I was told blogging was a great way to keep track of my training. So, I'm going to give it a shot.

I completed my first half Ironman on August 1st. I enjoyed the race despite a painful bike ride - my bike is uncomfortable. I finished 80th out of 104. I'm not exactly pleased with that, but did beat my goal of 7 hours. This goal was not aggressive, but realistic. I took 1 week off to rest and figure out what I wanted to do next.

In the meantime, Conor decided a triathlon was in his future. So he signed us up for a race on October 4th. My training could use some help. Admittedly, I do not push myself. Instead, I do the time, usually at a moderate to easy pace. My goals have been to finish and enjoy it, not to compete.

Its time for a change. I now know I can finish and enjoy it, now its time for me to improve. I'd like to finish my next HIM in the top 50% of my age group. No more of this bottom 20% crap. Certainly, as training progresses, I will set other goals, but for now, this is a good start.

This week I headed back to training with a different attitude - improve:

Monday: Swim - 1350 before I got kicked out of the pool for kids lessons. I tried Evan's "balance" drill at the end for fun and ended up with a nose full of water.

Tuesday: Swim - 1500 (500wu, 16 x 50 w/ 10 sec rest, 200 cd). I focused on keeping my effort level HIGH during the sprinting - at the end of each lap I was out of breath. I consistently lap around 55 seconds, when pushing hard I can hit 50-52, but slip back to 55 the more reps I do. I also tried to keep my elbows high in the water, and can feel the difference in my muscles. Balance drill yielded better results, but still water up the nose.

Wednesday: Lunchtime workout - 30 minute run on treadmill (1st run since HIM) - progressively increased my speed, 5 min. intervals starting at 5.5 increasing 0.5 up to 7.5, then cool down at 5.0. I was drenched in sweat and felt like I really made a good effort when I was done. 10 minutes of weight training followed by a bit of stretching before I had to shower and head back to work. This is a workout to repeat - it felt good.

Thursday: 1 hour trainer ride. I'm trying to embrace my big chain ring. Rode the full hour in the big ring - mid gear. Rode on the roof deck overlooking the city - which was kind of cool. Duke followed me up there and spent the hour trying to find the shade where he could get in some more z's.

This weekend I head to MN for a bachelorette party. Since we have plans to be boating, I hope to get in some swimming and maybe a run as long as I'm not too drunk or hungover.