77 days and $1485 to go!

This has been a good week. I've been looking forward all week to my brother's century (100 mile) ride, which was Saturday. But, I'll tell you about that later.

The training week started for me, as usual, on tuesday with a three mile run from home, looping through the park and returning home. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet some of my TNT team members so I joined a training ride that evening in Chagrin Falls. I flatted about a mile into the ride but we still completed about 24 miles, one mile short of the olympic distance ride. I met two of my TNT members and enjoyed a cold drink with them at the local pub after the ride.

The next two days, I ran five then three miles. I'm feeling rather sluggish on the runs, so I discussed that with one of my friends, who just completed her first iron man. Awesome! She suggested that I plan a one mile easy warmup to let my muscles ease into the run. I'll try that this week when I run.

I have a second road bike that I use on the long rides with my brother. It has a rack for saddlebags and works well for touring. I haven't ridden it for a while so I checked it on thursday only to discover that the rear tire was flat. So, I went to the bike store and bought four tubes, four patch kits, chain lube, and bike cleaner. After replacing the rear tube and giving my bike a quick cleaning I judged that I was ready to go.

Saturday, the day of the century ride, in Cincinnati was sunny and clear with temperatures rising into the 90s during the day. Seven people started the ride. Two people, my brother and I, finished. The secret for me was making sure I had plenty to eat and drink during the ride. I started with a big bag of trail mix and three full water bottles. I grabbed a handfull or two of trail mix each time we stopped and sipped water every few minutes. Breakfast was a three egg omelet with a side of bacon and the biggest glass of orange juice I've ever seen. Lunch was a bowl of beef barley soup and a spinach salad.

My legs felt good after the ride but I was pretty wiped out. I'm still smiling, though, as you can see from the picture. But, I took the next two days off. Back to running tomorrow. :)

84 days and $1485 to go!

I sprained my foot this week. Actually, that's the good news. I first thought it might be a stress fracture. But, it appears to be easing. The pain and swelling are on the top of my left foot, just behind the toes. This set me back on the training a little, but I am going to come back strong.

I did get in three good runs this week. My foot actually didn't hurt too much on the runs. It seemed to gradually increase in pain and swelling as the day wore on. So, on the days that I ran, it loosened up quickly on the early morning run being pretty much pain free for most of the run. That's the strange part about this injury, it didn't hurt much during the run but gradually got worse during the day.

Tuesday and Thursday were three mile runs. Wednesday was a five mile run. I missed the planned 10 mile run scheduled for Saturday because I decided to give my left foot a chance to heal. Instead, I celebrated Father's day with three of my four children and all four grandchildren by having a breakfast picnic in the park near our house. It's always a special treat when the family can be together.

91 days and $1565 to go!

I started this past week with a 3 mile run on Tuesday. Remember, according to my marathon training schedule, Monday is always a "rest" day. After I ran, I received an email from my TNT coach for the Nation's Triathlon asking if anyone on the team was interested in a 6PM bike ride starting in North Chagrin Reservation. I thought this might be a good opportunity to meet some of my team mates, so I emailed back that I would be happy to join. Biking is not on my schedule right now but I thought, "What the heck!"

Well, I met up with the group that was planning to ride. None of the TNT people showed up, so it was the coach, 3 other people from the Cleveland Triathlon Club and me. In other words, 4 - 20 or 30 somethings, and me! Well, I ended up chasing the other 4 for about 38 miles up hill and down dale on my bike for a rather gruelling couple of hours. Actually, they spent a good deal of their time waiting for me to catch up with them. One very nice young woman who was on a "rest" day in her training schedule spent much of the ride keeping me company in the back of the pack. Don't get me wrong, there were moments when I was able to charge ahead for brief periods of time, but I was definitely outclassed.

