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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

First race down

Just a short note here.  I had my 2012 Race Debut at the Ocean Drive 10 Miler and Marathon, I did the 10 miler.  It was the same race I did last year.  I was a little slower, but am holding about 10 extra pounds from last year.  I finished in 1:12:56, or 23 out of 541 total.  I was 6 of 56 in my age group, so not too bad for a local race.

It was a pretty crappy weekend weather wise.  I had planned on Saturday doing a 3 hour ride outside, but it rained like hell so I did 2:15 on the trainer instead.  Looking forward to a 9 mile trail run coming up.

Like I said, short and sweet.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Finish the week strong

Well, its been a pretty good week so far.  The training has been going along on par from last year.  The only real difference is I am still heavier from last year at this time by about 10 lbs.  I am hovering around 190 give or take.  Last year I was around 180 at this point.  Considering that my race schedule starts Sunday March 25 with a 10 miler I am feeling ok.  I know let year, once the weather broke and I got outside, the weight fell off.

For the week through Friday I did not miss any sessions, which was a bonus since softball started for one little lady in my house, and its been in the 70's all week.  I have logged lots of playground nights recently so it is worth it.  Work is a little slow right now, so I don't have a ton of stress from that area.

On Friday, I had  a busy day.  My plan was to do my trainer session at home, started around 530am.  Once I completed that, I headed to the Northeast YMCA for 45 minutes of weight training.  Headed back home to shower then return to the Y for a Board of Directors Meeting.  I have been on the Board since November 2011.  After that morning I headed to work.  On my way to work I received a call from a contractor who did work at my house last year.  The short story is he made a major error with cement, didn't fix it, so I hired someone else, then filed the paperwork for small claims court to get my money back.  Anyway, he called Friday and I met him so he could pay me the money back for the repairs.  I thought this was going to be a great end of the week before I headed to the shore for a mini-training camp weekend with a race on Sunday.

When I returned to work, a guest came into use our showers.  One of my employees, Nish, came in to make sure it was ok for the guy to just shower.  He had a special, national gym membership through his insurance, and we are a participating location.  It was all good, he only had to fill out our guest pass.  As he was filling it out, I noticed he lived in California.  I asked hime a few questions, which led to 20 minutes of talking about running, training, and marathons.  He was scheduled to run 101 this year...YES 101 Marathons just this year. He figured he would cross 1,000 next year.   Little did I know I was talking to an underground celebrity in the running community.  Jim Simpson was in my gym showering before he was going to run TWO marathons this weekend! One of them was the race I am doing on Sunday.   I won't bore you with all the details of our conversations, my drooling, or showing off my office nicknamed "The Sportsman's Paradise."  His camper was parked outside and he just need to shower.  I did give hime a I Tri 4 Downs T-shirt as a momento of his visit to the AFI.


Here is a link to the Runners World Article that did a feature on him.  He is living a dream!
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-297--13059-0,00.html

Sunday, March 18, 2012

St Patty's week means no Green Beer! Well maybe one.

This week started off great.  I nailed 12 workouts from Monday through Friday and had 2 long sessions planned for the weekend.  It was a crazy week with Emma's softball starting, so need to be Mr. Ironman Dad and get her to the practices.  Its tough sitting for 90 minutes while she practices, but I want to be there to support her.  Plus I got my Campus Quilt (http://www.campusquilt.com/) in the mail.  It has 20 t-shirts on it, some from races, and some from my kids.  It really nice and comfy.


Everything was going great all week and I was looking forward to a nice quite St Patty's weekend with no real plans.  I figured Cathy and I could have some QT time with each other.  Then my friend Brian called on Wednesday night and reminded me that I had agreed to help him this weekend.  I did remember once he jogged my memory.  Not a real big deal, what are friends for.  Then I realized what I needed to help him with.  Wax his parents 40' house boat on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Rock Hall Maryland.

We planned on leaving at 730am from his parents house on Saturday morning.  So if I wanted to get my run done on Saturday, I would need to get up at 4am, start the run by 430am, finish by 630am, get showered and eat by 650 am, then leave for his parents by 7am.  Well I guess the week caught up to me on Friday night.  I was asleep by 830pm while watching TV with Conor.  When my alarm went off at 4am, I must have hit the snooze a few times then finally turned it off.  I did get up around 615am, so I did not over sleep for the waxing.  Needless to say I skipped the Saturday workout since I did not even get home until 930pm and was beat!  Here is Brian working his magic.

