Thanksgiving Week

It must be a holiday week as I took both Sunday and Monday off.  I had better burn some calories before jumping into the holiday food fest. :-)

Tue, 11/25: 60-minute spin class (153 bpm avg heart rate).  No time to swim.  I was already taking a half-day off work (actually off the the rest of the week - woo-hoo!) to make it to my daughter's school's "Thankgiving Feast"

Wed, 11/26: 75-minute spin class (154 bpm avg heart rate). Again, no time to swim. Had to bring my daughter to her classmate's birthday party.

Thu, 11/27: Tried a couple of new things.  First, 20 minutes on the Stairmaster (156 bpm avg hr).  The first 12 minutes were at level "10" and then I backed it down to level "8".  This machine never gets any easier ... Then some weight work - mostly arms and chest - and a quick session on the rowing machine (stats: 6:08 minutes, 1388 meters, 83 calories).  That felt good.  I'll have to add the rower into my routine - it seems like a good complement to swimming as it works my back and triceps (swimming is mostly shoulders and chest).  I didn't start my Garmin recording for this activity so no stats, but I remember reaching 170-171 bpm by the end of the 6 minutes so I was definitely getting some cardio in as well.  After all of that, a 70-minute spin class (157 bpm avg heart rate) to finish the pre-Thankgiving meal workout!

Fri, 11/28: 2,500 yard swim in 53:35 with 500 yd splits of 10:30, 10:34.5, 10:31, 0:41 (break), 10:36, and 10:42.5.  I needed to finish my swim in under an hour because I had to beat the 9:00 "Aqua-Fit" class.  Next time I'll have to get to the pool earlier!  Not a bad performance (and a minute faster than Friday, November 14), especially when considering (1) this was my first time in the pool in over a week, and (2) my arms and chest were quite sore from yesterday's weight session. 

Sat, 11/29.  Another double-spin session morning.  12.5-minute warm-up before the first class, 1-hour class @ 9:15 AM, 15-minute intermission, and then the second 1-hour class at 10:30 AM with an extra 2.5 minutes tacked onto the end to make an even 2 1/2 hours total.  Stats and heart rate chart:

I can't believe I averaged 157 bpm for the entire two and a half hours. A very solid workout for the holiday weekend.

Quick Week; Quick Log

Tue, 11/18: 45-min spin class (159 bpm avg hr) + 1,000 yd swim in 20:48 (splits: 10:31.5, 10:16.5)

Wed, 11/19: off-day; full day of meetings at work

Thu, 11/20: 60-min spin class (154 bpm avg hr) + 500 yd swim in 9:43.5

Fri, 11/21: another off-day today; I guess I'm taking it easy this week.  I'll chalk it up to resting up for tomorrow's Denton Turkey Roll Bike Ride.

The Swimming and Cycling Continues

Sorry, no witty commentary for this post.  My shin is healing, but I'm still staying away from running - I don't want to risk reinjuring it before the fracture is 100% gone.  So just a week's work of (spin & swim) entries for the training log:

• Tue: "5 miles" on the hotel elliptical trainer in 50 minutes.  Not bad for an "on-the-road" workout.
  
• Wed: 50 minutes of spin class (avg hr 155 bpm) - had to bug out early for a lunch appointment.
  
• Thu: The normal 1-hour spin class (avg hr 155 bpm - looks familiar) and then a "quick" (but should have been quicker) 500 yd swim in 10:28
  
• Fri: 2,500 yd swim in 54:33 with 500 yd splits of 10:37.5, 10:44, 10:47, 0:42 (break), 10:56, 10:47 ... A solid effort as I ramp up my distance again
• Sat: Double spin classes: First hour-long class @ avg hr 156 bpm, 15-minute "intermission" (and water bottle refill) @ avg hr 144 bpm, Second hour-long class @ avg hr 152 bpm.  Average heart rate of 153 for the entire 2:15 effort.
• Sun: Off - ahhh ... grabbed some dim-sum and did some yard work (the weather is still mild in Texas)
• Mon: 3,000 yd swim in 1:05:53 with 500 yd splits of 10:46, 10:51, 10:49, 0:43 (break), 11:02, 10:58, 10:45 ... The speed is not quite back yet (this is more than 4 minutes slower than my PR), but at least the distance/endurance is coming along nicely.

In other news, I registered for the Denton Turkey Roll today.  My cycling legs actually feel pretty good so I think I'll be doing at least 71 miles - either "just" the 71-mile route or perhaps start on the 35-mile until it merges with the 71 at the Lake Ray Roberts Dam Store (see Tour de French Fry)

Monday Swim Before Travel

2,000 yard swim in 45:48.5. My 500 yd splits:

• 1st 500 yds: 10:11.5
• 2nd 500 yds: 10:19
• Water/AccelGel break: 3:51.5 (was talking to the swimmer next to me about turn techniques - of which I have none!)
  
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:39
• 4th 500 yds: 10:47

I'm a little disappointed that even after such a long break that my swim times for the last two sets weren't faster. Oh well ...

Headed to Boston (for work) tonight. If I get ambitious, I'll try to do a quick session on the hotel treadmill (incline walk - still no running for me) and/or swim and/or strength training.  Lots of options, I just need to be able to wake up after a scheduled late (~11:30 PM) arrival at Logan International.

Double Spin

After the normal spin class (60-minutes, avg hr of 151 bpm) and quick 500 yd swim on Thursday, I took Friday off because I thought I felt a cold coming on.  However, by this morning, it seemed to have passed, so I headed to the gym to get in a workout.

