I thought this was Oregon?

Everyday I am amazed at the weather... I know that any day now it's gonna turn to crap again, but I think I've been taking advantage of it as much as I possibly can. Last week was a recovery week, which was much needed. After my Tuesday night 18 miler I was toast. With a lot of sleep and only a couple light workouts I was good to go by Saturday. I rode with the Perkins' from their place out through Sherwood, Newberg and Aurora. I love that ride because we get to ride the Canby ferry. It never gets old! Amazing weather, upper 50's and sunny with no wind. Did 3.5 hrs and 60 miles with a hilly t-run after. I had planned to get my swim in the afternoon but we ended up at the vet. Murph pulled a tendon in his shoulder. Based on how much pain he was in I thought he tore something, but fortunately that was not the case. So after some x-rays and a lot of waiting we came home, ate and went to bed. Sunday was a 11.5 mile temp run in 1:20 with some zone 4 and zone 5 intervals at Forest Park. Felt great, and again the weather was outstanding! Finished the day with an ez spin to the pool on the single speed then to my Mom's. Looks like there is a few more sunny days in the week ahead...
Bike update: The new ISAAC frame was last seen in Hodgkins IL on the back of a UPS truck. Should be here by Wednesday.
That's all for now, it's Thin Mint time. I was ambushed by those damn Girl Scouts outside the grocery store this afternoon! I'm trying something new tonight though. Take a Cookies and Cream Skinny Cow and open it up. Place two thin mints inside and put it back together. I'll let you know how it goes.

When are you too old to throw a temper tantrum?

After a great weekend of riding on the new Isaac I was cleaning it up last night. I had plans to throw the race wheels on it and snap a couple of pictures to post. That's when I found it... A 3 inch crack down the back of the seat mast. "Son of a bitch" I believe is the first words that came out. My first instinct was to throw myself on the garage floor and spin around in circles while crying hysterically. Kind of like I used to do as a child when my mom wouldn't buy me Fun Dip at the grocery store. Instead I took a deep breath and calmly called Jennifer out to the garage. I needed someone to validate that this crack was real. It was. I do have to say that I stayed pretty calm the rest of the day. I was pretty concerned about how this was going to play out. I was scheduled to do the Jack Frost TT this weekend, so I knew that was out. Also, the Yucca valley camp is less then 3 weeks out. That was the biggest concern. I knew that Athlete's Lounge (Larry) would take care of me though. Just like I thought I was in AL when they opened this morning and Larry had a new frame on order and my old bike being torn down within 15 mins. If all goes according to plan the bike should be ready by early next week. I am so grateful to have a good relationship with such a great shop! If this was Gateway Bikes I would have gotten F'd in the a-hole for sure!
As for the last week and weekend, training is on track. Saturday was the 'Big Brick" which was run/bike/run/bike/run. Total of 15.5 miles of running and 61 miles of riding. Sunday was an EZ paced long ride which ended up being just over 100 miles in 5:35. This week is all recovery starting after my 19 mile run tonight. But even that is EZ pace. Everything is feeling great (knock on wood). I'm even starting to enjoy the swimming!
What else is going on besides training and bike issues... Today is Murphy's 8th Birthday!! He is an old man. Yesterday he got to go to Hagg lake to swim and run in the sun. This was followed by a walk to Starbucks and nap in the front yard while I washed the cars. Here he is with his Birthday present.

What happened to last week?!?

