The start of what’s next...

Well fall is here and tri season has slip on by again. Some years it seems like you can never race enough and other years it’s like the season lasted forever. This was an odd year for me. I only “raced” twice, 3x if you count the relay in Kirkland. And of those I really didn’t see IMC as a race, more of a long days journey. At times this year I really wanted to race more and feel that start to finish pull of faster, stronger, better. However, with schedules and training it just never really happened this year.

I don’t think it was a bad thing, because on the other hand with all the Ironman training if I had forced a bunch of races in I might have easily burned out and stopped training all together. As it was there was a quickly approaching window of time that was about to close and shut out all of the momentum. Towards the last few weeks it was hard to even think of being on the bike for longer than 2 hours or have to run AGAIN afterwards for a few miles. So it’s hard to say, either way it was a long season that I’m extremely happy to look back on.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been supporting Alley in her running season. Unfortunately, she just got back from a bone scan on Friday and the Doc told her that she has some stress fractures in her femora. She was running in the Portland Marathon and felt tightness and shape pain around mile 13 and had to walk by mile 15. Long tough day for a tough lady. So hopefully she’ll be back on her feet in time to get some snowboarding in around February.

I’ve been getting back into track and running 4x a week. It’s been really really hard to get the pace back up after a season of trying to slow the pace down for IMC. Last year I was training everyday comfortable speed around 7:10 pace. The last few weeks I’ve been in around 7:45. last week for my first long run I wanted to run at :15 slower than my intended pace for Seattle half and man was it hard to stay :20 slower. And that was just 8 miles! It’s hard to say where to put that.

So coming up I’ve entered in a few races just to get the feel and pace worked on. Tomorrow I’ve signed up for a 15K out at Magnuson park. I needed to get a 10 miles run in and didn’t think at first it would be a good idea to race 9 miles just yet, but then the more I thought about it I figured “why the hell not” If any thing I’ll pace it out with my half marathon pace and see where that puts my training for Seattle at. Plus I’m a firm believer in the notion that ever once in a while you have to sign up to get your ass handed to you from time to time. It’s good for those “what the fuck have I been doing?” moments that can really push a break through in self limiters.

So coming up I have:
Magnuson 15K, Seattle Turkey Trot 5K, Seattle Half Marathon and then the 12K’s of Christmas in Kirkland.

I’m not sure if I’m ready for tomorrow, but then again that’s the point right!?!?

Once again, back at it....

OK, I've been away for a few - sort of recharging the batteries and seeing what's up for this next year. As always, it seems too early to start training, then too late and you feel behind.

Well this year I'm focusing on the Lake Stevens 70.3, my first of that distance. I think the only others right now I want to say for sure are Federal Way Oly, Seafair Tri and Kirkland. Issaquah may be in there as well, but I need to focus on longer pacing not sprint. Don't get me wrong I'll probably get that first Issaquah in there to calm the racing nerves.

I want to avoid late season burnout that leads to fall-winter stalemate. I love the work and the training and the races, although sometiimes the races are the icing on the cake.

The other thing I want t do this year is race a few TT on the bike. The ones in Carnation should be a lot of fun and a great learning curve for pace and endurance. I was getting excited about the TT when I was re-fitting my aero bars on Luke. I ended up moving them back 3 full inches. I can't believe I was all superman style last year : )

Well, in about 3 weeks training for the Rock and Roll Seattle Marathon starts and I'm looking forward to really getting behind a good training schedule and knocking that down.

Alley as well said she wants to look at PR'ing at RNR. I think that means she's all in for the 26.2. Plus training usually means getting together with Team Cannoli from across the water so that's always fun.....

I think the later start on training is fine this year, mostly cuz there's nothing you can do about losing the last 2 months anyways, but still. The only concern is getting my swim back to where I was last year, if I can focus the next 6 weeks to swim I think the rest will fall into place. Falling in place meaning kicking my ass back into shape : )

Seattle Marathon ...all 26.2 this time...

Last week I got to go out and cheer on AK plus thousands of other runners at the Seattle Marathon. This is the first year either of us had anything to do with the full marathon, we’re both run the half a number of time’s over the last several years, but never the full. So this was going to be pretty cool.

The morning started with a light mist that was suppose to burn off by 10-10:30, that was what most the local news stations were reporting. And for the most part that was true.

Except that instead of the fog burning off it doubled in thickness and moved in pretty heavy over the course.

AK was off and running and I had 40 minutes to make it to the I-90 tunnel and cheer her on. Takes about 15 minutes to drive straight there, - about 38 to get there around the course, park and run four blocks down and over, back up under the bridge to see the runners cross the bridge.

I got there, took 2 pics of the crowds and stood up on the jersey barrier and didn’t realize that Shell and Lil’K were standing about 10 ft down the road from me. I laughed and said, “ What are you doing here?”.

TK had joined AK on the opposite side of the tunnel and was going to run with her from the tunnel out and back to Mercer Island, pretty sweet. I know that’s going to be a high light to her 2008 running season.


AK was running on great pace for her would-be finish time of 4:40 and the days weather was perfect for running. After TK left her she was headed out to Seward Park.

I caught back up with her at mile 17 and she was still smiling and looking really strong and steady.

The fog rolled in and got really thick at the bottom of Madison. Mile 21 was at the top of a really nasty hill and AK pushed steady through the hill and was still smiling.

I hung out at mile 26 for about 10 minutes before I saw AK and that was really a special place. The course ducks under Hwy 99 so the runners disappear for about 2 minutes then pop up right at mile 26. So all the support people wait and wait and keep saying he/she should be here, should be here, should be, no...no... not them, close - what time do you have, what were........
“THERE THEY ARE!!!, YOU DID IT, YOU DO IT!!!” RANDOM SCREAMS!!! Cow bells...

The feeling and emotion just about rips your heart out. So many times during the day having to hold back tears from just watching that raw emotion pour out onto the street.

At mile 16 I saw a girl hobbled, in serious pain and fell into her mothers arms saying,”I knew you were waiting and I had to make it to you.” The mother loaded her in a car and kept repeating “I’m so proud of you”

I think the best way to put your sport of choice in perspective is to sit it out and watch it from the sidelines. I always gain more or regain my respect for running/racing/trying by watching and seeing all shapes and sizes just go out and put it on the line. It seems to remind me of how much is needed to reach my own start lines. How much is needed to willingly start the whole process. And how much is needed to remember this is fun, this is work, this is what I want.

What AK wanted was 4:40, what she got was 4:33:06 - Pretty Sweet!