Thursday, March 3, 2016

Stuff Has Been Happening, Although Very Little Of It Notable.

This blog has gone dark for quite some time. The reason? Well, not much was going on during the past 2 months. My training started off well in January, and I added a regimen of running for cross training purposes, and so I could accomplish a personal goal of running a 10k this year. 

The hiccup in all this was an eye surgery I had during the last week of January. An outpatient procedure on my right eye socket, which came with strict instructions to not engage in physical activity for the 10 days following the procedure and until my first post op visit. 


Insert pirate joke here. 
Maybe some would have disregarded this, but being a medical malpractice attorney, I tend to take doctor's instructions very seriously. So no riding. Once I got back on the horse, things seemed to go well enough, although the next two weekend involved significant out of town time, once in Chicago, and another, a ski trip to Michigan. Turns out I suck at skiing, but I did get some fatbiking in, along with snowshoeing. Unfortunately, that same weekend temps hit the 70's in Indianapolis, so everyone who I will eventually see at the start line later this year were getting huge miles, while I was not really doing that. 

Fatbiking in Michigan. 
More recently, my wife caught a cold/flu that has been making the rounds which has made her miserable for the past week. I don't usually get sick, but I must have caught some aspect of this, as I have just felt off, with some congestion and headaches. I have still been able to train and I completed a 8 mile running race last weekend and ran 4 miles last night, but training levels just don't seem to be that high. 

And, to cap things off, the Death March is just over a week away. My partner Aaron and I got 4th last year and we had hoped to repeat or better that performance. Unfortunately, due to my surgery downtime and quasi-sickness, and his busy business trip schedule, our joint Death March training schedule has suffered. Right now, the plan I have mapped out for next weekend is titled "Just the Basics" and only has us getting the mandatory checkpoints before beating a hasty retreat back to the finish line. We'll see how all that plays out. 

Now the good things...well, I met my goal of running a 10k already. As I mentioned, I did an 8 mile race last weekend and maintained a 7:56 pace. A bit more than a 10k so I can check that off my list. I'm now contemplating a half marathon. Not to say the 8 miles was easy, but if I had watched my pace, I could have gone farther. Whether the running will help with cycling remains to be seen. But, I feel like the runs are a good workout and it mixes things up a bit. 

Lastly, I got a new bike. 



It is a Specialized Epic World Cup Elite. Pure race bike which will be my ride during the DINO season. Since getting it last weekend I have spent 10 minutes riding it in the driveway, and several hours just staring at it wondering why I would ever want to get such a great looking bike dirty,