Practice Triathlon
This last Saturday we had our first genuine dress-rehearsal for the big day. And by dress rehearsal, I mean full costume dress: wetsuits and all. One of my more embarrassing but funny moments from a long time ago was when I went to my very first "dress rehearsal" for my youth orchestra - I showed up to the rehearsal in my black pants, white shirt, and schmancy red plaid tie that we all wore, tied to the sides of our necks so that they wouldn't be in the way of our little violins. I couldn't figure out for myself that an orchestra dress rehearsal does not require concert dress. At least I didn't show up in a wetsuit.
Anyway. We did about a 1km swim in Steven's Creek Reservoir and then about 22 miles biking around Steven's Canyon, and a bit more than 6 miles running up and down some STEEP hills around the reservoir. Another TNT person and I inadvertently did some extra credit on the run portion - we missed the turnaround and mistakenly went up and down a fairly brutal and long hill one more time than we should have. Oops! My finishing time for the whole schmeal was just over 2 hours and thirty minutes. If I can keep a similar pace, I should be able to finish the 1/2 ironman (about twice of all those distances) under my goal of 6 hours. But I'm not at all sure if I'll be able to keep that speed up - especially on the running portion. Swimming and biking should be fine, as I was fairly relaxed on both of those. Oh, and a very huge thanks to Leigh, who schlepped my wetsuit to and from practice while I biked on down to Cupertino.
Other than the practice triathlon, the training this week was a bit lighter than I would have liked. The tradeoff was great, though, as the training shortfall was caused by lots of company staying over for the last week and a half or so. Michelle's brother Johnny stayed with us for about 10 days as he went to a video game design camp at Stanford, and his parents also visited on their way to and from a great trip to Hawaii. And just after they left, Annie and Brad were in town from Portland. We had a great day with them on Sunday, eating far too many pancakes and scrambles for breakfast, playing cards and board games, and strolling around.
And now I have to take about 10 days off of biking, as I'm currently on a plane to Boston (and after that a bus ride to Woods Hole). I'm helping out with the zebrafish course at the Marine Biological Labs for about a week, and then Michelle's flying in to check out Boston and to hang out with some groovy cousins. This will probably be good for me, as I need to focus more on swimming and running anyway. I hope the sharks don't get me at Woods Hole!
Sunday weekly totals: 16 miles running, 110 miles biking, 3400 yards swimming. Less than one month to go before the big day. There's still time to join in on the fun!
Late-day update = I'm here now in Woods Hole. After crawling off of the bus and strolling down the road to the love SWOPE dormitory, I went for a great run up the coast. There's a beautiful bike/run trail that follows the beach up North, and I had a great time loping along at twilight and early night, listening to the little waves lapping and lapping. About 6 miles: 25 minutes out and 23 minutes back. Running here reminds me of running in the Solomons, with the humidity and the lack of variety of running trails (though they're all just lovely beyond belief).
Anyway. We did about a 1km swim in Steven's Creek Reservoir and then about 22 miles biking around Steven's Canyon, and a bit more than 6 miles running up and down some STEEP hills around the reservoir. Another TNT person and I inadvertently did some extra credit on the run portion - we missed the turnaround and mistakenly went up and down a fairly brutal and long hill one more time than we should have. Oops! My finishing time for the whole schmeal was just over 2 hours and thirty minutes. If I can keep a similar pace, I should be able to finish the 1/2 ironman (about twice of all those distances) under my goal of 6 hours. But I'm not at all sure if I'll be able to keep that speed up - especially on the running portion. Swimming and biking should be fine, as I was fairly relaxed on both of those. Oh, and a very huge thanks to Leigh, who schlepped my wetsuit to and from practice while I biked on down to Cupertino.
Other than the practice triathlon, the training this week was a bit lighter than I would have liked. The tradeoff was great, though, as the training shortfall was caused by lots of company staying over for the last week and a half or so. Michelle's brother Johnny stayed with us for about 10 days as he went to a video game design camp at Stanford, and his parents also visited on their way to and from a great trip to Hawaii. And just after they left, Annie and Brad were in town from Portland. We had a great day with them on Sunday, eating far too many pancakes and scrambles for breakfast, playing cards and board games, and strolling around.
And now I have to take about 10 days off of biking, as I'm currently on a plane to Boston (and after that a bus ride to Woods Hole). I'm helping out with the zebrafish course at the Marine Biological Labs for about a week, and then Michelle's flying in to check out Boston and to hang out with some groovy cousins. This will probably be good for me, as I need to focus more on swimming and running anyway. I hope the sharks don't get me at Woods Hole!
Sunday weekly totals: 16 miles running, 110 miles biking, 3400 yards swimming. Less than one month to go before the big day. There's still time to join in on the fun!
Late-day update = I'm here now in Woods Hole. After crawling off of the bus and strolling down the road to the love SWOPE dormitory, I went for a great run up the coast. There's a beautiful bike/run trail that follows the beach up North, and I had a great time loping along at twilight and early night, listening to the little waves lapping and lapping. About 6 miles: 25 minutes out and 23 minutes back. Running here reminds me of running in the Solomons, with the humidity and the lack of variety of running trails (though they're all just lovely beyond belief).
posted by enwudz at
6:57 PM
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