White Lake half Ironman

Well this will be my last post until Saturday night. I'm leaving in the AM for White Lake, NC. This is the longest triathlon I have ever done and I'm very excited about it. White Lake is a crystal clear spring fed lake that has a sand bottom and is only 15' deep. No worries about sharks on this one..hehe. The swim is 1.2 miles and my goal is 30 minutes. The bike route is on back country roads, well actually White Lake is so remote that all the roads are back country. Anyway, it's a 56 mile loop and my goal is 2 hours and 45 minutes. The run (my favorite part) is ran on the road that circles the lake. The lake is an almost perfect circle crater. It's an out and back course around the lake for 13.1 miles and my goal is 1 hour 45 minutes.

I'm ready, rested and excited about this trip. I'm looking forward to posting my results Saturday night. These results will shape my remaining training schedule for the big race in Aug.

Have a great weekend friends!

45 years young

Well today was my 45th birthday. It has been a great day!! I'm still standing by the fact that I'm 45 from the neck up and only 30 from the neck down. I didn't do much of a workout but I did spend some quality time with my girls, my girlfriend and my girl friends girls. Yes I'm swimming in a sea of estrogen.

As far as workouts go I did manage to do a 25 minute swim this morning. I mainly concentrated on swim drills and pulling. We'll see how everything comes together this weekend at the White Lake Half Ironman. I also did 45 pull ups to honor my birthday.

Tonight I went out for mexican food with all my girls. Before we left the restaurant they brought me a shot of tequila and sang me happy birthday. It was quit the experience. Once we returned home my awesome girlfriend had a red velvet cake (my favorite) for me with candles that just can't be blown out. I had a big piece of cake and some icecream. That is not in my normal diet but it was damn good. Thank you Lisa for the wonderful birthday!!

Have a great day friends!

Brick Day

Today is my full on brick day. The iron fit program calls for a 45 minute bike followed by a 15 minute run. I got up early and was on the road by 0730. I rode around Bay Island 3 times for a total time of 42 minutes with a distance of 12.7 miles. I returned home and did a quick change for my run. I took off and had that old familiar twang in my left ankle. I actually cut my run short so that I can just rest my ankle before the race on Saturday. Here is what I did run; 9:41 for 1.25 miles.

I spent the rest of the day getting my life in order. I'm still trying to get my house in order. I also took my girls to dinner and then brought them back to my house for baths and bedtime. It's just awesome having the girls here with me in my own home. Tomorrow this house becomes more of a home. I'm getting my living room furniture and my bedroom furniture. It's going to be a good day.

Take care my friends!!

Well I thought that I was going to have lots of training time today. So I went off to work knowing that I would be back home by 1300 with plenty of time to run and then swim. I didn't bother to take workout clothes because what could happen. Well as I was about to leave around 1200 I was informed that I had to be at a 1500 meeting. Seriously?!?!? Ok, if you say so.....

Not to be to discouraged I just went to the exchange and bought a new pair of running shoes (I needed a pair), shorts and a heart rate monitor (been needing that too). I then went back to work and proceeded with the following workout. I did a 5 mile run with 6 x 100m sprints mixed in. My ultimate goal was to see what my heart rate is at race pace. Since I didn't have my GPS watch I had figure out the pace per mile after the run. The pace turned out to be 7:41 with an average heart rate of 138. I think that is pretty good for an old man.

Tonight I was invited to Lake Christopher in Virginia Beach. This was going to be a 1 mile open water (Lake) swim. The water was cold but not unbearable so off we went. The .97 mile route took me 28:10 to complete. Just as I was exiting the water I heard a loud boom of thunder and within minutes, no seconds, it was pouring down rain. Finished just in time. The good news is I now have a good place to train without worrying about sharks or jelly fish.

Have a good day!

Hello friends! I'm back in VA BCH and enjoying my girls!! It's a short "visit" but I'll make the most of it while I'm here. This coming week is going to be busy. I have my 45th Birthday, my parents are coming to visit and I'm doing a half ironman. I'm looking forward to an enjoyable week.

Ok since I last posted on Thursday I have done two workouts. On Saturday I did a 1:30:00 ride with the group at Fat Frogs at Red Mill. It was an enjoyable and fast ride of 30 miles. I can't wait to ride with them again in the future. Plus I now know where I can ride without lots of traffic. After the ride I did a quick change and then ran 15 minutes with a distance of 2.25 miles.

Today I did a 30 minute bike at 100 RPM for a distance of 10 miles. I then did a 50 minute run with a distance of 6.5 miles. What a beautiful day for a bike and run. I'm glad to be home and working out in my back yard.

Have a good week friends!

West Palm Beach to Virginia Beach

My time in West Palm Beach has come to an end. I'll be heading home this afternoon after I finish my final class. I would like to thank the folks at BGI Fitness, Todd, Dana and David for all their hospitality. They have a great box and the workouts were challenging and fun. I can't wait to come back and workout with them again. Check our there website at www.bgifitness.com.

This morning I decided to get my workout on before class this afternoon. I got up early and headed over to BGI fitness for a solid crossfit workout. We did 5 rounds for time of: 12 deadlift, 9 hang power cleans, 6 push jerks. I used 125 lbs and finished in 16:56. I know that 125 lbs doesn't sound heavy for deadlift or hang power cleans but putting that weight overhead 30 times is a bear. Good workout!

I was planning to get to the hotel and get out on the bike but on the way back at 0800 I realized that everyone was trying to get to work. Which means they were probably angry and still asleep. So I took some time for breakfast and headed out at 0900. I did a short brick workout today. I rode the bike 30 minutes, took a 3 minute break and then ran 15 minutes. On the 30 minute bike I was able to cover 10.5 miles with an average pace of 21 mph. After my transition I started my run. I ran 15:00 minutes and covered 2.14 miles for a pace of 7:03. I felt great during the brick and crossfit workouts today.

Now I have four hours of class and I'll be on the road again.

I'll post again when I get home.

Unexpected run

I'm finishing up my school this week and the schedule is a bit tight. I had pretty much written off running or biking this week. However we got out of class today about an hour early and headed down to the beach for a run. I'm here with a business partner and he wanted to do a 5 mile run. So I'm thinking that is a great idea, I'll run with you. He runs at about an 8 minute pace so I was looking forward to an easy relaxing run. Well after about one mile I just couldn't hold back any longer. So with the remaining time I decided to do an improvised crossfit endurance run. Instead of time I just used the remaining distance. 1.5 miles at best possible pace to the 2.5 mile turn around point. I didn't time the 1.5 mile run but my GPS watch showed 6:15 pace for most of the run. Once Austin caught up to me, resting at the 2.5 turn around, I ran 1 mile with him again and then took off again with 1.5 miles to go. On this leg I was able to maintain 6:30 for most of the run. So I'm happy to report that I was able to get a nice run in this afternoon. Which was complete unexpected.

I'm heading back to Virginia Beach tomorrow afternoon. I'm really looking forward to getting home and seeing "all" my girls.

Have a good day!