Speed Works

For the last few weeks I have been going to run on Wednesday mornings with a group organized by Timothy Bolen of Excel and Beyond Coaching. We meet at 5:30am at Corona del Sol high school and mostly we focus on running faster, or speed work. Last week we ran 1 mile for time and I set a new personal best. I ran it in 6 minutes and 48 seconds. I was pretty excited.
Anyway, I highly recommend the Wednesday morning workouts and Excel and Beyond.

Mount Graham Training Begins

Alright, I just started my blog and I am already getting behind. So, for the past month or so I have been going on bike rides with my friend Homer. Last week we did our first ride that really qualifies as preparation for Mount Graham. The ride starts in Apache Junction and follows the road to Canyon Lake, past Tortilla Flats and up into the surrounding mountains to where the pavement ends.

There are three good climbs. One gradual and the other two pretty steep and fairly long. I did not take a camera but I will have to next time so I can post some pictures.

Here is the route that we refer to as Tortilla Flats:

The Lake, the Mountain...and my Uncle Kirk

This is my first stab at blogging and I have to be honest, I am a little nervous. I had the idea to make this blog about a year and a half ago but never really got motivated enough to get it started. Or maybe I just couldn't quite find the right inspiration to get it started. Well, I have found that inspiration and it is my 2011 fitness goals!

Goal #1: Run at least 4 triathlons. The ones that I have picked out at this point are the Kiwanis Sprint in the Park Triathlon, the Tri Community Tri, the Anthem Sprint Triathlon (which is run in reverse) and the Powell 3 Triathlon Challenge . I am also thinking about running the triathlon that Anthem puts on in December if they decide to do it again.

Goal #2: Ride my bike up to the top of Mount Graham. Of course, I will then ride back down, but that's more of a perk than an actual goal. This is probably my most ambitious goal. With my biking buddy Homer's help we should be able to survive the attempt though. For those of you counting out there its more that a mile of climb over about 25 miles of road.

Goal #3: Beat my Uncle Kirk's time in our Annual (hopefully) Biker vs. Runner race down Ash Creek Trail. That will be difficult for two reasons, the first of which is that this year we will be running a continuous race. No stopping the clock for breaks. The second is that we are talking about Kirk here. The man is like a machine.

Anyway, those are my three main goals for this year, but I have some others as else, like run a 1/2 marathon (by myself, not in a race), maybe try out an Olympic distance triathlon and run the Pima Turkey Trot in under 21 minutes. The whole point of this blog will be to chronicle my adventures on the way to achieving those goals and beyond. I will try to avoid mundane everyday runs and such, but instead the more exciting portions of my training. I will also include all of the details of any cool routes that I run or bike. Enjoy!