May update

So far so good for May. First week in the books and I'm at 11 hours. Did my 10 mile run this morning and it's starting to get warm. I've been fortunate the last month or so where I was able to take advantage of some cool mornings for my long runs but this morning it was 72 when I left and 82 when I finished. Just a hint of what's to come this summer.

This Saturday is the Sarasota Sharks Classic triathlon. I'm doing the Olympic distance(1500 meter gulf swim, 40k bike and 10k run). I did this race last year and hope to beat my time in each discipline. Last year the bike and run were long and the last half of the run was on soft sand. This year, they claim to have corrected the distances and no beach run, so I should be able to set my goal.

April in the bag

So, April ended with me hitting or exceeding all my goals for the month. I was hoping to break 40 hours and went 47 plus. Had a 50 mile/4 mile brick, 2 66 mile rides, 3 10 mile runs and 2 2500 yard swims in there. Took 2 days off and including 2 a days, I had 36 workouts. Considering May is going to be a tough month with each weekend booked solid, I tried to get as good a base as possible. I will probably struggle to break the 40 hour mark again this month with all the commitments but I'm still hoping to get there. Also, I'd like to get a 70+ mile ride in and a couple more longer bricks.

But, with school ending at the end of this month, no more gymnastics meets after June 6th and baseball games ending, June will be scheduled as a huge month.

I'm hoping to update this a little more often for you 3 people that read it:) I'll try to get updates 2-3 times a week including some more pictures and maybe even a video blog or 2.

April off with a blast

So, I when I decided to do B2B, I decided April would be the official kick off month for training. Obviously, I've been training but the idea is the 6 months leading up to the iron distance race would start to get serious. As stated in my last post I was looking to finally break 40 hours this month and after 7 days of training, I'm well on my way. Right now, I'm sitting at 11.5 hours. I've done my first 2 a days of the year, with a 1500 yard swim in the morning and a 30 mile bike at lunch and I've done this twice. I also got in a nice 50 mile ride on Saturday. I hope to get in my 2nd 7 day week in a row this week leading up to my first brick of the year. Since there are no baseball games this weekend and 2 of my kids have sleepovers Saturday night, I'm hoping to get in a 50 mile ride followed by an easy 4 mile transition run.

With 55 miles being my longest bike this year, I'm also hoping to get in a 65+ mile ride before the month is over and get in a 2500 yard swim. For most swimmers, this is nothing special, but up to now 2500 yards is my longest swim workout EVER. This will begin a slow workup to 4000+ yard swims later in the summer

March and Natchez Trace

OK, so March is 'in the books' and I did not hit my goal of 40+ hours but I did hit 35. Had to take too many weekend days off because of kids sports. Still a decent month overall and I did get some quality workouts in including 3 50+ mile rides and 2 different run 'streaks'. I ran 3 days in a row and then the next week put in 4 days in a row in the hills of Georgia while visiting my sister. I followed up those 4 days in a row by riding 50+ in the hills of Nashville on the Natchez Trace, which has to be one of the best spots to ride in the world. After training on the flats of Florida, riding the Trace is quite a different experience. Pretty sure there were no stretches which could be considered flat for 50 miles, just up and down. Also, very little traffic. In 50 miles, I never had to stop, except to take some pictures(above) for any crossroads. Because it's a national park(even though it's 444 miles long) no commercial traffic is allowed and since the speed limit in many spots is 35-40, very few cars frequent it. During the whole ride, I saw less than 30 cars. I easily saw more motorcycles and bicycles.

We're now 30 weeks out from B2B, which seems like a long time but really training is going to be here in no time. I really need to go over 40 hours in April as well as start to throw in some training bricks.

3 runs!!!

Not much new has been going on, still slogging along with about 110 mile bike weeks, 20+ run weeks and a couple swims each week. But, I did a 50 mile bike on Sunday and it was time for my bike to get a tuneup, a new chain and possibly a new bottom bracket. Since I knew it would be in the shop a few days, I decided it was time to push the run a little bit. I have run 2 days in a row only 2 or 3 times since last August, because of my knee. And each time, the 2nd day of those was a terrible run. Usually feeling horrible most the way. But today, I ran for the 3rd day in a row. Now, it's not much but it was 5 miles each day and each run was actually faster than the day before. The knee held up well. Hopefully this will be good going forward. The kids spring break is next week and we're heading up to my sisters in Atlanta for Easter and a couple days after then to Nashville for my daughters gymnastics meet the following weekend. Hope to get some good running and riding in in the mountains and in Nashville I hope to ride Natchez Trace for a good 50-60 mile ride if the weather holds out.

February

Well, February is "in the books" and actually turned out pretty good. I had a cold/cough for about 12 days which I was able to train through a lot of but still set me back a bit. Did miss a few days because of it but was able to get in 38:09 of training so I was happy with that.

Since the Strawberry Century is the Sunday we'll be coming back from Nashville for Emmas gymnastics meet, I won't be doing it. But I have added the Sharks Classic Olympic Distance race to the schedule which I did last year. Unless I add a half iron distance or a century, this may very well be the last 'event' I do leading up the B2B.

One of the reasons I was able to get in a decent amount of time in February was I ended the month by swimming/biking/running the last 10 days so I started off March by taking off Saturday but followed that up by riding 55 strong miles yesterday. I haven't done any bricks yet this year or even 2 a days but I'll start adding some of those in during March. My modest goal for March is to break 40 hours, which may be a bit of a challenge going to Atlanta and Nashville for a week during spring break but I'll be taking my bike, shoes and googles so hopefully I won't miss much. Also, with no races in March, I should get 2 good days of running/biking each weekend.

Gasparilla, Sick, Chilly Willy

Well, Gasparilla went off fine. My knee was good even if my speed wasn't. It was easily my slowest 15K ever but seeing how it was only my 3rd run over 9 miles since August 4th, I can't complain too much. Actually felt pretty good until about mile 6 and then just slogged my way to the finish.

Then, a couple days later, I woke up with a cold and had to take 3 days off. Was able to get in a 30 mile ride on Saturday before doing the Chilly Willy du(5k run, 10 mile bike, 5k run) yesterday. This is the 3rd time I've done the race and it's easily one of my favorites. Not too long to wear you out but long enough to make going full speed a challenge. I was able to run steady and bike pretty well for a PR on the course. Since the race is on Ft DeSoto(an island), it's always winding out there. The bike goes south to north and back so you usually get the wind in your face one way and at your back the other. Luckily it was in my face going out and I was able to really make up some time coming back. I PR'd the course by over 4 minutes so I was happy and surprised since I've been under the weather this week.

Currently, I don't have any other races on the schedule and just a metric century ride coming up late March. I may try to get into an Olympic distance this spring as well as a 1/2 this summer, but weekends are going to start getting tough with long distance stuff soon enough.