Last night's run and a need to swim more...

Last night's run was a blast, and a pretty nice butt kicking all at the same time.

Warm-up and drills
3 sets of the following - 3min 10k pace, 2min 5k pace, 1 min all out with a very short rest between each.
Warm-down

... but here's the thing... we went way faster than we should have for all of the suggested paces. It was invigorating. Something about doing that work in a group setting with people you know and respect makes it hurt less and able to push myself harder. We were hauling butt for pretty much every iteration.

I've got to get a plan together to get in the water more often... seriously. My 'fall back on previous experience' plan had awesome results last year, but I know I can go faster. Maybe I'll get back to pinballing around in the pool with T3 soon... or maybe the quarry will warm up beyond 55F :)

Went to Vivo (Austin Tex-Mex restaurant) and Juan in a Million this past week... both were pretty good stuff. I can vouch for the fajita tacos at Vivo, and the migas plate was enormous at Juan. Mmmmm... migas...

Welcome back to speed work

1.5 mi warm-up run and drills...
6 x 800m @ 3:35, 3:30, 3:15, 3:08, 3:08, 3:07
1 mi warm down and stretching

Welcome back to the season of speed work for me. I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight.

Tomorrow - 2hr spin, core. Maybe a swim if it's nice? I need to get in the pool more.

Pajama pants

I used to be one of those 'no pajamas' people. I don't know why. Now that I was given Homer Simpson pajama pants for Christmas, pajamas have completely taken over my life. I'm not quite going to wear them in public, but being totally honest I have considered it. I now also have Super Mario Brothers and Playstation pajama pants.

Seriously, they're taking over.

Off to bed for me... core workout class comes early tomorrow morning.

Stretching and massage implements

Isn't multisport fun with all of the gizmos we use to keep from getting injured? Here's a sampling of some of the often used implements of health in my arsenal (listed in order of how much use they enjoy from me) ...

- Triggerpoint Kit - all of the painful goodness that it brings to bear...
- Foam Roll - aspires to be as painful as the TP kit, but falls just short
- Yoga Toes - if you don't know about these, look into them :) they rock.
- The blue plastic calf stretcher thingy
- The Stick Massager
- Strassburg Sock

... and I'm sure there are many more that I'm not aware of that get a great deal of use out there. Wow. I'm in the wrong business.

Anybody watching the UT-OSU game tonight? For you non-midwesterners, OSU can also mean Ohio State University (not just Oklahoma State :)). I'm calling this one UT by 14 at least. Hate to say it, but my Big Ten teams really underrepresented this year... I believe the only Big Ten team to get a bowl win was Iowa. Ouch.

And now a brief pause for Charles to contemplate the strange naturally occurring hole in his toast... and why consecutive pieces of bread with the same naturally occurring hole werent used to make his breakfast...

See all of you T3ers for some spin and post-spin burritos (the fastest growing Austin tradition :)) tomorrow night. Chipotle and Freebirds must miss me big time...

Getting the training season rolling again...

Kicked off the training season for IMCDA this weekend with a 2 hour ride yesterday (hills, hills, more hills, and throw in some headwind for good measure) and a 7mi run today (7:30/mi pace)... whew! Its nice to get it rolling again - the good old metabolism is running a bit higher and the sleep is a bit more coma-like these days! Felt like hard work for both, but also felt good to shake off some of the dust.

Starting training in earnest this week with the T3 IMCDA training plan. Here we go!

P.s. - Have a favor to ask please... if you read this thingy, do me a favor and leave me a comment when something strikes you as noteworthy... I seem to only get comments from friends (verbally) when I don't write for a while :) It'd be nice to hear your thoughts!

The Rev and Texas weather

Hope y'all had a rockin new years eve. Michelle and I went to see one of my favorite bands, the Reverand Horton Heat at La Zona Rosa. Rockabilly just seems more fun in Texas. I always love his shows; there's such a wild variety of people that show up to see the rev. As expected, they put on a great show, and we were also lucky enough to be smack dab in the middle of the sea of balloons the club dropped on the crowd to celebrate the passing from 2008 to 2009 at midnight. Cool.

Hope everyone got a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful morning! Got in a relaxed 5k with Michelle and Stathi this morning, followed up by a brief swim at the springs. Wow, was i a complete train wreck in the water for that first length :)

As I see it now, I'm carrying a lot of the results from all of 2008's hard work into the beginning of 2009, and I'm fired up about it. Still working to get my head around starting up the hard sessions again - especially the track and hill work - but the hard sessions were some of the most productive. Time to become best friends with dietary discipline and structured life again :) And just when I found out about the $6 pizza deal at Little Caesars...