Cold Weather

Well fall is upon us here in beautiful Southwest Florida. Last night a windy cold front went thru so at O-darkthiry it was COLD, 53* compaired to 71* yesterday morn. Since it was a swim morning at an outdoor heated pool I chose to run! Normally I wear a sleeveless coolmax shirt and shorts but today I chose a cotton long sleeve t-shirt and shorts (well it wasn't that cold). I had forgotten about the joys of running in a cotton shirt. At the 6 mile mark or so my shirt was soaked and weighted a ton. I quit at eight miles and took a hot hot shower! Hopefully it will warm up enough that I can swim at lunch time.

Something New

The humid weather returned this morning so rather than run on the dreadmill, which I'm sure you hate as much as I do, I decided to run to the pool and back. I leave the house at 0-dark thirty and at that hour of the morning I thought better of running thru the woods.... you know panthers, bobcats and yes snakes. So it was the long way to the pool 4 miles before sunrise.

When I got to the pool the sun was just coming up giving everything that golden glow, kinda erie. So after doing the snake-walk around the pool looking for snakes that went swimming overnight it was time to hit the laps. This summer we've take 4 water moccasins out of the pool gutters. They will not hurt you unless they bite so take them out with a net!

The pool temp has now dropped from 90* to a nice comfortable 82* almost cold. So today was 7 x 20 laps (correction it was 20 laps of a 30 yard pool. the way I could laps with my watch I get confused because I have to double the laps of the watch) with 3 minute rests. As I got going once again I got hot, hot hot.... 4,200 yards.

The 4 mile run back to the house was uneventful other than the sun was up and the temp was 78*... hot!

So there you have it my "new" training. Not really a brick it's a run-swim-run...RSR?

Long Over Due - Not eaten by Collie

I was not eaten by Collie or shot by an angry bike shop owner! My long over due up date, for those of you who have missed my updates! I'm living in Florida once again. Fortunately I didn't sell my house so I just moved back from Pa. The weather here is more conducive to training, at least that's what I tell myself. There are no hills here only flat, flat roads.

Health wise I'm doing much better. When I went to Philly I was hoping to find some answers regarding my brain tumor only to get the same answers and treatment that I was getting in Florida. It's a sad state of affairs in healthcare so don't get sick. I recently saw my brain surgeon after a series of test and yes I do have a brain... but the good news is the tumor (actually it appears to be a cluster of tumors about the size of a tennis ball) seems to be smaller. So that's good. I have also seen my oncologist, dermatologist, my primary doc and my regular (as appose to the brain) surgeon and they all agree there are no new signs of my cancer. So that's good. I have taken the past 4 months off work and plan to look for a job beginning in January, unless something comes along that I can't pass up. So I have more time for training, so that's good.

Training has been not as good as I would like it to be. I have focused on the swim this summer and I feel that I have gotten stronger. Lately my training each week has been 3 days of Swim (12,000 yds per/week), 5 days of run ( 40 miles) and 4 days of bike (150 miles). Now that the weather is getting cooler I hope to get a long ride in on the weekends and getting a little on run miles in. I have been going to Doc's Beach House for my weakly open water swims.

Mentally have been in a funk. I'm disappointed that I couldn't get a good or should I say better treatment plan in the Philly area.