This Week's Training Update

So, its been a while since I've blogged about my training, so here's my attempt to catch up. I have been having good weeks of training, until my one-on-one battle with conjunctivitis a week or so ago. My eye was red for a week, but didn't bother me...then came the second week--ouch! I didn't know pink eye could be so debilitating! So, I pretty much took a week off of training and when I tried to get back on the wagon with a 7mi run, it hurt. It pisses me off that it only takes a few days for you to notice de-training! After a week of good re-training, I think I'm back to where I was before the infection.

Last Monday I went for an easy 40min run around the Memorial jogging loop just to get back into the swing of things. I saw Mikey and Tracie training, cruising. We were going opposite directions so all we did was wave. Tuesday was HART training--it was somewhat easy because of the 24hr race the weekend before and also because the heavens opened to unload sheets of rain. We did a loop around Memorial and performed some cals along the way. Of course, with the ditches filled with water the way they were, we weren't going to escape without a little wading. There was so much rain that it was up to my waist when I jumped in. Good times.

Took Wednesday off because I had my eye docs appt that afternoon, then Thurs was HART training again. It was hot as usual and Rick decided it would be a good day to do a PFT run. I haven't done one of these in probably a year and I wasn't going to start up again in this oppressive heat, so I just took it easy. In fact, it was my slowest PFT time since I started recording them back in 05. Tommy was very happy that he beat me finally in a PFT. We finished the training session off with some pullups then 8 laps around the fruit loop. I was with the Warship so we cruised., finishing ahead of everyone.

Friday was another off day, then Saturday morning I went on a LSD run of 10miles. It felt really good and I was able to keep my pace at around 8min, with brief uptempo sections getting up to 7:30 or better. I was very happy that I didn't have a repeat of last weekend's LSD run--that was painful. Sunday I went for my usual in-town bike ride: Beauchamp-Houston-Washington-Arnot-Crestwood-Memorial-Fruit Loopx10-Memorial-Crestwood-Arnot-Washington-Roy-I10-Shepherd-9th-Bayland-Beauchamp. While at the F-loop, I saw Shaley, the Surgeon, Iron-Will, and Nipple-I. They were just getting done with a trail run. Looked like it was fun. :) Afterwards, Mo and I went over to her co-worker's Labor Day Weekend cookout. Little did I know that it was another one of her ambush attempts--when we get there, there's a "suprise" for me. Yes, everyone...a puppy. Actually two, but she gives me the option of only adopting one. Thanks. I stayed firm with our agreement, so we didn't come home with a dog. You're welcome, Yuki and Nikko. Despite all this, Mo's coworker's friends were pretty hilarious!...why do most weekend discussion devolve into scatiological humor...not that I disapprove, I'm just curious.

Monday, we decided to do a team training session up in the Bastrop/Smithville area. The Google map posted in my previous blog was our plan, but the weather and shortness of day conspired against us. Nevertheless, we got in a good 25mi paddle from Bastrop to Smithville, finishing in 4hrs--yes, the water was up! We then proceeded to Rocky Hill to get a lap in, but that's when the storm rolled in. Ross and Raymund had just finished their ride and advised us not to go out there. Hardheaded, we went out and at about 1mi in, it just got plain nasty. We called it and turned around--good thing we weren't deeper into the trail system to where there wasn't any turning back. We threw our bikes into the cars and met up with Raymund and Ross at the Roadhouse. Not exactly the training session I had envisioned, but still a pretty good paddle otherwise.

This week looks to be pretty routine, until the last RunBikePaddle sprint race of the year...I hope to actually race this one! Anyway, that's all I have for now. I leave you with another pic from RTNX, courtesy of Jen. Cheers and happy training!