30 minutes o' fun

Today my EVIL coach made me do a 30 minute run on the track. The worst part is that I was supposed to run as far as I could and I had to wear a HR monitor to get my "threshold" heart rate. I haven't done any speed work this year with an exception of a few tempo/fartlek runs so I had no idea what to expect. It was a little windy, but other than that, it was an awesome day. It was 52 degrees and sunny. Beth was there to record my splits and encourage me while Dave K. was there to do his run workout, and help me out during his "hard" sessions.

Covered: 5.55 miles
Average HR: 175 (176 for the last 20 minutes)
Max HR: 180
Mile Splits of:
1 - 5:24
2 - 5:32 (10:56)
3 - 5:29 (16:25)
4 - 5:22 (21:48)
5 - 5:24 (27:12)
5.5 - 29:49

It definitely hurt a lot and was not fun for the last 4.5 miles. The first mile felt good though.
Now I only have a 2,000 yard time trial in the pool and then a 30 minute test on the bike on the computrainer. I'm assuming that these two tests will be just as much fun. YYAAAAYYYY!!!!!!

T-Bird

Could I feel Any Worse?

I had the most ginormous week ever (I know, it's not a great sentence but it sounds funny, ha). My previous biggest week ever was 21 hours. That week was a random week in 2007 where I decided to do a 130 mile bike ride with Eric. So that week consisted of 15 hrs on the bike, 2 hrs running, and 4 swimming, ha.

This week:

Swim: 9 hrs
Bike: 8 hrs (all on trainer thanks to weather)
Run: 6 hrs
Weights: a wopping 15 minutes, ha.
Total: 23:15 hrs ( most ever by over 2 hrs.)

Needless to say, I was a walking zombie all last night, and this morning. My legs haven't hurt this bad since the day after my 70.3 race in Clearwater. I wish I had some of those shoes that had wheels on them, that would be awesome.

And I had Brinner last night which was amazing. Casey and I went to Ramsey's and got dinner. I had to order the Breakfast that could feed a family of 4. It comes with 3 pancakes, 5 eggs, 5 strips of bacon, 2 sausage patties, 4 pieces of toast, and a large serving of hash browns. And the worse part is that I was hungry several hours later. I tried my best to consume as much food as possible, and it helped me keep weight on last week. Lots of Pizza on Wednesday, a huge burrito, with chips and salsa on Thursday, a large burger with an even bigger desert on Saturday, and then Brinner last night.
My desert on Saturday evening was Banana's Foster from Saul Good. It might be in the top 3 favorite deserts that I have ever ordered from a restaurant. A nice sized Belgium Waffle with sliced bananas glazed in a rum sauce, vanilla ice cream, and whice chocolate on top. My tummy hurt afterwards, but it was totally worth it.

Off to teach.

Tony

Update #3

Casey swam the 200 freestyle yesterday afternoon. She swam 1:49.18. This is only about 1.5 seconds off of her PR and it was only her third time every that she has broken 1:50 for this event. She said she felt really good in the water, she just went out a little slow for the first 100. And this morning she swam 50.5 for the 100 freestyle. This is a season best for that event, and possibly a PR but I'm not sure. I'm sure she'll fill me in about today's race later this afternoon.

Megan Pulskamp got 2nd in the 100 fly yesterday which is awesome. And this morning, Eric McGinnis and Kyle Greene both qualified for the finals in the 100 free which will be swam tonight.

I'm headed to the UK/UT basketball game here in about 30 minutes. Hopefully we can pull out another SEC victory. We haven't been playing very good lately and we need a win bad. One positive thing is that I already have my workouts over with for today. I'm sitting right at 20 hours for the week and I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow. So when I get home from the basketball game, I may just crash on the couch for a well deserved nap.

My Friday nights are usually filled with exciting plans with Casey. Whether its dinner, a movie, or something else exciting, my Friday nights is something that I look forward to every week. Last night however, I had no plans and I was smoked from my week of workouts. I did laundry while watching tv and laying on the couch from about 7 until 9 or a little after, and I was laying in bed with the lights out by 9:30. I fell asleep not soon after that. Now that is an exciting Friday night, haha.

Tony

Update #2

Casey swam in the 200 IM yesterday and she swam her second fastest time ever for that event. However, the SEC is probably the strongest conference when it comes to swimming so she did not make it to the finals. She went 2:03.98. She wasn't super happy about her swim, but she wasn't totally bummed either. She is swimming the 200 free today.

Eric McGinnis managed to finish 5th in the 50 free but unfortunately he was beaten by 4 guys from Auburn. It shows you how good Auburn is at swimming. And the UK guys 200 free relay finished 3rd which is pretty awesome.

