Friday 29th
Thoroughly enjoyable four miler in my Newtons, which incidentally have already covered over 100 miles! Really great to stretch out the legs at lunch time…

Splits: 7:58 7:34 7:19 7:18
(Loving the humidity by the way!)

Late afternoon swim at the rec center. Decided to make this my one and only swim time trial in the Breezy Point Triathlon build up. For the past couple of months I’ve just been logging the laps and not focusing on time at all. I was pleasantly surprised to break 20 minutes for the 1000m, which for me is actually pretty quick. I probably need to factor in an extra 3 or 4 minutes for Sunday’s open water swim over the same distance, but barring a disaster, I shouldn’t be last out of the water in my age-group.

Saturday 30th
Yet another 5k, which I believe is my 24th race of the year so far. The Lee’s Friends Run on the Wild Side 5k was a cool little event in support of a great cause and held at a neat venue – the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk.

I decided to try a new warm up routine which included lunges, stretches, easy running, skipping and several fast paced efforts. Despite taking about 50 minutes to perform the warm up, I felt good and will definitely incorporate it into future races/track workouts.

The race itself went well, although it was another one of those solo time trial efforts. Race winner Ryan Carroll (pictured above) was over two minutes clear in front which left me free in second place about a minute ahead of third spot. One of these days I’ll get to race a bunch of runners rather than battle against the clock. Anyway, I finished in 17:38 which was a pretty solid effort.

Cool down was okay, although my hips felt a little stiff and sore – probably caused by wearing my Brooks T5 instead of current favorite Newton Racer. I remembered this particular 5k course to be lots of twists and turns, and decided against the Newtons for this very reason. Due to the four “lugs” on the bottom of the Newton shoe, I’m not totally comfortable taking corners at speed and figured the T5 would be the better option. If only I’d known about the changed course

Sunday 31st
Here we go – Breezy Point Triathlon. Usually when I wake up on a race morning, I say to my wife Ally: “Could be worse, could be a triathlon”. Today, however, was a triathlon day and all I could think of was: “Could be worse, could be an Ironman”. I get very nervous before an open water swim and with this one being the first for almost five years, I was especially concerned.

Anyway, we (my wife and I) arrived at the race site with plenty of time to spare. I managed to snag a good transition spot and laid out all my gear. Good preparation is always key to shaving a few seconds off transition times, and with my swim as slow as it is, I’ll take every second I can get! Before long, the race director opened up the swim course for practice and, wetsuited up, in I went. The water was surprisingly perfect for open water swimming and I managed to swim out about 50m before treading water and surveying the scene. Damn, 1000m seems a long way in the open water! I gingerly paddled back to dry land and resigned myself to the fact it was going to be a rough 25 minutes to kick off the triathlon. No backing out though – I’d entered, I would definitely start and definitely make it to the finish.

Fast forward about an hour and here I am treading water with the rest of the 40-44 year old guys. Thankfully it turns out I’m not the only H2O-challenged athlete and I find myself in the middle of a bunch of guys all nervously waiting for the horn to send us on our way. We crack a few jokes, I hurriedly adjust my goggles and then we’re off.

Amazingly I find myself in a fair amount of clear space (probably because I’m already 100m behind the stronger swimmers), and it makes a pleasant change from some of the washing-machine-like swim starts I’ve experienced. Almost immediately I get into a groove and focus on the task ahead. I count down the orange buoys to the first turn and think to myself “Hey, this isn’t too bad”. My navigation was good, my progress was steady and I actually felt quite relaxed. The long, long back stretch of the swim course took forever, but I kept close to the course marker buoys and finally made the turn for home. Yes! Of course, all the faster swimmers from the wave 4 minutes behind ours had caught up to me by now and any doubt I had about where the exit swim ramp was located, quickly exited my mind. All I had to do was follow the mass of yellow caps to the finish. They were everywhere!

