Monday, November 24, 2008
Great workout!
After a 26+ mile ride yesterday, I did a nice longggggggggggggggg run today. It is longest I have ever finished outside. I made it eight miles!! I even feel so good that I am thinking about getting in an afternoon swim. Then again, maybe not. Working on the tile in the laundry room might make the wife happy.
Friday, November 21, 2008
My Charity is..........
Today was my run day. It went pretty good, but it was hard. When I began, it was 35 degrees with a 15 mph wind with 25 mph gusts. When I was going into the wind, it felt like I was standing still and when it was with me it felt like someone was just pushing on my back forcing me to go faster. When you run long distances, you really have quite a bit of time to think about things and I had sometime lately to think about my charity.
The charity I have chosen is one that I feel I owe something to. I have chosen the First Tee of Greenville. (www.thefirstteegreenville.org) Being a golf professional, I have been given many great opportunities through the game of golf. I have met some great people that have influenced my life both professionally and personally. For this, I feel I owe the game. This game puts food on my table and fulfillment in my heart. In one way or another, golf will always be a part of my life. I want to be able to give a potential young golfer, the same opportunity to embrace the game as I have. Unfortunately, there are junior golfers who never get that exposure to the game that I had at a young age. For many, it is their location and others it is purely financial. The First Tee of Greenville is established in the downtown area of Greenville. Thus practically bringing the game to the kids. It is just my small way to give back to something that is special to me.
In mentioning my idea to just a couple people the idea has been overwhelmingly positive with each willing to make generous contributions.
The charity I have chosen is one that I feel I owe something to. I have chosen the First Tee of Greenville. (www.thefirstteegreenville.org) Being a golf professional, I have been given many great opportunities through the game of golf. I have met some great people that have influenced my life both professionally and personally. For this, I feel I owe the game. This game puts food on my table and fulfillment in my heart. In one way or another, golf will always be a part of my life. I want to be able to give a potential young golfer, the same opportunity to embrace the game as I have. Unfortunately, there are junior golfers who never get that exposure to the game that I had at a young age. For many, it is their location and others it is purely financial. The First Tee of Greenville is established in the downtown area of Greenville. Thus practically bringing the game to the kids. It is just my small way to give back to something that is special to me.
In mentioning my idea to just a couple people the idea has been overwhelmingly positive with each willing to make generous contributions.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Longest swim ever!
Did my swim workout today and made it 2800 meters, (112 laps). Stopping only once to readjust my watch that was coming off. Longest yet!
I decided to do something different and rode my mountain bike in Dupont National Forest for 1 hour with my buddy Bob. Unfortunately darkness took over so we had to cut our ride short at about 10 miles. Good times though. I forgot how different it is going from a roadie to a mountain bike.
I decided to do something different and rode my mountain bike in Dupont National Forest for 1 hour with my buddy Bob. Unfortunately darkness took over so we had to cut our ride short at about 10 miles. Good times though. I forgot how different it is going from a roadie to a mountain bike.
Good ride yesterday and fun today!!
I had a pretty good ride yesterday. I made it 26.5 miles. That is my longest ride so far and still had some energy in the tank, but did not want to push it because I am meeting a buddy of mine today to get back to my roots and go mountain biking. The plan is to do 10-20 miles today after a swim.
Just as in a previous post, I still can't figure out how on an out and back ride, the wind can be in your face in both directions. After being in the Upstate of SC for the past 12 years, you would think I would be able to figure it out, but no such luck. I will say, my route is pretty scenic. I get to ride through the GSP airport and through the BMW manufacturing plant roads. I get to see all the new vehicles in production at this plant. Pretty neat.
I'm looking forward to this mountain bike ride today. It will be my second ride since my Xterra tri back in May. I'm not sure if I should be thankful for doing the Xterra or mad. It was my first tri and people say they are addictive and boy are they. If I didn't do that one, I might not be writing about my half ironman training today. At the same time, I might not be broke either!
Just as in a previous post, I still can't figure out how on an out and back ride, the wind can be in your face in both directions. After being in the Upstate of SC for the past 12 years, you would think I would be able to figure it out, but no such luck. I will say, my route is pretty scenic. I get to ride through the GSP airport and through the BMW manufacturing plant roads. I get to see all the new vehicles in production at this plant. Pretty neat.
