home
about
racing
blog
photos
sponsors
links
|
home |
about |
racing |
blog |
photos |
sponsors |
links |
|
Teaser Wednesday, April 4, 2007 This weather has been a real teaser lately. For the past couple of days, we've had sunny skies and temps in the high 70s... and by tonight, it is supposed to get down into the high 20s. Fair? I don't think so. I've had my first taste of summer, and I want it NOW! Sadly, I'm going to have to deal with chilly weather for a while longer; Ann Arbor is likely to be pretty cool until at least the beginning of May. Perhaps I'll get lucky, though.
My trip to New Jersey was fun, if also exhausting. I didn't really get any running done while I was there (oops), so I'm paying for it now as I jump back into things. This is going to be a pretty big week. If my legs can last until Sunday without falling off, they'll get an easy week next week.
More hip woes
Once again, my IT band is giving me problems. I'm going to see how it feels when I wake up, but I may need a couple days off to let it heal. I'm getting pretty tired of it, though. Grr.
Struggling I took the day off today to help my ITB heal. Hopefully all this rest will do the trick; I've had cabin fever all day, getting more and more restless. The cold weather doesn't help, either... it's not really fun to go sit outside when it's not even 30 degrees. I'm going to try riding tomorrow, now that I've had a chance to do a little work on my bike (no more clicking from my bottom bracket!), and see how my hip feels about that. I might even try to run a little bit. We'll see how that goes. I'm not sure where I stand with the Dooby Du. It's coming up in a couple weeks, but I definitely don't feel very prepared for it. I am barely making it through a week of training, so I'm probably not in great racing shape. The condition of my hip in the week leading up to the race will likely determine whether I toe the line on the 23rd or not. If I don't, I will probably go down and volunteer, and cheer Matt (my training partner, and now also a coaching client) on.
One week until Ann Arbor!
Busy busy busy Where did this week go? Good grief. I turn around and it's already time to pack for my move to Ann Arbor - not that I'm complaining, mind you. I can't wait to get there and get settled in. I'll probably take today off to do laundry and pack, but this week has been somewhat productive in terms of training. My hip is feeling better, and I don't wake up practically immobile from pain. I've been able to do a little tempo work - 4 x 1600 @ 5:36 - and I think I've adjusted my bike so that it won't hurt my hip when I ride.
Later tomorrow, I'll probably have to go ride and run to make up for today's off day. I doubt I'll quite make plan on the bike this week, but it should be much easier to do so once I'm in Michigan. It's so hard to motivate myself to ride in Pittsburgh. I'll also get new running shoes over the weekend, and there are fresh new tires on my TT bike for training, so it'll be time to put the rubber to the road and hit the training hard for the spring.
Woohoo! I've got spotty wireless internet for now, so I don't know when this will actually get posted... I'm in Ann Arbor, and I'm really enjoying things so far. The living situation is decent, I finally got to ride with my good friend/training partner/client Matt West again, my coaching job starts in a week, and I got a JOB OFFER! today at the U of M Education job fair. That's right, I finally got an offer... and I received a call this afternoon from another district that wants to interview me tomorrow on the phone. I'm so excited I can barely contain myself - and that doesn't happen very often! More details are pending, once I make a final decision, but this would be a huge change for me... in a good way.
I ran twice today, since it was pretty dangerously windy, and my legs held up surprisingly well, especially for having been on my feet all day (in a suit and not-terribly-comfortable shoes). I've got new training shoes now, so that should help my legs a lot - my old pair had at least 500 miles on them, and probably should have been replaced in mid-March. So far, so good, and I'm looking forward to a really nice day of running, cycling, and catching up with old friends tomorrow.
Working internet! We installed a new router and I reinstalled my wireless card... and now the internet works again! Yay! This week's been pretty hectic: job fairs, interviews, lots of training, lots of driving, and lots of no internet. I'm not on the schedule at the bookstore in Ann Arbor yet, but I called in and they're going to see what they can do for me. If that doesn't work out, I've got other money-making ideas. Speaking of, I guess I need to get my coaching website put together soon...
Tomorrow's a big test: the Dooby Du duathlon. Time to see what my fitness level is (or isn't). Matt and I are driving down early to set up the race site, and then we'll give it what we've got. Since I haven't done any speedwork of significance yet this year, it should be interesting to see how things go at the race. A full report will of course be posted tomorrow.
Wow Continuing with the theme of entry titles starting with "w"... Today was the Dooby Du Duathlon, and it was tough - hence the wow. Having had no speedwork to date, my legs were not able to hold the same pace as last year (which would have put me in contention for the overall). It's fine though: this was a fun race, and a good reminder of the things I have to work on this year... especially transitions! D'oh! I also came away knowing that my base work has gone decently well, and that my cycling is already pretty strong this year.
Track starts tomorrow, about which I am very excited. I can't wait to see the kids and start figuring out what kind of a season it's going to be. I've got some new, fun ideas to keep them interested, so hopefully we'll get them to stick around and turn 'em into runners.
Dead legs Since Sunday's race, my hamstrings have been particularly tight, and I really felt the effects of racing hard with no speedwork today on the bike. The weather didn't help, being high 40s and raining, but my legs were dead and it felt like I was very sluggish on the roads. Hopefully a good night's rest will take care of that.
Track has been a lot of fun so far. I'm really glad I'm back at it this spring; I'd really be missing out if I wasn't here. Getting the bills paid might be a little trickier than I thought, but it's going to be worthwhile anyway. I've got all the distance runners, and it's a young team - lots of 7th graders, and not many 8th graders. It looks like some of the younger kids are fast, so we might still be competitive, even without a few of last year's fast kids.
Getting better
My legs are a little less dead and a little less tired and sore today. This is a good thing. However, they are much less tired while running than they are while cycling, which is not a good thing - I'm leading a shop ride from Cadence Cycle tomorrow morning, and I just hope my legs don't fall apart on me. Today's ride was pretty ugly.
Why hello, legs I had a fantastic ride yesterday - my legs decided to show up and feel good, and the sun was out to keep things warm. I got in a little less than 50 miles, and I went pretty fast for being on my road bike. I actually can't remember the last time I held that kind of average on that bike; usually all the fast rides happen on my TT bike. Also, if anyone knows what jellyfish massage therapy is, please let me know. I'm quite curious. I had a feeling I should wait until after this afternoon's ride to post something, because there might be something out of the ordinary to report. My intuition was accurate - I was cruising along when a bug flew into my mouth and got lodged in the back of my throat. Before I could do anything about it, the stupid thing stung me! It's a good thing I'm not allergic to bee stings, or I would have been in big trouble. I managed to spit out the bug a few seconds later, but my throat bothered me for the rest of the ride (and still does). I've been stung on rides before (most recently on the back a few weeks ago by a bee that flew into my open jersey), but this was the most painful and unusual spot.
My running is getting better, but I was really dehydrated this morning and had to cut my long run short. Looks like next week I get to take it easy, and then I'll start making my way up to 50 miles per week, which is what I hope to hold for most of the summer. Speedwork starts for real after next week as well - it'll be good to finally go fast in training!
|
April 2007
Back to Today
Blog Archives |