Bustling, Bullfights, Beer And The Friday Top Five

First, let me apologize to all of my animal loving friends and bullfighters for this frightful picture. It has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Well, almost nothing. 


The past week has been pretty awesome as far as training goes. After my marathon interview last Thursday, I felt like I had the weight of the world off my shoulders. 


I started up again on Saturday morning with mile repeats:


15 minute warmup followed by:


4x1 mile repeats with 3:00 minutes rest in between. I finished up in zone 2. 
My repeats were a good minute slower than wereI ended at the end of last season (8:00, 7:54, 7:48, and 7:42). Of course, I had not started my  mile repeats until later in the season, so I am hoping that will benefit me as well. 


Sunday:  45 minute bike in zone 2-3 at 90 RPM


Monday: 3000 yards in the pool with a 1500 yard straight main set followed by a half hour of functional strength.


Tuesday: 45 minute tempo run/60 minute bike


Wednesday: Same swim as Monday. Felt more awesome today than Monday. 


Thursday: Was SUPPOSE to do a 60 minute run, but my body completely rebelled. I ended up doing 20 minutes and shut it down. It just was not there. I think I know why my run suffered today. First, I did not have a great eating day. All I ate all day was some seven seed bread that I picked up in the morning before getting to my office. Not enough fuel. Secondly, I did not drink enough during the day... as in zero, zilch, nada. Why? Because I am an idiot. Yup. 


Friday: Was SUPPOSE to do my Thursday bike. Got home late and put time in the bank instead. It will pay greater dividends in the end. Of course, Ironman does not care that I could not get to my mid-week bike. 


Saturday: I ran the Johnny's Runnin' On The Green. This is the local St. Patty's week race  in which you have everyone from kick-ass competitive runners to guys and gals dressed up in all sorts of leprechaun-esque accoutrement with shamrocks on their heads. Usually, they are taking a break from drinking Guinness at 10:30 in the morning to go for a five mile scamper through downtown Rochester. I had a whole bunch of college coeds pass me early on who I saw grabbing the sides of their stomachs and puking about a mile and a half into their run.


Here are the numbers:


38:53 (7:47 M)
AG: 35/105 
Overall 358/1655
38:53 (7:47 M)

The race was okay, but I never really felt like I got in a good groove. I think I may have started out slightly too fast and just not got in a good running rhythm. I looked down on my watch after the first mile and saw that I was running 7:20's. I did not think I was going to be able to keep this pace up at this point in the season and I was right. I even tried slowing down so that I would be running an 8:00 M pace for a quarter mile, but it felt like I was walking. 

Speaking of walking—what the hell is up with walker guy people passing me as I am running? There was this older cat running, er walking like he was in the finals for Olympic speed-walking. How does walker guy pass me? Seriously. I was pissed. With about a quarter mile left I just said to myself "Oh no you didn't," and passed him. 

Sunday: 1:15 trainer ride. (It was suppose to be 1:30). I did 60 minute in zone 2 and 15 minute in zone 3. Then I ate a pound of my wife's lasagna. 


Today (Monday): I had a physical this morning. You know, that yearly thing you have to do. I learned two things: 

1)My resting heart rate is 47

2) Apparently I have a healthy prostate. I know this, well... I think it does not need to be said. There is something SO wrong about that. At least buy me a couple of drinks first doc. Followed it up with a totally kick-ass swim workout:


6x100 F
100 K
200 Pull with paddles and buoy 
10x25 HARD
8x25 K hard with fins
10x25 HARD
2x400 Pull
4x100 Kick with fins


I managed to get this done in 57:00 minutes. We all know I am not blazing fast in the water. However, I think I have seen some steady improvement despite the fact that I am only swimming twice a week right now. I am not sure if Coach Mary will ramp up the yards (I pray not), or add another swim workout during the week, but I am digging my workouts once they get under way.


The Friday Top Five: The five funniest things my kids said/did this week:

#5:  Upon finishing the fourth Harry Potter book, Luca came downstairs and said "Mom, just so you know, I never want to go to boarding school."


#4: Julian, Luca, wifey and I were all playing the game Catch Phrase this weekend. Have you ever played Catch Phrase with a seven and nine year old? You pass around a round "clicker"  that magnifies a word that you want your teammate to say. I dig playing it with the kids because it gets them to describe things using other words. They are usually pretty simple words or compound words like "astronaut," or "black eye," or "London." Sometimes wifey and I are really surprised at the the language they use. For instance. Julian gets his clue and says:


"Stella's favorite color is..." Wifey says "green." Then Julian says, "right, and we live in a...?" Wifey says "house." To which Julian replies "and put them together..." "Greenhouse!"


Love it!


Anyway, the teams were Luca and Dad against Mom and Julian. Julian begins by explaining a word, saying, "Okay... you and daddy drink this beer. It is like... a color and then a thing that you turn on"  Wifey and I look at each other with puzzled looks on our face. What the hell is this kid talking about. Time expires and he give the clicker to wifey and says "Blue light! You know how you and daddy are always drinking that blue beer." 


Okay, that is funny enough. First of all, we don't drink anything with the word 'lite' in front of it. I usually drink stout, or a porter, and wifey like a good hefe-weizen.  


The best part was after going back to look at the word....


"Bull Fight" Wifey and I were rolling on the floor laughing. 


He did not read it that carefully apparently. 


#3: After coming home one day last week, Amalia came up to me and gave me a hug and a kiss and said "Ahhh... I'm in love!"


#2: Luca and I were sitting around the dinner table one night discussing Harry Potter when Stella says "Daddy, I read all the Harry Potter books too."  "You did Stella? When did you read them?" Stella replies, "Well, not yet, but I am going to read them all when I am older. I will read them to my little sister."   Stella is the youngest of five. I can assure you, there are no more on the way. Perhaps, ever. 

#1: This is by FAR the funniest thing I think ANY of my children have ever said to me. I was building the Lego X-Wing Fighter with my son Julian. He was having a little trouble with part of the directions. So, I said "Julian, can I help you with that? I don't think you are putting that together properly." Julian looks at me and says "No, dad. What? Do you think you have a Ph.D. in Legos or something?"


Okay, March is upon us which means the NCAA tournament is almost underway. I shall be posting my official pics, as I feel it important to absolutely humiliate myself. Last year, my son Julian picked all the teams by the Mascots names and colors of their uniforms and had a much better bracket than me. He had Butler winning it all, and they almost did!  My wife also chooses the teams by mascot names. She usually asks something like, "Who's playing, Bears and Gophers? C'mon, the bears are going to eat those things. I'll pick the bears." 


Okay,  more soon. Happy Training!