137 Days - Another Big Swim Workout - 20 x 75 @ T-Pace or Faster

I woke up this morning not motivated. I just kept laying in bed. It was one of those mornings when you don't feel like moving or going back to sleep, but just wanting to lay there and do nothing. I finally go around to getting up because I could not remember my T-Pace for the 75 yard distance. Due to being short on time from laying in bed I took some guesstimates. My 100 T-Pace is 1:40(even though I swim my 100's at 1:30 or faster) so I modified thinking my T-Pace for 75"s should be 75 seconds or 25 seconds each 25. After my warm-up I realized that was way too slow for a decent workout and moved it up to 70 seconds. This worked much better. I think it is time for me to re-test my swim times and find new measures on my T-Pace. I have made some major gains and I think I need to dial in where I should be swimming a little more accurately.

Despite all this I completed another great workout. Here is the breakdown.

Warm-Up
200 Free @ 3:44 - I was sore at the shoulders and just felt tight throughout the whole 200

4 x 200 (25 right, left, 150 build)
Set 1 @ 3:38 - Slowly starting to warm up and feel ready for the swim workout
Set 2 @ 3:34 - Really working on form and grabbing the water
Set 3 @ 3:30 - ditto
Set 4 @ 3:28 - ready to rock the main set

Main Set

20 x 75 with 20 sec RI

Sets 1 - 4 @ T-Pace(1:10) - 1:10, 1:09, 1:10, 1:11 - I felt good on all the sets. I thought about cranking up the pace, but reminded myself I still had 16 more sets. I was happy to hit my stride on all four

Sets 5 - 8 @ T-Pace - :02 (1:08) - 1:06, 1:07, 1:06, 1:07 - I was slightly under the 1:08, but I was not sure how to gauge an extra second. I was not too worried and was glad to be under rather than over. I was breathing pretty good during these sets. It was tough going every 20 seconds.

Sets 9 - 12 @ T-Pace - 1:10, 1:09, 1:09, 1:10 - Hit all my marks and was happy

Sets 13 - 16 @ T-Pace - :03 (1:07) - my watch went full with data as I did not clear out my previous workouts, but I was making good times on these. I know for sure I hit every single one at 1:02 - 1:05. I was tired by the end of these sets, but knew I was about done.

Sets 17 - 20 @ T-Pace - hit all marks at 1:09-1:10. My legs were sinking, but kept pushing through. Felt good to accomplish this workout

Cool Down - 300 yards - I changed the cool down from what was planned to work on some leg technique

100 kick on back with fins
100 pull really focusing on reaching and rolling
100 kick with board

I finished this workout in under 60 minutes for 2800 yards of swimming. I was very happy with my results. My knee was still tender from the bike ride, but showed no discomfort during the swim only while walking.

Tonight my only goal is to get in TRX and push-ups. NO EXCUSES! I also weighed myself today after forgetting yesterday on my typical weigh in day. I had put on about 3 lbs. I attribute the weight gain to a big training load last week. It will be interesting to see how this week of eating healthy(trying to) works out for me.

138 Days - Tuesday Bike Ride - Spinervals #16

Today I jumped on the bike to get my bike workout in that I scheduled. I tried to get away from the mindset of getting in so many miles(I needed 24:)) and instead focused on the workout. I put in one of my new Spinerval workouts that arrived. This one was Spinervals #16: Aero Base Builder #1.

Here is the DVD description
"Aero Base Builder I" is an 80 minute workout focusing on technique and 'aerobic' or 'blue zone' intensity training. Join Coach Troy as he guides the cast of elite athletes through a structured and highly effective aerobic workout that will greatly enhance your fat burning metabolism, capillary density and other physiological parameters important to maximizing your peak fitness.

This workout is hard because I had to really focus and stay in that aero zone which means about the 70-75% RPE area. I don't know my true lactic threshold and I don't own a power meter so I have to by RPE. This workout was hard because I just wanted to crank hard and get after it, but that would negate the purpose of this entire workout. As he talked throughout it was important for me to work on the aerobic level of riding. I had to learn to refrain. He kept talking about avoiding that grey zone where you are pushing harder than you should, but not hard enough. He said to either go all out or not, there should be no in between. This made a lot of sense and I started think on my training about whether or not I was truly doing what needs to be done. An easy run, bike, or swim should be just that and a hard run, bike, or swim should be hard. I should not push on the easy days even if I feel great. A great lesson learned while tackling this workout which proved to be a good one.

I had to get my cadence up over 100 as my gears did not have much resistance to them during this workout. While riding in a high cadence my right knee on the inside hurts. Yes, I know I am complaining of another knee injury. This one hurts in a different than my last knee pain. I am able to grit my teeth and ride through. I don't feel it while swimming or running, but I can feel the tenderness while walking about after a bike ride.

I made my way to Kaminski to get my shoulder back in working condition after dodge ball last week and to get my knee figured out. He was not concerned about it and attributed it to some issues in my foot. Say what? How does my foot create knee pain? Crazy stuff, but I walked out feeling a little better. He said the knee pain won't go away right away, but over time it will decrease. I was glad to know it was nothing serious.

I had hoped for some TRX and pushups, but with kid duty tonight that did not happen. As I type this I am getting ready for bed. I have another big swim workout tomorrow. A little Slim Fast shake before bed and I am out.

My eating has been good for two days. I graze, but not as much and with healthier options. With anything, my habits won't change overnight. The key is to make improvements daily and overtime it will become second nature like waking up at 4:30 to workout each morning. I have avoided candy, junk food, and sugary snacks, but it has been hard.

138 Days - Tuesday Run With Crazies - 7 Crazies Unite!

Another big running group this morning as we embarked on another peaceful morning 6 B4 6 run. My legs felt heavy today, but it was nice to get out and run. It was nothing like running this weekend when it was super cold. It was quite pleasant and it sure makes a huge difference when it comes to running.

We picked up the pace each mile hitting sub 8 minute miles the last three miles. Chad took off like a rocket towards the end finishing with a great mile time towards the end. I kept pace with the group. My shins were a little sore. I think it is from the long bike ride Sunday. I still feel the effects in my legs from the 42 mile ride.

It was an amazing group of runners collected this morning. Jane, Katie, Nick, Chad, Brian, and our latest running member John. John is the Team Captain of the Live Uncommon Revolution and it was great to have him join us this morning. He has just started his training and he ran with us like it was nothing so another great runner has joined the group.

As always these runs are open to anyone. If you would like to join us feel free to contact me and we can work out the details.

At home today dealing with a sick kid. Off to get some things done around the house and hopefully get in my bike ride before the day is over. Keep pushing hard towards your goals and never stop GETTING IT DONE!

Swim Clinic @ Augie - Class Sunday and Reflections from Last Session With Torture Device

Another great swim class at Augustana College this Sunday at 11:00 is slated to help triathletes get better and more efficient in the water. I have attended these clinics for a several months now and I can only give credit to Coach Zapolski and Christensen for helping me chip away minutes and seconds on my swim times. These two ladies do a great job identifying key things to work on. Each session we review old drills and technique issues, work on new drills, and receive immediate feedback on what we are doing well and not so well with.

I greatly appreciate these sessions because I don't know how to identify problems in my swim stroke. The price of $30 a month to learn about what I am doing wrong is cheap and well worth every dollar because it gives me guidance each month. This month I have really focused on my kick and working on kicking from my hips. I also need to roll more and not just barrel through the water.

We do laugh and have a good time at the class!

For example, the last session I kept kicking at my knees. I know I should kick from my hips, but I just was not feeling myself kick at my knees. I know I do this when I am tired and through some of the drills I must have done just that because Coach Christensen was ready to unveil her latest coaching strategy.

I recently graduated from the first torture device - the dreaded foam roller - that you have to hold out in front of you and reach and grab to work on entering the water correctly. Since my bonding moment with the foam roller it has made its introduction to many of the new members of the group. As much as I did not want to use the foam roller I understood how important it was in the application. It is the things like this that make this class beneficial. It really helped me figure my stroke out.

I thought I was free from torture. I will gladly take my foam roller buddy after meeting the newest device.

