Medical update, RRT & Turtle Trot 2010

Medical Update

Good news, went to the Chiropractor/Physical Trainer and he proclaimed me almost healed up. I am flexible again, ok, that might be an exaggeration but he was at least able to bend me in ways I couldn't bend before. I have a lot of work yet ahead to get the core fixed but I have exercises to do which I now know how to do correctly.

On the running front, I was pleased to get in an 18 mile run over the weekend. Wasn't pretty nor fast but the back didn't cause me pain. It stiffened a little bit but was manageable. So now I just need to get in a boat load of runs before Superior, only problem is that work has become a bit unmanageable but I am participating in a flexible work pilot which theoretically means I should be able to get runs in. Two days in, it just means I no longer have an office and need to cram 16 hours of work into 12 hours or so. So my hope is I can get things back in some level of alignment and figure out how to get the runs in. Tomorrow, I will see if I can start the process of managing all of my priorities.

RRT

I am going to host the Runners Round Table tomorrow. The subject is "Compete or Complete?", should be a fun topic. I like to think I do both even though I wouldn't qualify at any distance of being competitive. My competition is with myself and against the course with an eye on the cutoffs.

Turtle Trot 2010

Since I have been remiss to get out my Turtle Trot report, I figured I would add it to this post.

Yup, we went and did it again, Karyn and I took in Ben and Kirsten's hospitality and ran, swim and biked our way through the Turtle Trot Triathlon.

This year it lived up to it's 3rd week of July reputation, it was hot, actually it was an absolutely beautiful day, just a bit too hot for running. I love this event as they do it in the right order, not the right order for a triathlon but the right order for me, for the 5th year in a row, we started with a 5k run, followed by a 1/2 mile swim and then a 10 mile bike ride. I will probably never do a normal tri as this one has me spoiled. I love doing the run first, as I ran on this hot day, I kept thinking go hard, a nice cool Minnesota lake is ahead. I have to admit when I hit the water I was totally content to just kind of taking my time.

Back to the run, I pushed it a bit but since I have done Zero speed workouts, I really didn't have a clue. My goal was to run somewhat hard and if it felt easy to go faster each mile, the pace was fine but the heat didn't relent so I basically just held pace. Not a TT pr for a 5k but it ended up being my 3rd fastest TT run. The swim as I said earlier I just kind of swam, walked, floated my way through the 1/2 mile. I almost stayed in longer to enjoy the cool water but alas it was a race so I departed the water. My swim was my second fastest, not sure why as I had all of one training swim ahead of the race.

As to the bike, I just kind of got out of the water and told myself, let's get it done. I kind of thought that maybe I would come back to the lake for a little longer soak. I came in with no bike rides, so I was trained well. I actually ended up with my second fastest bike time of the 5 years. So much for training, oh yeah, I have never trained in the past either.

Karyn had a PR kind of day, I know she PR'd in her run which helped her get an overall PR, she may have PR'd in the other events too but I can't remember, yes I could ask but I have been sitting on this post for a week already, anyway, regardless of the event PR's she had a great effort. I should add a note here that I did catch some grief as I was the only husband who chose not to run, swim and bike with their wife. What can I say, oops.

Another great event as always, Ben and Kirsten make us feel welcome every year and do a great job keeping this event focused on participating, finishing and competing against yourself and if you chose not too, that is fine as the event is all about enjoying each others company.