Claire is 25 weeks old and hates being on her stomach........wait a minute.......here she is sleeping on her stomach in the mountains?? She must have been super tired from the ride up there. The only reason they let her sleep on her stomach was because she was supervised. Otherwise, it is suggested that babies sleep on their back.
I didn't take any photos this week. Here's a shot from Beth's camera in the mountains. I missed all the action because things have really picked up at work and I'm slammed.
What a nice view from their cabin. Jen and I will be going back here later in the month for our anniversary.
More mountains. I wasn't there. Bummer.
Ernie hooked us up with VIP treatment at "The Madhouse". Ernie's brother-in-law runs the show at Bowman Gray stadium so we had the best seats in the house right by the press box. Here's a shot from the roof.
I wanted to fit in as much as possible so I went with the Science Diet (cat food) mesh trucker hat and an Iron Maiden t-shirt. When you're going to watch some short track car racing you better play the part. I would have grown out a mullet or rat tail but Jen wouldn't approve. Speaking of mullets........can you pick out the mullet in this photo?
RECAP:
Jen, Beth, and Claire went up to the mountains from Monday through Wednesday while I stayed home. Work has been very busy lately so it was actually good timing that they were gone because I ended up working late from home both nights. That didn't stop me from grilling a steak and taking down a couple of glasses of wine in the process though. On Saturday Jen and I went to Winston Salem to watch some short track car racing and we left Claire with Julianna. We want Claire to get used to hanging out with other people so we're trying to find things to do each Saturday. Julianna is from Columbia (the country...not SC) so we asked that she speak to Claire in spanish so it might be easier for her to pick up on later down the road. On Sunday I ran with Jordan as usual and then helped Watty with his deck for the remainder of the afternoon. I think we will only have one more weekend before his deck is complete. After that, Sundays will go back to being "family day" for the Frank household.
TRAINING:
Running: 42 miles @ 6:19 pace average :: 4 hrs 00 mins
Cycling: 99 miles :: 4 hrs 47 mins
Total: 8 hrs 47 mins
Training was business as usual this week. I'm trying to hover around somewhere in the 40s for weekly run mileage and I added in another bike ride on Tuesday night to increase overall aerobic hours. I haven't found any studies on the subject but I'm a believer that cycling hours do benefit running in some fashion or another. Since I wouldn't be able to increase my run volume any quicker than I am without getting injured there really is no downside. Plus, I've been enjoying the bike lately and it's nice to see the guys again. I really needed that 4-5 month break from endurance training to realize that I actually do enjoy it. That being said, I don't foresee myself doing any triathlons in the near future. I don't miss the pool one bit and don't have the necessary time to designate to the bike in order to get into triathlon racing shape. For now, my competitions are The Saturday Morning Shootout and any running road races that I decide to jump into over the next few months.
This week's training was nothing special. Basically just trying to keep 5 of my runs at around 145 bpm and my Tuesday and Sunday runs closer to 160 bpm. I'm just slowly building my base and the 160 bpm runs are meant to get my legs moving at a faster pace without major risk for injuries. Along with that, even though it's well below lactate threshold they will still help to push the LT upwards. Here's what the notable sessions looked like this week:
Tuesday: 8 miles @ 157 bpm ave :: 6:15 pace ave
Thursday: 4 miles @ 5:49 pace on treadmill
Saturday: Shootout Ride :: 3T beat NTT Nation by 35 points
Sunday: 12 miles @ 153 bpm ave :: 6:20 pace ave