OT Training 6.12.14

Today was a pretty good training day. I slept in a little longer than I usually do (stayed up later also) so I got a late start on things. I went to the gym and got a good back/bi workout in while seeing one of my closest friends. We talked about some things and he was asking about my training and I said that I had a 45 minute run lined up. He suggested that I run from our gym into the place I usually run. After thinking about it I though it would be a good idea.

The run starts downhill with some smaller uphill climbs along the way but flattens out where I typically run. My race is going to be mostly flat but as my buddy told me it can't hurt to get stronger with some hill work. I ended up going 44:07 and covered 5.34 miles which came out to an 8:15 pace. It was a little slower of a pace than I would have liked but I kept a really consistent pace throughout my entire run and over my last mile I was able to overcome the significant hill that I have yet to be able to complete the eight or so other times I have ran it.

I was pretty tired about halfway up the hill and thought about catching my breath for a quick second but I knew that I needed to push through this and push myself mentally. Over the last couple tenth of a mile it got really steep and what really kept me going was the thought of me crossing the finish line. I know the race is going to be tough and the running part is going to be extra difficult after a mile swim and a 25 mile bike ride so the finish of a 45 minute run with nothing before it was nothing.

I was able to overcome that hurdle and when I finally finished I felt awesome. I mean my legs were shot and I was sweating really bad thanks to some unreal humidity but I was able to continue when I thought I was going to have to stop. That is what it is about. During the race I am sure I am going to want to stop on numerous occasions but as long as I can train through wanting to stop I am going to give myself a better chance of working through it in the race.

Good workout day.

OT Training 6.11.14

Today was another swim and bike day. Today was probably one of my better swimming day over the past couple of weeks as I was able to get in 1,300 yards in about 40 minutes of swimming. I was only able to get in 1,000 yards on Monday because my legs were really dead but the legs felt fresher than usual for today.

I was able to get back into the swing with my 100 freestyles as I started with three of those to start my workout. Typically I have been doing 4 x 3 sets of the 50's but with me wanting to push it a little more I went with a 4 x 4 set swims of 50's starting and ending with freestyle's with a kick and pull in between. That gave me 800 yards with just my sets and coupled with my 100's to start gave me 1,100 yards. I finished up my workout with another 50 each of kick and pull and then a pair of 50 freestyles.

Really good swim after some really bad days. It was a tough day for the swim since the pool hours have been scaled back over the summer so for the time being I am going to have to get up at 7 a.m. for my swimming days. It's not as if I get up really late but setting an alarm to make sure I am up at a certain time is something I haven't had to do for a long time. I guess that isn't a bad thing since I will eventually have to be getting up at a set time soon (hopefully) so might as well start now.

My bike is still down for the count with a bad tire. It should be fixed for my long ride on Friday but that meant that I had to go to the gym to get my ride in. On Monday I used the spin bike and while it was good to get something in it didn't really mimic the biking I am going to be doing. I didn't realize the gym had a regular stationary bike so I jumped on that for 1:15. I was able to get all of that work in and it came out to 19.3 miles which was a little more on target with what I would be riding a flat trail on so it was a good workout.

OT Training 6.10.14

Today was a weight workout day and my short running day that included somewhere around a 35 minute run.

The weight workout went pretty quickly. I like to get in and get out when I am at the gym and I was able to do that today as most of the people in there were on cardio machines so that made things pretty easy. It was a chest/tri day with some core work at the end and I worked myself pretty hard so it was a good workout.

I followed that by running in Natrona Heights for my short run. I kept pretty much the same route as I did last week the two times I ran there and this was easily the best of the trio of runs there. It wasn't over hot (around 65) but it was fairly humid (95% humidity) so it made the run suck a little bit more than I anticipated.

I wanted to push myself a little bit more today since I still had some left in the tank the last couple of times. That led to me coming out of the gate a little faster than I would have liked which led my pace to slow down over the next two miles but it didn't slow down to a point where I was having trouble. Here is a look at it:

The good part of this was that I was able to bounce back after a slower third mile to finish the fourth mile with about an 8:00 pace and finessed the last .6 of a mile at a 7:30 pace. I think I would feel much different about the run if my pace got worse as I finished but I had some good push at the end.

