Fall weekend of training

Finally cooling down in Encinitas, and feeling a little fall like. I'm enjoying the drop in temps, but looks like we have a Santa Ana on tap for tomorrow. Maybe some surfing is in order.

Saturday was a 2200M swim at the Y. Nothing spectacular for pace: 1:49 / 100M, but good enough. The water was insanely hot though. Afterwards, asked another swimmer if he thought so, and he told me the family pool is out of commission so they bumped the temp up in the lap pool. I hope it's fixed soon, I was really over-heating, even at that moderate pace, and felt pretty dizzy from it.

Today was my return to the half marathon distance on my usual route (2 loops). First loop felt great, being a nice, cool, breezy day. When I got back to my house to start the 2nd loop, I skipped the banana that I left at my gate, and just grabbed my water. BIG MISTAKE. By the time I was making the turn at the Solana Beach sign, I was beginning to bonk big time. My pace was dropping, even though my HR was at a mere 160BPM. The remainder of the run was just survival and suffering for lack of energy. I told myself that there would be no walking, and stuck to it, but I've never been so glad to be done as when I got home again.

13.1 miles, 1:59:34, avg pace 9:08 min / mile :-(

On the plus side:
- I turned my fastest 3 mi distance ever for me, 21:38, or an average pace of 7:13/mi
- I got a good full distance test of my shoes (worked great)
- and got to plot everything (as sad as the times are) using my new Garmin 305 (it rocks)

Mission Bay Triathlon

Sunday was the Mission Bay Triathlon. Lots of triathletes, lots of fun, and a great end of the 2008 triathlon season for me and my dad, who started and finished here for this, our first season of doing triathlon.

This was my first race back since spraining my ankle, and the ankle, and my body on the whole, felt great. I finished 28th of 95 in my age group, and dad finished 2nd.

The swim course was nice because it was straight, and broad, so no issues with sighting, and plenty of room for everyone to swim at their own pace.

Bike course was very flat, with lots of sharp turns through Sea World, along with some water in that parking lot, but overall it was a great course because the pavement is so smooth along the whole way that the wheels were just humming across it. Once on the major portion of the course, past Sea World, and around Fiesta Island, there was plenty of room to pass, so I could just focus on hammering as hard as I could.

The run course was just plain fun and scenic, and a great crowd along the whole finish.

Here's some pics of me and my dad:




Here's Bill Haines, my dad, and Gerry Forman (1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in their AG).

Nearing the end of triathlon season

Getting back into training again after being down with my ankle injury. Some bike rides into work this week and also had a fabulous prior weekend with my wonderful daughter, and as a bonus there was head high, uncrowded surf at the campout.




This Sunday I've got the Mission Bay triathlon, for which I'm not really going to do well for lack of training, but my awesome dad, at 71, and who is putting me to shame with all of his training, will likely win it for his age group, and may podium for the KOZ series even though he will have only done 3 races.



Also, check out these two amazing people, who are just going to kill it this weekend. One in Tahoe, and the other at Mission Bay with me and dad: James Walsh and Beth

Also gonna try to squeeze in the MiraMar Airshow this weekend with the kids.

On the run again

First run after recovering from my ankle sprain. Ran one loop of my usual route. Started out slowly and really focused on taking it easy on my body, trying to run smoothly, and avoiding any compensation. A little pain at times, but only when I wasn't focused on my stride, so that reminded me to pay attention, which was good. So great to be running again! What a beautiful morning in Encinitas, and Cardiff. Roxy Jam was going on, weather and air were perfect, and I was so glad to be back training again. I did splits on my watch, but since it was my first day back, I didn't get too depressed when I saw the times. Mostly I just was trying to gauge how long it would take me to get back to pushing it. Of that I'm not certain, but for now, pure joy to be back. The only downside came while sprinting back across 101 at Cardiff campgrounds to make the light, and avoid stopping. I twanged my foot a little - jumping / sprinting should not have been in my repertoire. I feel that a little right now, but nothing big.

