What's up?

Not much... Jen and I are in the meat of training for the Soma half Ironman on 10/28. I am currently averaging about 17 hours a week training. I am finding now though that it's not really the number of hours per week that matter. During the spring when all of my training was at aerobic pace (slow enough I could have a conversation), and I was building a good base level, hours were key. But now many of my key workouts are high intensity and relatively short in duration. The base training allows the higher intensity training to take place with less chance of injuries (as long as it's done in moderation). I think this was my issue in the past when I was getting hurt all the time. I didn't have the base fitness or strength to be able to recover from the high intensity stuff. Also I didn't know how much or for how long to do the harder workouts. Once again, having a coach is well worth it!! Now I find I am able to do the workouts even when I am tired and I seem to recover from them pretty quickly. There are some exceptions though...
9/9/07 - Pints To Pasta 10k. My second favorite local running race. This is the third time I have done this race in the 5 years it has been going on. My 10k personal best was set on this course (38min 40 sec). This year a few of the Iron Heads ran it as well, so there was a lot of friendly trash talking going on. Race day was perfect, mid 60's, partly cloudy and a tail wind. This course is pretty fast, no real hills to run up, only down. And the best part is the beer at the finish. Even at 10 am it goes down real nice. Anyway, the race went well. I ran 36 min and 41 sec. Almost 2 mins faster then last year. But, as in most running races, I was no where near placing. I ended up 6th in my age group and 30 something over all. One big reason I like Tri's :). Also, this was my 2nd race I've ever run averaging a sub 6min pace. The first being the 5k we ran last month. Oddly enough my pace was also 5:54 there... Harder course or am I in better shape? Not sure, little of both maybe. Recovery from this race was not quick though. Towards the end of the race I pushed pretty hard because I knew Garren was on my heels. Turns out he was only 5 seconds back. I think it was that push in the last mile that fried my legs. It was 4 days later before I even started feeling any sort of recovery. I think it was good though, it gave me a good idea of where I am with my upper heart rate zones. Should give some confidence going into Soma.




What's up next... Going to Victoria BC in 3 weeks to do the Half marathon there as a training run. I had to promise I wouldn't race it. Taking the Clipper from Seattle with nothing but back packs. Should be fun. We found a pool near our hotel, so we can get our swims in. Depending on weather we may bring bikes too. Should be fun! After that it's the AZ race, then off to Vegas to do some cross training (Black Jack) over Thanksgiving.