Winter Storm Pictures

As promised....here are some pictures of the winter storm(s).

Picture of our bird house hanging from our covered back deck....I just like this picture.

Below is a picture taken around 5:00PM on Tuesday....the snow was coming down hard, but not as hard as it had been at 3:00PM. There is about 18" of snow on the ground at this point.

Close up of the picture above, you can see how heavy the snow is falling.

Our mailbox on Wednesday morning, the snow would have been higher on it had my neighbor not cleaned if off around noon the day before.

Looking down my street, the snow is piled about 4' high on each side and there is about two inches of hard pack on the road (it still looked the same this morning when I left the house at 5:15AM).

That's me pulling my girls back from lunch at out local pizza place....they are thoroughly enjoying the joy ride, in case you couldn't tell.

Snow-sylvania

Oh my gosh!  22" of the white stuff fell on Eastern Pennsylvania yesterday.  They initially called for 12 - 18" then changed it to 12 - 22"....we ended up in the 22" range.  That equated to four separate one hour shoveling work-outs spaced approximately four hours apart from 8:00AM to 8:00PM.  It also means my lower back is feeling it pretty bad. 

I am sitting in my kitchen right now, looking out our bay window at our back yard, which is blanketed in white.  It is just amazing how much snow we have out there.  My daughters (both off from school today) are running around the house in sundresses playing freeze tag.  My wife is going a bit stir crazy I think.  I am hoping to get out of the house soon and go for an easy four to five mile run along the snowy streets and get a feel for how the roads are.  Hopefully sometime tonight I can get to the pool and do a 2,000M swim.

Anyway, just a quick post today.  I hope to get onto my home computer tonight and post some pictures of the storm.  Peace out!

5:00AM....The Norm

I don't know whether or not I should be happy with the way my mornings have been going this week.  The past two days I have gotten out of bed no later than 5:03AM....this is a good thing, this is exactly what I need to be doing.  Now for the twist, I have woken up at 4:50AM each of the past two mornings wide awake and ready to go.  I look at my watch and then make the decision to cram in ten extra minutes of shut-eye instead of getting up.  Why is my body doing this to me?  I guess I should be thankful that my internal clock is making the change to the early wake up (thanks to a couple nights of getting be sleep before 10:00AM).  But still, I feel like those ten extra minutes are so utterly important. 


Anyhow, I was up and at 'em this morning, got in the water at 5:55AM and put in a very tough swim workout for me.  I did a 400M warm-up (200 Free, 200 Pull), then I did a pyramid work out (50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 200, 150, 100, 50) with 15 - 30 seconds rest.  I did a 100M cool down, although I would have preferred to have done 200 - 300M but time was getting short and I had to get showered and get to work.  The entire swim was 1,750M in 36:38, the longest I have swam since the summer.


A couple notes about my swim:

• I felt really good in the pool today, my stroke is getting smoother and I am lengthening my body more.
• My catch and pull is so much better than last week, I feel like I am gliding through the water now, more like a sailboat, less like a barge.
• My speed is improving as well; I am no means fast but I am faster than a week ago.
• I need to start learning bilateral breathing....I tried it a week ago but stopped after three laps.

Looking to run at lunch today, hopefully left leg starts to loosen up a bit more.  It feels better today, but still not great.  I am worried that the impending snow storm (expecting 12 - 18" of snow) and the inevitable shoveling is going to kill my lower back.  Hopefully it is nice light now.  I hope to post some pictures of last weekends storm and tomorrows as well.  Ciao!

Afternoon Update:  Ran a little over 4 miles at around 7:55/mile pace (156 BPM).  I was really tired and just couldn't find a good rhythm.  Still managed to get it done though.  Oh, there is a second scenario that is floating around about the snow storm are supposed to get tonight into tomorrow, possibly 18 - 24".  Dang, I am going to have to recruit my daughters to help me shovel......then again, how much snow can a four and a half year old and seven year old really move?  I'm thinking not much.

"Dream, Believe, Succeed"

"Dream, Believe, Succeed"...those are the words I read on Chris McCormack's (Macca) blog this morning.  Three simple words that really resonate with where I am in my life right now.  They are words that I need to repeat every morning when I wake up and every night before I fall asleep.  They are words that I need to repeat to my daughters, so they know that anything is possible.  They are words to live by and words that will not only help me in my journe to Ironman, but also my journey through this life.

The past few days have been exhausting, that is the only word that I can think to accurately sum up Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  EXHAUSTING!  Friday was supposed to be a swim-only day because I was just feeling tired from the days leading up to it (did a five mile, very hilly run on Thursday).  I hadn't gotten more than five hours of sleep in any of the two nights prior and I just wanted to take it somewhat easy.  I guess I got my wish of taking it easy...I slept through my alarm and didn't get out of bed until 5:45AM.  DAMN!  Looks like the swim was off.  I think that was my bodies way of telling me to take a day off and relax, which is pretty much what I did.

