Looking for that elusive W.

I meant to update last week but, work has been killer busy. Raced Musselman ½ iron July 17. It was a good race. I stretched the swim out and couldn’t quite kick this one guy. So about ½ mile in I picked up the pace and took the heart rate to what felt like 150-160. If I was in a group I would have let go but, being in the first wave and out in front I got all excited. So the swim went well and then I lead the bike until mile 28ish. That’s when I was passed by a <30 yr old meaning that he was actually 4 minutes ahead of me because of the wave starts. I was just happy to be holding 24 mph comfortably. Then we came into this 3.5 mile section that was like biking on fresh chip and seal w/ potholes and broken glass. I never mf’d a race so much. Finally when I was out of it we hit some real nice newly paved asphalt. It seemed like I was bouncing as I biked. Well of course I was, with both tires slowly going flat with about 16 miles to go. I only had one spare and one refill. I actually ended up finishing the bike on 2 flats, oh well. Better now than at IMKY. I wanted to treat the run to something I could hold for Ironman, I did just that and came home with a dismal 1:44 half marathon. The good news is that I technically qualified for ITU long course world whatevers in Perth, and even better…NO INJURIES!. By backing way off I was able to preserve my body. An ice bath within 3 minutes of the finish was also very helpful. The whole weekend was great, I got to hang out w/ Bryan form the team. It’s nice to get to know these folks, good people.

This morning I went down to edgewater and raced an open water 2-miler. I just wanted to do 2 things. Progress the swim and win. Pretty easy in my eyes. At the last minute I decided to go no speedsuit, just my everyday training suit. I went out strong and built the pace to a hard finish. I had quite a bit leftover too. Don’t get me wrong-47 minutes of hard swimming still whoops me a bit. I was tired. When the awards were handed out I come to find that I was 2nd overall. I was beaten’ by someone else’s equipment. One of the deciding factors to ditch the speedsuit was that an OW like this should be done at a purest level if you are there to compete. It also felt funny to swim with too. If I could afford a $300 speedsuit I would use one. I can’t. In the end I guess I’m just mad that I got beat. At 47 minutes I found that course a little long. I swam well and should have been closer to 41-42 for 2 miles. Looking back at this morning…the best part was how peaceful everything is at mile 1.5 hammering along the shore of a glasslike lake. At least I have that.

Last note: loving the support from family. So happy they are helping me get through these last weeks to Ironman. When that 3rd workout comes each day and I just don’t want to, I hear “have at it pussy, you look fat”. Ha! 3500-4000 calories a day and I just dropped below 157. But it works.