February

Wow, can't believe it's February, already. A few weeks ago I began working out on the indoor track at the university of Washington. It is amazingly convenient for me as it is less than 1 mile away. Two Mondays ago was my first real workout and was 5 x 800 with 2-3 min rest (can't remember exactly). I was really slow (2:34-2:48) but it was nice to be inside wearing shorts and racing flats. I tried to not think about my slow times because I knew it was the first workout and I have a long time to get where I want. Last Monday, I ran 6 x 1000m with 3 min rest. I was able to run with Mike Bailey which really helped. He ran with me for the whole workout and we took turns leading each interval. We were pretty consistent hitting 2:17-2:20 on all of them. I think Mike could have run faster and held back for me, but it was greatly appreciated as I was about maxed out. It was very encouraging though because we were at about the same pace I was running the 800's the week before.

I've been back in the pool 2 times each week as well. It is brutal to get out of bed at 5:20am, but once I'm in the water I'm really happy. I am a little tired during the day and find myself ready for bed by 9pm. Which is good as I need to get to bed early in order to get up to swim. Just a little hard to get back in that routine after a relaxing November and December.

Cycling is feeling good, but always hard to know where my fitness is when I'm spinning inside. I did ride outside one beautiful day for about 2 hours and that felt great. I've been riding 2-3x/week for 1-2 hours. This morning I rode the Ironman Couer d'Alene course (on the Computrainer) for just over 2 hours, then ran an easy 20 min with Jackson. He can't run very fast or long so I like doing some of these short early season transition runs with him.

On other indoor track news, my Nittany Lions are posting some great marks with two guys running 4:01 and 4:06 in the mile. Hopefully, the team will have a great showing at Big 10's.