This device is simply a rope made from duct tape. You put it around your legs at the bottom by your feet and are then forced to kick. Yes, this bundle of joy was a true test. I felt like I was going through a Navy Seal boot camp. I could not kick for the life of me, but what I did not do was kick at my knees. Just when I thought Tara had nothing left in her bag of tricks she brought out this bad boy.

I share all this with a sense of humor and sarcasm. Check out the photos from one of our swim sessions(see photos at the bottom). You will see the coaches teaching. We stop and analyze and talk about what they are seeing. We have fun and we are all there for the same reason and that is to get better. I greatly appreciate hearing all I do wrong because without them telling me it would go unnoticed.Being a coach myself it helps to be on the other side.

The group has grown in size. It continues to get bigger and that is a sign that they are doing something right. Jeff Paul, professional triathlete, attends each session and he recently announced that one of his sponsors is going to raffle a wetsuit off for those who attend. Check out his blog to learn more about the raffle and also the amazing training of Jeff.

Lots of individual instruction

In the meantime I encourage anyone who is working towards making themselves better to be proactive and seek coaching advice from time to time. I just started swimming in December and without these coaches and advice from others I would still be struggling miserably in the water. I have come a long ways and much credit goes to the coaches. Even if you don't attend this particular clinic it is important to seek guidance from those who know what they are talking about.


You will also notice in the pictures that Coach Zapolski is wearing some Live Uncommon Gear. Be sure to check out what is going on with Live Uncommon and the REVOLUTION. Feel free to sign up and be part of the great things going on this year. You can join the race team and compete in 7 events for a very cheap price. The trade off is that you raise $700 to help raise money for the charities and all the good that Live Uncommon does. If you don't wish to join the REVOLUTION and you want to donate feel free to click on my donation tab over in the sidebar. Every dollar helps so even if you can only donate a buck it is better than nothing at all. You can help to Live Uncommon and help me achieve my mantra of GETTING IT DONE! by helping me reach my $700 goal. I have a long way to go.

Hope to see some new faces Sunday!

Triathlon Training - Two Weeks of the Hardest Training Schedule Yet!

This seems like a very bold statement and it is. The hardest training to date and I have already had some intense training sessions so far this year. This training has no swimming, no biking, and no running. This training is mental. All mental. So mental and so hard that I have failed miserably at this every single week.

The training is to eat clean and healthy. Simple as that. I have talked at length and all the time about eating healthy. For about 85% of my day I do a good job. However, that 15% of the rest of the day I fall apart and fall apart big time.

I have no intentions of trying to lose weight, but I think that will be a direct result as I eliminate so many unnecessary carbs of sugar, sugar, sugar, and sugar.

I am going to try for two weeks to eat clean. No candy, no pop or other carbonated beverages that lead to unnecessary sugars. I am going to stay away from junk food. I need to learn how to mentally toughen up when it comes to eating. If I can take that 15% of my day that I eat really bad and convert it to eating healthy who knows how great my body will be able to train and recover.

I have chosen two weeks as a trial period. This will take me right up to departing for Jamaica. In Jamaica I will try to eat healthy,but I know that is not going to happen with all inclusive eating 24 hours. However, when I return it is serious training time for both exercise and eating.

Looking at my weight that I have tracked for over a year now it is pretty remarkable how I have slimmed down. I think by the time I get to race time I would like to be just a little slimmer for the bike and run.I have very gradually lost weight....I mean very gradually. I have no goals of losing weight. I just want to be fit and healthy.

This plan starts today. I wanted to start yesterday, but Amanda made her BODACIOUS chocolate chip cookies and I was not about to neglect myself of these tasty morsels. It is go time now.

Adios sour cherry balls

Adios chips and dip

Adios all my comfort foods that I graze on before I fall asleep and after school and while waiting for dinner and while waiting for the dogs to go outside and while I watch basketball..........

If you have any good recipes, snack ideas, etc. that you use I would love to try something healthy and new. The hardest part of all this is variety. I went grocery shopping Sunday and I sure felt limited when it came to eating healthy. GETTING IT DONE! just got a whole lot more difficult.

139 Days - Endurance Swim Workout - First Workout Over 3000 yards

I had been anticipating a week of rest this week the last few weeks as I have pushed harder and harder getting my body ready for race season. I am 139 days away from Racine, WI which seems like a long time, but it will be here before I know it. I also signed up for an Olympic Triathlon on May 20th which is only about 3 months away. This is not an "A" race for me, but it is still up there as a "B" race so I can practice what my body will be able to handle in terms of pushing to the limits.

Because I signed up for this triathlon on May 20th I had to re shift my training plans. The race is 12 weeks away. I want to be able to work on how to taper and so forth so my plans for a week of rest this week have been shifted. I am back to a full week of training. I will treat my Spring Break as a rest week since I won't be able to bike on the beaches. As I look ahead at all the crazy things coming up in the future months I start to get nervous about my training and how I will fit everything in. I know it does not pay to worry about the future, but I feel like I have to really stay focused and find ways to get things done when the odds are stacked against me.

This morning I woke up tired. I slept like crap and kept waking up. My legs were sore and knees tender from the big bike ride on Sunday. I had a big swim workout planned and I told myself to just push as far as I could and if I had to pull back a little, then I would have to do so. Despite being focused sometimes you have to listen to the body. I also have to realize that 139 days still gives me time for a rest day here or there without messing things up.

I put in an Endurance Swim Workout today to push the body. I only swam twice last week so I want to get in a big week of swimming this week.

Here is what I knocked out.

Warm Up
3 x 300(100 free, 20 RI, 4 x 50 b-3(breathe every 3), 20 RI)
Set 1: 1:43, 53, 50, 50, 48 - I was tight and sore and I took things easy
Set 2: 1:41, 48, 48, 49,50 - Feeling better
Set 3: 1:38, 48, 48, 46, 44 - Ready to go and had a good idea for my 50 splits for the next round

Main Set #1
3x

• 200 Pull - 20 RI
• 4 x 50 DESC 1-4 by :01with 20 RI

My goal was to get dialed in where I was close to an all out swim on the last 50
Set 1: 3:26, 45, 43, 41, 39 - Time decreased by 2 seconds instead of 1, but I was happy with the gradual decrease
Set 2: 3:25, 43, 42, 40, 38 - Started out much faster on the first 50 so I had to really work to keep time decreasing overall. I was breathing hard
Set 3: 3:28(I was tired), 44, 42, 41, 39 - I had to dig deep to push here. I was gassed and had to really push my body and mind to get this done.

Main Set #2

800 yard swim - odds easy, even 100 build

I was dead tired and knew I was not ready to build on the even 100's so I just focused on swimming a straight 800 yard swim. My goal was to swim a faster back 400.

I swam the first 400 split in 6:46. I checked my watch at 600 yards to see what my time was to mentally prepare for the QC Tri and was at 10:11 so I know I can swim sub 10 minutes for that race. I finished the 800 yard swim in 13:25 so I was able to pick up the pace on the back 400.

Cool Down
I chose to put on my fins and grab a board to end things. I was dead tired. I decided to push hard on 200 yard kick working on kicking from the hips while legs were tired. When I tire I lose all form so I wanted to mentally focus on keeping legs straight.

200 yard kick @ 3:#5
100 yard kick nice and easy to cool down @ 2:12

Total Swim Time: 52:48
Total Yardage: 3200 yards

I feel really good about my swimming. I love how I continue to push myself and see improvements in everything. I just need to get things moving on my bike and runs. When my sprint workouts start in a few weeks I think my running will see some big improvements. The bike will be there in time.

This was a great start to the week. GETTING IT DONE keeps on rolling!

Overview of Training Week and What Lies Ahead

Sunday night I went ahead after a good week of training and officially registered for the Bluff Creek Triathlon on May 20th, 2012. I registered for the Olympic Distance. This will provide me some good triathlon experience prior to my big 70.3 Ironman race in Racine, WI in July. Basically, this gives me two triathlon race practices with Bluff Creek and the QC Tri. I hope that will be enough, but as of right now I don't know how much more time I will have to race. My schedule looks quite busy with my training and helping with the Live Uncommon Revolution(see links in sidebar) as a Road Coach.

