The lunch-time treadmill

I managed to get a run in at lunch today at the gym. Scheduling conflicts in both the morning and evening meant that either today's workout was going to be skipped, or it was going to be during my lunch hour. I haven't used the treadmill for running since last winter, and it didn't take me long to remember now much I dislike it. Also not a big fan of the lunch-hour workout thing. You could say I'm a bit of a heavy sweating guy, and trying to get back to work on time by trying to get showered and cooled off as quickly as possible just leads to more sweating for me. Outdoor running will always be the way to go.

Update... about nothing very important

And who doesn't like to read about that? Off-season update: I'm starting to become more emotionally involved in the workouts. That kind of sounds weird, but it's the only way I could think to describe it. I remember this time last year I was just kind of going through the motions of each workout, whether it was treadmill, trainer, or pool. It took me some time to get into it and start doing it with a purpose. It probably wasn't until January that I started looking at it differently... instead of just looking at the upcoming workout and then doing it, I would think about why I was doing it, especially right as it was happening -- if I work the big chainring hard on these intervals, then that hill in the Owen Sound Olympic will seem a lot smaller next August -- that kind of thing. I did my first triathlon in 2005, but 2007/08 was really the first off-season I did any kind of regular workouts. Before that I just kind of assumed that playing hockey a few times a week would keep me in shape. Yeah... how'd that work out, big fella? So, it's really only my second off-season, and I'm taking it as a good sign that I'm already approaching the workouts this way now, several months ahead of last year. I have no doubt that more experienced triathletes are pretty much always focused that way, but at least I'm going in the right direction. I think. Of course, even though it's only November, I find myself wishing it was next May and that the spring races were already here. And yes, if it was suddenly May and not November, then it goes without saying that I would have put in all the work over the off-season and have made massive fitness gains since last year. Ah, yes. The dream never dies, just the dreamer. On another note, I would like to say thank-you to Eric for leaving the words of encouragement on my Muskoka 70.3 race report (and mentioning this blog in a post!). My frame of mind when writing this stuff is basically that no one will ever read it. That someone actually did (and took the time to comment) is in itself very encouraging.

Remember

Having to rely on movies and photographs to tell me what it was like in the trenches... what it was like to literally look into the face of death every day. Unless we've been there, we will never truly know what they went through so that we could continue to have things the way we do. This says it better than I ever could... I HAVE NOT FOUGHT THE BATTLES OF THE PAST OR PRESENT. I WAS NOT ASKED TO GIVE OF MYSELF OR OF MY LIFE. I HAVE SEEN THE IMAGES OF THE HORROR, AND DESTRUCTION. I HAVE READ THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO DID NOT RETURN. I NOW GAZE OVER THE MARKERS OF THOSE WHO DIED FOR ALL. I LISTEN TO THE WORDS OF THOSE WHO FOUGHT, BUT THESE WORDS CONTAIN NO GLORY. I WILL REMEMBER, I DO SHED TEARS, I WILL BE SILENT. I WILL NEVER FORGET, WE SHALL NEVER FORGET. - author unknown

Don't mess with her

I read this Associated Press story on Flatman's Blog. This chick is tough! Jogger runs for aid with rabid fox biting arm Associated Press - November 5, 2008 2:43 PM ET PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - Authorities in Arizona say a jogger attacked by a rabid fox ran a mile with the animal's jaws clamped on her arm and then drove herself to a hospital.The Yavapai (YA'-vuh-py) County sheriff's office says the woman told deputies she was on a trail near Prescott on Monday when the fox attacked and bit her foot.She said she grabbed the fox by the neck when it went for her leg but it bit her arm.The woman wanted the animal tested for rabies so she ran a mile to her car with the fox still biting her arm, then pried it off and tossed it in her trunk and drove to the Prescott hospital.The sheriff's office says the fox later bit an animal control officer. He and the woman are both receiving rabies vaccinations. No one will ever tell this woman to HTFU!

A potential flip-flop

Before even beginning to train (or even sign up) for it, I'm already having second thoughts about a marathon in May/09. On the one hand, I think training for and running it would improve my overall running fitness in a huge way. This would obviously carry over into the triathlons I'll be doing next year as well. But on the other hand, I'm worried that my biking and swimming would suffer as a result. It's not as though I kick ass in either one - I can't just rely my on base fitness to pull me through. If I was to focus on running 3 or 4 times a week and use the other days for swimming or biking as cross training (instead of detailed training workouts), I don't think I would really be improving my abilities in those areas. Plus I just added weight training to my schedule - I don't want to back off on it because my running mileage (and thus recovery time) is increasing from week to week. Now I'm thinking that a half marathon would be the better way to go. I would still have to focus a little extra on running, but obviously not in the same way as a full marathon. It's a distance I know I can do and recover from relatively quickly... this past spring I did a half marathon on a Sunday and then a duathlon a week later, with no pain or troubles to speak of. There is another reason (and maybe the REAL reason) I think I might be better off keeping it at the half marathon distance... in the past, with some races I've bitten off a little more than I could chew. Case in point: Muskoka 70.3. Going in, I hardly thought it would be a walk in the park, but I never dreamed for one second that it would be as tough as it was. And now, somehow I have let it creep into my head that it wouldn't be all that tough to run a full marathon... you know, just slowly increase mileage every week, blah, blah, blah... piece of cake, right? Ya, right. Hearing some marathon stories from athletes with much more experience (ie - in way better shape) than me has led me to believe that there is a good chance that I would probably take the preparation too lightly... even though it wouldn't be on purpose (if that makes any sense). I'd do all the workouts, but maybe not with as much intensity as I should... or something like that, I'm not really sure. Something caused me to bomb the 70.3, maybe it was that. I guess the short version of all that is... a marathon scares the hell out of me right now. I think I might be better off if I was to focus on improving what I already have, as far as base-fitness goes. I'd really like to increase my strength & power on the bike, and I don't know how much I could do that if I was focused on running a marathon. Or maybe I'm just making excuses because of the bad 70.3 experience... I don't know. And maybe I'm wrong, but I think the improvements I could gain on both the bike and run by not doing the marathon would outweigh what I could gain in running only if I was to do the marathon. I haven't fully decided yet, but as usual, time will tell.