I woke up at about 3am this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Anxiety about my first triathlon this Sunday kept my mind active. I lay there visualizing the buoys I will swim around, the transitions between each leg, the bike route, and the workouts I have done. I have not done much triathlon specific training, but with the cross-training I've been doing as part of my marathon training, I think it will be a fun experience.

After trying to sleep for a bit, I got up and checked email and FaceBook. A friend on FB posted a link to a funny candid camera type of video where people in a retail store tested a water bed. It was really just a thin mattress sitting on top of water. They would sit on the foot of the bed and lean backwards pushing the mattress down and getting themselves soaked. Ha!

Then I went to YouTube and watched a couple of triathlon transition "how-to" videos. Some good pointers there. I got back to sleep sometime around 4 or so. Strange how the mind can do that. I'm not particularly stressed about the triathlon, especially considering it will be full of novices. The experienced racers do theirs the day before.

I guess since it is my first I'm a bit nervous. The compression shirt is hard to put on when I'm wet, so do I wear it for the swim or put it on in transition? Can I make do without sunglasses for the bike ride since I don't like them when I run? I think I'll wear socks even though the transition is faster if you skip them. I'd rather not get bad blisters in the midst of marathon training. I still kinda need to fit a long run in this weekend. Could I do one tonight (Fri) and feel rested enough for the Sunday morning race?

Inquiring minds want to know.

"This is a long swim," I said to the guy who was treading water beside me.

"Yes it is," he replied.

We both went back into a freestyle stroke to work our way through the second half of a 750 meter swim. I occasionally looked around to make sure I was on track and not drifting too far from the buoys that marked the course. A couple of hundred other people were also making their way around the bay as they trained for upcoming triathlons.

About an hour later I was coming to the end of the bike course. I was pre-riding that route and doing my first brick workout: swim and then cycle. I had been fighting sweaty and slippery hands the entire time. I was also watching my GPS for cues on where to turn for the course.

One right hand turn came up quicker than I expected. A small red pick-up truck was stopped and waiting to turn onto the main road that I was turning off of. I began to turn but couldn't slow down enough to avoid him. I went head over handlebars into the bed of his truck. He must not have heard or seen a thing because he drove off with me still in there. Now I have no idea where I am but at least I have internet access to update my blog.

Ha! Couldn't resist there. That would have been a more exciting story. Truthfully, I did swing too wide and hit the truck. I managed to turn just enough that only my forearm grazed the truck and I kind of bounced off and kept going. I said, "Whoa! Sorry!" and looked back to see that he was continuing on.

I felt pretty good after the swim and bike and could probably have done okay on the 5k that will follow in next weekend's race.

Prior Weeks The first week of training was mainly a non-training week due to letting an injury heal up a bit more. The second week (last week) was full-on, but I struggled against fatigue and humidity. Last Friday morning I attempted my 11 mile long run before work which was covered by my whining blog entry. I am realizing that the FIRST program really pushes you and the rest days are key. Due to some soreness and fatigue, the weekend plan should have been no running. But Friday night I noticed a severe drop in the temperature and saw the forecast for the weekend was with the highs in the low 80s!

Weekend Recap Saturday morning I went to the group run meetup which lately is only about 2 or 3 people. I ran with another guy who is also training for the same marathon as I am. We did an easy 4.5 miles and it felt good to run without pushing it. Later that day I agreed to meet my main running buddy on Sunday morning for his long run. I told him I had already done my long run but I would start out with him and see how I feel. Feeling pretty good, I didn't stop until we closed off a second loop and hit 11 miles.

And Now, Week 3 I decided that since I had run both Sat and Sun, I would take off Monday and Tuesday. So far I feel rested and glad I did this. My three workouts this week look like so: Wed: Intervals - Warm up; 4x800 @ 2:58 (2 min rest); cool down Fri: Tempo - 1 mile warm up; 5 miles @ 7:15; 1 mile cool down Sun: Long - 14 miles @ 8:11 I haven't planned my cross training yet, but I might do some laps tonight and a bike ride on Thursday morning.

Optimism There is still a bit of soreness in my quads and a slight twinge in my right hamstring, but overall I do feel better and am ready for this week's runs. Sunday's run should again be with my running partner. 8:11 is faster than we have been doing our long run pace, but not by a ton. I'll feel much better about my progress if I can hit that target. I also hope to hit that tempo goal pace because last week was off and short.

I'm not really a whiner in general, but I'm just tired. Not sick and tired. Just tired. This week was my first real marathon training week. I was supposed to start last week, but was giving an injury more time and took it easy.

I usually get to bed by 10:30 or 11 and naturally wake up (no alarm) at about 5:30 or 6. Wednesday morning I did a tempo run that only had one mile at the goal pace and I stopped after four miles instead of doing 5. Yesterday morning I only did about 30 minutes of weights, but after that I was still sleepy and out of it.

