Track work...

I finally had a good night sleep, 9 hours.

Last night Reid and I went to the Leafs game, it was fun and Reid got one of Darcy Tucker's old hockey sticks. He was so excited that he actually slept with the stick last night.

Today, John and I got together after work to do a running speed work session on the track.

The workout went well and was tough, but not painful. At the beginning of a few intervals, I lost energy and had a emptiness in my chest, it felt like I needed food. Then after a lap, my energy would come back and the emptiness would go away.

I think it was the trail mix and peanuts I had before the session. I should have had a banana.

It was the first running speed session I've done in years, and on the car ride to the track I was more nervous than before a road race.

I wasn't sure if doing it with a partner was a good or bad thing. It turned out it is a very good thing, we were able to push each other and keep the pace high. It took us just over an hour, with 30 minutes of high intensity running.

The effects of the workout started to show up when I got home. My legs started to feel sore and I could feel my lungs got a good workout, as I started getting a post workout cough from the workout exertion. My face is also red and although I'm not bonking, it is a similar feeling. The last time I felt this was was after the half Ironman in Ottawa.

In a way, I'm glad I'm tired and sore, it means that I pushed myself to my limit, getting the most out of the workout.

Up way to early, again...

Tonight I'm taking Reid to the Leafs game, so I had to do all my training this morning.

I was in the pool by 6:00 am and did a 3500 meter speed swim which took me 90 minutes, then I followed it up with a 1 hour weight training session.

Afterwards, I actually felt pretty good and started to feel much better than yesterday.

I can hardly wait to get a good 8 hours of sleep tonight. I think all I need is a few good sleeps, relaxation and not to many beers.

I'm running on a little less since the race...

I'm starting to understand a little bit more about "racing" and "recovery".

I thought that recovery was the ability to not get hurt and continue training, but I'm starting to realize that recovery from a race is the ability to continue to have "full" energy reserves for training.

Since the race, I've started to feel like I have an "empty chest", or a lack of energy in my chest area, essentially I feel exhausted. I'm a 4 on 10 on the exhaustion meter. I'm finding that I'm more irritable, less patient and do not have the same level of stamina in dealing with day to day things.

Tonight was my speed bike workout. It took around 75 minutes and was intense, with 28 minutes of really "hard" interval riding. I was sweating like "crazy" and it was a tough workout.

I'm glad I started at 6:15 pm, so that I have some time to rest tonight and try to get some energy back in the chest.

My Ironman training is over...

Today I woke up and could not walk. My hip was frozen and I had a massive bruise.

I went to the doctor, they took an Xray and told me I need to stop training for at least 6 - 8 weeks....

April Fools!!!!

What really happened was I got up and was at the pool by 5:30 am. I did a 5 K swim, the longest swim I've ever done. Part of the swim included 900 meters of kicking with the board. To finish the swim it took me 1 hour and 57 minutes.

This evening I had a 70 minute run. I was really nervous because my hip was a little tender after the 30 K race on Sunday. Tonights run was going to tell me if I was recovering well from the race and could I continue my training with confidence.

Overall the run went well, I still had a slight soreness in the hip, but I think it should go away in the next week or so. I don't run again until Friday, so that should help, I hope.

I will say the weather really depressed me. I was hoping I was going to be running in shorts today, but by the end of the day it got cold and windy, it was like I was running in winter. When I got home, I seriously was thinking I should move to a warmer climate.

It turns out that last month my totals were as follows:

494.25 miles of biking
127.67 miles of running
29.37 miles of swimming
73.76 hours of total training in March
18.81 hours of training in my longest week.

I hope I didn't screw anything up...

Yesterday after the race, Alice and I went to a "Food & Drink Fest" and then a great Irish pub in Hamilton.

Today I woke up not feeling well. I was sluggish and still felt sick. My legs were a little tight, so the first thing I did when I woke up was stretch.