OT Training 6.9.14

Today was a pretty rough day. Usually I don't want to get up and swim. That doesn't mean that I never get up and swim but I think it is more of the fact that it is my weakest area and the improvements have been slow. I have been getting better in the pool but the process is slow. I knew it was going to be slow but that doesn't mean that it makes me any more motivated at 7 or 8 a.m. to get up and get into the pool.

I was on Twitter just after my pool workout and checked Twitter real quick before I went on the bike in the gym (more on this later) and I saw this from my favorite comic strip, Calvin and Hobbs.

So true Calvin, so true.

Last week I had a tough time on Friday with my swimming. My legs were dead and I was just tired. I thought I was going to be OK today after having the weekend off and even though I had my long run yesterday my legs were good so I felt I would be alright today. I wasn't really alright. I was pretty tired in my lower half and it made it a pretty rough swimming session.

I ended up getting in 1,000 yards in the pool. I really wanted to get in 1,100 or 1,200 but I cut back a little bit to hope to save my legs a little more for the week ahead. I started off with a 100 freestyle with six 50 freestyles after that. I then did two 50's of kicks and four 50's of pulls. I got in three more 50 freestyles with one more each of the kicks, pulls, and a final freestyle to finish up the day.

Before I left my house I came to find out that the back tire on my bike was completely flat. I have no idea how or when this happened but this meant that I wasn't going to be able to ride it today. I don't really know anyone else who has a bike and haven't been able to buy another bike yet. This meant that I was going to have to go on the spin bike in the gym.

This was a little less ideal but after I was done I guess it was good since my legs were pretty tired. I kept a cadence of 95 during my hour long ride and that covered 25.3 miles. Again, not really ideal but it was definitely better than doing nothing. I am going to be checking over the bike tonight and hopefully have it back ready to ride on Wednesday.

This was way less than an ideal day but I didn't expect every training day to be good. I am well into my second month of training and things are going to start getting hard. I am going to want to not workout but I need to push through those and continue to get better.

OT Training 6.8.14

After a really good day off on Saturday I was back at it today for my long run. Essentially I ran the same route as last week only I went a little longer today but my run today was a lot better than last week.

A week ago I ran this route in a 8:13 pace running 6.1 miles in 50 minutes. Today I was able to cover just over seven miles in almost 56 minutes which came in at a 7:56 pace. I started off this run a little faster with a 7:31 pace in the first mile but after that I rally got into a groove where I ran at a 7:50ish pace over the next four miles. I slowed down a little bit in the sixth mile with an 8:16 pace but finished around an 8:05 pace.

This was a really good run for me and even though this was a mostly downhill race at the beginning I still got some hill work that I was able to get through pretty easily. I didn't come close to stopping at any point which is good because last week I had to make a stop around the 40 minute mark.

I am still getting stronger and being able to run the race distance in about 48 minutes made me feel pretty good. I know that I didn't swim or bike before it but with about two months left until the race I am pretty confident I will be able to run a pretty good pace if I am right around where I want to be now. Also I was doing this run after a night of drinking. That counts for something, right?

Least ideal part of the run today was that five minutes into it the rain started to come down. It came down hard for a minute and then level off but for much of the run I was dancing around raindrops. Not fun.

OT Training 6.6.14

Today was a rough day. I thought after a good run yesterday and my legs feeling pretty good that I would have a better day today with my long swim and long bike ride, but boy was I wrong. My first few laps in the pool were met with the feeling of my legs being really tired and I knew it was going to be a long morning.

At the beginning the swim wasn't all that good. I was barely able to get through my three 100 freestyles and had a tough time getting my legs going with my first three 50 freestyles. I think I kind of got into a groove as my other three sets of 50's (kick, pull, swim) weren't too bad and I was getting through them in pretty good time. Since I wanted to add 100 yards on to the end of this from Wednesday I did two more each of the kicks, pulls and swim to give me an even 1,200 yards for the day. A good stepping stone but it was a really tough pool workout.

My bike ride was much the same. I was supposed to go around 107 minutes today but I actually ended up riding 115 minutes and coming just short of two hours. The legs didn't feel overly great on the steady uphill climb from Freeport towards Butler and after I turned around I expected it to be pretty easy since it would mostly be downhill. It wasn't. I was pretty tired around mile 20 and that would have been alright if I was only biking 20 miles. I actually was doing just over 28 miles so that made things a little longer than I had anticipated.

