Assorted Gnus

Pathology

First, some good news. My Dad received the results from pathology on his surgery last Tuesday. The cancer had not spread, and they removed all of it. This means that once he recovers from the surgery, there should be no further complications to worry about. Frequent checkups caught this early, so anyone out there who hasn't gotten a checkup recently, don't delay.

Mr. Fix It

I got off my butt and did my best at playing handyman at home. I installed a programmable thermostat ( at last ), which hopefully will help cut my gas bill this winter. I replaced a light fixture upstairs, and in the process found out the labels in my circuit box are WRONG. Nothing like grabbing a hot wire and falling off a chair to start your day off right. It is labeled correctly now. Who knew that '2nd floor Living Room' really means '3rd floor Hallway'? I also fixed the toilet in the guest bathroom ( required replacing all the parts inside the tank ).

I even scoped out a plan to redoing the ugly linoleum in my two entry ways. I really would like tile, but that's a lot of work, but I found some fake tile squares at Home Despot that I can just set in place. I'm leaning towards that route as it'll get the look I want a lot easier. Since I don't plan to be here more than another year or so, I figure I can live without having real stone tiles.

Club

My coach used to run a triathlon club at the local YMCA, but the Y got disinterested so the club is no more. Have no fear! Incorporated a new not-for-profit club, and the Salt Creek Tri Club is born. I volunteered to host and design the website, which just went live. Pretty cool to start that up. There are a lot of members from the abondoned Y club that are joining up, so we have a fairly decent group together already. We'll be competing in the USAT regional club standings starting in 2006. Should be fun to see where we stack up. Plus I've got a whole bunch of local training partners now.

C'est Tout

That's all for now. I'm in a recovery week, so I'm making the most of not having two a day workouts. I'm off to go catch up on some reading.

Training Wrap-up

Here's the rundown on the last week. As you can see, there's a bit of a run focus going.

• Mon - 21
• AM - Swim 45m
• PM - Run 45m/Weights+Core 1h
• Tue - 22
• AM - Swim 1h20m
• PM - Run 1h5m
• Wed - 23
• AM - Swim 45m
• PM - Run 45m
• Thu - 24
• AM - Run 23m35s ( 3.5mi turkey trot! )/Bike 1h ( on trainer )
• PM - FOOD!
• Fri - 25
• Rest Day
• Sat - 26
• AM - Run 1h30m ( hill run )
• PM - Weights+Core 1h
• Sun - 27
• AM - Bike 1h30m ( trainer ride. was supposed to be metric century but weather say no )

I'm heading into a much needed recovery week, so I'll be taking it easy. Couple of full rest days, a massage booked, and lots of sleeping in. Oh, and an 8k cross-country race next Saturday.

Giving Thanks

I sit here thoroughly stuffed with a most excellent Thanksgiving dinner. I give my highest compliments to the chef. Hehe. The food all turned out great. I'm definitely going to have to remember these recipes.

This morning, I ran a 5k turkey trot. Well, it was actually 5 and a bit. It worked out to around 3.4 miles instead 3.1. Ah well. That was the least of my concerns. Chicago is in a bit of cold snap right now. It was 14 degrees with a 25 mph steady wind, brining the temp down to a little below 0 when you account for the wind chill. Not the perfect conditions for running, but at least it was sunny! The weather limited the turnout, as there were only about 50 runners tops. Many were obviously just out for an easy time to pre-burn off some calories. The actual competitive field was maybe 15-20 or so.

The run started out downhill with a tailwind. That was nice, but since it was an out and back loop, we'd be finishing uphill into the wind. I tried not to think about that. I went out hard, and pretty quickly ended up in 3rd position. 1st and 2nd were real rabbits, and I didn't see them after the mile 2 marker. I held off 4th who was nipping my heels the whole race, and ended up finishing in 3rd! Okay, it was a small field, but allow me my moment of glory. I ended up with an overall time of 23:35. That put my average pace at 6:50 or so. Which beats my previous 5k best pace, even with the brutal weather. The run focus is definitely paying off. My splits tell a slightly different story. 6:10 for the first mile, 13:00 even at mile 2. Mile 3 went by about 20:20. You can certainly see the effect of the hills and wind in my splits. I can't believe that first mile time. I thought I was holding back. Now I'm wondering how quickly I can run a single mile... Maybe someday at the track I'll find out.

