Weekend and Injury Report

I will start with the weekend. We really didn't do to much over the weekend. On Saturday we went up to Boston and went to the Museum of Science. I haven't been there in years, probably since High School. I knew Brady would have a good time and he did. He loved the big dinosaurs and all of the other interactive things they had there. I wanted to see the lightning show, but I thought it would be to loud for the kids. In all it was really fun! We wanted to hit Chinatown and go to Kim's favorite restaurant, Grand Chow Chow, but the kids look like they really needed a nap and Reese practically fell asleep before we even left the parking garage. That was probably the highlight of the weekend. Next weekend will be a different story. We have Kim's birthday and we also get to watch the Patriots win their 4th Superbowl! Sorry Giant fans, your team will not win this one. Better luck next time.

As for my left ankle. I went to the Y today and did a 10 min test run on the treadmill and everything seemed fine. There was no pain so I am very happy about that. After my run I jumped on the stationary bike for a quick 15 min ride and then jumped in the pool for 1200 meters. I will test out my ankle again on Wednesday. The temps will be in the mid 40's on Wednesday, so I will take a short run outside.

Happy Monday!!!!

Sharing the Lane

I went to the Y today to get some laps done since I have been slacking lately. I walk in and check out the pool. Only 1 person in the lap lane, cool. So I jump in and start doing my warm up laps. Oh yeah, the adult swim excersise class started the same time I did, so I had to deal with the strong "Lap Lane Current" or LLC again. It seemed a bit stronger then normal. I guess they had more people in the group today. Anyways, I am doing my laps when a 3rd person joins the lane. Ok I can do circles. So I try to stay kinda fast with my laps since I couldn't look slow. Just as I started to do my last set of drills, 2 more people join the swim. Ok has anyone shared 1 lane with 5 people before??? This was totally new to me. But I did get the chance to feel what a draft felt like. Pretty cool. I skipped the kick board drill and added another 100 to my pull drill. It was very interesting to say the least. Total Swim today: 1200 meters.

Mystery Injury

I know I mentioned in my last post that my ankle was feeling better, well its not. I am getting worried that I might have really messed something up so I will be looking to a find a local Doc to take a look at it. I have looked on tons of differant websites and I can not pinpoint what is going on. From reading it doesn't sound like Achilles tendonitis or Plantar fasciitis. I can walk for about 5 mins before it starts to hurt, then I would move my foot around a bit walk for another 1 min and the pain would go away. Tell me thats not crazy. I guess I will have to leave this one to the Professionals.

I have really be slacking lately becuase of my foot. I know it is ok to swim and it the weights, but I guess I am just being over cautious. So tomorrow I plan on getting some laps done in the pool.

Have a great Tuesday!

Update and Stuff

I woke up this morning feeling better then I have in a couple of days. I have been dealing with a cold that just won't go away. On top of that, I must have slept wrong a couple of nights ago and I woke up with a very sore back. Also I have been dealing with this foot/ankle/tendon pain for the past 4 or 5 days. But I am happy to report that my back is feeling better, the cold is gone and my ankle/foot/tendon is feeling much better. I still plan on taking it easy on my foot and not run for a few more days. I will probably test it out this weekend sometime.

Onto the swim today. Since I am a beginner swimmer, I don't know if I am should stretch before I jump in the pool. I do stretch my arms, shoulders and back alittle, but thats it. Should I do more? There is this one guy in the pool that all I see him do is swing his arms around and hit them against his legs. Apperantly he is the master swim coach for the Y so I guess he knows what he is doing. So I jump in the pool today and I had the lane to myself, oh wait here comes another swimmer, guess I'll have to share. At this time of the day, around 10:30 AM there is 1 lap lane, 1 swim excersise area and an open swim area. At 10:30 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday there is an older adult excersise class in one of the open areas. Today there was probably 18 people in the class. I started to do my warmup 50's and the class started their warmup group circle walk. Well let me tell you, that if you want to practice swimming in currents, come swim at 10:30 at the Y in Wakefield, RI. When they start walking in the circle, it creates a whirlpool effect in the entire pool. So for instance my first 25 meters down was really fast and then on the way back, at a certain point it felt like I wasn't going anywhere. The swimmer sharing the lane with me noticed the same thing and I told her it only lasts about 5 minutes. I was done with my warmup laps and decided to hold off on my drills until after the water calmed down a little. The one cool thing about swimming during the class time is the the instructor has music going which is great to listen too while doing a long set.

