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Monthly Summary – September

Here’s September:

Swim: 13,840 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 35.6 miles
Cycling (indoors): 5:00 (hours)
Run: 150.85 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 3 sessions

Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 32.5 (hours)

Weight: 170.0 pounds. Even with all the running I did this month, I managed to gain five pounds. I’m still eating like I was while I was training 12-16 hours a week, but these days I’m averaging just eight hours a week. Even though I think I’m a little better off at 165, I’m not complaining about the added weight, it’s just an observation.

September was a much better training month than August was. I ran more miles in September than any month before in my life. I think that my biggest month of running before this one was October 2006, during training for the New York Marathon. But even during that month I only ran about 120 miles. I had a few little nagging pains here and there, but I trained through them with limited time off and am feeling great right now. I’m also feeling physically and psychologically stronger than I did during August. That really shouldn’t surprise me. Recovering from the Ironman took me much longer than I expected it would. But I think that my expectations were pretty naïve. Historically, I’ve recovered well from races, but as I learned before, during and after the Ironman, the Ironman isn’t just a “race”! As I think I’ve written in here before, I think next year (or after the 50), I’ll structure recovery a little differently. Having the unstructured exercising time was pretty important, but I feel like I let myself get a little too lazy for a little too long. Not that I should have (or could have been running or cycling or swimming with any more intensity, but I think that doing some yoga or strength training would have helped me recover and also get back on the training horse more smoothly.

One thing that I’m really enjoying about the blog is the ability to look back and see how I was actually feeling at any given point since last September. It’s easy to romanticize how I was feeling at a given point in time, but going back and reading my blog gives me a much better picture of what was actually going on in my head at any given time. It should be very useful next Spring when I’m in the midst of training for IM USA 2008 – I’m already expecting it to be a helpful reminder that training for the Ironman wasn’t any easier in 2007 than it will be in 2008!

I spent this past weekend in Youngstown, Ohio with my Dad, visiting my Grandma, aunts and cousins who live in Youngstown and Cleveland. It was a very quick trip, and very well worth the travel. It was great to hang out with my Dad a little and I don’t see my “Ohio family” very often. My Grandmother isn’t very mobile, so we spent Saturday afternoon and this morning hanging out at the nursing home where she lives. It was a good opportunity to catch up with everyone. I haven’t seen my aunt or cousins in probably three years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. Everyone seems pretty well. Even my Grandmother is doing OK – I think she’s in a good situation, with nice people taking care of her and regular visits by the family.

Yesterday morning I drove out to Mill Creek Park, which is only about 15 minutes from my Aunt Edna’s place (where my Dad and I were staying). I found the park online, primarily by stumbling upon the website for the Youngstown Ultra Trail Classic 50K, a trail race they have in the park every September (it was actually just last weekend, too bad!). As you might have guessed, the race is held in Mill Creek Park and they have the course map online. The trail going around the park is about 11.6 miles and for the race they do it about two-and-a-half times. The course is mostly on trails that run alongside the Mahoning River and various lakes. The picture at the top of this post is a view of the Mahoning River from the park (I had considered bringing a camera with me on the run, but didn’t want to hassle with it; fortunately, I found these nice pictures on the race’s website).

The trail runs right past the Lake Cohasset waterfall:

It’s mostly flat, just with a few small hills. The trail is really well maintained and generally pretty easy to follow. Here’s a view of one part of the trail:

It is a great place to run. I’d definitely recommend it if you were going to be in the Youngstown area. (I won’t even ask why you would be in the Youngstown area… no offense, Grandma!)

Bike – September 24
Time: 1:00
Average heart rate: 117
Indoor ride

Run – September 25
Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 25 minutes
Average heart rate: 139
Course: Village, Soho
Conditions: Sunny and comfortable

Run – September 26
Distance: 5.6 miles
Time: 45 minutes
Average heart rate: 143
Treadmill run

Strength Training – September 26

Run – September 27
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 25 minutes
Average heart rate: 137
Course: West Village
Conditions: low 70’s, nice

Swim – September 27
Distance: 3,100 yards
Time: 1:00

Run – September 29
Distance: 17 miles
Time: 2:20
Average heart rate: 140
Course: Mill Creek Park, Youngstown, OH
Conditions: high 60’s, beautiful running weather

Run – September 30
Distance: 3.3 miles
Time: 25 minutes
Average heart rate: 141
Course: Younstown, OH (5th Avenue)
Conditions: high 50’s, nice