I'm looking forward to this mountain bike ride today. It will be my second ride since my Xterra tri back in May. I'm not sure if I should be thankful for doing the Xterra or mad. It was my first tri and people say they are addictive and boy are they. If I didn't do that one, I might not be writing about my half ironman training today. At the same time, I might not be broke either!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Running is.....................
I tried to title this entry as "running is .....". Still can't do it. The third word is supposed to be fun. Unfortunately I can not put fun and the "other word" in the same sentence. My running has surprised me lately. I have been putting in about 10-15 miles per week. My pace averages 7-8 minutes per mile. I don't know how, but that is really fast for me! I was hoping to keep it under 10 minutes per mile and bring in home in 2-2.5 hours during my race. Sunday I ran 6 miles in 42 minutes. For me that is blazing. Today I ran 5.25 in 41 minutes. I was a little more tired today and could tell when I got outside that it wasn't going to be as good.
Monday was a very interesting day on the bike. I rode around 18 miles, but tried to stay in my aerobars as much as possible. This lead me to find my two weakest muscles in my entire body~ my neck and my hip flexors. My neck is still sore! I still need to find a good place to ride in town with little traffic and no dogs to chase me and chew on my heels as I am riding. Since I have hired another assistant pro at work, I can take off on Sundays. Sunday morning is typically a great time to ride since there are less vehicles on the road. I am going to try to make that my "long ride day" and try some different routes.
My hockey days are over~ for now at least. We lost 3-2 in our league championship game in overtime. Actually I am thinking about giving it up to focus more on my tri -training. After a good run or ride, it takes so much out of my legs, I just won't have the energy to play in a hockey game later in the day; not to mention the risk of injury. It's not an easy decision. I have been playing for the last ten years, with many of the same guys. We'll see. I have until January to make that decision. Running is ffffffffffffff. Damn it!
Monday was a very interesting day on the bike. I rode around 18 miles, but tried to stay in my aerobars as much as possible. This lead me to find my two weakest muscles in my entire body~ my neck and my hip flexors. My neck is still sore! I still need to find a good place to ride in town with little traffic and no dogs to chase me and chew on my heels as I am riding. Since I have hired another assistant pro at work, I can take off on Sundays. Sunday morning is typically a great time to ride since there are less vehicles on the road. I am going to try to make that my "long ride day" and try some different routes.
My hockey days are over~ for now at least. We lost 3-2 in our league championship game in overtime. Actually I am thinking about giving it up to focus more on my tri -training. After a good run or ride, it takes so much out of my legs, I just won't have the energy to play in a hockey game later in the day; not to mention the risk of injury. It's not an easy decision. I have been playing for the last ten years, with many of the same guys. We'll see. I have until January to make that decision. Running is ffffffffffffff. Damn it!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Good week
I had what felt like an unproductive week, but am starting to see after analyzing my performances they really weren't that bad. Tuesday I decided to kind of punish myself. My gym workout consisted of some leg strengthening by biking, running, weight training. I started with the stationary bike and did hill work keeping myself in the saddle. How bout that? I'm starting to sound like a biker. I used to say seat. When I think of saddle, I think of horses, but that's what they call it. The hills were moderate and gave my quads a real good burn. It felt great. After about 10 miles of this, I switched to the treadmill. I decided that since I could still walk after the bike, I would try some incline work while running. Here was my workout:
1 mile: incline @ 5.0, speed @ 5 mph
1.5 mile: incline @ 1.0, speed @ 7.0 mph
2.0 mile: incline @5.5, speed @ 6.0 mph
2.5 mile: incline @ 0.0, speed @ 7.5 mph
2.75 mile: incline @ 5.5, speed @ 6.5 mph
3.0 Cool Down
Yes, it was hard. Yes it burned. The problem was that when I finished, I still had some energy and decided to punish myself more by doing some squats. I like doing these on a half swiss ball. I'm not sure what they are called. This helps with my balance and core and leg strength. I also hold a 20 lb medicine ball straight out in front while doing them. When I finished, my last set, my legs felt like Jello. That told me to call it a night.
Wednesday was a great run day. I ran around my neighborhood and did just under 5 miles. My time was 39 minutes. I was pretty happy with that considering it is all hills. I'm going to do the same run today.
Friday was a great swim day. I made it 2500 meters (100 laps) in 50 minutes. That is my long swim so far. This puts me 600 meters over my HIM distance. My goal is to reach 3500 meters by April and then work on decreasing my time.