With about 150m to go I mentally rehearsed my swim~bike transition and celebratory punch-the-air-with-my-fist. I laughed underwater to myself that I was actually going to make it — not a good idea by the way, as laughing or smiling underwater causes your goggles to fill up with water — and within a minute or so my hand touched concrete and I was done! Swim time just over 22 minutes and time to take off the swim cap, goggles, wetsuit and get ready to bike.

The ride was quite uneventful, but enjoyable none the less. I’m definitely not a two wheel powerhouse but held my own and made up about a dozen spots in my age group. I averaged just over 19mph (very weak!) and almost as quick as it started, the 20k bike leg was over and I found myself back in transition putting on my Brooks Racer ST3s and trying to keep a left quad cramp at bay.

Now for the fun part – the 5k run. I exited the transition area (talking nicely to my legs all the time), grabbed a cup of water and focused on shaking out the burn from the bike ride. It took about a quarter mile for me to find my feet and then the only goal was to run as fast as I could and catch as many runners as possible. If the runner was male and had a 40, 41, 42, 43 or 44 sharpied on his right calf, it gave me extra incentive to catch and pass. I don’t recall being overtaken on the run and in the home stretch managed to pass another 4 or 5 guys – one right on the line who happened to be in my age group. Sorry whoever you were…

My run split was 19:05 — fastest in the 40-44 age group — and gave me an overall finish time of 1 hour 22 minutes and change; my fastest Breezy Point Triathlon by a couple of minutes. Not bad considering it was my first tri for 5 years and definitely an excuse for a celebratory Samichlaus!

Monday June 1st
Amazingly, there was no soreness after Sunday’s triathlon (apart from a stiff neck from looking up to sight the orange buoys), so I started the day with a nice progressive four miler. The weather was cool and breezy but deceptively humid! I guess I should also mention that it was nice to be back in my Newtons after a weekend on the Brooks side of the fence.

Decided to log a second run of the day and ended up with a pleasant 7 mile lunch time “progressive” with an easy mile cool down at the end. The humidity had dropped from earlier in the day, but it was still warm and very summerish. Also, this was the first run in my 2009 Newton Gravitas, which are definitely going to take some breaking into. I’d forgotten how “odd” a new pair of Newtons feel and how carpet-slipper-like my original Gravitas feel now I’ve logged over 100 miles in them. Great run though….

Splits: 7:32 7:19 7:07 6:55 6:27 6:20 5:59 6:58

Tuesday June 2nd
Great start to the day – 105 consecutive push-ups! I also forgot to mention, yesterday I received the first advance copy of my 7 Weeks to 100 Push-Ups book. It officially launched June 1st but will probably take a week or so to filter its way through to the stores and online retailers. The book looks great and I am VERY happy with how it turned out. People also keep reminding me that it will make a perfect Father’s Day gift, so my [biased] advice is to go out and buy one for the Dad in your life! Seriously, it’s a cool book and I’m very proud to say it’s mine.

Work was busy so it was great to get out later in the day and log an enjoyable eight miler in the sun. Temperature had “dropped” to 92, but it was still a scorcher – tremendous conditions!

Splits: 7:45 7:34 7:34 7:27 7:22 7:20 7:08 6:55

Wednesday June 3rd
I hate summer storms. I had planned to run a tough 4 x 5 minutes hard on the grass (in addition to a warm up/cool down), but a heavy thunder shower put me off the idea and I ended up running a 10k Strength Builder treadmill workout instead:

10 minute warm up, followed by 5 x 6 minutes hard (90 sec recovery) and a cool down. Not the National Running Day workout I was looking forward to, but it was still a solid one. I ended up at 10mph and 10% incline – not a bad effort.

Thursday June 4th
Glutton for punishment – I just did 110 consecutive push-ups. Now that I’m off the plan, I find myself in push-ups-no-mans-land, so figured I’d have another go at the hundred. Not sure how, but I managed 5 more than a couple of days ago too.

That’s me all caught up now. Sorry for the extra long post and I’ll try not to leave it as long next time.

See you at the races!

