The steeper the mountain the harder the climb the better the view from the finishing line

Managed to sqeeze in a 10 mile run this am at Cherry Creek CC. Started out at a 9:30/Mile and moved to an 8:30/mile generating a 120 BPM HR. Felt good - other than a small tweek on my left lower outside ankle. Will get in another 5 mile sin the am in Detroit before meetings - totaling 25 miles through Thursday - need another 10 to get me to 35 miles at a minimum.

Next week has got to be a heavy load week - thinking 45 miles of run and 10 hours on the bike and 3 swims............

Sleep is on order.......

Gotta buckle down

Made it to the gym this am and managed to get in a 3.5 mile run and a 45 minute spin class along with a good core work out. An overall light day. Tomorrow am I'm getting picked up at 9AM but have a conference call at 8AM. So the plan is to get up and run down to the 24 HR Fitness on Hampden, which is 3.5 miles from the house. I plan on getting in a good strength training routine, along with core and then get in another 3 miles on the treadmill and then run back to the house. So this will give me 10 miles of running in the am.

So thru Wednesday I'll have in about 20 miles on the run and one spin class and no swimming. This means that on Friday am I'm going to have to get in an early morning spin and an evening spin. On Saturday I'll be getting in a 56 mile ride with Kathy and Will after volunteering at a bike race. So 2 spin class and one long ride will have to do it this week. On the run I will get in at least 35 miles this week with a focus on longer runs. If lucky I will squeeze in one swim - but not counting on it right now.

Nutrition has not been ideal this week - but my cold appears to be gone. Felling good about overall miles and quality of the work out.

Gotta get some sleep now............

First Race of the Season

Last week I had to take off Thursday and Friday due to a bad cold, however, managed to get in a ski day at Vail on Friday. On Saturday morning after getting 5.5 hours of sleep I ran the Tom King 1/2 marathon and posted a 1:38 time averaging a 7:33/mile. Felt good - but was tight afterwards, specifically my right calf. I stretched it good and on Sunday am now achilles issues :)

On Sunday I biked for 1 hour on the trainer and then ran about 7.5-8.0 miles outside in the lousy weather. Again, felt good however, post run my knees were sore (as they were the day before as well). Thinking that this is due to running on the hard pavement versus running inside on the treadmill. I consumed the post run drink and took supplements. Monday am got up at the crack to fly to Denver, sleeping 2 hours on the plane. Worked a long day and got home at 8:30PM - grabbed some cereal for dinner and getting to bed early so that I can get up at 4AM to get to 24HR Fitness by 4:30AM to get in a 30 minutes swim and a 1 hour run and then a 45 minute bike ride - followed by a solid core training work out for 15 minutes. A great way to start the day.

This week I've got to get in time on the bike and run. Balancing my health as I do not want to get worn down from last weeks bought with a cold. Being careful and getting my rest - going to try to push it this week.

Making progress - pleased with 1/2 marathon run time - probably could've taken a couple of minutes off of my time.

Lot's to do - little time to squeeze it all in.

Cheers.!

Cold & Flu ...............

Well - I knew that after spending the weekend at my germ infested house in Brentwood that by Wednesday of this week the cold & flu virus that has been incubating in my body would rear its ugly head. Unfortunately my concerns and speculation came true. I've got a full blown cold, with chills and all of the pleasantries associated thereto.

I just finished up with our 4 hour weekly A&I meeting and in bed with the fireplace going. My plan for tomorrow was to get up at 4:30AM to get to 24 Hr Fitness for a run and spin class. But I'm thinking that rest is in order to shake this cold and stretch my achilles. In the big picture I'm not going to lose a lot if I miss a day or two of workouts. The tendency is to push through a cold that could then turn into something worse.

The good news is that I did manage to get in a good core workout this morning before an 1 hour spin class. So the week is going well with a 12 mile run, 2 hours on the bike and 2 swims. So I'm going to play it by ear tomorrow.

Not happy at all about this cold............

Altitude.......whew!

Well - I made it back to Denver today at 5,200 feet elevation after spending more time out of Denver than in over the past 2 weeks. I must say - that my HR outside of Denver has been very low during my exercise routines. However, now that I'm back in Denver - my swim this evening a mere 1,000 meters was a struggle - even with my swim buoy. My breathing timing was off in the water - despite a concerted focus.

I followed up my swim with a 1 hour spin session - albeit I pushed hard - my peak Hr was 146 - which it has been a while since hitting that. Worked up a solid sweat and felt good - but winded any time my HR got up over 135BPM.

