Post: 24Sorry for the long delay in writing. I was really trying to enjoy the downtime in training last week - on Thursday and Friday, the workouts were cut back from about 2 hours and 30 minutes each day to 1 1/2 hours Thursday and 40 minutes on Friday, all in preparation for the Olympic Distance Triathlon I did on Saturday.
My Olympic Distance time was good, not great. I made some fundamental mistakes on race day - namely flying out of the swim and pushing too hard into a stiff headwind on the bike that forced me to bonk (basically run out of energy), 4.5 miles into the run.
For the record, my times were as follows:
Swim (1,500 meters/0.92 miles): 29:34
Bike (40km/24.8 miles): 1:24:05
Run (10km/6.2 miles): 1:17:05
The run was the real disappointing aspect. I should've been able to do it in about 58 minutes or so. But, it's a good learning experience. I need to remember on Ironman day the importance of proper pacing. They'll be another test race in a few weeks - the half-Ironman (1.2 mile swim/56 mile bike ride/13.1 mile run). That'll be a real test of where I'm at and how ready I am for this.
Honestly, I still feel like I have a long way to go. There's no doubt I'm in significantly better shape than when I started, but the real test of the training begins now.
There's been a lot going on on the perimeter of life these days, too. Some friends are going through some real life changes now; and I'm trying to find the time to be there for both my family and my friends, and trying to find time to cram what - from here on out - is a minimum of 16 hours a week of training. Oh, yeah, and trying to watch as much college football as possible.
For those who care about such things, the Pac-10 had a phenomenal opening weekend. The Big-10 (Michigan State loss to Cal); the ACC (Virginia loss to USC) and the SEC (Tennessee loss to UCLA) cannot say the same thing. ASU won it's game. My friend Jonathan got us a kick-ass suite to watch the game. Normally, I'm not a suite type person, but this was luxury, with an indoor and outdoor section and air-conditioning. The suite was also right 0n the 50-yard line. Very nice.
We won't have the suite this Saturday when ASU takes on Stanford. Early weather predictions place the kickoff temperature at over 110 degrees. Yep, the heat continues here well into September.
I've just given up on trying to fight it. In fact, yesterday and today, I trained smack-dab in the middle of the afternoon. Just put on my running shoes, said screw you nature, and banged it out in 100+ temps under the mid-day sun. I figure it'll only make me that much stronger in the cool November air.
And right now, I need any advantage I can get.
Until tomorrow,
Ed
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