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.