Sunday
Only 2 weeks to go to the Breezy Point Triathlon, so another indoor spin was in order. Actually, there’s nothing like a good Spinervals workout when it’s chucking it down outside, and today was no exception. The 50-minute Muscle Breakdown got the nod over Sweating Buckets, Have Mercy and The Uphill Grind – it’s a fairly intense workout made up of various intervals, 5 minutes of 4 seconds on/4 seconds off and 3 x 1 minute isometric squats. Good fun, and the time flew by.

Followed up the bike workout with a steady four miles on the treadmill – nothing fast and really just to get my legs ready for running after riding. I did vary the incline a little and ended up with it ramped it up to 10% grade. Might as well continue the quad burn after tearing them up on the bike.

Monday
Started the day with the Hundred Push Ups plan. I’m currently on Week 5 Day 2 and it’s starting to get tough (again). The format was slightly different today with several sets of a lower number of reps, culminating in a max of 40 at the end. I ended up with 160 in total, so not too bad I suppose. Getting there…

Incidentally, with just 2 weeks to launch date, the 7 Weeks to 100 Push-Ups book is doing rather well in the Amazon.com rankings – ducking under 5,000 for the first time and currently standing at #9 in the Abs Workouts category. It will be interesting to see what happens to the rank when the book is finally available in stores….

Lunch time rolled around pretty quickly with the rain finally making way for some early afternoon sunshine. I headed out for an 8 miler and felt pretty good in the Newton Gravitas and some good tunes courtesy of the iPod – loving the Genius feature of iTunes and its ability to create some great playlists! The wind was a bit of a pain at times, but it could have been a lot worse.

Good start to the week. Now I just have one workout left to do today – the weekly grass cutting which will probably be a nightmare considering how much rain we’ve had the last few days. Fun, fun, fun….

The workout went well and my legs feel fully recovered from the Frederick Marathon just ten days ago. I’m hoping to run another 5k this weekend and submit another time to the tweet5k competition which closes at 11:30pm PDT on May 30, 2009.

Here’s to the next 1000 miles!

After the 50 minute Spinervals workout was over, I hopped off the bike, laced up my running shoes and ran a brisk 30 minutes on the treadmill – great practice for the sprint triathlon at the end of May.

I also did 140 push ups (7 sets of 20) and followed up with a few sets of squats. Things are going well right now and I’m excited to see what I can do at the Frederick Marathon in 11 days time.

Good times…

You may or may not remember from an earlier post, but 10k Strength Builder starts off with a 10 minute warm up at “base pace” which includes several 30 second striders to prepare your legs and lungs for the workout.

The warm up is followed by 5 x 6 minute steady state intervals at a simulated 10k race pace. The incline starts at 0% but builds to a 5% grade by the end of the 6 minute period. For the final 6 minutes, Coach Troy doubles the incline so you end up running base pace at 10%! Oh yes, you get 90 seconds rest between each 6 minute effort.

The complete workout takes just over 50 minutes and is pretty challenging to say the least. Funny thing is, I felt so good tonight, I doubled up and did another 5 x 6 minutes with the same 90 seconds recovery. The shoes worked very well but I’m going to test them out in a local 10k on Saturday morning just to make sure.

I also received a card from the Shamrock Marathon organizers today containing bib number and race weekend instructions. The marathon starts at 8am on Saturday, March 22nd and my race number is 147. Sounds lucky doesn’t it?

I also need to put on a few pounds and regain some lost strength from last week’s sickness. The following chart covering the last three months tells the story quite well:

The Time Saver I DVD contains 3 x 30 minute workouts:

# Workout A: 10K Tempo Intervals
# Workout B: 5K/10K Cruise & Tempo Intervals
# Workout C: 5K Cruise Intervals

I chose Workout C which is broken down as follows:

5 minute warm up
3 x 2.5 minutes @ 5k pace (1st interval is at 1% incline, 2nd at 2%, 3rd at 3%)
Repeat the 3 x 2.5 minutes @ 5k pace (1%, 2% and 3%)
5 minute cool down

The workout really gets your legs moving and your heart beating fast and is perfect when you don’t have much time or are scheduled for a shorter, quality effort.