The LA Fitness class schedule posted on the web showed spin classes at 9:15 and 10:30.  I got to the gym just as the 9:15 class was starting and was lucky to get one of the last open bikes.  I completed the first 60-minute class (avg hr 161 bpm) and then filled my water bottle and took a quick break during the 10 minutes between classes and then did the second 60-minute class (avg hr 159 bpm).  

So over two hours of cycling completed.   Not quite the same as a 100K bike ride, but still a solid workout.  In fact, it took longer than a half-marathon with a lot less stress on my knees, feet, and legs! :-)

On the Running DL; Bike & Swim Focus

Well, I decided to bite the bullet and put myself on the "disabled list" for running.  I've had pain in my left shin following my last several long runs (including Sunday's DRC Half) and even though it goes away after a day or so, it's recurrence is troubling.  With some Internet research and discussion with friends who've had similar conditions in the past, I am pretty sure that I have a stress fracture in my tibia (shin).

Anyway, I'm planning to lay off running for 4 weeks.  I'll do a 3 mile test run at the end of November and if I feel good, I'll sign up for the Dallas White Rock Half-Marathon (December 15).  Otherwise, no running or running races for me until 2009.

So with this restriction, I've been focusing on my swimming and biking.  So far this week:

Monday: A solid 2,000 yard swim in 42:39. My 500 yd splits:

• 1st 500 yds: 10:20
• 2nd 500 yds: 10:21
• Water/AccelGel break: 0:30
  
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:22
• 4th 500 yds: 10:46

Tuesday: 75 minutes of spin (159 bpm avg hr)

Wednesday: 65 minute spin class (150 bpm avg hr)

So far, so good.  The spin classes don't seem to aggravate my shin and I have been walking (even up and down stairs) without pain for the last couple days.  Staying away from running will be difficult (never thought I'd say THAT before) but I know this is the only way to let the bone heal.

DRC Half Marathon 2008

The Dallas Running Club's Half-Marathon ("The Half") is one of the oldest half-marathons in the country, and also one of the 50 largest ones according to an article I saw in Runners World.  The DRC Half hit its registration cap of 4,000 runners more than a week before race day and there were about another 400+ people running the 5K.

I had to arrive early at Norbuck Park this morning to do race day packet pickup.  Nice long-sleeve technical shirt and various samples and coupons in the bag.  No time to go through that now, however.  I jogged back to my car (and along the way ran into and said a quick hello to my new friend Serena - who I met last month on a flight back from India!) to get ready for the race.

The weather was already warming up so I decided to run shirtless - into the trunk it went.  From the packet, I hooked the bib number to my race belt and attached the Chronotrack "D-Tag" chip to my shoe.  A few most last-minute prep items - sunscreen, FuelBelt with 2 flasks of recovery drink powder (half-teaspoon of Glutamine and 2/3 scoop of Accelerade mix in each 8-oz container) and 2 flasks with water (backup/emergency hydration for the run), and reset my Garmin 305 and put on the heart rate monitor strap - and I was off.

As I recrossed Northwest Highway to get to the race site, I groaned at the long lines forming at the two sets (10-11 total) of portolets and thought to myself - that's all they have for a race with 5,000 people (plus volunteers).  A helpful fellow runner pointed out that there was a huge bank of additional facilities near the finish line - and he was right - two rows of 25+ each.  Looks like the Dallas Running Club and race organizers were prepared in this area.

I met a few fellow Fort Worth Runner's Club members before the race - just chatting and did a half-mile warm-up jog.  After that I started heading over to the starting line to meet with Derek and Jarrod.   Along the way, I ran into Lee and Fiona who were right at the front of the pack and ready to go.  It's always nice to see familiar faces at these events.

The run itself went okay for me.  The weather for today's race was deceptively hot - about 60 degrees at the start; 75 by the end of the race.  And the humidity was approximately 70% as well.  I had about an 8:30-8:35/mi pace (per GPS) through the first 8 miles.  Miles 9-11 were slow and painful with the pace slowing to 9:30-9:45/mi at times.  I tried to speed up for the last mile or so with limited success for an overall pace of 8:51/mi per GPS.  During the last third of the run, my legs got really tight.  (Thankfully) they never completely cramped up, but they did feel like heavy "cement legs" ... due to the warm weather, taking the entire week off from running, or both.

My official chip time was 1:57:40.64 for the 13.1 mile course (13.27 miles per GPS) - which is about 4 minutes slower than last year.  The 8:59/mi pace was a lot slower than I would have liked, but it was still under 9:00/mi so not a total meltdown.  936th place out of 3,299 half-marathon finishers and 123rd out of 270 in my age group.

Although the weather was warmer than normal, I can't really use that as an excuse since many of my friends had personal records today.  Derek and Jarrod finished only a minute behind me with their 6/1 run-walk strategy - I could have stayed with them and done the same time with less pain and suffering!  After the race (and food tent :-), I ran into Fiona, who told me that she got second in the Masters and won $200!  I missed Lee after the finish line, but he told me on the phone that he got 3rd (out of 250) in his age group - and I saw later in the results that he was 40th overall!  Kim and Roberto also PRed and so did a few other FWRC runners. Congrats!

I was a little disappointed that the post-race food was pizza instead of burgers on the grill that they had last year, but it's understandable given that the number of runners was nearly double from 2007.  Overall, a great day and a great race.

MotionBased stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7082171

Full results at: http://www.runontexas.com/Results/Fall2008/DRCHalf2008/TheHalfMenu.htm

Finally, the Dallas Morning News has a gallery of some nice race photos.