Monday, January 31, 2011

It's a Wrap ...

Wow, whadda week we just wrapped up!  It was so chalked full of action that the only way this tired and weary blogger can recap is through the laziness beauty of the little round dots known as bullet points.  

  • A HUGE Congrats to my lovely wife Annie for setting a 21-minute PR during yesterday's Houston Marathon (She'll have a RR later).  The morning started as humid and ended extremely wet after continuous rain showers.  Despite these tough running conditions she still sucked it up and put in a great effort.  I am very proud of her!

  • A HUGE Congrats to our friends Elizabeth, RuthAnn, and Beth for their strong finishes yesterday as well. It was fun training with all of you over the last six months.  You all did awesome!
  • I am about 95% back from being sick with bronchitis and a sinus infection.  Over the last 13 days I missed a total of 18 scheduled workouts.  My energy has returned but I am still experiencing the lingering effects of an awful cough which has made it impossible to swim and difficult to run and bike.  My antibiotic cycle ends tomorrow and I am hopeful I can put this setback behind and move forward. Here are my disappointing volume totals for the month of January:  
    • Swim -10h 35m - 22,600 Yds
    • Bike - 17h 54m - 334.61 Mi
    • Run - 11h 17m  - 80.98 Mi
  • As you can see as a total these numbers are not awful but this was my second month of Base Training for Ironman and I fell about 30mi short on the run, 170mi on the bike, and about 18,000 yds on the swim.  The good news is that since I had a November HIM and never took an offseason my base was pretty solid starting Ironman training.  Tomorrow morning I will try and get 3500yds in the pool at Masters swim.  All-in-all this could have been a lot worse and I am thankful to be almost through the woods.
  • I am exhausted this morning!  I am exhausted from being a Marathon Spectator - damn that is hard work.  Here is a recap:  Yesterday woke up a 4am and started getting things ready to go.  Was on the road by 5am.  We parked about a mile from the Convention Center and I walked with the girls over to the meeting area.  I had to turn around and walk back a mile after forgetting my Blackberry in the car.  Then it was a 1/2mile walk to the start line which I did with my friend Patrick so we could get starting pictures.  After the race started we walked to mile 7 of the marathon course.  We used one of those race maps that didn't have a legend - it looked like a map from Disney Land.  These types of maps suck.  We estimated the walk to mile 7 was about 1.5 miles.  We were wrong, it was over a 4 mile walk.  After we saw the girls run by we started the over 4 mile walk back to the start line to get in the car and drive to mile 20.  This walk was all done in a downpour.  We then drove to mile 20 and cheered there for about 2 hours taking pics with the SLR camera.  After seeing our runners we headed to the finish line which required us to park about a mile away.  When it was all said and done Patrick and I walked about 14-15 miles and were on our feet for 7 hours straight!  I told Annie next time I was going to run because it is a lot less exhausting - she did not find that comment as humorous as me!
  • Even after all this I still got my Sunday run in last night - it was brutal.
  • Very Cool Team Trakkers Update #1: If any of you have not signed up yet for the Rev3 race(s) for this season you can save $10 per entry by using this code:  Trakkers15.  You'll be prompted to enter as you register on Active.com.  Here are the races that the code is eligible for - Rev3 Knoxville, Rev3 Quassy, Rev3 Portland, Rev3 Cedar Point, and Rev3 South Carolina.  I am registered for Cedar Point and South Carolina and am trying to work Portland into the schedule too!  To keep up on all things Rev3 please follow on Twitter @Rev3Tri.
  • Very Cool Team Trakkers Update #2:  We are pleased to announce that All3Sports.com is again an official sponsor of Team Trakkers.  All3Sports is your one stop shop for all things swim/bike/run and because they are so freaking awesome they have offered a discount to our friends and readers.  So when you are looking to make you next Tri equipment purchase use this code: GOTRAKKERS; and you will save 15% off your entire purchase.  Follow them on Twitter @All3Sportscom.
  • Memorial Hermann 70.3 is a mere 68 Days away.  Ironman Texas is only 106 Days away.  This is getting very real very fast!
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

29 comments:

  1. Glad you are almost back at 100%, and I know you are itching to get back at it.

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  2. Congrats to your wife for her PR.
    My hubs is sick with a pseudo bronchitis and sinus infection...we are both ready for him to be OVER this....

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  3. phew man. Crazy how quick the time goes. Should I be getting worried myself?! haha.

    SLOW AND EASY back into it. Don't relapse.

