Another bike and run day
This morning I got up to do some isolated leg training on the trainer. It was not easy to get myself out of bed, but once I did I felt pretty good and the training went smoothly and passed quickly. A big part of the reason it passed quickly was the fact that I watched a big chunck of NBC’s coverage of Kona, which aired just last Saturday. As usual, I started out watching Sportscenter, but these days about 75% of Sportscenter is hockey and basketball. I guess that makes sense, seeing as how there’s no baseball (other than some trades or signings), college football is in a holding pattern until the bowl games and Tuesday Sportscenter has Monday Night Football, but they’re really waiting until later in the week to cover football. After a few minutes, fortunately I remembered that I’d tivo’d Kona. The coverage was great. It obviously focused on the 3 top men (Stadler, McCormack and Al-Sultan) and the top women (Jones and Ficker), but the stories were great and the race itself was really exciting. Only about a minute separated Stadler and McCormack at the end of the marathon. Stadler finished in 8:11:56, amazing! McCormack averaged faster than 6:25/mile in the marathon. The human interest stories were also compelling, as always – a 70-something year old nun, Team Hoyt (who failed to finish the swim before the cut-off), an Iraq vet missing half his leg, a guy running in honor of Blazeman, the guy with ALS who finished Kona last year. Elizabeth asked me if it was inspiring. It was, I guess, but not in the way I might have expected. I certainly won’t have it like the pros and don’t have the extra challenges that the special interest people have, instead I’ll just be pushing through it. The coverage didn’t really express just how long it is or how terrible it can be for people. It did help me remember what I’m doing all this training for. It will all be about crossing that finish line and knowing I did it. Later, I realized that I also have Lake Placid and the NY Marathon on Tivo. I’ll save those for special workouts.
This evening, I came home, walked Charlie and then went out for a run. I did my normal route to the West Side Highway and South to the Battery. It was fine. A little colder than I expected and by the end my fingers and arms were feeling a little numb, but otherwise totally unremarkable. I am pretty happy with the fact that I can go out and run for an hour without really thinking too much about it before or after the run. I remember a couple years ago in the Hamptons when I was just getting back into running and I ran for an hour. It was a big deal. I guess it still is, but not such a big deal. I’ll just be proud of myself and leave it at that. During the run I was thinking about choosing a charity to raise money for in connection with the Ironman. Unfortunately, I don’t really have a connection to anything. I have a few causes in mind, and they’re all meaningful. As Elizabeth suggested I should do some research and see what the best fit is. It’s likely that I’ll be able to raise a fair amount of money. I’ve donated to just about anyone who’s ever asked and haven’t ever done this myself. It’s not that people owe me, but hopefully they’ll be happy to return the support. It’ll certainly be a good cause, too. I’ve been hesitant to start raising money just in case I don’t follow through, but at this point, I’m as good as started the race. Barring a disaster, I’m doing the race!
Bike – December 12
Time: 1:15:28
Average heart rate: 115
Indoor ride
Run – December 12
Time: 1:00
Distance: 7.5 miles
Average heart rate: 145
Course: West Side Highway
Conditions: Clear, cold