Geeeeezzz...I suck.

Yes, I do. Obviously neglectful of the things that matter, like KEEPING TRACK OF MY LIFE!

Heard a story on the Today show the other day about our increasing narcissism (yeah, I had to look it up) as a world-society. And here I write on a blog....but I don't really think anyone reads it all that much, so it's more a record of myself to myself. But I totally buy in - why do we all think we're so important that EVERYONE needs to hear something about exactly what we're doing every time we're doing it? I'm on Facebook, I check it quite often, but that's far more to blame on my ADD tendencies and being easily bored than any notions of narcissism and thinking that people WANT/NEED to keep track of me. Anyway....I just thought that interesting, and wanted to make a note of it.

That does not, however, explain or excuse the lack of dedication that I've had in tracking and logging. For that, I think I should blame the iPhone. Yes, i have one, I'm totally geeked out and connected and accessoried and "app"d. I'm "one of them". Currently reading a book that was dropped on my desk "The Blind Writer" about faith and Christianity and the subculture thereof and how it relates and some other interesting topics. (Side note: highly recommend the first part of the book, currently halfway through the second portion and am in jeopardy of losing my "like" for the book..) Writer makes a reference to a girl with her "Venti Starbucks and her iPhone". Pissed me off. I may or may not have been drinking a Venti Starbucks latte at that very moment with my iPhone in the car door next to me. I've not quite discerned the point he was trying to make at that particular juncture (other than ripping on the chick for her track suit - which ruined the panache and impression that he had of her for some reason or another that relates back to her faith and the image that she was exuding). I'm sure I can discover the point, as I keep reading, but I'm struggling to disconnect the author from his particular church anyway - then he throws out a shitty reference trashing someone ELSE for SBUX and iPhone? Pot, I'd like you to meet my friend Kettle. Anyway....I love my iPhone and I love my Starbucks. And those of you that think it makes me "one of thoooooooose people" can go to hell. I'm about as real as it gets.

Stay tuned for more opinions on this book as it evolves in my brain. I thought he had the right idea. I'm not sure right now if I still agree with myself. He is entertaining though.

BACK TO MY ORIGINAL POINT - the iPhone has made life easier for me, but between it and the travel I haven't had nearly as much quality computer time as I did. And I've been lazy and schlepping on the workouts. No workouts means no need to LOG the workouts. No need to log the workouts means a lack of dedication to BLOG about the life surrounding the workouts.

See where I'm going here?

Anyway. Had a fantabulous run last night. Was dreading it, after 6 hours in a car (36 hours in the past week) my legs aren't really that happy with me and I'm frigging tired. But, I needed to run (this little thing called a MARATHON in TWO, 2, 1+1, weekend after this, TWO weeks is going to SUUUUUUUUCK) about as bad as I need to sleep at the end of the day. So....ignoring the hellacious headwind and paying attention to the happy sun in the sky, the great temperature and the spring things starting to be springy things around...off I went on what the plan wanted to be a 5 mile run with 3 miles of tempo in there @ 9min/mi pace. First 1.5 directly into the wind....what a great idea this was.....got to the Monon and turned north - figured the easy way would be to "tempo" the time I was on the Monon...it's about 3 miles or so, right?? Sure...go for it. SO I run up, putting a consolidated effort into increased turnover, driving with my legs and arms, good posture and decent breathing. The good news: the chest pain from the first mile (WEIRD) had stopped and the legs were responding. Hit the end of the path and turned back, still feeling ok but like I'd been running pretty hard. Walked for about a minute to try to bring my heart rate out of the stratosphere. Then picked it back up. Saw the guy turn around about 1/4 in front of me and figured he was as good a goal as any....(side note: I rarely get to pass people when running. The thought of getting to 'chick' a guy on a run is IRRESISTABLE.) I continued the drive, paying some attention to my breathing and my form and repeating "Thou shalt not die" and "quit stomping" in my head. It took a bit longer to get him than I thought (he had tattoos....'chicking' a guy with ink - even more gratifying) but I finally went ripping by him doing my best impression of a runner completely in control of the situation. About 1/2 mi later when I got to the stoplight (i.e. where the tempo death-run portion of today's broadcast stopped) I looked back and the dude was EASILY 1/4mi back.....so THAT'S what happened....jackass back there had to have nearly doubled his pace to stay that far ahead of me for that long....then must have nearly fallen off the earth when I passed him to be that far back. (Note to self: even more gratifying. Not only did I chick him...I TOTALLY chicked him AND wasted him.)

But enough about the ridiculously competitive portion of my brain that took over for about 1.5 miles there.....I slapped on the Clay Terrace lap and flopped on home. After the tempo I slowed way down and just cruised the rest of it - trying to keep my feet lined up and the form ok. Wound up going further AND faster than necessary, but felt pretty good at the end of it, all-in-all. I'd totally do it again if I got to run past someone....

7.3 miles total
~1:14:05 (I stopped my watch at one point for a light and forgot to restart it, so I'm using what I know I usually run that area in)
3 miles tempo (almost exactly)
~26 minutes. (works out to be about an 8:40 pace)
Totally pleased with that effort. The marathon is still going to suck.

My Morning Pooch...

Totally not related to training or racing, but a hilarious observation about my life. First, my dogs shed - A LOT. This is disgusting to Dan. It's not very appealing to me, but it comes with the dogs and they DO appeal to me. It's getting a bit warmer now and they're starting to drop some of their winter coats. Given that they're also FILTHY, it's quite the combo of ickiness in and around my house right now. I smell a spring cleaning day where things get quite destroyed in the ultimate goal of getting better.

