Spin at B/F today at lunch - just a quick 30 minute workout - 3 "hill" simulations, was able to get a pretty good sweat going.

Last long-ish run before the 1/2 marathon on March 3.  Playing with my pace, trying to see if an 8'15" mile is something I can hold for 13.1 miles - after this morning, the jury is still out.

My heart-rate would ramp up to around 162 at the end of each mile - which may not be sustainable for 13.1... 

I did some walking in between each mile this morning - hence the 9 minute plus miles.  It just felt good, and my mind really wasn't into just cranking out 8 miles of straight running.

Nice easy swim today - still recovering from my race on Saturday.  I would not have thought that a 5k could beat you up, but I felt worse yesterday than I did after some of my sprint tri's....

Lap times were anywhere from 1'04" to 1' 15".  Some of the longer laps were because I stopped and had a drink of gatorade - let's just say that knowing today was a Holiday, we went out and had too much fun last night.

Talking with some of the other runners today, it seems that lots of people had their times slow down from the year previous - most were blaming it on the temperature (about 15 degrees warmer this year) and the wind (10-15 mph this year).

I've spent much of the afternoon pondering this race - trying to convince myself that it was "just a bad race" and that next year I will be faster.   I'm not sure that I did a good job of convincing myself - I keep having nagging doubts that this is the peak of my race speed - and that it is a long downhill slide from here....  This is the first race, in almost 5 years that I have been slower than the previous year.  Today this feels like one of those "bellweather" life events - the first gray hair, or the first time you realize that by golly, no matter how hard you train and how much effort you put in - you are getting older and slower....

Sure, I can rationalize lots of reasons why I didn't break 22 minutes today - the glass of wine and Sierra Nevada beer last night, poor dinner choice, lots of long run and hill training recently (limited speed work), a poor race pace, etc....

Oh well, maybe I'm just thinking about this way too much - I probably ought to be damned happy with a 22 minute 12 second finish and just go have a couple of Corona's!!!! 

Rest day today - preparing for my "A" 5k race tomorrow!!!

Looking for an under 22 minute performance!!!

OK, I lied - not really a rest day - during lunch I had my first session with a swim coach.  I warmed up before she got there, and then she watched me swim 50 yards.  She was absolutely appalled by my kick (or lack thereof).  She had me use a kick board, and I warned her I have been known to go backwards with a board - and sure enough I did.  After about 15 minutes, I finally made it to the end of the pool (after kicking my arse off).

She told me the best thing I can do is throw the zoomies away, and concentrate on kick drills - start with 25 yards, and go up each week.  Also do the sideways swimming kick drills - anything to build my leg strength.

She looked and my stoke and made some minor suggestions there - but her biggest concern was the kick.

We decided to have me work on my kick for  a couple of weeks, and then get back together again.