Due to my registration of this triathlon I have to modify my training plans. I would like to practice on tapering for the Bluff Creek Tri so I have adjust my training schedule to allow me to do so. What this means is that I have to move my recovery week back so instead of recovery this week it will just have to hold off until Spring Break which looking ahead might be wise as I will be on the sandy beaches of Jamaica and I know my training will not be perfect.

This past week I had an amazing week of training. I accomplished my biggest volume in training so far with 131.04 miles

101.04 miles on the bike
26.79 miles on the road
3.21 miles in the pool

This week also brought my total triathlon training to over 1000 miles since starting 11/28/11

714.43 miles on the bike
268.27 miles on the road
43.28 miles in the pool

1026.01 miles total (one of the totals above is off .03)

Last, but not least don't forget to head over to the Live Uncommon Revolution page and see what they have going on. There are some amazing things going on. I have signed on to help raise $700 to bring money to students for scholarships, to provide money to many races across the QC that are organized for charities, and to just help give back to help others who need it. If you would like to make a donation to the REVOLUTION and to help me achieve my goal I would greatly appreciate it. Head over to my page to read more about why I am involved.

I am off to prep for my training plans for the week. I have some big swim workouts to put together and contact the CRAZIES and others about the plans for the week. Here is to another great week of GETTING IT DONE!

140 Days - Biggest bike ride of my training to date!

The plan for today called for a 48 mile bike ride. I have been behind schedule on the bike portion of my training due to the knee issues I was having a few weeks back. This week I have been able to stay the course and actually work back up to speed as to where I should be training wise. I was able to knock out two 28 mile rides this week and needed one more big ride today of 48 miles. I knew before I even started that I was not going to be able to just ride for two hours. I changed things up a little bit. I decided to dive into part of my bike training in a few weeks by giving Spinervals 13.0 Tough Love a try. I knew from the start I had no intention of riding for all three hours. I am not anywhere close to being able to handle that type of workout yet. Instead my goal was to go for two hours. I am so glad I chose this route because I feel like I accomplished such a better workout by going 42 miles through this workout than just a standard 48 mile ride.

This workout killed me. One of the things you do quite a bit during this workout is stand and ride for 1 minute. Many of the longer intervals consist of shifting gears every minute and alternating sitting and standing. My standing bike endurance is zero. I have not stood and rode in months. My legs were burning. I sweated so much during these two hours that I felt like John B. on the treadmill! I went through four bottles of water and two GU packs. I need to start working on eating solid foods on the bike, but I was not ready to tackle that yet.

Here is the overall workout in all of its glory

This does portray accurately what exactly I did. Here is what I accomplished during the workout

At the end of the last interval session I was around 39 miles. I thought about stopping, but then I quickly added up how many miles I pedaled this week and realized that if I got to 42 miles I would be at 100 miles for the week. How cool is that? I have gone from weeks of no riding due to knee pain to a century of bike work. I gritted my teeth, switched to the hardest gear and just cranked out three miles to get to 42 miles. My goal was to beat two hours and I was successful.

My legs burn. They are tired. My knees are sore. However, I feel great. This has been an amazing week of training for me. I missed one swim workout, but I am okay with this. I thought about swimming this afternoon, but after dodge ball on Friday my shoulder still hurts so I am opting to rest the shoulder. I have a big week of recovery coming up this next week, but I plan on still going hard in the pool so I am not worried.

My last thing I need to get done today is some TRX work.  I have neglected my strength training and I need to stop making excuses and start GETTING IT DONE! Pushups, pullups, and TRX are in store tonight while Amanda runs. Off to enjoy the rest of the day with my family.

141 Days - Early Saturday Morning Run - Coldest Run of the Year

I am not sure if it was the fact that we had 30 degrees and no wind on our last run Thursday or just being spoiled by a very mild winter, but this morning was COLD! I got up at 3:55 to get my usual long run breakfast of waffles and coffee and while trying to wake up I checked the weather to see the following weather report. I think by the time we actually started running that it was even colder. I have ran in 3 degree weather before and was never this cold. Maybe I was just being a wimp this morning, but I chilled.

I met up with the tough Leadville guys John and Rick. It has been amazing following their training journey. They are at the halfway point in their training and it really is impressive how they have stayed dedicated to GETTING IT DONE. Their weekly stair workouts, treadmill workouts(you have never seen such a tough incline workout), and weekend long runs require them to DIG DEEP. This is the motto of John to get him through. It is great how all of us who are pushing ourselves to new heights have developed our own mantras to get us through. I have read time and time again how powerful having a phrase or key word is while in training. If you want to read about the incredible training of John B. and pretty his training partner Rick then head on over to his blog and follow. You won't be disappointed. John is one of the finest examples of a hard worker, father, husband, and just overall good friend and person. Rick is just the same in earning the great remarks and what you read on the blog of John is usually the same for Rick.

Another great person who ran with us this morning and is also another great source of motivation and inspiration is Chad. He brings that no bull wrestler mentality to the group. His trifecta training three days a week and always willing to push a little bit harder is great to have during the long runs, the pool workouts, and bike rides. He too embodies the same as John and Rick with being a great person, father, husband, teacher, and great, great friend. Chad also has his own mantra of I CAN and be sure to follow his blog as well.

Last, but not least I cannot forget Katie. She is one of the CRAZIES who joins us each Tuesday and Thursday and also the long runs. She is an amazing runner having knocked out the Boston Marathon and working hard on some new goals for the 2012 year with some big road races. She has to be one of the most positive people to be around and she too is an amazing wife, teacher, and friend.

We were joined by another St. Ambrose student who I met for the first time and I know that during the last part of the run they were joined by Dave who has a mile long list of running accomplishments.

In the end we had a nice group of runners for 4:30 am on a Saturday. As I mentioned it was cold. I could not find my regular running gloves and hat. I usually wear a full Under Armor ski mask along with a wind resistant stocking cap on top. My running stocking cap has gone missing about three days ago. My gloves and ski mask were found in my car still wet and sweaty from my Thursday run. I guess I forgot to bring them in to dry. I had to quickly find new gear and was out the door. Once we got moving it was not too bad. We ran at a nice easy pace which was nice. My body was not ready to push real hard on the long run. My goal was 12 miles. I did not want to run more being a big training week and still having a long ride on the bike and potential big swim workout to fit in. I had to stay the course and not overdo things and risk injury.

We made the first 90 minute loop completing about 9.26 miles. We had stopped as normal to refuel and for some to change gear. During that little pause I think my bone marrow started to freeze. As we headed out to finish our 12 miles and for the John, Rick, and Dave to run another 90 minute loop I was freezing. The wind was super nasty. At one point I swear my face was going to fall off. Yes, a bit dramatic, but I was not quite ready for the wind. We finished strong getting in our 12 miles. We ran a nice pace of 9:19. It was great to have the run done as the sun was rising. We had 12 done before 7 am.



 I grabbed a cup of Joe with Chad at Starbucks, snagged some donuts for the kids, and was off to enjoy the rest of the day with the family. I am not going to lie when Ava fell asleep for her afternoon nap I crashed for a good 90 minute power nap. I feel good and ready now.

Lastly, I earned my wristband from John. He had these made to keep him focused and to spread the word about Digging Deep. The logo is the old logo from Leadville which he likes better than the new one. I just had to show it off as it will be a great reminder during runs like this when you have to DIG DEEP and find ways to GET IT DONE! Have a great weekend.

Board of Inspiration 2.24.12

Live Uncommon: Join The REVOLUTION - Donations to the cause welcome!!

Me with mentor and role model Jeff Paul

I was asked the question, “Why are you the REVOLUTION?” and I had to stop and think about an answer to this question. It is always hard to answer questions about yourself, but as I pondered the idea of why I am the REVOLUTION I began to think of a few things. One, I am just a normal average person like everyone else. I work a full time job, have three kids, a wonderful wife, coach sports and other activities like robotics, and live a very busy life like everyone else. What makes me part of the REVOLUTION is that I feel I embody all the elements that make Live Uncommon so special.

