Here's what's awesome right now to me...
- the fact that my brother and his wife are coming to CDA to cheer me on for my first IM
- nothing left but taper prior to the San Antonio Rock n' Roll Marathon
- the fact that I don't always get what I want - gives me something to strive for
- having rockin friends
- My Spartans beating Michigan in dominant fashion. 35-21 was the official score, but we all know they missed the first touchdown call *badly*... to me that game is 35-14.
- swimming more - a lot more lately
- my bike - new fork and all
- having a successful but challenging life
- starting my Christmas shopping
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Weekend festivities
What a great weekend... never run so much before in a two day span in my life.
Saturday-
Ran 18 miles. Wow. That's a new longest run ever for me. The fun part? Ran a 8:00/mi average. Had been planning on a race pace at San Antonio of 8:30/mi... if this coming weekend's 22mi run goes as well, may have to drop that goal a bit :) Fun with friends up north in the afternoon, on to lots and lots of football. My Spartans got absolutely taken apart unfortunately, and it seemed Mizzou didn't bring much more with them to play TX than MSU did to play OSU (TX is looking very strong this season... we'll see if they can keep it up). Carrie, thanks for not blogging about the OSU v. MSU game. Ouch.
Sunday-
IBM uptown classic 10k. Had no idea how I was going to feel. Finished my warm-up with my homie Quirk, and started feeling pretty good. Ended up going 44 flat (7:05/mi), which was a new PR for me. Think I could have taken it down around 42:45 or so if I hadn't done the 18 the day before, but that one will have to wait for another day :) New PR for the Quirker too - great job man. Rode the Mt. Bonnell loop with Stathi and Michelle, and then on to a football-filled afternoon (mmmm... chicken nachos... mmmm).
Great weekend. I'm exhausted :)
Saturday-
Ran 18 miles. Wow. That's a new longest run ever for me. The fun part? Ran a 8:00/mi average. Had been planning on a race pace at San Antonio of 8:30/mi... if this coming weekend's 22mi run goes as well, may have to drop that goal a bit :) Fun with friends up north in the afternoon, on to lots and lots of football. My Spartans got absolutely taken apart unfortunately, and it seemed Mizzou didn't bring much more with them to play TX than MSU did to play OSU (TX is looking very strong this season... we'll see if they can keep it up). Carrie, thanks for not blogging about the OSU v. MSU game. Ouch.
Sunday-
IBM uptown classic 10k. Had no idea how I was going to feel. Finished my warm-up with my homie Quirk, and started feeling pretty good. Ended up going 44 flat (7:05/mi), which was a new PR for me. Think I could have taken it down around 42:45 or so if I hadn't done the 18 the day before, but that one will have to wait for another day :) New PR for the Quirker too - great job man. Rode the Mt. Bonnell loop with Stathi and Michelle, and then on to a football-filled afternoon (mmmm... chicken nachos... mmmm).
Great weekend. I'm exhausted :)
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Opportunity
Opportunity is an interesting thing, isn't it? Right now, I'm bucketing opportunity into two different categories...
1. Opportunities that you want to have, that you've either created through endeavor or have stumbled upon through blind luck.
2. Opportunities that come your way through circumstances you don't like... example - the fact that I'm not a professional athlete allows me the *opportunity* to learn how to manage many facets of life that all want more than their fair share of my time all at once. This isn't the thing prompting this ramble from me, but hopefully it serves to help describe the category?
Seems to me perspective is everything concerning responding to either #1 or #2; probably more applicable to #2, but certainly applies strongly to both. Seems that the #2 bucket of opportunity can be a great test of intrinsic character... (massive reframe alert)... not getting what you want not only can build character, but also can help to provide a checkpoint as to how we're doing at the moment the category #2 'opportunity' presents itself. I'm happy to have the opportunity to challenge myself to assume/retain the proper mindset, but very much looking forward to a smoother road soon.
So, on to the boring athletic stuff.
Ran a quick 13 this morning with a very speedy T3 friend. Good run, but stomach problems all morning. First half of run was all uphill (kinda continuous, no real recovery) and thank god for the 'what goes up must come down' thing on the 2nd half of the run. Was pretty proud of myself that I stuck to it and finished strong - almost set a new PR for the half marathon. I'll be curious to see how the longer runs go in my prep for the San Antonio Rock n Roll Marathon. Big props to my run buddy and teammate Kevin - great friend and outstanding athlete. Not to mention my great friends Chris, Stephanie, and Ryland - who upon hearing I was having stomach problems got in their car to come find me and make sure I was ok. I'm very blessed - my friends are truly outstanding people.
Sunday night swim was absolutely rockin... it's always fun, but tonight I trained it rather than just got a leisurely swim in. All of the work (resistance, core, mornings at Barton Springs) is paying off. Still there's lots of great training time between now and the first tri of '09...
