Vacation!!!

Tomorrow is the start of a ten day vacation. The bags are packed, and I am ready to go.

It is the first vacation that I have taken in at least 5 years, maybe more. First stop on the trip is New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl on January 2nd. Utah is playing Alabama. Go Utes!

Then, I fly to Mexico to meet Brenda for a week of doing nothing. It will be great to spend a week in Mexico with Brenda without needing to get up and go to work.

Guitar Hero

I may have made a mistake. For Christmas, I got Brenda a Wii. I also got her Guitar Hero for her new Wii. Little did I know about the addictive power of Guitar Hero.

It started innocently enough. The day after Christmas, we went shopping for a new TV for Brenda. She needed a new TV because her ancient machine had no receptacles for audio/video cords. After going to Best Buy, Circuit City, and Costco twice, we settled on a 32" Samsung from Costco. Brenda finally owned a 21st Century TV.

We took the TV back to her place and began to set it up. It took like 30 minutes to undo the cord disaster she had created for hooking up her satellite receiver, VCR, and DVD player to the TV. I'm not really sure how it worked but she had some crazy setup of the satellite receiver connected to the DVD player, the DVD player connected to the VCR player, and the VCR player connected to the TV (or maybe it was something else; after a while I gave up trying to figure it out and just started disconnecting cords from everything).

After the epic undoing of the cord morass, the ancient TV was removed from the room and the new TV was set into its former place. The satellite receiver and Wii were connected to the new TV, and the system was checked to ensure both the satellite TV and Wii were working.

Then, we tested out the Wii. We started with the sports games that came with the Wii. We tried bowling (is this really a sport?), tennis, baseball, golf and boxing. Each game was fun but not really addicting. We then pulled out Guitar Hero. Three hours later, neither of us had done anything other than play Guitar Hero. If not for the fact that it was almost 8:30 and we needed to drive from her house to my house, we might not have stopped playing. It was very, very tough to do though. If not for an early morning group run in Highlands Ranch, I would have suggested staying the night at her place so that we could keep playing Guitar Hero.

The next day, we discussed the need for "rules" about playing Guitar Hero. We both agreed that rules are needed or else neither of us will ever be productive again. We agreed to these rules:

1. No playing Guitar Hero before work;
2. No playing Guitar Hero before a workout;
3. No playing Guitar Hero before dinner;
4. No playing Guitar Hero after 9:00 pm; and
5. No playing Guitar Hero before getting dressed on a weekend.

I'm sure other rules will be needed as we continue our dangerous flirtation with Guitar Hero.

Running on Fumes

Yes, today's run was not so great. When I first saw the scheduled run for today, I thought it would be easy. After all, previous runs this month were longer or scheduled on back-to-back days. On paper, this run looked easy: 6 miles with 1/2 mile tempo efforts at miles 3 and 5. Totally wrong!!!

I should have known it would be a tough day when I didn't want to get up when the alarm went off just before 6:00 am. I wanted to stay in bed, and I definitely did NOT want to run. Despite what I preferred to do, I forced myself out of bed. I tried to avoid the inevitable by checking the weather, making lunch, packing my bags since Brenda and I planned to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas at her place (she has the Christmas tree), and even shaving. I finally ran out of stall tactics. I reluctantly put on my cold weather running gear and drove to the track at the local high school. I decided to run on the track so that I could get the mileage right as I did not want to plan a run route and I do not own a Garmin GPS watch (Santa, if you are reading this, please, please, please bring me a Garmin GPS watch for Christmas - I've been good, I swear).

When I arrived at the track, one other person was running on it. The first 1/4 mile was not good. My breathing seemed labored, and I didn't want to pick up my lower legs. The second 1/4 mile was not much better. At that point, I thought about quitting. Seeing the other person running around the track, however, motivated me to keep going. Also, I did not want to have to call Steve and tell him that I was skipping the workout. I imagine he would nicely tell me to suck it up and do the workout.

I was still not feeling great for the next 1/2 mile. After the first mile, I seemed to settle in for the next 2 miles. They were definitely much better than the first mile. My breathing was much less labored. I continued to focus on lifting my lower legs. Occasionally, I checked my heart rate - it seemed high but I wasn't surprised given my breathing. Last week, Steve told me that my heart rate would probably be high for a month or so as my body adapted to the new running form.

By mile 2, the other runner left so I was running alone at the track. At mile 3, I picked up the pace for the "tempo" effort. I tried to focus on leaning forward from the hips to pick up the speed. After a 1/4 of a mile, I was ready to stop with the tempo effort. My breathing was rapid, and again I did not want to lift my lower legs. However, the workout called for 1/2 mile so I continued with the faster pace for the next 1/4 mile. I was super glad when the 1/2 mile came so that I could go back to the slower pace. As I recovered from the effort, I start thinking how I still had to do another tempo effort. I wasn't sure that I wanted to do it.

