Good lord... I love massage

So I was suppose to have a massage on Tuesday but Lisa my massage lady friend had to reschedule me for Monday afternoon. I usually go for an hour and call it good but Lisa didn't have another appt. right after me so 1 hour turned into almost 2!!!!! Man I was tired when she finished but it was awesome!!!!!!

Today I rolled out if bed to catch the spin at the PTC. Mo was coaching this morning. A lot of 1 legged drills and such. After work I hit the Ship of Fools workout. First thing was a timed 1 mile. I haven't done one of those for a while so I took it easy on the first 1/2. I still ended up with a 6:10 which is all good for me. My hip started bothering me a bit. I think it was from the 10 mile run this past weekend. Maybe just a bit too fast. I'll need to address the hip issue soon with Sellers over at Performance Wellness.

Xmas fun and then some

Christmas day started with a sweet swim down at Barton Springs. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/bartonsprings.htm
I met Jess there at 9 or so and we did 400x4. That's just about a mile and my pace was actually pretty good. I haven't done an open water swim since Conroe in November. Since it was a holiday it wasn't all that busy so not a lot of obstacles. In and out of there in about an hour. Good times.
Around noon I jumped on my bike and did a 31 mile ride. 360/Bee Caves area. I was all by myself and I totally enjoyed it.
After the ride I headed over to my friends Lance and Kim Obermeyer. They invited me over for Xmas dinner and a little pre run. Little my ass. We did a trail run through City Park and my legs we already freaking tired. The hills killed me. I was never so happy to have a dinner waiting for me once I got back. The total mileage according to the gps that Lance had was 5.25 but it felt like 10. Ugh!!!!!
So I am thinking I did a little tri on Christmas day. Not bad. It's a great way to enjoy a low traffic day and to get ready for CDA training next week.

This morning I did the T3 run. It was the 5 mile loop on the trail 2 times. You had to go faster the second time around. I haven't been running a lot so I figured I'll give the first loop a shot and see what happens. Well I started out with Mo and Kevin..... that was a mistake for me because I felt that we were going to fast on the way out. We started to separate around mile 3 and I caught up with them at the water stop at the end of the first loop. I took off early to see if I could hold the same pace as the loop before without the guys. I wasn't far off but I wasn't keeping up..... that's until Mo passed me at mile 7. He told me to keep up but my plan was to keep him in sight until the water stop at mile 7.75 and then regroup and hang on. We grabbed a quick drink and off we went. He tells me right off that we need to do the last 2.25 miles in 15 minutes. That's a tall order, but I was willing to give it a try. For the last 3 months I have been telling myself that am going to need to push myself more for CDA training than I have in the past. Both mentally and physically. Well...... this was a perfect time to give that a try. I just focused on keeping up and relaxing my shoulders which tend to get tense when it's hammer time. We rounded the first mile and I was not feeling good at all but I just couldn't slow down. Partly because I didn't want to let Mo beat me too bad and partly because I didn't want to be a candyass in my mind. The last hill was hard but Mo told me to pick up my knees and soon we crested the hill. Coming across the bridge on the last 200 meters or so Mo picked it up and I was about 15 off of him and I just wanted to finish strong and I did. 10.24 miles in 1:16. First loop 38:48/ Second loop 37:13. I haven't done that in a long time. Mo got me through it and I thank him for that. Hopefully this is a start of some good CDA training.
After the run I headed home for a 20 minute ice bath. It's been a while since I have had an ice bath and holy shit was it cold. I'll be a better rider tomorrow for it.

Nap time. Gotta bike fit at 4:00 at the shop. First one in over 2 years. This should be fun.

Still FAT but at least I worked out today.