This morning when I got up my right high achilles was sore from my 12 mile run on Sunday morning - which I polished off in a little over 1:30 and change. felt pretty good and did not really push it too hard as my average HR was 123BPM. I walked every hill - jogged down every hill and kept a good steady pace. I believe that I'm favoring my left leg and therefore creating an achilles problem with my right. Despite all of the base training - and strength - I still have an imbalance. The positive outcome is that its not too bad - I'm just hypersensitive to it. It's the same problem right achilles high strain that I've had in the past.

I started of the week right with a 12 mile run and 30 minute swim time trial - got in about 1,600 meters in total for the day. Today got in a 1,000 meter swim followed by a 1 hour spin. Planning on a good spin session in the am as I nurse my right achilles back to health over the next 2 days.

The altitude really did affect me today.....time to get some sleep - a busy few days in front of me.

Goodnight!

Bike, Run, Rest..........

Saturday was not an intense training day. But I did manage to get out on my bike (Felt B12) and get 25 miles in. It was a sunny but chilly day, with a high of 55F and breezy. I got a new frame for the B12 due to a cracked set post clamp. In replacing the frame the gears got jacked up and were not tuned well at all - which made for a challenging ride in the big ring for most of the ride. Interestingly enough my usual time of about 1:12 for this 25 mile ride was consistent with todays performance despite bike problems - however my heart rate averaged about 118-120BPM. So this means that my conditioning is working and perhaps my breathing style is improving - focusing on long deep pulls instead of short breaths of air.

I've been researching the benefits of training at altitude and the various devices that one can buy to simulate altitude and get the benefits related thereto. More to follow on this topic - there appears to be a lot of expensive devices available on the market.

Yesterday was the completion of another week of training. The highlight was a 10 mile run on Friday afternoon - that felt pretty good. Overall assessment 75 days out from Lanzarote ........... I've developed a solid base through consistent training with HR BPM being the lowest in the past 2.5 years of training while at or above the training times. The weakest part of my game - the swim - is steadily improving as well - as I work on core strengthening, lats and tris along with just getting into the water 3 times per week. The bike, although I've been spending 4-6 hours per week on the trainer seems to be lagging a bit. So the month of March is going to have an emphasis on the bike - as the weather warms up. The plan will be to get in 2 long rides every saturday and sunday, with the goal of getting in a minimum of 7 hours per week in on the bike - with a max of 10-12 hours. The run will still consist of a minimum of 30 hours and trending north of 40 hours per week. If I'm able to sustain this training volume I will be in a great position for IM Lanzarote with a solid base developed for Leadville 100.

There is still a lot of time to train - so need to stay healthy and focused on BALANCE.

Today I'm going to get in at least a 30 minute time trial in the pool this afternoon. Thinking about a 2 hour bike ride prior to the swim and a 12 mile run post swim. Gotta have a great training day as I was able to get in 10 hours of sleep last night and had a solid breakfast.

Later this afternoon - taking the family to go see Alice in Wonderland and trying to avoid catching Carla's nasty cold....

The beat goes on.....

Base & Interval Mix

Monday I managed to get in a simple 1 hour spin at the YMCA and then took a flight to Phoenix to catch a Suns/Nuggets game. Pro basketball isn't a great spectator sport - lazy basketball. On Tuesday AM I was up at 3:15AM to visit Pendum's local vault operations - not a lot of sleep. Got back to the hotel around 6:30AM - went back to bed for an hour and then got up and hit the treadmill for 4 miles - with interval training. I forgot how much I dislike interval training. Cranked the treadmill to a 5:30/Mile pace for 1 minute then 3 minutes at 8:30/Mile for 4 miles - a great workout. HR gets into the low 140's about 75% of my max. Recovery takes about 15-20 seconds to get back down to 100BPM. I took an earlier flight back to Denver and ran 6 miles at tempo and then got in a 45 minute spin class. So 10 mile run and 45 spin - I was glad to be done and needed to get some sleep.

On Wednesday am I made it to 24 hour fitness for a 25 minute swim and core training - then off to the office for an 8am meeting. Traveled to Chicago to a CFO roundtable meeting at the University Club - a very good meeting. On Thursday - no work out in the am - but made it back to Nashville and got in a 4 mile interval training run followed by a 1 hour spin and then a 4 mile tempo run - at 8:30/mile. HR was averaging 123BPM during last 4 miles - felt really good - like I could've run another 10 miles - but didn't.

Friday(this am) made it to WCRC at 5:30AM for a 1 hour swim - probably got in 2,300 meters - at a decent pace. My swim is coming along nicely - core workouts are paying dividends with form in the water and breathing is improving - getting more strokes between breaths - focusing on 3 then 5 stroke combinations. This afternoon if the weather heats up - I'm out on my bike for a 2 hour ride - followed by at least a 7 mile run - which I need to make happen as it'll be 25 miles week to date on the run and then on Saturday need to get in another 8- miles. Need more sleep - plan on getting some this evening.