Outback Half RR

Here's the splits from the Outback half marathon on Thanksgiving.....
MILE 1 -- 6:49
MILE 2 -- 7:00
MILE 3 -- 7:07
MILE 4 -- 7:18
MILE 5 -- 7:09
MILE 6 -- 7:44
MILE 7 -- 7:06
MILE 8 -- 7:15
MILE 9 -- 7:28
MILE 10 -- 7:28
MILE 11 -- 7:21
MILE 12 -- 7:40
MILE 13 -- 7:34
FINISH TIME -- 1:35:46

All in all, it was a fun race. I loved the course - it was out in Mandarin and covered a lot of the roads that we ride on. It was a little cold at the start but I was hot and sweaty within the first mile. I really felt comfortable for the majority of the race - I settled in to my pace and just tried to keep my splits within a couple of secs. My goal pace was 7:40/ mile but I ended up going a tad faster without any problem. Going into this race, I had not done any runs over an hour. I knew I was stretching it a little bit and would probably be hurting for the last 5K -- sure enough. I had brought a couple of powergels with me - and took one at about 50 minutes and took the second one around 1:15 -- they definitely helped. So as my goal time was 1:40:00, I got it by almost 5 minutes. Pretty stoked on that -- I think that going sub 1:30 is definitely within reach for me, so that'll be my future goal for that distance.

BUT, for now I have to get the soreness out of the legs and get back to puttin in the miles. Hopefully, I'll feel good enough to hit the trails for some off-road running soon.

Run ...... eat.......work around the house.....repeat step 3 over and over and over

So, kind of on a whim - I've decided to run the Outback Half tomorrow. I figured since I decided to make running a focus this fall - i'd kick start it with a 13.1 - I've done the distance before - just never in a race setting. So I'm kinda going to use this as a guage for my fall / winter training.

No goals other than to run steady and finish. Wherever my pace is at mile 5 - i'm gonna try to hold it from there out.

Should be a fun experience. I always enjoy running races - its a cool atmosphere and just like ALL kinds of races - crossing the finish line is the best feeling in the world............

After that we're heading over to my folks' for some Thanksgiving Day festivities - I should be nice and hungry by then!! Looking forward to seeing my niece and nephew too.

After that, it's back to working around the house....kinda feels like this................

(i always did like that Rock-Biter guy - he was pretty rugged)

Sometimes ya gotta do whatcha gotta do.......

So true. These past couple of weeks, i've been taking care of some things that had gone neglected over the past many months - mainly the by-product of me riding, training, and racing so much this year. All year I kept telling Steph, "I'll do _______ AFTER Tahoe", so know its time to catch up. And I'm not the fastest handy-man, so these little projects are gonna take me a long time, but I gotta do what i gotta do. No point in putting things off anymore.

This way i figure it, when January rolls around, my "work orders" will be done and I'll be ready to hit it again. Oh well, such is the life of the "weekend warrior".

As for the mtb race in Felasco --> scrapped.

But, it's time to run. I want to just run. Especially, since my mtb is still jakked. I figure I can still fit some running in. Time-wise its perfect. Most of my runs are 30 - 90 minutes max, so its not like I'll be out riding for three to four hours. And, I can run in the dark - i figure its much safer than riding at night.

But, yeah, my rear shock has been sent back for warranty. I'm hoping the Warranty-God will smile down on me and get that thing back soon. I want to get the Spark fixed up and ready for the 09 Xterra season. It's in pretty rough shape now, but since i'll be taking some time off - i figure it'll be a perfect time to have a little "MTB ANNUAL OUTAGE".

So, the plan for my weekend is to finish rebuilding the gable on the front of the house. Run some. Chill with the wifey and then drink some beers.

(Oh yeah, and i'll probably waste a bunch of time on that damn Facebook........man, I'm addicted to that crap. )

Been a good week (so far).....

Looking forward to the weekend, that's for sure. This week has kind of flown by - which is a good thing. Definitely better than when it drags on and on.

So far, I've gotten my rides in everyday including the super fun "Urban Assault" ride on Wednesday night. There's a couple of guys that ride old-skool fully-rigid mountain bikes with slicks and road cassettes through some backroads and I did the ride with them on my mtb - with knobbies. It was about 30miles total and I had a blast. We rode through the cemetary and then back along the intracoastal on some roads that were SUPER DARK. It was cool, i'm definitely gonna try to incorporate this ride into my wintertime training. I've gotta get some slicks soon.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna do about 3 hrs or so on the road - with a handful of 10min efforts thrown in to the middle. Sunday, I've got a 7miler with the SeaTurtle running group then maybe a lil Hanna Park mtb ride in the afternoon.

