Sunday, July 22, 2012

As a Matter of Fact, I AM Still Here

Sort of. Wow. Nearly two months of down time. Well, things have been busy. So much so that the only event I'm now training for this year is the Hotter n Hell Hundred. No triathlons whatsoever. I might try and squeeze in a 5K before the end of the year but that would be it.

There have been a lot of things happening on the job front but I can't discuss all of it yet. One thing I can talk about; I now have a client that hired me for personal training. I wasn't planning on promoting anything of this nature until after I returned from Texas but I've known this woman from my spin classes and she asked if I could help her out. I like helping out other people (especially when they're willing to pay me) so I agreed.

On the training front, I've been out riding what I call, "Easy 50's". These are rides where I ride just below my lactate threshold for 10 minutes, do a recovery, find a hill to climb, recover and start over until I hit about the 50-mile mark. When I'm finished, I usually feel like I've complete a solid workout - nothing too spectacular but nothing so overwhelming that I'm exhausted. I can do these 3 - 4 times a week. I'm still teaching spinning and that has kept my speed solid on the bike.

I've also been swimming at Hopkinton State Park. My friend/swim instructor/colleague has been coaching me in some open water tactics because I might have recently mentioned something about wanting to do a Half Ironman next year. That's a 1.2 mile swim, a 56-mile bike leg, and 13.1 mile run (half-marathon). I figured if I can already swim 3/4 mile with no hassles, can ride 50 miles with no hassles, and can WALK 14 miles on a charity walk without any preparation, I pretty much have the endurance I need to cover the course. I just need to build the speed to finish under the cut-off time. Because of the work I do for my friend's business, she has been coaching me for free and that fits nicely into my budget.

So, 7 weeks out and you're all pretty much caught up with my life... swimming, cycling, lots of dirty laundry.
Glad to be here.