Monday, June 29, 2009

Triathlon Training Days 69 - 72: Run and Run

First, it is nice to be home. I always enjoy going on vacation and it was great to have my sister for a workout partner but being at home has a feeling that is just very comforting! Annie and I made it back on Saturday evening around 8:30pm after 2 days and 25 hours in the car. It wasn't that bad because we had two books on CD and they were pretty good. From start to finish I put 2997 miles on my company car. Why did we drive you ask? Well, I needed to get to 72,000 miles by July 1st to start the clock on getting a new company car - Mission Accomplished - odometer was at 72,221 when I pulled in the driveway!

Anyways, the weather is trying to do everything to make me not enjoy being home! The temperature here in Houston has been just ridiculously hot. We are in the 100's with make-you-sweat-as-soon-as-you-walk-outside humidity. I sooo want to go ride my bike but it is dangerous hot so that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

To recap my workouts: On Friday morning before we began the drive I woke up early and ran 4.0 miles with my sister. We ran at a 9 minute mile pace so it was a nice aerobic workout. Saturday was spent napping in a Fairfield Inn and then more driving. No workout happened. On Sunday I got caught up with work and the DVR and planned to go swim at the gym. I got to the gym at 6:45PM and saw the "Hours of Operation" sign said 7 AM to 7 PM on Sundays. Dammit. I could have swore it closed at 8 PM. I saved all the hours in my BlackBerry so this will not happen to me again. My gyms hours are pretty crappy. If it wasn't the only gym with a pool in the area I'd be elsewhere. It was too hot to run or bike so I missed a day. I did do ARX at home so not a complete loss!

So, with a little anger brewing today I decided to run my ass off on the treadmill for 3 hard miles. I ran between 7.6 and 9 mph the entire time and ended up doing the 3 miles in 22:31 seconds. A personal record by over 2 minutes - I was pretty pumped by this time. A little over two months ago I was having trouble breaking 30 minutes. It is very rewarding to see the hard work pay off in my times. I might even push it a little harder next time on the treadmill. Hopefully, all these gains will not be lost while in Spain next week!

Tomorrow is going to be a swim day. I want to do at least 1000 yards!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

4 comments:

  1. Jeff, great to have you back! You put on some serious time in that car! Cool way to catch up on your reading, albeit audio. That was a great use of "car time".

    The heat there sounds brutal! I can understand how challenging it is for you to plan your training. Its funny how many people run the treadmill in the winter because of the snow and folks in places like Houston use the treadmill in the summer to stay out of the heat. Its great that you had an alternate plan for your running.

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  2. Good to have you back, Jeff. It was 60-degrees this morning in Atlanta, so I'm quite happy you took the heat and humidity with you when you blew through town!

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  3. Boomer - Funny how that works, we run outside in the winter here when the weather is beautiful!

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  4. Steve - It does appear to be following me. At least for the rest of the week our highes are only going to be 97-98, instead of 104, so I guess we got that working for us!

    I am jealous of the 60 degrees in ATL. It was smoking hot there on Friday.

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