Trakkers & 1up USA

I think that I am finally back to feeling good running again. I know that I have said this before, but I really mean it this time. I have put in three very good days running in a row and my body seems to be OK with it. Any doubts that I might have had about doing an Ironman are slowly subsiding.

Some additional news, I am going to put in an application for a sponsorship with Trakkers, a web based athlete tracking system used at the Rev3 triathlong this past June up in Connecticut. I have no clue what comes with a sponsorship, but heck I figured why the heck not. I am definitely on board with the GPS movement. I am hoping to get the application in by the end of the week. I hope that they pick me...then again, I have no idea what it all includes, so I better watch out what I wish for.

Tuesday
What a beautiful day for a run, temps in the 60s, sunny and just awesome outside. I went for a run with Chris and he decided to do a relatively hilly route that we sometimes do, but haven't recently. Normally it is around 5.2 miles but we had to make it 4.75 miles due to him not wanting to be seen from our office (we had to slip out the back parking garage). Regardless, we ran a very good pace and he pulled me up the hills (figuratively). Too often I give up and lag far behind him as he strides up the hills, but I decided to stay on his heels and suffer just a little bit to the top. It paid off and I felt really good afterwards. We did the 4.75 miles in 37:29 (7:53/mile pace) and my heartrate was 157 BPM. Considering the terrain, I am pretty happy with the run.

Wednesday
Today was another beautiful day, although the wind was gusting at around 40 MPH. I headed out with Bill today and despite the windy conditions we still managed 8:07 pace over the 4.66 mile route (total time was 37:53 and HR 159 BPM). I probably could have pushed it a bit more than I did, but I didn't want to kill myself just to get our pace under 8:00/mile. As I said above, I am really starting to feel better running. I feel so much stronger out there than I have since around May/June.

A few last words for today, I am getting pretty close to buying an indoor bike trainer by 1up USA. I only need to get reimbursed for my business expenses for my last two trips, then I am going to be spinning away in my basement in the early mornings. I have been trying to get up around 5:45am this week and will eventually be dragging my butt out of bed at 5:00am and getting in a spin workout or swim workout before heading in to work. I need to get used to getting up that early since that is when I am going to get the majority of my training done over the next year or so.