Almost a year ago...

After last weekend's nasty weather I got pretty sick... stomach bug... yuck! Was out of commission for a couple of days.

Tue I ran 5 miles; Wed was weight training: legs and biceps; yesterday I did the 1 hour spinning class at the gym, then stayed spinning for an extra 25 minutes. Today I swam at the gym (1,500 meters).
Tomorrow I am hoping I'll be able to ride but I don't know if the weather will allow. According to weather.com we'll have temperatures in the low 30s and maybe some rain.
Sunday I have a local 5K race... it'll be cold... great!

My bike.... can't believe I still don't have it! I bought it on March 2!! They told me they need to order it and that it usually takes 1 - 2 weeks. It's been almost a month. Was at the shop on Wed night and they said it's going to be shipped it from Canada in 1 or 2 weeks... hmmm... I've heard that before... we'll see. Hopefully it'll be here soon, can't wait!!

I did get my wetsuit... LOVE IT! It feels just right....perfect! Now I need to find a lake where I can do a few swim practices. I also need to practice taking it off; it'll be interesting doing that during T1.

Next weekend it's my GO! St. Louis Half Marathon... I can't believe it's already here. Last year this was my very first half marathon and big race. It was called Spirit of St. Louis; they changed the name this year. I can remember the whole preparation for it. I did it with Team in Training. Trained and ran it in memory of my mother-in-law Lloyd. I also remember my goal was to run it under 2 hours and I crossed the finish line at 1 hour and 57 minutes. It was such an amazing feeling finishing it, very emotional. I wore a pin with Lloyd’s picture on it; she was with me the whole time. Seeing my wife, my two beautiful girls and my father-in-law at the end cheering for me was just incredible... wow....

I will never forget that first race. Here’s a pic of that day:


This year my goal is to beat my last time (1:41 on Jan 26), so I'm hoping to finish it under 1:40. It'll be hard but I'll do my best. At this point this race is not my A race anyway.... The race I'm focused on and the one I'm training for is in 78 days. It's my first Half Ironman (IRONMAN 70.3 Kansas)... Can't believe I'm doing a half Ironman.... who would have thought?! Would I dare to say maybe I'll try a full Ironman in 2009???? Wait a minute! See? That’s my problem.. I get all excited and start thinking way ahead. Let's go through this race in Kansas first and go from there.

Hope everybody's training hard and smart.
Later,

PC

Where did this come from?!?!

Is that crazy or what? I just took these pictures like 5 min ago.

It snowed in the morning too but after an hour or so it stopped. I had planned on going for a ride with my fiend Shawn. Woke up, walked towards our deck to let my dog Inti out and I was like.. "what the!"

It wasn't expected at all!

Needless to say there was no riding... I was going to hit the gym but I haven't been feeling that great today so I am taking ANOTHER day off. Oh well.. it'll be good for my body to recover and start again.

Tomorrow we are having high of mid 50s.... we'll see.

Anyway, just wanted to share this crazy snowy day...

P

Over training?

Hmmm... I think I might be over training.... dang! I have been so tired, exhausted really. I guess I got too excited about training and waiting racing season too impatiently with out paying attention to the 'too much'. Even though I have been taking a day off, and sometimes 2, on the other hand there were days I was doing 2 or even 3 work outs... I know.... probably a bit too much. Worse part is I should know better, like all the books, videos, forums, etc say: 'you body will let you know'.... and it did. At least I am not injured... simply feel done! So today and tomorrow will be rest days. Gonna try to run 12 - 13 miles on Sat and hopefully I'll be able to ride on Sun.

Speaking of riding... I still haven't gotten the super tri bike... Bought it at a local bike/tri store called Big Shark, they told me it'll be a couple of weeks until they order it and put it together. If I don't hear from them by next week I'll call.

