Monthly Summary - February 2011

Here's February 2011:

Swim: 22,600 meters
Cycling (outdoors): 148.8 miles
Cycling (indoors): 7:05 (hours)
Run: 82.5 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 5 sessions

Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 45:30 hours

Weight: a few pounds too heavy... whatever

I'm still finding my way back into this stuff. And trying to find the place where I'm doing enough to make me happy and fit but not so much that I get myself overwhelmed or injured. I feel like I'm finding something like that these days.

I'm in a general rhythm with the swimming, getting there with the cycling (though I do need to get on the bike more, especially outside on the bike more) and the run is finally starting to come back as well. The biggest challenge I'm having is squeezing it all in each week. Being a runner - even an ultrarunner - is so much easier than trying to be a triathlete.  Looking at my numbers from the month, I think I did a pretty good job balancing it all.

We got back today from spending a few days in Washington DC visiting family. We had one day of rain but the rest of the weekend was beautiful, cool, sunny, pre-spring weather. I went for a couple good runs, including one through the Rock Creek Park trails with Assaf. He pushed me a little and we ran a nice route with rolling hills.

The big news this month was making the decision to race at Wildflower. After thinking about it for a couple months, I finally decided I was in a good enough mental and physical place to sign up for a tough half ironman. My training is going well enough that I think I can get prepared without cramming.

If my training during March and April are like February, I'll toe the line at Wildflower feeling pretty good about myself.

We've been doing a fair amount of hiking with the boys this year. Regular trip to Runyon and most weekends we'll meet up with Loren and person-Charlie and their dogs, Birdie and Oscar, to go for a hike. Here's a picture of the crowd during a recent hike at Griffith Park:

And this is what generally happens on the way home from a hike:

And this is, well... I'm not sure what this is.  Except maybe the craziest way to sleep ever:

4 signs that I'm "becoming" a triathlete again

I was a runner first, but before I was an ultrarunner I was a triathlete. After racing at Oceanside 70.3 last March, I pretty much swore off triathlons in favor of ultrarunning. I was even seriously considering trying to sell my newly repaired and repainted Guru. But it's definitely looking like last year was more of a "break" from triathlon than a farewell. (That's not to say I'm saying farewell to ultrarunning, I'll be back at that soon enough too, I hope!)

Here are the top four signs I know that I'm making a return to triathlon:

1) The term "brick" is finding its way back into my training log.

2) I'm spending a lot of time in the pool and even doing different workouts like swimming for technique and some speed instead of just fitness.

3)  I just bought a new road bike. It's currently being built up at the shop and by the time it's built and I get fit on it, I probably won't have it to ride for a couple weeks. I'll get pictures up here as soon as I can - but trust me it's RAD.

4) I signed up for another triathlon. That's two for 2011, so far. In the fall I signed up for SOS sort of on a lark. It's one of my favorite races I've ever done and two good friends were also signing up, so I figured what the hell, I could add it into an ultrarunning season as a "fun" event. But this time, I signed for a race that I'm planning on racing:

Wildflower Triathlon, at San Antonio Lake, California (a little north of Paso Robles) is nicknamed "The Woodstock of Triathlon". It's a HUGE triathlon festival during the first weekend of May with 8,000 racers choosing among three races over the course of the weekend. It's one of those races that I've always been told to put on my "must-do" list. Tons of people camp out all weekend and supposedly it's a huge party atmosphere. Just for the record, I will NOT be camping!  I've been thinking about it for a couple months and I finally signed up to race the long course event (half-ironman). I'm psyched. I know a bunch of people going up there to race or spectate. The whole weekend should a blast!

As you can see below, the bike (top) and run (bottom) are both pretty hilly - that hill around mile 41 of the bike should is gonna be a ton of "fun".

And 60% of the run is on trails. Climbing and trails... this should totally be my type of triathlon. I feel like my swim and bike are coming along really well. The run still needs a lot of work, but I've still got nine weeks to get there.

Depending on how Wildflower and my summer training go, SOS may have to be a little less fun and a little more fast!

Thank goodness I didn't sell this sexy Guru, it looks like I'm gonna need it!

Fresh Air Fund - NYC Half Marathon Team

In October, I wrote about the Fresh Air Fund, a NYC-based non-profit that helps city kids experience the world outside NYC, with an emphasis on spending time outdoors. At the time they were trying to fill a few spots on their NYC Marathon team.

They recently contacted me again asking if I would let my NYC readers (and anyone else interested) know about their Half Marathon Team for the NYC Half Marathon on March 20. If you're not familiar with the NYC Half Marathon, it's an awesome race. (I ran the inaugural race in August 2006 - it started in the dark and then poured rain but was still a blast - here are a few photos.)

The race starts in Central Park and runs right smack dab through the center of Times Square, then down the West Side Highway and finishing in Lower Manhattan. This year, runners will line up with superstar runners like Kara Goucher (we like Kara!), Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman. Sweet!

Because it's an awesome race, there's huge demand. And because there's huge demand, they have a lottery to get in. This year less than one-third of the lottery entrants got a spot!

So... if you wanted to do the race but were one of the 23,000+ people who didn't get a spot (or if you didn't enter the lottery at all) here's your chance to run the race and raise money for a great cause.

Go to the Fresh Air Fund Half Marathon Team website or contact them directly at kbrinkerhoff@freshair.org or (212) 897-8890 to find out more information about joining the team and running the sold-out race.

In addition to filling their NYC Half Marathon team, the Fresh Air Fund is looking for host families for this summer. Sara from Fresh Air Fund said that host families are "volunteers who open their hearts and home to a child from the city to give them a fresh air experience they never forget." If you're interested, click here for a ton of information about the process, including a slideshow of photos of the kids headed out of the City last summer and answers to FAQ.

The Good "Hurt"

This morning I was supposed to get up and go for another relatively easy run, but I woke up with sore and tired legs.  Not "injured" or "painful" legs.  More like "sore" and "tired" legs from a few days of pretty intense training.  This was the first time I'd felt that way in months.  Instead of running, I played with the boys in the back yard, had a leisurely breakfast and got into work nice and early.  I've never been so happy to take a day off running!