the wrong start line. I measure my distances on the track by the football marks, so obviously there is a lot of room for error. (Although a 15y error is just dumb!)

Sunday, November 16, 2008

This Week in Training

Monday - Back to reality:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts, 4xbounding 10 steps
6xflying 30 3 min rec
The malfunctioning watch struck again
Weightlifting

Tuesday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
2x6x200 30s rec
39.4, 42.6, 42.0, 44.0, 43.7, 44.3; 41.7, 43.6, 43.6, 44.8, 46.2, 42.1
Core- abs and hip flexors
Cold and windy- catchphrases for weather in New England in November

Wednesday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts, 4xbounding 10 steps
2x80m 4 min rec, 2x60m 3 min rec, 1x30m
11.70, 11.37, 8.99, 9.10, 5.42

Thursday:
off

Friday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
2x6x200m 30s rec
42.9, 43.1, 42.7, 42.2, 42.6, 43.3; 41.7, 41.4, 42.6, 42.7, 42.4, 38.6

Saturday:
Weightlifting
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
4xbounding 10 steps
8xflying 30m 3 min rec
5.83, 6.08, 6.10, 6.01, 5.96, 6.11, 6.09, 6.04

Sunday:
.5 mile warmup, drills
20x50y strides walk back rec

Monday, November 10, 2008

70.3 World Championships



Back to the beach!


This past weekend was the 70.3 World Championships. Janda didn’t race as he was planning on doing Ironman FL until he got injured. Since he had 9 of his athletes (about 1/3 !) qualify, we went down to support them. They were all down

there well before us, since we got down there late Friday night, but we caught up with them on the beach Saturday morning. Everyone was nervous and excited, including me and Janda. This was the first race that Janda has purely spectated, so he got a taste of what it’s like to be me !

The sun rising over Clearwater Beach

The Beach Shanty, go there if you go to Clearwater

Since we had a long day of spectating ahead of us, we hit our favorite little diner for breakfast before we headed to the beach. Really good and cheap- perfect! The athletes that we were watching went off between 6:45 and 8:00, so we were pretty busy the whole day long. First was the pro wave (Nick) and we saw him come out of the water, but we couldn’t pick him out of the group. Next the 30-34 women (Amanda and Kelly) came out of the water. They were pretty close together and we saw them head out on the bike. Next it was the 35-39 women and Mary Ann flew by us out of transition, all smiles ! The final 4 guys (Craig, Dave, Evan & Liam) were in the 18 -29 wave. After we watched those guys get out onto the course, we headed over to the computers to get splits. The conditions in the water were very flat and calm and everyone had a great swim. Once we figured the splits out, we headed out towards the bridge (the only "hill") on the course.

Matt, Janda and I found a spot on the median where we could watch the bikes go by on one side and the runners go by on the other. We were watching Nick and our friend Chris Bagg out on the run in the pro wave while we were trying to find the cyclists in the packs that starting coming by as the age-groupers made their way back to transition. We saw a few and missed a few. We missed Mary Ann, but thanks to Janda’s lime green Craft shirt, she saw us and got our attention. Everyone made it in from the bike in a good time except Liam. We weren’t sure if we missed him or not, so we kept our eyes peeled for him.

Out on the run, everyone looked really great going out on the first loop. Almost everyone was smiling and giving us the thumbs up. We saw just about everyone on one of the loops, except Kelly and Evan, who slipped by us twice ! We finally saw Liam go by and he yelled to us that he flatted. Just before we expected the age groupers to finish Nick and his girlfriend caught up with us and we all headed back to the finish line. We also ran into Chris Bagg, who saw Janda’s green shirt a mile away. After everyone finished we regrouped out by the food tent in a shady area. Most everyone caught up there and we got to hear how everyone’s races had unfolded. The only big disappointment was Liam’s flat which cost him nearly a half an hour. Another one of Janda’s young guys, Craig, had been hit by a car a few weeks ago and hadn’t run since, so he had a great swim and bike and limped home on the run. The best news of the day was a 4th place finish in the women’s 35-39 age group.

After everyone was done talking and rehydrating/refueling, we went our separate ways. Janda and I ran some errands and checked into our second hotel, which looked out onto Sand Key. After showering up and resting, we headed over to Sand Key for the banquet. It was same old/same old- no kidding, same menu for the 3rd year in a row!

Our hotel is the small one hidden between the huge ones.

The beach at sunset

Half the gang at the banquet:

Janda, Dave and Rachel on the far side, Matt and Amanda on the near side

After the awards, videos and fireworks, we headed to some little restaurant on the beach in Clearwater Beach and hung out for a few more hours. Everyone was pumped up, so staying out (way) later than usual wasn't that hard.

Rachel, Dave, Maya and Nick at Frenchy's

Janda and Liam at Frenchy's

Kelly and Craig at Frenchy's

Amanda and Matt at Frenchy's

Me and Janda at Frenchy's

The next day Janda and I hit the continental breakfast at our hotel and packed up. We headed to the beach at about 10:30 and hung out there for the next few hours. It wasn't as warm as last year, but it was a lot warmer than Gloucester!

Hanging out on the beach

Pier 60

Janda and me sitting on the wall at the beach

After lunch at our favorite little Clearwater diner, we headed out to mini golf. We were originally thinking of calling whoever was left in Clearwater to play, butwe forgot, so it ended up being Janda, me, Amanda and Matt. It was probably a good thing that we forgot because right when the game was done we had to head to the airport. If there had been more players we would have been in trouble. Janda and I got to the airport just in time to chow down on the "Cuban Catch" at the Bacardi's restaurant. It was an awesome breaded fish sandwich- possibly my favorite meal of the trip. Just as we finished they began to board, so it was home to Boston. A few short hours later we were settling into bed at our own place, always a great feeling after a trip!

This Week in Training

Monday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts
4x10 step bounding
6xflying 30m 3 min rec
(Watch probs again, I think the times were between
5.80 and 5.99)
Weightlifting

Tuesday:
.5 mile wamrup, drills & strides
2x6x200 30s rec
(between 39 and 42)
Core - Hip flexors and abs

Wednesday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts, 4x10 step bounding
6x30 strides
(1st time ever, practically falling asleep during active rec!
Cut workout short)

Thursday:
Weightlifting

Friday-Sunday:
Clearwater

Monday, November 3, 2008

This Week in Training

Monday:
60 minute walk
.5 mile warmup & drills
12x150 30s rec
.25 mile cooldown
Core- hipflexors and abs/back

Tuesday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts
4xbounding (10 steps)
5xflying 30m 3 min rec
Weightlifting [10-8-6-6]

Wednesday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
8x200, 4x100 30s rec
Windy, no bothering with times
Core- hipflexors and abs/back

Thursday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
4xbounding (10 steps)
2x80m 4 min rec, 2x60m 3 min rec, 1x30 2 min rec
Stupid watch didn't work

Friday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
10x100m strides walk back rec
Core- hip flexors (hurdle drills) and abs/back

Saturday:
.5 mile warmup, drills & strides
6x10m starts
4xbounding (10 steps)
8xflying 30m 3 min rec
5.87, 5.97, 5.80,5.99, 5.83, 5.865.885.81
Weightlifting [10-8-6-6]

Sunday:
Off