This was a very nice group of people, and I did have a good time, getting together with them at a nearby bar after the run. Anyway, back to the ride. I was able to more or less hold my own for about the first 30 miles before I really ran into trouble. I found myself completely out of energy and barely able to pedal. I was talking to the coach about "collapsing" on the side of the road and waiting for him to come back in his car and pick me up. It was that bad! Instead, he gave me a power bar and asked me to hang in there for a little while longer. I don't know what was in that power bar, but 2 or 3 minutes after finishing it, I found myself amazingly re-energized and planning to finish the ride with the rest of the group (who were doing just fine).

I ran into trouble once more as I started up the final hill back into the park. Both quads suddenly developed a charley-horse. Both! I didn't know what else to do, so I hopped off the bike. Bad move! Very bad move! At least when I am on the bike my legs are bent most of the time. When I try to walk, my legs are mostly straight and that's when the very painful charley-horse kicks in. Note to self: Stay on the bike when fighting a charley-horse! So, I hobbled along for awhile until my coach came back and gave me a bottle of his water. I made plans with him to come back with the car and pick me up thinking that this time I was really "done-for". He rode on ahead. Amazingly, after downing the water in a couple of minutes the charley-horse eased up. I quickly hopped back on the bike and rode the rest of the way up the hill. Sometime after reaching the top of the hill, I passed my coach in his car going in the other direction and cheering me on and finished the ride.

Seems I still have a lot to learn about nutrition, electrolyte replacement, and hydration for these long runs. And, this is just the group from which to learn it. I took the next day off, ran about 3 miles on Thursday, and about 9 miles today. All in all a good week. Now I'm shopping for salt pills and power bars!

97 days and $1835 to go!

This weeks training was uneventful. Monday and Tuesday I was traveling. Home from Las Vegas on Monday and down to Florda on Tuesday. So, I had no time to train at all on those two days. My first run this week was on Wednesday. The three miles went easily after several days rest. A four mile run on Thursday and another three mile run on Friday finished out the weekday training. So far the gradual build-up in the mileage appears to be giving my leg muscles time to acclimate to the running. There is little sign of the leg cramps that plagued me off and on last year. My back also seems to be doing quite well. That's good news for my training.

Yesterday, after three straight days of running, I switched to my bike for a little cross-training. The weather has been perfect this weekend for training. A tem mile ride took me from home to Mentor Beach State Park. I love riding the path near the beach. It's really a beautiful place. When it warms up a little more, I can do some open water swimming there as well. A headwind on the return trip made for slightly slower going, but a really good workout. This morning I finished the week's workout with a five mile run.

Next week, I should be able to stick closely to the scheduled runs. The plan is to step up the distance of the longest run to nine miles. I'm still thinking adding about a possible marathon (the Akron Road Runner Marathon) after the Nation's Triathlon in September. But, I still have a lot of work to do.

104 days and $1835 to go!

I can't tell you what I did over the weekend because I was in Vegas (for business, not pleasure) and we all know that "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". :)

In any case, I wasn't able to train at all from saturday through today. I knew that was coming. So, I shifted my schedule to complete the weeks running by friday. It worked out very well and I was able to finish the four scheduled runs, including a 7 miler on friday, with a little yoga thrown in for good measure. Monday, tuesday, and wednesday were each 3 mile days according to the plan. Thursday was a rest day. So, I did a 20 minute yoga routine but no running. On friday, my 7 mile run went very smoothly. My right calf stiffened a little about 4 miles into the run, but it loosened up a little while after that and I finished the run without further incident. I am very happy to report that I am having no problems with my back these days. That's a wonderful feeling!

I will tell about one thing that happened in Vegas. I met a young lady who is an ultra-endurance athlete. My hero! :) She has competed in "double" ironman races. Yes, that would be a 4.8 mile swim, 256 mile bike, and a 52.4 mile run - an over 30 hour effort! She is currently training for the bicycle "Race Across America". All that, and she's smart too!

I'm looking forward to running in Florida this week. It is a relatively easy week with two 3, one 4, and one 5 mile runs.