Fastest Ever

swim on Saturday morning. I couldn't believe it. Not only was it my longest swim so far 3400 yards but my time was the fastest 100 yard average for anything over 2000 yards. I averaged 1:47 per 100 yards. I really tried to use to my left arm for pulling a little harder. I also really tried to "catch" as much water as possible while keeping a good stroke rate the entire time. I started to slow at the end. I was busting out 1:45s for the 2nd 1000 of the swim. It was sweet.

After the swim, I went and rode for 5 and a half hours. My legs were still fried from Thursday so I cut out two of the hills. I thought I was just going to bag the longer ride until I got about 90 minutes into it and felt okay so I went the entire way. I finished with 107 miles so it wasn't bad. My cycling legs are coming around.

It was Father's day yesterday. Way to go to all the Dads out there. I decided to do a long run. My first long run since late April. I was worried before the run about my running condition and I'm still worried after the run. I was going to run first and then if I felt good go do a technique swim before going over to Elena's for father day festivities. The plan was to do an out and back. I'd go out for an hour and then turn around. The first 2 hour run since 2002, the last time I did a standalone marathon.

My first mile was slow, 8:10 even though I felt comfortable and fast. Its so weird I had run that exact mile in 7:10 on Thursday after a hard 90 minute ride. I decided to try to pick it up a little and was able to hit my 2nd mile and 3rd mile in 7:20ish. These were the only mile marks I really had until I went by them on the way back. It wasn't too hot but it was humid. My shirt was soaked about 30 minutes into the run. I had brought my runner water pack with 20 ounces of cytomax and 3 powergels.

I was going well about 45 minutes into the run. My foot stopped hurting and decided to try and hit this one water fountain for a refill, then turn around and head home. The fountain was at 66 minutes out. Uh-oh, this is going to be over two hours.

I started trudging home and got within 4 miles and the legs really started to fatigue. I just kept trying to mimic the focus I'll need for that last 8 miles of the Ironman. I started to get back into my familiar territory with known mile marks. I was clocking 7:35 miles and they were tough. I just felt I've lost a lot of running fitness from this stupid foot injury. I'm going to start just blasting through the foot pain and try to get some tempo runs in over the next month to increase my speed. I slogged in the last mile with a 7:25 as it's got a decent downslope to it and finished. My legs were toast. I could barely walk and stretch.

I hit up Runner's World to calculate the total distance and it came out to 17.9 miles for an average pace of 7:24. This is just over 8 miles left or about another hour or so of complete suffering. Hmm...this is getting tougher and tougher as my training gets longer and longer. I figured I'd gain more confidence as my training volume increase but I'm losing confidence and thinking what the hell did I get myself into.

This morning I decided to swim in my wetsuit at the pool for a long swim. I wanted to see if would make my shoulders tired and if it felt okay. The pool has been cold enough that officially it would be wetsuit legal if there was USTA triathlon being held in it. I got going and was flying across the pool. My left shoulder was tired and sore though. I really did a number on it on Saturday. It was hard to focus on my stroke because it was bugging me so much. I wasn't able to swim as long as I would've like because I just couldn't bare the soreness. I didn't want to injure myself so I stopped at 2300 yards. I still averaged 1:39. So the wetsuit is 10 seconds per 100 yards faster for me. This basically equates to 440 seconds over the Ironman swim or 7:20. Sweet!! That puts me under 1:10 for the Ironman swim. If I can stay straight during the Ironman swim without getting bashed by other swimmers that should be good.

2 months 8 days...