Time to Get Serious

   Play time if over.  Time to start REALLY training.  Don't get me wrong - Andrew and Jessica at FTP have been kicking my butt during the off-season - and it's been paying off.  I've gotten a PR in a recent 5k AND I'm getting faster in my swim.  It's just that I haven't really been training with an end-goal in mind; so therefore no detailed spreadsheets counting down the weeks to a race and no daily diary of how I felt after each workout.  A part of me loves the freedom in this.  Just to work out and then race and see what happens.  But the detail-orientated spreadsheet geek in me is kind of freaking out.  Especially with Augusta slowly sneaking up on me.  So it's time to get serious now.   I'm not sure what that will entail yet, but I'm sure it will include spreadsheets.

   On a side note, Dudley, me and the crew from FTP rode the CRAM (Clarksville Rotary Annual Metric) on Saturday.  This ride (along with it's sister ride on Memorial Day) is somewhat legendary because it's FLAT, FLAT, FLAT.  Though it's named after the metric - there is also a century ride.  People travel from all over the country to try to break a 4:00 century.  If fact, I think the national PR for a century was done on this course.  However, we only did the metric - which was enough on a 95-degree day.  Good news is that I felt great.  The longest I had ridden this year was 40-miles, so I wasn't sure how 62 was going to feel.  But it was really a lot of fun.  Had a great open-water swim on Sunday, too.  Maybe only swam 1,500 meters, but that really helps with my mental state.

Next up - Mach Tenn!  YIKES

Catching Up

Tri season is here and I need to catch up on this blog.  Since I last wrote, I've only competed a one race - the Country Music Half-Marathon.  The race was fine.  It, as usual, was crazy hot.  In fact, I had never seen a race where more people needed serious medical attention.  It was worse than Augusta, which was technically about 15 degrees warmer.  Fortunately though, I haven't heard of any serious injuries.
Here are my FB observations from the race:

CMHM Observation #1 - iPods and large races don't mix. I can't tell you how many people almost took me out today because they were futzing with their iPods, or were in their own worlds and not paying attention to where they were going.
CMHM Observation #2 - White spandex shorts probably shouldn't be worn by anyone.
CMHM Observation #3 - Some people will do ANYTHING to get in front of a race photographer. Really? There are about 50 of them along the course. Is it that important to get your picture taken by
EVERY ONE of them?
CMHM Observation #4 - This is more of a suggestion than an observation... When hiring people to shuttle runners back to the start - make sure the driver knows how to get there. My driver got lost going from LP Field to Centennial Park.
CMHM Observation #5 - Every year while I'm running this race (3x so far) I think, "I'm never doing this again." And then when I get home I think, "That wasn't so bad." :-) Thanks to everyone who ran with me over the past few months training for this thing, and a huge thanks to the volunteers. Congrats to all of the runners. See you next year.

And now on to new things... I met 4x Kona Champion Chrissie Wellington this week! She was in town for a book signing so me, Dudley and about 300 other tri-geeks went up to ACME Multisports to hear her speak and buy a book. She seemed very nice, although I had a hard time relating to her because she's SO GOOD. She's never lost an Ironman distance race! It almost became comical as her achievements were listed - she almost wins every race she enters. I KNOW she trains extremely hard and is VERY focused, but the way she described her races was almost "I woke up one morning and decided to race an Ironman - and I WON." She's a legend. It was very cool to meet her.

Dudley and me with Chrissie

The FTP crew with Chrissie

Now, as far as what's next - I have the Mach Tenn tri next week. It'll be interesting to see how I do compared to last year. I know more of what to expect, but my training is so-so. The Preds season really cut into my training time. I tried to fit in what I could, but I know I didn't swim as much as I should have, or ride for that matter. However, thanks to FTP and my buddies at East Nasty, my running is pretty strong - for me anyway. I did two sub 8-minute miles at Tuesday AM training, which I've never done previously. How that will translate to a tri - I have no idea. We'll see!