Short Tempo & more

Yesterday's workout:
On the track - 2 miles easy, 3 miles averaging 5:54 per mile, finish 1 mile easy. I used a heart rate monitor for the first time in years. My max heart rate was 151, and my average was 132 beats per minute. During my 3 miles of tempo running my heart rate stayed at 148 BPM. According to the heart rate calculations the 148 is at my maximum heart rate range between 80 and 85%. I guess they call this the anaerobic zone. That is the zone where you cannot speak eloquently. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out what to do with these numbers but for now I've got to run.

Today's workout:
15 minutes of dumbbells on the ball. I love that little jingle, "dumbbells on the ball".
35 minutes of a steady swim in the pool for lunch.
BRICK: 12 mile Bike ride in the park on my way home from work, followed with 2 miles running barefoot.

Saturday 5:00am:
My wife and I fly to Vancouver Canada and set sail on Holland America for our 11 day cruise and land adventure trip. Actually, 3 days on ship and 7 days on land by train, bus, and boat to make our way up to Anchorage, Alaska. We are excited and are ready to go and celebrate a wonderful time together.

I am not bringing my wet suit but I do hope to get a couple days of pool swimming, running (probably on treadmill), strength training, and stationary biking in on early mornings.

Hopefully, I get a chance while I'm up there to update my blog. I'll post pictures later too.

Peace,
Papa Louie

Adventures in marathon training.

Finally, after a 11 year hiatus from running a marathon I am back to tackle the challenge. This past March I have decided to run the Columbus Marathon as a qualifier for the Boston 2007 Marathon. Today's countdown number for the Columbus marathon is 123 days away!
It is also my first day to begin an 18 week marathon training program. The training is similar to what I did for the Cleveland Half Marathon race this past May. The training is basically, 3 days per week of running and 3 days cross training. The running is of intense quality workouts.
To view my marathon training schedule click on FIRST to the Finish. This program starts at 16 weeks but I will start 2 weeks prior to this schedule and then continue with week 16.

I am looking forward to the adventures in this serious 3 running days per week schedule. I think the excitement in starting a new training program is just as exciting as running the race.

Today's workout was 12 x 400 @ 1:14 average (1:30 Recovery Interval)

Sorry, I can't tell you my predicted marathon finish time. Although, I will accept any guesses you might have. A clue from my recent Half Marathon race results should help.

Wendy's Triathlon Race Recap.

Do you know why Wendy's restaurants make their burgers square? According to Dave, founder of Wendy's, said that, they do not cut any corners when it comes to making a great tasting burger. I would have to say that would be the same with the Wendy's International Triathlon, that I ran this past Sunday. There were no corners cut in this well run race.

The Swim was in beautiful Alum Creek State park beach. We swam in warm 72 degree water which was warmer than the 62 degree air temperature. It was a 1/2 mile swim from one end of the beach to the other end. Before the race I was debating whether to use my wet suit or not. I didn't want to lose time in transition by fiddling and fumbling with trying to get the wet suit off.
I went with wearing the wet suit. We swam in about 4 to 4 1/2 feet water which some people would stand up and walk through but I didn't want to cut any corners so I swam freestyle non stop. With the buoyancy, comfort, and confidence I gained from wearing the wet suit I was well pleased with my swim results. I managed to get the suit off in no time standing up by using my legs to step on and pull off the suit without much hands.
1/2 mile swim in 14:26 13th out of 28 in my age group.
T1 in 1:29 fastest transition time in my age group. (not too much fumbling around here.)

The Bike was a fairly flat and fast course. Although, I came upon the result of 2 crashes. One was at a sharp left corner and the other was at an intersection where we had to zig then zag around 2 short corners and around cars that were held up by patrol officers. I think 2 maybe 3 people were involved in that one. As I approached these turns I cautiously went through and found a clear open line for me to sprint about 100 yards to regain my speed.
16.8 mile bike in 48:06 (20.9 mph average) 5th out of 28 in age group.
T2 in 1:43 5th out of 28. (fiddled and fumbled with trying to unsnap chip strap with cold and numb fingers) Next time before I get near transition I will shake and squeeze my hands to get blood flow and circulation in them.

