Becoming a swimmer...

Maybe.  I had my fastest interval session ever on Wednesday morning but still was getting passed by a guy in normal board shorts doing backstroke.  Ugh.  Okay so maybe the title should be "becoming a triathlon swimmer."  The Half Ironman on the 10th of July will really be a swimming benchmark for me.  Can I be close to my pool times with the wetsuit in open water?  My goal right now is sub 32.  The plan is to hammer the swim and bike and then cruise the run.  Of course, I have no idea if I'm in shape to accomplish this but it will be fun to give it a go.

The Half Ironman will be my first official event in the 40+ age group even though I'm still 39 for another 20 days.  They use end of the calendar year age for the event.  It's gonna be a little weird for me moving up an age group.  It's been forever since having to do that because I was cycling from 31 through 35 and cycling doesn't have age groups.  When I came back to running and then triathlon I was just in the 35-39 age group.  I'm sure it will take some adjustment but luckily the 40+ wave goes after the under 40 wave so I won't miss my wave.  I think it will be like those first weeks of every year when you start writing dates on checks oh wait that's so 90s.  Who writes checks anymore?  It's more like when you sign documents or type in dates on websites those first few weeks of January.

With the 4th of July 3 day weekend upon us, it really feels like summer.  Elena is in full swing at her summer camp and loving that she doesn't have to do homework when she gets home.  We got her report card and she got straight As for the entire year.  Great news.  Her reward is a trip to see Universal Studios in Florida, specifically the new Harry Potter area.  I figure it isn't too early to instill in her that you do well in your studies then you get rewarded.  I'm hoping this will save me some money when it comes to college as she'll maybe get a scholarship or two.  It's the perfect excuse for me to go to Universal Studios.  Sortof like buying her a Wii for Xmas so I can play it. Yes, I may be turning 40 but I'm still a kid when it comes this stuff.  Dads can have fun too.  In about 2 more years, she won't want to do anything with me because I'm her dad and she's too cool to hang out with her dad.  For us, it's super convenient to visit the Orlando area because we can stay with one of my best friends, Orion. I also used the travel credit United gave me from the big screwup on a business trip in March to fly free.

I continue to use the LoseIt app for tracking my calorie intake.  It's definitely interesting to see that having 3 chicken quesdillas is more calories than 3 chicken breast with rice.  Also skimping on ranch salad dressing because it packs some serious calories as well.  Overall, it's helping stick as much as possible with the no junk food diet.  Sure the occasional  bucket of movie popcorn and DQ blizzard show up in the log but it's not a daily item.  The only real negative thing with the diet is I think I feel full sooner.  Right now this isn't so bad but I can see it becoming a problem as I ramp up my workouts when the meat of the Ironman training starts to happen.  Stay tuned...