Team McAlister

Today I went to my gym to do an 8-mile pace run on the treadmill.  I like doing pace runs on the ‘mill, because I can control my pace very exactly, which I don’t always do so well when I’m running in the world.  But today it was very, very, very warm in the gym, and the difference between my pre-run weight and my post-run weight was 5 pounds. And I even took three water breaks!  Given the warmth inside today, and general fatigue after a tough week in training and a tough week of living in Chicago, today’s run was pretty brutal. But I came in, as expected, at 1:11:55.

Tags: dehydration, running

You gotta love a place where the temperatures vary by 30 degrees from one day to the next. Thursday’s run in 23 degree weather was pretty special. That was Thursday wasn’t it? Well, today it was 50 and windy.

Today’s plan was to stick with the 30 minutes of walking and running as prescribed by Hal Higdon – sort of. I’m not a slave to his program, but I am being careful since it’s been a long, long time since I ran seriously. I completed 2.23 miles at a 13:30 pace and didn’t feel as though it was a push at all. That’s probably as it should be. These old knees were just a wee bit cranky at the end, but not too bad. (A doc looking inside my knees once said that I had the knees of an 80 year old man! And that was over 25 years ago.) This is my biggest concern, but I figure that in the final analysis, it’s just pain. And, pain can be overcome.

Being able to finish up the run and get on my bike was a fine reward. Slammed down a banana, aired up, and got to rolling. Had a nice 1:45 with some hills and lots of wind. Plenty of opportunity to work on smooth stroke and balance.

I’m lovin’ this!

Tags: biking, cycling, health, masters, triathlon

So, Lance Armstrong has announced that once he’s made his comeback in the cycling world, he’ll be doing an Ironman. How cool would it be if we were in the same one?

Also, according to that article the winner usually finishes in around 8 hours. I did the math, and that’s an average speed of about 16.7 mph. Right now I can sustain speeds of about 6 mph running, 18 mph biking, and I don’t even know about swimming. I guess I have my work cut out for me.

Oh, one more thing. I sucked it up and ran on the treadmill yesterday. One whole mile, and it only took me 10 minutes. One day we’ll all look back at this and laugh, unless of course it’s at my funeral after some fatal treadmill-related accident.

Tags: Armstrong, Ironman, Lance, run, running