The whole swimming thing is getting better every time I swim. I was reading Ironmin's blog yesterday and she scheduled tests this week in all 3 sports to set benchmarks for herself and to look back months from now and see how much she has improved. Well I decided to do the same thing but only for swimming today. I figured I would set a mark for 250 meters since thats about the distance for the 8th Annual Triathlon by the Sea swim, time - 5mins 35 secs. I think I left myself some room for improvement. That is really slow compared to some of the times I have seen from last year race. I also did an all out 50 meter swim, Time - 57secs. So these are my marks that I will break in the coming weeks and months. I will test myself once a month just to see how things are going.

Happy Hump Day!

Hello Monday

I will not be running for another week. I guess I some how hurt my achilles tendon on my left foot. Right now it feels ok, but as soon as I put weight on my left foot, in a certain way it hurts. So I will back off for a week and then go from there. I hit the pool today for 1500 meters which included some kick board drills and it felt fine. So for the week I will be spending most of my time in the pool and hitting the weights in the fitness center.

Thats about it. A nice and short post.

Enjoy the week!

Another Nice Day

It was another great day outside and I took advantage of the nice weather and went down to the Narragansett Pier to run the Super 5K course. It was great to have company for the run. Fellow South Kingstown resident and awesome runner, Chris joined me for the run. Thanks Chris for putting up with my 9:50 min mile pace. After running the course, I could definately see a PR being set for this race, as long as it is not snowing with 30 mph winds!

I also got a chance to use the 305 for the first time. I didn't have the heart rate monitor going but just to see what my pace was and how far I have gone is just awesome. I can't wait to really get into all the functions of the 305. As for a review of the 305, I will have to use it for a few months to get a good feel for this product. So far so good!

On my way home from the run, my left foot felt a little soar and when I got out of the car, it hurt to put weight on it. This was very weird since I didn't feel anything during the run. It doesn't hurt all the time, just when I put my weight on a certain area of the foot. Really crazy. So I will not take any chances and stay away from running for the next few days. So this means more swimming and spinning, which is fine with me.

Happy Thursday!

Finally!

Finally after a few months of waiting, looking for the best deal and just simply trying to figure out which one I wanted, my Garmin Forerunner 305 came in the mail today. I bought it on ebay last week. I was a little nervous buying this on Ebay but I got a really good deal and couldn't pass it up. So I can't wait to try it out tomorrow!

Hit the gym today and rode the stationary bike for 10 miles and then jumped in the pool for 1200 meters. Definately need to keep doing swim drills. Especially the finger drag and fist drills. I just can't hold my form doing those, but I guess after awhile I will get the hang of them. So the pool was jammed today with people. Ever tried doing drills while sharing the lane with 2 other people? And you know I am not MR. Speedy when it comes to swimming in general, let alone trying to finish up my kickboard drill. Thursdays are a little slower in the pool.

Another Day in the 60's

I could definately get use to 60 degree days in January. But I know it will be short lived. Tomorrow will be in the 50's and by the weekend it will be back to normal high 30's low 40's. I am still waiting for that one major snow storm. I bought a snow blower when we moved into our new house a couple of years ago and probably only used it 8 times. Plus snow is really fun when you have kids.

As for my workouts today, I ran 3 miles around town and did 1000 meters in the pool. I wanted to go longer on the run and swim, but I needed to be home at a certain time so I had to fit what I could in a short time.

