FOLEPI Tomorrow

The Festival Of Lights East Peoria, IL (FOLEPI) was a good race for me last year. I was very close to a sub 30 minute race, like 5 seconds away actually. I know that this year was a pain in my hamstring for the biggest part of the year, but I feel like I'm pretty healthy right now. I am carrying a couple extra pounds, but I think they're good pounds. I hate to have number goals at a race like this. But I'd be happy to go sub 30 this time. Aside from that. I want to do all the other things right like good prep before the race including fueling and warming up and then just run a smart race. I want to finish feeling strong, not all blown up. Those are mentally hard for me to bounce back from for a few days. I tend to beat myself up over them too much. I got a nice pre race tempo run in today and kept it to just over 15 minutes. I even snuck in a pre meal Thanksgiving day ride yesterday in the cold and wind just to fire up the furnace to help burn off some food.

After the race I will embark on my annual trip to Champaign to visit with my high school friends at The Ribeye for dinner and a few drinks. Not the healthiest of meals, but I'll burn it off quick enough. It's always a good time and one that I look forward to every year.

I'm closing in on my 12/9 test day for the CIERT/ILEAS teams. I'm pretty confident right now. The next 12 days will be about fine tuning and assuring myself so I go into the test with absolutely no questions about getting through it.

The New Addition to the Fleet

The Specialized Transition finally made it home today. It still needs some pedals, a bottle cage and computer yet but it's home. It would be great to get a ride in on it before the weather goes to junk. We'll keep our fingers crossed on that. Today actually would have been a great day, but I've swore off the bikes until after my test in a couple weeks. I hope it wasnt my last chance before the trainer comes out. This bike will take me some time to adjust to and having it on the trainer wont be of much help.

Training for my test is going ok so far. I've been doing some weighted pull ups to assimilate the added weight I'll be wearing for the test. My bench is also progressing nicely. I have to say, I'm enjoying lifting heavy again. It's been a really long time, but the feeling came back quick. I'll never be as powerful and brute strong as I was 15 years ago, but I think what I'm doing for the test will be beneficial for what I want out of my 2010 season.

Kick Ass Show!

So, last night one of my favorite bands made a stop in Peoria. Split Lip Rayfield f'ing brought the goods too. Seriously one of the best shows I've ever been to. I think they were surprised by how great the crowd was and I'm guessing they wont mind coming back. To make the night even better, I was there with Stag and and some friends from work and everyone had a blast. The Amber Bock sledge hammer kept me in bed for a little longer than usual today and delayed my run, but once I got going it went great. I got in a nice interval workout on the treadmill and actually did a couple more than I had planned. Now I'm just killin time before I head off to work. I'm actually looking forward to going to work today too. I've taken some days off here and there the last few weeks and had my school last week. I'd love to have a nice steady weekend with some decent work.

I laid out a nice plan for my test on 12/9 and I'm confident it will ensure that I'm ready when it gets here. Testing in full gear will be my biggest struggle I think. I'm in better shape than most taking the test, but most of them are considerably younger and come from some recent military experience. Doing this kind of stuff in gear isnt a big deal to them. We used to always talk about guys with great track speed but once you put pads on them, they had zero football speed. I dont want to be one of those guys.

Date Set

Looks like my test for the CIERT team will be on 12/9. About a week sooner than expected, but no worries. I will be ready. It will keep me extra motivated the next few weeks for sure. I'll be keeping my training short and hard for the most part during that time. Probably no biking and no runs over 45 minutes. I have a 4 miler scheduled for 11/28, but that shouldnt interfere with anything. I'll just use it as a training run. I'll need to saty focussed on my bench and make sure I'm doing some weighted pull ups between now and then but as of now I'd say I'm on track. After that it will be Tri-Training mode. The tri club here gets some lap time at a couple of the local high schools for a very minimal charge so I plan on taking advantage of that. Which reminds me, I actually signed up for my first tri which will be the Quad City Sprint Tri on 6/19. Hows that for a reality check?

Quick Update

Not much to report really. I've been in school all week for work and had meetings in the evenings. Not much training time or energy left by the time I get home. My bench press has improved dramatically already though and that's a positive. I may try and get a bench session in tonight after my Neighborhood Watch mtg to keep it going. Either that or I'll come home and get a quick treadmill run in. My diet has been out of friggin control this week since I'm eating out evey day. Next week will probably have to be a detox week for me.

Back To Bradley Park

It had been a long time since I did a run in Bradley Park and today seemed to be as good a day as any. I was already going into town early for coffee, so I decided to bring my running gear with me. I really enjoy running there and it has everthing from scenery to some ass kickin' hills to run. In '07 when I was running the ultras, Bradley was my training ground in the nasty winter months. So on a day when I really wasn't planning a run of any kind, a quick loop at the park was a positive. So positive in fact that I plan on hitting it weekly after my coffee with Coach Smith.

I attempted benching on Monday night...it was ugly. I know that I'll have my physical agility test coming up soon so I'll be throwing some dedicated bench sessions into my planning starting tonight. I dont have a lot of time so I'm going right into 3 sets of 3 so I can get my 1 rep max up fast. I'm guessing I have 4-6 weeks to get ready, but who knows. It could be next week for all I know. The other tests on the list, although challenging, look very doable for me right now. 60 yd dash, 400 m run, tower sprint, pull up, team member drag are all some of the other tests and they will be done while in full gear.

Sent my sign ups in today for the FOLEPI run and the Siberian Express. These are two really fun and well ran events that will keep my training honest for the remainder of the year.