The End of the World as We Know It

Well the rapture came and went, or didn't come at all, still not sure on the ruling of this one, but we survived our first travel weekend in quite awhile.  We got to see the niece and nephew play little league, we had a great time at JJ and Melissa's wedding, and we got all our weekly chores in despite all the travel.

Our workouts were lacking a little bit last week, and will be lacking again this week.  We'll fit in what we can, when we can, then back to the grind after Memorial Day.  Not much else to report, we posted pictures of the new paint on Facebook last night.  Can't wait for Thursday when we get to see family in Des Moines for Cassie's graduation, and Saturday for Mike and Sara's wedding in Toledo, OH.

Have a great week.

Whirlwind of Fun and Chores

This past week marked the beginning of our busiest time of year.  We've been trying to pick out new paint colors for the house and settled on 3 colors (Milk Pail for the back room, Squirrel for the first floor bathroom, and burnt pecan for the entryway/hallway, lowerpart of the stairs).  We had a busy week moving furniture, prepping walls, painting, cleaning up our mess, putting furniture back etc...  On top of that we had to help Cassie get moved out of our place and back to Des Moines.

This weekend we head to Milwaukee for a wedding, the weekend after we head to Des Moines for a Cassie's graduation, then drive to Toledo, Ohio, for Sara and Mike's wedding.  The first weekend in June is a graduation party for Lisa's cousin and birthday party for her cousin's son, but it also coincides with Dan Gable's retirement banquet and I lucked into a seat at a table for that so we may have to head different directions for that weekend.

During those 3 weeks we'll work on picking out colors for the upstairs hallway, front room, dining room, 2nd floor bathroom, and master bedroom.  If we're really ambitious we can paint on week nights and try to knock another room or two out, otherwise we have 1 weekend in June that we can use to paint, then its back on the road again until July.  

Pictures of the new paint coming later this week or early next week once the work is complete.  In other news we get to mow 2 times this week, thanks to the rain and the grass growing faster than expected, we've also been invited to go play volleyball with our neighbor at their church group.  Maybe this will be our first step to finding a church that both of us like...or maybe it will just be a good excuse to get out, get sweaty and have a good time. 

That's it from the cheap seats.  Have a good week.

Race Results

Well the big news for this week is that I completed my half marathon!   The weather was amazing, there was a slight breeze the temperature was in the mid 50's, the sun was shining, it was perfect running weather.  The race started at 7:30am.  The first mile went really well, I felt good, my legs weren't tight and the pace seemed reasonable.  I missed the first mile marker and had to guess my first mile at an 8:50.  I paid close attention to the mile markers after that.  My 2nd mile was also an 8:50 as was my 3rd mile.  After 3 straight miles of that pace, and the fact that I was still feeling good I decided I could pull off a sub 2 hour half marathon after all.  My 4th mile was actually really fast at 8:30 but my 5th mile slowed to a 9:10.

I ran 9:00 pace for miles 6-9.  During that time I had settled in with a group of 4 other people.  We lost the first one off our group between mile 8 and 9.  We dropped 2 more just after mile 9.  We had hit the 9 mile mark at 80 minutes exactly, 1 minute ahead of 9:00 pace.

I had taken a Gu packet at mile 7 and by mile 9 I felt rejuvenated and ready for my next gear.  I picked up the pace and quick did the math, if I could average 8:30 per mile I would just squeak under the 1:55:00 mark.  My original goal was to break 2:00:00 but I decided to set a new goal.  I focused on 1 runner at a time and worked to pick them off.  I passed at least 20 runners in the last 4.1 miles.  I averaged 8:47 for the last 4 miles and wasn't quite fast enough to break my new goal.

I finished in 1:56:04, the finish was on the track at Augustana College, I passed my last runner on the track and felt really good when I crossed the finish line.  My calves were pretty sore but other than that I wasn't sore, cramping, or overly tired.  Within a couple hours my calves were extremely sore, I dosed with Ibuprofen, took a 3 hour nap, then dosed with Granite City Sirloin Steak and Golden Belgian Beer.  By the time I got up this morning I felt refreshed, my calves are still a little sore but no more than the day after a hard training run.  I'm ready for the next phase of my training year.

My next few weeks are going to see shorter more intense workouts, more weightlifting and stretching, and a reintroduction of bicycling to my regimen.  All of this in prep for the Copper Creek Tri on June 26th.  We also have a bunch of traveling in the next 2 months.  We've got weddings in Milwaukee and Toledo, OH.  My sister's graduation in Des Moines, the Triathlon in Des Moines, plus a family reunion in Milwaukee.  On top of all that we need to find a weekend to go skydiving with my brother and his girlfriend!   This summer is going to go fast.

Here are some stats from the half:  I finished in 1:56:04 which is an 8:52 pace.  I finished 16 out of 28 in my age group, I finished 213 out of 524 overall, and I finished 144 out of 243 males.  I took 19768 steps, burned 2411 calories and 313 grams of fat.  My average HR was 168 with a high of 177 and a low of 110.  I was in my target heart rate zone for 1:51:19, I was above it for 3:11 and below for 54 seconds.  My average speed was 6.75 miles per hour with a max speed of 7.34mph.

Have a great week everyone!

Judgment Week

So last week was a very light week for workouts!  We got our 5k for K9 in, out of the 8  people I knew running the race, 3 of them came home with a medal!!  Congrats to Shawn, Karl, and Michael.   I had a decent time, averaging 8:29 per mile, but I did get dusted by Erica in the last 100 yards.  I also learned really high winds lead to excessive flem and trouble breathing, lets hope Sunday is warm and not so windy!  I'm contemplating Claritin and Lisa's inhaler for the race on Sunday.

Which brings me to the name of the post, this week is Judgment Week, I've been training for 12 weeks to get ready for this half marathon.  I have a chance to break 2 hours if everything goes well and then its time to focus on getting in shape for the sprint triathlon.  This is a really light week for training: 3, 4, 2... but that 13.1 on Sunday makes up for it. 

I've been thinking about my plan for May/June and I've decided, weight loss, flexibility, core strength, and weight lifting are going to be the center of my training.  Riding the bike and running will be in there but will be secondary.  I've also decided that for some of my running I'll be doing speed work, this will help keep my mileage down and help my body transition to the sprint tri format from the long running of the half marathon.  I do need to get some mileage in though since I'll be running Bix at the end of July. 

Here's to overhydration, no snacks, and a good week of nutrition leading up to Sunday's big race!  Have a good week.