Wednesday night I met up with my old girlfriend Lauren Crook. She is doing her "rotations" for Pharmacy school and she is doing one in Lexington for the month of February. It has been a long time since I have seen her so it was nice to catch up with her. She is now engaged and already (hasn't signed contract yet) has a job lined up with Kroger when she graduates in May. She told me she's aiming for the summer of 2010 for the wedding but they haven't set a date yet.

And training is really kicking my butt this week. I had an awesome run yesterday, but I was really smoked after it. I did 3 x 2 mile repeats in the middle of a longer run. I averaged right around 6 minute pace for all three of these repeats. I was pretty pumped about the workout until this morning when I could barely manage 7:30 pace for 4 miles, haha. Hopefully my afternoon workouts go a little better than this morning's did.

And if you get bored, there is a pretty good article about Ryan Hall.

http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=3672440

If you want to check results for Casey, or the SEC swimming and diving championships in general, then here is the live results page:

http://auburntigers.cstv.com/livestats/c-swim/index.htm

Peace.

Tony

SEC Swimming and Diving update #1

Casey raced last night for the first time this weekend. They competed in the 800 free relay. They got 7th place in the SEC and broke the UK school record for the event by 5 seconds. This is one of the toughest events in the SEC so she seemed pretty happy with their performance. All 4 UK girls had a 200 free split under 1:50 which is awesome. She wasn't super happy with her split, but I guess that is how all athletes are. I know I'm that way. If I don't break a personal record by several seconds/minutes (whatever the case may be) then I know that I always wish I had gone a little faster. She said her split was 1:48 ish which is only about 1 second off of her PR.

And the KY Kernal ran an article on myself and Lewis Jackson today. Check it out.

http://kykernel.com/2009/02/18/ironmen-uk-graduate-students-bring-state-pride-to-world-renowned-triathlons/#more-12098

Tony

Another Boring Update

So last week was my first week over 20 hours this year. I was pretty tired by the time Saturday came around, but I got almost 36 straight hours of rest over the weekend because of my weekend trip to Bowling Green. I didn't actually plan to do that, but it worked out great. I did my first brick workout of the year Saturday morning and then I didn't do anything until my long run on Sunday evening. My legs felt great even though I almost threw up the ginormous lunch that I had at my grandparent's. For the week I hit:

Bike: 6:30 hrs
Run: 5:30 hrs
Swim: 7:40 hrs
Weights: 30 minutes
Total: 20:10 hours

And I have hit the ground running this week. I am already close to 7 hours for this week.
My sister competed in the State Cheer leading competition this weekend and they did great. I know she was a little disappointed because they dropped two "stunts" (as she called them) but they still placed 3rd in the "Large" school division. Dunbar won which was expected, and I don't remember who got second but apparently my sister said they were really good.

I also forgot to mention that this past Friday I was able to ride outside for the first time all year. I was pretty excited that it wasn't bitterly cold and/or not extremely windy. It was only about 45 degrees out, so I took off and got in a nice and easy 2 hour ride.

And Casey will be competing in her first event for the week at SEC's tomorrow. She is on the 800 free relay team and they are racing tomorrow evening. Her first individual event isn't until Thursday. UK and Vandy are getting ready to play on ESPN and maybe Meeks can drop another 40+ point game. But hopefully we can pull out the victory and stay on top of the SEC.

Go Cats.

T-Bird

Happy V-Day

I'm getting ready to hit the road to watch my sister compete in the State Cheer leading Competition in Bowling Green, KY. I woke up early to finish my workouts for the day and now have the rest of the day to just hang out and eat. I have eaten more calories in the past few days than I feel like I ever have. I'm eating 3 - 4 LARGE meals a day and I'm still losing weight. I dropped below 160 pounds for the first time in almost 3 years the other day. My lightest weight in 2008 was probably around 163ish. So it's not that big of a deal, but my average "race" weight for 2008 was closer to 165 - 168. And I think I went into Clearwater almost 170 thanks to a 3 week taper and my large appetite.

But I guess that is what happens when you're hitting close to 20 hours a week during the winter months. I'm sitting at almost 19 hours for this week with a long run to go tomorrow. I should be close to 20 - 21 hours for the week total. I'm taking the weekend off from swimming and I'm officially half way through the month of February. After 14 days, I'm at 65,400 yards for the month. I did not realize it, but I'm a little over my estimated goal for the half way point. I want to hit 130,000 yards for the month so I guess if I spend the rest of the month in the pool then it will happen, ha.

