Arriving at work Friday morning, Dave was no longer wearing the suit he was sporting the past couple of days, suits are an unusual attire for Flagstaff's casual mountain fashion, rather he was wearing running garb and approached me with a disappointing look. "What happened to the suits Dave? Looks as if you took Casual Fridays in a direction.""Yea, I went for run before work. The knee is still tweaked. Don't know if I can do the triathlon this week-end.&qu... Read Full Story
On my road to the Vegas Rock-n-Rol Marathon, I took the less traveled path at the fork-in-the-road and now find myself on the way to the Blue Water Triathlon this week-end where I will celebrate my birthday by "participating" ( a carefully chosen word as I avoided "compete) in my first triathlon. Simply, I will measure my success by not drowning. After successfully exiting the water alive, it just doesn't matter when I finish. After 13... Read Full Story
Well tomorrow, I'm another year older and what a better way to celebrate then participating in a triathlon! Although the body is older, the mind is still that of a 20 year-old -- maybe, a 25 year old. Should be an interesting race as my training focused on swimming to prevent a drowning. I figure, if I actually make it out of the water, I'm home free and my time doesn't matter! I just want to finish-- that is my goal.Nervous? Yes. Anxious. Uh-huh. Fear? Maybe. Bad Ass? Definitely.The Run... Read Full Story
Once again, squeezing in a work has been impossible on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday due to long hours and stressful situations. Nonetheless, Dave and I agreed to meet at 6 a.m. for a morning swim because that was the only time in our schedules. Sure enough, just making the commitment to meet someone for an early work-out was all the motivation I needed.With the triathlon fast approaching next week, the swim was necessary to ensure that I didn't lose any endurance and not be able to make it t... Read Full Story
Neither here nor there...meh. Midweek run: good. Saturday's potential mess over visiting family versus workout was avoided with a compromise to do yard work which, at least, left me time to do a swim. (I think the wife bluffs well.) Hint to others: swimming really trims you down and makes you lean, although the transformation to swimming is not as easy as one thinks. The running distance does not equate to swimming distance: 1 mile swimming equals how many running? 10? 6? 5? Breathing is... Read Full Story
I received this response post yesterd and thought it very worth to pass along!"Hey , wanted to give a shout out for a running app I developed for iPhone and Touch pods. Its called Cadence, it plays music from your iTunes library that matches the speed you are running at. You select the Beats per minute you want to hear, it plays all the music that match the beat. Helps to keep you on pace.http://www.cadenceapp.comthanks!"The Running Bob Read Full Story
A confidence booster was in need for today's twenty mile long run. No more exhaustion accompanied with the flu. Determined, it would be twenty miles or I have serious heart-to-heart with myself. The plan was to run naked -- no I-pod to pace with a beat nor a Garmin to verify the pace. I simply had a watch and a plan. The course was measured with the car: start at the damn dam; head five miles along the lake for an out-and- back; exchange the water bottle at the car (mid-way point and origi... Read Full Story
The competition is getting tough as evident of yesterday's work-out of a planned 1,000 meter swim and five mile run. While swimming laps with 200 meters to go, I spied a rather large, fat guy of four hundred plus pounds enter my lane and wave his underwater dumb-bell to gain my attention. "You're going to have to move.""Excuse me?"A Rubenesque woman interrupts, "I'm the instructor and you can't use that lane. We have an exercise class. Why don't you see if you could share the far lane."The fo... Read Full Story
In exchange for a day off to watch the Vikings-Packers game, I promised to work-out "doubly-hard" for my "wise choice". At lunch, I swam free-style for forty minutes but due to my vacation and illness, I felt I lost my stroke, endurance, timing and strength, yet I pushed through -- I promised. At 6:15 p.m., I think, I returned home from work where I waged a mental battle to get out and run when the lure of the fireplace and a little dog beckoned me to stay inside and warm. For the first ti... Read Full Story
