Back in the Pool - Still a bit Sore

After the three day weekend I decided that getting up early to ride the trainer wasn't really something I was looking forward to so I set the alarm for 7am and got some extra sleep. Tuesday evening was our first masters practice; it was great to be back in the pool after such a long break. We're planning on going two or three times a week for the next few weeks and then maybe increase to four times a week in the summer. Well, that's my plan at least. Jen may have a bit of a different plan for her Ironman but I'm sure that no matter what we will be putting in some yardage this year.

Tuesday swim - 1,850 yards

Wednesday morning I got up and climbed on the trainer for 40 minutes. I watched a new episode of Knight Rider to pass the time. I am really looking forward to the longer days so I can get outside to ride more often. Right now it's 5:25 and just about dark. Anyway - Wednesday night I went for a quick run after work before meeting up with Jen and the Portland blogging crew for a few drinks up at The Blue Moon in NW. On the way home we grabbed some dinner at Laughing Planet and made it back just in time to catch the season premiere of LOST. It is such a good show and if you watch it then I know you know what I mean; if you don't watch it then I know you don't know what I mean and you wonder why everyone makes such a big deal about a confusing show. Well, I understand how you feel but it really is really, really, good. Anyway, I digress.

Wednesday trainer ride - 40 minutes
Wednesday evening run - 6 mi w/ four .5 mile tempo repeats - 44:13, 7:22 AP, .5 mi tempo intervals: 3:24, 3:24, 3:16, 3:11

Thursday morning I had every intention of getting up for an hour ride on the trainer but I was really tired so I decided to sleep in again. Jen was meeting Emily for happy hour which meant we wouldn't be going swimming so I decided I would make up for my missed ride in the evening. Turns out that happy hour sounded much better than a trainer ride when I was walking home, so I ended up at the bar with Jen and Emily.

Friday morning I was up early for some strength training before work. That evening I went for an easy four miles after work and made it home in time to take a shower and have some Chicken Tortilla soup that Jen made. It was really good, especially after a cold run.

Friday - 4 miles - 31:15

Today (Saturday) I got up and watched some TV, ate breakfast, and slowly got ready for my ten miler. Once I was out the door I settled into a nice groove and warmed up after about a mile. The muscles on the right side of the lower part of the front of my right leg got tight around mile two but by mile four they had loosened up a bit and weren't bothering me anymore. I kept the miles pretty even for the most part but did speed up in the last three miles. Jen rode her bike along with me and was able to get some good pictures as we rode/ran along.

Saturday run - ten miles - 1:21:20







Tomorrow Jen and Emily are running the Vancouver Lake Half Marathon which is in Vancouver at Vancouver Lake. When they signed up I thought it might be more fun to watch Jen run and get some pictures. Besides, it's been pretty cold out there and a jacket and warm cup of coffee always make spectating fun. I think Jen is going to have a good day because she hasn't put much pressure on herself for this race. Stay tuned for her race report coming tomorrow afternoon to a blog near you.

Sunny Skies

This past week we have been treated to some sunny skies in Portland and it has been great. Everyone keeps saying that this is not normal winter weather for Oregon but since we just moved here in August this is normal for me and it's what I will base all future years on when making a comparison. The clear skies have made for some nice views from the office:

Friday evening we went over to have a couple of drinks with some friends and have a bike maintenance clinic to learn how to change breaks - it was cool to see and answered a few questions I had about the process and brakes in general. I made some cupcakes to take over and they turned out pretty well:



Saturday we slept in the after breakfast headed out for a ten mile run (1:27:28). We were thinking about driving somewhere for our run but decided to run close to home since we needed to go look at computers after our run. Friday afternoon our old computer decided that it was no longer going to cooperate with it's human masters and refused to load the operating software. To make matters worse the computer refused to respond to keyboard commands. So Saturday we headed down to Fry's and picked up a new laptop. It has twice the memory of our old computer, is faster, and takes up way less room. This is the first laptop I've owned and it's pretty freakin sweet. Jen has wanted to get one for a while now so she really loves it. The wireless internet is pretty nice as well.

