Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Athena

Well, here's my newest midlife crisis creation: I signed up for a sprint triathlon.  I thought this would be a good way to culminate my Iron Hawks that I'm doing this summer.  It's the Camp Courageous Tri in my hometown that benefits handicapped kids.  I thought this would be a great way to complete the summer training!  

Since I am doing a tri, I thought I better practice some BRicks.  So this morning I got up to start BRick #2.  Bill and I did one earlier this year so I was a little prepared mentally for what I was in for.  I knew I had to save my legs a bit for the run without getting completely exhausted on the bike.  The transition went much better than I thought it would.  I only did 10 miles on the bike, but completed a full 5K for the run.

I wanted to get a few hills in the run as I knew I would have a giant hill on the tri.  So, I got off the bike and went to the highway to climb the hill east of town.  When I got to the top, I turned around and came back.  The hill was a bit hard to climb as my heart was racing so I stopped and walked the last few hundred feet.  That was the worst of it so I'll have to work on that hill a bit more.  I then went to the bike path, running as much as possible on grass, rock/gravel, and other nontraditional surfaces since I think most of the tri run will be trail running, my least favorite.  This will probably slow me down, but I'm determined to conquer it the best I can.  I just hope I have a "curb crew" scattered throughout the course to keep me going.

The weather this morning again was cool, but high humidity.  I tried to get out early to beat the heat - forecasted to be 97 again today.  Yes, I was a bit dehydrated, but I drank about 25oz of beverage.  For time, I had a bit of a problem.  I'm glad it happened today and not the day of the tri!  I got satellite signal pretty quickly, but then all of a sudden it said it was processing route or something like that.  It was locked up and I couldn't get it to cancel.  I do the whole BRick solo, completely solo.  I had no idea how fast I was going to how far I was going.  It was a bit odd.  I had to use www.runningmap.com to find the mileage when I got home.  Finally I got it to reset.

Big realization:  When I signed up for the tri, there was an Athena category.  If you weigh over a certain weight, can be an "Athena".  ugh, I fit into this category.  Hmm, looking at the times from last year, I could win that category!  I just couldn't do it.  It's not about the times for me anyway.  The worst part is knowing that I am obese when it comes to fitness!  This is very disheartening.  While I know I am somewhere between obese and needing to shed a few pounds, this was like a slap in the face.  I'll get it...



today's mileage: 3 miles running; 10 miles biking
weekly mileage: 3 miles running; 10 miles biking
monthly mileage: 44 miles running; 10 miles biking; 3.375 miles swimming
annual mileage: 341 miles running; 216 miles riding; 6.75 miles swimming
TOTAL mileage: 570


IRONWHAWK #2
running:  72 miles
riding: 25 miles
swimming: 4.35 miles

1 comment:

  1. Nice work on the BRick!! You can overcome the run terrain by continually telling yourself you like that terrain and over time you will believe it :)

    Don't take offense to the Athena category...they are changing those weights for next year as those weights really aren't "obese" for most people!!

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