Ironman Viewing Party

First, some recent workouts. Last weekend, I posted about my first run in about 3 weeks. I’m working my way back into it now (nice and easy), so I can be ready for a half marathon in about 5 weeks.

- Mon, the 14th: Lift (upper body and legs) and core.
- Tues, the 15th: Nothing.
- Weds, the 16th: Swim 1500 yards, lift (upper body), and core. The swim started easy. I picked up the effort, by my pace didn’t change. I did 1500 yards in 26:15, which is 1:45 / 100. Yeah, I’ll be working on that over the winter.
- Thurs, the 17th: Run 6.4 miles. This started easy, but turned a little harder near the end. It wasn’t a tempo run, but it was KINDA hard. I did 6.4 miles in 43:13, which is 6:45 / mile. Heel felt great!
- Fri, the 18th: Lift (upper body) and core.
- Sat, the 19th: Nothing. Had people over to watch IM (more on that below).
- Sun, the 20th: It’s snowing right now, so my “outdoor tempo run” would be a stupid idea. So I think I’ll head to the Y later and do a treadmill tempo run. Oh, and then I’ll be drawing names for the winners or the 2 Sugoi Tri Suits, the Roctane, and the Gu! Fun day!!

Yesterday, I had people over to watch NBCs Ironman World Championship coverage. I put out an invite to anyone in the CVA Triathlon Club. I had a couple of takers. I got ready by putting on my IM WI 2007 finisher’s shirt:

I rarely wear it (really), so I literally had to pull it from the bottom of the drawer. But yesterday seemed like an appropriate time to show it off.

6 CVAers showed up, and so did GreenKing, a guy I “know from the internet.” (Long story short about how GreenKing and I met: I passed a guy with a lot of tattoos early during the run of the Cannon Falls Duathlon this spring who jokingly said “You’re going WAY too fast right now!” I laughed, and that was the extent of our conversation. A few days later, that guy found my blog when he was goggling the race. We both remembered the brief encounter on the run, and we’ve been checking out each other’s blogs since! Crazy, huh?! I love the internet!)

Here are some CVA students watching the first part of the race:

Here’s GreenKing and his girlfriend:

It was fun pointing out some of the pros, especially ones that Sarah and I saw at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon at Lake Nokomis this past summer (like Andy Potts and THEE Craig Alexander). And Linsey Corbin, who was seen in a brief interview near the beginning, actually left words of wisdom for the CVA Tri Club students as they were heading into their first triathlon back in July, so I pointed her out (and got really excited) when she came on TV. It was great to be able to provide a little more of a back-story on some of the athletes.

We made a Totino’s Party Pizza and passed it around:

Evan, Sarah, Amber, and Ben. Evan likes to ruin photos...

Here’s the gang enthralled with the race near the end. You can see on the TV that there’s an athlete who had just collapsed on the run. You can also see Ella the cat curled up in Amber’s lap:

Some students brought some snacks, and they left them behind for Pharmie and I:

Thanks for making us fat, jerks. ;)

Thanks for coming over everyone! GreenKing, it was nice to “officially” meet you! OK, time to get some final grading done, head to the Y, and then draw some names to get some winners for some sweet, sweet gear!