Stationary Bike

I'm in Raleigh Durham for 18 hours and it's a hot day in the upper 80's with lots of humidity. I had time on my hands, but I'm recovering from a cold and running outside just wasn't in the cards. This is when it's a prime situation to hop on a stationary bike at the Four Points Sheraton near the airport where I was staying and put those bike muscles to work.

There isn't a correlation to the bike positioning, but hamstrings, quads, glutes and calves still get a workout. I also like practicing building those slow twitch muscles. I sat down with a book I'm reading and hit the random program to keep me from holding the same monotonous pace. Two and a half hours later I was cooked.

Even though this is not a high intensity workout I still had to take in calories twice since I was only drinking water to keep my blood sugar up. It's not a race environment, but practicing drinking on a fifteen minute schedule is always a good habit pattern to keep your body in. Even though this was more of a time in the saddle workout in a saddle a third the size of the one on my bike, I still made sure to focus on the things I can do to support future rides. When building towards a strong 112 mile ride in November two and half hours on a stationary bike here and there can still be a great building block if used effectively.

I was sore all over my legs and butt the rest of the day while sitting up in the cockpit for a five hour flight from Baltimore to Phoenix later that evening, but happy I made the time to get it in. This just makes those outside rides with the wind at my back that much sweeter when I can get them in.

Running Plan for the Foreseeable Future

My knees are a little sore, and my achilles pretty stiff. I rolled out of bed with my quads feeling like a bruise this morning as I walked over to grab Daelen from the crib. Nine miles is not that far, but every time a new distance is reached I'm hurting when that alarm goes off. This is where a little bit of strategy comes in regarding rest and recovery.

After the long runs, I'm putting a focus on getting that elusive seven hours of sleep. Human growth hormones come out at night and do the best part of the bodies healing. There is no need to have a long run more then once per week. This gives me a chance to heal when I've pushed my body to a new limit for the season. I'll only follow a long run with a zero impact activity such as biking, or swimming and not running. I've seen too many shin splints and hyper tension in the soles of feet. I'm not sure I would have had to get orthotics had I taken this advice. On the road I'll only come within two miles of my longest run of the season so that I'm only pushing it on familiar courses with support around I can call if something doesn't go as planned. Those rest days will be spent with multiple long stretching sessions to keep those muscles from getting overly tight.

I was told by my podiatrist to work up to the marathon distance and then go back to build up speed. That is exactly what I hope to do. Each week if possible I'll add a mile to my workout until reaching 20 miles and then I'll start over at 10 miles attempting to do it with more speed and focus. In the mean time, I'll use the road to get in those four to eight mile runs that keep you in check and help build up that cardiovascular threshold. This will be the first time I've enlisted a plan that put restrictions on my schedule, or my progress in order to preserve my body. I love that feeling half way through a long run knowing I've got that same distance to get back to my house. I'm just trying to give myself as many of those mornings as I can without having to fall victim to the dreaded injury bug.

Let the Ironman Training Begin

It's 2013 and the training for Ironman Arizona in November has begun. It was a beautiful morning leaving the house at 4:30 AM to get my first 9 mile run in of the year. Why did I leave so early? To be home in time for my 11 month old baby boy to wake up. This is my new training reality. I'm riding with the Firefighter as much as I can and since my feet are still adjusting to orthotics I have to keep the high impact training to a smaller percentage. This means more swimming and biking. I'm starting the training earlier in the season and attempting to just treat the whole year like some phase of training for a race. This hopefully marks the end of my days going out for the first run, or bike ride of the year going half the speed and hurting twice as bad the next day.

Thirty years old isn't anywhere near midlife, but it does come with more responsibilities, time constraints and not quite the recovery time of my mid twenties. I also have enough on my plate now that I truly look forward to fantasy football podcasts while running as the sun comes up. I feel relaxed sitting in the aero position grinding out the miles for the 37 miles to ride with the firefighter to work and back. I'm trying to be more responsible with training so that I don't hurt myself, and to eat better to get the most out of each day. When I trained for my first race it was a mountain to attack as hard as I could. Today it's my stress relief to get out of the way before Daelen(my 11 month old) wakes up in the morning. Either way, I'm shooting for my first under 11 hour race and hoping to stay healthy enough to pursue a few marathon PR's in the spring.

