10/8/09

4:30 - walk dog
5:00 - ran 6 miles (55:47 / 9:18 pace)

I sure would love to sub 9 the 10K race in 2 weeks. I just need a little more angry determination to build up inside so I can let it all out on race day!

This really does frustrate me. This old body is going to have to catch up with what my brain wants it to do sooner or later... preferably sooner. I'm getting tired of waiting.

But anyway... I feel good!

"I sure would love to sub 9 the 10K race in 2 weeks. I just need a little more angry determination to build up inside so I can let it all out on race day!"
Remember, anger creates tension, tension creates resistance, resistance burns energy, this will make you slower. 

"This really does frustrate me. This old body is going to have to catch up with what my brain wants it to do sooner or later... preferably sooner. I'm getting tired of waiting."
See above ^ same goes for frustration. Patient persistent practice.

That post had more to do with determination to succeed than with anger (in a negative sense). 

But I understand what you're saying.

I knew where you coming from.
The sub-conscious plays a bigger role in achieving goals than we often realize. When I was learning about coaching athletes my instructors kept re-inforcing that we never use the word "tension" in place of "resistance" as the mind will create a subliminal undesired physical response. This, they taught us, will hold the athletes back from attaining goals we are hired to help them achieve.   

10/10/09

7:45 am - walk dog
10:00 am - ran 6.03 miles (1:04:00 / 10:37 per mile pace)

Festival Park - My organization was involved with the American Heart Walk (3 mile walk), and I was the building captain for my building.

I ran it twice through while everyone else walked it. It was HOT, HUMID, and HILLY!!! Ugh!!! The hills and humidity were killing me. But, my coworkers were totally amazed when I came back around the second time and caught up with some who were still walking it once.

Lesson learned. I've simply GOT to run more hills. Because the only way to get better at doing hills is to do MORE HILLS!

That was one TOUGH run. (collapse)

Cute story about the shoes!  Reminded me of my sister in law…she’d dig shoes out of the closet in the dark and come to work with one black and one navy heal on every now and then!
Good luck with training this week!

10/14/09

4:15 am - walk dog
5:00 am - ran 6.21 miles (52:56 / 8:31 pace)  
6:30 pm - boot camp abs DVD
7:00 pm - bike on trainer 30 min (raining out; was half-hearted on the trainer)

Finally broke that imaginary barrier.  Then it started raining within the hour. Glad I run early! Not that rain would have stopped me.
  
Thanks to the Bear showing me the McMillan pace calculator, I was able to break my imaginary 9 min mile barrier for a 10K distance.  And thanks to Garmin who sounded the alarm every time I slowed down too much!  I just kept telling mself to HOLD THE PACE no matter what.  Hitting a pace is one thing; but hoooooolding onto it for the duration is another.  The true test will be on race day.

It can only get better.

I feel good...

10/16/09

4:00 am - walked dog
4:30 am - ran 9 miles (1:27:00 / 9:40 pace)
1:00 pm - walk 3 miles
7:00 pm - strength

Dumbbell deadlifts - 3 sets of 12 @ 10 lbs
Straight arm dumbbell pullovers - 3 sets 6 @ 5 lbs
Military Presses - 3 sets 12 reps @ 5 lbs
Boot camp abs DVD

55 deg. felt cold when I walked my dog wearing sweatpants, long-sleeved shirt and jacket. But I remembered my last run at this temp and decided to change into shorts and short sleeves for my run. Was chilly for first 3 miles but I felt good after that. Could have had gloves on though; hands were cold.

Saw a thug today at 4:30 am and also someone whooped at from a very dark corner of my route. I've heard that whoop before and am a little concerned that person has noticed me out there more than once.

Run was good and fairly comfortable. I started out with the pace alarm but decided to turn it off and just run. I was surprised that I came in under 10 min miles. No more extra mileage now until after the 10K race.

Good training week.  I broke my speed record for 10K distance, added unchartered distance, and broke my swim speed time.  However, the bike has been neglected.  

Triathloning is like taking care of two-year old triplets whose names are Swim, Bike, and Run. You get Swim and Run happy and under control, but Bike is crying for attention.  So you go get Bike and take care of it, then Run starts crying for attention.  Go round up Run and in the meantime Swim and Bike are wandering off, so you have to chase after them again.  Is it possible to have all three tri-triplets happy at the same time? And then there is that extra adopted child.... Strength.  That one gets a pat on the head every once in awhile.

I can still swim underwater for 25 meters though  .

So in conclusion do HIIT a few times a week (depending on what physique you are aiming for).

I LOVE swimming underwater.  I like to put my belly to the line at the bottom of the pool and pretend I am a stingray... and I follow the line to where it opens up into the deep end and it is like that vast mysterious ocean floor is opening up to me.  I'll have to practice making it all the way across which is 25 yards at my pool.

Good point with the HIIT.  I recently read an article that talked about triathletes who focus on distance endurance to the exclusion of speed.  Regardless of the distance, it's still a RACE!  It's not about who can liesurely complete the longest distance, it's about who can finish it first.

I do running and swimming speed drills at least once a week.  But now that I think about it, on the bike I usually just do the best I can and on Sundays go for added distance.  I need to work on biking speed drills as well, which I could do on the trainer at home.

Agreed, HIIT is important.