The Final Swim of the Summer

Alas, the days in the outdoor pool have drawn to a close. Lisa and I did our last swim of the summer at Avalon last night. The pool will be closed next week since kids are back in school and then it will be open for Labor Day weekend before they shut down for the season. We have been starting to get a chill in the air on our recent swims - incentive to jump in and start swimming fast!

From Dawn to Dusk

After we decided not to do our 13-miler together on Sunday morning, I knew that I was going to have trouble fitting it all in one chunk. I did a quick calculation before I went to bed on Saturday night, factoring in how early I was willing to get up and how much mileage I was really willing to do later in the day. The plan was to do 6 in the am and then 7-8 in the afternoon. (I figured I would add in an extra mile since I was giving myself the benefit of a break.) Well, as the afternoon task list grew, I was comprising with myself, saying, "OK, you can get 6 miles in this afternoon and then do 2 more tonight with Fresca..." Then it trickled down to 4...and eventually I got out the door and did 2 measly miles in the blazing sun. It was pretty hot, so all in all I'm glad that I didn't do a lot of mileage in the afternoon. After the sun went down and we returned from Church again, I headed out the door to do my final 5 miles for the day. (Fresca finished the last 2 with me.) I have to say, even with breaking it up, my legs were feeling pretty heavy by the end of the run.

Swimming with Sarah

OK - I WENT to the pool tonight, but didn't end up actually swimming. My friend Heather called to see if she and Sarah could come along tonight, but we forgot that Tuesday night is Adult Night only at Avalon, so we ended up going over to Avonworth. I ended up being in charge of camera duty and since they don't really have a separate lap lane, I just headed home to start my Olympic watching! Tomorrow will be my speed workout!



Aren't they just the cutest pair?

Lithuania v. Argentina Basketball

If you happen to be getting up for a 12 mile run early on a Sunday morning, this might be your only Olympic watching availability...though I think Lisa actually got some good LIVE action pre-6 am while it was still being broadcast on NBC before it switched to USA coverage.

What a gorgeous Sunday morning long run! Perfect weather and we both felt great on the run!

Once a Runner - REPRINT

After the release of Again to Carthage, by John L. Parker, Jr., I really wanted to read the first book, Once a Runner. Only problem was that it was out of print and the cheapest price I could find for a copy was about $200. Looks like based on the success of Again to Carthage, that they are going to have a reprint of Once a Runner, so it is due out April 7, 2009 at a very reasonable $16.32! You can pre-order now!

The Best Place to Get Hit by Lightning

While doing our speed workout last night, Lisa and I discussed the topic of lightning strikes and we agree - the best place to get hit by lightning would be the track at CMU. While, it is highly unlikely that you actually would get hit due to the number of large metal objects (goalposts, stadium lights, etc.) sticking up into the air that are much taller than a human, it is the ideal place as there are always a lot of people in the vicinity and you are so close to all of the Oakland hospitals - just a very short ride in an ambulance!

This topic came up since a storm was brewing and, quite ideally, started dropping rain on us during our 4th of 5 1k repeats. It started out with a nice, cooling sprinkle and then as we were doing our cooldown it dumped pretty hard on us. It stopped and as we were doing some stretches we saw Erica Howard, who we had just been talking about the other day when we ran past her condo - how ironic!

[Even though we were discussing lightning, there actually ended up being no thunder and lightning in this storm - just rain!]

Swimming Update

Two firsts for today - bilateral breathing (ie every three strokes on alternating sides instead of every other stroke on the same side) and a swim cap!

People Who Run Downtown

So Amber, Lisa and Debo should have gotten "verbal blog posts" from me last night about my experience running with the People Who Run Downtown running club. Needless to say this was a classic case of showing off your running skills and getting totally burned. It was a hot afternoon at 5:30 pm (not my prime for running) and I started off with my friend Heather and one of her friends at what I thought was a reasonable tempo pace. Would have been fine if we were only running a 5k, but since we were running 6, it caught up to me and I had to slow down at about the half way point. Luckily our route was simple - we started at Double Wide Grill, ran across Hot Metal, down the Jail Trail, across Smithfield and back up to Double Wide. The person who did the map took us back up Carson Street, but I opted to do the trail down along the river...and since I was by myself, this was a totally fine option. Afterwards, we waited about half an hour to get served at Double Wide and eventually bailed and headed over to Cupka's II - ah, the Belasco burger, what a way to celebrate a run!

