January!

January was a pretty damn good month.  Start of the year.  Hit it hard.  Oh, yea!

Finally, work was good.  Had a great month.  One of my best since selling RV's.  Is the economy back on track?  Well, some folks think that the RV industry leads the country OUT of a recession, and I can tell you that it sure as heck lead us INTO the recession as well!  People are buying RV's again, that's all I know, and that's a good thing.

January was Run Month for the Bigun.  One day left, but overall I'm getting in 4 - 6 runs a week, and I peaked at 30 miles for the week.  I'll wind up with 87 miles for the month - for me, that's a pretty good month.  Especially since prior to that, I was getting in single-digit run weeks.  My run pace has dropped pretty dramatically in this time - on Dec 15th I did a 9 mile run at an 11:07 pace.  Last week I did an 8 mile run (not as my "long run", either) at a 10:00 pace.  So 5 weeks to drop 1:07 off my longer run pace is "a good month".

I've been participating in the Dev's 100 / 100 on Slowtwitch.  It's a goal of 100 runs in 100 days - I knew darn well I wouldn't run every day, and most of the folks in the competition don't either.  I'm shooting for 70 - that would be about 5 runs a week.  I think the added emphasis on running is doing me pretty good.  I've got 31 runs in 47 days...so I'm just about on track.

The cold weather has my biking in the toilet.  I will, for the first time since I started biking, run further in a month than I biked.  I'm ok with that, actually.  Next week starts a 3-week training block that has some days off scheduled to help me bike at least 2x per week.  I'm still concentrating on running - Gasparilla Half Marathon is 4 weeks away - but I need to bike since 3 weeks later I've got a Half IM on the schedule.

I'll also start swimming again next week.  That will be fun... not.  It's a necessary evil, isn't it?

On top of all of that, we are moving next week.  So lots of lugging boxes and furniture to pile on top of SBR.  If it were easy, they'd call it "bowling" and not triathlon, right?

Oh yea, my weight.  That's just like a red-hot poker sticking in my eye, every time I step on the scale.  On a good note, this past week, my "off" recover week, my weight stayed pretty consistent, where normally I balloon up and gain back any weight lost the weeks prior.  I'm at 267 - down about 5 lbs from Jan 1.  I guess a pound a week isn't a bad thing.  My 250lb goal for the Gasparilla Half is fading... looks like 260 will be a bit more realistic for 28 days from now.  I'll run like the wind - albeit a wind loaded with leaves, trees and small cars - heads up!

2011 is here!

Wow - it's been since October since I wrote last.  Sorry, my one remaining reader.  All I can say, is that the Bigun is back!  I'm actually signed up for an Ironman race this year, and an early season "A race".  I'm running, and getting ready for a half marathon in 2 months.  Life is a lot better this year.

Yea, we sorta got kicked in the nuts last year.  Di and I both are glad to have all "that" behind us, and looking undistracted to the future.  Work, for both of us, looks surprisingly optimistic - we just might be starting to get control of our lives again!

So for 2011, if I can get this straight:

Gasparilla Half Marathon, Febuary 27
Gator Half Iron Tri, March 10 20th
Strawberry Century, March 27
St. Anthony's Olympic Tri, May 1
Mad Beach Sprint Tri, May 20
Florida Challenge Half Iron Tri, June 12
Morton Plant Meese Sprint Tri, June 26
Sand Key Sprint Tri, Sept.
Great Floridian Aquabike (Iron Distance), October 22
Ironman Arizona!  Nov 20

There's a great little monthly Time Trial Series at Ft. Desoto that I'll be trying to do as well, on Thursday nights - a 15k bike after work.  I'm trying to recruit some guys from work to go out, chiefly, my CEO - this way, leaving work a little early one day a month won't be quite so frowned upon!  Plus, we might have something else to read about in the flyer that comes with our paycheck besides the company bowling league.

Of course the season's A-race is IMAZ - but my early focus is on St. Anthony's Olympic. One of these years I'll kick ass that day - and this year just could be that day.

Hope to see some of ya'll out there -