I am glad I went a little longer on each and got them done but it was not a fun workout day. I will say that I am taking full advantage of my off day tomorrow and tonight I am going to be relaxing by going to the Pirates game with some friends. That is a good reward for the hard work this week. After my long run on Sunday I will have nearly trained for 12 hours and 100 miles on the week. There is still a long way to go but I am on the right path. I think.

OT Training 6.5.14

Today was a really good day for me workout wise. Yesterday I felt pretty good in the pool but when I got to the bike ride I was pretty sluggish. I still finished with one of my better bike rides and cut some significant time off my 25 mile time but I just didn't feel it. Today was totally different. I am not sure if it was just because I had to do only a run with a weight workout but my legs felt really good and carried me through a really strong run.

I did my weight workout first and it was back and bi day. I didn't necessarily go any heavier with anything but I tried to add a few more reps since I was only around 10-12 reps last week. Usually I am able to bump up weight on the second week of my workout plan (that changes every three weeks) but this week I only took marginal bumps up in weight and made sure that I got good reps in.

I decided to stay in Natrona Height for my run. Typically on my medium day I like to go down to the trail as I can control my time better since I run out and back. Today I just kinda freelanced with my run and it worked out well. Overall it's not going to show that I did a lot of hills but there were a few of them. Typically these hills are something I struggled with because of my pacing problem but today I was able to conquer them fairly easily.

Here is the map of the elevations on my run:

As you can see there are a few peaks and valleys but I was able to maintain a pretty steady pace through them.

I ended up running for 43:04 and went 5.30 miles. That turns out to be an 8:08 pace which was right around where my time was last week for my medium run. The best part about the run was that I still had some left in the tank. I probably could have ran a sub-eight minute pace but this showed me that I am definitely making gains in my running and that is a good sign with a couple months left till race day.

Overall a great day in my mind.

OT Training 6.4.14

Today was my medium swimming and bike day and after it is all said and done it was a pretty good workout day. I felt really strong in the pool and despite my legs being tired in the first half of my bike ride I was able to press forward and cut nine minutes off my time from last week.

Got into the pool and did 1,100 yards today which was 100 more than last week. I did the same workout except I added a 100 freestyle at the beginning. I think what I am going to try and do is tack on another 100 before my set work for the next couple of times to try and build up more endurance. At the beginning of last week I was only able to do one 100 at the beginning and today I was able to do three of them so I know I am going in the right direction.

After my 100's I did the same set work with 50's. I started with 50 freestyles and did three of those and then did three kicks, three pulls, and finished with three more freestyles. I ended the workout with another kick, pull, and two more 50's. I went harder today than I did on Monday but I felt really strong, especially in my legs, so that was a really good thing.

The bike was a little harder than I anticipated. I was only going to go about 87 minutes today but I ended up going 1:37:32 and did 24.35 miles. That was pretty good for me seeing that last Friday I did 25.58 miles in 1:48:11 so essentially I cut off about nine minutes on my race distance today and that is always a good thing. I would like to be able to do that in about 1:15 or better but with the race still a few months away I think I am feeling pretty good cutting that time.

OT Training 6.3.14

Today was a pretty easy day with a weight workout and a short run.

The weight workout was chest and triceps and went about as well as I thought. I have been trying to keep higher reps since that is going to help me in my training more than going heavier weight with lower reps. That is what I usually do but I want to make sure to keep my reps between 12-15 and not overdoing it since I am training so much.

The run was pretty simple. I went and ran in Natrona Heights by the Anytime Fitness I go to. Overall I went 3.91 miles in 32:30 and I kept things pretty simple. My splits (every mile) were in the mid-8:00 mark and at the end of the run I know I still had some juice left. With this being an easy day and my legs still being pretty sore from the weekend I thought it was better to keep a slower pace and keep things easy.

I think overall I would like to have an eight minute pace for the run portion of my race so for almost four miles keeping an 8:18 pace today and still feeling good I think I am on the right path. The adrenaline will kick in with other racers around me on race day and that will give me a little extra push so I feel pretty good about where my running is right now.