So in the pool today I started working on drills. Drills are definately hard, but I managed to get through them. I noticed that when I used the pull bouy, that I actually was swimming faster, by a good 6 seconds per 50 meters. I thought that was a little crazy. So when I was doing my cool down laps I just tried to relax my body and allow myself to just float in the water instead of fighting to stay afloat and it felt like I was moving through the water better then before. Does that sound right? Or am I just way off on this whole swimming thing. Also, I felt like a snail when I was using the kick board. I guess thats normal, well at least Moonpie thinks so. I am really thinking about joining a Masters swim class. But I need to find one that is held on the weekend because I work 2nd shift. So I will be checking that out.

Is it May Already?

So, I know it is January 7th, but when I came out of the Y today I thought it was May. It was so nice and warm. The temps were close to 60! IN JANUARY! Tomorrow and Wednesday will also be warm. So I was thinking about jumping on the bike and getting a nice 15 mile ride in either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Yesterday I went for a 5.5 mile run around town. It was a little cool out and I definately over dressed for the run. By the time I got home I was soaked in sweat. I completed the run in a little over 55 mins. Kinda slow, but there is always room for improvement. I really was not prepared for the run. I did not drink enough water earlier in the day and I really didn't eat all that well for lunch, so that sat in my stomach like a brick for the whole run. So I need to be a smart runner and prepare my body before I head out.

As for today, since my legs were soar from the run, I decided to hit the nautilus machines and then jumped in the pool for 1200 meters. Swimming is definately coming around for me. Talking with a local triathalon coach, he said that I need to incorporate some drills into my swims and not just focus on distance. Becuase if I just work on distance with poor technique, I am just hurting myself in the long run. So starting tomorrow or when ever I am in the pool next I am going to start doing some drills. I actually stayed in the pool area after I was done to watch one the swimmers complete his drill work. I was watching this one guy who just glides through the water. His swimming seemed effortless and fast. Come to find out he is the Masters swim coach for the Y. So I will have to introduce myself the next time I see him.

Happy Monday!

Taking A Look Back at 2007

I am trying to figure out how I want to put my 2007 season into words. Guess I will start from the beginning.

In the beginning of the year I was already on a weight loss program. In May, after talking with my old Navy buddy Moonpie, I decided to train for a 5K we plan on running in August while we where in Las Vegas. I also I decided to sign up for the Shoreline Biathlon which was held in September. This was a 5 mile run followed by a 16 mile bike. Since I couldn’t swim if my life depended on it, I decided a biathlon would be a great way to jump into multi-sport racing. So along with the running I dusted the cobwebs off of my mountain bike and started riding.

The training went well and decided to run the Celebrate Summer 5k in July. I finished the race in a time of 31:03. I was very excited about completing my first 5K and couldn’t wait for the Vegas trip in August and to run the Midsummer Nights Dream 5K.

The Vegas trip was awesome. I completed the Midsummer Nights Dream 5K in a time of 32:09. Slower then my previous race, but I would attribute the slow race to the 102 degree heat and the drinking and lack of sleep from the night before. Moonpie had a good run and we both decided that we will never run another 5K in Vegas again.

After the Vegas trip my focus was on the Shoreline Biathlon. I was running and biking as much as I could. I went out and bought a cheap road bike for the race. I really didn’t want to use the mountain bike because I thought it would slow me down and I really didn’t want to look like a newbie out on the race course, I did anyways.

The day came for the race and I was very nervous. First of all the run was 5 miles. I only ran 5 miles twice before the race and I was hoping that I would have enough in the tank to complete the 16 mile bike. Well I managed to pull off my first multi-sport event. I completed the race in 1:47:37. It was a great accomplishment for me. I was really excited and used this event to push me into training for my first triathlon in 2008.

After the race I completed a few more 5k races. I was setting a PR for every race. The last race of the season, Mews Gear and Beer 5K, I had no intention on setting a PR with the course containing a lot of hills, but I did with a time of 27:43. Awesome way to end my racing season.

Towards the end of September I started swimming. Boy it took awhile for me to feel comfortable in the water. It also seemed like it took forever to learn how to breathe. Practice makes perfect.

Going into 2008, I just can’t wait to complete my first Triathlon. I am still trying to figure out my race schedule for the year but my plans are to do a couple of sprints in the beginning of the season, throw in some 5ks, a 5 mile and a 10 mile road race, and end the season with an Olympic Tri and possibly a Half Marathon. We will see how the season progresses but I am really excited for this year. I hopefully will be heading to Lake Placid to cheer on my Bloggers Peeps and Moonpie as he goes for his first Ironman distance race.