Wheaties Sponsorship, Breakfast of Champions!!!

 I am excited to say Wheaties has offered me a season of sponsorship through Active Ambassador at Active.com. One season is August through March of 2013. This is a wonderful way to start things off with hopefully four races coming up. Who hasn't pictured themselves at one time, or another on the front of a Wheaties Box? I will get the breakfast of champions to eat throughout the season to help me be as strong as I can. The folks at Wheaties will also be giving me gear to represent them while I train and race.

I just found out a couple weeks ago that I would get this privilege. There were 100 lucky athletes chosen this season. I haven't gotten any of the shipments yet, but will post updates as I get them in late August and September. This is only the first step having gotten the confirmation email and participated in a online webinar to learn more details. I'm excited and can't wait to wear the signature orange(hopefully, I don't know what the gear looks like yet) as I hear,"you are an Ironman" and maybe even qualify for the Boston marathon. I can't think of a better product to support me trying to be a champion.

Ironman Arizona 2012, Let it Begin

I have attempted to set up my training as the textbooks say, but I have never been successful. I have written weekly plans with specific dates and have not been disciplined enough to follow them. Usually, I can put together a rough workout schedule, but this year there was something different. A little 7 pound 2 ounce beautiful baby boy named Daelen entered the picture. He decided to enter the world 5 weeks early and come May 27th instead of June 30th. I found myself fairly busy playing catch-up: putting together baby swings, buying burp cloths and attempting to find out where the owner’s manual was for this little joy.

Daelen Mathew Peele still i the hospital and 1 day old here

In all of the chaos, I failed to get a workout in for almost two months. A week and a half ago, my “I have to complete an Ironman in four months” alarm went off, and so far I am in my most disciplined training set of days in memory. This has not been an easy thing with work and my wonderful wife still on maternity leave with Daelen. I swam 4 times, ran 4 times, and biked on a trainer 4 times. My swims have progressed from 5 sets of 250 yards over an hour to 2500 yards in 50 minutes. My run has progressed from a 100 minute 8 mile run to a 79 minute 8 mile run. The bike has gotten easier and my breathing is starting to adjust with my renewed cardio. I am working on core exercises every time I swim, and I even hit LA Fitness on the way home from work yesterday after an 11 hour duty day with 4 flights.

There is one other important detail to note here. I do not have my trusted training partner to push for the same goal as me. When I was unable to do Ironman Coeur D'Alene, I missed out on the last chance for the year to do full Ironman training with the Firefighter. This means it's time to grow up and commit to training solo. I'm actually excited for this. On long workouts, I have a lot more to think about with my family and little boy and football season is coming up so I can listen to fantasy football podcasts. I have always depended on training with others, but on race day you are by yourself. Hopefully it is going to prove invaluable to have done a lot of the workouts that way.

My plan is simple and with a specific focus. I will do my best to only have one true rest day a week until November. I will swim at least once a week working towards getting my 2500 yard time into a 1:05 Ironman pace. I will focus my running on getting 8 to 10 mile runs under a 9 minute pace and I will keep working on getting stronger on the bike while working on my core. This is until September. From then on I will keep doing the same kind of swimming (maybe increasing to 3000 yards per workout) and then spending 2 months building distance to marathon and 112 mile bike range. I don't think this is the best way of doing things, but it does me no good to increase distances when I am only now getting a handle on these short workouts.

