Great Week

Any time I get to log 20+ miles, I think its a good week. Last week, I got 21 miles in with a 4 mile run on Tuesday, a 4 mile run on Wednesday plus 1 mile of 1 minute intervals, a 9 mile run on Saturday with RRR-GF, and 3miles on Sunday as a start to my triathlon training.

For my first triathlon training, I rode my bike 10 miles, then followed it with at 3.5 mile run. I did pretty well (I think) thought the workout. At first, I thought I was riding into the wind on my way out. After 5 miles I turned around and realized I wasn't riding into the wind. The wind wasn't too strong though so it wasn't much tougher riding back. I got home, hopped off my bike and started running. My legs felt like jelly, but I was running pretty fast. It took me a mile to get my legs under me, but that ok as my legs were flying when I didn't quite have control. It was a lot of fun though. I was wearing my triathlon shorts I got so I got a few weird looks, but I didn't mind. It should be fun to keep training towards this triathlon.

Trying new things

Within the last two days, I received emails about 2 events that are completely different than anything I've done before.

The first was about an adventure race held at a local state park about 30 miles from my house. The event basically says bring a bike, a helmet, a compass, and a marker and we'll tell you the rest of the details once you get here. You race in teams of 2 or 3 so I am going to check with a few people on Saturday to see if they would be interested.

The second was a 12 person race from Winona, MN to Minneapolis. Each person runs 3 legs of this 193 mile run. The legs vary in length but you get breaks between legs. Again, it would be fun to get RRR GF friends to go down and compete in this race. Hopefully I can get enough people to give it a try.

Trying to Get Back at It.

Its been awhile since I've had a chance to sit down and blog. Running has been hit and miss for the last couple months with Elsa in my life. I enjoying being a dad a great deal. Sometimes spending time with Elsa takes priority over running. I am still trying to get a few runs in each week, but I don't think I am going to set any PRs this year as training isn't consistent. I am usually pretty good on the weekend, but am still struggling to get up early in the morning to run.

I have signed up for a couple races this year. I am going to run the Sour Grapes Half Marathon and the Granitman Triathlon. This will be my first triathlon so I am going to have to do a lot of swimming practice to get ready for that. My wife went back to work so we are getting up earlier in the morning too. Hopefully this will get me going when I can run in the morning.

Feeling Great at Eight Below

It was eight below tonight. There was no wind though, so it was a good night to get out. I felt great on my 5.85 mile run. I started the first two miles averaging 7:33 per mile. I slowed a bit the next two miles at 7:49 average per mile; my last 1.85 miles was strong as I kept the pace and averaged 7:48 per mile average. It was a nice feeling when I got done to see I was averaging below 8:00 miles again. I am hoping to get in 3 or 4 runs a week in. If I can keep this pace up, I think I can hit some PRs this spring and summer. I uploaded a couple pictures I took after my run. The picture above shows my breath. Unfortunately I closed my eyes on all the pictures where I had the flash on. The picture below shows me with the flash off, eyes open.

Baby!!

On 1/18/09 at 1:03 pm I became a dad. Emily gave birth to Elsa Jane, who was 8lbs 1.4oz and 20.5 inches long. The first week and few days has been awesome. Grandma Jane has stayed with us and helped out a lot, which gives me plenty of time to hold Elsa. My training has declined quite a bit, but I'll get back to that once I get into the grove of being a dad. There will be some schedule adjustments, but for now, I am just enjoying a lot of time with my new daughter. I am hoping by the time spring comes around, she will be strong enough to be able to ride in a running stroller so I can show her how much fun it is to explore the world by running.

In other big news, our basketball team finally won a game last night. We beat the other team by 27 points. It was fun to crush a team instead of getting crushed each week.

Squeezing in Runs

Yesterday, I knew I wanted to squeeze in a run sometime during the day although I had a lot of other things to accomplish. I wasn't particularly excited about the run though. I really struggled throughout the 7 miler. As I think back a little bit, I might have stumbled on the reason behind most of my bad runs. Whenever I feel like I have to get a run in just because my training schedule says I have to, the run doesn't go very well. However, whenever I am excited to complete my run, I do much better. This is probably why my evening runs feel so much better than my morning runs. At the end of the day, I am sick of sitting in front of a computer and just want to get out and go.

Fun in the Snow

RRR-GF got out for a run tonight for the first time in quite awhile. It was fun to see everyone again. Almost everyone was excited to start training for Fargo Marathon. While our actual training doesn't start for a couple weeks, everyone sounded ready to go. It is great to have a group of people who are there to encourage each other and push each other to do their best.

The group went for a 6 mile run. The weather was pretty nice out tonight with very little wind. The temp was around 7 to 10 degrees so it was quite nice compared to the past week. There was a lot of packed snow on the route, but Stacy provided get-a-grips to those who wanted to use them. The trail shoes I recently purchased continue to do a great job gripping snow. Another challenge was snow pile hurdles at most of the intersections. Most people didn't enjoy jumping over the snow piles but I thought it was kind of fun. My run went pretty well. I finished the 6.1 route in 47:30 or about a 7:48 pace. I was pretty happy with that.

I am looking to make up some mileage this week as my New Years didn't start too well. I caught a stomach flu on January 2nd so it took a few days for me to recover. However, I felt really good tonight so I am going to push forward with my 2010 training goals. I got 6 miles down. I only have 994 to go to get 1,000. If I average about 20 miles per week, I'll make it.