Happy Thanksgiving!

After traveling and interviewing for the past few days, and thinking I was going to die in the first snowstorm of the season last night while driving, I am glad to be home.

It was great to spend some time in Mad-town with friends, interview, and get a nice long run in with Michelle's dog Brie around lake Monona. I forgot how much fun it is to run with a dog, and it surely made me push the pace to try to get her to 'run' versus a 'fast trot' along side me. I am pretty sure she slept the rest of the day after we ran. good.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. When else can you have a great meal with the people you love with no other obilgations? The day has been great- a 2 hr ride today helped work up the appetite for turkey and all the fixin's. A fun day with the niece and nephew decorating gingerbread houses (they caught on to just eating the frosting pretty quickly) , baking homemade bread (they are awesome at kneading and rolling dough!), and putting up Christmas lights outside. Fun times by all.

Very thankful for everyone and everything in my life...

Training update- Base II- Week I-

Adding in Tempo work and M pace this week. Although dreading starting the 'workouts that hurt' I was eager to see where I am in reference to last season. In other words, how much have I lost over 'hibernation'? If you are wondering why I am adding Tempo work in November, it is because I am racing a half iron in March. I have been getting that question a lot.

I took my pace/ wattage goals at the conservative end of where I was last season, and dove in. Running went well, met all workout goals on my runs this week. Tempo run on Wed, 50m, 5x4mT. Kept up last year's pace well. yay! Tempo ride on Thurs-3 hrs c/ 4x15m T , started outside for the first hour, then daylight restricted me to the trainer. Wattage goals were a bit lower than last year, but i have not used my SRM on the trainer since I got it right when the weather was getting nice outisde last year. However, I am thinking that the trainer should not make the difference of 15-20watts that I was seeing. That whole workout hurt- a lot. I hate to admit this, but I even inadvertently emitted a whimper. I couldn't believe it. It almost caught me off guard that I actually did that, then I told myself to harden the f**k up and finish the workout. I did.

Long run last night 90m, 5x10mM. Went great.

Woke up this morning and was vomiting from 6am to 2pm. (fyi: No, I did not go out drinking last night) Needless to say, no ride. Now feeling a bit better. Bummed, but what can one do?

Bjorn

Yesterday, a 1:59 bike split at Ironman 70.3 Worlds. All I can say is wow.

I respect the guy, not just because he can ride his bike really really fast, but he executes his race on the bike, and just waits to see if he can run after riding the bike portion like a TT. Maybe not the smartest pacing strategy, but gutsy, and it works, sometimes. Not only that, but anyone who can hold that kind of bike position for 56 miles deserves credit.

Let the Madness Begin...
So, it has been 8 weeks since the 'official' start of my training for the 2008 season. Yes, everything is in place.

Volume for the first 8 weeks consisted of buiding enough s-b-r- and lifting to get up to 17hrs last week. This week is a setback to go into my next 8 week block consisting of holding the volume at 17:xx hrs and ramping up intensity.

The deliberation lies in if and what I should make my 2008 goals to be at the races. After the entire racing season of 2007 blowing up into my face, I have come to accept where I was, and to stop making retrospective excuses. They are what they are, the season is done, and it is now time to get ready for next year.

So the the question for 2008 is: what do I want to accomplish?