6.55 mi, 56 min 22 sec
8 min 36 sec / mi

Also, I finally got a decent test of my new shoes. I was trying them out the day I got injured, but since it was only two miles before I got hurt, I wasn't certain how the shoes were. Well today after 6.5 miles, I can say they felt great. Big thanks to the guys at the San Diego Running Institute for helping select them. If you haven't been there for running shoes, you should. They measure your foot in the usual way, plus other ways that no other store has done for me: arch height, take pressure images of your foot strike, etc. After this, they select shoes that are targeted to your foot type. It seems to have worked for me, because these new shoes, Asics GT 2720s feel much better than my fairly new Nike Air Pegasus.

Finally on the mend

Got off the crutches on Tuesday of last week. Hobbled around for 3 days trying to heel strike, and push off on the ball of my lame foot. By Friday, I was still limping, but could get around OK which was good, because my son and I had a campout scheduled at Indian Hills. At the last minute, as I was loading Max's bike onto the truck, I decided to load my mountain bike and just see how it would go.

Indian Hills has tons of great stuff for Max and the boys of his tribe. Archery, ziplines, paintball range, a huge playset with towers to climb, rope ladders, slides, and a huge rope swing, two pools (one had two slides), animals,



and lastly, Max's and my favorite...

the BMX Bike Track.

This thing rocked. The boys had such a great time on that track, and I did too - was like a kid again.

I started off super-slowly and carefully, trying to avoid re-injuring my still swollen, and painful left ankle. Saturday I ramped it up more and more, until I was charging it. Sunday was just excellent - completely in my groove, and having a great time watching Max and the other kids get the track dialed in.

I don't think I'm ready to run yet, but at least I know I can bike - yeeeehaaah!

Note to self: Don't run in the dark!

Started out on my usual half-marathon run this morning at 4:30AM, my usual time in order finish, shower, and make it to work.

Right at the Cardiff campgrounds, where it's dark as night, no lights, and on the blacktop, I stepped on the invisible torn up root of a bush right in the middle of the running/walking path, and proceeded to crumple with a marvelous twist of my left ankle, and then landed on my right knee.

Sat and cursed a lot thinking about all the training I just lost with that foolish choice to run without a headlamp. I'm sure the poor beach campers were none too happy about being awoken to a stream of expletives.

Had to take off the shoe, and hobble/limp the 2 miles back home. Took forever, and it was pretty painful, but mostly just depressing. I didn't have a cell phone with me but it really didn't matter since Nadine would have had to roust the kids into the car at o-dark-thirty just to get me.

Anyway, I'm super-bummed. Not sure if I'll be able to do the Gatorman 3 Mile swim event this weekend, and the Orange County International triathlon is very questionable.

I just can't believe how much fitness I'm losing by this injury, and how much it will take to get back to where I was this morning.

After the docs office, I saw a friend who had been to see my kid's doctor. The kids doc had fallen running as well, and had broken both arms. I guess I should count my blessings.

The culprit (above) .... AND the aftermath

45 mi coast ride

Yesterday was a fabulous beach bike ride with the family, followed by a great beach day at Beacons with some friends, and their family.

Had a beautiful ride this morning. Well rested, got on the road by about 6:30 and headed out to an empty PCH. Up the Torrey hill, back down into La Jolla shores, over to LJ Cove, past Windansea, Birdrock, PB and down to the jetty at South Mission Beach. Return ride was still pretty uncrowded, but coming back through Del Mar saw a lot of cyclists heading out for their rides. Passing Del Mar Dog Beach, I saw my usual volleyball crew (TARPP) getting the rules briefing for the annual King/Queen of the Beach tournament. They all looked pretty focused listening, so I guess Eric must've been giving out the rules/regs of the tourney, and the team pairings. I skipped this event this year because last year I hurt my wimpy back by diving too much while trying to make it out of the quarter finals and into the semis, and also discovered the next day that I had an unbelievable amount of blisters (on top of blisters) which took almost 2 weeks to heal all the way. But the back injury began the injury spiral took me down for the better part of 8 months. Glad I'm finally healthy and getting fit again.

Off to the beach with the family again today, with another group of friends and their kids.