Training Update

After my brother completed his first half-ironman at Wildflower this weekend, I went ahead and made the commitment and signed up for the Kansas 70.3. It will be interesting to revisit my first triathlon. I'm debating whether or not I am capable of a sub-6 hour finish, especially considering my nursing school time constraints. Yeah, I'm tired of hearing about those too.

So yeah...my brother has officially become a sick, twisted endurance sport addict just like me! And as proof, he has even started his own blog to write about his races. Can you believe that? It's funny, because he was asking me for advice on what to name his blog. Out of brotherly competition, I first suggested "I Want To Be Like Danny", but in all seriousness asked him if he had any good training mantras that he'd been using. As it turns out he found a title that fulfilled BOTH suggestions. His blog is entitled, "Well, Shit, if Danny can do it..." He has admitted to finding inspiration in some of the things I've done, but I'm more proud of him than anything for flipping a 180 on his formerly sedentary, smoking, and unhealthy eating lifestyle. All I did was start from "kinda in shape" and work my way up to "I haven't figured out exactly how far I can run, but it's at least 40 miles".

So, back to my stuff. I'm pretty confident that my run is in pretty decent shape, and I'm not concerned about it for the upcoming triathlon. My swim needs a little work. I did my first official training swim of the season today. I completed the entire race distance in a pool and it took me about 50 minutes, including breaks every 500 meters. Not too shabby for a baseline. I'm hoping to shoot for a 35 minute split on the 1.2 mile swim leg. The big concern for me is the bike. I have ridden TWICE since last September. In past half-iron distance races, I have had a goal of a 3 hour bike split, but I seriously don't think that is realistic, considering how little I've ridden, and how little time I'll have to ride in the next month. I'd be pretty thrilled with a 3:10-3:20 time(16-17 mph average) for the 56 mile bike portion. I'm assuming I'll be able to manage a sub 2-hour half marathon(9:00 min/mile pace).

So let's do some math. Assuming I meet my most modest projections...2 hour run+3:20 bike+35 minute swim=5:55. So I either will need to save a few minutes on either the bike(less likely) or the run(more likely), or I'll have to have lightning fast transitions. This is actually possibly a reality, considering I may choose not to wear a wetsuit for the swim.

Anyways, hopefully over the next few weeks I'll have some encouraging things to write about my training progress. As always, kill the f*cking bear ever day.