Saturday was a whole different story.  I awoke to find that the much talked about snow storm was in full effect and it was looking like I was going to be doing a bit of snow shoveling.  Around 11:00AM, I went outside and spend about an hour shoveling our driveway, front walk and back deck.  About a half-hour into the shoveling, my back was already starting to get sore.  45 minutes and my shoulders were aching.  When I was finally done, all I wanted to do was eat some lunch and lay down.  What happened instead was my daughters wanted to come out and play in the snow.  So out they came and for the next hour we ran around, made snow angels, build an igloo/tunnel and just had fun. (pictures will be posted later)

I wish that it could have all been fun and games for the entire day, but around 3:30PM I knew that I had to get a long run in since I have a half-marathon to run next Sunday.  So I threw on my trail running shoes and my cold weather running gear and headed out for a 10 mile run in the snow.  It was slow going because of my lack of solid traction; I felt like for every four steps forward I was only going maybe two or three, my feet slipping in the snow.  I figured that this ten mile run would be like running 13 based on my effort....at least that is how I justified my slow pace.  I ran from my house into the Borough of Doylestown, a route that allowed me to run on streets that didn't have a lot of traffic on them. 

The Good Deed - Once in town, I spotted a station wagon that was struggling to make it up a bit of a hill and was in jeopardy of gettign stuck in the middle of an intersection.  I hustled over to it and tried pushing it, but nothing doing.  Then another guy hopped out of his car and offered to help me push this strangers car.  A couple of heavy-ho's and off the station wagon went.  That little act put the biggest smile on my face.  That is all I have to say about that.

The rest of the run was slow going.  My legs were sore, joints were aching, and my mind was starting to get filled with doubt.  I just wanted to get home and take a hot shower.  I ended up finishing up my 10 mile run in 1:28 (8:48/mile), not horrible considering the conditions.  With some better traction under foot, I think that pace is closer to 8:00/mile.

Sunday was supposed to be a 5.3 mile race down in Tyler, but it was cancelled.  Sunday was supposed to include a 1,500M swim, but I was tired.  Sunday was supposed to be a free-for-all-eat-fest, and unfortunately it was.  Let me just say that when you make a full plate of nachos, a ton of homemade french fries, and a platter of pigs-in-a-blanket, it is best to do so when surrounded by a bunch of burly guys who will eat their share.  What you shouldn't do is make all of the above food and then expected your tiny wife and two young daughters to eat their share, because what ends up happening is that I ate my share plus their share and still fell as though my body is breaking down all of the fat and pasting it to the walls of my abdomen.  Too much food and not enough people.

As for today, I was good.  I woke up at 4:50AM and laid there until my alarm went off at 5:00AM.  I did my morning things, go the the gym and was in the pool just before 6:00AM.  It was pretty empty, good for me!.  I banged out 1,500M and even though I was sore as hell, I was happy with my effort. 

That leaves me where I am now, procrastinating, knowing that I have a ton of work to do today, but not wanting to get started.  I will now stop abruptly and get to it.  Goodbye!

Afternoon Update:  Lunchtime run, 4.58 miles in 35:43 (7:48/mile), 160 BPM.  I ran the first two miles with Chris and despite my desire to run at an easy pace (~8:15/mile would have been good), we averaged 7:50/mile.  He continued on and did a 6.5 mile run, while I turned and headed back to the office.  I maintained that same pace for the rest of my run, with the exception being the last .58 miles where I ran at 7:28 pace.  I felt really good and didn't feel like I was killing myself.  This coming Sunday should be interesting with the half-marathon at Tyler.  It is going to be tough, but I am nearly ready.

BIG mini Day

Wednesday was a just a mixed bag of stuff.  That is really the only way to describe how my day went, stuff, lots of stuff.  Biking, meetings, running, swimming, and dinner.  I suppose I should explain.

The Bike - I started off the day at 5:30AM with the sight of snow outside my window.  I had no clue it was supposed to snow.....odd.  I headed down to the basement to get in a 45 minute ride in and finished watching "The Big Lebowski" and of course "Lost" (fell asleep watching it the night before).  The ride was pretty uneventfull aside from finding out that my daughter was going to have a delayed opening.  Dang was she lucky!  I don't recall the stats from the ride, I just know that I put it in a tougher gear than my ride the day before and tried to increase my speed a bit.  All in all it was a good ride.

