Too Much Tapering

This isn't exactly how tapering is supposed to go.

I haven't run since last Saturday. Oops. With the boat race and a day full of friends on Sunday, I didn't bother to go for a run. Then I went with the guys for nine holes of golf Monday morning (turns out I'm still not good at golf), and spent the afternoon soaking up as much family time as I could. When I got home Monday night, my allergies exploded and I slept about 3 hours that night so a morning run on Tuesday was out.

The rest of the week has been busy with work and baby stuff (birthing class, doctor check-up, meeting our pediatrician), but the bottom line is, once I got past Tuesday, I didn't want to do any running that would take away from Saturday. So here I am on Thursday with absolutely no running in the past five days.

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At least my legs should be nice and rested by Saturday!

Thursday
Goal For The Day: Rest.
Distance: 0.00 Miles.

Notes: On the bright side, it's getting cooler as the week goes on and the race-time temperature is supposed to be in the 50's!!!

Daily Miles: 0.00 Miles.
2012 Totals:
  Run - 403.40 Miles.
  Bike - 0.00 Miles.
  Swim - 8,250 meters.

You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

This morning was the 10th Annual Michael Kinnear Memorial Regatta!

We had more boats than we expected and a lot of them showed impressive creativity and engineering. We had boaters of all ages powering their homemade boats down the cove and back and most of them were in really great costumes!

I finished my Shark Attack boat and I was happy with the final look even if I didn't get the mouth to open and close while I rowed. (I forgot some parts at home.)

Rowing my boat worked well but I'm not convinced it was faster than my kayaks were. In fact, our friend, Blake, rowed an updated version of his kayak and beat me soundly. But we were both outdone by some really impressive engineering. A couple of guys built a massive plywood boat and decorated it like a battleship. Inside, they had the motor from a log splitter that powered the hydrolics for a homemade propellor. This thing was a behemoth! And it was cruising along faster than a trolling motor would have moved it! They took home the coveted Capri Cup and were very deserving of the prize!

I took home the 3rd Place trophy and (even better) made it to the end of the cove and back without killing myself. I Love this race!!!

(Momma's Gotta Eat!)

I didn't run today. I'll pretend rowing my boat was enough of a workout. (And just pretend I didn't eat my weight in pulled pork and appetizers at the party tonight.)

Sunday

Goal For The Day: Boat Race!

Distance: 0.00 Miles.

Notes: I only plan to run a little tomorrow and Tuesday and then it's a lot of resting my legs for Saturday. It's been a while since I've run any races, so I'm getting excited!

Daily Miles: 0.00 Miles.

2012 Totals:

  Run - 403.40 Miles.

  Bike - 0.00 Miles.

  Swim - 8,250 meters.

First Baseball Game Of The Season

I missed this week's track session because we had tickets to tonight's Cardinals game. It was our first game of the season and Ben and Maja were in town so it was perfect timing!

It was a cool night and felt more like fall baseball than a game in May. In fact, Liz ended up borrowing my jersey before the game was over just to stay warm. The game got off to a slow start but got interesting late with a lot of scoring in the 7th and 8th innings. Tyler Greene's two-run homer in the 8th was the difference maker and we beat the Padres 4-3. It was nice to see a four game losing streak come to an end and we held on to our first place position over the Reds.

As an added bonus, Lance Berkman's doppelganger was sitting two rows in front of us. Of course, Berkman's on the DL with knee problems so for all we know, the Puma was sitting in our section tonight!

It's always nice spending time with Ben and Maja and we saw a great game from the cheap seats!

Monday

Goal For The Day: Rest.

Distance: 0.00 Miles.

Notes: I plan to run the workout I missed tonight on Wednesday instead.

Daily Miles: 0.00 Miles.

2012 Totals:

  Run - 385.08 Miles.

  Bike - 0.00 Miles.

  Swim - 8,250 meters.

Being A Good Consumer

Today, I did my part to boost the economy as a good little consumer.

Liz and I went to a morning showing of The Avengers. I'm a huge fan of movies... I'm a totally nerd... and I Love superheroes and comic books. This movie was made for me and I was surprised that it not only lived up to my expectations, it exceeded them. I would have guessed that The Avengers was doomed to be a let-down after years of build-up and all of the hype. I'm glad I was wrong!

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I was also a consumer in the sense that I settled in for the movie with a Mountain Dew, some theater popcorn, and some Twizzlers. Yum! There's no better way to see a movie!

After The Avengers, we went and pretty much finished registering for baby stuff and in the process, I bought a pair of Injinji toe socks for my FiveFingers. I'm excited to see how they feel.

We also stopped at Fleet Feet to use a loyalty voucher we earned recently. I picked up a pair of compression sleeves for my calves. Liz did some research on compression socks and we've been eager to give them a try.

Finally, after a long day out, Liz made her delicious chicken pasta that we Love so much and I definitely consumed a good-sized bowl full! I know we ate pasta on Cinco de Mayo but we went out for Mexican last night and you can never go wrong with this pasta... so good!