Well, I'm off to pack for the weekend trip.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Tony

This Week

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I had a great week of training. I did every workout my coach wrote for me, and I changed only the smallest of things (one or two swim workouts). I hit over 19 hrs of training and how it was broken down between the 3 sports was dead on what my coach wanted me to hit.

That bad news: This is the first week of a 3 week build up. So I am supposed to hit 20+ hrs this week, and then 22 hrs the following week. I am going to be a grump during that last week. I guess that is good news for my girlfriend because she'll be away at SEC's during that week. She won't have to put up with me, haha.

My hours for last week: 19:15 total hours

Bike: 5 hours
Run: 5:10 hours
Swim: 8:35 hours
Weights: 30 minutes

That is about all I have to report today. I would like to give a birthday shout out.

Happy Birthday John Otis.

Tony

My Triple Date and a 5k

I participated in my first race of the year this morning by running the Heart and Sole 5k for the 4th time in my career. I won the race the first three times that I ran in it, so I was hoping for a 4th. I used today more as a workout, but I definitely wanted to run fast. And my coach wanted me to wear my heart rate monitor for the race, which would be the first time I have ever done so. The weather was very warm for this time of year, but extremely windy. It had to have been close to 50 degrees by the start of the race. I believe we had wind gusts of up to 40 mph this morning. The first mile had a little hill at the beginning of it, followed by a long straight stretch directly into the wind. I led a small group of three through the first mile in 5:24. The second mile is the hardest with 2 decent sized hills and a U-turn. I managed to get a little gap by the second hill but it wasn't very much. We went through the 2nd mile in 5:35, proving that it was a little harder, and that we had slowed down a lot. Luckily, the third mile was fairly flat with a tail wind. I cranked out a 5:05 mile, however, my competitor dropped a 4:55 mile and defeated me by about 5 seconds. I ran a 16:34 for the race. I believe that is about 2 - 4 seconds faster than last year. So I guess my running fitness level is about the same as last year.

I went on a triple date yesterday evening with: Casey, myself, her roommate Stacey, her bf Joe, Tyson, and his gf Amy. It that started with a nice home cooked meal by my girlfriend Casey, which was amazing. She purchased 6 movie tickets during the day to see the movie "Push" at 7:35. We bought them early because it was opening day for the movie and we really wanted to see the movie. We drive to the theatre, running a little late, and we drop off the girls at the door. After driving around for 10 minutes looking for a spot, my buddy Tyson calls me and informs me he is standing in a prime parking spot right in front, saving it for me. By the time I get there, a car is trying to run him over to get the spot. Joe hops out of the car to help him save the spot. After a little arguing, I drive around the car and back into the spot. There was about an inch of space on each side during this procedure, but it was pretty funny. The driver of the other car drove away in anger I got mostly into the spot. We had a good laugh as we walked into the theatre to meet up with the girls. As we're walking in, Tyson looks down at his ticket to realize it said "Taken." About 30 seconds later, Casey calls and admits that she accidentally purchased 6 tickets to the wrong movie, hahaha. So we had to sneak into "Push" and fortunately for us, there were 6 seats open towards the front of the theatre. The movie was great, and we had a blast. The End.

Tony

Stomach Pains

Once again we have horrible weather here in Lexington. It snowed all day yesterday and the temperature dropped into the single digits with a below zero wind chill. Due to the ice storm last week, I did not exercise outside once. I didn't run for the first 3 days of the week because of the ice storm. It was so bad last wednesday that the Johnson Center was closed and I couldn't even go there and run on the treadmill. Last week was my recovery week so it wasn't a huge deal. I swam and biked the amount that I was supposed to, and I only missed one run. Now I'm back at it this week. Last week I hit:

Bike: 3:30 hr
Run: 2:35
Swim: 5:30
Weights: 30 minutes

Total: 12 hr

I believe the goal for this week is 18 hrs and then two straight weeks over 20 hrs. I hope it warms up a little and I'll be able to go outside to on my bike. I did manage to get outside for an easy run on Monday, even though there was still snow and ice on the ground.

I watched the Super Bowl on Sunday over at the Atnip's and I officially ate enough junk food for almost 20 people. I left their house absolutely miserable. I stopped eating at half time and I didn't feel better until about 11 am the next day. So I guess I learned my lesson for about a month or two. I usually eat a meal about once every two months that I regret right when I'm finished eating, and then I pay for it for several hours afterwards. Well I consumed that meal on Sunday so I should eat "kind of" healthy for the next 2 months.

I'm officially signed up to make my pro debut on April 25th at St. Anthony's.
And UK is on another delay today because of the weather. This is the third delay we've had in 7 school days and one of the other school days we didn't have class at all. I kind of like this schedule, haha.

T-Bird