Its been a quiet few days but not lazy ones.  I’ve done another thousand yards, ten miles, golf, and the first NCSU football game of the year.  The half-Ironman is a week and a half away and keeps creeping closer.

This weekend the race season will officially reopen for me with the Friesen 5K Fun Run.  The event is organized by Pete Friesen who is the Carolina Hurricanes trainer.  It seems only natural that when hockey season starts in another month and the RBC Center officially becomes my second home again that I should start my race season there as well.  As a side note I have a $20 riding on the race with a friend.  Rod Brind’Amour is supposed to be running the race as well and I bet my friend Charlie that I could beat him.  Sure Rod is in a million times better shape than I am but I think I have a real shot.  First I know he doesn’t run as part of his legendary workouts because he said it was too rough on the knees.  Second, he doesn’t know we’re racing so he’ll probably be doing a nice relaxing run.  Sure its a long shot but why not right?

Yesterday I got back on the road for the first time since the Endurance Challenge Triathlon.  I did a quick run of four miles on one of my normal routes.  It turned out that I felt really good on the run, any residual soreness was completely gone.  I turned in an average pace of 7:59 a mile which was my fastest average pace yet.  I also turned in my fastest mile during this run so all in all it was a good day.

This morning also had Zack and I back out on the road cycling.  I haven’t had a chance to take Ron’s bike back to him yet so when I told Zack I was going for a ride today he was up for doing a ride.  So I got up about 5:30 am, loaded up the bikes, and headed over to Zack’s.  We got out to the park in Cary where I usually start my rides and mounted up.  I kept the pace slow and we averaged about 16.5 mph over 23 miles.  Zack kept up really well and at some points even overtook me.  There’s a lot to be said about a lighter bike, though I do think Zack’s probably better at cycling than he gives himself credit for.  I’m pretty sure he’ll be buying a bike of his own fairly shortly.  He also got to try out his new Garmin 305 which I have to admit I’m fairly jealous of.  It has GPS built in and does speed, elevation, heart rate, and maps the routes.  I definitely have to upgrade my Polar heart rate monitor.  Also the Garmin can be setup to track bike cadence as well.

A little late in posting but the report is that I bonked.  I attempted the half marathon distance Saturday afternoon to make sure I was ready for it.  Suffice it to say I think I’m not.  I’ve come to the realization that I may have spent too much time worried about my swimming since it was the absolute weakest of my disciplines when I started my training plan and in the end it’s cost my fitness in the others.  Now do I think Ill be able to finish the run, yes but I won’t enjoy it and it’ll beat the hell out of me.

I headed out about 6 on Saturday in perfect weather with the temperature hovering about 80 degrees.  I felt good and strong as I started out.  I made it from my house to the Reedy Creek Greenway which begins at Meredith College fairly quickly.   My normal run usually takes me to this greenway and across the pedestrian bridge that spans Raleigh’s beltline (I-440).  This time I crossed over into the NC Museum of Art which was a series of three consecutive steep uphills and downhills before leveling out near Blue Ridge Road where I decided to turn around.  The green way is closed at sunset and I didn’t want to risk being locked out of the trail on the wrong side of the highway.  The turnaround point was at the five mile mark and I was still feeling pretty good.

When I got back near my house I was at nine miles and still needed to put in 4 more.  At this point I was starting to feel the ache and burning in my legs.  My mind was constantly giving me this excuse and that excuse to stop or slow down.  I turned down the road to run my normal short run route and about mile 10 I just started falling apart.  My heart rate was good and in the aerobic zone but my legs were hurting from my toes to my hips.  I knew this was the point I’ve heard so often where you’re fighting a mental battle more than a physical one and training through this zone will help you realize you can get through it in a race.  At 10.6 though I couldn’t go any further, I felt weak, drained, and burned.  My mind finally won the battle to stop with the realization that if I push through to injury how will that help me for the Duke Liver Center Half Ironman or the Endurance Challenge Triathlon this Saturday.  Would I have pushed myself too far, probably not but damn if it didn’t feel good to walk even if I was so tired walking up the three floors to my condo was hard in itself.

My Nike+ system pumped out the stats and it turns out that I did my 10.6 in nine minute miles which was a lot faster than I expected.  It sounds good but remember that it is an average of the first mile to the last and looking at the graph I got progressively slower towards the finish but ended at a pace of 9:34 which is still good.  So if i can cut back my speed I should have no problem finishing up, that and the adrenalin of the race should help as well.

The cycling stress test is going to have to be pushed to this weekend because of scheduling issues and the need to not burn myself out before Saturday’s triathlon.  I’m hoping to knock it out Sunday and figure Saturday’s race will be a good burnout similar to if I had done the run and swim the days before.

Today when I started out on my run at 8:30 it was 87 degrees, by the time I made it home an hour and a half later it was 95.  Thats not counting what the heat index was.  All I know is after half a bottle of Cytomax and 45 minutes of running I had to stop and walk.  So all in all I finished about half of my run before bonking with a shirt that was soaked transparent and an almost empty water bottle.  My heart rate stayed in the aerobic zone through the whole walk home which shows that even walking can be enough sometimes.  Of course my average pace was shot but I still pulled off 7 and a half miles even with the heat.  Hopefully this heat wave will have broken by the time I’m back from Philadelphia.  There’s only so much of this that can go on and I’m not enough of a morning person to be able to do my workouts in the morning.  Nights are out of the question because at 10:30 last night the heat index was still 96.

Looks like Ill be resting my knee for a few days after a couple nasty hits last night at soccer.  During the second half another player and I were heading for the ball and reached it at the same time.  He turned in towards me with the ball just as I was turning the opposite direction.  The two of us hit knee to knee with mine coming off the worse for wear.  I limped off the field and stretched it out and tried walking on it.  It felt more like a charlie horse in the end so nd I went back out onto the field a little later.  Within a few minutes of getting back out there I caught a shot right in the same knee in the same place.   Its funny how Murphy’s Law seems to always find a way.  I spent the night icing it up and this morning it was nice and stiff with some nice bruises plus lines imprinted from the soccer ball.  I figured Id take a day to let it calm down but after running some errands for lunch I can tell it feels pretty iffy so Ill take longer.

I’m heading to the Virgin Music Festival in Baltimore this weekend, so I’m planning on staying off the knee till I get back.  That’ll mean no running or cycling but I will keep swimming.  Since its no impact it shouldn’t be an issue for the knee.

Yesterday in addition to my soccer game I also put in 5.5 miles of running beforehand.