update on run and knee situation

well i had a little run again this morning. those of you who don't know, i had an over usage injury on my knee. after the US open i have taken a break from running under doctors orders. I was supposed to start running 2 weeks ago but we had a baby and so its had another 2 weeks to heal.

I did 1 mile last week and went for another little 2 miles run this morning. I took it really easy and ran about a 9 minute pace just to see how things felt. i used to run about a 7:30 pace. Anyway everything worked really well. I'm sitting with ice on it now just to make sure there wasn't any inflammation. I really hope everything stays good so that i can keep running.

funny stories

we were up this morning, bright and early. Kiera was awake at about 5am after her feeding and i wanted to let mommy get some sleep so i took her and we went to the lounge to watch some tv. at about 8-oclock kiera and mommy were both in LA-LA land when that pesky squirrel came scratching at our skylight again.

Again, you might ask. Well yes. For the past few months he has been scratching at our skylight as last year i blocked off his 2 openings into our roof. So anyway, i have actually got a BB gun from Jens dad that i have been trying to shoot him with.

So there he was , scratching away and i thought, damn him. I got up as slowly as possible not to wake up the baby. Got the gun, made sure it was loaded. Walked quietly to the back door, so i could get outside and have a few shots at him. So i got to the door, quietly unlatched it. And then, as i opened it was reminded by a LOUD SIREN THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN TO SWITCH OFF THE ALARM.

Damn, so naturally after i had switched it off, thought, oh no, everybody is awake now. Well yes mommy was and she came running out of the room. But to our surprise, Kiera was still in dream land on the couch where i had left her. Awesome.

Anyway, so that was the fun start to the morning. i think the damn squirrel also got a big fright and hopefully wont be back.

Other than that it was a miserable 80 degrees and sunny today in dallas. I got out of the house again and went for a swim at the gym. managed 1.25 miles in 38 minutes. im definately getting faster and stronger in the pool which is great. My head and neck are still lazy and i do most of my breathing to the one side. I really have to work more on breathing both sides.

That was pretty much my day, Thanks to brian and marinda for coming for a visit.thanks also to the wonderful people who have been brining us food. you guys are saints.

awesome bike ride today

Well, sorry for you people that live up north. Here in Dallas today it was a horrible 78 degrees and sunny. I just had to get out on my bike for a few hours. So after i woke up this morning i made sure that mommy and baby were all happy and head out the door.

The route that i sometimes ride starts about 10 miles away from my house so i just jump in my car and head down there. Its a parking lot in a park setting. There is a concrete path that leads all the way down to our local lake which is known as white rock lake. Turns out its about 7 miles from the parking lot to the lake. Then its about 9 miles round the lake. Also with very good concrete and asphalt pathways.

So today i felt like doing a longish ride so headed town to the lake and the did 3 laps of the lake and then back up to my car. So i had an awesome day out. i am back home now with mommy and kiera and my legs are kinda tired. I didn't go to hard as i was trying to keep my heart rate between 130 and 150 which worked out pretty well.

The weather was really awesome and hopefully it will continue for a while longer. We can normally still get good weather here into december with a few cold days mixed in. Its normally January and february when we get below freezing consistently. So anyway ended up doing 43 miles in 2:25:05 at an average of 17.8. will be pushing for 18 next time and then onto 19.

So some interesting fact i thought i would share with you.

From the 1st of january here are my training stats:

workouts, bike, swim, run and gym : 161

distance : 1080.63 miles

time : 102:13:36 hours

average time per workout : 38 minutes

ave distance : 6.8 miles

max distance : 57 miles

calories : 61 394

Wow, looking at a year in this way put things in perspective for you doesn't it. I wonder what it will look like at the end of the year and what it will look like at the end of next year. Here is what it looked like at the end of 2008 :

workouts, run and gym : 35

distance : unknown, most of it was in the gym though

time : 33:42:22

average time per workout : 57:16

ave distance : unknown

max distance : unknown

calories : unknown

Wow, now its really in perspective isn't it.

Training wrap up for October

So looking back on october, i have to say it was a success. On the 11th it was the Us open Triathlon in which i came 5th in my age group. Here are the stats.

age : 32

overall place : 31 out of 274

division place : 5 out of 45

gender place : 28 out of 205

time : 2:03:20

swim 800m : 14:50

T1 : 3:16

bike 24.8 mile : 1:20:07

T2 : 1:51

run 3.1 mile : 23:17

Whilst this was slower than i was hoping for i do totally blame the weather for that. It was a cold, windy and rainy 55 degrees for the race and the roads were wet the entire way. In fact i only felt my toes about 2 miles into the run.

That was my second sprint race and went much better than the first which was in september.

but looking back on it it is obvious that my training paid off and i am very happy with the result.

So as far as my training went for october this is what it looks like.

swim distance : 7.68 miles swim time : 3:48 swim pace : 29:41

bike distance : 226.67 bike time : 12.49 bike pace : 17.7

run distance : 5.77 run time : 0.47 run pace : 8:11

total miles : 273.22 total time : 19.45 total cals : 12715

It just dawned on me that i will be training about that much a week when i do my ironman in 2011. wow that crazy. That is the one school of thought anyway. The other that is punted by a lot of people these days including Ben Greenfield is that you could complete an ironman on about 12 hours a week. That might be something to look into.

Anyway, as you might notice, there wasn't much running going on as i was recovering from an injury to my knee so wasn't allowed to run. That seems to be all better now and hopefully will be able to get some miles in.

Also october was the month that my daughter Kiera graced us with her presence and that has slowed my training down a bit, but was on my bike yesterday again after about a week and a half and it felt great. i actually did 23 miles at an average pace of 19mph. So i am taking the break as my post triathlon season break.

Anyway so as november rolls on and with it some cooler weather i am hoping that i can get back into training. Hopefully i can hit about 300 miles this month on my bike. about 20 miles running and about 10 miles in the pool. that would be great.

How are we doing

So i just thought i would fill you guys in on how we are doing. If you didnt see, Kiera Paige Mellet joined us last Sunday on the 25th of October at 14:58pm. She weighed a healthy 7lbs 7oz and is doing well.

Its been an interesting week to say the least. Kiera's first night at home was very tough. Neither my wife or I got much sleep as Kiera probably sensed our fear and took full advantage of it. She spent most of the night screeming her cute little head off and nturally we didnt get much sleep.

Lucky for us though, the rest of the time has been pretty good. Whist she still hasnt got her days or nights in the right order, She has been pretty good for the most part. She sleeps a lot which is good. It gives me time to clean the house and prepare meals whilst mommy sleeps and takes it easy.

I went for my first trial run yesterday morning. I had a slight knee injury and have not run in almost 3 weeks. I did a nice and easy mile around our neighborhood to see how it would hold up and all was good. And then to my delight my wife told me i could go to the gym today so i got an hour in today as well. I have the best wife. Now i am looking for a bike trainer that i can use here in my house so i dont have to dissapear for 3 hours on my bike.

Incase you were wondering, Jennifer (my wife ) had a C section and cant really do much at the moment and is still in a lot of discomfort.

Other than that, we have had some friends around who have brought us food which is totally awesome of them.

Im looking forward to getting back out on the road to put in some miles.