Back to the main topic, giving thanks. I have several things that I'm especially thankful for this year. I'm thankful that my brother is home for the week, and that he continues to stay safe and out of harms way in Iraq. May he continue to remain so until he's called home again. I'm thankful for modern medicine. My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few months ago ( I found out on my 30th birthday ). He had surgery to treat it on Tuesday. The doctor reports that the surgery was a great success, and feels confident in my dad's prognosis. After he recovers from the surgery, he can look forward to living the rest of his natural life to the fullest. Not that many years ago, prostate cancer took the life of my grandfather. So, I'm thankful for the advances in medicine that will keep my father from the same fate, and let him continue to kick my butt skiing the craziest double-black "EX" runs.

I'm thankful for my own health, and the joy that I get from pushing my body far past the imagined limits that we create for ourselves. Every day I learn a little more about myself and the awesome capabilities of the human body and spirit, and that is what truly makes me happy. Finally, I'm thankful for all my friends, near and far, that begrudge my "insane" training, listen to my occasional ( okay, frequent ) ramblings, and support me in all that I do ( triathlons and otherwise ).

For all of this, I give thanks. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Workout Summary

So here the summary of workouts from last week:

Mo
AM Run - 45
PM Weights/Core - 50

Tu
AM Swim - 1h20

We
AM Run - 50
PM Trainer Ride - 45

Th
AM Swim - 1h10

Fr
PM Run - 1h5

Sa
AM Run - 1h20

Su
AM Bike - 2h

Saturday's run was just truly awesome. During the week, all my training takes place in the dark. I finish my morning workouts before the sun comes up. The sun sets before I even leave work. So, it was a nice change of pace to run *after* the sun came up on Saturday. It was an absolutely glorious day. It was in the upper 30's, sunny with a not a cloud in the sky, and only a little bit of wind. Perfect for a nice winter run.

I strapped on the garmin, which is about the best training device ever, next to an HRM. With the garmin I get to meander on my runs, and don't have to worry about how to figure out distance. I started out from my house, and headed west. Crossed the one busy street, and then ducked down onto a running path that follows a little creek / marsh area. Followed that for about a mile. Saw a couple hawks circling overhead, lazily riding thermals. Lots of marsh grass and cattails along the trail.

Got to the end of that trail, and dumped out into a little subdivision. Ran along the streets there for a while. It was nice and quiet, and fairly free of cars. Came across another running trail, so decided to follow that for a while. This one was nice with some rolling hills on it, and I followed it until it ended. It continued on of sorts as a dirt trail that led off into a wooded area, so I decided to follow that. The woods were fun. Fairly well packed dirt trail so it was mostly flat and easy to run. Meandered through the trees for a bit, at one point having to leap across a little stream, before I dumped out into a big field with a hill at the other end. I ran up to the top of the hill, and found some landmarks to figure out where I was, and set off back towards home. I picked up another running trail that I knew, and followed that back to the main road that leads back to my house. Finished up at just over 8 miles and stayed in zone1 for the whole run.

All told, I think that was definitely the most fun I've had running, ever. Definitely one to savor for a while. I'll draw on this one while I'm out running by the light of the moon on my early mornings during the week.

Thanksgiving Menu

Okay, so it was a slow morning at work. I dug around various recipes and have come up with the following plan for gorging, erm..., enjoying my day off of work and training next Thursday.

Without further ado, here is the Thanksgiving menu Chez Chris.