At first I was a little confused as I didn’t see the Supernova Cushion on the famous “Shoe Wall” (pictured below), but soon found out Adidas decided to change the name of their excellent neutral shoe.

Instead of following a logical naming convention and calling the latest model “Supernova Cushion 8″, Adidas oddly named the new shoe “Supernova Glide“.

The White, Phantom and Collegiate Gold colors are surely a bit funky for some, but I’m fine with the shoe’s appearance. The important qualities for me, however, are the fit, the support and the forefoot propulsion – all of which seem as good as, if not better, than the earlier models.

Also, at 10.5 ounces, the Glide is pretty light and not bulky at all. The fit is superb and the out-of-box experience second to none. MSRP is a flat $100.00, but I notice Holabird Sports are currently selling the Glide for $89.95 with Free 2nd Day Air Shipping in the Continental US. Click on the Holabird Sports banner below if you’re interested in saving a few dollars…..

Anyway, on to tonight’s run. In the January/February ’09 issue of Running Times I found “4 creative workouts for winter indoor training”. They all appear quite challenging but I plumped for #3 from competitive masters runner Melissa Trunnel. The workout is called The Pyramid and looks like this:

Usual warm up
Set 1: steady pace 1 minute each @ 4, 5 and 6% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Set 2: steady pace 1 minute each @ 5, 6 and 7% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Set 3: steady pace 1 minute each @ 6, 7 and 8% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Set 4: steady pace 1 minute each @ 7, 6 and 5% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Set 5: steady pace 1 minute each @ 6, 5 and 4% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Usual cool down

It made a pleasant change to follow a different workout and I’m sure the varying incline will help me in the upcoming Tidewater Striders Distance Series – a series of three races of 20, 25 and 30k distance designed as a tune-up to the Shamrock Marathon in March.

I followed the treadmill workout with Day 6 of the 30 Day Shred; a challenging workout which my body is definitely getting used to. In fact I decided to increase the hand weights by a couple of pounds yesterday to maximize the benefit gained from the program. In a few days time I get to move up to Level 2, which according to the reviews, is a whole different ball game. Can’t wait…

By the way, if you didn’t notice the Running Times Magazine ad above, Amazon are currently selling a one year (10 issue) subscription for just $10 – an incredible offer of just $1 per issue! Personally I love deals like this and will be renewing my subscription for 2009 very soon!

Before I could stop sweating I found myself doing Day 2 of the Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred DVD workout. Jillian, in case you didn’t kno, is a personal trainer who gained prominence on the NBC weight-loss reality series The Biggest Loser. My wife, Ally, started the program a few days ago and thought it would be fun if I tried it too. If you fancy a nice gentle 20 minute cool down after a challenging treadmill run, this isn’t the workout for you. Trust me, it’s tough, and you’ll hurt in places that haven’t hurt for years! Great fun though and I’m sure it will add something to my overall fitness. I certainly hope so anyway….

I never tire of watching the bout and the non-stop excitement always makes me run faster than planned. The 30 minutes flew by and now I’m all fired up for the Santa Shuffle 5k in the morning. My typical 5k race strategy is to go out pretty hard and attempt to run negative splits and finish faster than I started. However, after listening to Blaine Moore’s Maintaining a Competitive Edge as you Age CD in which Blaine interviews amazing Maine Runner Tom Ryan, I may try something else. Masters runner Tom took 15 years away from running before coming back in his 40s and 50s to become one of the top senior cross country runners in the country. Tom’s strategy is to go out fast, but expect to slow slightly in each of the 2nd and 3rd miles. I need to start faster than I’ve ever started before and hope I can hang on. Should be interesting…..

Blaine still has a few (5 I believe) of the initial batch of FREE CDs remaining – all you pay is a nominal shipping fee. If you’re interested, head over to the Competitive Aging web site and snap up the FREE CD. You’ll also be eligible for 3 bonuses worth $79. Better hurry though – only 5 remain!