Back to updating

After a few weeks of not updating the blog I'm finally back. Tough to remember back to May 17th to figure out everything I've done since then. A fair amount of cycling but nothing really crazy, used my commute to work as a workout, regular old swimming, getting a run in with Matt when he was out here and I got in another race.

The race was in Ludlow, MA and it was okay. The swim was pretty rough. I didn't have any weight to throw around, instead I got thrown around pretty good which kind of surprised me. Anyway, I was 4th out of the water after trying to keep up with Jason for the first half of the swim, he was just too quick to hang with on the second half. On the bike I had a slight brain fart during the transition and it was slower than it should have been but I got out there and was feeling pretty good until the mile of construction. I just took it really easy over that part because I want my bike and rims to hold up so I can get to Vineman! I had a couple of people pass me on the bike but not many so I was please about that. It was nice having a few climbs in there so I could change muscle groups. Heading into the run I was feeling pretty good but the speed workout I tried doing two days before the race had caught up to me and I ended up finishing pretty strong but man did I feel like crap at the end. That's okay because I did what was necessary to win the 30-34 age group and get 9th overall. I was please about that for a little while but now I've moved on and want to do better. Jason won the Clydesdale division so right now we're tied on Grand Prix points. We'll be going for the tie breaker when we have the Webster rematch in a few weeks. It'll be a good chance to see how far I've come since last year.

Since that race I've done my first track workout (Tuesday night), three swims of a little over 3000 meters. Two trainer rides, two weight workouts, two solid ab workouts.

Today was a great day for working out. Yesterday after time on the trainer I worked on the tri-bike and lowered the front end and brought in the rest pads for my arms. It felt pretty good today, definitely more aggressive than it had been so hopefully I'm more aero. I held a pretty solid average just over 20 for 31 miles with a whole bunch of stops and having to slow down in there. Took a two mile warm down after the 31 and then took 10 minutes to change up and then went for a 10.22 mile run. I ran with Liz Welch and we were at a 7:43 average at 5.22 and then came back with 7:56, 8:04, 7:57, 7:53, 8:06. So we were 1:20 at 10.22 then just walked .25 and loosened up at the cars. I got to try running with the Fuel Belt which was really good to have. I ate sport beans while running at each mile. All in all I felt surprisingly good. I definitely have a lot more speed in me and I'm pretty sure I could have run those back five miles at 7:15's without really killing myself. Only bummer is my good knee started hurting a bit at mile 8. I'm surprised because I don't usually have any pain. I think it must be from my pulled muscle in the other leg and all the weird walking I'd been doing to compensate. I'll just rest it tonight and try to kick it out in the water tomorrow morning.

Despite the pain right now I'm pretty psyched about the half Ironman. I think I might really be able to rip it up much more than I originally expected. I think that 5 hour goal is long gone right now. That's only a safety barrier so if I'm 4:59 I can convince myself I don't suck, but right now if that's where I finished I'll be awfully surprised. 4:50 would be pretty solid if the weather is good. I'd be interested to see if I can crush that though. Should be fun, I'm looking forward to it!