I first have to start out with some things I was able to do at school that I normally do not get a chance to do. We have a tremendous art teacher at school, Mr. D, that I will be fortunate enough to work with next year. If you know me, I am intrigued by art and wish I was a lot better at it than I am but I still love it. Anyway, he was gracious enough to send out an invite to come to his class for a "Zentangle" lesson. I will have to say, I have not been that relaxed while at school in a very, very long time. First, to get 6th, 7th, and 8th graders to be quiet, like pin drop quiet, for 42 minutes is nearly impossible. But he did it. We had some nice relaxing music and basically doodled, in an organized manner, for 42 minutes. The best thing is that you don't have to be a good "artist" to do it either. If you get a chance, just google "Zentangle" and it will give you a better idea of what we did. I was so impressed, I went to talk to my wife after and encouraged her to go. She did it too and really liked it as well. You can see the outcome below. I actually did a much bigger one the same day, but didn't take a picture of it. Mine is on the left and my wife's is on the right. Pretty fun once you get started!
This week of training has been a good one for me. My swimming has finally taken back some shape and I am feeling comfortable again. I am relaxing with my stroke and it seems to be pushing me in the right direction. I swam with Aaron M. and he really pushed me in the water on Monday. I swam some 100's with him and that really made me push myself and concentrate on form. Aaron has really made some nice strides in swimming. I am looking forward to some more swims with him as we continue to train for our summer events. Wednesday's swim was a good one too. I completed a ladder and I was able to keep my rest intervals consistent and my stroke consistent. Friday, I decided I needed to do a timed 600 swim just to see where I was at. I was pleasantly surprised with a 9:41. I think I can really make some improvements on this time between now and my tri's. I have a sort of renewed energy from a couple of weeks ago, especially about the swimming. This is big for me as I am feeling comfortable with my training mentally and physically.
My biking for the week was on par. I don't feel like I am making any huge gains on this but I am not hurting myself either. I am just excited to have a break in the weather and get outside to see what I can do outdoors. Ultimately, that will tell the tale of how my trainer rides have been helping. At this point I have got in 54 miles on the bike this week and hoping to get one more in before we leave in the morning for the Dells. I am pretty sure I can do it, I am not getting up early to do it either! I will keep plugging away at the bike and hopefully get outside soon to see what I really have been doing.
Running is still coming along pretty well for me. I still can't help to think that I would not be anywhere close to what I am doing right now without the groups I have been running with. There is so much inspiration and energy within these groups. For instance on Thursday, it was pretty windy in the morning and I really did not want to run. As we got out, we had a large group and we navigated our way through Bettendorf trying to avoid the wind. Next thing you know we had almost 7 miles done and ran one of the fastest miles we have run all year. Then today we went for a ten mile run and had 7 of us. I was not dreading the run as much as the course we were going to run. The actual course is really awesome, running along the river, crossing bridges (actually did not get to this morning because the arsenal bridge span was open). Really a beautiful course in the morning with the sun rising. The dreaded part is this hill on Middle Road in Davenport. Going down is awesome, going up, not so much. This thing is a conversation killer and lung burner. But in the end, we did it and did it well! And after we were able to pick up the pace to finish out a nice ten mile run. After we were able to sit down at the local Starbuck's and enjoy some good conversation and coffee. I am excited because right now my training pace is about at what my race pace was last year and I still have some really good training in front of me. I am hoping to set some PR's this year. I don't think I would be anywhere close to that if it was not for this FANTABULOUS group of runner's. It was also nice to meet some people that we talk to with social media but have not met in person. I am also excited to see more people get out as the nice weather start to roll in.
This week has been a good week of training. However, I am going to try and push some limits this week as we are on spring break. o I will have a little lore time to put in and get after it. I plan on spending a little more time on the bike and in the pool. Running may have to be on my own but I think I will be alright, although I think there will be a few crazies around for me to run with. I will take Monday off, maybe, depending on how the Dells trip goes. I am looking forward to the week off, with some good training, some good rest and NO WORK! To all of you leaving on Break, Have a BLAST! To those staying around, if you want to train, shoot me an email or GOOD LUCK with it all. YOU CAN get out and make the best of it!
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