As I approached mile 4, I thought about doing the second tempo effort just to be done with it. Despite wanting to get it done, I stayed with the plan and waited until mile 5. At mile 5, I once again picked up the pace. I tried to focus on taking deep breaths. This seemed to help as the second tempo effort seemed easier than the first tempo effort. After a 1/2 mile of tempo effort, I returned to the slower pace. The last 1/2 mile seemed to go quickly, and finally I was done.

It was good that the run was only six miles as that was about my limit for today. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because it is Christmas (hooray) AND a rest day (double hooray).

Taking Off the Training Wheels

Today was the 3K/5K continuous swim. I was scheduled to swim the 3K distance. I had done this distance a month ago. However, I swam the entire distance with a pull buoy. Today, I was instructed to swim the distance without the pull buoy. In other words, the training wheels were coming off.

We were instructed to meet a little before 6:00 am at Carmody Recreation Center. Steve had arranged for the pool to open early for us so that we could do the swim with a 50 meter setup. For me, this meant at least a 5:00 am wake up. This was tough as Brenda and I had gone to a holiday party Saturday night and did get back to her place until 11:00 pm. Ugh.

I was doing okay time wise until I hit a snag leaving. My car was parked in Brenda's garage, which is a detached garage. When I got to it, the garage door was locked, and I had no key. Even worse, her house was locked so I couldn't immediately get back in to get a key. I tried knocking on the door for Brenda to let me in, but she was still sleeping.

I resorted to finding the house key that she keeps in a lock box. Although I found it, I then had a new set of problems; it was so dark that I could not see the numbers on it. After fumbling around for what seemed like forever, I finally opened the lock box. I got back into the house. Brenda gave me the key to the garage, and I was off. However, I was now running late based on how long Mapquest said it would take to drive to Carmody Recreation Center. I only hoped that I would not get lost on the way there.

I arrived just at 6:00 am. I was glad to see everyone was still in their cars. We entered the pool through the back door to the recreation center and got ready to swim. The lanes were divided into 3K and 5K lanes. I picked the slowest 3K lane and started to swim.

The swim itself was not too exciting. It just seemed to be an endless going back and forth in the lane. I got passed more than once during the swim by Barry and Max. I tried to keep track of how many times I was passed by each of them so that I could double check my distance when they finished.

My goals were modest: complete the swim and finish my 3K swim before Steve finished his 5K swim. When I finished, I was happy to see that Steve was still swimming. I got him by about 4 minutes. This just shows how slow I am in the pool; Steve almost finished his 5K before I finished my 3K. I try to keep this in perspective, however. Last year at this time, I could barely swim 50 yards, and I was worried about completing 500 yards in a pool swim triathlon. Now, I am swimming 3000 meters continuously and could have kept on swimming. If you had told me a year ago that I would swim 3000 continuous meters, I would have told you are crazy.

I'm glad that this swim is done. It was one of those workouts that concerned me when I saw it on my training schedule. I am sure that this will not be the last time that it is written into the schedule but now I know I can do it. It is a great feeling to complete something that you are not sure you can do.

Running with the Big Dogs

Today's scheduled group run was a 46 mile trek from Highlands Ranch to Boulder. Actually, it was a 46 mile run for Steve, Anthony and Sonja. For the rest of us, we were invited to join and run with them for as much or as little as we wanted. On Thursday, Steve told me that he wanted me to run between 8 and 9 miles. So, my plan was to join the group at Kipling and run to the Conoco station in Morrison. The plan did not quite unfold as anticipated.

I estimated that the group would be at Kipling around 8:30 am. As usual, I was running late. As I drove along C-470 towards Kipling I kept an eye out for the group. Just before Kipling, I saw Steve, Anthony and Sonja. I realized that I would not have time to park the car and join them. So I changed my plan: I decided to start at Ken Caryl and run towards Kipling until I joined them.

As I drove to Ken Caryl, I start thinking about how the group was only Steve, Anthony and Sonja. I was kind of surprised because I expected at least one or two other team members to be running with them. Then I started thinking about turning around and not running with them; all three are fantastic runners and I was uncertain that I could keep pace with them. However, I knew that they planned to go at a relatively slow pace (10 min miles) because of the long distance. At worst, they would drop me, and I would just run alone to the Conoco station.