OT Training 6.2.14

After missing my easy swimming and biking day last week I was back at it again today. I should be able to get in a full week of workouts this week which would be something I haven't been overly able to do recently. Before I went out today I made sure that I was sticking to the plan I had and it turns out that I was a week off. The distances I was supposed to do this week I actually did last week. So, in turn I think I am going to repeat my workout from last week and get myself back on schedule. I guess that gave me some extra work but who knows if it really meant anything.

I started with swimming today and ended up doing 1,000 yards in the pool. It took me a little over a half hour to do which was a little slower than how long it took me to do the same distance on Friday. That wasn't really a concern for me as I focused a little more today on my technique. In talking with some people that have watched me swim at the pool they have said I am using too much upper body when I swim and that I am not using enough legs. This is getting me more tired on my laps and not letting me get enough out of my swim.

Anyways, I worked on closing my finger on my hand and keeping my upper half quiet and pulling more when my stroke comes through the water. I have been really "punching" the water and with my fingers spread apart it is not helping me pull my body, therefore making me use a lot more energy than I need.

I was able to focus on that a little more and use my legs to generate some more power and I think it went pretty well. I kept my same schedule as I had on Friday with a little variance. I started with a pair of 200 freestyles followed by my regular rounds of 4x3 sets of 50's with swimming, kicking, pulling, and swimming. I then finished with a 50 of kicking and pulling and a pair of 50 freestyles.

I went down to the trail for my bike ride. It went pretty well as my average speed was as fast as it has been in some time. I ended up going 16.3 miles in 1:06:13 which averaged 14.8 mph. Pretty much the same story as every time I am on the trail, the first half of the ride was a gradual uphill where I averaged about 13.5 mph but on the way back, which was more downhill, I was averaging around 16.5 mph.

Solid workout today. My legs were pretty sore from my run yesterday but as I have said before a lot of this is mental as well as physical so it is good to power through these when I don't feel like exercising.

OT Training 6.1.14

First workout of June. It is weird, it feels like May just started and here we are already through 31 days. May went crazy fast. Well, Saturday was my off day and what I decided to do on my off day was drink a lot of alcohol. I am not a guy that gets hungover so that wasn't really the problem but I was super tired today. I typically like to get my run done earlier in the day but today my run didn't happen until about 3 p.m. That really wasn't a big deal, but today it was hot.

The heat wasn't overly terrible but when you are dehydrated from a night of drinking it doesn't make things any easier. It also didn't help that I didn't really drink any water before I ran and I forgot to take water with me. I ran into town and had my car dropped off there so it's not as if I could drink water when I got finished. I had no quarters in my car and the best I was able to do was get an empty bottle I had in the back seat and ask a gas station to fill it up with water. Meh, whatever. I drank 32 ounces of water in approximately 10 seconds.

The run was pretty good overall though. I think I was supposed to go 54 minutes today but with the weather and my blood sugar levels going a little low towards the end of my run (due to my diabetes) I was only able to make it a 50 minute run. Like I said I went from home into town and the run is mainly a downhill run but there is two hills that I wanted to tackle. The first hill is a gradual raise and the second hill is a much more significant one that I haven't been able to finish before.

Like I said I have always had a problem with pacing and by the time I hit that hill I usually couldn't make it the entire way up since I was already spent from running too hard at the beginning. Today I was able to tackle the hill easily so that made me feel pretty good. My pace was still a little too fast for my liking but it wasn't as bad as it has been before.

I would like to get my first two miles around 7:45 or so but I think I can live with this today. I ended up going just over six miles on the run. I think I would have liked to get a little farther but that is part of the process. I have been really slowing down my pace in hopes of being more consistent in my runs so as long as I continue to do that I will be able to build up my milage.

Tomorrow is an easy day with swimming and biking so back at it for another week.

OT Training 5.30.14

Today is probably the most intense day of the week for me in terms of training. It is my long swimming and bike day and I stepped it up pretty significantly on the bike and added a little more in the pool.

I started again with my swim and got in 1,000 yards which was 100 more than I did on Wednesday. I pretty much did the same workout as Wednesday except that I added a little more on to the end. I started with an easy 100 freestyle followed by 4 x 3 sets of 50's that went swimming, kicking, pulling, and swimming. After that I went with two 50's of each the kick, pull, and freestyle.