The LU Values are

• FAMILY
• WORK ETHIC
• FITNESS & HEALTH
• GIVING BACK
• BALANCE
• EXCELLENCE

My family comes first. Without my family I would not be the person that I am. My work ethic is tough and demanding. I expect a lot out of myself. You cannot expect a lot out of others if you don’t expect a lot from yourself. Fitness and Health is my main drive as I continue to push my body and mind to accomplish new goals from completing a half marathon to a marathon last year to preparing for my first experience in the world of triathlons with a 70.3 Ironman race in Racine, WI. Giving Back is why I am part of the REVOLUTION. I not only want to better myself, but as I push my own boundaries I want to be able to help other people out through encouragement, support, charity work, etc. Balance is the key. It is also the hardest as I work to manage all the things I want to get done in life it is always important to keep things in perspective and not lose sight of the important things in life. If I am able to accomplish all of this then it all adds up to Excellence.


I look forward to meeting other Live Uncommon members this year through the REVOLUTION. One thing that has helped me so much this year already is group support. Running with the CRAZIES every Tuesday and Thursday gets me out of bed and ready to knock out a run as part of our 6 B4 6. Having other dynamic people who have just as high of goals of themselves to run long runs with on the weekends and having other mentors like Jeff Paul lead the way about pushing the body to the limits has helped me to do the same. Through Live Uncommon I hope to extend my network and support by meeting other people like myself who just want to do the Uncommon by working hard to improve their fitness, life, and community. This is why I feel I am part of the REVOLUTION. I am living my daily mantra of GETTING IT DONE! and it would not be possible without all my great friends and mentors helping me stay the course every single day. Let the REVOLUTION begin and I look forward to helping others along the way to make this a great year for everyone involved.

Here is the link to my page: Aaron "Road Coach" Maurer

Learn about the REVOLUTION by visiting the home page or any of the links on my sidebar.

If you believe in the cause and what Live Uncommon is trying to accomplish then feel free to help me raise my $700 to help give back to others who are trying to Live Uncommon.

And yes, I will give you mad props for helping me out!!!

142 Days - Friday Morning Swim

Whoa doggies, this was a tough workout this morning. I was dragging big time this morning and really thought about sleeping in. I was tired from a long day yesterday and not getting home until 8:00 after coaching my final 8th grade boys basketball game last night in Clinton. It was an ugly game. We did not bring our A game and against a solid opponent you cannot afford to do this. I learned many things from the game and I will reflect upon those later, but I was dead tired when I got home. Ava decided to wake up around 11:30 last night and cry for about 2 hours. I became quite irritated with her and just did not handle the lack of sleep well. Thank goodness for Amanda and her patience with not only Ava but myself as well. The alarm went off and I had to really force myself to get going.

I made my way to the Y to realize I forgot my towel once again. This is just karma for getting angry with Ava last night. Life works in a cycle and this was a little payback I believe.

The pool was pretty dead as we had some snow and the roads were not cleared. Chad was there and he is always a motivation. This monster of dedication played a soccer game last night, woke up and rode his bike at 4 am, swam at 5 am, and then lifted weights. That is insane. How he completes his little trifecta three days a week is amazing. I could not do it. I have to space things out.

My workout today was a Speed Endurance workout. Here is a the breakdown

Warm Up

10 x 50 free wth 20 sec RI - My shoulders were tight and it took a while to get loose. I swam the first 5 in the 48 - 51 second range just getting loose. Sets 6 - 9 I was at at 46 seconds and the last set I was at 43 seconds. I lost track of laps and actually swam one extra once I checked my watch. It ended up being 11 x 50 for 550 yards

300 yard pull - After a 20 sec rest I moved right into this working on reaching and pulling the water back. To swim 300 yard straight was harder than I thought. I have not done this much at one time before. It was good to work on my form when I tired. I finished this in 5:05

Main Set

400 yard at T-Pace + :03 w/ 20 RI - I have my goal of my T-Pace for the 100 at 1:30. I struggle maintaining this pace for an extended amount of time, but it is my goal to keep this swim rate for at least 600 yards by the time I get to the outdoor swimming. So, my goal would then be to swim the 400 in 6:12. I did not accomplish this as I swam this set in 6:29. However, I did not go all out. I was not exhausted when I finished up. Instead I was focused on my form and kicking from my hip as I tired. I was happy with my time. the 20 sec rest went by way too fast and I was back swimming.

4 x 100 @ T-Pace w/ 20 sec RI - I had to work somewhat hard to hit my mark on these. My biggest change the last week or so in my workouts is really sticking to the shorter rest intervals. I typically rested longer than needed, but with my watch I can stick to the plan. This really helps and I know will pay off in the long run. However, when my watch beeps so fast I want to throw it across the pool. I swam these sets in 1:31, 1:31, 1:30, and 1:29. I hit my mark on all of these. The first two the added second was due to finding the stop button on my watch:)

300 yard @ T-Pace + :02 w/ 20 sec rest - My goal for this was 4:36. I did not have these times dialed in ahead of time prior to my swim so I am not upset at missing my marks. I have them dialed in now and will hit them next time, but I swam this set in 4:48. I started to tired during this set. I actually felt my legs kicking at the knees(yes, I admit it coaches, I felt the knee kick for the first time....bring on the duct tape).

3 x 100 @ T-Pace with 20 sec rest - As I started to tire I had to dig deep to push. I swam these really good hitting my marks with times of 1:29, 1:28, and 1:29. I was one second ahead which made me happy until I saw the next set........

20o yard @ T-Pace + :01 - The dreaded 200. However, it did not seem as bad after swimming the longer distances. I was gassed by this point. I swear I blinked my eyes once and 20 seconds went by already. I hit my mark swimming this in 3:02. I was spot on. YAHOO!

2 x 100 @ below T-Pace with 20 sec RI - The last set and I pushed hard. I had to beat 1:30. I swam the first in 1:24. I was dead tired and breathing hard. The last set I gave all I had and hit 1:23. My whole body was burning with lactic acid. I had to fight hard to keep swimming hard. It was the hardest push of all swims during that last set. It felt good to reach that point.

Cool Down - 100 kick with boards nice and easy. I took it nice and easy and felt very satisfied with this workout. It was nice to push my body and work out the daily frustrations I had created myself. I know that getting frustrated with things out of my control don't help matters and this workout helped to clear my mind and move on.

My watch showed a workout time of 41:30 that included everything but the final cool down. Happy Friday. I look forward to big weekend of workouts to wrap up this week. If all goes according to plan I should be on my way to my biggest workout week of my life. The reward is a nice restoration week next week with some needed rest days.

143 Days - Thursday Run With The Crazies

What a great day for a run! I felt good. I was a little out of sorts as I headed to the Y in a flurry.I walked in to see 5 other CRAZIES ready to go. It was awesome! I quickly tied my shoes and pretty much got dressed right there so we could start. We headed out on another 7 mile route. It was so much nicer than Tuesday where we did not have the slush and cold. We had just a few hills out by Hopewell Elementary, but the rest was smooth sailing as we made our way around Bettendorf. I felt good and it was nice to be able to get out and run and have it feel nice and easy. It was just what I needed. The best part was knowing I got my bike ride in yesterday so I don't have to do it tonight after a long bus trip to Clinton for basketball.Everyone is getting busy with coaching duties, families, illness, etc. and it is always so great to see people ready to better themselves so early in the morning. The best part of the run was seeing so many other people out and about running, walking themselves or their dogs. It was just a good way to start the day.

144 Days(Wednesday) - Biggest Swim Workout and Tough Bike Workout.....TRX and 1/2 Angie To Follow

Woke up this morning with a lot on my mind. I got up just fine for once, ate a GU and headed to the pool to get in a good workout. I had a good workout planned with two levels of difficulty. Both were going to be tough, but I had two levels dependent on how I felt. I felt good and went with the higher workout.

Warm-Up
400 yards - 100 free, 100 kick(no board, hands on sides), 100 pull, 100 kick with board)

8 x 50 - 25 RT/LT, 25 Build w/ 20 RI- so one set was swimming with just my right arm and then swimming back gradually picking up pace to full sprint by the end. Next set was with the left hand.I swam all of these sets in 49-50 seconds.