Should be a fun weekend with some great weather!!! This time of the year, the temperatures ROCK!!

So here's the beer of the week --



Dale's Pale Ale -- Rocky Mountain Brewing -- it's darn good AND comes in a FULLY RECYCLABLE aluminum can.

random thought....

No matter how weird you are, if you look around enough - you can always find a bunch of people who are just as weird as you.........and who will talk about it on an internet forum.

Long naps, good food, and easy riding.......

What a great weekend! Friday nite I got home in time for a quick trainer ride and then headed over to the in-laws for some grub. Hit the hay early so I could get up and ride with the VMS crew down to Vilano and back on Saturday morning. This would be a perfect ride because I was wanting to get in about 2-1/2 hours and these triguys (and trigals) ride pretty steady. So up at 0-dark-hundred and out on the road by 7. It was still dark out until close to 730 - not that I'm looking forward to Daylight Savings - but at least it will help the morning rides a lil bit. Had a nice tailwind on the way down, which meant a stiff headwind coming home. Still not too bad, and ended up getting in close to 3hrs in the saddle. After that, I took a looooong nap while semi-watching the Gators DEVOUR some cats......sorry about that Blue. Then we headed out for a going away party for some of friends that are moving to Boston. We ended up staying pretty late, so I slept in and missed the group run. That worked out alright, because I had about 3 weeks of laundry to catch up on anyway. Spent most of the day doing that and other things around the house. Towards the afternoon, I was finally getting caught up on my household duties, so I decided to "work" out in the yard.

God Bless the inventor of the hammock. I was instanly out cold with the gentle breeze and the perfect mid70's temp. BUT, then I got a wake-up call from my favorite training partner.......

The Stephanator was ready to hit the road for a little spin..... so I made sure that my road bike was still working and we hit the road.............We cruised through the land of condo's i.e. Jax Beach and headed towards Atlantic Beach. Its only about 6 miles away but there are ALWAYS some good sights out on the road. We even found this rad uni-cycler with fannypack on his way home from the pub. Weird.

Once we hit Atlantic Beach, things settled down. But we did see this house with a terrible insect infestation.

No wonder the neighbors were looking to get out of there. Still probably a little out of our price range, though. A little further down, we hit the turn around ....................................... and then Steph put the hammer down.
After that, we headed on back to the 'hood.

We ended the night with some killer fresh linguini pasta mixed with broccoli rabe, roasted chicken, pine nuts, and freshly grated parmesan and awesome fresh garlic bread from Fresh Market. Deeeee - lish. Oh yeah, and after me and Blue discovered these on this past Thursday, I went to the corner store to pick up some Dead Guy's. Good stuff. Highly recommended.

So I ended the week with a little over 9hrs of easy riding. This week is a little more volume, and I'm throwing in some intervals towards the end of the week. Right now i'm 5weeks out from the race at Felasco. I'll be ready.

-sbc

Can't sit still.......

So I took two weeks and did (pretty much) nothing. I ran maybe three times and rode once. Not any kind of "training", that's for sure. I did get to practice my beer and french fry consumption, though. I'm definitely an expert when it comes to that now! But after being fat and happy for two weeks, i'm ready to get moving again........

So, as I sat in the Toronto airport on Sunday night waiting for my plane (and drinking a beer, eh) I came up with a little "mini-plan" geared towards the race at San Felasco at the end of November. Its six weeks out, so I figure I can put about 2wks of easy miles in, then about 3wks of some build workouts with some intensity, then give myself a slight taper and be ready for the race on the 30th. Easy enough. So this week, is "only" 9 hrs - most of which will be on the trainer watchin tv. Fun stuff. It does feel good to be riding again.

Also, i've decided to run the 26.2 with Donna in February. This will be my first marathon and I'm gonna use the training and prep as run-base work for the 09 tri season. I figure its a worthy cause, a great route (no better place than Jax Beach!), and Tony J. will be running it also. So, I will be keeping about 2 runs a week in the mix - but mostly 30-45 min ez jogs. That way, as soon as I'm done with my mtb race, I can kick off a 12-wk plan at the beginning of November and be good to go for February 15th. My goal is 4hrs or better - preferably "better" --> so, that equates to a little over 9 min miles for 26.2....... Sounds ez, but I've yet to surpass the 15 mile distance, so I know those last 11 will be the "fun" ones. Oh well, goals are good, right? So now its out there!