I did it!

When my alarm went off today at five, every excuse in the book popped up as reasons why I should stay in bed. Instead, I got up and slowly left the house embarking on the same run that we had planned for last week but were unable to do since the Grand Prix was going on. The morning was quiet as I climbed hill after hill. Forbes might have been easier than Panther Hollow/Beacon - the hill that just KEEPS going up and up. Overall the run was good, I had a longer stop near the beginning but total time was 1:55 so not bad going solo on a tough course. Oh yeah, to extend the 11 mile route I went up Commercial at the very end into Swisshelm Park - that was slightly masochistic. Glad to be done for the weekend but really wanting to take a nap at work!

Don't Try to Breathe on the Left Side and Count Strokes at the Same Time

OK - I better not ever have to do accounting while underwater - I can't swim and count at the same time. (Plus, I was making it extra hard because I was trying to breathe on the left side...I am not an ambidextrous breather.) I ended up with a nose full of water while trying to count my strokes during a "freestyle DPS" set (distance per set). It was a chilly night for swimming - the kind of temperature where you just want to stay IN the water and not expose your skin to the cold air!

Successful Swimming

I am loving the swimming workouts I am getting from swimplan.com (recommended by Kat). Swimming is not my strongpoint, but it feels so good and though I'm not getting too far very quickly, it seems to be a good workout. I did not actually complete the time trial they suggest you do upon signing up; I just guessed as to where I was (basically one level up from "Save-Me-I'm-Drowning!") Yesterday was my first timed swim and I hit the first 100 interval right on the nose. I got a little slower as they went on, but no more than 10 seconds over (and during two of the 100s there was an "interference" from 1) a ball, 2) a kid floating through the lap lane). Again, while I'm not good at it, I like the focused swims, like streamline, one-arm freestyle, push and glide, breathe right-breathe left, that make you focus on your swimming and then when you go back to normal freestyle, you feel like you learned something and can apply it!

Too Hot to Handle

Even though we had originally decided that later night track workouts would be better, Megan and I left work promptly at 5 and headed to the track. I'm not sure if today was an Ozone Alert day or just very close (tomorrow is supposed to be as well)...The first four of 12 400s went well - 94-96 seconds apiece. After our first water break, things went drastically downhill. Megan was able to stay somewhat consistent. I, however, could not as I was on the verge of vomiting for the first time ever running...We made it through 8 repeats total and decided to back off due to extreme weather conditions. Next time we will definitely wait a few hours to start our run...

Weekend Overload

Met up with Megan and Deborah at the North Park Boat House for our ten miler. We decided to do a 9 mile loop so as not to repeat loops around the lake. Since we reversed the loops, we unofficially did 10.12 miles - not bad, especially with that hill during mile 7! Yoga came next where we baked in the hot sun and apparently I was the only one getting attacked by fruit flies...annoying.

I got home and planned to do some "gardening" (otherwise known as ripping the weeds out of the potential garden area) but found Geoff getting ready to cut down the biggest and nastiest of the hedges in front of our house. So five hours later, we were finished cutting and chopping and digging and cleaning up...

As if my legs hadn't gotten enough work, Geoff and I played tennis on Sunday. I only lasted about 45 minutes and could move no more. But it was super fun to play on the clay courts for the first time!

Update for the Week

After a not so good weekend, I was able to get back on track with the whole training thing...

Swim on Tuesday - switched around the schedule to ease back into the program. I was very upset as I was driving to Avalon under a looming black cloud. I was nervous that it would be closed again. I was even more nervous when I got there and everyone was packing up. Well, I was in luck, third time is a charm - it was adult swim night. A little weird that they had four lifeguards for four people but I got in my 1400yd swim (I asked for an easier plan and it was longer than the last! - OK only by 50 yds, but still!). I love swimming and am so glad we have a program that requires cross training!