Main Set - all with 20 sec RI
500 yard swim - I have not swam a distance this long since the indoor tri. I felt nice and relaxed and really enjoyed just swimming laps. I tried to really focus on rolling and staying on the top of the water. I also focused on kicking from my hips and not my knees(more on this soon when I post about the swim class last Sunday). I swam this in 8:19 and felt good. I was not tired at all

2 x 250 - With only 20 second rest intervals I was back swimming right away. I swam both sets in 4:04 and 4:03. Still working on the same things as before. I was not sure what my T-Pace should be for this distance as I don't know how to figure in extra time as the swim distance increase or decrease. I was happy with the time knowing I could swim harder.

500 yard swim - Mentally I worked on staying calm to finish this one. I did not want to think too much and get tight in the pool. I stayed calm and swam this in 8:12. I was tired by the end.

100 pull - I added this as I was dead tired and my legs were dragging big time during the end of the 500 yard swim. I did not want to rest so I did this instead before finishing the workout.

4 x 100- 1:32, 1:31, 1:30, 1:31 were my times on the 100's with 20 second rest. This was a great way to end the workout. I felt good about myself when I finished this up.

100 cool down kick with board.

Total yards 2900 yards. My biggest to date. I thought I had 3000 during the swim, but I was wrong. Finished in 60 minutes

Later in the day I jumped on the bike for another 28 mile run. My knee started off a little tender on the inside part of the knee, but as I continued on the ride it started to feel normal. I decided to push a little harder on this ride to test the knee. The whole goal of my current bike training is to get my knee used to the mileage. In two weeks I will incorporate interval workouts and I hope to have my knee ready for this type of workout. I was sweating bullets on this ride, but overall felt really good.

I ended with a one mile cool down. I then took my son to the doctor and and got things back on track. It was a good day for training and a good day for my family.

My goals now are to get in some more overall body fitness work. I am planning on some TRX Core Strength workout and a 1/2 Angie Crossfit workout. GETTING IT DONE! has forced me to push myself to new levels. This is a big week with a recovery week next week.

Board of Inspiration 2.21.12

145 Days - Tuesday Run With A Crazy!

My alarm went off this morning and like so many times this winter I fell back asleep to soon awake at 4:42 in a state of panic. Yesterday I sent out an email to everyone asking them if they would be willing to run 7 miles this week during these runs as part of my training. I kept thinking how terrible it would be if I was late after making this request. After a mad scramble I made it to the Y just in time. It was just Chad there waiting in hopes that someone would show. I think he was starting to believe that perhaps we left without him.

The weather was not too bad. It had snowed during the night, but the temp was around 30 degrees. The problem was not the weather, but the slush that was left behind. It did not take long for us to hit a few good puddles in the sidewalk and to constantly splash slush all over. We were soaked in our shoes, socks and running gear after  few miles. Besides the extra weight in slush it was also a little difficult to grab traction. Needless to say this run proved more difficult that I had imagined.

I charted a course that ran us around town, but I failed to remember a few key hills on the path. However, we were able to push through and end up with a good run. This run proved way more challenging than I had mentally prepped for. I was glad Chad was there to run with to aid in conversation and to keep me pushing onward.

We finished with a pretty good pace. My calories on the chart above are wrong as I did not switch my watch to run mode so I am guess I burned around 1300 calories as I typically burn around 1100 on a 6 mile run.

It felt good to get this run today. I am really hoping to get through this week of training with a strong push. I have a recovery week next week where I am really cutting back the training load and probably even add a few rest days. My knees hurt. They hurt in places I have not had pain. They hurt on the back which I believe is hamstring related and they hurt on the inside. I have trained hard for several days now and I know the joints need some rest. I want them to hold up through Sunday. Looking long term I know I have a recovery week next week and during Spring Break there will be some recovery days as well. I will be swimming in the ocean and running along the beach, but no bike during that week so that will give my body ample time to recover. After Spring Break it will then be go time for sure as I must get my body dialed in on my bike.

This is my last week of basketball coaching which will greatly help with getting to Kaminski as needed and getting some strength work in after school. I love coaching, but as my work load picks up I will need that time to train.

GETTING IT DONE! is working hard. Not only to better myself to hopefully inspire others to push themselves. I will have more on this idea later today. Until then stay the course and strive to GETTING IT DONE!

Last Week Training Totals - 70.3 Ironman Totals So Far

Alright, I had a great week of training. I was back to the 100 mile mark after being away from this total weekly mileage for almost a month with injury and such.

Last week I completed the following:

I biked 71 miles
I swam 5.23 miles
I ran 24.02 miles

Total Distance ended up being 100.28 miles

Since training started 11/28/11 I have now done

613.39 miles on the bike
241.28 miles of running
40.07 miles of swimming

Total Training is now at 894.97 miles

Here is my plan for the week
Monday(today) - Bike 28 miles
Tuesday - Run 7 miles
Wednesday - Swim Workout
Thursday - Run 7 miles
Friday - Swim Workout
Saturday and Sunday - One day will be my long run of 12 miles and one day will be my long ride of 40+ miles

**I need to get in at least two TRX workouts as I neglected those last week
**Depending how things go I may even squeeze in the third swim workout in on Saturday if I am up for it.

***A rest day must happen soon. I have a recovery week coming up so if I can hold until then I will throw in a day of nothing for sure.

146 Days - Monday Bike Ride

Typically I get up and swim on Mondays. I will admit that after swimming four times last week and spending over 3 hours in the pool between swim class and taking the kids to the Y to swim I was waterlogged. The last thing I wanted to do today was swim. So I took a day off from swimming.

Actually I planned on taking a complete rest day, but like the day before I could not rest. I felt the urge to get in at least one workout. Looking ahead at another crazy week and long nights I knew I had better get in one of my bike rides today to leave room for error later on. I did not want to have another weekend like I had where I cranked some serious miles in 72 hours.

Ava went down for a nap around 9:30 am and I jumped on the bike hoping she would sleep for a few hours. I had a 28 mile bike ride planned still working on base miles and just building up my time on the bike before pushing into some serious workouts of intervals and such.

My legs were sore from the run and swim yesterday. They felt tired, but after a few miles they felt good and strong. I finished watching Hall Pass and started watching My Idiot Brother. I sure enjoy a few good laughs on these rides that are pretty boring.

Amanda was headed to the chiro at 10:30 where she gets a super awesome 60  minute massage before being adjusted and as she was leaving Ava decided she was ready to get up. So my 28 mile bike ride came to halt at 16 miles.

You can see the ride was nothing special. Some may call these junk miles, but I am finding them to being very important and my path to success on the bike. I just need to gradually build my knee up to getting used to the cycling patterns and gradually adding time and distance on the bike.

After dealing with a fussy 9 month old I got her to eat some lunch and after a little bit of an attitude she could not fight the sleep any more and crashed. I jumped back on the bike to get the final 12 miles in. I ended up riding 14 miles to make an even 30 as I had a few hours to recover.

My knee was pretty sore during the second ride. This is something I need to watch. I hope it all goes away to allow for a great week of training. This is a sign that I have pushed the knee to the limits. I have the rest of the day to rest and hang with the kids. I finished with about 50 pushups and some core work as I realized yesterday during swim class that my core strength is terrible.

I am glad to get this ride taken care of for the week. I have two more rides to get in with one being a long ride which I will save for the weekend. I will post my training plans for the week later today in case anyone wishes to join. Don't forget the CRAZIES are running tomorrow at 6 am starting at the Bettendorf Y.

147 Days - Sunday Morning Long Run

Woke up around 5:15 this morning to get ready for my long run of the week. I was tired. After finishing up a long ride last night around 10 pm I was not able to get into a good sleep until well past 11 pm. That is way past my regular bedtime. Ava was up a few times and next thing you know it was time to get up. Thank goodness Brian wanted to run with me this morning otherwise I might have very well slept in and messed up my great week of training.

I ate two pancakes, had some water and coffee and made my way to Starbucks to meet Tritt. We decided to tackle a course similar to what Chad and Katie ran a few weeks back. We did not cross any bridges, but we took off down the hill of Kimberly towards the might Mississippi River. It was a little chilly at first being only about 20 degrees, but we knew that as long as the wind stayed down and the sun started to rise we would be fine.

