Feb1-7

S: 27,500 yds
B: 6h 40min
R: 6h 25min

Total: 20h 18min

Ugh. It was another cold, rainy weekend and the motivation for bike riding just wasnt there. Saturday I managed some trainer time but Sunday I had to get outside. The weather sure wasnt helping but at least I had a SB party later in the day to get me out the door. 3h later and without feeling in my fingers and toes I was home and ready for some homemade chocolate chip cookies and beer.

On the bright side, I had a nice little 4 mile tempo run on Wednesday which I ran 5-7 sec/mile faster than I planned at the beginning. I felt good and just kind of cruised through it so I was pretty pleased to see my splits along the way. This was especially good news with the Mercedes Half Marathon in Birmingham coming up this Sunday. Initially I was a bit worried as I've only done a couple of hard running workouts but after that tempo run I'm hopeful for a reasonable performance.

Jan25-31

S: 27,600
B: 6h 30min
R: 6h 10min

Total: 19h 56min

I had a bit of a scare with a slight but acute pain on the side of me at the end my run Monday but after a couple of days of hitting the IT hard with my TP Massage Quad Baller (foam roller on steroids), the pain has thankfully subsided. If it was anywhere else I wouldnt have thought much of it but after spending the first few months of last year not running due to a similar issue, I wanted to make sure not to push things.

Other than that, the highlight of the week had to Sunday morning's run on the mountain during which David, Chris and I saw the goats! This is pretty exciting due to the rarity of the occurrence. That event almost made up for having to spend close to 2h on the trainer on Saturday due to the crappy weather... except not really at all.

QOTD

"Coach Paulo really knows what he's doing, I couldn't be more impressed with his knowledge and high performance mind." -Simon Whitfield

Not that I needed any justification about my choice of coach but some validation from a 2x(1 Gold, 1 Silver) Olympic Medalist sure doesn't hurt...

More pics from Maui

Last night here in the Rocket City it was about 45F w/ 15-20mph winds and I had a 10 mile run on the schedule. The weather only accentuated the desire to be back running under the sun through the cane fields rather than through cold, dark neighborhoods of suburban southeast Huntsville. So since thats not going to happen... the next best thing... pictures!

Here we are practicing our beach starts:


Kyle, me, Sam, Kathy, Austin, Andrew, PJ (from left to right) at the beginning of our ride:


Later in the ride, as we are cresting a small hill. Yes, that is the ocean and the other side of the island in the background:

Swim practice done:

Sunday morning, gathering for the tempo run:

Me, Kyle, and Simon (left to right) cruising along through the cane fields:

Jan18-24

S: 24,000 yds
B: 8h 37min
R: 5h 10min

Total: 20h 6min

After spending last week in paradise, this week it was back to the real world. I did get to get outside on the bike both days this weekend but instead of 80F and sunny, it was more like 52 and raining both days.

Coincidentally, this is also the start of a new training block which will bring new swim workouts and some intensity in the running workouts. While doing only easy runs has been fun, I'm signed up for a half marathon on Feb 14th so its probably about time to start hitting it a bit harder a few days a week.

Jan11-17

S: 28,100 yds

B: 12h 29min

R: 7h 7min

Total: 27h

What can I say... it was a great week with the ITU guys and gals (and Sam) which included plenty of intensity and plenty of fun. Most importantly, though, it was great to be able to just focus on training and not have to worry about anything else. Of course I couldve done this anywhere but it was much more effective in the presence of other like minded individuals and in a place without any other distractions.

Maui Pics

Whew! The week has flown by! I'm tired but am still loving every minute of it. Its amazing how much more and higher quality training can be done when all you are doing is eating, sleeping, and training. Of course it also helps to have people to push you every step of the way!

Enough of the talk... here are some pictures from our 3h ride on Friday.

And here we are at the start of the point to point open water swim:

Well, time for bed. Only two more days left... better make them count!

Checking in from Maui

Two days and 7 workouts down and so far I'm still feeling pretty good. Yesterday was pretty chill as it was only me, Simon, Sam, and Andrew. The rest of the crew arrived last night so their coach, Phil, wanted to let them have a pretty easy day. We started with an easy run through the cane fields before heading to the pool for a nice solid 5k swim. For the afternoon, we had a nice 1.5h ride through the hills and some incredible scenery. After that Paulo wasnt really satisfied so he suggested I do a little 20min tempo run + 10min cooldown run off the bike. The day ended with some tasty Mahimahi in Paia and a chocolate chip pumpkin muffin.

Tomorrow things promise to heat up a bit with a long swim in the AM and then some Zn3 fun on the bike in the PM. I'm sure there will be a run in there somewhere as well. The internet here is pretty limited, so I'll just leave with a little image of the coast:

Jan4-10

S: 22,900 yds

B: 4h 30min

R: 5h 52min

Total: 16h 24min

Another week with more time running than biking is something I surely cant complain about. Of course the week was really just my last chance to get ready for this week's training camp in Maui with the Canadians. Needless to say, after multiple runs in the snow last week this week in paradise came at just the right time!