So lets hear it for 2007!!!! Woot!! WOOT!

2008 WILL be better!

End of 2007

What a great year 2007 has been. 2008 is almost here!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Years.

See ya in 2008!

Come and Gone

Wow. What a busy holiday for my family and I. I won't get into all the details but I really had a wonderful Christmas with my family. Here is a brief recap of the past couple of days:
Thursday - Day off from work, Christmas shopping with my mom who came up from Florida with my stepfather, saw I Am Legend; Friday - another day off from work, spent time with Kim getting last minute things done, Reese got sick; Saturday - nice 1000 meters swim at the Y, need that; Sunday - Christmas dinner with Kim's nana and dad, lots of food and presents; Monday - Drive to NJ for Christmas Eve at Kim's Uncle's house, more food and Brady becoming sick; Tuesday - Christmas day, presents in the morning, Drive to Kim's other uncle's house for Christmas dinner and then drove 3.5 hours back to RI, got to sleep at 12:30AM; Today - Dropped kids off at daycare, Kim sick, went home and slept for 2 hours then back to work. Well thats it in a nutshell.

One really funny story I would like to share. So we are at Kim's uncle Mike's house for Christmas eve dinner and people were spread out all over the house. Kids running around, going nuts. While walking around I spot a dish of cookies. Oh and they had one of my favorites, peanut butter kiss cookies. I love them! Of course I ate one or was it two? After a few hours, I sit down in the living room and I look over into the next room and see Reese and Kim's brother's little boy Dylan standing next to the dish of cookies. I think nothing of it, but I wanted to grab another cookie. So I start walking over there and I see that the two of them were eating the cookies! So I say "Hey, what are you guys doing!? " Reese doesn't even look at me, and takes off into the other room, while Dylan looks up at me with his cheeks all puffed out. I look at the plate and those little stinkers ate all of the Hersey Kisses off of the cookies! I look back at Dylan and notice that his mouth is full of chocolate kisses. I just started laughing. It was a great moment that I will never forget.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!!!!

In the ZONE

Ever have one of those days when everything just clicks. You hit that ZONE where no mater what everything feels right. I use to have those days every once in a while when I was either skateboarding or inline skating. I would just be able to land every trick I tried. I had one of those days in the pool today. Lets back up a little. This morning I didn't want to do anything today. I didn't feel like swimming or biking or whatever. Staying home and sleeping or just watching TV just sounded so good. Then I read Me and the Boys and read what a great day michelle had in the pool the other day. It just got me super motivated so I grabbed my stuff and headed to the Y. After my initial laps I was going to do as many laps as I could without stopping. I thought I would make it as far as 400 meters then stop. 400 meters, felt good and kept going. 500, 600, ......900, 1000! I stopped at 1000 meters!!!!! I couldn't believe how fluid my motions were and how comfortable I felt during those 1000 meters. I just felt so relaxed and I could have kept going, but I had to stop due to time constraints. In total I swam 1800 meters today. Simply awesome. Hopefully I will have more days like that (especially during race day). After the swim I jumped on the stationary bike for 10 miles. If I didn't have to leave I would have jumped on the treadmill for 3 miles, just to complete my first YMCA indoor workout triathlon! NExt time!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hey

So over the weekend we saw Santa a few times. The kids are great with santa. I finished putting up the rest of the christmas lights, well actually 2 reindeer.

On Monday I wimped out and only went for a swim. It was too cold out and I still do not have proper cold weather running gear, so I didn't want to chance getting sick or whatever. So I jumped in the pool for a great 1000 meter. Of course it was not all in a row, 4 x 50, 3 x 100, 1 x 200, 2 x 100, 2 x 50.

As for today, I went to the Y early and did 10 miles on the bike,

4 miles on the elliptical and a circuit on the Nautilus equipment.