This was our course we ran. As we made our way to the river you can see about midway we hit a little detour and had to turn around and relocate a place to find the bike path. We hit the 5.5 mile mark in 48 minutes. I will admit that I felt tired at this point from the swim and bike ride last night and just a good week of training. We took a quick stretch break and Tritt snapped a cool photo of the sunrise.

It is quite cool to watch the sunrise early in the morning while the city is still quite calm. As the sun rises you cannot help but a little pep to your step while running. It was great to see a few nice size groups of walkers out and about as well. The river was nice and smooth and more importantly it felt great to have Tritt to have running with to keep me going. 

 

On the way back we made good time. We ran the last 5.5 in 44 minutes knocking four minutes off our return run making for a good negative split. The best part was that it felt easy. The run back felt so much easier than the run out. We were stopped by a train at mile 7.5 for a few seconds, but nothing too major.

We knocked out the run in 1:32. It felt good to be done with run before 8 am.You can see from the results that we picked up the pace each mile which is good. Even during the big hill climb back up Kimberly we were able to hold a good pace despite the incline of a few hundred feet. I stopped in Starbucks before heading home for a good old Cafe Mocha. I felt good after the run, but I knew I was in need of water and refueling. I ate some good food and need to eat again. I need to replenish this body with fluids and food before my swim class this afternoon.

I am glad to have pushed myself to get these workouts in the last few days. I went from thinking I was going to have a bad week of training to really knocking out some serious miles in 72 hours.

GETTING IT DONE! sure feels great to accomplish. I am a little sore and fatigued, but that is just a sign that I am getting this body one step closer to 70.3 Ironman shape!

149 & 148 Days - No Rest For The Wicked

Thursday was a long day finishing up the school week with parent teacher conferences. I came home after conferences to help out with the cleaning as my parents were on their way to the homestead Friday. Amanda had a rough day taking all three kids to the dentist and then getting stuck in one hour traffic to drop off our taxes. I had planned to ride a bike that night, but that did not happen. I was wiped out and tired.

Friday morning I had every intention to get up and swim bright and early to get the workout out of the way. That did not happen either. Instead I slept in. I had been nursing a tight and pulled groin/hamstring the last few days so I figured the sleep was a sign I needed to give it a rest. I slept in and I felt so much better. I was worn out both mentally and physically. Amanda headed of to school Friday and finished up the cleaning and while cleaning I just could not fight the urge to get a workout in. I kept thinking about what all needed to get done training wise and finally could no longer resist and jumped on my bike.

I had to get in a 20 mile bike ride. The problem I was facing was time. I did a proper warmup and started cranking. My knee felt good so I kept increasing the gears one shift at time. For the first time in over a month I was able to actually ride on the big gear up front. I was able to complete my bike ride in the small window of time before my parents arrived. Thank goodness Ava was sleeping to allow me to ride. Thank you Ava! I have not been able to ride this hard in a very long time. It felt good to feel "normal" on the bike. I still have some serious conditioning issues, but I felt good GETTING IT DONE! I finished just in time for the arrival of my parents and it was a great time spending time with them. We don't get to meet up as often as we would like so when we find time it is nice to just hang out and eat junk food and watch the kids do what they do.

I won't lie my eating has been terrible this entire week. Earlier in the week Amanda bought me my favorite candy of all time. I can polish off a big bag in no time. It is cocaine for my soul. Cherry sour balls are the best sugar bomb ever!

I also ate at Sportsfans and Old Chicago pizza. I could not resist. It was one of those weeks. However, I am focused and ready to eat clean. One can only eat like crap for so long before the body says enough! The body has waved the white flag and it is time.

After my parents Saturday morning I took Aiden to meet about Live Uncommon. There is some great stuff coming with the REVOLUTION and I feel fortunate enough to be part of things. I will throw in more details later, but know that

REVOLUTION Race Team info huddle Thurs 6:30-8:30-Symposium Cafe 53rd & Utica Ridge Rd Davenport. Get in the know, in the gear, on the Team.

 After the meeting I came home and took a nap. It was not intended but while watching basketball I fell asleep for a good hour or so. I woke up and felt gross so I headed to the Y for the swim workout I missed out on Friday. The Y was crazy busy and only three lanes were open for swimming laps. Luckily, I was able to share a lane. I could not believe the amount of people. It was weird being there with the sun shining, lots of noise, and lots of people. The water was very cloudy so I was not digging that, but the workout needed to be done. 

 I hammered out a tough workout and it was the kickstart I needed.

Warm up
800 yards
200 Free, 200 pull, 200 kick, 200 swim with fins

3 x 300 with 40 RI 1-3 Descending
Total - 14:44

Set 1:  5:14
Set 2: 4:55
Set 3: 4:34
Average: 4:54



3 x 200 with 30 RI Descending
Total: 9:15
Set 1: 3:16
Set 2: 3:05
Set 3: 2:53
Average: 3:05

3 x 100 with 20 RI Descending
Total: 4:17
Set 1: 1:31
Set2: 1:25
Set 3: 1:20
Average: 1:25

Between each set of 3 I had a 100 kick set. These were tough. The first set I swam at a pace that I felt was easy where I was not tired when I finished. The second set I made sure to be ahead by the first half of the swim and I typically was around my average swim time from previous swims. The last set I tried to swim fast. Not going all out, but it sure felt close. I was taxed by the 100's. I swam with a watch to time for accuracy and that was great to have the interval feature where it counted down the rest to force me to swim on time. I swam the 2900 yards in about 50 minutes. I was in and out with no messing around. It was a great swim and I am glad I forced myself to go.

Tonight after the kids went to bed I headed downstairs to ride the bike. I had long bike ride planned. I was tired and little motivation. I started off watching basketball, but it was not entertaining me enough so I started watching Hall Pass. My goal was 30 miles. Ideally I would like to be over 40 at this point, but I have to ease back into things. My knee was sore during the ride. It would feel good for a while and then hurt and keep going back and forth. Riding 90 minutes about broke my butt. I was glad I got it done.

It is now late and I have a 11 mile run early in the morning planned. T-Minus 7 hours and I will be out pounding the pavement to wrap up another good week of workouts. Keep striving to GETTING IT DONE! I am here to help you. Have a good rest of the weekend.

 

I meant to post this video SO LONG AGO - He Man Dance Mash-Up.......thanks Dad

My dad sent me this link way back in the middle of January. I kept meaning to share it with all of you because 1. He-Man is AWESOMESAUCE! 2. This mash-up works out perfect. A perfect video after a long week

Board of Inspiration 2.16.12

150 Days - BIGGEST GROUP OF CRAZIES YET

We had 6 of us CRAZIES ready to run today. We missed Jane and I am sure she would have loved to run with the group, but illness has struck her family. We once again had another great run. We talked earlier about how much we have improved in our running on these runs since we started. Gaffney and I were discussing about how building the winter base miles has really helped with getting us at a great starting point for the spring and summer training. I could not agree more as I look at where I was last year at this time and where I am now and it is night and day difference. I am close to my fitness from last summer around Bix 7 time which is where I started to have much of my personal success last year.

Looking at our times this morning you can see we started off at a good pace and dropped our times progressively each mile. I felt a little tired during the run, but once I warmed up I felt good. I think my fatigue has been from the overall training and not the running. This week I started to incorporate the bike workouts again as my knee has felt better and that has added an extra element to my training that I have not had in while. This run did not feel terribly difficult, but I just felt a little tired. A rest day is in store soon as I have trained strong for 11 days.

I was curious as to how our runs have progressed in overall mile pace times so when I came home this morning I looked back at my Garmin data at my Tuesday and Thursday runs and jotted down the overall pace times. We have come a long way which is a sign that we have some amazing people that we are running with. Good company and good runners is a great combo. I have missed some runs and a couple of these were solo, but here is how they break down. All of these runs are at least 6 miles or more. I took just the average mile pace time.