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  4. Make sure you take care of that last 5% before you do anything too serious (or dumb!). :)

    Rockin' the Houston! That's what I like to hear.

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  5. - Congrats to Annie!!!

    - I am sore and exhausted today as well, took sleep over my AM workout, will make it up tonight, its hard work ordering my official cheesehead and packer green place settings, getting my hair straighten to look like AJ Hawk and Clay Matthews, who wants to look like Monica from Friends with frizzy hair anyways

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  6. Oh my gosh... Annie CRUSHED her PR! That's awesome... please tell her congrats!

    Knowing how sick you were and how many workouts you missed, you still had one heck of a month Jeff! Keep it up... can't believe the IM is only 106 days away. Eeeek - that's exciting!

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  7. Way to go Annie! And happy to hear you are on the mend. Best to get sick now when it is so early on than later right before your races. (Well actually it's best not to get sick at all, but you get my drift.) Happy training Jeff!

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  8. congrats to your wife! love the picture of her, I will go visit her blog..Glad you are feeling better...sinus infection are hard to get over..I get them too often for my taste..!

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  9. Spectating is exhausting. I would have to agree!!!

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  10. Congrats to Annie! And glad you are feeling better. Don't sweat the missed workouts, just focus on moving forward now. You had a fabulous base going into training and that will pay off for you.

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  11. Congratulations to Annie! Glad to hear your feeling better. Your training volumes are still awesome! I didn't realize you were doing Galveston. We'll have to meet up! :)

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  12. Congrats to Annie!

    I am glad you are feeling almost 100%. I am sure the rest will come this week.

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  13. I'm so glad you're finally feeling better! I just got my antibiotics today, so hopefully I'll be where you are next week!
    Congrats to Annie and her PR! Woohoo!

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  14. Congrats to your wife, 21 min PR is AMAZING!!

    Glad your feeling better, it is really exciting that the tri season is quickly approaching!!

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  15. wow 21 minutes is huge.Good for her and good for you for hoofing it around.

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  16. Glad to hear you are feeling better and huge props to your wife! Funny, my husband always tells me that spectating is hard work!

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  17. Congrats to Annie and seriously to you too for all that walking....a half-marathon of walking in the rain deserves a medal.

    Hopefully all that rain did not mess with your meds and that you will get those miles back in February.

    Pssst....138.6 last night after the ride and run. Woke up this AM at 141....getting closer to 140. don't tell the wife.

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  18. YAY ANNIE!!!!!!

    Glad your feeling better!!!

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  19. Congrats to Annie! Even in crappy weather she was smiling big. And you! You walked over a half marathon, spectated and photographed and then did your run. Simply amazing! Glad you are back to the land of the living. Like I mentioned before, thank goodness you got the crud out of the way early on and now you can just put your head down and focus, foucis, focus. You are right, I can't believe how quickly your IM is coming up.

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  20. Holy cow! 21 minute PR! Annie is going to kicking your butt in no time.

    Glad to hear that you are on the mend. With your base, missing those workouts isn't going to be a big deal at all.

    My wife will be the first to agree that spectating is hard work. I think sometimes she gets a better workout than I do at some races.

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  21. Spectating is totally exausting, which I only realized at IMWI last year spectating and following peeps on the run course. I was sooooo tired

    glad you are almost thru it Ive had two of those bouts in the last 6 months - No Fun

    D

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  22. Congrats to Annie!

    My hubby is an incredible spectator - it is hard work!

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  23. 68 days?!?!?!? HOLY F&@#&@#* S&@#@*& BATMAN!!! haha!

    Congrats to your wife on her HUGE PR! That is a lot of time taken off.

    Man, your sickness really put a huge dent into your training this month. You got this though! You have such an accumulated base left over from last season that come Ironman Specific training time, you will be good to go.

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  24. Wow!! Huge Congrats to Annie!! a 21 min PR is amazing!! Glad you are feeling better, you are so right not to stress about the missed workouts... getting back to healthy is the most important thing!!

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  25. Glad you're back to the land of the living! again Congrats to Annie-and race watching IS exhausting

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  26. that's awesome about Annie. And you still did a lot while being so sick!

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  27. Dude Annie's race report was great. Wouldn't it be sweet to get her into tri's so she can do IMTX in 2012 with you?

    I'm just sayin'...

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  28. Aw, a huge, huge congratulations to your wife!

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  29. BIG congrats to Annie!! I can't wait to read her RR. That is on my list of blogs to read ASAP! Holy cow, I leave for a few days and between work and blogging, I have a lot to catch up on!! :) I am back though, so look out!

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