The next few days should be good training days. My plan is to swim more tomorrow morning and play in my hockey game tomorrow night. We are playing in our league championship. - Go Redliners! Monday will be a bike day. I'm looking for 30-35 miles with a 1-2 mile run following.
Time to throw on the running shoes.
1 mile: incline @ 5.0, speed @ 5 mph
1.5 mile: incline @ 1.0, speed @ 7.0 mph
2.0 mile: incline @5.5, speed @ 6.0 mph
2.5 mile: incline @ 0.0, speed @ 7.5 mph
2.75 mile: incline @ 5.5, speed @ 6.5 mph
3.0 Cool Down
Yes, it was hard. Yes it burned. The problem was that when I finished, I still had some energy and decided to punish myself more by doing some squats. I like doing these on a half swiss ball. I'm not sure what they are called. This helps with my balance and core and leg strength. I also hold a 20 lb medicine ball straight out in front while doing them. When I finished, my last set, my legs felt like Jello. That told me to call it a night.
Wednesday was a great run day. I ran around my neighborhood and did just under 5 miles. My time was 39 minutes. I was pretty happy with that considering it is all hills. I'm going to do the same run today.
Friday was a great swim day. I made it 2500 meters (100 laps) in 50 minutes. That is my long swim so far. This puts me 600 meters over my HIM distance. My goal is to reach 3500 meters by April and then work on decreasing my time.
The next few days should be good training days. My plan is to swim more tomorrow morning and play in my hockey game tomorrow night. We are playing in our league championship. - Go Redliners! Monday will be a bike day. I'm looking for 30-35 miles with a 1-2 mile run following.
Time to throw on the running shoes.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Ready to get back at it
After a long week at work, I am ready to get back to some good workouts. I finally was able to hire some to work for me to take some of the load off me. I did two workouts to say I did and keep my routine going on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday was a swim day. Again due to time constraints, I was only able to do about 1.5K. This feels like a pretty good distance to just to say I got in the pool. My next swim will be tomorrow and will really start to increase my distances. I am looking to get my base to 2K and do 2.5K to 3.5K on a regular basis.
My run Wednesday was not very exciting. It was a treadmill run for only 25 minutes. I did get in 3 miles. My speed has been increasing without getting fatigued as easily. That was another workout that to keep my routine as opposed to trying to break any records.
Last night I had a hockey game - part of my cross training. We won our game, but I was really tired. With a golf tournament over the weekend and up working open to close Friday and Saturday, I had little energy to play my best, but gave what I had. We play in our championship game for the "title" next Sunday at 6:15. That might be my last game until January as my league will be taking a month or so off. I may continue to play one day a week, but not sure. I have been invited to play with a group of guys who are really way above my level. - Most of them played professionally or for a highly ranked college team, but they are a great group of guys.
Today I have a doctor's appointment to check out a foot issue I have been having for the past couple years. So far, I have been been dealing with it, but feel it is time to get it taken care of. It feels like there might be a bone chip in there. I'm not looking forward to it. If there is a chip that needs to be removed, I'm going to have to tell my doc to wait until after my hockey game next week. I guess my swim times will be get much better since I won't be on my feet for a few weeks.
My run Wednesday was not very exciting. It was a treadmill run for only 25 minutes. I did get in 3 miles. My speed has been increasing without getting fatigued as easily. That was another workout that to keep my routine as opposed to trying to break any records.
Last night I had a hockey game - part of my cross training. We won our game, but I was really tired. With a golf tournament over the weekend and up working open to close Friday and Saturday, I had little energy to play my best, but gave what I had. We play in our championship game for the "title" next Sunday at 6:15. That might be my last game until January as my league will be taking a month or so off. I may continue to play one day a week, but not sure. I have been invited to play with a group of guys who are really way above my level. - Most of them played professionally or for a highly ranked college team, but they are a great group of guys.
Today I have a doctor's appointment to check out a foot issue I have been having for the past couple years. So far, I have been been dealing with it, but feel it is time to get it taken care of. It feels like there might be a bone chip in there. I'm not looking forward to it. If there is a chip that needs to be removed, I'm going to have to tell my doc to wait until after my hockey game next week. I guess my swim times will be get much better since I won't be on my feet for a few weeks.
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