From yesterday's race, overall my legs feel okay, but I have a sore "charlie horse" on my left hip. I felt it near the end of the run and it is a 3 on 10 on the pain meter, but I really hope it goes away and doesn't effect my training.

I'm drinking a lot of water in order to flush out the lactic acid. I'm also trying to eat as many fruits and vegetables as I can to speed up the recovery.

When I got home from work, I slept for around 1 1/2 hours before my bike ride tonight. I rode for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I was looking forward to the ride because I figured it would help get rid of the lactic acid and help speed up my recovery.

After the ride, I had a good stretching session. As strange as it sounds, I could actually stretch further than prior to the race. Overall I feel good, but tomorrow will be the test, as later in the day I have an 70 minute run.

For the month of March, I set a training record. Between swimming, biking and running, I did 651.29 miles and burnt 53,979 calories. And I only gained 3 lbs.

It must have been the 108 beers I had in the month of March.

My 30 K Race was a success...

I woke up still feeling sick and my resting heart rate was around 70 bpm, I was hoping it would have been in the 50's. I didn't know if it was because I'm not feeling well or pre-race jitters.

I got to the race with plenty of time before it started, it was pretty cold, windy and I was really nervous. I had no idea on how I would perform or how I would feel.

I had all kinds of questions for myself, like, is all the training I'm doing worth it? will it help my times? what if my legs fail me? was the pre-race run yesterday going to backfire? should I have swam yesterday? Etc, Etc, Etc, lots of mental "noise".

I decided my strategy was going to be to keep the heart rate around 144 bpm - 174 bpm and let the times fall where they may. For the first 10 K, I did it in 48:10, the second was around the same and the third 10 K was faster, even though there was hills.

For the last 5 K of the race, I was doing around 168 bpm - 180 bpm, overall I averaged 157 bpm. The entire race I felt good and had energy for a fast last 1 K, especially the sprint to the finish. My final time was 2:24:03, which is a 7:43.6 per minute mile pace. My goal was to do 8:00 - 8:10 minute mile pace.

Overall, I finished 532 out of 4409 finishing participants and in 91 place in my gender category.

It was my best running race since I started a year ago. At the half marathon point, I was around 1:41. If I was able to maintain that pace for a marathon, I would have finished around a 3:22:36, it would be quite an improvement from my 3:58 Philadelphia marathon.

At the end, my legs felt pretty good, bending the knees was not a problem. I can tell my legs had a healthy workout, but they don't feel like a quick recovery will be a problem. 30 K was the perfect distance, any longer would have been "painful".

I think this race was really important for my psyche, I needed to see some results from my "Mark Allen Online" training program. With no prior speed work, I thought I did really well. With speed work, it should only get better.

I'm so glad I did the race!

The race is tomorrow and I'm not sure about anything...

Last night, Alice and I had cocktails and didn't get to bed until 1:30 am.

Then at 7:00am we had to get up to go to Reid's hockey game. Reid's team lost, but they still had enough points to make it to the house league finals on April 12th.

All day I've been tired and sick. I still have a running nose and sore throat, plus the extra beers last night didn't help the head.

After the game, we went to pick up the race package and went for breakfast. Afterwards, when I got home, I slept for a few more hours.

At 6:00 pm, I went to the Y and did 3500 meters in the pool. I felt really strong in the pool, I think the speed work session earlier in the week is helping my strength in the pool. I was also in a Zen like zone from being sick, time just flew by.

When I got home, I ate some pasta and went out for a 35 minute pre-race run, with 5 x 10 second pickups, keeping the heart rate under 129 bpm. During the run I didn't feel that good, my nose was really running. After the run, I stretched, drank more water and made some "salty" popcorn to eat.

I have no idea what tomorrow will bring or what my race strategy will be? I do know I'll have some new songs to listen to, as I added about a 100 of them to my ipod this afternoon.

I need to see how I feel in the morning and what my resting heart rate is going to be at. I've never done a pre-race run and a swim the day before a race, so I'm not sure how my body will perform tomorrow.

I'm a little nervous and hoping for the best.