This morning was just another cold morning in Austin, TX. I made it to the PTC just in time to get my bike ready and start the spin class. Pain didn't waste time today getting my HR right up there. It usually takes me a while to get my HR up when I do a morning spin but today that was not the case. Overall a great class. I was just thinking about when I start IM training in 2 weeks. My trainer rides will be around 2 hours at a time. Ahhhhh... the old days when Joe and I would see who could get on the bike first and be the last to get off. Joe always won that battle.
After work today I went for a run on the trail. I did the 5 mile loop starting at the RunTex on LAB. Ran past the trail of lights. It looks nice but it got me to thinking that it's a huge waste of energy. We as a country are in all sorts of economic problems and here we are gasping in our own glory called Christmas Lights. That's pretty freaking sad. Back to the run. The trail was dead so it was nice to be out there in the dark with not many obstacles. I haven't been running all that much so I was slow and took a break after 3 miles. Now I'm pretty sad along with the lights.
Oh well..... gotta get back on the horse somewhere.

Me + the holidays = FAT

I feel like shit. I have been eating and drinking like a madman for the past month and it's starting to show. I have gained about 10 lbs and I can feel it with every step. I have been training but not enough to counteract my daily intake. It's tough to stay focused this time of year because my official training doesn't start for another 2 weeks so my workouts suffer. Speaking of workouts.......
Friday...... I swam at lunch. Good times as always.
Sat...... I did the T3 group ride and it was the best ride to do in a while. We had a head wind on the way out. I just kept telling myself not to go out to fast and you'll be rewarded on the way back. Well it payed off. We hammered the hell out the ride heading back to Austin with the wind at our backs. 40 miles in just under 2 hours.
Sat. night...... My friend Hammer won an auction for a private concert with Shawn Colvin. He's a huge triguy so I knew just about everyone there. Everything was going great until 2 things happen. 1- Mike broke out a bottle of Vodka and the shots flowed. 2- Joe looks at me and just says, "If you want to go outside and fight I'll do it." Party was in full swing now. I lost track of Joe not soon after that.
Sunday... Ouch!
Monday....... I was so dam tired from Sat. night all I did today was yoga this morning when it was 30 degrees. Poor Pain had to coach the swim. At least I was indoors.
I'll try again tomorrow to remove my head from my ass.

2 times the Pain

This morning was much better than the past 3 days. It was actually above 40 degrees. Very nice to get to workout without freezing my butt off at the beginning. So after getting Pain coffee I arrived at the PTC just before 6 this morning. Wednesday's core workouts are my favorite workout of the week. Pain keeps it interesting and there is always someone there to make fun of for a moment or 2.
I dropped into the pool for lunch and it was nice and warm. I love it when the water is warm when it's cold outside. I swam with Blasko today with Pain coaching. I know Blas is faster than me but today he wasn't as far ahead of me as he usually is. The kid is a machine. It was a good swim.

Had better weekends

3 Xmas parties and 2 hangovers later and I thought my weekend would be something to write about. Not so. Early Sunday afternoon my friend Haggs called me to let me know my friend, teammate and athlete Erin passed away while running a marathon in Dallas. She was only 29 and her heart stopped at mile 23. Very sad. She was a great person and so damn nice. I feel for her family and her husband who she just recently married.

Did a spin class after work with Pain. You know it was tough when Pain says to me after it's all said and done, "Wow, that was tough." Great workout!

Cold and painful

I went for a 5 mile run this morning before work and I froze my ass off. It was 35 degrees when I started. That's just wrong. I live in Austin for a reason and that reason is not to be cold. What made it worse was that my quads were killing me from Pain's core workout yesterday. Holy shit they hurt.
After work today I made my way to the PTC for a spin class. My legs killed me the entire time but I wasn't going to bow out early. I am trying to get the cutting out early stuff out of me. I believe it will make me stronger in the long run.

Gotta coach in the morning @ 6. It looks like another heat wave is coming through. Forecast is for 37 degrees. Yippee!

Here comes the PAIN!!!!

This morning was core class at the PTC.

Wait a minute...... check out what I woke up to this morning @ 5:45 a.m.! Not very motivating to see snow/sleet on the X before training. But Pain needed coffee and I wasn't about to let her down. So off into the "frozen tundra" they call Austin, TX I went to retrieve coffee and make it to core on time.

