February:
* Swim 2x/week
* Ride 50 miles/week
* Lose 5 pounds
That doesn't sound so difficult, right?
An inside look into life as a triathlete, my battle with obesity, and a constant struggle for life balance.
It's that time of year again. Icy rain, howling winds, and bone chilling temperatures have loomed over us for the last couple of months. And that's what is in the forecast for the next 30-something days. For those of us who participate in endurance sports during the warmer months, we are likely just starting to get back into the groove of some semblance of training. The aftermath of the holidays still clinging to our midsections. Our ability to go long hasn't quite gone away, but our ability to go fast is sort of missing. We look at the calendars, and HAH! OH LOOKSY! A half-marathon is on the calendar. Tomorrow.
And so it happened that on Sunday morning I woke up early, mixed my nutrition bottles, prepped my gear, and went through all of the pre-race routines like I have done so many times in the past. Despite the lackluster feel to the whole thing, I was excited to ride my bike to the event with Julie. And I was looking forward to seeing some tri peeps that I haven't visited with in a couple of months.
I tossed all of my stuff into a backpack, and headed out on my squeaking Cervelo (it really needs a tune-up!) to meet Julie in downtown Vancouver. At about the same time we met up, the first sprinkles started to fall out of the sky. A mile later the sprinkles had turned into a steady drizzle. Pretty soon I was squinting to keep the sideways raindrops from pelting my eyeballs. As we were turning into the park, her rear tire went flat. My rear tire stopped turning because of the amount of wet road crud lodged between the tire and frame. We dismounted and hoofed it the rest of the way in. Not exactly a motivating start to our day.
After getting our packets and changing into some dry clothes, we met up with Mark (my running partner for this race for the THIRD year in a row!) and huddled in Ken's car until it was time to line up at the start. I don't recall a bang or a boom. We all just started moving forward.
And then we ran 13.1 miles in the cold rain. Then finished. Then rounded up in dry clothes for bloodies and burgers.
On tonight's run, I was chased by TWO different dogs. My run was all of 1.13 miles. Yes, TWO dogs in just over ONE mile. I understand that pets get loose once in awhile, but I see dogs out all the time. Irresponsible owners. Right after I'm done with this post, I'm purchasing some of this:And anything that threatens me while I'm out by myself (dog, squirrel, stupid teenage boys that insist on yelling lewd comments at me) is getting a nice long spray up the sinuses.
To end this post on a happy note, I feel obligated to let everyone know that I have found coffee nirvana. A micro-roaster just opened up down the street from my house. It is always packed. Like standing-room-only packed. I was curious, so I bought a couple of pounds while out for one of my runs. I brewed some up the next morning. Ooooooh wow. Good stuff. Good good stuff.
Here are my training distance goals for 2010. Maybe a little ambitious in some regards, but setting easy-to-achieve goals kind of defeats the purpose I think.
Swim - 250,000 meters
Bike - 4000 miles
Run - 900 miles
I better go get my running gear together...