Two-a-Days on St. Patty's Day

Things are heating up and I am getting busy.  Two-a-days are officially up me, not that I hadn't been doing them before, but now it is more official.  I am still trying to figure out which training plan to go with:

• The 36-week plan on TriFuel
• The 30-week plan in Be Iron Fit

The main reason for going with the 30-week plan would be that I could fully train for the half-marathon I have coming up on April 18th (Unite Half-Marathon) and hopefully set a PR.  I just worry that the running load for the TriFuel plan isn't enough to sustain where I want to be and I rish doing too much too early in the season.  Also, I am still trying to build my swim up to a respectable level where I am can manage 2,000M+ at a solid pace (I am not there yet).  I will probably have a decision by Friday, I am leaning toward the 30-week plan right now though.

So....training (and life), here is what the past two days have been:

Tuesday:  Swam 2,000M and felt pretty good doing it.  I definitely have to start getting to the pool earlier since I am struggling to finish by 6:45AM and then rush off to work.  I am thinking that I have to start getting up at 4:30AM, so that I can be in the water by 5:30AM at the absolute latest.  I did a speed work out with Chris and Bill yesterday afternoon.  It was 2 x 1 mile at 10K pace (7:10/mile...too slow), with an 800M recovery, then 6 x 200M at 5K pace (actually we were closer to mile pace....5:30/mile), with 200M recovery.  I always hate speed workouts when we do them because they hurt, but when I am done with it I am psyched that I did it.

FYI, yesterday was a bad day for reasons that can not be discussed.  I was glad to get out and run at lunch to help things a bit.  Also, picking my girls up from school and having them just be happy to see me made things a whole lot better.  Oh, we did have a preview of my oldest daughters 1st Grade art show last night, it was awesome (I'll have to post a picture in the next day or two of her artwork).  Thursday is the BIG night where we get to hear (and see) her sing with her classmates during her schools "Spotlight on the Arts" show.  I can't wait!

Today:  Got up at 5:40AM and rode the trainer for 50 minutes while watching "Pineapple Express".  I wasn't really into it, I guess because I'm not one to do drugs.  I suppose if you are stoner it would have been hilarious....for me not so much.  The ride went well though.  It was breakfast with Daddy this morning, just me and the little ones (my dear wife went to work early since she is taking my oldest to Hip-Hop Dance tonight).  We had a good time and they were awesome.  They were all decked out in green for St. Patrick's Day. 

This afternoon was supposed to be an easy 3.5 - 4 mile run with the whole gang from work,  Bill, Chris, and.....Scott.  Scott used to run a lot more that he has lately, work and life have gotten in the way, but he is going to head out with us today.  Well, we started out nice an easy, the first mile at 8:27 and the second (uphill) at 8:31.  At around the 1.7 mile mark Scott peeled off and we pressed on for another tenth of a mile before turning around.  Well, it was at that point that we picked up the pace and the chase was on.  We joked around about trying to catch Scott, who now had a 1/4 mile lead on us, but we didn' actually say, "let's try and catch him."  I guess it didn't need to be said.  Our next mile was at 7:13 and the last .62 miles was 7:30 pace.  We didn't catch Scott, although we could have had he not ducked into the back entrance of the building.  Our run ended up being 3.62 miles in 28:50 (7:58/mile), and we all felt pretty good afterward.  So our easy 3.6 mile run got turned on its ear in the end.  I think there will be a "I [hate, like, indifferent] Scott' post in the near future.

Work time.  Later!