No running today, but some new gear and lots of good times!

Saturday
Goal For The Day: Rest.
Distance: 0.00 Miles.

Notes: We've had summer-like temperatures this week and the humidity is ramping up this weekend so I had no problem taking a day off today. Blah.

Daily Miles: 0.00 Miles.
2012 Totals:
  Run - 318.17 Miles.
  Bike - 0.00 Miles.
  Swim - 7,450 meters.

Rain Delay

My plan for this week was to run hills on Top Notch Tuesday, rest on Wednesday, run hills on The Never Ending Hill Of Doom on Thursday, and run some FiveFingers sprints on Friday. (Basically, a repeat of last week.) But my Tuesday morning run was rained out so I'm shifting things around a bit.

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Normally, I don't mind running in the rain... especially when it's as warm as it was yesterday. But there was quite a bit of lightning around and I didn't think running to the top of the tallest hill in the neighborhood was a good idea. So yesterday was an unscheduled day of rest.

That meant making up yesterday's run today so I hit Top Notch for some hill repeats. I stepped it up to 6 repeats this week and will probably work up to 8 before winding down for the half marathon.

Today's run wasn't that noteworthy except that it was a warm one. The heat and humidity are settling in this week and we're getting a mild taste of summer. There was a breeze today and all of my downhill running was in the shade so it wasn't that bad, but when I got home, it took a long time to cool off. Bring on the cold showers!

Tuesday
Goal For The Day: Hill Repeats. (Postponed)
Distance: 0.00 Miles.

Wednesday
Goal For The Day: Hill Repeats.
Distance: 3.53 Miles.
Time: 31:06. 8:48 Avg. (8:06, 8:49, 9:32, 4:38*).
Route: 6 x Top Notch.
Conditions: 72 degrees and humid. 7:31AM.
Run Details On Garmin

Notes: I'll have to decide if I'm doing back-to-back hill days. The Never Ending Hill Of Doom is calling.

Daily Miles: 3.53 Miles.
2012 Totals:
  Run - 312.73 Miles.
  Bike - 0.00 Miles.
  Swim - 7,450 meters.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Seeds

I took the day off today. It's my last super-long day of work and class. Finals are next week!

Even with the day off and no training to report, I thought I would write a quick post about an experiment I conducted this morning. I've had a container of chia seeds in the pantry for months and today I finally tried them.

I first read about chia seeds and their nutritional value in the book, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Apparently, chia seeds are a good source of protein, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids. If there's one thing I don't monitor strictly, it's my diet. So I like adding in something especially healthy every now and then and the idea of eating the stuff you spread on a Chia Pet was too fun to pass up.

For my first experience with chia seeds, I just added a partial scoop of the seeds to instant oatmeal (cinnamon something). I tossed in a sprinkle of sugar and breakfast was served.

I was not impressed.

I don't know if it was mostly mental... or if instant oatmeal doesn't gel well with chia seeds... or if the seeds actually changed the taste of the oatmeal. But I didn't like it that much. Granted, instant oatmeal isn't a delicacy to begin with, but it tasted a little... off. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good.

So, I'll have to do some experimenting and then dedicate a full post to what works and doesn't work with chia seeds. I've heard you can just add them to a glass of water, bake them in bread and muffins, add them to yogurt, etc. Now that the container is open, I'll do some research for tasty ways to eat them. Google is so handy!

Wednesday
Goal For The Day: Rest.
Distance: 0.00 Miles.

Notes: I'm looking forward to having Wednesday nights back and it will be perfect timing because I'll be more prepared for the extra day of running by then.

Daily Miles: 0.00 Miles.
2012 Totals:
  Run - 287.46 Miles.
  Bike - 0.00 Miles.
  Swim - 7,450 meters.

100 Days To Go

I Love the Olympic Games!!!

In 100 days, on July 27th, the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games will be held in London. Coincidentally, our little bundle of joy should be arriving somewhere around that time as well! It's hard to believe we're about 100 days away from the birth of our first child. Crazy!

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I always look forward to watching the Olympics but the summer Olympics are especially exciting. Track and Field... the Marathon... I Love the summer sports. And if our little guy times things right, I could be home on Paternity leave with a DVR full of Olympic goodness!

I'm curious to see how having a newborn around affects my training. I'm sure I'll talk about it a lot as we get closer to the big day and in the weeks and months that follow. For now, we're getting into the preparations and that includes making a little extra money whenever possible.

I'm teaching two classes a local community college and Wednesday is my busiest day of the week. I get to work at 9AM and don't leave class until after 9:30PM. So instead of running this morning, I stayed curled up in bed for an extra hour and conserved energy for the day ahead. Maybe next week I'll suck it up and get out the door early.

Maybe.

Wednesday

Goal For The Day: Rest.

Distance: 0.00 Miles.

2012 Totals:

  Run - 264.34 Miles.

  Bike - 0.00 Miles.

  Swim - 6,550 meters.