Yesterday’s activities: an hour run and a full 3 sets of the Steamboat Core Workout. It’s so amazing how far we’ve come, from barely being able to do one of those core sets to being able to do all three. They are never easy, but what is easy in Nordic training?

Today my dad and I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods to scope out some running shoes for the season. Here is a picture of what we got. The white ones are training shoes, and the black/red ones are more like trail running flats, which I will use for racing.

I decided to try out my training shoes on the road today, and they were extremely comfortable. I went about 7 miles and felt amazing all the way. It took exactly one hour from start to finish. Here is the Google Maps route of what I did. I hope to run more toward the end of the week. Expect some more media clips and stuff of that. (I sent my GPS off to Garmin the other day, but I’m not sure when it will be back.)

Ian

Yesterday we might have had one of the smallest groups show up for training yet. A lot of people are away for these last few weeks of summer. Last night though, the lack of attendance did not mean there was a lack of quality. We tried a workout that we hadn’t done yet this year, the 4 minute level 4 skate intervals. We met at route 2 and warmed up for almost 40 minutes, mixing in some leg speeds and technique. Then we did a two minute level 3 interval to get warmed up.

The excel spreadsheet doesn’t lie! I’ve reached my goal of 100 hours for the summer. Now I’m working on cutting down the volume dramatically and getting more running hours in to prepare for the racing season. My base hours have been established and now I’m transitioning, two things that I didn’t do well last summer. I feel so much more fit and ready than last year.

Today was the first day that my work schedule and training group schedule have conflicted. Practice happened at 10am, which was the same time I had work. So after work, I went to the Williams gym to do a strength workout…because I haven’t really trained in four days because of sickness things and triathlon things. What I did was pretty simple. I warmed up with 10 minutes easy of the stationary bike. I started with 40lb freeweight chest press, 40lb freeweight “lawnmower start cord” motion, and 137lb row weight machine…that was workout block #1, and I ran through that three times. Then I took a 5 minute break and I finished with block #2, which was 1:30 of raised planks (my feet were up on a 20-inch box), 45 seconds of pushups, 45 seconds of kayakers because I’m terrible at them, and 5 pullups. I did that block 3 times also, then warmed down with 10 minutes on the bike. With the rest I took, that entire session lasted about an hour and 5 minutes, and it was good enough to make steering hard when I was driving home. Tomorrow I’m planning on an easy run or bike.

The storms held off - and unfortunately so did my running form - for the 4th annual Northern Columbia County Triathlon. It was a beautiful morning in East Central New York today. The water was warm, the air temperature wasn’t too hot, and the triathletes were ready.

Though I am still recovering from a little illness, I did a nice little 35 minute run and core on Thursday to get back in the swing of things. Tomorrow is really the big day…the Northern Columbia County Triathlon. Yesterday I played a fun round of golf (I shot 87 at Taconic Golf Club) with some friends from Holderness, and I’ll be resting all day today.

You know it’s bad when you get sick during the middle of the summer. That’s what’s happened to me in the past two days. It actually hit my brother first, just after he got back from the NENSA junior camp. Then yesterday I woke up with a sore throat and a high heart rate, something that always happens to me just as I get sick. I started pounding vitamin C and water at the first sign of it, like I always do, but sometimes it just isn’t enough. So I took yesterday off. I originally thought I was going to do a run, but I felt too tired to do that, and my mom sent me up do mow a neighbor’s lawn instead. Then today came…I didn’t have a sore throat when I woke up, which is a good thing. It means that the sickness is moving along and hopefully will be over soon. That’s a good thing, considering I’ve signed up for a full triathlon on Sunday. ((PICS BELOW))

That’s how long until I go back to school for leadership training. I’m starting to get really excited - and nervous - for senior year. Even the Training Group is in its last week of quality intensity training before we wind it down and try not to tire all of the fall athletes out for their sports. Most from the group xc run in the fall, so bringing down the intensity in the last couple of weeks before practice really starts is widely appreciated.

“Better days are shining through,” indeed. I have time to post again, I finally have a day to relax, the old Windows computer has stopped giving me 3 errors (now it gives only 2), and the MotionBased uploader seems to be working again, though the site is still spotty. I think the people at MotionBased are really busy completing the move from being “MotionBased” to being “Garmin Connect.” It’s been a wild couple of days at my house with work, summer homework, training, and life.

Things I will be posting later:
My bikeride yesterday with the headmaster of Holderness School.
Today’s triathlon (I’m doing the bike leg of a tri in Cambridge, NY. in a couple hours)
A few MotionBased links that I haven’t posted because of problems uploading and no time to fix the problems.
Pictures from all these events.