Wendy the Bitch and GLEE

It is Wednesday already and I have two full days of work before a nice four day weekend....can I get a WHOO WHOO!  It has been a pretty good week so far and I am feeling good and feeling fresh.  My training for this week is bumping up since last week was my recover week.  Only about another hour more of training overall for the week, but it it will increase each week for the next three weeks.

Monday
Ah, blessed REST day....actually, I woke up on Monday feeling pretty good and I was kicking myself for not getting to the pool for a short swim.  I suppose sleeping in until 5:45AM versus 4:30AM probably aided me in my feeling fresh, so I can't complain.  The day wasn't all resting and chilling out.  When I got home from work, my girls went and played with one of their neighborhood friends and I did some work out in the back yard.  I am in the process of leveling out what had been, up until about a month ago, a weed infested, rocky and uneven portion of my yard.  I have killed all of the weeds flattened out the high spots and filled in the low spots to create a level area that is rip for some grass.  All I had to do on Monday was remove the last of the dead weeds/grass, try to get as many rocks up as possible and loosen the soil up.  I can't believe how much better it looks now, and can only imagine what it will look like when we have lawn there.

Oh, I was in bed and asleep by 9:00PM.  Yes, that's right 9:00PM.  I was very proud of myself.

Tuesday
I was up at 4:30AM, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed...maybe not such an accurate description of my appearance, but you get the idea.  I was out of bed, awake and coherent, so score one for me.  I made it to HealthQuest and was swimming my laps by 5:20AM.  I think this was one of my better swims, although I don't know why exactly.  Maybe it was because I did some solid drills (one-armed superman, hypoxic breathing, etc.).  I even ended up swimming an extra 50M, yahoo!!!  I think my totall swim was 2,550M at around 52 minutes.  Again, not blazing, but solid.  My total swim time was impacted by some of the drills which were done at a much slower pace than my standard 2:00/100M.

Work, meeting, work, meeting, work, meeting.  That was the rest of my day.  Just a ton of meetings, and long meetings at that.  I was happy when 3:45PM came and I was able to get out of the office and pick up the girls.  We had a somewhat special night planned, well, it was me really trying to mitigate the possible reactions from my daughters when I told them that we had to do the slightest bit of shopping.  I told them that we could go to Wendy's and get Frosties for dessert, but we had to go to K-Mart first to get a bike rack.  They were all for it....disaster averted.

Good news all around (almost)...K-Mart had the inexpensive bike rack we wanted.  Wendy's put a smile on my girls faces, and we were home by 6:30PM.  The one negative was that I ate my meal at Wendy's also and I was kicking myself for doing so.  I felt like crap afterwards and not I shouldn't be eating fast food.  I know that once in a blue moon won't kill me, but I have been trying to avoid it at all costs.  I will just have to watch what I eat going forward.

The night ended with me going out for my 45 minute run around the neighborhood. I started out pretty strong (7:42 first mile) and gradually slowed the farther I went. I was trying to be cognizant of my heartrate, keeping it in Zone 2, so whenever I felt like I was exerting too much effort I would pull back a bit. The result was a much slower second half of the run, but I think a much smarter run as I am working on my aerobic fitness at this point in my training. Total run: 5.66 miles in 45:01 (7:57/mile).

Oh, one more thing, I was back on the GLEE train last night.  My wife and I watched it and it was a good episode.  I feel like I shouldn't be watching the show, it just isn't what I think I would like, but I get drawn into it and find myself really enjoying it.  So it is out there, I am a GLEE fan. 

Bike/run tonight after work.  Later!

Everything is Right Again

Today is the first day that I am 100% back to normal. I will spare everyone the details but know that my body is back to working like a well oiled machine. This means that I have gotten back to running again and have had three straight days of solid runs following my five day illness imposed sabatical. I haven't gotten on the bike at all in over a week, but I am hopeful that maybe tonight I can get in a 30 minute spin while I watch either a DVR'd episode of GLEE or Modern Family.

On a totally separate note, I still have yet to join a pool/gym. I had all intentions to sign up on November 1st, but it just didn't happen. Then I was thinking that December 1st would be perfect, setting me up for one year of swim prep leading up to Ironman Arizona. Well, it is December 2nd and I am no where close to joining a pool/gym. With Christmas right around the corner and the cost of membership going to cost me quite a pretty penny, I am not targetting January 1st as the deadline to join one. I have to get in the pool.....that is my weakest point and the spot where I can pick up a decent amount of time in any race that I do.


Tuesday: 4.15 mile run, 32:46 (7:53/mile), 157 BPM - Ran with Bill at lunch and we caught up on Thanksgiving stuff and just ran at a good pace. Started out quick slowed in the middle picked it up a bit at the end.

Today: 4.65 mile run, 36:11 (7:47/mile), 160 BPM - Felt good and the pace would have been faster had I not had a hill for mile 2 (8:23). My legs were a big tight and they are a bit sore right now. I will have to take it easy tomorrow.

That is it for today. I have to get a bunch of work done before heading out. On the way home I have to mail some Christmas presents and then get the girls.