On Wednesday I basically go this workout done in 32 minutes but today I was able to get things done in 26 minutes. I was able to cut some time as I didn't take as long of rests between my 50's. I was taking about 20 seconds between each and that is a good bit less than I usually do. It was good that I did that to bump up the intensity of my workout and left me feeling pretty good about how I am progressing in my swimming. I am still not really able to go in really long distances but I think I am starting to get there and my breathing is getting better and so is my technique. That is important stuff.

The bike ride was a long one. I went on the trail and was ticketed for about 107 minutes of riding. All told I did damn near that long as I rode for 1:48:11 and went for 25.56 miles. That is just a bit over what my race distances is going to be so it was good to see that I was able to get that far.

Since I went a good bit farther it gave me a better look at the elevation. I start my ride in Freeport at the beginning of the trail and go towards Butler. As I have said before the ride to Butler is much more uphill on the way back and all told I climbed about 560 feet before the halfway point and then I started to work my way back.

While I am able to complete the full bike ride after my swimming I still have a ways to go. I would like to cut about 20-30 minutes off my time and get my bike ride portion done in 1:30 or under. That is ideally where I want to be and right now I am not there.

Day off tomorrow then back at it on Sunday.

OT Training 5.29.14

Today was a weight train and run day. The goal for my run was to go between 40-45 minutes. The training plan had me going 42 minutes but as we all know when you go out running you sometimes can't control when you stop, especially when you run out and back.

The run went pretty well. I went on the trail again and even though there was some leftover rain falling I was able to stay dry (from the rain) and made the run in 45:43 and covered 5.68 miles. This was a little bit slower of a run as I completed it with a 8:03 pace but overall I felt pretty good on the run.

I was able to keep a pretty solid pace between 7:50 and 8:05. I was a little better with my pace today and wasn't really going too fast or slow from mile to mile and in the end it made for a pretty good run.

The lift was pretty good. Went with a back and bicep workout and mixed in some different lifts. I can tell it is working because I am pretty tired and sore already. I usually don't get sore until the the next day and the day after that but if things are working then it's cool.

I was pretty wiped out after the workouts though. I took a nap when I got back and then went to run some errands and came back and took another quick nap. Something about me today is off as I am extremely tired. Hopefully that wears off tomorrow as I have a long swim and long bike ride.

OT Training 5.28.14

Today was my medium workout day for both swimming and biking. Since I missed my short day I really tried to push it a little bit and after realizing that I have one less month to train I ramped things up pretty significantly, especially on the bike.

I started off with the swim and did 900 yards today and did the exact same workout as I did for my long day on Friday last week. If you don't remember back a few days I started off with a 100 freestyle for a warmup then did four sets of workouts. I did three 50's of freestyle followed by kicks, pulls, and then finished with another freestyle set. I did each of those three times with two "sprints" and one "easy". I followed that up with a 50 kick, 50 pull, then a pair of 50 freestyle.

Overall it was 900 yards and I felt pretty good. I am still not strong enough to start doing 100 freestyle more than one or two times but my breathing is getting better and I was swallowing less water today. I think for my long day on Friday I am going to do 1100 yards but at minimum I will do 1,000. Increasing by 100 each time in the pool is somewhat of an unofficial goal for me and so far I have been able to do that pretty well. Of course I didn't increase by 100 today but I still got a lot of good swimming in.

After that I transitioned into the bike. My goal today was to go for about 85 minutes which was actually five minutes farther than my long bike was on Friday. Instead of just going on the trail I decided to get some hill work in today and it kicked my ass. My first couple of miles were strictly uphill and while I finished my bike with an average speed of 13 mph the first couple of miles were right around eight or nine which kind of tells you that I was working hills. I thought I was going to have to stop and turn around before I finished a couple of the hills but I was able to push through and get them done which was a nice mental workout for me.

Overall I went 19.68 miles in 1:31:03. I did finish up on the tail after I worked the hills so it was the typical finish that I went about 12-13 mph while I was going towards Butler and on the way back that bumped up to closer to 15-16 mph.

My legs are shot. The Pirates are on. Couch time baby!

OT Training 5.27.14

Today was my first day back to train after three days off. Typically I like to stick to my schedule but I was out of town all weekend watching Seton Hill play in the Division II World Series down in North Carolina. I left on Saturday which is my normal off day and I planned on doing my long run day on Sunday with about a 40 minute run but it was a long Saturday night and SHU played at 1 p.m. on Sunday so there was little chance the run was happening.

