July 27th

Well, it's my last full workout week before the Wiesbaden Half-Ironman. I have to have a good week this week and get in as much as possible to build my confidence heading into the final week.

My workout schedule for next week is shown below.

Sunday - Bike 40 miles and Run 4 miles

I had a good bike ride today and felt good on the hills. It's amazing what a little rest and some food will do for you. My speed was a little better on the hill to Hausen. I don't think I dropped lower than 6 MPH on the climb. Normally, I'm in the 5's most of the way.

Monday - Run 4.5 miles and Swim 3,000 Meters

Tuesday - Run 8 miles

Wednesday - Run 4 miles and swim 3,000 meters

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Bike 50-60 miles

Saturday - Bike 50-60 miles

Week of July 20th

Having a family vacation in Europe. What fun. Workouts will decrease, especially on the swims and bike.

My workout schedule for next week is shown below.

Sunday - Run 12 miles

At this point in the trip, we are spending all day walking, so much, that we aren't resting of eating as often as we should be. We certainly aren't drinking enough water. Today, we stayed in Graz, Italy after spending the day in Vienna. Vienna was beautiful. The architecture of the old historical buildings was simply beautiful. I don't think we could have taken enough pictures.

Monday - Run 4.5 miles.

From Graz, we drove to Venice, Italy. WOW, I knew there were canals, but I didn't think that Venice would be so beautiful. The kids and Joanne loved it. We stayed in San Marco. To get to San Marco, we had to load our luggage on a fiery and take the boat to the island. It's truly amazing that everything, and I mean, everything, is done by or on a boat there. All the resurfacing of the buildings is done with boats and platforms, and the godola drivers navigate the godolas with precision.

Rest in Venice, also, no place to run.

Tuesday - Bike ride - approximately 40 miles.

Drove to Milan, Italy, to spend the night prior to heading to Zurich, Switzerland. Ran about 3 miles in Milan (what a dump). This was the city that I could not wait to leave. It was dirty and the the people (in cars) were like NASCAR drivers with horns. All I can say is, I've never seen such lack of discipline in driving. It seemed like there were no lanes, and people srove whereever they wanted. Like I said, I could not wait to leave.

The drive to Zurich was utterly amazing, the Alps we big and beautiful and all I could think of was how lucky the people were who lived in the small villages inthe hills of the Alps.

Wednesday - Bike 60 miles and swim 2,800 meters

Biked 60 miles. I felt tired and and my legs were tired. It much be fun all the walking and driving on vacation (time of rest). We must be walking 8-10 miles a day without food and water. My wife and daughter can go all day without eating and drinking. My son and I can't.

I also, swam 2,800 meters later in the day in Wiesbaden. I felt very good.

Thursday - Bike 40 miles.

Rest - Drive to Paris

Friday - Run 4-6 miles.

Ran ten miles in Paris. This was a great run. I had a chance to run under the Effiel Tower, by the Arc de Triumph and a few other monuments. Then we walked 10 miles throughout the day.

Saturday - Run 4-6 miles

Drive back to Wiesbaden

Week of July 14th

Having a family vacation in Europe. What fun. Workouts will decrease, especially on the swims and bike.

My workout schedule for next week is shown below.

Sunday - Rest.

Th kids arrived in Germany and we spend the day together.

Monday - Run 4.5 miles.

I ran 4.5 miles on Monday. My time was a little off but I was still happy with what I did. I was still a little sore from my 66 mile ride in the hills on Saturday.

Tuesday - Bike ride - approximately 40 miles.

I rode 40 miles today on mostly flat, but I did do two of my favorite hills and worked them pretty good. I am still sore from Saturday's ride of 68 miles on the hills.

Wednesday - Run 4-5 miles

Rest Day - On account that we started our vacation and we drove to Sturtgart, Germany for the day and saw the Polar Bear (buddy-bear.com) exhibit. This was very cool. There were polar bear statues (one from each country) painted to best represent the county. From there we drove another three hours to Munich, Germany.

Thursday - Run 4 miles.

In Munich, I ran ten miles in the cold rain but it felt good. In Munich we did a lot of shopping and visited the Hard Rock Cafe as well as did some sight seeing. We also to the train to Dachal Concentration camp and took a tour of the camp. It's amazing that we humans are capable of inflicting the amount of pain and hatred on others and at the same time, as human, we are able to take on so much stress, pressure and pain and then rebound from it. I'll keep that in mind during the 70.3 in Wiesbaden on August 10th.

Friday - Run 4-6 miles.

Ran 4 miles easy in Munich throught the shopping area and the new city hall. It's really cool that my runs enable me to see so many historic sights some of which date back prior to the US being discovered.

Saturday - Run 4-6 miles

Rest

Week of July 6th

I had a relatively bad start to week due to a lot of work related activities and therefore, I didn't get to workout much. However, I closed the week relatively in good shape. I continue to hit the hills on both the runs and bike. I do need to work harder on the hills.

My workout schedule for next week is shown below.

Sunday - Rest.

Joanne arrived in Germany so I took the day off and spent it with her.

Monday - Swim 3,000 meters and Run 6 miles.

I ran 9.5 miles on Monday. I felt really good and overall the first 7.5 - 8.0 miles went very well. I felt a little tight on the last mile or so.

Tuesday - Run 6-8 miles

I ran 4.5 miles today and I pushed it on the hills and stretched it on the downhills. I had my best mile splits today with the lowest spilt at 7.45 minutes.

Wednesday - Swim 3,000 and Run 5 miles

I had to skip today due to work.

Thursday - Run 4 miles.

Friday - 3,000 meter swim

Saturday - Bike 70 miles