 


While I was in Rock Hall, Brian and I did have a chance to hang out and solve all the problems of the word while waxing a 40' boat.  Oh yeah, while we were doing that, his parents are in Key West, FL.  How does that happen?  Once we finished waxing, we stopped at a local bar and planned on eating before we headed home.  Thankfully they had some green spirits for us.

When I returned home Saturday night I had this letter waiting for me from one of the organizations we donated money to from the Ironman fundraiser .  It makes all the sacrifices, all the miles and all the training worth it.

Sunday finally came and I made my long run, 14 miles, and 3 hour trainer session.  The trainer session was not my best, but I got it in.  The weather has been awesome, so my run was in shorts and a t-shirt.  The trainer session was ok just because it is so nice out and I was on the trainer inside.  The only saving grace is that its March Madness so I watched 2 games while on the trainer.  I spent the latter part of the afternoon with Conor and Kristina out shopping and running some errands.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Getting Back on Track

Well, I am starting to feel better from the oral surgery finally.  This past week was pretty busy for us.  Softball and Baseball started for Emma and Conor, so that adds to the mayhem of our schedule.  I finished IMLP training at 8:45 for the total.  Not a very good week and only a little off from what I needed.  Just 2 weeks ago I was at 12:25.  This week I should get back on track as I hit Base II Training Block.

The I Tri 4 Downs Beef and Beer was last weekend.   It was our first fundraiser of the year and we had a great night.  We raised $1,350 from the night.  It was a fun night with 47 thirsty/hungry people attending.  We had a 3 hour set drink menu along with a buffet of food.  We offered a 50/50 raffle and had some nice prize baskets.  The best part of the night was the winner of the 50/50, Dave, donated the money back to us...all $250.00.  It was a very nice gesture from a really nice Philly Fireman.  Below are some of the festivities.

Below are Leah, Nish, Jane, Tom, & Brian


Below is a picture of Dave(on the left) the 50/50 winner and 
Brian(on the right).  Brian is on the I Tri 4 Downs, Inc. Board.  Cathy is in the foreground up close.



Valarie and Jackie(my sister) with Dave and Joker in the background.


It wound up being a great night, but very late for Cathy and I.  With the time change we seemed to only get about 3 hours sleep...I know Training Payne get less than that and still trains like mad (http://workandtrainingpayne.blogspot.com/), but its tough for me.  I choose to take Sunday as a recovery day.  What a chicken ass I was for that, but I was beat.

My first race of the year is in 2-weeks.  A nice flat 10 miler at the beach near my parents house.  I'll take the kids and my bike with me for the weekend and treat it as a mini-camp.  Now I'll just have to stay out of the local water holes when I am there.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Wisdom Teeth out and a 12th Birthday!

This was an interesting week this week.  I had a scheduled oral surgery procedure to remove my four wisdom teeth this week.  I had planned on taking Thursday and Friday off because I was not sure how I would respond to the surgery.  Since I really dislike the dentist..sorry any dentist...I dislike an oral surgeon more.  Monday through Wednesday I did all my planned workouts and was able to get ahead at work so I would not be behind on March 5 when I return.

All in all I had no issues with the surgery.  Apparently, when they gave me the IV drugs and asked me about my Eagleman 70.3 Ironman t-shirt, I answered and fell asleep.  The next thing I remember is waking up with the big gauze pads in my mouth.  I spent most of Thursday resting and sleeping.  Friday I felt better but was still banned from any exercise since I was still slightly bleeding in my mouth.  Once Saturday came I was pretty good.  I got back on the bike for an easy 90-minute session with no ill-effects.  Sunday I made it out for a 12 mile run.  So far no set backs other than being tired.  I'll hit it back to work Monday the 5th, and expect to resume my normal sessions.

The other big part of my week is that Kristina turns 12 years old.  She has made it 12 years longer than they told us she would make it.  Other than Down Syndrome, she is a normal 12 year old sports nut.  She had a great birthday, spending a few days with her Mommom and Pop while I was recovering.  She also became a women this week, which was very traumatic for me.  Having my oldest girl hitting maturity is weird.  It was bad enough when she had to get a training bra and stuff.  Now shopping in the feminine hygiene section of Target or Giant is going to be rough.

Our first fundraiser of the year is coming this next weekend, March 10, 2012.  A $25.00 Beef and Beer at The Bayou Bar and Grill.  Hopefully we have a good turnout and can get a jump start on making 2012 even better than last year for the kids.