I decided to do my first long run before work this morning. Plan said 15 miles at 8:11 pace. Last week's long run that I missed was for 13 miles at 7:56 pace. I figured I'd try for something in between, maybe 14 miles at 8:00. I started out at about 5am (had to use the alarm for this one) and had a tough time getting to the pace. First three miles were more like 8:20 or slower. Then it got better and I started hitting some low 8:00s and even sub 8 for a couple.

At about mile 6.5 I stopped for a short water and food break. Getting going again was tough, but I fought the urge to go back home and get another hour of sleep. I kept the pace pretty close to target for the next few miles, but after mile 10 I wasn't feeling up to 3 or 4 more. I decided to push one more mile and then walk it home. I ended with 11 miles and an average of 8:08. Not horrible, but not where I'd like to be. I've done better in recent weeks.

Now I need to figure out if this sluggish running and overall tired feeling is due to the heat/humidity, what I eat, the workouts, or something else. It is probably the combination of these. I try to convince myself that I'll see improvements once this heat and/or humidity lets up. but it is frustrating for now. Meanwhile I decided I probably shouldn't try to fit a long run in before work because I'm mostly just trying to stay awake.

Due to feeling like an injury needed more recovery time, last week's traing schedule was mostly scrapped. Here is what I was supposed to do:

Interval Run: 3 x 1600m @ 6:12 w/ 1min rest Tempo Run: 2 miles easy; 2 miles @ 6:45; 2 miles easy Long Run: 13 miles @ 7:56 Cross Train 1: Swim or bike Cross Train 2: Swim or bike

And here is what I did: Sun: Bike - 20 miles Mon: Rest Tue: Weights - 30 minutes Wed: Rest Thu: Run - easy 6 miles @ 9:00 avg Fri: Bike - 18 miles with some up stroke and one-leg pedaling Sat: Tempo Run - 2 miles easy; 2 miles @ 6:40; 5 miles easy (met up with running friend for last 5)

Near the end of the week I was definitely feeling better. I had some soreness (still do) from the bike ride where I did some one leg pedaling. My hip flexors mainly feel it.

I got the idea to try this after hearing about PowerCranks. They are cranks for a bike that act independently. In other words, pushing down on the left crank does not raise the right crank. Instead, you must also pull up on the pedal to complete a rotation. This is the same as what one leg pedaling does, except both feet stay clipped into the pedals and both feet have to pull up. One leg pedaling is not easy and I could only manage about 20 revolutions at a time.

Week 2 of Matt's Quest for Boston Qualification will hopefully go more according to the training plan (see next post).

Week 2 schedule has the following: Interval Run: 3 x 1600m @ 6:12 w/ 1min rest (since I did not do this last week) Tempo Run: 1 mile easy; 5 miles @ 7:26; 1 mile easy Long Run: 15 miles @ 8:11 Cross Train 2 times.

I did the intervals this morning. I went to a track for this, something I have not run on for about 17 years. I drove to a local college that I knew had an open track. After a couple of warm-up laps I had a need for a bathroom. Unfortunately the stadium ones were locked as was the adjacent student center. I started to get a bit worried and walked away from the track just a bit and could it be? Yes! A porta-potty was set up for some construction work on a nearby building. And it was not locked. Not much to steal from a porta potty I guess. Business done and back to the track.

The only other bad thing about the track was that the four inner lanes had hurdles set up and a sign at the gate said to not move the hurdles. Lane 5 became my fast lane. And my trusty Garmin 305 was my measuring device which showed lane 5 required only about 3 and 2/3 laps to hit one mile.

I had never done one mile repeats before, so I did not know what to expect. I hit the first one with a 6:09 pace, but struggled through it. The second one was tougher and I pushed it, but ended with 6:18. For mile repeat number three I pretty much didn't try for the 6:12. I did what I could and got 6:34.

During that last mile and my cool down I of course had to rationalize my times. I'm using the FIRST training plan which has these specific interval, tempo and long run training paces for hitting my marathon goal pace. I understand that intervals build speed and endurance, especially the longer intervals such as the 1600. But how do they know that doing these three mile repeats at 6:12 will help me run at 7:26 for the marathon? And how bad could it be if I did them at, say 6:20 or 6:30 instead? Heh, I am obviously just trying to not feel bad for not hitting the plan's goal.

I'm not going to worry about it too much. Instead I'm going to look forward to my tempo run on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure I can do the 5 miles at 7:26 pace as I've done more than that before. The tempo and long runs and their goal paces don't scare me, but the intervals with their 6-ish minute per mile paces are intimidating.

Happy Running!

