LETS TALK ABOUT RUNNING!

If not for the running I would be very excited about racing this season (or at least what is left of it).  In the water and on the bike I strong confident and smooth.  On the run not so.

One would wonder why.  Running should be the most natural of the 3 disciplines of triathlon.  After all we walk and run long before we swim (or at least most people do).  We definitely do not race our bicycles until we have mastered some level to stability on our feet.  I have always had a difficult time running.  I just seem to be missing coming when I run.  I seem to not have the proper bounce or placement of the feet to propel me forward.  More about this later.

Right now I am starting to run slowly and easily.  Nothing special, nothing flashy, just simple.  I started a couple of months ago doing literally 10 minute runs.  I felt awful!  Not because my knee hurt; because everything hurt!

I realized that I had not run from January to April (actually the last week of April) and my entire body had no idea how to run.  I think that my knee was the only thing that did not hurt.  It was only a 10 minute light run.  I did 2 10 minute runs that week.  I was encourage that the second was a little better than the first.  Not much better but a little better.

Then it was a couple of weeks of 30 minute runs .  1 30 minute run each week.  After this a few weeks of no running.  Then drills to work on running technique.   I have been trying able to learn from some YouTube Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnsii2H-HxM

I watch it and I understand about 90% of it.  The part of it I so not understand is the "free speed" part.  I guess I will keep working at it.

Mid June I start harder runs but still 30 minutes.  Instead of a light jog it was 3 minutes at aerobic speed and 2 minutes walk.  Did this for 2 weeks, so now we are now at June 22nd.  Now 20 minute aerobic runs without any walk.  We did 4 of these during the next week (June 23- June 29)

Remember I am still doing weights/swimming/bikes while I get back into running shape.

July brings back 30 minute runs; now run 4 and walk 1.

The past 2 weeks it has been 1 hour runs!!!!.  It is hard to believe that I was struggling through 10 minute runs.!!!!

Finally Getting back to being myself!

It is a beautiful North Texas Sunday morning.

About 72 degrees and a very light breeze.  I am sitting on my newly refinished deck and enjoying a cup O' Joe.  You would think that it would be a great morning to lace up my Brooks and head out for a run.  I have to admit that would be really nice.

The mind nest rest too.  Writing provides my a recovery workout just like an easy bike ride or swim provides my body.  So here it goes.

It has been a while since my last post.  Thinking back the disruption of my routine over the last couple of months has led to my lack of posts.  It is amazing how you, when you have lots of time you seem to get nothing done but when you are busy you always seem to have time for "one more thing".   So since I was not training very much you would have thought that I would have had lots of time to write.  I would have thought that I would have had daily posts.  On a more practical note, since I mostly write about my training and racing, my lack of both gave me nothing to write about.

So here is a recap of the last couple of months:

Recover from knee surgery
Get ready for my daughters wedding
Start training/ Swimming, biking and weights
Get ready for my daughters wedding
Get really busy at work
Get ready for my daughters wedding
Get even busier at work
Get ready for my daughters wedding
Get over worked at work
Get ready for my daughters wedding
Start running
Get really over worked at work and end up in the Hospital
Stop training and rest
Get ready for my daughters wedding
Start training.
Get ready for my daughters wedding

That about covers it.  Everything was quite manageable until work started to get crazy.  I was basically doing double shifts for 8 weeks straight.  Up at 05:30 teach from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.  I would have a quick 1 hour workout and then teach from 5:30 pm until 10:00ish.  Then drive home and get to bed around 11:30 pm and start the whole thing over again.  I ended up being sleep deprived and had a seizure.  I do take medication for seizures.

So that is the basic rundown of the last couple of months.  After the seizure I took a couple of days off and relaxed and recovered.  I pretty much picked up where I left off, training wise.  The last couple weeks have been the best training weeks of the entire year.  Friday and Saturday have been the best days of the last 2 weeks.  Friday was a 3 hour bike ride that went from our house in Allen, Tx up to Melissa / Blue ridge Tx and back again.   Just over an hour.  Saturday was a club workout with 1 hour of intense open water swimming and then 3 hours on the bike.  Through all of it I felt strong.  I was able to keep a consistent cadence and could push on any of the hills.

I felt like my old self (yes old LOL).  So much so that it was time to get back to Sunday morning writing.