The Run was also on a flat and fast course. This was my chance to catch 4 of the remaining 5 guys in my age group. No problem, since I am a runner turned triathlete. I had the 6th fastest overall run time.
5K run in 18:53 (6:03 average pace)
Finish time 1:24:39
2nd place in 45-49
Wendy's web site results

Water Fast Follow-up

On Tuesday morning after I broke the water fast with a light breakfast smoothie I felt my strength was beginning to come back. For my mid morning snack I ate a home made power bar and an orange. I then hit the pool for an easy 35 minute swim during lunch time. The swim felt good. For lunch I had 2 turkey stuff cabbages and an apple. For my afternoon snack I had a garden salad, handful of pecans, and handful of raisins. For dinner I had 2 pinto bean borritos which I ate about an hour and half before I went to the track to workout with the club. It was on the track that I noticed I had not fully recovered my strength. My legs were feeling tired and heavy during 400 repeats. I averaged around 1:22 for 8 - 400's which was about 7 to 9 seconds slower than normal.
Oh, and I still drank water throughout the day too.

trifrog: I do believe that going through a detox diet does help make you aware that you can eliminate certain "bad" foods from your diet by learning to make healthy choices.

jessie_tri_mn: As of Wednesday I feel fully recovered from getting fatigued during the fast. My hunger is about the same. I eat a morning meal, mid morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and an evening snack. I eat all day to keep my metabolism working. I started eating this way and incorporated strength training 2 to 3 times a week since January and have lost 8 pounds.

Lana: Mondays are my rest days. I did not have any workouts scheduled that day. That is why I chose Monday to have the water fast.

deb: Having nothing to eat but only drinking water for 36 hours was a mental and physical and spiritual discipline for me to experience.

qcmier: Right on with Eddy Money.

Main ingredients for a smoothie is 3/4 cup yogurt, 3/4 cup milk, 4-6 ice cubes, the additions can be whatever fruit and grains you have on hand and to add more protein use 2 tablespoons of whey power.

Today's smoothie additions was 1 cup cooked oatmeal, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 2 tablespoons flaxseed, 1/2 cup mangos, 1/2 cup diced cantaloupe, and a squirt of pure maple syrup. This stuff fills me up and keeps me satiated until my mid morning snack.

Gimme some water.

On Sunday evening at 6:30 I began a 36 hour water fast (cleansing, detoxification). And not for the reason to starve myself or to lose weight, but for the benefit of its natural healing and cleansing process.
A water fast is probably not for everyone to try yet I think it is good for the body to go through some type of detox program once in awhile.

I started with 1 gallon of Distilled water.

On Monday morning rather than having a cup of tea with my wife I had hot water in a cup. Thus began my long day of consuming only water throughout the day. The day at work went well but after 24 hours (6:30 pm) I felt lightheaded, droopy eyes, and overall fatigued, kind of like I do when I try to stay awake all night. I also had to wrap myself in my house coat because I was cold. I guess getting cold is also a side effect along with a mild head ache. No bowel movement today. I went to bed around 9:00 pm.

I was so happy to wake up Tuesday morning at 6:15 am to break my fast. I took a picture of the 24 ounces of water left in the jug and dumped the rest down the drain. After washing my face I ate a banana and made a smoothie that my son was also looking forward to have with me. I put all my favorite ingredients in a blender (that my son normally would not eat) to blend them together. This mornings smoothie consisted of 3/4 cup yogurt, 3/4 soy milk, 4-6 ice cubes, 2 teaspoons of peanut butter, 1 tablespoon of flax seed, and some strawberries. We drank up and were singing, "umm, umm, good". I felt refreshed and ready to start my day. As the experts say, that the bowels should move within an hour or two after the first meal, I was right on schedule.

While fasting I gained an appreciation of the lesson learned in self-restraint. That is, to be able to control my choice of what foods to put or not to put in my mouth.

I think a water fast is harder to do than any other fasting. I've done a 2 day apple fast and found that to be easy. My next experimental fast will be a juice fast. I'll try that some time in the fall when I can juice apples and pears when they are in season.