All of sudden last week is over. Where did it go? It's a blur! Like I mentioned in my last post I don't want to get hung up on hours or distances covered in training, but last week is kind of an exception. In this case the time and mileage were the result of a great week of training that really helped me realize where I am in my progression. Also, once added up I realized this was the most training I have ever put in in one week. So the fact that I was able to run 15 miles yesterday @ a 7:15 pace in zone 2/3 and feel really good after a 27 hr week is a big step for me. The whole weekend in general was a big mental boost. Saturday I was up early on the trainer then out the door by 7:30. I met up with a couple of Iron heads and we hit the hills. About an hour into the ride my bike started shifting on it's own. I pulled over to check it out. Grant circled back to find me. We pulled the rear wheel off and the cassette feel off the wheel. With some MacGyver like thinking Grant was able to get me up and running enough to make the 12 miles to Athlete's lounge. Along the way my front derailleur cable pulled loose. Also my rear wheel became so out of true that it started rubbing on the frame. Needless to say it was a long 12 miles. Once there though Larry fixed me up and I was back on the road in 30 mins. From there I was able to finish up my ride for a total of 7 hrs and 123 miles. Did I mention the weather? Oh the weather. It was amazing how nice it was, mid 50's, no wind, a little sun. It was a GREAT ride! Totals for the week:
Swim - 10500 yrds
Bike - 280 m
Run - 50 m
Total Time 26:52
16 workouts
The first half of this week will be recovery focused. Wednesday will be the first bit of intensity with some Z5 hill repeats. This Saturday will be another funky workout that should mix it up a little. It's a 40 min run/2hr bike/40 min run/2hr bike/4o min run all back to back. Then a 5:45 ride on Sunday. Right now there is hope for another dry weekend... Just over 3 weeks until the Palm Springs camp. After that it's less then 4 weeks until the race, I can't believe I may have survived the winter!! Spring starts on April 5th for me this year (The day we fly to AZ for the race). After that the weather can do what ever it wants in Oregon and I won't care. At least not until I have to start training again for Canada (or Kona?).

Life as a "normal" person

Last week was a good recovery week. Actually did some things that normal people do. We went to a movie, the auto show, and bowling. It was nice to get out and do social things that didn't involve working out. Bowling was an adventure. We checked out Grand Central Lanes with my Aunt and Uncle. It is a newly renovated bowling alley that is now a restaurant/bar/bowling alley. The lanes have big leather couches and coffee tables to put your beers on. It is a very cool place. The crowd on a Saturday night was mostly mid thirties and after 11:00pm everyone is hammered! We got there about 7:30 for our dinner reservation and were told we couldn't get on a lane until 11:30. So through out dinner we continually hassled our waiter and the girls running the bowling lane reservations. My Uncle was able to get the waiter to hook us up and we were told at about 10pm that the next available lane was ours. Some how in the all of the confusion we went from the "Thompson Party of 4" to the "Norm Thompson Party". Apparently at Grand Central it's all about who you know, or who they think you are. As it turns out our original lane reservation was called (to my cell phone) at 11:45pm. So to summarize, it's a very cool place to bowl, but if you go on Friday or Saturday make sure are ether with or pretend to be someone famous.


Now back to reality... This could be the biggest volume week I've ever done if everything goes right. So far I have 4.5 hrs done with 23.5 to go. That's right, 29 hrs total! I think I am going to be able to get most of it done, it's the 7 hr ride on Saturday that will be the biggest challenge due to the weather. We'll see what happens. But like Dave C. says, "No one cares what your log looks like." He's right, big deal if I throw down a 29 hr week if I can't buck up on race day. It's your race results that count. For that reason I'm not hung up on reaching the magic number as much as I'm focusing on quality workouts. If along the way this week I need to make adjustments based on how I'm feeling then I will do so. I think that's one area I am starting to get. Making those key workouts count and keeping the recovery workouts light. I am much more aware of how I'm feeling now and I have enough confidence to allow myself to recover even if it means missing a workout here and there. I think the plan is working. I did a threshold run today (3x10 min zone 5 w/ 4 min rest) and was able to avg a 6 min pace. This is about where I was going into Soma, but the big difference now is my HR. Before this pace produced ~175 HR avg, today the avg was at 169. The hardest part right now is not being able to race. I have this fitness, I want to go use it! Winter sucks, I can't wait for the season to pick back up in a few months so I can see if my times improve at all.