In the meantime I went ahead and bought some pedals. The Shimano PD-5610:

Pretty cool eh? :)

I also bought a wetsuit, the Quintana Roo Ultrafull Wetsuit - 2008, got the 'Special Deal: Wetsuit Maintenance Kit'. Only thing is the day after I placed the order I got an email from them saying it's back ordered and it'll be 7 - 10 business days. I really hope it fits fine, so I can take it to the pool and try it out... even though I wonder if taking it to the pool the chlorine (and other chemicals) will hurt the material... hmmm.. I'll post that question in the Runnersworld.com tri forum. If you know, please let me know.

Weather.... (course have to talk a bit about it) It's been raining a whole lot, actually it's been pretty bad especially in the south of Missouri. President Bush declared a major disaster in the State, seventy counties including the city of St. Louis are affected by floods... scary stuff! (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/missouri) We have "Flood Warning" which is in effect until tomorrow I believe.

Hope you all are doing good and training and life is good... or better yet: great! :)

And have a wonderful Spring Season!

Cheers,

PC

It's Spring time!

Yup... it's finally here (not officially but, pretty much).... the pool at the gym and spinning classes are getting more crowded. I see more people running and riding outside. The athletes are back in business.... it's racing time!!!

Can't wait to get my new bike and take it out... but I haven't heard from the store. They are putting it together and will let me know when it's ready. So what kind of bike is it? Do I have a name for her? (it's a her, yes)... soon my friends... soon!!!

So finally we have great running weather (50s - 60s)... but of course, tomorrow when I have a race (St. Pat's 5 mile race) the weather is going to be pretty bad. Between 35 - 40 and rain... oh well... it could be worse.

Sunday a friend and I are planning on doing a 40ish mile ride, no rain is expected. Looking forward to it.

Last but not least, there is a tiny chance we (the familia) might go to Cancun in Sept. and yes Dave, if I do I will definitely do the Half Ironman, I know you are training for it. Hope it happens, we'll see.

Ok amigos..... El Fin :)

P

Brick

So yesterday I did weight training (triceps and chest) during my lunch hour and at night I ran 6.2 on the treadmill at the gym, not too bad. The compression sleeves have helped a ton with the shin-splints, thank God!

Today I did 1 hour spinning class and right after that I got on the treadmill and ran 3 miles. Initially I was going to either swim or do weight training (shoulders and back) but at the last minute I changed my mind. I'm glad I did, it felt like a really good work out. I am going to incorporate a brick work out every other week and see how that goes.

So...... I am getting a tri bike after all. Let me tell ya, I have the best wife everrrr! :) I'll give more details on the bike soon.... stay tuned!

Can't believe tomorrow is Friday already, sweet! The weekend should be an easy one. Sunday is my wife's birthday; I think we're going somewhere for lunch. She'll decide where, it's her day.

OMG get this, today I went to register my 5 yr old in Kindergarten!! My baby.... wow... can't believe it. I'm excited for her though, she's looking forward to it. It'll be good for her. It's just kind of weird... in a good way weird.

Later!

PC

Weather...

Yup, I know... haven't been written.... I've been a bit lazy and busy... busy actually! :)

So last week I ran Thursday, Friday and on Saturday I did my long run (14 miles) on a great sunny in the 60s day - for a change. In the afternoon my wife and I went for a 3.1 run in preparation for her 5K race on 03/30, she did great!
Sunday I took my bike out for the first time this year. Did a 17 miler around the area and man, it was WIN-DY! Still felt great to be out there; even though it was really windy the temperature was in the mid 70s.... you can't beat that. You should have seen all the people out: walkers, runners, bikers... everybody enjoying the nice weather.... but not for long...

Here comes the 'funny' thing. After a great mid 70s day yesterday, today the temperature drops down about 40 degrees! I mean, in a matter of hours... and now we have a winter storm warning. We're getting snow over night and we might have up to 10 inches of snow! Crap!!!

So back to indoor working out (at least for me) Today it was 1 hour spinning class... why would the weather be such a teaser??
I am fed up with this.... so, so ready for warm, or at least less cold weather.
I know I talk a lot about the weather but with all this drastic changes and all, wouldn't you too? oh well... enough of that.

I had a good time reading other bloggers’ 7 random/weird facts. I thought it was a cool way to find out more about them... thank you guys for playing!

Have a great week!

PC