ROTC and a new swim PB

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave... - Patrick Henry

I rode the exercise bike yesterday at lunch - a hill workout no less. I hate these exercise bikes at the gym but they are a good workout. The interval hills that I did required for me to stand up on the machines to just keep the cadence in the 60's - this is tough stuff.

This morning I did a easy, quick 4 mile run on the trace in my sorta-fast, sorta- flats racing shoes. I put a set of yanks on them the other day so I needed to test them out prior to the 5k race on Saturday. The running was an out and back and I passed the ROTC crowd - they were coming at me - I guess it is that time of year. I do not see them on cold mornings - on those days they train on the basketball court in the fitness center. Don't get me wrong, I completely respect anyone who enlists for military service - but some mornings when I ride my bicycle to work and they are taking up the entire multi-use trail - it can be a pain to get around them.

As I turned around on my out and back I was thinking these thoughts. There were many ROTC'ers in front of me and 'patrolling' the long leaf trace. They were lined up on both edges of the asphalt all decked out in their fatigues and carrying M-16's (I don't think that they are real - but they do look real!) As I started to pass the back few one of them yelled 'Shift Right!' It was pretty cool. They all moved over to the right and it created an entire lane for me to run. However, it did force me to pick the pace up a little so that I did not look like I was loafing off. I finished the 4 miles in just over 32 minutes.

At lunch I had my last swim class. We took it easy and did a lot of drills. I need to remember to keep a high elbow on the recovery, reach out really far, enter the water with my finger tips and not cross my center line. I really enjoyed the class and the attention of someone that knows how to swim. I also did one 100 yard time trial and finished in 1:16. This has been time well spent in the pool. Now I just need to put these skills to practice and really increase the volume over the next month.

Rough start to New Year

I went to bed last night with a sore throat and woke up with an even worse one this morning. I was not able to make the Steam Whistle 12k race. It was a cold 35 degrees and the sore throat combined with a feverish headache and the race was just not meant to be.

In addition, I was just looking for an excuse to not perform well. Little to no exercise this holiday week. I have enjoy my sister and her family visiting but my schedule has been off.

We went to the zoo one morning. Also, exercise wise we did go kayaking the last two days as well as climbing the ROTC tower and ropes on campus.

I have started a new diet that I am chronicling on 13resolutions.

Trace running

Went for a 3.5 mile run on the trace yesterday at lunch. On the way back to the gym saw a guy with 2 of the Ecoeagle free-ride-on-campus bikes. These bikes were provided to the campus last week and all of them have been stolen.

Anyway, I approached this guy and told him that the bike could not leave campus. He argued with me for a new minutes and I finally just told him that I was taking the extra one back to campus. I could not get the one that he was on but getting one back will do.

Got a lift home with Jodie - she had to drive in. That means I had to run in this morning. Not as cool as it has been. But a nice run none the less.

We did our adventure run around campus today. Hit the ROTC play area and I was much stronger on the rope. Ran 100 yard intervals on the soccer field. A good solid 30 minutes of hard work. Hit the weights for another 20 minutes.

Ran into Chris and set up a hard ride / run (brick) in the morning. We will see how it goes. I'm trying to get a few good workouts in late this week since I will be out of town all of next week for work.