12/20 - 8:58
12/22 - 8:46
12/29 - 7:45(solo run)
1/3 - 8:32 (7.4 mile run)
1/5 - 8:11
1/12 - 8:40
1/17 - 8:39
1/19 - 8:59
1/24 - 8:21
1/31 - 8:03
2/7 - 7:48
2/9 - 8:00
2/14 - 8:16
2/16 - 7:52

You can see that this is not exact science, but I think it is clear that we have made some major improvements starting with close to 9 minute mile pace and pretty much the last few weeks we have really dialed things in knocking off at least a minute to our mile pace which is pretty good considering that we still feel like the run in relatively easy.

In a few weeks I will start to incorporate a track/sprint workout to one of these mornings, but for now I will continue to build up the winter base miles. As time progresses it is going to be important to get some different run workouts in to help me prepare for my races.

Last, it is so great to see so many people trying to improve themselves from the CRAZIES twice a week to the other running groups that meet at the Y to run. It looks like a social gathering in the mornings at the Y.

I hope the nice weather continues. I will take the 30 degree no wind weather all day. It was a great run and I look forward to watching the group improve and achieve their goals individually.

I have one more run this week to get in. I have a long run of 11 miles. I am looking at running this either later in the day Saturday or Sunday morning. Sunday morning is probably more likely as I have a long bike ride to get in Saturday night.

151 Days - Wednesday Morning Swim, Dreaded 200's, and late night bike ride last night

Above are the bike results from last night. After laying in bed at 8 pm after putting the kids to sleep I almost said screw the bike ride and went to sleep. I was tired. I had a long day of teaching and a very frustrating basketball game to coach. I came home late and was ready to throw in the towel. About 8:30 I forced myself to get up and ride. I am glad I did because I knew it needed to be done.

I started off somewhat easy to gradually loosen my knee in to the bike. It was feeling much better from the start which I was happy about. I kept my gears in a higher gear for the first 8 miles. I was on the middle gear up front and the middle gear on the bike. I had to keep my cadence above 90 as that was my goal for the ride. I also read that 90+ alleviates extra pressure on the knee. I was feeling pretty good riding as you can see my cadence stayed up.

At 8 miles I switched down a gear on the back to see how it would handle more pressure. At first I had to switch back, but I I was able to continue shifting gears until I felt confident enough to ride on the big gear up front. The problem that I had was keeping cadence above 90. I had a tough little push of 20 minutes on the big gear working my muscles. The workout called for 20 minutes strength endurance during the ride and I definitely got it in. I am so out of bike shape it is not funny. I had to really push hard to maintain.

In the end I was able to complete 20 miles which I was very happy with. A big improvement from last week without going overboard. No pain in the knee which was great. My knee was sore this morning, but it was sore all around and not where I was having major issues. Yahoo!!!!! I just need to keep working gradually and get back in shape. And pray for no more injuries.

Speaking of this morning I had to really fight the urge to sleep in. I need a rest day and I think I might take one either Friday or Saturday. I need to keep this training going before my parents arrive this weekend. I am on track, but it was tough getting up this morning. Ava was up last night and I did not get to bed until after 10 pm.

I jumped in the pool. The pool was hot this morning which did not help matters. Chad was back in the pool doing some crazy monster workload of riding 20 miles, swimming 1400 yards, and then lifting. He is one mentally tough dude. I jumped in the lane with him. I had a tough workout to get in this morning.

I needed to know my race pace, but I was not sure what that was so I based my times on prior swim workouts.

Warm Up
200 yards mix it up - 100 free, 50 kick, 50 pull
4 x 50 scull, free - I did not have room to scull so I just did pulls for these sets working on rolling and form
4 x 75 build - I started at 1:10, 1:05, 1:00, :55 I was gassed by the last one

Main Set
4 x 200 @ Race Pace +15 - Like I said I did not know what my race pace should be so I aimed for 3:05. I was able to hit that mark all four times despite being tough. I just swam @ 4:00 so I had a little less than a minute rest which is a big rest, but allowed me to push on the 200's. I don't think I can swim this pace in a race, but it felt good to test my endurance at this pace for four sets.

4 x 100 @ Race Pace +15 - Like the 200's I swam at a faster rate than a "race pace" at 1:20. That was my target time for these 100's. By this point I had an entire lane to myself. I pushed hard on these and actually swam them right on time swimming 1:20 - 1:22. This only gave me a short break in the rest before going again. I swear I was sweating by the end between the swim and heat of the pool.

Cool Down
I finished up with 3 x 200 where I swam 100 with pull and 100 kick. It felt good to bring closure to this workout by working on form and really stretching. I was tired by the end.

2500 yards in 55 minutes and it was another great, but tough workout for me.

TRX tonight as I have not done any core or body work yet this week. Tomorrow back at it with the run.

Coming up in a day or two when I have some time I will be posting a post about appreciating what we have and not trying to get worked up over trivial stuff.......and yes I need to listen to my own words on this as I have not been in the mood to deal with trivial stuff lately. This weather needs to break to warm and sunshine to get everyone back on track to good vibes.

Happy Wednesday

Board of Inspiration 2.14.12

152 Days - Tuesday Run With Crazies

As you can see I was able to meet up with the Crazies this morning a for a great run. We had the luxury of running in some snow. Crazy to think we have only ran a few times in snow. Despite snow it was awesome running weather of about 31 degrees and no wind. We ran through some neighborhoods and tackled a few hills along the way.

Our mile progression really decreased nicely. We keep hitting the 7 minute mile range our last few runs and it does not seem too labored which is nice. It is great to see the 7:37 mile pace at the end as we tackled a long rolling hill. The hills still work me out and I always drop behind the group.

This morning we had Jane, Katie, Chad, and Brian to run with. It sure is easier running with people. I love the company.

I have completed part of my workout of the day so far. I need to jump on the bike tonight and hammer out some TRX.




My goal tonight is 20 miles. The plan that I am going after has me tackling 26 miles, but I don't think I am ready for that yet. I am hoping to get to 20 miles in about an hour. I am still going to ride in a high gear to keep my knee healthy so I will have to gauge things accordingly. I will try to keep the cadence above 90 while in the high gear. I have 20 minute strength endurance mixed in the workout which simply means riding in a low gear pushing my leg muscles. I don't know if I can do that yet or not with my knee. I will have to wait to find out. It will be a challenge to get myself on the bike after a long day of teaching and game at Davenport. It will be a late night getting home, then scrambling to find time with the kids before bed and then quickly heading to the bike. GETTING IT DONE! takes committment and you have to be able to stay disciplined. Now only if I could stay disciplined with eating I would be AWESOME, but all this darn tasty candy is killing me.

Weekly Recap of Training and Training Totals

Last week I ended up with the following stats

65.33 miles of total training
38.6 miles of bike
22.6 miles of road
4.37 miles of water (my biggest week to date)

8 hours of training
11 workouts (3 runs, 3 bike, 3 swim, 2 TRX)

My plan called for 6 hours of training so I was over, but I feel good at this workload of 8 hours.

My training totals since I started swimming for the first time and actually training starting the week of 11/28/11

542.39 miles of bike
217.46 miles of road
34.84 miles of water

Total 794.69 miles

309 miles in December 2011
403 miles in January 2012
69 miles so far in February 2012

One year ago I had a total of 57 miles in February and only a handful of miles the month before as I recovered from a stress fracture and lack of motivation. I am very happy with how far ahead I am in my training and overall fitness at this point in the year. I have major strides to make, but I have moved ahead faster and further than what I imagined.

Here are some possible times to join me and some other amazing people if you wish to join us.

Tuesday and Thursday - Meet at Bettendorf Y @ 4:55 for a 5 am run. 6 B4 6 is our motto so we will run at least 6 miles and not much more this week. Ideally I would like to get in 6.5 miles on both days to build aerobic base.

One day this weekend I will go out for a long run of 11 miles. I usually run with John and Rick who are training for Leadville. They run very early in the morning. Typically there is about 4-6 people who run. I am not sure on time and location yet, but I will let you know when the time is scheduled.

Board of Inspiration 2.13.12

153 Days - Monday Swim Workout 2700 yards

I really considered taking a rest today. I woke up tired. My right knee feels sore all around from the front to back and I am sore. I thought that maybe a day of rest would be good. However, I realized that maybe rest is not really going to solve these issues. A good swim workout is what I needed. I knew that if I started off the week resting I would continue down that path.

I have two goals for the week.