An article on Nutritional Program for Fasting can be read on line.

A cheap workout

Did you check out any of these McDonald's promotional deals they are giving out with the new Asian Salads and bottled water? I have all except the Cardio.
The DVD's are 15 minute workouts that have some value.
When I did the Core workout I felt some burn in my abs. I modified some of the exercises by holding dumbbells which gave me more of a challenge.
The strength workout caused my Adductor Magnus to be sore the next day. The soreness came from all the pleia squats with dumbbells.
I haven't done the Yoga DVD but was able to view some of the workouts and decided that it would be a good cool down following the Core and Strength workouts.
If you are looking for a cheap workout then these easy to do 15 minute workouts are a quick fix.

Things are flying in the air.

The cottonwood trees are shedding their furry little seeds this time of the month. Out on today's run in the park I found myself dodging those little white hair balls but they still managed to get in my hair, nose, and most troubling in my eye.
Yet it was kind of cool to run through a white out with fuzzy things blowing all around and on the ground.

I was able to enjoy the run with my wife riding on her bike chasing me. And she was able to keep up with my 6:40 pace for an 8 mile run. I appreciate the time when she can be with me on my runs. She likes it too. But I'm doing the flying while she cruises along.

Backpacking turn Hiking

I promised my wife before we go on our backpacking trip in the Allegheny National Forest, P.A. this memorial day weekend I would mow the lawn, fix the leaking dishwasher, and chop out the tree stomp in our back yard so that she could put the tomato plants in place of the stump. But before I tackled my promises I had to get my "selfish" 57 mile bike ride in with the Cleveland Triathlon Club on Saturday morning.

The bike ride was a challenging and hilly ride. After a great bike ride and getting home before 1:30 in the afternoon I had 2 hours to tackle the chores. My dilemma was that I was pressed for time to get as much done before we were to leave to go on a church picnic and meeting all before 3:30 pm. I began chopping at the stump in bright sun and 80+ degrees for about an hour at which point I had to take a break from dripping sweat and getting light headed. I then mowed the lawn. That was all I could do for that day.

On Sunday morning at 7:00 am I was up and working on fixing the dishwasher which took me about a half hour to fix. So far no leaks. Then I went back out to whacking the stump for another 2 hours and finally the stump was removed from my life.

We loaded all our backpacking gear in the car and drove to the trail head parking lot 3.5 hours away. The Morrison/Rimrock trail is a 12 mile loop. Our plan was to bring all the gear and backpacks but leave them in the car and hike only with hydrapacks and home made power bars (yum, yum), apples, and other dried fruit. If we made the hike in good time we would get the tent and backpacks out of the car, hike a little into the woods and set up camp.


While out on the trail we enjoyed a variety of flora smells and a beautiful hike along the Morrison Run stream. We had a good hike averaging about 2.5 miles per hour and made it back to the car about 7:40 pm. As we finished we considered do we drive 15 miles to a motel 8 and have a nice shower then head over to Perkins for a warm cooked meal or do we get our gear find a camp site and set up the tent, eat MRE's, and retire with a camp fire watching the stars. The motel won the call.

Monday morning we headed out to hike the 8 mile loop Minister Creek Trail. It was another beautiful day to hike in the woods.

We definitely have to go back to the Allegheny's for some more good hiking/backpacking.

Post Card

Yesterday I got a pleasant phone call from my wife. She wanted to tell me I got a post card in the mail. It was from an old running friend I met back in the late 80's. He wrote to tell me about my half marathon race results. His message was so good that it made my wife chuckle and reminded me of something I'll share later. Anyway I have to quote some of it for you.

First Master, 3rd Overall, Cleveland Half Marathon! You are fast, fast, fast...No doubt because of good training and clean living and a supportive spouse! Congrats to Annie!

You see, "congrats to Annie", not to me, but to her for supporting me during my training and not getting too upset with me for missing family dinners, not changing the washers on dripping faucets, the list goes on, or what gets her the most is when I walk in the house dripping with sweat and having a sweet smell of B.O. So yes, congrats to my lovely wife for putting up with me and my crazy training schedule so that I can have the opportunity to race well.