So there is not to much to talk about. Just going through the daily motions. Actually today Kim and I tried to take Brady and Reese's picture for our Christmas cards. They both looked really cute and it only took about an hour and a half to get a decent picture.

Friday!

Boy its funny how a week can fly by during this Holiday season. Went out for a 5 mile run around town today. I thought about running on the bike path but I just enjoy running through town. Don't get me wrong, the bike path is very beautiful, but there is something about people watching me run, kinda gets me motivated and keeps me going. The temp wasn't too bad today. It was probably around 35 degrees. I should have waited to run tomorrow when the forecast calls for 45 degrees.

Tomorrow I plan on getting up in the morning and heading down to the Y for a swim. I have a goal to swim 1000 meters tomorrow. That would be the largest distance yet!

So I have been thinking about what Garmin I should buy, the 301 or the 305. I know both have all the features I would need and I can care less about the size or the 301 over the 305. It basically comes down to cost. Both units get great reviews so I am leaning toward the 301. Plus I have found a few on Ebay that are under $100 for the 301. I should be careful about buying electronics from Ebay, but I figured if I could score a 301 for under $100, it might be worth it. I am still thinking about it.

Other then that, lets see....not much else is going on. I am still trying to decided what races I want to do next year. I know I will be entering a few 5Ks, the Blessing of the Fleet 10 mile race and probably a half marathon. I am still working on the Triathlon schedule. It kinda sucks that most of the early triathlons are either in Mass or Conn. My current thinking is that my first Sprint will be the Mystic River Valley Triathlon in June. I need to keep my schedule open for July 13 so I can watch the Rhode Island 70.3 Ironman and July 20 so I can head up to the Lake Placid Ironman. Both of those events will definately be awesome events!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

The Weekend Report

Saturday the family braved the cold weather and went to a local farm and picked out our christmas tree. Normally we take a good 30 minutes to find the perfect one, but since it was around 25 degrees with a wind chill in the teens, it took us probably 5 mins to pick the tree and get the kids back in the warm car. We got the tree home and Kim and Brady started decorating the tree while I went into the rafters of the garage to find all the christmas decorations. That night Kim and I went out with my sister and her husband to see a 80's cover band. We had a good time.

Sunday we chilled at home for most of the day. We went to a tree lighting party at a friends house in the late afternoon. Good times.

So here is my workout plan for December. I am really excited about it. I went over a little on today's workout, but I would rather be over then under!

Thursday

Well its almost Friday!!! It has been a pretty uneventful week. Yesterday I helped my brother-in-laws rake their Grandmothers leaves. Today I went to the Y and did some strength training and then went for a 3 mile run around town. It was another nice day so I am going to take every opportunity to run outside and avoid the treadmill. After the run I jumped in the pool for 800 meters. It was a good swim that consisted of 4x50, 3x100, 1x200 and 2x50. I was pretty beat after the swim.

I am currently developing a workout plan for December. The plan will have a heavy focus on running and swimming. I am also going to find some good core workouts to incorporate into my everyday workouts. I feel that my body is lacking strength in my core. If anyone knows of any good books or core website please let me know. When I have the plan I will post it.

As for tomorrow, I will head to the Y and spend 30 mins on the stationary bike, 30 mins on the elliptical and 800 meters in the pool.

Have a great Friday everyone!

Thanksgiving and Other Stuff

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did. We had about 18 people over for a great dinner on Thursday. The night before I cooked a 17lb turkey just for people to have left over turkey to bring home and Kim did some prep work on a few things just to make Thursday go a little easier. Thursday morning I cooked a 22lb turkey and cleaned house for most of the morning. Our guests started arriving around 2:00 and we didn’t eat until about 3:30. Lots of food, not enough space in my stomach to hold it all. So at my house we say grace before every meal. Normally Kim, the kids and I fill our plates and then we say grace. Well on Thanksgiving we said grace before we had food on our plates. So I started saying grace the way we always say it (we keep it simple and to the point for the kids, and sometimes Brady says it) “Thank you God for our food…” and I look at Brady who has the saddest expression on his face, he looks down and says “daddy, I don’t have any food”. I never felt so sad in my entire life. He just looked so serious and sad. I looked at Kim and she looked like she was about to cry. It was that sad. So both Kim and I got up and gave Brady a hug and gave him some food. After that I really couldn’t finish saying grace, but I did and the eating began. After dinner we all sat around and relaxed. Some of us went to the basement and played air hockey. Then it was dessert time. We had apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cream pie, ice cream….enough to feed an army. I had a piece of the chocolate pie and sat down and read through the sales flyers for Black Friday. After dessert everyone started leaving and after everyone had gone, we put the kids to bed and Kim and I went over the sales flyers again to plan our Black Friday attack. I found a really good deal on a Zune 30gig MP3 player at Toys R Us so I knew I would be getting up early to go stand in line for this thing.

