Travel, Training, CITC expansion

It seems like the past weeks have flown by. Last weekend Jaime was in South Dakota for a class on a new technique to align your pelvis. She returned on Monday, and I flew to Virginia on Monday to visit the plant where Fruit2Day is made. The trip was good (and quick). I always love to watch manufacturing actually happen. The automation, and coordination of so many different pieces of equipment is simply amazing. Needless to say, it was nice to get back home.

It is pretty typical to have your training somewhat interrupted by travel, and this week was no exception for me. I did manage to get in all 4 runs that were scheduled. 2 runs of 2 miles (easy/recovery runs), one tempo run of 6 miles with 4 tempo in the middle, and one long run of 7 miles. All of the runs felt good despite the travel. I'm giving all of the credit to the Skins recovery/travel socks. They lived up to the billing. My ankles are usually non-existent after flying due to the massive amount of swelling. After this trip, they were like I never got on a plane. Other than the runs, I got in 2 bike rides on the trainer, one weight session at the house, and 1 swim. Next week will be better I hope.

The other exciting part of the past 2 weeks has been the expansion of Colorado Injury Treatment Center. This is the physical therapy/massage therapy/chiropractics clinic that my wife and I own. We have expanded into the suite next door to our existing suite. The wall was knocked down, so we are moved next door until the workers finish up our former space, then we will be in the combined suite. It is exciting to have a lot more space and have the opportunity to build the business up from where it is. We've got lots of ideas of the direction we'd like to go, so I'll keep you updated on how things progress.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Great Weather, good running

It's been awhile since the last post. So, what has been happening? Well, we had a huge October snow storm here last week. Over 1 ft in Denver, which is very rare. Unfortunately the mountains didn't get too much. The snow was Wednesday & Thursday, and by Sunday it was all melted. This week we had 2 or 3 days in the 70's. Just can't beat the weather here. Offseason training is going well. Nice to not have too much intensity, and lots more free time. It gives me time to do some cooking, catch up on some reading, etc. Read on for training details and a good butternut squash soup recipe.

2 weeks more of training for the half are in the books. So far, so good. I'm just following a stock plan from runnersworld.com. It is basically an easy, short run, a tempo or track workout, and a long run. As the weeks progress, the mileage goes up and another short easy run gets added. Next week is the first recovery week. I'm finding that my Garmin 310XT is awesome for this; especially the auto lap splits at the miles. It shows me that I tend to run the long and easy runs too fast, and the tempo runs too slow. So, basically, I was spending all my time in the "gray zone", which is not really where you want to be.

Other than the run training, there have been 2-3 easy swims and 2-3 easy bikes each week. Overall volume is very low in both; around 6,000 yards swimming/wk, and about 2.5-3 hrs biking at endurance paces. Strength training is starting to come around, which is a positive sign. I can't believe how weak you become when you stop strength training to focus on the endurance specific training. Next season, I'm going to have to figure out how to keep at least one day of strength training in the plan.

As promised, here is the butternut squash soup recipe. Super easy (even I can do it) and delicious. http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1854009

Short lived break, successful day Mtn biking

Well, that plan for complete off-season is kaput. Some friends are doing a half marathon in February in Sedona, AZ, which sounds like fun. 16 weeks starts today. This probably is a good thing since I did considerably less run volume this season due to a nagging IT band problem in my knee. That would leave me 3 weeks after the half to recharge before officially starting the Xterra training for 2010.

I guess I just can't get enough!

More importantly, Jaime and I rode some buff singletrack at Buffalo Creek yesterday. She was a rockstar on her first real mountain bike ride. 10 miles, 2,000+ climbing, pretty solid bike handling on some of the more technical sections. Stoked!

Mellow days ahead

Formal training is pretty much wrapped up for the year now that Xterra Nationals has come and gone. Seems a little early to be calling it a year, but I think I'm ready for the break. The past two weeks have just been a little bit of "do what I feel like" exercise. It's pretty nice to be back in the gym and lifting some weights, but wow, have I lost so much strength from a pure weight lifting standpoint.

Jaime just got a mountain bike (Specialized Safire Comp), so we are going to be doing as much weekend riding as possible before the winter gets here. Super stoked that the conversion from roadie to dirt lover has begun!

Have to start somewhere

Well, this is the first post here; I promise improvement will follow. This blog will mostly be about the things I enjoy, maybe some random thoughts for the day, etc. Enjoy.