Swimming

Knocked about 10 seconds off my 100 yds time for freestyle. So now I'm just very slow, as opposed to an Ohio River coal barge slow :)

I also got a good workout herding kids at a swim meet in Marble Falls. Phoebe swims with the Lago Vista Tidal Waves!

Bike training

Biking terrifies me. I got up to 27 mph this morning - it felt more like 90! But then again I thought that about 17 mph back in 2005 when I first borrowed Andrew's road bike. Still I have a plan and I'm sticking to it.

A training window

A small window has opened up between foreign trips and the family vacation. So it is back on the bike and into the pool. I'd say I'm on target so far. No point overdoing it. And I worked on the sleep deprivation, endurance and functioning whilst eating/drinking unusual fare while I was away. The half ironman isn't the only part of the Birthday Challenge - let's not forget that.

Break in the Training (yet another)

I'm going to Amsterdam tomorrow until Friday for a conference. I'll do my best to do something constructive training wise and not eat/drink too much. But I hear temptations are rife. Never been before - it looks a great city, and I'm staying in the heart of it at a fancy hotel. At the very least I need to visit a coffee shop.

Official training schedule

The official half iron training schedule has been printed out. It's a 20 week program which I joined halfway through week 20 (they count down), and it is ready for modification and excuses already. Like they say ride an easy 60 mins. I am doing 10 mins at a time on the trainer in the garage to get my butt used to the very sharp saddle. I survived 49 mins of it at Danskin a couple years back so I know it can be done. But right now I am sore. Ran 2 miles to test the ankle out. So far so good.

Training has begun

Mexico and Kentucky trips are done. Despite the fact that I still have a dodgy ankle I have started my training. Today I had a swimming lesson from Coach Andrew. I discoverd that I had been swimming a duff freestyle for 45 years. No wonder I have always preferred breaststroke. So now I have drills to do to make me more like a fish. But the bike will be worse. So the half ironman is actually going to be quite a challenge. I have set a time goal of around 7 hours - it sounds doable on paper but we'll see how the training goes.

Planning my training

The thing I will need to work on most is the bike. But realistically I won't be able to do many sessions per week. So I will probably arrive on the start line undertrained, which has been my MO for the last few years anyway.

If there is alcohol in the drinking challenge then I will also have to practice a bit as I hardly drink at all these days. Now that sounds better.

Everything is on hold until after May in any case due to work and other things.