Success! We, it is Monday morning and I am sitting here finishing a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee... the good news is, I just finished my run! I have successfully gotten up early to train! This may not sound like a big deal to you but for some reason over the past couple of years I have become a night owl. I used to enjoy getting up early and being the first to work. I am not sure what happened to me. Anyway, as part of the new serious me, I bounced out of the sack promptly at 5:30am.

Piper (my Golden) and I ran an easy 3 miles this morning, or what my coach calls a "maintenance" run. Not sure how it is maintenance, but I am sure there are many things I don't know about being an elite athlete (not that I will ever be, but who knows). The run was okay this morning. I was a little sore from this weekend, but not bad. I am hoping that the extra exercise will keep Piper from destroying another pillow while we are gone during the day.

Training this weekend was okay. I did not get a good quality long run in like I had hoped. I did get a longish run in, but the weekend did not pan out the way I wanted. I had planned to do my long ride on Saturday and long run on Sunday. I waited around for a buddy to ride but something came up and he had to bail. It was a horendously windy day on Saturday, so I decided to swap the run and ride long on Sunday, which was supposed to be nicer. I wanted to go somewhere and run due to being sick of the same old neighborhood route, so I hopped in the car and set out to a nearby park with a 3 mile path. All was going well until the tire went flat. It was mid afternoon Saturday and just one of those things that would not be quick but it had to be fixed. By the time I got it fixed, it was getting close to time to meet some friends for dinner so I opted for a short neighborhood run (3 Miles). Coach P's voice in my head said "volume... do antything... something." So I did.

On Sunday, I agreed to lead a training ride for Wachovia's MS 150 Bicycle Tour Team. I am team captain and organizing a 30 rider team to raise money to fight MS. As part of my duties, I lead a training ride. These are usually really slow, so I don't count them as training. Anyway, Becca was going to go with me, but following her crash Friday, she was out. I decided to take the opportunity to make it into a long ride. I rode from my house to White Rock Lake and met my group. We did two loops around the lake and then I rode home. The first loop was painfully slow, the second a little faster and the ride home was brutal fast into a 15 to 20 mph headwind. All in all, it was a good ride. I ended up with 55 miles and a 17 average despite the 12 to 13 first lap and 15 to 16 second.

I am really fired up about getting up this morning... I guess it is the little things. This week at work will be horrible and stressful. I hope the morning workouts will squelch that stress a little. Have a great day, thanks for reading.