The Drought Is Over

Today for the first time in almost 3 weeks I swam and did a 1,100 meters in just under 30 minutes. Its a slow time I know. My main set was 10x100 on 2:30. I was giving myself a 30-40 second rest in between sets because I wanted to calm down and just make sure I gave each set its own respect instead of slowly dropping time and form as I progressed.

Long before Hurricane Katrina hit shore I was planning on riding to work the next two days. Thats 30 miles round trip and then 40-50 planned on Sunday. Add that to my 10+ last night and I'll go over 100 miles this week easy. Because I have changed up my weekend routines I won't get a run of any distance over 10k until Monday so my weekly run average is going to look terrible. Its Wednesday night and I have only ran 3 miles. I would normally be around 12-15 by now.

But I can't complain, I will get in a lake swim Saturday and add...I don't know, 500 meters I guess. Have only done one non-pool swim this year so I am being careful.

Lack Of The Runs

A bit of play on words with the title. Nothing would make my day more than a good 3-5 mile run early in the morning Monday thru Friday. I feel like I am more awake and have a greater since of accomplishment.

A few months ago when I realized I was lactose intolerant I stopped taking in dairy. My body responded very positively and I am so glad that about that, especially not having to...ahh...move my bowels 8 time a day and having a constantly upset stomach.

Except now that my body is working more optimiumly, some mornings I can't move my bowels enough when I get up. When I go for a run I have to worry about cutting it short just to make it home and finish the job. Now instead of my 0430 runs being something I look forward too, I wake up wondering if today is the day I get a full distance in. Will anyone else fess up to this same problem? What did you do to solve it?

So I have a two part plan. First I am going stop running in the mornings and instead ride my bike. That means I need to figure out lighting but I have a small red light I can hook onto my back and a headlamp I can put on my helmet, I can use side roads with good bike lanes and light traffic. Second, I am going to try to train my body to do what it needs to do before I go to bed so that I don't have such a problem when I get up and get back to my running routine in the morning.

I am determined to get to the pool tonight. I have set my whole day around it.

Making Do

Swim Update: 19 days since my last swim. I keep reminding myself that since then I have had an upper respitory infection for and then cut off part of my finger. Tomorrow is masters swim and now that ASU is back in session it should be interesting. AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH. I just flipped over to the team webpage to check the weekly news (8/30/2005) and the pool is closed until further notice. Will this never end. Okay, deep meditative breath, I will stick to the plan and run at 0430 and swim at my club in the afternoon. I need to go there anyway.

Training Update: Tonight was a 30 minute ride going 10.80 miles. Still know word yet from the professional coach. Sent in a second request for membership information tonight. Set up a good training weekend with new found tri-friends. Saturday is a lake swim, Sunday 40-50 mile bike ride on the course we did last Sunday and then individually do a mid-run on Monday, ( I will probably go 8 miles).

Family Update: Mighty Mo is doing great, thank you for your comments. Mistress was itch free by the time she got home last night. However she wore a synthetic shirt to work and the desert sun warming the shirt reactivated the allergens and she had a two hour scratch session till the benadryl kicked in.

Drat This Swimming Thing

I don't normally go more than a few hours without the "Mo Update" from Mistress. Even though today is a 'doctor' day I still expected them to get out earlier than 3 hours or at least return my call. See, Mighty Mo had his all to frequent allergy/asthma check up today and Mistress decided to get retested on the 70 point allergy test since she had not had one since moving here almost 8 years ago. The prescriptions and shelf stuff (Claritan D)worked pretty good for a while but just wasn't cutting it anymore.

One of the reasons I am in the 35-39 age group with a 2 year old son is that Mistress was very concerned about having children. From ages 2-7 she was literally a girl-in-a-bubble. Her allergy's and asthma were so bad she had plastic walls and everything she touched was in sterilized plastic bags or made of rubber. She lived most days at Seattles Children Hospital. Back in the mid-1970 there was nowhere near the medical technology with these kinds of things. So a big hurdle for her having children, was to pass that down to a child. Which is exactly what happened.

Thankfully technology is a beautiful thing. Well Mighty Mo is doing better, if better is the same dose of singular and we double some other multi-syllable thing, but he's officially off the nebulizer unless he gets too out of hand and starts turning blue. Which can happen to any two year old who alternates between thinking he is a dinosaur and a puppy.

So as I was changing for my swim at 5:30 pm, Mistress calls to tell me she had a bad reaction to several of the tests and they kept her for a few hours until the recovery meds took affect and the swelling went away. Interesting test for allergy's. They mark your body up from 1-70 and then poke you with 70 different allergens. Anything bigger than one inch squared and your allergic. So if your really allergic to say Horse then you could have a massive rash develop, which is exactly what happened. She tested positive to 58 out of 70, some really bad. So after being released, she was stuck in traffic an hour away and I had to get Mighty Mo because my mom had an appointment, long story short no swim.

Am I cursed to not swim? I'll try again tomorrow.

It took 30 minutes of my life but I got the cycling workout uploaded. Still getting used to Gimp, which Chris was nice enough to shot my way. I forgot to start my watch until I went 70% through the first loop. If you double click on the chart it will expand for easier reading.

As I was staring at the ceiling yesterday afternoon, not in a coma just relaxing, it was really great to training with a group of like minded guys. Like I have said I normally do all my training solo but there is something to be said for having a network to train with. I look forward to hooking up with them again.

This is the last week of the month which means I have all kinds of closeout stuff going on. I have to unfortunately cancel the lake swim that this group does each Thursday afternoon. That kind of bums me out.

A Return To Water

The cooking cut, or more appropriately shave, I gave my finger last week has scabbed up enough I feel confident I can get back into a pool without giving anyone the wiggles. Including myself.

No run this morning, still recovering for a few more hours from training in record heat over the weekend. Thats why today is a good day to stay out of the sun, record heat forecasted today as well. I am sunburned, not badly, but enough that the sunlight stings and add a shirt and sweat and I just didn't want to go there.

So Saturday was an 8 mile run, Sunday a 40 mile bike and today probably 1,250-1500 in the pool.

Thar's Hills In This Here City

I feel as if I have been given the secret handshake to enter the mystical area of hills that the elite cyclists and triathletes in Phoenix use to hone their craft. After three slightly different loops and some very tough grades, (PCH or better Stu I ain't lyin') we all packed it in.

Actually the term would be bonked it in. This is a record heat weekend for the Valley and during our ride the temp's went through the roof. I think I mentioned once before that on the really bad days, its not so much the high, high temp.'s but the sting of the sun (UV I think). It just hurts to be in it. On one portion of the loop the city was laying new ashpalt so for a good three mile stretch it was hot black asphalt radiating the heat back up at us.

All drama aside I can't wait to tackle the ride again.

As it turns out the doctor who contacted me is not really a triathlon coach. Rather he is in fact a pretty cool guy who is just sort of a connector. He knows about 4-8 people depending on the event and day that get together to train. Very similiar to the O.C crew led by Kahuna. For now this is great. They do lake swims and long rides, runnings on your own unless it's a mutual race. Most of them are prepping for Ironman Arizona next April which is good pacing for my own training.

I still am waiting to hear from the professional triathlon coach to see about that route which would be my perferred as he is 18/18 with clients finishing an Ironman and taken hundreds through marathons and 1/2 IM on down. He has finished quite a few Ironmans himself, Kona included as an age grouper, non-lottery.

Drove the minivan today to grocery shop. I called tremendous attention to myself my not knowing how to turn off the car alarm. Yeah I'm that guy.