I weigh 195 pounds right now (down from 200). I am hoping to thin up and put absolutely zero emphasis on weight training. This will help me get lighter and stay as fresh as possible for my workouts. I will keep you updated on how this plan works out. I have never waited this long to start from a zero base and not one of my workouts this last 10 days or so has felt easy. They say sprinters can run long distance, so I'm hoping working harder on these shorter workouts for another month very hard will help that prove true. Eight miles is no sprint on the run, but next to a marathon it might as well be. As a reference, I’m using a new book I'm reading: Triathlete Magazine's Essential Week by Week Training Guide: Plans, Scheduling, Tips, and Workout Goals for Triathletes of All Levels by Matt Fitzgerald. This is a good reference, but there are no plans for my particular situation. For those of you thinking of doing a race, but like me are bad at coming up with a training schedule, this is a winner. It does an excellent job of helping for all performance levels and all distances.

Life never lets me attack one of these races the same way. My first Ironman involved a heart virus, my third a new job and a broken bike, this one a tight timeline and a baby Daelen. The finish line is worth the journey though. So as I said before, “Let it Begin."

Raleigh Durham North Carolina on a Warm Summer Day

I got in around midnight last night and before heading to my room at the Hilton in Raleigh Durham I asked if there were any good running paths near by. This sheet below was handed to me, pre-highlighted and easy to explain. The X on the bottom of the page is the hotel and the dimensions make for a 3 mile run and change if you take the blue highlighter route the entire way around. I was looking for a 10 mile run today and so the plan was to wake up without an alarm, eat a small breakfast of a Lara Bar and a Powerbar gel before heading out for 3 loops on this thing. I get lost so often on these foreign runs the first time, I knew I could add a mile without blinking an eye.

The morning went just as planned and below is the beautiful setting I was met with. I knew right off the bat this would be a nice run. Temperatures in the mid 60's, a nice breeze and though the sun was high in the sky, it sure beet the Arizona heat.

Just to give a good impression of how different things are out here on the east coast, check out the porch and the rocking chairs. When I returned after the run, every rocking chair was occupied with people just relaxing on a Saturday.

The first couple steps on the map were very short. I was told that the path would be obvious and as you can see below it kind of stood out. I did my usual slow first mile to get the hang of things and warm up gradually. The trees were incredible, making me jealous to have such scenic options around every corner. Things were not as easy to follow after the initially getting on the trail and I wish I had taken a picture of the map, or brought it before leaving. I just knew that I would be making a circle with a pond near the half way mark, and some stores around the last mile. Not much to go on for a mental picture.

For the first loops I did not see anyone else outside, but on loops two and three I saw a few people as crazy as me exercising instead of just enjoying a great Saturday morning. I guess this is how I do enjoy a Saturday morning honestly. The way to know you are on the right path is the asphalt trail. There are short gaps with standard sidewalks, but they only last for a matter of feet before the asphalt continues. There are arrows on the trail, but they go both directions at some points making it kind of confusing.

There are no mile markers, maps along the way, just the asphalt trail to follow like Dorothy and the yellow brick road. Just follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the black asphalt road. Near the halfway point in the loops is the pond that helps reassure you that you're on the path still. The first time I came to it, I saw a goose with baby geese around it. I thought this was darling, until the mama goose spread her wings, hissed at me and charged. I can honestly say I was scared of being thrashed by a goose protecting her young and sprinted around her as fast as I could. I narrowly escaped and wondered if this was going to be a routine on each loop.

There are two bridges over the pond and I liked how there were metal guards at foot level on them. I've had phones drop out of their case and I wouldn't want to have it slide into a pond with a vengeful goose. Both bridges were well made, and sturdy. This is the scenic highlight of the run. There were no excessive bugs, or pedestrians fishing around.

Here is the part of the run where I kept up my streak of almost following the path perfectly. It gets really confusing and I accidentally took NC 54 to Page Rd. as pictured on the map. Remember I told you that the paths have no signage, or maps to help you out. I was running along sidewalk and it kind of gave me a clue that it wasn't anything like the rest of the loop. Oh well, first loop done and I picked up the path right right where I started it for loop number two.

This time I tried to follow the path and was doing better, when I goofed it again. I ended up on an area highlighted in purple on the map, then back tracking on the blue parts that I had already ran once. Upon going to the start of the course the wrong way I turned around and just called that a loop. The third loop, to make up for lost distance I took the long way with NC 54 and Page Rd again. Pictured below is NC 54. I hit the 10 mile mark with roughly a block to cool down on the way back to the hotel.