Got to go my To Do list is getting long. Don't want to ruffle her feathers for slacking off.

Rest & Relaxation!

It feels so good physically and mentally to have a time of rest and relaxation from all hard training and to have 4 weeks of unstructured workouts before I start my Columbus Marathon schedule.

During my down time I will focus on strength training, easy steady swimming, and bricks(bike then run).
This week workouts look like:
Monday - Swim easy 25 minutes.
Tuesday - Swim easy 33 minutes.
Wednesday - Strength 25 minutes, Swim easy 25 minutes, Brick(Bike 16 miles then run 2 miles barefoot)
Thursday - Swim, Run easy 4 to 5 miles
Friday - Strength, Swim,
Saturday - Brick(Bike long then run 3 miles)
Sunday and Monday - Backpacking Morrison Hiking Trail in the Allegheny National Forest, PA.

BRICK defined:
Bike-Run-ICK!
ICK is how your legs feel for the first part of the run but very important to implement in training to help the legs get use to the bike/run "ick" transition. After doing them once or twice a week for some months your legs will not feel the ICK. I love bricks, especially if I do the run barefoot.

Little Note:
Thank you family, friends, and fellow bloggers for the funny, kind words, and very nice compliments on my recent race. I appreciate all your support. Love, PapaLouie

Cleveland Half Marathon Results

I'll begin with a big thank you to all those friends, and fellow bloggers, who were racing or as a spectator that gave me words of encouragement during the race. Also, during the race I made it a point to thank and wave to all the volunteers, traffic patrollers, and the fans that were clapping and cheering as I went by. I think with all the words of encouragement and a sense of being thankful I was helped to have fun and run a great race.

My mile splits was an indication of the kind of rolling course it was.

Mile 1 5:45
First mile always goes fast because of excitement and adrenalin. And a good down hill helps.

Mile 2 6:26
What goes down must go up!

Mile 3 5:55
Finding my grove!

Mile 4 5:27
Feeling great!

Mile 5 6:05
Mile 6 6:04
Mile 7 5:58
Mile 8 5:51
Found my grove and maintained the pace!

Mile 9 6:15
Mile 10 6:06
Mile 11 6:19
Mile 12 6:08
Focusing to finish well!

Mile 13.1 6:20
Total Time 1:19:17 Average pace 6:02.8
3rd Overall!!!

Before this morning my goal time was to finish around 1:20 to 1:24 but early before the race I thought why not finish in a sub 1:20 time. That was good thinking!

Thank you Liz for the photo. And yes that is a real smile!

Ready to Rock & Roll

15 hours to race time.
I am ready to race the Cleveland Half Marathon tomorrow morning.
Live runner tracking can be found on the Cleveland Marathon web site. You will be able to see my 10K and finish times live online.
My bib number is 3899
See you tomorrow.

Cleveland Bikes to Work Day!

Have you seen these white bikes around the city?
Today was Bike to Work Day in the Cleveland area. After I spotted one of these bikes downtown and noticed the web site posted on the bike I learned from the web site that a group ride would be departing from my neighborhood Arabica. I met the ride leader 7:10 this morning and since cycling is foreign to lots and lots of people it was just the 2 of us heading into town. Traffic on this wet and drizzly, 41 degree morning was light and we made it downtown at the meeting place of a coffee shop around 8:00am. Free bagels and coffee was provided for the riders that came from all directions surrounding the Cleveland area cities. I hung around, met some people including the president of the Cleveland Bikes Club and continued my ride to work.
Maybe more people might get interested in cycling if the bike (pictured above) didn't look so dismal. Nah, I doubt it.

Timeless Secrets for living well

Good health is a matter of choice.
Only plain, wholesome food should be eaten.
Overeating, intoxicants, and stimulants avoid.
Drink plenty of water...nature's remedy.

Have plenty of fresh air in the bedroom.
Eight to nine hours of sleep every night.
Always breathe deeply in the open air.
Look to the cleanliness of body and mind.
Take regular outdoor exercise.
Heed sanitation, sobriety and safety first.