Sunday we headed out to the coast to visit some friends and go to the beach for a hike. We ended up going for a hike to take a tour of our friend's property and hanging out for longer than we thought we would (which really wasn't a surprise)
We made it to the beach for sunset before heading back to Portland:





Today (Monday) we went out to Beaverton to run some errands and stopped by the pool to pay our fees so we can start going to masters tomorrow night. I'm only planning on going a couple nights a week for the next few weeks then plan on going three times a week starting in March. After signing up we took off for a short four mile run on a trail near the pool. Total time for today: 32:18.

Back to work tomorrow and back into the pool!

Dirty Riding

This weekend Jen and I got out for a nice ten mile run on Saturday and then rode ten miles in Forest Park on Sunday.

Saturday morning we woke up to a balmy 36 downtown so we knew it would be at least that cold along the river where we planned on running. I wore tights, shorts, and a long sleeve shirt and I was still pretty cold for the first couple of miles. I brought gloves with me too but didn't end up wearing them. We ran a nice pace for the entire run and ended up with an 8:25 AP.

Sunday we slept in a bit then decided to go for a bike ride in Forest Park before meeting some friends for brunch downtown. Our plan was to ride right to the restaurant to meet them but it didn't quite work out that way. We only rode a couple of miles into the park but by the time we got back to paved roads we were covered in mud. We decided that the restaurant most likely wouldn't like us in (or allow us in) when we were caked in mud so we decided to stop by our place first and change our clothes and wash the mud out of our hair.




Totals for the week: 24 miles of running; 10 mtb miles, and 85 minutes on the trainer

Random Post

Getting back into the swing of training - slowly. This week and a couple days last week I got out of bed a little after six to do some strength training or ride the trainer. I figure this will be good conditioning for me (the getting up part) so when I have to start waking up at 5:00 or 5:15 or whatever it's not as painful.

Monday I got up for some am strength training then ran four easy miles after work (8:13 AP)

Tuesday I was up around 6:15 for 40 minutes on the trainer - don't know my mph because I still need to move the speedometer to the back tire

This morning I got up again for strength training then ran six miles after work (8:10 AP)

My plan is to get in some good base miles over the next couple of weeks then start to ramp up my running along with my swimming before my full tri training starts in March. Jen and I are going to start going to masters in the middle of January. I'm looking forward to getting back in the pool while at the same time dreading the dead arms that I know will come with it for the fist couple of weeks.

Today I had one of those moments when you realize that something has changed in your surroundings. I walked outside to catch the bus after work and noticed that it was still light outside. Even though it was just barely light I thought I remembered it being dark just a few days ago. Spring is definitely on it's way and I for one can't wait.

Last night when we were hanging out we added up our miles for 2008:

Swim: 131,900 yards or 82.44 miles
Bike: 939.2 miles of riding and 10.5 hours on the trainer
Run: 1,080.15 miles (and 23.1 miles of post-surgery walking)

I was pleased with my totals but one thing that really stood out was my swing in monthly swim totals - my lowest was 500 yards, my highest 42,000 - so yeah, not the most consistent swimming last year but hopefully that will change in 2009.

Muddy River

Turns out my previous post was the last of 2008 instead of second to last - oh well, what can you do?

Wednesday I got off work early and headed home to get in four miles before heading out to enjoy some drinks and dinner with some friends. I pushed it a bit on the run but tried not to run "too hard" - ended up with an AP of 7:45.

After we got home (Jen rode her bike along with me as I ran) we got ready and had a couple of drinks before walking over to our friend's place. I also baked some cookies to take with us:

Me trying to climb the blue route at the NYE party - turns out it wasn't that easy:


Climbing the much easier orange route:

2009!

The recent rains have really filled the river up with logs, logs, and more logs; as well as some tires and other crap:

Great Blue Heron enjoying a nice mid day nap:

Portland Fire Department removing log jams from the bridge supports:

Me and the cutie:

Today we got out for eight hilly miles which was a lot of fun but pretty tough - AP was 8:43, last mile 7:31.

Happy 2009!!!