Day before Race!

Well, my first “A” priority race is here. I feel pretty good about as long as I don’t dwell on the “what if’s.” The open water swim should be interesting. I hope I haven’t become too dependent on following a black line in the bottom of the pool. My goal is 8 minutes for the swim. I think it is easily doable as long as I don’t swim off course any.

Swim Course


The bike should be fun. It is 13 miles of pretty hilly terrain. As long as I remember to save some gears for the hills, I’ll be fine. My goal is to avg 17.5 mph which would give me a bike time of 44.5 minutes. I’m confident that I can make up time from biking up the hills when I fly down the other side (gravity is a big man’s friend when biking downhill).

Bike Course


The run course will be interesting. It is flat for the first ½ mile then uphill for the next mile to the turnaround. Good part is that it is downhill and flat for the return trip. I’m hoping to keep a modest 11 minute/mile pace (33 minute run segment). So far this year, I haven’t been great at the running. I figure I can take the first 3-5 minutes to shake the bricks off my legs and then focus on the run.

Run Course


Adding up the times and shooting for smooth transitions, my goal is to finish in 90 minutes. That might be too lofty of a goal for a beginner, but I know I have it in me. I just need to keep the “can’ts” at bay when I’m on the course. For those of you coming out to cheer, thanks for your support. For those of you racing, good luck. For those of you at home, drink a cold one for me!

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Pain is temporary; quitting lasts forever” ~Lance Armstrong

Weekend & Weigh In (Nemesis 1 – Me 1)

Practice Run
The weekend went well. I didn’t go swim Friday morning so I could rest just a little for our practice tri on Saturday. We rolled up to Oak Mt. about 7:15 Saturday morning. I was a little surprised to see so many other people there to swim, run, and/or ride. It was a gorgeous day. We walked on down to the “beach” and decided to swim down and back the length of the beach. It is probably somewhere between 100-150 yds to the other end. We both did fine on the swim. I have got to be better at swimming without a line painted on the ground below me. I ended up being a bit off course when we got to the end despite Jeff’s best efforts to holler at me when he saw me swimming towards the dam.
We finished up our swim and headed back to the car to mount our bikes and hammer out the 13 mile course. I was a little nervous. My nemesis was coming up in front of me. I just kept my head down and kept digging until we came down a hill and found ourselves at the turnaround point…I was pretty pumped about making it there. It definitely boosted my confidence more for the race next weekend. We took a quick breather and headed back down the mountain. About a mile from where we parked, I got a flat. Hopefully I can go ahead and get it out of the way so it doesn’t happen during the race. It would definitely kill my bike time. It took a bit longer to replace the tube than I thought it would. It was pretty cool to see that just about every biker that rode by would slow down and ask if we needed any help or if we had everything we needed.
We cut the bikes back up to the parking lot and got ready for the run portion (my least favorite). We trotted off down the road up towards Pevine Falls. Notice the word up…it seemed like the first half of the 3mile course is all up hill. Not too much fun to do when your legs are all tight from biking. Jeff took on off ahead of me. I slowed down a good bit, walking at times, but jogging for most of them. I’m not sure how far I got, I’m pretty sure Jeff got close to the race distance if not more. Overall it was a very good day. Now it is time to do a little training here and there this week to rest up for the race.

Monday 6/8 (Weigh In day)
I spent Sunday and the first part of Monday resting. I was going to do a little bit of cardio during lunch to keep my legs loose. I rode on the stationary bike for about 25 minutes. Nothing too strenuous or hilly, just tried to keep a nice steady cadence.

Well, Monday is my weigh in day. I stepped on the scale to see 245. I was pretty happy with that since my last weigh in saw me had me back up to 250. Now, I’m right back on track.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Do or do not; there is no try” ~Yoda

TUES thru THURS (Nemesis1, Me 0)

Tuesday 6-2
I had a ride and run scheduled for the evening, but called it off when we got the offer to go eat at Bonefish with MH’s family. It was a great evening and wouldn’t have missed it. Rain was threatening anyways so, it was probably a good call to miss it.

Wednesday 6-3
AM Swim
Our coach is “retiring” from coaching. His last day is 6/19. I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the Masters group. Maybe we will get a new coach, maybe we can carry on ourselves, or maybe it just won’t be anymore. Regardless, John has been awesome the past 6 months. I feel like I have made a huge improvement from my first day when I couldn’t even swim the length of the pool without swallowing a cup of water and having to stop. Thanks John!
Swimming was awesome this morning. Some days you feel ok, others bad, but today I felt great during the swim and afterwards. I usually have to skip the breathing exercise and the cool down so I can get to work by 7. I’ll aiming to start staying for the entire workout and working 730/800-430/500 since it stays light outside so late now. But I digress, onto the training…

WU: 300m
Drills: 200m (fingertip, over rotate, single arm (L/R), fist)
Kicks: 8x50 on 1:20 (4 free; 2 stroke)
Pulls: 3x150 on 3:15
Main Set: 8x100 (I think these were the times)
1-3 2:35
4-6 2:25
7-8 2:15
Total: 2150m (60minutes)

Lunchtime “Mini Brick”
Jeff & I decided to have a Lunch Brick today. We rode on the stationary bikes for 20mins and ran on the treadmills for 10. I didn’t pay attention to any of the particulars (avg speeds, dist, etc.) but I did try to keep my cadence on the bike down in the 90’s. If everything goes as planned, we are going to go through the race routes this weekend.

Thursday 6-4
PM Bike/Hill Work
Well, I finally was able to go out to Oak Mountain today. It was really rather nice out. Rain was all around the area which I think scared off a bunch of riders. So, I set out to ride the Buster Britton course. I felt good and my legs felt decent. I took off out of the parking lot down to the main park road cutting to the right at the stop sign and on my way to do battle with the climb (or as Jeff put it, my Nemesis). I get up to a pretty good clip and then try to switch (front) gears and hear that oh so dreadful pop. I look down to find my chain off the ring and kinked up like an old pipe cleaner…drat. So, I get to a stop, get the chain back on the rings and start riding again. I didn’t clear the entire climb, but I did get more than halfway up. If I would have been paying attention, I would have noticed the descent just around the corner before I tapped out. But anyways, I felt pretty good about it. I’ll see how our practice tri goes tomorrow. I continued to ride all around the park for a total of 60 minutes. I’m a big believer that time in the saddle does more for you than distance in the saddle.

I’ll be back on Monday to update on training, the practice tri, & weigh-in. Have a great weekend!


Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin