Official

First came this:
Then this:
It is real. In 36 days I will be floating in Oceanside Harbor with the big boys. Its official, racing just got MUCH more challenging!

A great way to start the season....

D.N.F.

Awesome! I kicked off the 2010 season this weekend in the San Dieguito Half Marathon. My 1st race, my 1st attempt to set an open half marathon PR and my 1st DNF ever. No better way to get the ball rollin.

Really, after getting sick last week I wasn't expecting much. I scrapped all my workouts on Friday and went home early cuz I felt terrible. On Saturday I ran for a whopping 30mins and it felt like someone was sitting on my chest. The outlook wasn't great.

On Sunday I felt OK. About the same as Saturday, so I decided to just go out the first couple miles and see how it felt. Surprisingly I felt halfway decent during the first couple miles. I had a bet with Kevin, and he, Jeff and I were running right near each other. About a mile in my buddy Brandon jumped in to help pace me in case I felt good and wanted to try and run hard, and to keep me company in the event I didn't.

Coming up on Jeff

Laughing at our stupidity

After 2mi or so we still had a good group with Kevin, Brandon, me and Chris Berg, and we were rolling along pretty steady. However, after a little downhill section, I felt my quads start to tighten up a bit. When it flattened out, I tried to keep the turnover going, and the tightness started spreading and getting worse. Fast. Pretty soon it was clear I was cramping and there was nothing I could do. I don't ever cramp. So it was yet another new experience for me. But even after some stretching and massaging, it was clear my day was done. I told Brandon to just go run and get his workout, I was walking back. On the walk back my left quad totally seized up a couple times and it was clear I couldn't even pull off the walk back to the start. Hail the meat wagon. Again, another 1st.

Kevin went on to bust out a low 1:18 which on that course is FAST and I think a PR for him at least on that course. Charisa, in typical fashion, killed it as well and came in at 1:25 only a few seconds off her PR, and with some pretty good company (Rachel Challis, Katya Meyers, etc...). Congrats to them.

Poser and the real runners

The rest of the weekend was spent in downtown SD and the awesome weather, great food, drink and company salvaged what otherwise would have been a bummer of a weekend.

Ohh well, it can only get better from here. Right?

SICK SUCKS!!

Is it bad when you have dreams about Kleenex? I think so.

I started feeling a cold coming on sometime around dinner on Monday night. I resisted (read: was in denial), telling myself that it was nothing more than a little sniff and congestion type thing. So I continued with my workout schedule. Yesterday I really started feeling it but struggled through the workouts as all I had was a bike and a swim, then rest from 1pm on. Well it didn't work.

I woke up today, feeling about the same as yesterday. I started getting ready to go to masters and realized I was feeling worse by the minute. When I stumbled and lost my balance going up the stairs, I thought maybe masters wasn't the best idea. So I scrapped it and said I would do my bike workout on the the trainer instead, hit the pool at lunch, and run tonight. Well, I continued to feel worse and as I procrastinated on getting on the trainer, I checked my e-mail (thank God for iphones). Coach sat atop the inbox and among some other things, had this to say: "Listen to your body. The piece of paper with the plan becomes irrelevant when your body is talking to you." (if you read it with a German accent its even better). I read that, and took a second to try and "listen" and take inventory: Stuffed up nose and sinuses, sore throat, noises in my chest, and an all over achy feeling. I thought my body was telling me something and opted to listen it and to coach. I laid back down to get another 30mins of shut eye and go to work early. An hour and half later, I woke again. Enough complaining, I scrapped my plan for the lunch swim. In fact it looks like all workouts are off the table today.

Aside from the obvious, this sucks because I am heading to San Diego this weekend to run the San Dieguito half marathon. The plan was to hit 3 hard weeks of training, and have the race as the last effort in the block. To try and PR a half on tired, trashed legs. Well not only will the sickness prevent me from handing the last bit of thrashing to my legs, but will also likely prevent me from being able to really push at the race this weekend. Hopefully this thing clears up by Sunday.

Sick SUCKS!!!

Pain Cave

This was the scene of my Saturday ride. 4hrs of pain including a simulated climb of Mt. Palomar. I was a little scared of this workout since it had been put on the schedule.

I didn't realize it was going to be as good of a time as it was. I actually found myself enjoying the workout and the pain. Coach really laid it down with this workout and I ate it up.

On several occasions last year, I had little "break through days" where I would really nail the workouts. I hadn't had one yet this season. After the trainer session, I was worried about the run that was on tap for that afternoon, but it went very well. So Saturday was the 1st "break through day" of the 2010 season.

Here's hoping for more!!

Sunday, I paid for the great Saturday with a not so stellar brick, but I think that was also due to a lack of sleep thanks to a later than expected stay at a friend's birthday party the night before, complete with one of these.

The man with the knife is my dentist!

Hones - T and 2010

I hit the treadmill today for my tempo run. I usually do this outside, at a track, but it was raining pretty hard and running the track in rain like this would have been cold, hard, and dangerous. So it was inside to the dreadmill.

I make it no secret that I harbor little love for the treadmill. It does have a benefit though, as my friend Devo says, "It keeps me honest." Like I said, my tempo runs are normally done on the track, governed by the watch. But if you fall behind on the pace, the watch won't spit you off the back with painful (to ego and body) results. The treadmill keeps you honest with a capital T.

As an added bonus, the heat and humidity in a gym makes you really work on the breathing.

Finally, there is also a bit of comic relief. See, I go to a gym, whose (lets call a spade a spade) membership isn't exactly comprised of what one would refer to as the "elite" of the local athlete population. Especially at 9am on a Friday. Its basically me and a bunch of the retired crowd. When you are in this setting and you bump the treadmill up to tempo pace, you get some wide-eyed stares from the gallery. Seriously people look at you like it can't possibly be safe to run at that speed. Either that, or I had the look of death on my face and was throwing off sweat like a garden sprinkler. Call it my ego, but I am going with the former.

On to 2010:

People have been asking (thanks for your interest Mom & Pop), so I figured it is time to post my preliminary schedule for the 2010 Race Season. What follows is not "FINAL" but will likely be the route I take barring any unforeseen happenings.

1. March 7th, Toyota Desert Tri (Olympic), Palm Desert, CA

2. March 27th, Ironman Cal. 70.3, Oceanside, CA

3. May 1st, Wildflower Long Course, Paso Robles, CA

4. June 12th, Ironman Boise 70.3, Boise, ID

5. July 25th, Ironman USA, Lake Placid, NY

6. Sept 12th, Ironman Wisconsin, Madison, WI

7. Oct. 17th, Ironman Austin 70.3, Austin, TX

8. Nov 21, Ironman Arizona, Tempe, AZ

Obviously, a Kona Qualification would change everything, as would a 70.3 Worlds slot. And IM AZ is going to be up in the air until pretty close to game time depending on certain factors. So there it is.

Cheers to a race filled and hopefully successful, 2010.