Name That Tune

Being immersed in triathlon this year and last, I can't help but associate things back to the sport or training. Today on the way to lunch it was a song, a snippet of which is below. I'm absolutely certain these guys weren't talking about triathlon, or anything remotely associated with physical fitness, but it made me think about tri-training none the less.

I used ta do a little but a little wouldn't do
So the little got more and more
I just keep tryin'ta get a little better
Said a little better than before

Gary, if you figure it out, I could use some music from these guys for the collection.

Good day to be a duck

One of my boss's favorite sayings, and I here at least twice a day whenever it happens to be wet, overcast, and cold.  Today is one of those days.  It rained some this morning, just enough to get everything wet, is completely overcast, and while certainly not cold, with highs supposedly pushing 40, it's still a good day to be a duck, apparently.

Spring fever has a firm grasp on me.  I absolutely dread looking forward at my training schedule.  This weeks long ride is scheduled for 2.5 hours.  I'm starting to hate the basement and riding on the trainer.  I pulled off 2 hours last week, not one second more.  I even showed G my watch.  Actually, almost all my rides end within about one second of the planned time.  No point over doing it.

Running, well running is running.  I've had some good ones and some less than ideal outings.  But I feel well ahead of last year at this point.  Which is really the nice thing about blogging and logging workouts, it's really easy to see where you were at last month, year, etc.  I look back very regularly. 

Point Bock Run is next week, looking forward to it, my initial goal was to break 45 minutes on the 5-mile route.  I think that's within reach, so I'll probably shoot for 42 or so.

March is going to be a focus on swimming month.  I know me, and I know when the air warms and the lakes are still to cold to swim in, i.e. April and may, I'm going to have a hard time getting in the pool.  So I declare March to be swim month.  Maybe I'll learn to swim like a duck.

Bloggers

Nobody has probably noticed, but I've added a bunch of new blogger links down and to the left. Now that we're getting into IM training, I'm looking more specifically for other bloggers heading down the same road I am. Specifically, those partaking in any Ironman for the first time in 2009, or anyone participating in IM Wisconsin in 2009.

The slower the better. I don't get much, if any, inspiration from you fast folk. But you slow folk out there, well, it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one.

So if you have a link I should add please drop me a note, I'll be happy to add it.

23 Minutes

Garden Expo was in town this weekend. Which for me meant sitting at a booth talking about compost for a good part of three days. Good thing is, Garden Expo is a sure sign that spring is around the corner.

Saturday morning I was able to sneak out of the expo and do my long run up in Madison. Was planning on doing an out and back, but by the time I got to my midway point I was so far downtown that I decided to loop through town and head back to the Expo on the bike path.

Sooooo, 40 or so minutes into my 1-hour run I find myself on what appears to be a course for a race of some sort. The first course marshall I came across confirmed that the frosty 5k was running that morning. The second set of course marshalls confirmed that I was in fact winning, which earned an uncharacteristic (for me) fist pump in the air.

Knowing that the actual leaders were somewhere back there made me kick it in for the last 20 minutes, just didn't want to lose my lead, and I didn't. My planned route back to the expo followed the actual race course back to within maybe a couple hundred yards of the finish line. Good run, if such a thing actually exists.

There was enough downtime at expo and while running this week that I started thinking about setting a running goal for the season. At some point today I decided to shoot for a 23-minute 5k. I have no reason to believe I can actually do it, but what the hell. I think 26:23 is my PR to date, and I've never run faster, at any distance. For whatever reason 23:30 seems attainable, 23 minutes seems crazy.

Losing It

I'm losing it, seriously. Last week it was the following series of posts from a discussion at beginner triathlete that had me laughing until I cried.

I wanted to bump that. Too many people train (for almost anything) by what Pro _____ does, or AG Guy #3, or their neighbors cat, etc. They figure it works for them, so it'll work for me. Doesn't always happen that way.
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I tried training the way the neighbor's cat did in my first year of triathlon, and it was an unmitigated disaster. I'd stand there for 5 minutes, wait until something scared me, go into an all-out sprint for 30 seconds, stand there, lick off the sweat, get spooked again, sprint, lick, stand, repeat. Eff that.
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I bet the swim was a nightmare for you - truly scary.
Did you feel compelled to take a dump every time you got on the beach and bury it?

Then this morning on our internal bulletin board at work I come across the following which almost brought me to tears laughing again. These reactions are not typical of me at all.

I am looking to buy a riding lawn mower in good condition. Respond to this ad or call xxx-xxxx.
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Do you care whether or not it has been taken off of any sweet jumps?

And therein lies the problem with anonymous message boards. We get responses like this to legitimate posts all the time.

Four weeks in and I guess I'm tired. And hungry, I'm always hungry, lunch at the Eagle Crest last week actually got me through an afternoon. Nothing else has. I am trying to eat better. I've pretty much eliminated soda and fast food, but when I do go out I try to make it worthwhile, opting for local haunts instead of chains.

Overall I'm feeling pretty good. Running feels like it is starting to come around, biking is hard to tell, being stuck in the basement still sucks, first day I see 50 degrees and I'm coming out (of the basement). Swimming is swimming, I really want to get back into open water, I don't like pool swimming. Three more months?

Three Down

Thirty-two to go, I think. Weeks that is. Training is coming along well, as far as I can tell anyway.

Swimming - I haven't been putting in nearly the yardage that I should be, at least according to the training plan. See, there is this point in every one of my swim workouts where I can feel my stroke completely fall apart. Now I'm no expert, but from everything I've read, swimming is much more about form then anything else. So when the forms goes, so do I. At this point I feel that continuing to swim with shitty form will do no good. I'm working on it and slowly building up the yardage.

Biking - The trainer still sucks. We have no tv in our basement so I'm limited to the laptop for entertainment. I've started watching season 1 of Weeds on Netflix. Netflix makes it bearable, but only barely, since I can only watch about 10-minutes at a time before it needs to reload. Most of my rides, with the exception of the first, have gone well. Yesterday was 1:45, which was really tough. I hope spring comes early, within the next 5 or six weeks I think my long ride is supposed to reach the 3-hour mark. Ouch.

Running - Still slow as dirt but the endurance is building. On a good day I can make it through a 45-minute run without a walk break. Today I was able to run on a balmy 30+ degree sunny morning. Not exactly shorts weather, but still a good 15 to 20 degrees warmer than anything I've run in recently. Could it be spring? One can only hope.

This week is a recovery week, which basically means my long run/bike doesn't get any longer. The oz-man is doing well. It'd be nice if he would figure out where to pee and what he can chew on, but it's only been a week. I forgot how much energy puppies can have.