Finally back in the water

So running and biking have been going well, got into another 10 mile run this weekend and a very tough 50 mile ride in the wind. But I haven't been in the water since October. Simple reason: I don't like swimming that much. If it weren't for triathlons, I would rarely ever swim laps. I really need to get over to the Gulf for some open water swims this summer, which are better than the pool, but just barely.

So yesterday I went to the pool and swam 1500 yards, like a rock. Part of it was the 10 mile run Saturday and 50 mile ride Sunday, but most of it was not having swum in 3+ months. I am not looking forward to the 3000-4000 meter swims I need to work up to for B2B. But as I've said before, at least the swim will be with the tide coming in so it should be the fastest 2.4 mile swim I can find.

I just started re-reading Going Long which I read about a year ago. I didn't read it as closely then as I am now, and I like what it's saying. The authors are 2 of the more respected tri coaches around and know what they are talking about. The one big thing I like is they say to concentrate on you 'key workouts', ie, your long run, bike and swim each week and not so much on the total mileage of each. They also recommend doing the long bike on the weekend and your long run during the week, preferably Wednesday. Training for the 1/2 IMs I've done, I also was doing both on the weekends and struggled getting through the Sunday workout. Their rationale is to be fresh for your long workouts, which makes sense to me. The tough part will be getting in the really long runs in the middle of the summer. Here is central Florida, there is no cool time of the day during July, August and September. Either you go in the morning when it's extremely humid and hot or during late afternoon/early evening whens it incredibly hot and humid. Most likely I will opt for the morning runs.

The race is just over 9 months away and my formal training(ie structured weeks/months) hasn't even begun. But now that I'm signed up, it feels much more real and I'm starting to put together my schedule. Don't want to start too soon and burn out but also don't want to wait and rush the long stuff. Hopefully by the end of February I will have a rough schedule of what I'll be doing the rest of the year.....stay tuned.

I'm in!!!

So, I just pulled the trigger on beach2battleship. I was hoping to waiting until late spring/early summer before registering, but they were at 484 of 500 already. The good news is there is a lot of interest in the race, mostly because of Setup Events, who is putting on the race. They do over 70 races a year and have done an Iron distance race before(Duke Blue Devil) which they stopped doing a few years ago due to lack of interest.

The website is now functional and getting more information everyday. Check it out at www.beach2battleship.com Some things I've learned about the race through slowtwitch: The swim will start on a barge and be in a channel. It will be salt water but it should be calm since it's in a channel. Also, it will all be down current, which is huge for me and my lack of swimming skills. The bike and run should be pancake flat. That is both good and bad, but given my training area, it will fit me well.

This past week has seen me able to do some things I haven't done in 6 months or so. I did back to back runs and also did a 10 mile run yesterday. It was all on a rail to trails path so it was great for my knee. It did hurt a little but I recovered well and woke up today with no pain. Did a 40 mile ride today and never felt the knee. It's still not completely healed but the last month of so it really has shown improvement and hopefully by March or so it will be healed.

Happy New Year!!

So, this is the year I do my Ironman!! It's only 10 months away from Beach2Battleship. Seems like a long time but it will be here quick and I have a lot to do before being ready.

2007 was a pretty good year training/racing wise. I think I did more races in 2007 than I've done in 10+ years. January started out slow with persistent bronchitis but after March things picked up everything else fell into place.

I was able to get in 4 7 mile runs in December along with 4 50 mile bike rides. I'm hoping to get in 2 10 mile runs in January and start racing again in February. My knee has been hot and cold. Most days it's pretty good but every once in a while, it'll go back to hurting really bad after a short run or ride. I've been stretching quite a bit to loosen up my hamstrings and icing/heating my knee which have all helped. Hopefully it will continue to improve.

I've updated my tentative race schedule on the right of this page. Most of these are still tentative and will change as we go along.