Not that its snowing here or anything but...

3 more days!

maui 6th of jan 2010 from swhitfield on Vimeo.

Sunday cant come soon enough...

Today through Saturday I'm stuck here, in the abnormally cold southeast:


But come Sunday, I'll be here:


Needless to say, I'm ready to go!

Dec28-Jan3

S: 28,400 yds
B: 3h
R: 5h 41min

Total: 16h 9min

While swimming outside in Orlando over the weekend was nice, the highlight of last week's workouts had to be the Thursday morning swim. Although I was heading down to Gainesville/Orlando for New Year's Eve celebrations later that day, I still had time to go to the pool for the usual AM swim. I figured the kids wouldnt have practice that afternoon and was hoping they'd be there for a tough morning workout. They were and Matt, the new coach, didnt disappoint.

After a 1200 yd warmup, Matt explained the rules of the game. Basically, it was a race to see who could complete ten 400s in the shortest amount of time swimming triathlon-style, snaking through 8 lanes fper 400. For the first 400 he lined us up slowest to fastest and sent us off in a time trial fashion. For each subsequent 400, though, we had to get out of the pool and roll a set of dice and, depending on the roll, swim our next 400 accordingly. Some examples included fly swim, backstroke swim, breast swim, "shower" (which entailed running into the locker room, getting wet, then running back out before starting the 400), kick, backwards (start at Lane 8 and swim "upstream" relative to everyone else), pull, swim w/ fins, etc. There were 11 options total (2-12) so in order to win you had to swim fast and roll well. Roll a kick rather than swim w/ fins and you've just tacked a few minutes on your time.

Being slow, I got to start close to the front and attacked from the beginning. I ended up rolling the "backwards" a few times which actually ended up being not too bad because once the game got going, things spread out pretty quickly. I also avoided the dreaded kick which was probably the reason I came out victorious. That and I didnt screw around any between 400s. Overall though, it was a lot of fun and a great way to get through 4000yds!

Dec21-27

S: 22,700 yds
B: 4h 50min
R: 4h 31min

Total: 15h 19min

Pretty awesome week with lots of good food, sleeping, and relaxing.

The highlight was, without a doubt, Christmas Day. After being awoken before dawn by a 7 year old anxious to open presents, I only had one gift to open. Because of this, I was on breakfast duty. Being Christmas, there was no fooling around, so I was tasked to make blueberry jelly stuffed pancakes on Sarah's new Ebelskiver Filled-Pancake Pan. While prepping the batter took a bit more work than traditional pancakes and cooking them was especially a pain, the extra work was well worth it. The cakes were crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside, with the jelly providing a nice surprise.

After a little relaxing with coffee, it was time to GTWD. Despite a little snow and 25+ MPH winds, I got in a nice easy 12, running an out and back on a road through the middle of no where. Although the weather made it tough to get out the door, once I got going it was actually quite exhilarating. Despite the wind, I got into a nice grove and didnt seem to notice how cold my hands and arms were until I finished and jumped in the warm shower.

Waiting for me upon arrival was an irish coffee (coffee, Jameson, brown sugar, and whipped cream) followed by a Christmas feast of beef tenderloin, mashed cauliflower, and sauteed balsamic carrots. Good stuff!

QOTD

“I could have run for second but I raced to win. That’s the point.” -Dathan Ritzenhein

Mr. Ritzenhein was named DyeStat's Boy Cross Country Athlete of the Decade and in conjunction with the honor Matt McCue had a nice profile of him posted on DyeStat. Mr. McCue did a nice job pointing out Mr. Ritzenhein's strengths while also exposing training techniques he is employing to continually improve. Overall though, the article emphasizes Mr. Ritzenhein's inscrutable work ethic, leaving no question about the reason for his success.

Dec14-20

S: 22,900 yds
B: 4h 35min
R: 4h 55min

Total: 15h 32min

I was trying to figure out why I've been much less tired during the last couple of weeks than usual. Then I realized it probably has something to do with the difference of training 14-15h a week to training 21-24h a week.

In other news, I ran the Rudolph Run 5k Saturday in downtown. The turnout was great and even though it rained the night before and was overcast during the race, the rain seemed to hold for the few hours around the event which made for a nice morning. I ran 16:30 including a short stop after my shoe came untied about half a mile into the race. It was a fun morning and I was pleased with how I felt.

That evening was the Fleet Feet Christmas Party. The "redneck" theme made for some pretty hilarious costumes and copious amounts of cheap beer. There was also karaoke, so yeah... that happened...