Appetizer:

• Homemade Guacamole and Chips

Main Course:

• Cranberry Spinach Salad with Gorgonzola
• Roast Cornish Hen with Vegetable Hash
• Wild Rice and Mushroom Dressing
• Habanero Cornbread

Dessert:

• Cranberry Pear Crisp

I think that I've outdone myself. We'll see how it all turns out though. Some of these are new reccipes, so it could be interesting.

If anyone is interested, guests are definitely welcome. Please RSVP though. :)

Weekly Wrapup

Whoops, I've been neglecting my blog. Tsk tsk. I'm such a bad blog owner. Please don't report me to the SPCB!

It's been good getting back into the swing of things with training again. I added a couple pounds while I was on the couch. I'm not going to focus on that though. I will focus on continuing to eat right, stay hydrated, and train right. As far as training goes, my running is pretty stellar. I'm actually at or ahead of where I was at the end of last season already. Biking is down a bit, but that'll come back quick. Swimming is where I feel the biggest work is ahead of me. I feel like a slug in the water.

In other news, my brother is home from Iraq! Only for 10 days, but hey, it's the little things. He's currently back in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. Just in time for Thanksgiving and my newest nephew's first birthday. I'm playing the part of the spoiling uncle very well, from what I hear. I see it as my duty though, so I'm just doing my part.

Only one week until Thanksgiving! I need to start getting serious about preparing the menu if I want to make good on my plans to whip up a nice feast. I'm spending this one at home, instead of going to visit my parents. My Dad found out he has prostate cancer earlier this year, and he's going in for surgery to treat it on Tuesday. He will still be recovering from that over Thanksgiving, so my parents are just having a low-key holiday this year. Before anyone gets too worried, his prognosis is very good, as it was caught very early, and the surgery for it has a very high success rate. I'm heading out there for Christmas, and he plans to be back and healthy enough by then to able to go skiing.

Veterans Day

Today is the day that we honor the veterans who have served the United States in uniformed service.

To all the men and women who have served over the years, I thank you.

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

ZAP!

Training update, but not *that* kind of training, though that's going well too.

Today I got trained in how to shock people. A couple months ago, we got one of those fancy Automatic External Defibrilator units installed at work. Today was the training session in how to use it. I was one of the lucky volunteers for the training. Along with that AED, we also got certified in CPR.

Back when I was a teenager (in prehistoric times), I worked as a lifeguard at a summer camp in Wisconsin. As part of that we got CPR and First Responder certification. I haven't kept it up with refresher courses, so today was kinda interesting. A lot has changed in the past 15 years since I was taught CPR. The compression rate is much faster and everybody uses face/mouth shields.

The AED is a pretty cool little device. It's amazingly easy to use. Open it up, put on two electrodes, and stand back while it does the *ZAP*. We don't even have to press a button, it sends the shock on it's own.

All in all, despite loosing most of the day to the training, it was worth it. I got refreshed on my CPR training, and now I know a lot more about how the AED is used, which hopefully I'll never have to use, but am ready for it just in case.

Falling off the couch

Well, I've had my roughly 4 weeks of full rest. Okay, so maybe I cheated a little and ran a 5k, but other than that, I really did rest! Besides, I had the OK from my coach to do it. But, the 4 weeks are up so that means that it's time to fall off the couch and get back into the swing of training.

I'm going to be hitting the gym a lot more this winter, as I've got a pretty decent base built up, so now the goal is to add some strength to that. Add in a bunch of core work, and I'll be pretty busy.

Started with my first day of weights and core work last night ( Thursday ). First planned day of sport training will be this Sunday, when I'm heading out on a group ride with my coach and a couple of friends. First week back starts Monday. I'll be putting in 3 runs, 2 bikes, 3 swims, and 2 strength sessions. Mostly easy stuff, zone1/2, so that I ease back into it, but start up the normal routine again.

I feel good. The rest was fun, but I'm getting the bug to get back out there and train, so it's time. Only 10 months to go until Ironman Wisconsin!