Speed on Wednesday - I did the 4x 3min fast/3min slow. I thought I might have been cheating since the first fast segment was all down-hill. In defense it was a very strong downhill performance...BUT it turned out that I only had two minutes fast on flat land remaining - the rest was uphill! Yikes! And to make matters worse, I was doing sort of an out and back loop, but I didn't turn back quite soon enough - I guess an extra mile of cool down never hurt anyone!

Tempo on Thursday - I found that the owners with the nasty unleashed dogs go walking right after work. So going in the morning or late evening (also nice as the sun has gone down a bit) is my best bet not to get bitten. My tempo was a little off as my two mile easy was faster than easy as I seemed to be working off stress from work. The tempo run actually felt good! And it was nice to get a compliment at my 'speed' even if it was from a three year with training wheels!

Broken Leg

I don't think I have told any of you the story yet, but Nathan's dad broke his leg! He fell off his bike as he was riding into work in the morning. It was a "one-bike" accident, ie - he was not hit by a car or anything, he just sort of fell over. He was only three houses away, so he hobbled back home and Maggie (the physical therapist in training) took a look at him. As she was looking at him, she got a little nauseous from the concrete burns he had on his leg, so the two of them were both laying on the floor in agnst when Nathan's mom came downstairs to check out the action. He is taking it in a light-hearted manner and luckily he has a co-worker proficient with photo-editing tools (see photos below)! (He is probably out for the Great Race this year...)

Palm Tree Wading Pool

OK - this really has nothing to do with running or related cross training, but figured I'd include another kiddie wading pool picture...this is Nathan's second cousin, (what does that make him to me?) Trent. His parents just sent us Fourth of July pictures!

I finally got a chance to try out my grab bag swimsuit tonight...I now understand why speedos have drawstrings in them...almost lost my bottoms when I pushed off from the wall tonight. Pretty much had the pool to myself - there were no more than seven other people there throughout the time I was in the pool. I also tried out the swim workout provided by swimplan.com.

Best Quote from the Olympic Trials

“Now I’m thinking that maybe it’s a blessing from God that I don’t have to run the marathon in Beijing. All the marathoners are complaining so much about the event there, but I’ll get to stop after six miles. Maybe I’ll come out to the 26-mile mark of the marathon and cheer for them near the finish.”

- Abdi Adirahman, after coming in first in the 10,000 meters

(I guess sometimes even worldclass athletes just don't really want to run that far...)

Pirate Ship Wading Pool

I had a fairly uneventful 9 mile run this morning. I decided not to do the Sewickley route on my own for fear of getting lost (Don't worry, Debo, with Lisa and my powers combined, we should be able to get through it.), so I extended my normal tempo run route. Its basically down California Avenue, so its a road I'm familiar with in a car, but I have never run that far; you see different things when you run as opposed to drive, including this exciting Pirate Ship Wading Pool (the highlight of my run)!

Brentwood 5k

The Troxells seventh annual running of the Brentwood Firecracker 5k......and Miles's first!

Downtown Bellevue at Noon

Things have been slow in the office and I figured why sit at my desk ogling the outside when I could just take a day off and enjoy the summer. Nathan joined me on my spontaneous day-off adventure. We started with 9 holes at Clover Hill with our friend Matt Misja and then Nathan had to do his one obligatory work meeting downtown, so I hammered out the tempo run. I was hitting downtown Bellevue right around noon and let me tell you, I almost plowed over at least three blue hairs. Bellevue is a happening place at high-noon. Just as my run was ending it started to sprinkle (I've been contemplating how many of our recent Pgh posts refer to a rainy run...you would think we lived in Seattle or something). I took a quick shower and Heather & Sarah Misja picked me up for a girls lunch at Sewickley Cafe - delicious - tomato dill soup & a tomato, basil mozzarella sandwich on ciabatta. The rainy afternoon led into a relaxing nap - oh, what a perfect day!