Happy 4th!

Hopefully everyone is having a great start to a 3 day weekend.  I have Elena this weekend so having today off helped me get in a massive swim and ride but let's talk a little about yesterday.

It was god awful hot yesterday but not humid.  I went for an easy swim and then around lunch time I decided to hit the run.  My extensor tendon on the top of my foot has been feeling better each day so this is great news for the run.  I decided to just pick up the pace each mile and finish all out.  This was going quite well and my foot was feeling fine.  I was in the midst of the last 200 meters of the run going really hard when I tweaked my hamstring.  Just a little twinge but just my luck.  I just can't get my run going at all although I'm not the best at following good run advice.  I'm definitely pushing the boundary of getting in some quality runs without getting injured. I just keep failing on the injured part.  I iced it but it was tender the rest of the day.

I woke up this morning at 5am to work on my pre-race breakfast and swim-bike transition nutrition.  Both of those areas failed for me at the Half Ironman so I wanted to switch it up a little.  I had a Clif Bar and some instant oatmeal for breakfast.  I checked the temperature and radar before I was going to head to the pool to start the day.  It showed a decent rainstorm about 5 minutes away.  Damn...I'm going to have to wait before I hit the pool because I really don't want to bike in the rain.  Overall this was probably a good thing because I got to the pool just before 7AM which is the actual Ironman start time.

I hit the water and proceeded to swim.  The plan was to swim 80 minutes then hop out, drive over to the park and get out on the bike for a good hard 5 hours.  I felt slow but really didn't have an idea of my splits.  This is good because during the actual Ironman I'll have to push myself without knowing how fast I'm going.  I struggled here and there during the time but finished the last 100 right on the money of 80 minutes.  I got out and started sipping water to settle the stomach.  My stomach felt good with the Clif Bar and oatmeal.

I got on my bike and still drank water for the first 30 minutes.  My legs felt dead on the bike though.  I really felt the last 2 weeks of hard bike workouts.  I wasn't planning my usual hills because they are by the Congressional Golf Course which is hosting a PGA Tour event this weekend.  It would crazy with cars out there so I went a more flat route.  Overall this was a good choice because my legs were just dead feeling.

I got almost to the halfway point of the bike when it started to sprinkle again so I turned around early and proceeded back.  I knew I'd be short mileage and time but that's okay.  I've gotten decent bike miles.  I decided just to push extra hard with what I had to make up for the short ride.

Nutrition everything went really well on the bike so I think I've honed that down for sure now.  I ended up with 4:45 minutes on the bike for just under 95 miles.  Not too bad considering I felt I'd be extra slow.  I just recorded my swim information and I ended up with 4300 yards in 80 minutes.  This is just barely over the Ironman swim distance.  That was my goal time as well when I first started this adventure.  I can't believe I'm actually able to swim that far at that pace without drowning.  Sweet! I'm totally stoked.  I was a little faster at the end than the previous 75 minute swim so I'm getting just a little stronger.

Now I just need to put all the 3 distances together on the 24th of August and hopefully become an Ironman.  The marathon is still going to be super tough but its where I have the most experience.

1 month 20 days...