I parked my car and decided to try my new Yak Traks since there was a little snow on the C-470 trail. As I got out of the car, I was pleasantly surprised that it was not too cold. I ran on the C-470 trail towards Kipling. I tried to focus on kicking my butt. It was difficult because my leg muscles were still a little sore from the Thursday run with Steve. After about 8 minutes, I saw the group. When we met, I turned around and began running with them in the other direction on the C-470 trail. As we went past Ken Caryl, I pointed out where I had parked. I had arranged for Brenda to pick me up at the Conoco and drive me back to my car.

As I ran with the group, my legs started to warm up. We headed towards Bowles Ave. This stretch of the C-470 trail is not too fun as it primarily goes up as you head towards Bowles. As the grade increased, I started feeling it aerobically. The hill did not seem to bother Steve, Anthony or Sonja as all seemed strong as we went up. This relatively high effort for me would have been a problem if I was running the entire distance. Fortunately, I was only going around 8 miles.

As we got near Bowles, we saw two figures standing on the trail: one tall and one short. They were Troy, Sonja's husband, and Annie, her daughter. Troy was providing support to the group for the entire run. Annie was dressed in a cute pink outfit. When we got to Troy, we followed him over a fence and climbed up a wall to reach the car. Steve, Anthony, and Sonja refueled and added water to the water bottles that they were carrying. I didn't plan on taking any nutrition other than water since it would only be around an hour and half run for me.

After refueling and restocking, we got back on the trail and headed towards the next rest stop: the Conoco station. The next portion was fairly nice as it was slightly downhill. I was feeling pretty good. The weather was also great. The sun was out and the sky was a beautiful blue. As we approached Bear Creek Lake Park, the trail started back uphill. I was glad that it was gentle as I was struggling a little when the trail started to go up.

We entered Bear Creek Lake Park. Fortunately, the entry into the park was downhill so I was able to recover a little. I was still trying to kick my butt but it was getting harder. After a while, the trail started to slope up again. I was not happy about this as I was starting to struggle to keep pace with the group. However, I could see the Conoco so I knew it was not much further. As we ran under C-470 along Morrison Road, Steve asked me how I was doing. I told him that I was struggling to stay with them. Steve encouraged me by pointing out that I didn't have much further to go.

We reached the parking lot. Again, Troy and Annie were waiting for us. Tyler was also there. He planned to join the group at Alameda and run the last 26 miles with them. Way to go Tyler. I said goodbye to Steve, Anthony and Sonja and watched them run up the road. All them still seemed strong after 17+ miles. It was awesome to run with them for a portion of the distance. Maybe one day my fitness will be at a point where I can run the full distance with them. For today, however, my limit was around 8 miles. I found Brenda, and we drove back to my car.

Kicking My Butt

Yesterday, I ran with Coach Steve. I picked Steve up just after 6:30 am. The night before, Steve said he had a surprise. Steve directed me where to go, which turned out to be a parking lot just outside Chatfield State Park. The surprise was a flat stretch of trail, which is highly unusual to find in the area. The trail was built on top of Chatfield dam. Thank you, Corps of Engineers.

As we ran, Steve wanted me to work on form. Specifically, he want me to kick my butt with the heels of my shoe. At first, it was fun. After a few minutes, it became tiring as I was using muscles that I typically do not use when I run. We ran towards a parking lot on top of the dam. During the run, Steve would occasionally stop and discuss form with me and why I need to work on lifting my lower leg to kick my butt. He also showed me the hill where he made the group do hill run repeats, undoubtedly foreshadowing a run workout in the future. He also spent some time discussing race strategy, including visualizing running past the finish line. To emphasize the point, he told me that we were running to the stop sign in the parking lot. However, halfway through the parking lot, we stopped and discussed how to approach doing bicycle hill repeats on a road that goes over the dam. We never did go to the stop sign.

The run was not all serious. At one point, Steve told me he would like to organize a one mile race on the trail so that he could call the event "The Dam Mile". He also volunteered to go to Mexico for me in January. He backed away from the offer when I told him that he would have to spend time with my girlfriend's mother.

On the way back to the car from the parking lot, the view was gorgeous. The lake was to the right, partially covered in ice, and the sun was coming up in front of us. It is incredible how fast the sun grows in size as it comes over the horizon. I wish that I had a camera to take a picture. It was also amazingly quiet except for the sound of my breathing and Steve occasionally talking to me - Steve was hardly breathing as the pace was easy for him.

As we retraced our steps, Steve pointed out my footprints in the snow. At first, I thought the footprints were his because of how far apart they were spaced. However, they were indeed my footprints. A little butt kicking (or at least trying to kick your butt) apparently increases the distance you travel with each stride. We ended the run by slowing down and really focusing on trying to kick our butts.

