Its Monday morning again and I just completed some stretching. I am going to do another session in a bit. I truly believe that not being flexible in my hamstrings is the cause of my lower back issues and I intend to work on that.

Last night when I went to bed I was tired/ sore but right now I feel pretty good. I think my shoulder is well enough to swim today but I think I will wait until Wednesday and just get that workout and my long swim in. I might get to the pool this weekend and do a third workout but no worries if I don't. I plan to be back at 3X swim workouts a week by next week.

So I cancelled my long swim on Friday to let me shoulder heal. I did core and a lot of stretching.

Saturday I got up at 0500...had some coffee and a bowl of cereal and drove into work. I was on the rode by 0600 and felt great (temp 75). I headed out into the Ft Bragg training areas via Longstreet with the intent of making the around the post loop via the Longstreet- Preachers- Chicken detour since their would be little traffic out on these road as I started my ride. I also planned to make a stop in Southern Pines for water/ Gatorade.

I caught up to my buddy Tito out on Plank..said my hellos and then moved out.... I had planned on circling around to pick him up but things didn't work out the way I had planned. Things were cruising along and I was average 18.5 with a low heart rate and a moderate effort. This all changed when I turned right onto King Rd at about 1:30 into the ride.

King Rd is at the far end of Fort Bragg and is just a monster. I would have described this entire route as rolling but can't in good conscience define some of those hills out there as simple rollers.... there were a couple monsters out there and it really drained me. Of course at this time the sun was shinning brightly and there is no shade on this route. So mentally I am thinking...get to the end and turn to make the 1.5 mile ride to Southern Pines (SP) for fuel...you are right on schedule.... Well, let me tell you......I was misinformed about the distance from the back gate to SP. It was twice the distance as I had been led to believe and it was 75% up hill. So after the draining King Rd and the ascent into Southern Pines I finally found a store to get some liquids.

The descent from SP was a lot funner (and quicker) and I cruised back onto Bragg knowing that I would be over my projected time goal for the day. The back end of post is much hillier than the front end. I would define the front end as rolling and the back as hilly.......am I getting weak now that I live in NC?

Once I started passing the close drop zones my morale improved and I grinded out those unforcasted extra miles.... When I got back to the office I had rode a little over 69 miles and had been on the rode for 3:50. My average pace was 17.7 and HR was 139. This is my longest ride in time and distance ever...... I stretched and showered... ate and got a huge ice coffee from Dunkin Donuts....... and then off to Green Ramp to wait for the 108th to land. Unfortunately I wasn't able to rest after the ride since I had to work all day but I did snack a lot to keep my energy levels up.

Nutrition.....started w/ two Heed & water in Aero and a 3 1/2 hr bottle of Perpetuem.... Perpetuem and one shot of Gel worked well...... when I stopped to get water I bought a 32 ounce of Gatorade...drank 8 ounces and put the rest in my bottle........and filled up my aero w/ water..... did not drink much of that Gatorade until after the bike though...would have been fine w/ one water. Overall, very pleased with the ride.

Sunday morning I woke at 0700 had some coffee ad yogurt and got ready to run and realized I had left my IPOD and Garmin at work. So my start was delayed so I could charge up that Garmin 405 I am returning...... So with Meg's huge IPOD weighting me down and that crappy 405 I set out..... I had no problems with the leg until about mile 8.... nothing like last week though so I think it is getting better........plus it feels good now. I still don't believe the 405's data is accurate and I know the heart rate is way off...... so all I really had to go off was feeling and time... It was hot, muggy and started to get really sunny but I made it through the run with minimal issues. I did spend most of yesterday on the couch though and it really does help........I feel good today.

Nutrition: 16 ounces of Heed....8 ounces of water......3 gels.

I will post this week schedule and a recap of last at lunch today....

Last week my stats were:

Swim Total time: 1:38.........3,200 total and a long workout of 1600
Bike total time: 5:50...........104 miles total and a long workout of 69 miles
Run total time is 3:04........21 miles total and a long workout of 11 miles

Total Miles covered: 127.......total time: 10:32