Note from Saturday night... Dave Attell is hilarious. I've always thought that I have a relatively edgy sense of humor, but wow... I'm sooo in the kiddie pool compared to that guy. Wow.
1. Opportunities that you want to have, that you've either created through endeavor or have stumbled upon through blind luck.
2. Opportunities that come your way through circumstances you don't like... example - the fact that I'm not a professional athlete allows me the *opportunity* to learn how to manage many facets of life that all want more than their fair share of my time all at once. This isn't the thing prompting this ramble from me, but hopefully it serves to help describe the category?
Seems to me perspective is everything concerning responding to either #1 or #2; probably more applicable to #2, but certainly applies strongly to both. Seems that the #2 bucket of opportunity can be a great test of intrinsic character... (massive reframe alert)... not getting what you want not only can build character, but also can help to provide a checkpoint as to how we're doing at the moment the category #2 'opportunity' presents itself. I'm happy to have the opportunity to challenge myself to assume/retain the proper mindset, but very much looking forward to a smoother road soon.
So, on to the boring athletic stuff.
Ran a quick 13 this morning with a very speedy T3 friend. Good run, but stomach problems all morning. First half of run was all uphill (kinda continuous, no real recovery) and thank god for the 'what goes up must come down' thing on the 2nd half of the run. Was pretty proud of myself that I stuck to it and finished strong - almost set a new PR for the half marathon. I'll be curious to see how the longer runs go in my prep for the San Antonio Rock n Roll Marathon. Big props to my run buddy and teammate Kevin - great friend and outstanding athlete. Not to mention my great friends Chris, Stephanie, and Ryland - who upon hearing I was having stomach problems got in their car to come find me and make sure I was ok. I'm very blessed - my friends are truly outstanding people.
Sunday night swim was absolutely rockin... it's always fun, but tonight I trained it rather than just got a leisurely swim in. All of the work (resistance, core, mornings at Barton Springs) is paying off. Still there's lots of great training time between now and the first tri of '09...
Note from Saturday night... Dave Attell is hilarious. I've always thought that I have a relatively edgy sense of humor, but wow... I'm sooo in the kiddie pool compared to that guy. Wow.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
How rockin was this...
Remember how I said that it's just great being part of T3? Well, here's what it looked like running by the team tent on the Longhorn 70.3 run course...
Every time I ran past the team tent, everyone was up and cheering their heads off. That was such an encouragement during a very challenging run. How cool is that? :)
Every time I ran past the team tent, everyone was up and cheering their heads off. That was such an encouragement during a very challenging run. How cool is that? :)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Halfmax
Looks like I can also add Trisports.com Halfmax National Championship qualifier to my 'done' list for 2008! That's kinda fun...
I better keep at the training so I can grab that Clearwater 70.3 championship slot in '09... :)
I better keep at the training so I can grab that Clearwater 70.3 championship slot in '09... :)
Longhorn 70.3, Texas Tri Series, ...
2008's tri season is in the books with the completion of the Longhorn 70.3 this past Sunday. Wow... what a race. Course was quite challenging as expected, the run was an absolute bear, but I loved every minute of it.Highlights:
- New PR for the swim (officially 26:40, but since it was probably ~200m short, I'll call it a 29:40)
- New power PR for the bike - 311 watts normalized over 56mi! Previously best was ~270W, and that was for an olympic distance (~26mi)!
- Solid transition times - ~1:30 combined faster than Vineman 70.3
- Not a great time in the run, but a great effort. No lie, it was the hardest run course I've encountered in a triathlon.
Not so Highlights:
- Run time. Bleh. I know I can do better.
- Having my elbow pads for my aerobar stolen off of my bike in transition. Not so cool. However, the McGyvered duct tape and sponge creations made in desperation did very well :)
- Feeling about 90% of the way there on understanding that nutrition plan, but still some work to do
Can't say enough about how great it was to have done the event along with many of my T3 teammates. What a great group of people, and what a gritty, tough group of athletes. I've seen some of the best come out of people through endurance sports in my life, and some of the very best of it all through my experience with T3. I'm very proud to be a part of the team - from what I've experienced, my fellow T3 teammates are some of the most dedicated, hard working, intelligent and group success oriented people in the sport. Way to rock it, T3.I am learning this year how much I love the 70.3 distance. Guess I'll have to wait and see what a full Ironman event feels like in 2009 to completely make that call, but as I sit here today, the half iron distance is by far my favorite. It's got such a great balance of different challenges - endurance, speed, pacing, strategy, nutrition planning, ... all have to be taken into proper consideration.
Finishing the Longhorn 70.3 makes it two 70.3 events completed for 2008... had never done this distance prior to this year. Also, finishing the Longhorn 70.3 also completes the Texas Triathlon Series for my 2nd straight year.
It was just a great feeling crossing that line Sunday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