Second - I have opposite personalities in my opposite dogs. Monty - Mr. Know-It-All will stay in bed as long as I am, he won't make a noise about getting up and getting out, but once I'm up and moving around, he moves around too. He'll grab his ball and push it around the room a bit, look out the window, "check" on me in the bathroom, and basically just let me know he's ready when I'm ready. He's fairly chipper and awake as soon as I'm up. This is maybe the ONE time of day he allows Vivi - if she's up and moving - to get near him or bump into him w/o threatening to rip her head off. Vivi, on the other hand - Ms. Lazy-Butt, will stay in bed as long as possible. Not only will she not make a noise about getting up, she doesn't move if she doesn't have to. I get up, move around, shower, get dressed, whatever - she's not moving unless I bump into her or start putting on my shoes. She'll open one eye, curl into a tighter ball and go back to sleep. Further, when she DOES wake up, she's clearly groggy and slow-moving (the ONLY time she's slow-moving) and just wants to cuddle and lay around. It's absolutely hilarious - she's SOOOOOO not a morning-doggy. When we come in at night it's basically the same thing - only it's Monty who's grumpy. And he's not grumpy in a very nice and cuddly way - he's just an ass. He takes his time getting situated and just-so before he falls asleep, she heads straight in, hits her bed however and is out within a minute or two.

It's very funny how they have very funny, very separate personalities that are so definitive. And that hair thing? Yeah, he's pretty contained to his bed, she tends to splay all over the floor during the night and as a result I have a fan-shaped aura of black/grey on the carpet where she lays. Maybe his fur just blends into the carpet? Either way, it's absolutely disgusting and I have to vacuum my bedroom once every few days.

Dogs are work.

Swimming like a tank...

So Tuesday was my first swim in a little over a week....and it felt positively awful. That might've had something to do with the RAGING PMS, but I'm not sure, so I'm chocking it up to me just being out of whack. So it comes to Thursday...swim #2 of the week...and the SAME THING HAPPENS. Granted, I ran 5.25 mi. earlier today during lunch, so I was undoubtedly tired, and I've been sleeping like absolute crap, but STILL!!!!

Swim was a bit excruciating, but I did get through it with ok times. I still feel like my two halves are disconnected, leading me to snake all over the lane and my catch is all outta whack and I'm having to constantly remind myself to go "over the barrel" and to not fling my arm around in recovery. So, not normal stuff for me at all in the water. The swim is supposed to be the easy part. (The potential upside to that dilemma: the 5.25 felt super-great and easy and refreshing. I did deal with a bit of IT irritability towards the end and my right post-tib was getting annoyed, but overall the run felt good. It was slower than I would probably have run on my own - which is most likely a good thing as well.) While I'm glad the run felt good, it disturbs me that the swim felt so weird. I'm not willing to trade the thing I was really good at for the thing that I'm never going to be really good at - but could feel ok at. I'd rather have one of the three sports where I can totally slash most people, I don't care if they run by me later on, I'm still working on that part too. So, stay tuned, that part of life could continue to be interesting.

400WU
4x50 on 1:15 K (IM order)
1x100 on 2:00 K (IM)
4x100 on 2:00 P (IM/B/Br/Fr)
3x set: R :15 b/w
(200 on 3:30 - 90%, 100 on 1:45 recovery, 200 on 3:30 - 90%)
2x200 on 3:40 - :10 b/w 50's
300CD - 50dr/50sw
3100 total

Short workout - I bailed on part of the WU and the CD. Ridiculous, but I was tired. Not sure what's going on with the workouts (two days before the state meet we did about 3600 HARD yards, a week after and we're doing 3100 fairly short w/tons of rest?) but I hope Eileen's just not gotten bored. It's got to be hard writing stuff for the broad spectrum, but I might have to start tweaking them if it continues.....

I'maschlep

for the record..I'm officially admitting it. I've been worthless for the last little while when it's come to tracking, noting, logging, blogging and just about everything else. And here's the shocking part - it's showing. It's showing on my body, my mental state, my athletic endeavors, and everything else. So...I've acknowledged it and will be working on it.

I'll also be going backwards in the logging process to make sure all of my workouts are noted, including the half-marathon PR of about 3 minutes or so, and the iPhone purchase, which may or may not turn out to be a good thing.

If I keep better track of my life, maybe the overwhelming parts of my life won't feel so overwhelming.

TO THE BUFFALO

Got to see the buffalo for the first time this year today. GORGEOUS day outside, sunny with what felt like little wind and a high headed up to 60...heck yeah I'll take my bike ride!

The random and extremely chaotic week left me more than exhausted and since the training plan for the Pig technically deemed this week a recovery week, I was totally out on doing a long run. My goal was to sleep until I woke up on saturday and get on my bike at some point or run 7 miles, whichever came first. Since I started receiving text messages about riding at 7a, the ride won.

40 miles total, about 2:30 in time, decent speed and effort. It's a fairly flat ride, so it's usually a good measure of general "how I feel"-ness. Felt pretty ok. I did forget how different my road and tri saddles are, and am paying the price for that.

Perfect morning, too, despite not having milk or any food in the house. Nila brought me Starbucks, I got to sit out on the deck with the poopers and enjoy the sunshine and read my book a bit while the Pandora Radio was serenading me. THAT's the way to start a weekend.