February 2007 Archives

After missing many, many swim classes in a row, due to illness and work travel, I had made a firm comitment this morning to get up early and hit the pool for my usual 6:30 a.m. class ... much to my astonishment when I showed up the place was dark and completely locked up. The parkaging garage empty. I swim at a local community college and with Monday being President's Day I figured out that today must also have been part of their break. Drats, and I was so gung ho too.

Well, what could have turned into just another excuse (and lately I've had plenty of those) ... turned into a surprisingly wonderful workout opportunity. The weather today has been just gorgeous, since the fog burned off. After all my meetings I decided that I was going to get my swim workout in somehow, and I headed to a local pool, very close to where I work, for some laps. I ended up completing 2800 yards in an hour and was happy with that. The first mile (swim) was done in about 30 minutes (if I counted right) which is a VERY good time for me. The next 250 yards were kick only and I could really feel it in my glutes due to the weight workout I had done the night before I guess. Then I finished off with an 850 pull only to work on my rotation.

On Feb 4th I ran the San Francisco 1/2 Marathon with my buddy, Juls. I wasn't feeling too well on rising. My heart rate was elevated, and my stomach felt nauseous. But when the race began I felt okay... until mile 9 ... when I began to feel really nauseous, and lost all energy and motivation. I walked a lot ... It wasn't the result I was hoping for, but I did complete the distance in under 2:10. (My PR for this distance is 1:52:00).

Juls and I only stayed together for the first couple miles, but I was going faster than she wanted. In the end she had a great race, finishing in around 1:50 and change ... Though I was looking for her, I did not see her pass me.

Post-race, all I could think of was sleeping ... I was dead tired, which is unusual for me after that distance. I think I was still recovering from my food poisoning episode earlier in the week. It was such a beautiful day, weather wise, that I was dissapointed I didn't feel better, and wasn't enjoying the day. C'est la vie. Some runs and some races are good, some are bad.

Now I'm feeling healthy again it's time to start getting into a training routine, and doing more speed work.