Hey.  It’s me.  Mike the Triathlete.  You may have seen my counterpart, Mike the Eater, here a lot recently.  Well fear not, I’ve been working just as hard training as he’s been eating.  Thought I’d check in to let you know how all this exercise is going so far.

We’re about six weeks away from the big day (October 28th) and the workouts have really ramped up.  In particular this past weekend I completed a little personal triathlon, though “little” probably isn’t the right word.  A 30 minute swim, 2 hour bike, and 30 minute run made it the longest triathlon of my short multi-sport career.  In distance it racked up about 1400 meters swimming, 35 miles on the bike, and 4 miles running.  And it couldn’t have been more fun.  It renewed my excitement for race day while proving to myself that I could tackle some longer distances.

Overall my training has been going very smoothly.  Over the past 14 weeks, I have missed exactly zero workouts.  That’s 132 workouts in a row, averaging 9 workouts per week.  It’s been tough, but just scheduling everything has been harder than the workouts themselves.  Yesterday was a work of art, planning my swim and bike back-to-back, and then running in the evening.  More of that is expected as we get into the most demanding block of the training plan.

With all this progress I’m starting to define my goal of the race too.  Back when I signed up I said “For now there are no goals but to finish”.  Ha!  That doesn’t even sound like me, but sure enough, I said it.  Well that’s bunch of garbage.  I’m definitely going to set a time goal.  Right now here’s what I’m thinking, relatively realistic and moderately conservative:

Swim (1.2 miles) – 0:44

Bike (56 miles) – 3:02

Run (13.1 miles) – 1:45

Of course add a little in for transitions, as much as a total of 8 minutes?  That comes out to 5:39.  A little slower than what I think I’d like, but it is what it is.  The swim isn’t going to set any records, and the bike is not an easy course.  The main place to make up time will be on the run, but we’ll see.  I haven’t exactly run a half marathon after a 3 hour bike ride before.

Long, long ago, in a much simpler time, life was easy. The

only concerns were “which shoes?” and “how far?”. Sometimes I would set my alarm 30 minutes earlier or later, but never more complicated than that. It was nice. And then things changed. I was bitten by the triathlon bug just as I was warned would happen in Austin. Life got more complicated–three times as complicated in fact. Running and I talked about a more open relationship. I shifted my goals away from marathons and towards triathlons. And then I took a leap and signed up for the Ironman 70.3 Austin. Much like signing up for my first marathon, I was scared; but I was brave. Until I realized I was an idiot. But there was running, waiting to take me back. So I decided to double down with running. “Qualify for Boston” became the name of the game. And qualify I did. So now, as I’m taking my well-deserved time to recovery, my thoughts are wandering. How about that triathlon thing? What’s left to prove with running?

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p>And so with more careful planning, I’m taking the leap again. I registered for the Ironman 70.3 Austin. I have 20 weeks to relearn how to swim, spend hours on the bike, and make sure I don’t forget how to run. For now there are no goals but to finish. Later on I may set a specific goal, but that’s for a triathlete-in-training to decide. A training plan is taking shape and will be posted soon. A few shorter races will come and go too before the 70.3 gets here. In the meantime, I’ll likely take the same approach to the triathlon as I did for running–put in the time and hope for the best.

Dear friend reader, yours truly has really done it this time. I know you’re patiently waiting for my CapTexTri Race Report, but I have some breaking news that isn’t exactly good. Due to some scheduling conflicts (and lack of putting things together), I will not be able to do the Ironman 70.3 Austin this coming October. A few months ago we received a save-the-date for my sister’s Bat Mitzvah. Well, I didn’t realize it was the same weekend as the Half Ironman, so I went ahead and registered for the race. Alas, I’m going

to try to roll my registration to next year. Worst case, I can get about 1/4 of the registration fee refunded. This is definitely my fault and could have easily been avoided.

Sigh.

I’ll be looking for another race for the fall instead. Wish me luck (and less stupidity)!