Denver Training!

Been in Denver, CO for the past couple of days. Heading home tomorrow morning.  It has been fun to workout in a different city and have to find routes and ways to get it done.  When I arrived on Wednesday, I had to go and pick up some equipment for the convention I am working.  After looking at the distance from where my hotel is to the company I needed to visit, I decided that riding one of the city's bikes for rent would be the way to go.

www.denverbikesharing.org

It was a 15 mile round-trip ride that ended up being pretty fun although the bike wasn't what I am used to riding.  The bike has three gears and none of them were very fast.  I was able to average 15 mph so it wasn't too bad.  But, as you can see from the picture, the bikes are cruisers meant for just tooling around town.  However, the basket feature was perfect because I was bringing back a box that would fit just right.  (You can see the route I took here: http://www.mapmyfitness.com/workout/112683427)

Thursday meant I needed to find a run.  Denver is built around the South Platte River and the city has done a great job of building a bike/run/walk path along the river and some of the waterways that run into it here in the city.  In fact, as I go around Denver, they have lots of bike lanes and things that make it very bike friendly here in the city.  Anyway, back to my run.  Headed out past the convention center and got onto the Cherry Creek Trail, headed towards the South Platte River Trail.  (Here it is: http://www.mapmyfitness.com/workout/113026545) It was a good run and went pretty fast.  I was surprised I wasn't sucking more air than I was but my heart rate was pretty high, I think due to the altitude here.

Friday meant I needed a swim.  The hotel's pool was like all hotel pools, not meant for exercise.  So, I found a club nearby that had a pool and headed out early in the morning.  The pool was saline rather than chlorinated.  Really different, and nice, to swim in.  It was also a 25 meter pool rather than the yard-length pools I am used to swimming in.  Well, because of that little bit of extra distance, my usual 60 laps put me over the 2 mile mark.  So, thrilled that I swam over 2 miles continuously during that workout.  Was swimming pretty well it seems too.  Did the main part of workout, 60 laps/120 lengths/3000m in 58:25 so that was pretty fast for me.  There is always the possibility I miss-counted one lap but even still, I felt good about the swim.

Also on Friday I went for a short run during lunch.  I also discovered that the app I use for tracking my biking and running has an office here in Denver that wasn't too far away.  So, I made part of my run a stop over at their office here just to say I appreciated their app and used it regularly.  That was kinda fun to do.

Overall, the workouts have been good.  Haven't gotten one in today but hope to by the end of the day. Race day is now less than one month away!

16th Street Mall in Denver

Loved the look of this

Where I have been spending my time

Agony but no defeat!

Today, for the first time in a VERY long time, I went for a run with a friend.  The nature of my schedule is such that I rarely have people to run with.  We were having a fantastic run along the water, beautiful sunrise, really everything you want on a crisp February morning.

Then it happened!

The friend I was running with is Deaf and we were talking as we ran (kinda the point of running together, right?).  Because I was watching him sign, and because the path had a slight slope towards the river, I drifted to the edge of the path and stepped right on the edge of the path.  Down I went. Hard!  It really felt like there were hot needles being pushed into my ankle from many angles.  I have sprained my ankle before, pretty badly actually, and this was as bad as any of those other times for sure.  My running partner had to run 20 minutes back to his car and come rescue me.  So, what started out as a great run, with a great friend, and a beautiful sunrise over the water, turned into a potentially race-ending injury for this May.  However, I am going to be optimistic that I am going to recover and be able to get back on track for this race.  I will not be de-feeted!

Technology and Training: Love - Hate Relationship

I love tech!  I really do.  When it works.  When it isn't working, it is maddening to the extreme.

I have been sporting a Motorola Droid X for about 18 months now.  Android operating system, fully integrated into my "Google Life" and all that.  But it is glitchy!  Case in point:  Today I went for a run.  GPS wouldn't sync up (a frequent problem with my phone) for a long time.  Couldn't wait so started out. Finally it synced up but only for about two miles.  I know this because it talks to me while I work out.  Every mile it updates me on distance, average pace, average speed, etc.  Got the two mile update, nothing after that.  That is until I got about 300 yards from home and I hear, "Total distance 734 miles, average pace 5-5-5.34 miles per hour..."

No lie!  I don't know what happened but suddenly I was not only the fastest animal ever to walk the planet, I was giving jet airliners a run for their money.  I felt very manly to have run so far and so fast.

I think I am going to stick it out with my phone, for now.  I have until June or July before Verizon says I can upgrade my phone and sign another two-year contract.  I probably won't be buying another Motorola phone, however.  This is my third Motorola phone in about 6 years and they all seem to get glitchy at some point.  So, for now, I will limp along, doing battery pulls and the like to try and get past the glitches and then upgrade to a great 4G phone (Samsung or HTC probably) this summer.

Anyone have your own phone glitch stories?  Recommendations for my new phone?  (Don't say iPhone, not going to do it, I am too much of a 'Googlephile.')

Back At It!

Is a year and a half too long to be away?  The answer is yes.  Well, I am back.

In November I decided enough was enough and I needed to sign up for a race and get back to training.  I had put on all of the weight I had lost in training for the first two triathlons and was definitely unhappy with how I felt and looked.  This time, however, I decided to up the ante.  I loved doing the two sprint distance triathlons.  I had so much fun training and racing but decided it was time to do more.

Looking at the international distance races out there, I found that most of them were on Sundays.  I don't race on Sunday.  Really wanted to do the Nations Tri, here in DC.  Sunday.  How about the Tri DC?  Sunday.  Other races were sprint on Saturday, international on Sunday.  Then I noticed there was a half-ironman, or 70.3, on a Saturday in May.  I knew that was going to be my race.  Five months to train for that distance, I felt, was plenty of time.  But I wanted company again.  I guess I am a social racer.  So I sent out some texts, emails, etc and got a couple of friends to join me.  Now there are six of us all signed up for the race and training.

I am really looking forward to the race and am enjoying the training.  I am losing weight, feeling better, and scared to alive of doing 70.3 miles.