A Weeks Worth of Dribble

It's been a different week, not gonna write about the whole thing so I'll use bullets.

• • Taught Surface Water Rescue for fire fighters last weekend. On Sunday they had to do their combative swimmer practical. Swim up to a victim (me) who is panicked and get them under control and tow them in. One of the guys got mad and quit the class because he had to fight me and couldn't get me under control.
  
  • Saturday night I rode the course for my next race. It was close to where I was teaching. It is pretty much rolling but every few mile there is a huge hill that I can't keep my speed on. Finished it in 38 minutes. My Goal is 30. Still thinking about changing to an 11-28 freewheels if I can find one cheap.
  
  • Got home Sunday night and went for my long run (7 miles), got 2 miles down the road and started feeling sick to my stomach. I quit and walked home in the rain.
  
  • I have been sick all week. CB thinks I have the flu. She thinks that because last year when I had the swine flu I had cold chills (actually, last year I set the heat on 90 got under 6 blankets and was shivering violently. It was so hot my dog was sweating), earlier this week I was cold and since she wasn't, I must be having cold chills. I have also gotten exhausted very easily.
  
  • Despite my work hatred situation, I still made it to work everyday. I worked until I was exhausted and then went home.
  
  • Horrible weather all week, we went from rain, to thunderstorms, and then just as the rain cleared the top of that tropical depression thing hit. Luckily, we did not see all that flooding that the other end of NC saw.
  
  • Even with being sick and the weather not cooperating I have hit all my workouts but two. My long run and my long ride. At the scheduled time of my long ride there was a thunderstorm. I hope I can make them both up.
  
  • Looking forward to taper next week. Also looking forward to a zero week after that.
  
  • Called for three job interviews this week. For one of them the HR person informed me it would be a demotion and it was mis-posted (I declined), the other the HR person called me and wanted to know if I could be there for an interview in an hour, I was home sick and the location was 2 hours away. I will be taking the third interview next week. It is a job that has more pay than I make, is a step down from what I used to do and I am not convinced I would like. I think I would be a shoe in because they don't have to train me; I already have my state certification. That saves them 4 months of me not being able to work unsupervised and saves them 6 weeks of having to send me away to training.
  
  • My wife wanted me to runt he Charleston, SC Bridge Run because we want to visit Charleston. I was amazed when I saw that for a 10k it had 31,521 finishers last year. The top finisher ran 10k in 24:28. That is NUTS!! Of course he is Kenyan!
  
  • That got me reading about Kenyans all week. I am very impressed regarding many of their work ethics and cultural differences.
  
  • Did my hill ride yesterday. Added one more repeat than I did last week last week. As part of the workout I increase my gear with each repeat. I assume this is to build strength and therefore be able to spin easier in the future. Oddly if you look at my splits I climb it faster in the harder gears. I stay in the saddle and concentrate on form for all intervals, so no difference in technique. With the 12t I am spinning 100 rpm, when I hit my last interval I was only spinning about 65rpm, but going faster by almost a minute.
  
  • I originally chose the hill I work on because the training book said to find a hill that took 3-5 minutes to climb. It originally took me 3:45ish to get up it. Now it takes just under 2 minutes. Looks like I need a new hill.
  
  • The above raises a strategy point for me. Spinning v. Mashing. Since I don't spin well with my current gearing, I would have a better bike time if I mashed instead. What I am unsure of is if after I got off the bike, how would my legs be for running?
  
  • I took a look at last year's results for this race. The #1 Clydesdale was 18 yo, finished the swim in 3 minutes, bike in 30, and run in 21. This seems unnatural. I don't know the guy but I'm betting he couldn’t pass the pencil test. Personally, I think if your time will put you top 5 in your age group then don't sign up as a Clydesdale just to get a medal (this guy actually would've been #2 in the 16-19 age group). When running I have a desire to trip skinny runners, I have similar desires to beat people like this with a baseball bat post-race.
  
  • Lastly, I bought myself one of those nifty race number belt things yesterday. I am excited because that is my reward for hitting 210 lbs. I have been less than 210 lbs for about 9 days and even as low as 206 one day (That was one kind of off because it was after a workout).