So I get up at 3:50 and I was out of the house at 4:00AM just to make it to Toys R Us by 4:20AM. As soon as I got off the exit I saw the huge line of people waiting to get in. The store opens at 5:00AM so I have 40 minutes to wait in the cold weather for this MP3 player. I make it into the store by 5:10, get my Zune by 5:30 and I was home by 6:00AM with my new MP3,video, Podcast, picture player. AWESOME!!! Kim and I get ready to head out for a day of shopping and the crowds. Kim’s mother came over early to take the kids to daycare. We had a pretty successful shopping day. The crowds were not as bad as I thought they would be.

As for the rest of the weekend. We got the kids picture taken with Santa, took care of some more leaves in the backyard and put up some Christmas lights. I went for a short workout yesterday.

Today everything was back to normal. I went to the Y after dropping the kids off at daycare. Quick run on the treadmill and the elliptical. Finished the day with a 800 meter swim. The water felt great today. I was totally relaxed the whole time in the pool, even though MR. Splashy was right next to me the whole time.

So for not working out for a few days and eating a lot on Thanksgiving, I gained only 1 pound. I was thinking that I would have gained more. I am so glad I didn’t. Well I will have to lose that pound this week. I dropped out of the top 10 in the Challenge, so I need to step up my game.

Time Off and Happy Thanksgiving

I will be taking a few days off from blogging. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Please remember our Armed forces this holiday. If you know anyone in the military send a quick note or a care package or just remember them when your family sits down at the dinner table on Thanksgiving. As a former military person, the thoughts, prayers, letters and packages were very uplifting and welcomed during time away from family and loved ones.

I will be hitting the gym tomorrow and Saturday, but Thursday we have family coming over and Friday is the BIG shopping day.

Enjoy and again Happy Thanksgiving.

Last Race of the Season, New PR!!!!

Going into yesterday's race I had my doubts about setting a PR. The course had a very large hills and the temp was around 38-40 degrees. Since I just began running in May I did not have any cold weather running gear so I had to make due with what I had. The race was a huge event. Talking to someone before the race, they said the first time the Mews Tavern held the race there was only 60 people running. Yesterday there were over 800 people running!!! As for the run, I knew it was my last race of the season so I wanted to break my last PR of 28mins 11 secs. The run starts with a nice hill that is probably about 1/4 long, definately a will breaker. After the hill I settled in to a nice pace and just cruised until the last hill. I told myself I would not walk any portion of the race including this last hill. I just put my head down and charged up the hill, passing walkers and other runners. I knew once I got to the top it was all down hill to the finish line. I made it to the top of the hill and started my decent to the finish. I looked at my watch and saw I had a chance to break my PR so I kicked up my pace. I saw this kid infront of me and made it my goal to pass him before the finish. I caught up to him at the turn onto Main Street. As soon as I caught up to him he started to sprint. SO I started to sprint with him but just couldn't pass the little bugger. We crossed the finish line almost at the same time. I told him I tried to pass him but he was too fast for me. Race time - 27 mins 43secs....NEw PR!!!
Just Awesome. I was really excited about me time and very happy with my effort. After the race there was a big BBQ and free beer for all who ran. Plus there was a huge raffle with over 40 differant items to win. I actually won a gift certificate to a local resturant, which my wife and I used last night. In all, it was a great racea and will definately run the race again.