Today, I have some soreness in my leg muscles. However, it is the good type of soreness that comes from a butt kicking workout.

It's Cold Outside

Today was another below freezing day - the high was two degrees Fahrenheit. The cold seemed to make everything move slowly. I definitely did not want to get up at 6:00 am to go swimming. By the time I got moving, I was already running late. Scraping ice off the car windows made me even later. I finally arrived at the pool around 7:00 am, almost a half-hour later than planned. During the drive, it was so cold that the ice that I did not remove from the windshield did not melt on the twenty minute drive to the pool.

There were fewer cars than normal parked in the recreation center parking lot. As expected, most of the swimming lanes were open. I was happy about this situation because I don't like sharing a lane. The scheduled pool workout was the longest swim that I have done in one session. Since I was already running late, I was nervous about what time I would get into work. It seems like the faster I want a workout to go the slower it goes. I tried to follow Steve's advice and not worry about how long it would take to do the swim.

The swim was uneventful other than the first 50 of the "fast" set. I actually felt that I was holding the water well. My time for this first 50 confirmed that I was swimming faster than normal. Unfortunately, the other fifties did not go as well. For a moment, I actually felt good in the water. But just as quickly, the feeling went away. I wish that I could capture how the first 50 went for more than one lap.

By the time I finished swimming. I knew that I wouldn't make it into work until around 10:00 am. On the plus side, the drive to work went much faster than expected since there was much less traffic on the road than earlier in the morning. I hate getting in around 10 because it means that I will probably need to stay until after 7:00 pm to get my billable hours in.

Early in the afternoon, I received the certificates for the online CLEs that I completed over the weekend. This was a huge relief since I now have the minimum number of required CLE hours to renew my attorney license for next year. Also, despite getting in late, I also got in all of my billable hours for today plus got home early enough to go to dinner with my awesome and understanding girlfriend. In sum, although it was cold enough today to make me want to move to a warmer city like Phoenix, it was a good day as I completed my longest swim workout, received by CLE certificates, stayed on target for making my annual billable hours, and got to spend time with my girlfriend.

Jingle Bells

Today's scheduled workout was a one hour warm up run followed by running the Jingle Bell 5K. When I woke up, I first checked the weather. The reported temperature was 5 degrees fahrenheit. I thought about going back to bed but instead put on my cold weather running gear. It had snowed the night before so the roads were snowpacked and icy. This made driving to the race site a bit stressful.

I arrived safely to the race. Luckily, race registration was inside South High School. At least I wasn't cold while paying the race entry fee. I saw Steve just after I picked up my timing chip. He said the group was meeting to do a warm up run around 9:00 am. It turns out that only six of us were crazy enough to show up in below freezing weather to do the race.

For the warm-up, we ran around Washington Park. I was a little worried about how my legs would react to running after a 12 mile run yesterday. My knees, especially my left knee, have been bothering me after longer runs. I was glad that my legs felt okay - not great but I was able to run. I was happy that we stopped a few times for various team members to make restroom pit stops as I was feeling okay but not great during the warm up run. I was also glad that the pace was slow since I couldn't have keep up with the others had the pace been any faster.

As we warmed up, Steve talked to me about how to run the course. He pointed out the curves in the road and how they should be run. He also talked about starting out relaxed and not going out too fast. The primary goal for today's race was to negative split it. There were also time goals set in the traning plan of 8:30 for the first mile, 8:20 for the second mile, 8:10 for the third mile, and 45 seconds for the last .1 mile.

I tried to start the race relaxed. I probably started a little too relaxed. The first mile was slightly over 9 minutes, which was more than thirty seconds off the time goal for the first mile. The second mile was better at around 8:25 as was the third at around 8:20. The last tenth was around 45 seconds. I would have liked the first mile to be closer to the time goal. However, I was happy that I negative splitted the race, had enough left to pick up the pace at the end, had no significant leg issues, and got to experience what it is like to race in the cold. I was also happy that my teammates who raced all had great results. Sonja was the second overall female, Michelle was the fourth overall female (and a PR notwithstanding the conditions), and Tyler was 23rd overall. Of course, Steve was 5th overall. Afterwards, we went to the Handlebar Grill for a well deserved breakfast.

Tonight, my left knee is a little tender. It is a good thing that a swim is the scheduled workout tomorrow rather than a run, especially since it is once again going to be cold. Overall, this has been a good training week. Before the week started, I was concerned about how my legs would react to all of the scheduled running. The tenderness in my knees was much less than expected. I'm hopeful that maybe I've turned the corner with my leg issues.