Thursday, run and swim

Woke up late. Ran the route to catch up to B and C.

swam
200 warm-up
75 free / 25 drill
50 free / 50 kick
50 free / 50 pull
repeat entire sequence 3x

12.5 moderate / 12.5 sprint
10 moderate / 15 sprint
25 sprint
repeat entire sequence 3x

Not as bad as you may think

it's early. it's cold. after all, it is the last week of November. but, the water is kind of warm. Once your in the pool, it's not as bad as you may think.

200 freestyle warm-up
100 free / 50 kick
100 free / 50 kick
50 free / 100 kick
100 free / 50 kick

100 free
50 kick
50 drill (catch-up)

Track work and then turkey

This holiday is all about food and family, two of my most favorite things in life. Well, I figured before I spend the majority of the day indulging myself I would get a good workout in. And get a good workout I did.

Sabino track
four - 2x2s (200 sprint, followed by 200 jog)
six - 1x1s
core work
line jumps (base side-to-side) 3x50
balance abs
crunches
supermans

Tweaked my back a bit, had to stop the line jumps. In conclusion, throw in some strength training to round it all off:

dumbbells: shoulder press, dumbbell bench and curls

Pit barbecued turkey, Aunt P's Dressing, fresh cranberry sauce and sweet potato pie... oh man, I am going to enjoy this.

Hasta, El Tour

Today is (was) the El Tour de Tucson. An event, you will recall, which was one of my goals for the year. Well, it has come and gone without my participation. Alot of different things conspired to make this the situation. Not the least of which was Soccer, scheduling, etc. In any case, I did not participate in the El Tour.

Chris, Dan and I have committed to riding in the Tour next year. The entire 109 miles, no less. So, starting now, I have 52 weeks to prepare.

Another morning river run

My second Thursday morning river run with Barbara and Charlene.

Up very early, still got a late start. Had to leave early, have a CPR/AED class to get to at 8:00.

Up all night... make it a rest day

Woke up and couldn't really breathe. Ended up awake all night.
Decided to take Monday off.

Tuesday swim (and invite)

As the mornings are colder and darker, it gets harder to get up and out to start my early morning swim workouts. But, today I managed to do it.

At Udall by 6:05. BCJ are already in the midst of their swim warm-up. The temperature outside is cool, but the pool water is actually kind of warm (it's nice). I complete a good warm-up and then a nice workout. Although it took a significant effort on my part to get here today, I'm glad I came and glad I have completed my workout for the day.

Just as I am collecting my gear and about to make my exit. Barbara and Charlene (the B and C of BCJ) tell me that they have a weekly Thursday run and swim tradition in which they meet at Barbara's house at 5:30am and go for a run. Then reconvene at the pool for a swim. This week, I am invited to come along. I gave Barbara my email address and she says she will email me with directions and further details (Barbara also has info for me on the name/number of a lady who runs a masters swim program on the eastside).

I tell B to send me the email and I will see if I can make it. I don't typically run with anyone else, so I am not sure if I would be comfortable in that situation. But, I guess it's worth a try.

Strong Monday run

It's Monday evening again, which means I am with my daughter at TVSC soccer practice. I am in my running gear and have my ASICS Kayano's on, which means that at the first opportunity, I will take off from Lincoln Park and try to get an evening run in.

It's about 7:15pm before I can break away. I exit the Lincoln Park parking lot, and head south on Pantano. It's dark out, but there are streetlights lining both side of Pantano Rd. in this area of town, so I shouldn't have any problems.

I feel strong throughout my run, my only issue is the limited time I have available to run. Soccer practice is over at 8:00pm, so I need to make sure I am back in time. In order to do that, my run has to end sooner than I would like. Even with that, I did 3.5 miles and I am happy with today's workout.

Here is a link to today's run/route

Colossal Cave attempt

Sunday mornings always seem like a good time for a morning bike ride (especially since my Saturdays at this time of year are always wall-to-wall soccer). This Sunday morning was no different. Dan and I planned a morning ride out to Colossal Cave. A few months back we were making this ride at least once a week, but it's been a while since our last.

Got to Dan's house at 7:00am and we were on the road shortly thereafter. The weather was a little cool, but not too bad (not yet anyway). The ride from Dan's house out Old Spanish Trail to the Colossal Cave Mountain Park entrance is just about 15 miles. So, that gives us a 30 mile ride round-trip. As we are heading east(ish) on OST, we pass Saguaro National Monument East, and begin the slight descent into the Jeremy Wash which runs through that area.

As we get to the bottom of the wash, the temperature drops at least 10 degrees. It's freakin' cold down here. Just as you get past the wash is when you round the corner and head almost due east toward Camino Loma Alta Rd, Vail and Colossal Cave. Just before reaching the corner, a jogger who is heading the other direction yells out "you will have company ahead with the 1/2 marathon today". Oh yeah! I had forgotten that the TMC Old Spanish Trail Half Marathon & 5K was being run today. The race starts at the Rincon General Store and heads east to Colossal Cave. With that race being run there is going to be no way for us to ride out to the cave.

As I am exiting the wash, Dan catches up and asks what the jogger said to me. I told him about his info regarding today's race. As we round the corner about 1/2 mile away from the store, we see that cars are already parked along the side of the road, people are milling about, and what looks like race marshals clad in reflective vests are directing street traffic. It is at this point that we decide to make a U-turn and head back.

We rode back past Saguaro Park and turned right onto Freeman. Down Freeman (which was much more downhill than I realized) to speedway, and Speedway west to Ridgeside. Then Ridgeside south to 22nd. East on 22nd to Melpomene and west on Old Spanish Trial. Back to Dan's place.

Total distance was somewhere in the 25 mile range (I forgot to reset my computer, so I can't be more accurate). It was a nice ride and I was glad to get back out on the bike again.