It was then time to head into work and sit through all day meetings...BLAH..., but it is part of the job and I did my best to stay focused.  The all day meetings meant that I wasn't going to be able to get in an afternoon run which meant I was going to go three full days without getting outside and actually running.  I can't remember the last time such a thing has happened, I was very confused how I should handle the situation.

Our meetings wrapped up around 4:30PM which left me with three hours before a business dinner (yup, a 7:30PM dinner....really?).  I decided to head to the gym and try to get my swim in as well as some weights.  I didn't find out until too late that the swim team has most of the pool reserved until 6:30PM, so I wasn't going to be able to get into the pool until after they were done which really sucked.  So I did something that I haven't done in probably two years....I hopped on the treadmill and ran.  Yes, that is right, I actually ran on a treadmill.  I should state here that the last time I ran on a treadmill (I have one in my basement that my wife uses on occassion) I was training for the 2007 NYC Marathon and I ended up cracking the platform right down the middle.  I guess I was a bit too heavy for it.

My Treadmill Experience - I couldn't believe how effortless my brief run was.  I initially set the speed at 8.0 MPH (incline at 2%)and it felt like I was crawling.  I did a 1/2 mile at that pace and then brought the speed up to 9.0 MPH for the next 1/2 mile.  I had to stop for a minute after a mile to remove a stone from my shoe (must have gotten there during my race on Sunday) before continuing on with mile number two.  The next mile I kept the speed at 8.0 MPH and was just cruising along....then I got bored.  So I decided that I had enough of this and with about 1/4 mile to go I put the speed up to 12 MPH and finished the run at 5:00/mile pace.  It was awesome, I was just flying along, watching the hundreths of a mile just turn and turn.  So ended my treadmill experience, I just couldn't go anymore for the fact that I was just really bored and I was going to try and get into the pool.  I may try another session in the future, maybe for some speedwork.

The Swim - I managed to get into the pool at 6:25PM which was huge.  What ensued was not so huge.  I was hurting so badly in the pool.  I don't know if it was ride in the pre-dawn hours or my two mile run, but I was just not feeling it.  In short I did 1,100M in 22:48, and I think my longest stretch was maybe 300M straight.  I would have liked to have done more, but my body just wouldn't let me...also the fact that it was 6:55PM and I had to get showered and off to dinner by 7:30PM didn't help either. 

Dinner - Our Chief Opererating Officer is in from Hong Kong for a few days and he scheduled a dinner for all of the senior leadership (me included) at Char Steakhouse in Raritan, NJ.  The 7:30PM was tough, I just don't eat that late, but it was still awesome.  I had a great dinner - lettuce wedge w/Blue Cheese, NY Prime w/garlic mashed potatoes, and brownie a la mode for dessert.  I was stuffed but very, very happy. 

So all in all it was a pretty busy day and I packed in a couple mini workouts (run and swim).  Today is going to be a run only day, which I decided at 5:00AM this morning when I just needed to get another 45 minutes of sleep.  I am hoping to get in 5 miles or more, especially when considering that we are supposed to get a pretty good sized snow storm beginning tomorrow.  Peace out!

Early Mornings

There is a saying that nothing good happens after 2:00AM.  If that is the case, then what is the deal with 5:00AM?  It is not too long after 2:00AM.  The sun isn't up yet.  I usually feel like crap when the alarm goes off at such an un-Godly hour.  Despite the saying and my reluctance to get out of the bed so early, some of my best work has happened at this time or soon thereafter.

Why do I have to get up so early?  Well, the only time I can get my swim training in while still being able to spend time with my family is when they are sleeping.  Also, it has a minimal impact on my work schedule, actually it allows me to get into work by 7:00AM (and thus I can leave a bit early to pick up my daughters from school).  Even if I am not going to go to the pool, I still plan on getting up early on the week days and get in some time on the bike.  This is something that I have never done before, but I can see the benefits already.

This morning I hoped out of bed, actually it was more of a shrug and limp, and threw on my biking gear and went in to the basement (it was around 5:45AM by the time I actually got down there).  I turned on the TV, clicked into my pedals and started to spin while watching "The Big Lebowski".  I found a good spin workout on line the other day and decided to give it a try, 15 minute warm-up, ~10 minutes of alternate leg pedalling (:30 concentrating on right leg, :30 both legs, :30 left leg, :30 both, :30 right and so forth and so on), 10 minutes of :60 at 105 RPMs, then :60 at 80 RPMs and repeat, 10 minutes of ~65 RPMs (hard gear) with breaks when needed. and finished off with five minutes of a cool down.  It was a tough workout, but a good one.  I was done riding by 6:30AM or so and was ready to get cleaned up and spend some time with my girls prior to getting them to school.