Core this morning was crazy. Last week we had 30 people. This week we had 35+. You could barely move. Pain kept everyone in line and it went pretty fast but not a lot of downtime/rest so I am feeling it now. My quads are sore as all hell. The run tomorrow morning should be a joy. It looks like 37 degrees. Fun Fun Fun!!!!!

At lunch I went to Courtyard for the lunchtime swim with Suzanne. It was freaking cold!!! The water was warm but the air temp was about 45 and the wind was blowing so whenever I stopped the wind would hit me and I'd freeze. Needless to say I tried to keep moving as much as possible and now my shoulders are sore and tired.

After work I coached a track workout. It was cold but I was prepared and I was toasty warm almost this entire time. My athletes didn't bitch as much as I thought they would, which was surprising. But by the attendance it looked as though the "not so positive people" stayed home. Lapuente and I had a great discussion about running form as we worked on hers. The girl has the determination but now has to rework her running form and rebuild it. Easier said than done. I am sure we can get her there. Guice needs to work on her arms, which she did and by then end of the workout she looked a lot better.

Phelps I am not.

So I was at the PTC this morning for some yoga. Nothing new to report there.

At the swim today I stayed in the T1 lane. Let me explain lanes. There are 2 different workouts prepared before I get there, T1 and T2. T2 is just a long version of T1. T1 usually stays around 2500 meters and T2 gets up to about 3400. Since I have not been swimming like I usually do I decided to stick to T1 until I get back into swim shape. I could probably do the distance of T2 but with the distance comes the faster swimmers and I just can't keep up right now. So I jumped in a T1 lane with this kid named Michael. This kid makes me laugh. He's about 25, doesn't say a word, is going to school to be a personal trainer and works at Whatterburger. A personal trainer in training that works at WB.... now that just makes me laugh. He's a good kid and he can give it back just as I can dish it out. Well..... he almost killed me today. We split the lane and we kept each other honest. Meaning that he pushed the pace so we didn't fall off the pace. We didn't want to disappoint Pain. At one point we had 3x100 on at 2:00 minute interval. We were finishing at about 1:35 and my HR was about 180. He looks at me and says, "Keep up old man." I would have laughed but I could barely breath. Thank the lord I can crush him on the bike. :)

Speaking of the bike, morning spin with Pain so that means a stop at Starbucks @ 5:30 a.m. is in order.

Low key weekend

This weekend was pretty lame. I am pretty sure I put 3 more lbs on. Good lord I feel soooo out of shape. Saturday I hit the PTC for a 2 hour trainer ride since it was a bit chilly outside. I can afford to do this now since I am actually not in training mode right now. When I am training for a race doing an indoor ride on the weekends is almost out of the question. Needless to say I lost motivation to do the entire 2 hours and I lasted 1.5 hours.
This morning I was a bike escort for a marathon here in Austin. Basically I was on my bike for 4 hours and I went as slow as I possibly could. I can't consider it training because my heart rate barely made it over 100. I don't know if I'll do it next year but I had to give it a try at least once.

Back to 2 a days.

During most of the summer I had to workout twice a day. My schedule is crazy between work, coaching and training so almost everyday I would do 2 workouts between swim, bike, run and core. Today I woke up early enough to catch Pain at the PTC for a morning spin. After work I ran a hill workout and it was awesome!!!!! Cold and dark or in other words fast and dangerous. :)

I am keeping a more detailed training log on BeginnerTriathlete.com
Their training log is awesome and it's FREE! I have used it for a while. I will try and post a link to it on my blog spot. You can track my workouts there in more detail. My username is USS Dunphy. You'll have to create a login but it's pretty easy to do that.

Why December 3rd is my favorite day

Every year my mom sends me a present in the mail for my birthday. Like clockwork it arrived a day before the big day. As always it's delicious.

My mom kicks ass.