City of Oaks Marathon count down: 16 weeks (from yesterday - Sunday)

Week 1 Training* (in no particular order) Interval Run: 3 x 1600m @ 6:12 w/ 1min rest Tempo Run: 2 miles easy; 2 miles @ 6:45; 2 miles easy Long Run: 13 miles @ 7:56 Cross Train 1: Swim or bike Cross Train 2: Swim or bike

Current health status: Muscle soreness from Saturday morning weights (good pain); Right leg groin sprain healing, but still not sure about running on it (bad pain).

Five workouts. I did a one hour bike ride yesterday morning, so Cross Train 1 is checked off. My challenge now is if I should chance a run on the sprain. I'll probably not do anything today, but will I be good to go tomorrow? Which one of the workouts would be best to start with? The tempo run seems to be a good balance between distance and speed, but I did a similar run last Thursday that seemed to flare it up a bit.

On a motivational note, as I started my bike ride at 7am yesterday I recognized a guy from my running group heading in the opposite direction. He didn't see me so I didn't stop. He is training for his first marathon, also the City of Oaks Marathon. An hour later, I was almost finished riding and I saw him again, still running. This time I stopped and we chatted briefly. I told him I saw him an hour ago and commended and encouraged him for being out there. It is cool to know some other runners working toward the same thing and being able to share the joy (and pain).

*according to FIRST program (Run Less, Run Faster) tailored for BQ for my age group

Last week was a family vacation in Florida's pan handle. I took the opportunity for some flat(ish) cycling and running. I biked a 50 mile loop on my first morning there. It was windy enough that the first half was tough, but the return trip felt good. In building up mileage for the upcoming marathon training, I did one long run of 12 miles at about 7:40 per mile. I felt pretty good, probably mainly due to a pretty flat route that paralleled the beach. That is about 15 seconds slower than I'll need for a BQ.

I did one more run that was meant to be a 5 mile tempo, but about halfway through the tempo part I wasn't feeling it and gave into the humidity. I still did 7.5 miles, but just slowed it down and enjoyed the scenery more. One more 32 mile bike ride and I felt the week's workouts were pretty good.

Though it is not running related, I did a vacation video starring my children (with cameos by some grown-ups).

The 16 week FIRST training program I am looking at using officially starts next week. For running, it calls for two days of speed (intervals & tempo) and one long run day. For cross training, I'll probably alternate between cycling and swimming two days a week.

The only scheduling challenge I hope to figure out is fitting in an additional long run with a running partner who is training for the same marathon, but for a slower pace. My long run pace calls for a good 30 or more seconds faster per mile than his plan (he is using Higdon). I'm thinking I may double up on long runs instead of one of the cross-training days. He is willing to do his long runs a bit faster than the plan says, so maybe every other week I can slow up some and meet him half way.

I'm taking it a bit easier this week. Sunday was an easy 11 miles. I'll do 5 or so tonight and maybe 7 on Thursday and Saturday with a bike ride somewhere in there. Good luck to everyone getting started on their training.

Even with the daytime temperatures having stayed below 90, the past few mornings were still muggy and warm. But this morning at 6am it was about 67 degrees and the humidity was noticeably less. I was hoping for a good tempo run of about 5 miles at 7 minutes per mile. The route I normally run on does not seem to be too hilly, but when I am shooting for faster times this changes and the hills rear their ugly asphalt.

I was worried I wouldn't feel up to pushing it because last week I attempted this same tempo run but could not hold the pace. Only one of the five miles was under 7:00, the rest ranged from 7:02 to 7:17. Starting out this morning, I felt pretty good on the one mile warmup. The first mile of a tempo seems to be about finding the pace and getting the rhythm. I tend to check my Garmin quite often when doing any speedwork. In that first mile I saw 6:30, 7:12, 6:45, 7:05. Don't you wish you had a cruise control button like a car that automatically fed your legs more gas when needed and let up when not?

The first three miles, being somewhat balanced with the amount of up and down, all came in under 7:00 - sweet. Mile 4 was a bit less balanced with more uphill. I was worried when I kept seeing 7:20 and 7:30 pace when I glanced down. Somehow the mile average was 7:00 on the nose. I had anticipated that mile 5 would finish primarily on a downhill that headed back home. Instead it was over before that and also just under 7 minutes.

I was just starting that downhill I thought mile 5 would include. So I kept going, thinking, "I'll just go to the end of this road at this pace." But the turn off of there went to another down hill. "Only about half a mile more at this pace and I'll have done a 6 mile tempo run." There was a bottom to that hill that even goes back up slightly, but only for the last quarter mile. And that is how a 5 mile tempo turned into a 6 mile tempo.

A one-half mile cool down back to the house and I was a happy camper, err, runner. Even more exciting was realizing I had just run 7 miles (including warm-up) at an overall pace of 7:07. That beats my 10k PR average pace by more than 15 seconds per mile. I haven't run a 10k race for a long time and definitely need to find one soon.