The tour is over

The weather here has been pretty nasty lately. It’s been cloudy with light rain or fog just about every day, with cool temps. The positive is it’s begun to rain again, something we haven’t had in a while.
Since it’s been nasty outside, I’ve done all of my training (if 30 minutes per day rates as training) indoors. I can handle the dreadmill and drainer in small bites, but that’s it. Much more than 30-45 minutes and I’m ready to go off the deep end. I don’t see how you cold climate folks do it.

I’ve also been spending way too much time on the internet since I’ve been off work (I wouldn’t dream of surfing at work). I was browsing YouTube the other day and came across the 89 Mark and Dave showdown. If you haven’t seen it and you’re an Ironjunkie, you really should check it out. The entire broadcast is on YouTube in 6 parts. Those guys were/are amazing.
I also found some great swimming tips on YouTube from Dave. I think there are 5 or 6 segments. Good stuff. I’m going give some of it a try tomorrow.

The Christmas tour came and went in a whirlwind of presents, gravy and cake. It was great, but now it’s on to the new year. Time to box everything up and get the house back in order. The tree comes down today.
Since we’re both home for a few days, DJ and I are also doing a whole house clean out. It’s amazing how much junk we hold onto. The garbage man is gonna love us.


Happy Training,
TJ

The tour begins

We officially begin our family Christmas/Eating tour today. Much of our family lives within a 50-mile radius of us, which is great, but it means the next week or so will be filled with many family functions...6 or 7 I estimate. Presents will be exchanged, kids will get sugared up and go a bit wild, grown-ups will eat more than they should, and by the end of it all, I’ll probably get sick at the sight of another casserole. But it’ll be nice to catch up with some of the clan I haven’t seen in a while.

Things have been pretty light on the training front. Annnnnd I’ll leave it at that….

D and K finished up school Tuesday and were itching to get out of town. So we drove up to the Fernbank museum in Atlanta Wednesday. DJ is a bit of a frog freak. She loves the darn things. Fernbank had a frog exhibit going on and she’d been wanting to see it. There were over 100 live frogs in the exhibit. The dart frogs were cool. Their colors are amazing. My favorite part of the museum was the dinosaur exhibit. Seeing the scale of them up close is mind-boggling.

KJ with the big guys

The worst part of the trip was the traffic on I75. On the way up, we were delayed about 30 minutes due to a wreck. 30 minutes isn’t too bad. But, on the way back there was another wreck. This time the wait was almost 2 hours. Most of it sitting completely immobile. I don’t wait well…..
Hopefully all involved in the accident made it out ok.


As soon as I make this post, I’m off to go do my last minute shopping. Two more things and I’m done!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Training/Resting,


TJ

My legs burn just watching….

Lance - Alpe D’Huez

Offseason update

Things are rocking along pretty well down here in the desert Southeast. The weather here is crazy for this time of year. Highs in the 80s most days…with no rain…and none in sight. I think Santa will be cruising down Santa Claus lane in shorts and a T-shirt this year.

I’m sticking to my one-short-easy-session-per-day plan fairly well. I’m planning to get to the gym next week and start back up with a strength program. And I’ll be trying to get back to some basic core work sometime this week.

The IT band is still sore. I’ll most likely end up at my ortho doc for another shot of cortisone. I had the exact same condition in my right IT band in 06 and the cortisone shot did the trick then. We’ll see…

I haven’t done so well with cutting back on my diet. Going from burning a bazillion calories per day to not burning many at all…without adjusting my diet…has resulted in an 8 lb weight gain in 6 weeks. This is the worst time of the year for me diet-wise. Seems someone is bringing in some awesome desert or finger food to work every day. As a matter of fact, today’s awesome item was this. It rocked! I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel on losing weight until after Christmas.

I’m still working on ironing out my race schedule for next year. I’m thinking of maybe doing the Rock N Rollman half iron up in Macon on May 31. I’ve never done this race and have always wanted to give it a go. I really wanted to go back and do Gulf Coast again, but DJ can’t get away that week, so it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out this year. It’s one of my favorite races, so maybe I can rope some of my buds into going with me. I haven’t totally ruled it out yet.

Happy Training,
TJ

Recycle Those Old Shoes

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Or you may want to give this place a look. Or check out many of the local running shoe recycling efforts around the U.S.

Checking In

Well my friends, most of November was a big ole fat zero for TJ.
I managed 3 runs and 1 ride on the trainer. I ate like a pregnant woman and slept like a teenager. I’ve put on a little weight and lost a heap o fitness.

It’s time to get my act together and get things rolling again. I sat down and planned out the month of December. I’m gonna keep everything short and easy this month and just try to get back into the routine….which will be the hard part. Rolling out of bed first thing in the mornings to jump in the pool will take a while to feel normal again. If I can stick to the schedule, I should make it to January 1st ready to start the real training and begin laying down some solid basework.

In the 3+ years I’ve been training, I’ve never taken this much time off. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes to feel fit again…

KJ and I were supposed to be running in a local 5k this morning. She started complaining with aches yesterday and woke up with a fever and sore throat this morning. She wanted to go anyway....101 degree fever and all.

Happy Training, TJ