this and that

Sunday –  woke up early and caught the live streaming of the Ironman 70.3 world championships in Vegas. I was inspired and excited to be able to “watch”. The elite athletes are amazing…their bodies…their abilities…Amazing! I was rooting for reigning champion Craig Alexander and Andreas Raelert. Alexander came in 2nd and Raelert 8th. It was a great thing to get me up and motivated! One of my goals is to finish a 70.3 race someday. Guess I gotta start swimming! And biking! 🙂

Post race comment from Alexander: “I’m very happy with my performance. I think that was the best that I was capable of today. At the end of the day, i came up that much short to a guy who was just that much better.”

He is ALL CLASS! He came in 2nd place….1 minute behind the winner, Sebastian Kienle, who had a bike ride that was out of this world!

By 9am, I was headed out my door and onto the streets of Petaluma. I ran down my road and over to the East side of town. I rarely run in that part of town, but since I was going long, I had to expand my route. The East side of town is pretty much ALL FLAT, which was fine since I had been doing hills last couple of weekends. I pretty much just did a big loop. Nothing really exciting. (not much exciting on the east side of town) I didn’t have my iPod…just me and my thoughts. Was completely absorbed by that ironman race. Then, as the miles went on, i just don’t think about too much other than getting through the run as the pain starts to settle in. I felt my legs start to cramp up a bit around mile 10 and I am wondering if i should start thinking about adding more nutrition around this mile. During long races, I will often grab a banana or orange slices. But, during training runs, i only carry my energy gels. As I kept going, I felt like I didn’t have as much energy as I know I can. So… I want to play around with my nutrition now and see if it makes a difference. Anyways, I ended up running 13.25 miles in the morning. My goal was 15, so i was a bit bummed by not finishing.

I came home, ate, rested, watched tennis, ate some more. Then, I went to the gym and ran another 3 miles on treadmill. I felt like I had the energy to go so i did. It’s important to get time on my feet. Went slow, but felt good otherwise.

Did a few shorter runs during the week and overall feeling good. I’m ramping up the mileage as best i can, but also trying to be smart about it. As I have mentioned before, i do not have high expectations for this upcoming marathon. I just want to be there, have fun and push myself as best i can.

In other news, I am about to start volunteering at the local Boys/Girls Club. I’m really looking forward to this for several reasons. The bottom line is I feel I have a lot to give and I want to make the best use of my time. Looking forward to being around the youngsters!

ONWARD!