Friday Follies

Thursday Evening Running Group:

Last night was the beloved running group. This is a semi-coached group led by an excellent athlete and really nice guy. I arrived a little early and was questioning the running schedule he gave me for the next few months. The long runs looked a little short given the half marathon in 4 weeks or so. He replies, I thought you were doing the 10K and the half in October. Nope, I'm doing the half each time. A little rearranging of the schedule for the next couple of weeks and we're good to go. He tells me the first one is practice, the second one is for a PR (actually he gave me a number that I think is unachievable from this body, but whatever). Sounds like a plan.

We did a 15min cool up, 4x5min hard efforts with 2 min walk/jog in between, 15min cool-down. He tells me "I want you out of your comfort zone. Really work hard. Run fast." He ran the first two with me to push me along at a little harder effort than I would do on my own. You can really see it in the numbers: 8:37 (no, not a typo), 9:06, 9:48, 9:42. You can see my pace slipped back to something much more comfortable when I didn't have the extra push. It was a good workout and I thanked him afterwards.

Friday Morning Swim & Core:

I've discovered that running hard at night causes me to wake up feeling not so fresh for my morning workout. Go figure. Despite this, I went out for a planned 800yd easy swim over at the new aquatic center. Left the watch at home so as not to be tempted to go fast. It felt good. I bought a 15 punch pass that's good for 3 months and plan to swim there until it runs out.

Came home and worked through the evil core stuff that Trainer guy gave me. OUCH. I have a long way to go.

Saturday Planning:

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that I have a race tomorrow which happens to be my first multisport event of the year, a sprint tri? So about that...

I guess I really need to get ready for this. I was going to clean my bike chain, but I'm feeling kind of lazy so maybe not. I will put air in the tires. I think I know what I'm going to wear and have a gu sitting out. Need to mix up some accelerade and stick it in the freezer, I plan to put it on my bike. Changed the laces in my running shoes and tested it out. Still need to get everything together and pack up the car. Don't want to forget anything. We're planning to leave at stupid o'clock in the morning and there won't be time to turn around if I've forgotten something.

I would be remiss if I didn't put my race goals in writing. Sure, I would like to better my time from 2006, but I'm not going to bust my tail to make sure that happens. Instead, what I'm really shooting for (yes this is vain) is some decent race photos. Seriously. I figure this will require that I truly have fun out there. So that's my main goal. Also to come home with a decision about what to do in September. Sound wimpy? Too bad. It's my life, not yours. ;-P

Catch you on the flip side. Get out there and have fun everyone!!