Anyways, I didn't get back until 6 p.m. on Monday and after a nine hour car trip there was no way I was going to swim or ride bike. I actually went to bed at 9 p.m. because I was so exhausted.

So, today was my first workout since Friday. It went pretty well considering I had three days off but I kind of had to change my schedule up. I found out that the race I wanted to do in late September wasn't going to work since I had a prior commitment for that weekend so I think I am probably going to have to do something in August. Looking around it seems like my best bet is somewhere in mid-August so that means I will have a month less of training to do.

With that said I just skipped ahead on my four month plan a little bit. Today was my weight train and short run day. I decided to go for a 35 minute run before my weight training. I actually ran pretty well and kept a pretty consistent pace through my run which built off a pretty good week last week.

Overall I went 4.56 miles in 35:02 which comes out to be about a 7:40 pace which was better than last week on my medium day which was about the same as today with a few less minutes of the run. My pace worked pretty well. I started a little slower but after my first mile I really leveled out around 7:35 per mile which is ideally where I would like to be on a day like today.

Then here is my pace/elevation log which is pretty good for my consistency:

My weight training was good, not great. My run had me pretty tired and it was pretty humid so I was tired. I got through a good chest/tri workout but by the end it was time to lay on the couch. That and take a nap. Good day Cory.

OT Training 5.23.14

Today was another swimming/biking day and it was my long day. It took a lot of time to get things done but I think that was in part because I talk to too many people when I am done with my workout and the fact that I lost my car keys after my bike ride. It was an...interesting day.

I started off swimming today. Last week I went with the bike ride first but I wanted to switch it up this week since in the race I will be going from swimming to biking. On Wednesday I got in 800 yards in the pool so today I wanted to get in 900 yards. I am still a ways away from the race so I didn't think I needed to get in 1,000 yet and even thought was my "long" day I think going up 100 yards over the last time was a pretty good advance.

I went with more of a training approach today. Typically I have been just getting in a pool and doing a bunch of 50's and then mixing in some pulls and kicks but today I went with more of a program approach. I started off with a 100 yard warmup and then did three reps of 50's for four different sets. So on the first turn I did 50 freestyles and I sprinted the first two of them and then did an easy swim for the third rep. For the next set I did that with the kicks (so two sprints and an easy) followed by the same with pulls, and finished up with another 50 freestyle reps.

Those were pretty difficult. The swimming freestyle weren't very tough and since I have a pretty strong upper body the pulls weren't bad but the kicks were really tough. My legs still aren't overly strong and when I am doing the leg kicks it feels like I am going an inch every 30 seconds. Finally finishing the kicks was a great feeling.

After I did that I went ahead and did one more 50 of each kicks and pulls and then finished with a pair of 50 freestyle at a somewhat easy pace.

It is really tough for me to know what a sprint and what an easy is. I feel like I am pretty much going the same speed each time. I am sure this will be easier once I get more comfortable in the water but especially on the kicks and pulls it was difficult to differentiate.

Breathing was much easier today. I still had a little trouble staying on my stroke pace where I breathe every three strokes but it was much better than I was on Wednesday in terms of remembering to breathe out when my head is under water. I do need to get better and not swallowing a gallon of pull water through my swims but I think that will come.

Next was my bike ride. I was tasked with going 1:20 and ended up finishing in 1:21:43 and finishing 19.5 miles. I once again did the trail and it went pretty well. I went a lot slower in the beginning but that was because the trail takes a gradual uphill climb when you go towards Butler from Freeport. I finished the first 40 minutes in 8.50 miles but in the last 40 minutes when it was a little further downhill I got it done 11 miles. So I went an extra 2.5 miles on the way back so I had to do a little turning around at the end to make sure I got my time in. This is a little learning experience for my next time out.

The bad part about the bike ride was that I lost my keys. When I go out for a ride I always lock my car and put my keys in a pouch on the bike. I always zip it up because there are a few bridges that I go over and then have some drop offs. Well I thought I had zipped it up and I didn't. Not only did my phone die as soon as I finished my bike ride but I found that my keys had fallen out.

