ok... lets do this.

I've been running around like crazy the last few weeks so the blog took most of the hit. was kinda waiting to try to get some pictures on here, but I'm giving up on that goal.

Anyway, Hawaii was good. I got 3 runs out there 6, 10, then 6. All 3 runs were tough. The heat and the humidity took its toll on me. I was not ready for that. I found it hard to stay hydrated and I've said i felt like i was going to throw up but Hawaii was the first time i was actually coughing and gaging thinking i was going to toss my lunch. We also got some weights in. If hot tubbing counts as swimming then i got plenty of that too :P

We got back Friday evening from Hawaii. We flew in on the red eye. I've never been able to sleep on the plane... especially when I'm expected to. Exhausted i think i made it until about 8:00 and i was out cold. I got up nice and early to run in the St. Patrick's Day 10k here in Manchester. It was pretty cold up until start time. It started warming up and becoming a nice day as we were running. My goal time was 55 min however i exceeded that buy over a min and ended up with 53:41 (unofficial as by my watch, I've yet to actually see the official results). It was a pretty good run. I paced chad for probably half the distance then pulled away after we ran up the jail hill.

The next week went well training wise. I had some really strong runs. My time off from swimming caused me to fall back to some old habits. Actually on Monday i managed to rub my shoulder raw with the stubble from my face not good. We did a 30 min time trial in the pool Wednesday. I was concerned about being able to swim for 30 min. After the fact it wasn't bad at all and i could have pushed myself a little more. I ended up with 1625 yards. Comments from some of the other swimmers confirmed my thoughts of my stroke being off.

On that Saturday, i went out for a very windy but long bike ride. I took my bike over to Winchester to see Jessie at hammers and then came home through Tullahoma. I ended up with 58 miles. I lost my temper around mile 50 when a car with the whole other lane (4 lane road) decided he was going to come with in about a foot of me going 50mph or so in extremely light traffic. So... he got the finger. Which is something that doesn't come out much, even when driving :P Anyway, it took me 3:30 to get 58 miles in. It was my longest ride to date and i was really out of condition for it as my neck and butt were killing me after the fact.

No time for my long run on Sunday, so i got up at 4:00 am to turn out my 12 mile run. I ran 4 laps around the rec center in Manchester including 4 trips up the hill. My ipod was dead so i was a little disappointed at the start, but it turned out to not be so bad. It was 28 degrees so i had my tights on. The run was really strong. I was pleased with myself and nothing really to complain about (pain, stitches, etc). Time: 1:59:30. I stretched and left feeling accomplished and ready to tackle the half marathon in a few weeks.

I had ball games Monday through Wednesday. So no swimming. Tuesday is where things started going down hill. At work wearing some very old new balance tennis shoes, my foot started hurting. Its been worrying me. I decided to skip my run as not to irritate it. Wednesday it wasn't any better, nor Thursday... (skipped another run). Through advice of Jessie, Lisa and a few others i went up to fleet feet on Friday to look into some new shoes. Friday the pain was better and Saturday it was feeling pretty good as well. I did get some new shoes on Friday so hopefully they will help out.

Saturday i also did a 3000yrd swim work out. I asked Shawn for a workout since i missed all week and i don't think i can afford another week out of the pool. Not sure how my stroke worked, but hopefully I'm getting the kinks out. I'm sure I'll get some constructive criticism in the pool Monday, which will be very welcomed.

Sunday with no foot pain, i went out to try my new shoes. I hadn't ran for a while and didn't want to irritate my foot anymore than necessary. I was hoping for 6 miles, but only got 3. Hard to explain why i quit. I wouldn't really call it pain (at least not like before) but my foot felt uncomfortable, so i called it quits when i got back to my car at 3 miles. I'm going to do a 6 mile run on Tuesday either on the track or the trail at the base so I'm not running on pavement. Hopefully that will go well for me.

I managed to finally fix my garage door today, through some structural reinforcement. Its not too pretty but it works. I'm happy. I also got my oil changed and a few other odd jobs around the house done. Now I'm hoping for an early bedtime.

Anyway, that's a quick rundown of about my last months of training. Hopefully i can keep this updated in the future.