1. Eat clean and healthy - I must leave candy and junk food alone
2. Have another good week of training like last week and get this body back to normal

I headed to the pool for a tough swim workout. I started off with a regular warm up and my body felt like crud. It took the entire warm up to get my breathing normalized and the body loosened up for the main sets.

Warm Up
200 Free
200 Kick
200 Pull

I then decided to switch up the workout and go straight into the main set.

Main Set 1
4 sets of

• 200 yard swim with 20 RI
• 2 x 75 fast swim with 15 RI

This was a tough workout. Originally I had my eyes set on sets of 300, but realized that was not smart to jump to a larger swim volume at this stage of training. I am glad I did not do 300's because the 200's really gave me a challenge after swimming fast on the 75's.

I was gassed by the 4th round of this main set. I was able to keep all the 75's at or below 1 minute so I was happy with this. My 200's I don't know my time range, but I know I was consistent. Nothing special time wise as I just focused on good form and reaching while trying to balance my breathing after the 75's.

Main Set 2
Right after the first main set I went into the following

400 Kick - 100 easy, 200 fast, 100 easy
12 x 25 with 10 RI

My legs were tired by the end of the 400's. My legs were tired before I swam due to my long run yesterday. I really focused on fast, short kicks and holding a steady pace. I finished up with the 25 yard sets. These were to be done before the main set, but I added them to the end. I enjoyed this part of the workout. I swam every 30 seconds. This worked out perfect as I swam 20 seconds for each 25 with a 10 second rest. It was just the right level of a challenge to end a workout.

I did not do a cool down. I ended the workout there as my arms and legs were tired. This was a great workout for me to start the week. I ended up swimming 2700 yards in about 55 minutes.

154 Days - Long Sunday Solo Run

I had to fight hard to get outdoors this morning. When I checked the weather and it said 17 degrees but it felt like 2 degrees I knew right away it was going to be tough to get out and run. It is like forcing a little dog to go outside and poop when the snow is 16 inches deep - they know it is just not going to be a pleasurable experience.

I could have ran with John and Rick, but to be honest I did not feel like waking up early and Le Claire just did not have a good ring to it last night(sorry guys, hope you had a great run). I have been very tired this week so I decided to sleep in. I am grateful that Amanda is so great at letting me get my run in later in the morning which means she has to try and herd the cattle being outnumbered 3:1.

About 9:20 I made my way outdoors. It was great to run in the sunshine. I don't usually see the sun as I run when it is dark and while at school I don't see outdoors much. I was curious how the run was going to go.

- I was very sore from TRX, cycling, and just getting back to a regular week of training
-My knee is feeling better, but I sure have put it through a lot the last few days
-I have not ran long in quite some time

I have started the process of laying out my actual training plans and looking at short term and long term checkpoints. Being about 30 weeks out from my race I was able to figure out that I needed a good 10 mile run. I have hopes of racing well in 30 weeks. I have already decided that I don't just want to finish, but I want to push my body to see what I am made of. Reading up on several plans and analyzing my fitness and so forth I dialed my long run to be at 10 miles. It does not seem that long ago I was running 19 miles. I know that would not be wise with everything I have been dealing with.

I started out and the first thing I noticed was the wind. I put a few layers on, but not too much because I know how hot I get. I was cold at first. I started off strong with a 8:19 for the first mile. I was not paying attention to my watch or time, just focusing on my stride and making sure the run felt easy for me. I had no intended course so as the miles went on I started to read my watch more and more to make decisions about which roads to take. I did not want to run more than planned.

I kept a pretty good pace running the first 5 miles in 42:26 I believe. My goal was to run a negative split. I had a rough start to the back 5 as I had to tackle the monster hill of Middle Road. This about killed me.You can on mile 6 how much my time dropped mile pace wise. Running up the hill took it out of me and I had to really regather myself after the hill to keep running.

I read somewhere a while back that it is good to mix up the pace while running long. I have tried to run faster when I think I am getting tired. This seems to work for me. I picked up the pace after starting to have the negative thoughts enter my brain. I started to doubt running 10 miles and whether I could. I started focusing on the cold weather. I focused on this lady flying down the sidewalk in front of me. I had to dig deep at one point and decide to just run faster. I did just that and you can my miles splits from that point on really look good. I was able to run sub 8 minutes the final mile and it actually felt easy for me.

My knee hurt off and on during the run. Nothing real painful, but it was there from time to time. I also started to have pain on my right foot where I had issues training for a marathon last fall. I finally was able to find out it was tendinitis. I think these aches and pains were more from the cold weather than anything. I finished the 10 mile run 1:23 so I ran a negative split by knocking off about 90 seconds. I was happy with that results.

In many ways this was my hardest run in a while. I forgot about how hard it can be to run long while going at it solo. You don't have the company to distract you with conversation. You don't have a group to help push through the tough times. All you  have is yourself. As much as I did not want to run solo I am glad I did. I need to make sure I add some more solo runs into my training every couple weeks just to work on training my mind. While I race at Racine, I am going to have a long time with just  myself and my thoughts. I need to train my mind as much as my body. I could tell how weak I was mentally today when I was pondering quitting after only 5 miles and one hill in front of me. I have focused so much lately on the physical aspects of training, but my mind is going to be the key to everything - learning to block out pain, learning to dig deeper, learning to turn the brain off and go with my heart, learning to eliminate the negative banter, learning to GETTING IT DONE! when I am all alone on the bike course or run course. This was a very important run today for many reasons. I am glad things worked out the way they did because it will only help me with structuring my training to get me ready for my goal in 154 days.

Weekly totals coming soon as well my plans for training this week in case anyone wants to join. Have a great rest of the day.

GETTING IT DONE 2012

Going through my media files on my computer I came across this piece of video footage I took while on my bike in October. I think this was just my second time riding a bike since a kid and decided to shoot some video shots. Most of it was bad, but decided to play around with the video and create this short little 30 second video clip. Nothing special, but a great reminder to myself to keep pushing when things don't go the way you want. Adversity only makes us stronger.

155 Days - Saturday Bike Ride

Good day today. I was bummed I missed the 5 am run with Chad and Katie. For some reason my phone did not deliver the text until this evening. Not sure what the glitch was, but I missed out on the run and therefore have to dig up the motivation to get up tomorrow morning to run in the cold.

This afternoon Amanda and I took off on a little date. We had Anna come over to watch the kids. She is going to take care of them for most of the week over Spring Break while we head to warm weather and the beach with Amanda's family. It was nice to just eat a meal without rushing and entertaining three kids. Time was running short later tonight so tomorrow I am taking Aiden and Addy to the movies. After they headed off to bed I made my way to the basement to jump on my bike once again.

I had a 60 minute workout planned. Nothing too major, but just enough to get the legs back in shape and most importantly test out my knee. My goal was simple - keep the cadence above 90. Good thing there was a great game on to entertain me.

This was a hard ride. My butt was sore from the 30 minute ride last night and I was already fidgeting in my very uncomfortable bike seat from the start. I also started to have some knee pain about 15 minutes into the ride. I considered stopping, but just decided to keep riding. I think I am at that stage where I think about it too much. When you think about the pain too much I swear the brain creates pain that does not exist. When I got to the point of my butt hurting so bad from riding and I quit thinking about the knee it did not hurt. I felt good the last 1/3 of the ride. The knee is still far from being 100%, but it is slowly getting there.

What I am most amazed at is how quickly I lost any bike stamina and endurance the last few weeks. I feel like I am starting back at scratch and that is a terrible feeling. The good thing is that I have time. Plenty of time to get my bike training back on track. When I started out I thought the bike would be easy to incorporate. I greatly underestimated the bike.

In the end I was able to finish the 60 minute ride. It is all about building stamina and time on the bike right now and not about mileage. My mileage was low due to riding in a smaller gear. I tried to shift to the big gear and my knee starting spitting evil chants of pain. I had to really scale it back to ride.

I am happy with the workout. 19 miles with my cadence above 90. I just tell myself that a week ago I was not even thinking about the bike and now I am back to being able to sit in the saddle and ride. I have my work cut out for me, but that is what makes the journey so great.

I am off to bed and getting rested for another packed day of training and family time.