Luckily enough about five minutes later a couple of really nice guys rode by and said they found keys by the one bridge and they put them there in case the person looking for them went back through the course. They were able to tell me the bridge so when my dad come and picked me up he drove me closer to the bridge and I picked up my keys so I didn't have to bike another 10 miles round trip to get them. Small miracles, I guess.

OT Training 5.22.14

Today was a bit of an odd day. Usually I wake up and check some e-mail and eat a little bit of breakfast before I get going (thanks to the fact that I work from home for the time being). In that time I plan out my training and get a timeline of what I am going to do. Today I didn't do that.

I woke up and turned on the TV just to lay in bed for a few minutes and the cable wasn't working right. So I came over to the couch and piddled around a little bit. Today was supposed to be my weight train and medium run day but for some reason I totally blanked on having to weight train.

So I got prepared for my run and went down to the trail to do it. Typically I do my weight train before my run but overall I don't think it is a big deal. It wasn't until five minutes into my run that I realized that I had to weight train. Way to plan your training Cory!

Anyways, the run went really well. It wasn't overly long (32 minutes) but one of the things I have been preaching here the last two weeks was how I wasn't able to keep a consistent pace. Today I was able to do that. It shouldn't be something that I am overly proud of but after the run when I looked at my milage splits I was really happy. It took a real effort during the run to keep myself around the same pace. There were times that I found myself going way too fast and had to slow down but it was probably one of my best runs in some time in terms of consistency.

Here is the pace chart from my run:

Hopefully I can take this and continue it but it is going to be hard to do. I guess we will find out on Sunday for my long run if it comes true. I was able to keep going the entire time and not blow through all my energy at the beginning and then try to catch up the second half and forcing myself to stop. It's a small step but a step nonetheless.

It was a little warm for the run, but it wasn't bad. I started the run around 8:30 or 8:45 a.m. so it was about 60 degree out. As the run went on it got pretty humid and it was noticeable by the end of the run.

Weight training was pretty good. I did back and bi today and the only real snag was that my shirt was pretty soaked from my run so I had to use the oversized long sleeve shirt in the back of my car to workout in. It wasn't overly bad but I wish I would have prepared better with an extra shirt to lift in after the run.

I was able to get some gains on my lifting and if I didn't I stayed around the same. Next week I am changing my workout around since I do that every three weeks.

OT Training 5.21.14

Today was my medium day for my bike and swim workouts and while I have done there a little staggered through the day I went back-to-back from bike to swimming today. It worked out pretty well as my bike was a lot better than I thought it was going to be and my swim was pretty good. I was able to push through some tiredness and increase my swimming over 150 yards from Monday which is about what I expected to do.

I was tapped for a 64 minute bike ride today and I wanted to get a little hill work in today to see how my legs responded and it was better than expected. I took nearly the same route as I did to start my ride on Monday and instead of heading back to my starting point I headed into town (Freeport) and down to the trail to finish my ride. This was a little more downhill of a ride than I was anticipated but I finished 16.19 miles in 1:05:26 which was around the same milage I had for my long day last week only I finished it in about 10 less minutes.

I think some of that had to do with how downhill it was, but I was really strong on the hills that I did do and I was able to hold in some of my higher gears for much of my ride. Here is my speed/elevation map:

As you can see it was mostly downhill with some hills in there. It seems like I did more uphill work at the beginning but even though the graph doesn't show it I think I had some good work. I think this will push me more next week to try and get some tougher hill work in and see where I really am on my short and medium days.

My swimming workout came right up next. Took me about 15 minutes to get from the end of my bike ride to the pool so it gave my legs a little bit of a rest. I have only swam three times so far in the workout plan and things have been going pretty slow. I was pretty happy with my pool workout on Monday so I wanted to push it a little more today.

I have mostly been working 50 freestyles in my workouts but today I wanted to try and get some 100's in. I was able to start my workouts with two 100's. It was pretty difficult. I am still trying to get into a groove with my breathing and if I slip up a little on one of the legs of the work it can leave me catching up to try and get my breathing right.

Anyways, I wanted to try and get one more 100 in but I just didn't have it in my. I finish up my freestyle workouts with six more 50's. In between I would walk halfway down the pool and back as some recovery and then go right away. I was pretty spent after this but it gave me a really good base workout.

I think went with some kick board and pull work for my legs and arms. I alternated between doing kick board and doing pulls for two times each and finished out with one more pull (so I did two kick boards and three pulls) since I wanted to get a little bit more work with my arms. I finished the workout with another 50. I wanted to finish with two 50's but I was spent.