A couple months ago I was dreading what was up-coming, getting up well before dawn to get my workouts done and out of the way.  I didn't know how I was going to be able to do it and still function properly.  Well, it has only been about three weeks and things are going OK.  I can only hope that it continues for the next 291 days!

Terrible Tyler 9.3 Miles

Never has a race been so appropriately named as the Terrible Tyler 9.3M.  The fact that it is run on paved paths through Tyler State Park in Newtown, PA would lead most not familiar with the park to think that it is a beautiful and scenic run through a lush and magical forest (maybe lush and magical is really pouring it on, but you get the point).  Anyone who has run in Tyler knows that there are few easy trails and most border on extremely hilly and steep.  Well, Sunday was the day of the race and I thought I was ready for it...I thought I was ready.

I had a good nights sleep, close to eight hours which is unheard of for me.  I hopped out of bed around 7:15AM and headed to the kitchen to fix myself a bagel with jelly, which would serve as my pre-race meal.  My wife came down shortly after and around 7:45AM my two little ones finally emerged from their bedrooms.  My wife and I couldn't believe that the whole house had made it past 7:00AM, especially the girls.  Anyway, after finishing breakfast, I threw on my cold running gear since the temperature outside was still in the teens, and it wasn't likely to warm up anytime soon.

Wow!  My one mile warm-up was COLD!  Everything was freezing, I mean literally freezing.....snot, spit, drool, tears....all of it was freezing on contact.  It was going to be one cold race today.   9:30AM came all too quickly, I had found a spot near the fire to warm-up and BAMN, time to head to the start. 

I felt surprisingly good for the first 2.5 miles (for the most part all uphill), the whole time I kept reminding myself to leave some fuel in the tank for the second loop, which starts out with a one mile long steep uphill climb (thus where the name "Terrible Tyler" derives from).  After getting to the top the next 2.8 miles was mostly downhill and I was able to cruise for a bit, preparing myself for the BIG hill. 

At the 5.3 mile mark (the Start/Finish location), I grabbed a cup of very strong Gatorade, downed it quickly, cleared my sinuses and took a couple of deep breathes.  I knew what lay before me and it deserved all of the respect that I could give it.  I thought that I had prepared myself, I thought that I was ready to go strong up the hill and pass some people, I thought I would be able to just crush that hill.  I was hurting. I was weak. I was wrong.   Despite how badly I was feeling, I made a promise to myself that I would not walk one step up that friggin' hill; no matter how tired or dejected I felt, I wouldn't allow myself to walk.  I kept trudging along, keeping my head up and pushing.  It felt like the longest mile I had ever run, but I made it to the top and then it was time to start making up time.

My legs were feeling heavy and I didn't think that I was going to be able to come close to my PR I set two year prior.  I was at the point where I needed to make a decsion, do I push on and run as hard as I could to try and get close to 1:07 or 1:08 or do I just coast in and chalk it up as a good training run?  I opted to push on hard and see how fast I could run it.  My Garmin was a bit off mileage wise (lots of tree cover that skews the mileage, usually cutting corners, etc.) so it was tough for me to gauge how well or badly I was really doing, so I really had no clue how far I had left.  

The last three miles is probably 80% downhill, but it still was tough going.   With my quads feeling as sore as they were, what should have an easy cruise down the mountain was more like jack-hammer pounding session.  I pushed on.  About a half mile from the finish I had some one in my sights that I thought I could catch, he would be my target, the one that would pull me along.  (there I am about 50 yds behind my target)

About 200 yards from the finish I was able to catch and pass him (Thank God!) and held him off to finish in 1:07:10 (7:13/mile).  I was surprised that I was able to do so well considering how slow and heavy I felt the last loop.  I was happy with the result even though I didn't beat my time of 2008 (1:06:35).  It was a bitterly cold day and I ran as hard as I could.

I would spend the rest of the day laying around the house.  I was tired!

Monday
As for today, I was up bright and early to get in a swim at HealthQuest.  I think I was in the pool by 5:50AM, sore legs and all.  I managed 1,450M in 30:27, which consisted of a 400M warm up, a 50 - 200M ladder (up and down) and then a 250M cool down.  I didn't realize until I was adding it all up in my head on my way to work that I should have just done and extra 50M at the end to make 1,500M....but that is really just a number and I shouldn't be too concerned about it.

I would like to get out at lunch today and do an easy 4 miles, but I think I have lunch plans.  I am thinking about skipping out on the lunch though since I don't know when I am going to fit work outs in over the next few days.  I have an all day Leadership Meeting both Tuesday and Wednesday, which happen to also include dinners.  Looks like no swimming those days, but I will have to get up early and get on my bike before getting the kids to school and then off to work.

Time to build some web pages....Peace out!