Swim, Bike, Run

That's the racing order, so that's the order I practiced them. Just not on the same day!

Friday I hit the pool after work for a planned 1.5 mile swim. I was able to complete the "planned" distance just fine. The "unplanned" part was completing the distance quicker than I expected. My mile split was 50 minutes. 50 minutes! That's the fastest I've ever been able to do in the pool. And it may have been quicker too, because I lost track of laps at some point and erred on the side of caution. My 1.25 mile split was 1:05. That's amazing too. That means I can potentially finish my Steelhead swim in under an hour. How that swim unfolds will be very interesting.

Saturday morning I joined Scott, the father of a boy who played soccer with Bailey for a couple seasons, and his cycling group for some time out on the Twin Sizzler race course. Since we were starting and finishing just down the street from my house, how could I refuse? I'm not sure how, but maybe I should have because we rode in the rain. I wrote about running in the rain last week and how nice it was. Riding in the rain sucks. There's no other way around it. It's cold and it hurts. You can't see where your going and traction and braking ability are reduced. It felt like longer than 31 miles, but it wasn't. I covered that in just under two hours at an average pace of 15.6 mph. I rode most of the time with a fellow named Bob who was taking a brand new Scott road bike out for a spin. He broke it in pretty good too! Although the others were pretty far ahead of us, we did have a great stretch on the way back in to town with a direct tailwind. I think we may have even made up some time. The only thing to do on a wet ride like that is to finish as best as you can, then go change for a run!

Arriving at home completely soaked and covered in road grime, I changed into dry clothes, grabbed my running gear, and headed back out the door. I didn't know how far I was planning, but I had my Fuelbelt and it was full, so I could go pretty far. Or so I thought. The rain, at this point, was now gone, leaving only an incredible mugginess, a wind that wasn't helping cool things off, and an overcast sky that was beginning to break up adding heat from the sun to the mix. To call this run uncomfortable would be an understatement. It was bad. More than a couple times I thought about just going home. But I got the number 10 into my head and decided that would be my goal distance. I made it. It was hard and it took awhile, but I made it. I don't think Heather realized how out of it I was when she got home from the store. Fortunately I was recovered within a couple hours and was able to get to some chores. That 10 mile run took me 1:24, which is slow. Very slow. But at times, it was all I could manage just to keep moving forward. No cramping, just very tired and very hot. The sweat was just gushing down my face and my shirt was as soaked as my cycling jersey was from the rain. My primary concern was getting enough fluids in to prevent heat stroke. That wouldn't have been fun.

So, a tough mental as much as physical workout this weekend, but that was just to prepare me for Sunday. Our Father's Day doings were fun and will be along shortly. Lots of pictures to go through first!