Overall that gave me 800 yards today after doing 650 on Monday I got all of this done in 25 minutes which was a little short of what I was supposed to do but I think in the pool it is more important to focus on distances than it is on time. This 800 included a couple of 100's so I think that is a pretty good step for me. Hopefully going to get in 1,000 on Friday for my long session.

OT Training 5.20.14

Today was a weight workout day followed by my short run day. All-in-all it was pretty boring and not much to say.

I went with chest and triceps today and it went about as well as it could. I actually went a little heavier with the weights today. I think next week I might go heavier weight since I haven't done that in a while.

I took a short run today. I was pegged to go for 24 minutes and when it was all said and done I ran 3.08 miles in 23:57. This was a good run since I kept a pretty good pace. As you know I have a horrible habit of coming out of the gate too fast but today I really tried to not do that.

It was a little weird as I started off with a 7:36 pace in the first mile, followed that with a 7:57 pace in the second mile, and finished the final 1.08 miles with a 7:42 pace. I was a little surprised that my second mile was that slow but I was really glad I was able to get back into a good pace for the final mile. That is really my goal is to be able to be more consistent and finish strong and I did that today. I didn't go all out at the end since it was my easy day so I think things went well.

What It Means To Feel Proud

You see it talked about a lot and sometimes I don't know what it means. When people say they are proud for things. It could be an accomplishment that they achieved or something a family member or friend did but I think maybe the meaning is a little different for everyone. I think people kind of brush off people being proud until something happens that makes them proud. That was me this past weekend.

As you know I was a baseball player for Seton Hill University. Going to SHU was somewhat of a big deal, not that I was there but that males were there. I was a part of the second ever male class at SHU and in my first year in the fall of 2003 I was a part of the first ever baseball team on campus. Our first year it was just a bunch of freshmen and a couple transfers and despite thinking we were really good, we really sucked. We had liked 17 wins all season and blew. The next year we got better and won 27 games and made our conference tournament. We got swept in the first round, but it was a building block.

Fast forward to my junior year. Things clicked. We won 45 games and hosted our regional. We swept the regional, won the super regional and were one of 10 teams to play in the NAIA World Series in Idaho. It was really a surreal feeling and something that I never forget. That was probably the proudest moment of my life and here eight years later I don't think I have accomplished anything that makes me as proud as that moment.

After my junior year when we went to the Series the athletic department at SHU made the decision that they were going to move to NCAA Division II. It was the right move to make but on a team that was all juniors and that just came off a season where we won 45 games we would not be able to do it again. My senior season meant nothing in a sense. We were not eligible to make any postseason and were not eligible to play for a World Series berth in the NAIA or NCAA. It was somewhat of a guy punch, but it is what it is.

Since the move to Division II Seton Hill has been an outstanding program. This year marked the fifth straight season that SHU has made the NCAA Regional Tournament and after losing out in the regional championship last season they came back and swept through the regional this season.

The championship game was this past Sunday and while I couldn't watch it anywhere I was able to listen to it on the radio. I don't know many players on this team but I do know some of the coaching staff and as an alumni it is still really important to me to follow what I had a part in starting. Seton Hill won the regional championship game 3-0 and as the bottom of the ninth came (SHU was the away team) I just couldn't help but get chills. I remember exactly what that feeling is like. The dog pile after winning and the surreal feeling knowing that you are one of a handful of teams still playing baseball.

This is where the pride comes in. This is much more than a baseball team I played for. This is a family to me. I might not know a lot of the players or parents now but I gave everything I had to that program and to see them carry on the legacy that we started in 2003 means a lot to me. To be able to say that I am a Griffin Baseball alumni is something that I am incredibly proud of and something that nobody can take away from me.

I have no idea what the World Series will hold for SHU. Back in 2006 were lost both of our games and even though they turned out to be close it hurt not to win at least one. But here is the thing, you get there and you have a chance. Seton Hill has a chance to win a National Championship and only seven other teams have the same opportunity. It doesn't get better than that.

I couldn't be more proud of that team than I was on Saturday and that I am right now. I am not sure people will even understand this but at some point everyone has something they are proud of. This is one of the things that is at the top of the list for me.