The run felt awesome. The best of 2012 so far averaging 9:19 miles and having gas left in the tank. I loved this run and would recommend it to anyone looking for an adventure, or likes scavenger hunts. Every time you find the path again it gives a feeling of gratification. I also tried the Hilton Precor Fitness Center. The room was small, but well stocked with good ventilation. I pumped iron while watching the lunch crowd eat out on a patio. 40 minutes on the bike and an upper body weight routine and I was done. I showered up and just to stay consistent, rewarded myself with food.

It might not look appetizing, but that is a North Carolina, pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw on it. I loved it. I have just enough time to finish this post, take a nap and fly back to Phoenix via Chicago tonight. It was a great morning, and a great run with an even better end. Now all I have to worry about is how sore I'll feel on those long flights crossing the country.

 

Happy Mothers Day from Sacramento

Happy Mothers day to all the ladies out there. A big thank you to all the women for the role you play in helping us all grow to be who we are, couldn't do it without you. A big thank you to my beautiful bride for being 7 1/2 months into incubating my little boy to be on this mothers day.

As pictured below, out in Sacramento this is a good occasion to come out to the river and sit along the beach partying it up. I particularly like the circa 1970's house boat siting along the beach in the bottom left o the picture. Nothing says thanks like some cold ones and a cool dip in the water. This particular picture was taken in the middle of my great run this morning. This was the kind of run that makes you feel like you are actually progressing. I got 7 hours of sleep last night, woke up ate 2 lara bars and had a cup of coffee before heading outside with intentions of a 10 mile run.

Lately whenever I run with anyone else they shoot out of the gate like a rabbit in the greyhound races and it kills me. Knowing myself I am a slow starter, strong finisher. I don't like 3 mile run's because I am just warming up as they are finishing. That being said, I started out the gate and as in other Sacramento runs moseyed through a tunnel, towards old town and crossed the train station. I then turned right and followed the path for 4.5 more miles before turning around. At the 2 miles mark the run turns into a serene path similar to the canals in Phoenix. There were bikers and runners every few minutes. Tree's surrounded both sides and overhang the road providing great shade. There were several forks in the road and I just kept picking whatever path continued straight. I would love to try some of the turns next time, but I didn't want to get lost and only had enough water to do the exact distance I planned.

Above is pictured a good view of what the road looked like when the tree's only overhung half the road. If you look closely you can see the there is a two foot dirt path on either side of the road for those that want to save their knee's, or just get out of the cyclists way. Pictured above is actually the turn around point, where my Garmin just told me I had gone 5 miles. I ran the previous half mile with a rock in my shoe and chose to stop here and get it out before the equal 5 mile trek back. I started with just under a ten minute mile and each mile got stronger finishing at about 9:05 the last one. This included my walking every two miles for the water breaks. I couldn't be happier with that after barely finishing two weeks ago and having to walk the last 2 miles of a six mile run at home this week.

All in all I loved this run and can't wait for my next overnight here to try it again. It was peaceful, there was lots of traffic and everyone was friendly. After the run I came up to my room, ironed my things for the day and put in another 30 minutes on the stationary bike. Don't I look happy in my Wheaties Fuel shirt enjoying my mothers day on the road. I loved this run and didn't want to miss out on all the festivities of Mothers day with my wife doing church and the Cheesecake factory with her family, so I enjoyed a brunch at the Holiday in I stayed at. If you have been reading this and noticed that for the third time in a row I countered a workout with a huge meal, then yes I am eating well these days. The buffet lunch was fantastic with cutting stations, coffee, banana french toast, carrot cake and lemon bars. I had a made to order omelet and enjoyed every bit of it.

This was an awesome Mother's day 2012 for having to be on the road. Thank you to all the mothers in my life one more time, and thank you to Holiday Inn in Sacramento for a great brunch.