Look upon life with faith, hope and good cheer, and keep the mind and heart free from hatred, jealousy and revenge.

Source: The Stevens-David Company, Chicago, 1918

I think this should still apply for today. Although, I may have a problem finding the "fresh" air.

Entertainment at the track!

Tuesday's track workout was a 6 X 400 meter repeats. The track was hoping with 2 different high school groups visiting to do some kind of workout. Some of the kids were running/walking and some standing around. For the most part they did their thing without getting in the way of my workout.

I started out entertaining them by running my 1.5 mile warm up barefoot! That was good for a lot of smiles and whispering to one another, "hey you see that old man running with no shoes?" After the warm up I shod my feet with my mizuno's and began my 400 repeats. My intentions were to average each lap around 1:20 but make the last 2 faster.

• The first and second laps I ran well, and I finished them in a time of 1:19, and 1:16.
• As I started the 3rd lap one of the kids thought he could try and keep up with "the old man" but I finished ahead of him in 1:16.
• The 4th lap started with another fresh young spring kid who was able to hang with me until the final stretch where I pulled ahead to finish in 1:12.
• The 5th lap started with another fresh and a bit cocky kid who actually started about 5 steps ahead of me but I maintained an even distance to the finish with a time of 1:09. I told him he made me work on that one.
• My last lap I had no one to pace with so I took it easy with a time of 1:29. I made sure I didn't want to go too hard and blow something out and set me out of this weekends half marathon race.

I am Wired to Win!

Saw this amazing movie at the IMAX theater today during my lunch time. It's only 45 minutes long but worth it's entertaining and educational value.

One of the interesting statements made during the show was, "the brain is capable of generating new neurons throughout our lives".

This is another reason why we Tri; to increase and strengthen the synaptic within our brain through training and racing that we can perform beyond what we thought possible because we are all wired to win!

Woo Hoo! It's Taper Week!!

Well, after 11 weeks of solid, consistent training for the Cleveland Half Marathon I am ready for the last week before the race to have an easy week of running.
My 12 week training was a modified program from the Furman Institute of Running & Scientific Training. It basically consists of three quality runs a week which I incorporated into my overall triathlon training program. It works great because on off days of running I can swim and bike.

The Furman program also has a marathon training schedule which I will use to help prepare for the Columbus Marathon on October 15th. This program is not for the weak or faint at heart because of the high demand of quality workouts. I believe this will work best to get me in the best marathon shape while also training and racing for triathlons this summer.

To follow me on race day you can enter my bib number 3899 on the home page link from above.

Annoying Gnats!

How do you avoid
Swarms of gnats
While running or biking in the park?
Those pesky little flies are here to stay
and get in our hair, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth
to frustrate us while out in the park.
Do I have to go back on the trainer and treadmill
to avoid the annoying gnats?
No, I'll keep my dew rag on, glasses on, finger in ear, plug my nose, and keep my mouth shut.

Running Within Quote!

The bottom line on aging and running performance is this: we do not know our limits. The real barrier seems to be the mind, not the body. According to most experts, our true life span is 100-plus years, and whether we make it has much to do with our attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyles. Our bodies are simply waiting for our minds to give them permission to go beyond what most of us think is the finish line.Running Within

This is my favorite quote because of the comment on, "our true life span is 100-plus years".
Based on another book I read I like to tell people that when I turn 100 I will ride 100 miles!

And of course our attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyles has a lot to do with if we get there or not.

I would like to thank TriFrog for recommending this read!

A time to talk.

This past Saturday morning I had a 2 mile walk in the park with my wife. It was the perfect time to talk with no distractions from phone calls, our kids asking for something, or house chores calling our attention. After the walk my daughter was looking for a running partner to do a 3 mile run in the park. Since I was ready to run long I thought it would be good to start with a nice 3 mile warm-up. We went for the run and had the perfect time to be with one another and talk. It was also a good 22:00 warm-up. I think she was setting the pace. I finished the run with her and continued to run for an additional 13 miles down in the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area



Sunday afternoon me and a friend went to ride in the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area for a nice 31 miles. It was the perfect time to talk with a close Christian friend.