Titanium is still a magical ride

I ran a 5K last Saturday.  The good news is that I dropped 1 minute from my last 5K last month... I'm hoping that the trend continues.  It was a fun race, as there were a lot of people in costume.  I was chased for the entire race by women wearing reindeer outfits.  I managed to just barely be in front of all 17 of them.  Sheesh!  No way could I run that fast wearing a skirt!
Today, I went for a bike ride.  It was 60 and sunny, and it felt so nice!  I was riding my Arizona bike.  For a bike that I don't get to ride that often, it sure is nice.  The only aggravating thing on it are the rattling STI shifters.  But that's a small problem.  Otherwise, it's a sweet ride.  People say that the frame material doesn't make a difference, but a Ti frame, if it is made right, has a pretty special ride.  I definitely feel fortunate to possess the bikes that I have.

Since it has been a year since I rode here, I had forgotten how to get up north.  I ended up on a road with no shoulder and no bike lane, and quickly realized that I had made a wrong turn (or lack of turn, heading straight when I should have turned right).  Oh well, I found a way onto a much less busy road in a short time.  Then, it was pedal uphill into the wind until it was time to turn around.  And then... wheeee!  Downhill with a tailwind, spinning out for 5 miles.

How do you spell cattywampus?

I started swimming on Friday.  Or rather, I tried to start swimming on Friday.  Bruce offered to help me with my swimming.  Since it has been 6 months since I last swam, we thought that I might have forgotten my bad habits, and it might be easier to learn good ones.  So, after I swam 100 meters, I was exhausted, and felt like I was swimming all over the pool.  Bruce confirmed that I was swimming pretty crookedly.  He decided that I shouldn't swim, just kick.  After trying to kick a 50, Bruce told me that I over-rotated on the left and under-rotated on the right.  So... I'm not "allowed" to swim, just kick, trying to straighten me out.  The goal is to make me bigger, faster, able to swim an Ironman in 50 minutes.  Well, not really.

I ran yesterday, and today, I'm sore.  I was in Auburn and headed out onto the Interurban trail... in the dark.  Why?  Ryan has fielding instruction in Auburn every week, so I figured that I would run while he fielded.  The Interurban was fine.  Unfortunately, in order to get to the Interurban, I needed to head north for 1.5 miles, then I decided to head south towards the SuperMall.  Because I didn't want to run that far, I decided to head back via the West Valley Highway.  The good news was that the West Valley Highway has a good shoulder and a sidewalk for much of it; the bad news was that some of the West Valley Highway has neither.  So, I was jumping back and forth from the road to the bushes whenever a car came by.  Probably won't do that again.  I was pretty happy with my new Forerunner 310XT.  It chirped and vibrated every mile.  So, even though I didn't look at my wrist, I still knew when I had gone a mile.  My previous Forerunner 305 lost its chirpiness a while ago, and it is now barely holding a charge.  Merry Christmas to me!

Running in mud

or sand... or whatever thick, gloppy substance you want.  That's what it felt like while I was running yesterday.  Maybe it was due to all of the Thanksgiving turkey I ate over the weekend.  Maybe it was the 6+ hours I spent driving the day before.  Whatever the case, yesterday was the worst I've felt since I started back running "for real."  Oh well, those days are bound to happen, and anything is better than not being able to run at all.

Let the training begin

So I was able to do my weekend workouts in the cold.  It was sunny, so not as bad as it could have been.  After spending 75 minutes on my bike (2 x 12 @ Z4, 1 x 15@ Z3), I headed out for my 20 minute brick run.  Even though it had been 5 months since I ran off the bike, it didn't feel all that terrible.  But I still have a ways to go.  Thankfully, Wildflower is 6 months away.  On Sunday, I decided that I was too lazy to run in the Fort Steilacoom Turkey Trot.  Too bad since we've gotten a turkey the past two years, but since David was out of commission, I helped the boys first, then went out on a run in the gloaming.  2 x 1 mile at 6:30, which was faster than I was supposed to go, but I actually didn't think I was going that fast; I'm hoping that's a good sign.

And I'm now up to 6 pull-ups and 25 push-ups in a set.

I'm healed!

I had my follow up visit and x-rays today.  My clavicle is continuing to heal, and I've been given the okay to start swimming and lifting and pretty much doing anything short of football, skiing, or anything that is going to result in slamming my clavicle into things.  Guess that means that crashing on a bike is out.  I'm pretty excited!  I think that means I get to learn how to swim all over again.  To celebrate, I did 10 push-ups and 2 pull-ups.

At least I was running

I ran a 5K today.  At least I'm calling it "running."  Now, when I compare it to my PR or even my times from a couple of years ago, I should be disappointed.  But compared to where I was four months ago, I'll take it.  I ran a 20:53 in cold, sunny conditions in Fircrest; I left right after the race, so I didn't see how I did, but there were a lot of people in front of me... a lot of old people in front of me.  My PR is nearly 5 mintues faster than that.  Oh well, it's somewhere to start.  I'm going to work on foot speed this winter instead of putting in the long mileage, so maybe I'll regain some speed.

Suffering... but a good suffering

I started training for real today.  Threshold test on the bike.  Really, it was the first time I've gone hard since June, and it showed.  I couldn't get my heart rate up nearly as high as I wanted, and my power went down the tubes during the second interval.  But overall, I'm only down 5%, so I'll take it.  2 x 20' (2') and the numbers were:
Total:  NP 227 HR 144
1st 20:  NP 236 HR 144
2nd 20:  NP 223 HR 145 (whoops)

AND... I signed up for Wildflower today, too.  No more hiding.