sunday stuff and training update

a great easter sunday here so far and the day is still young. woke up to some thick fog this morning so waited it out a bit and got started on our ride around 8:30am. it was still foggy/misting but i could tell it was going to burn off rather quickly. took off the shades as they were full of mist and i couldn't see very well...then i crossed my fingers that a flying bug wouldn't end up in my eyeball. i'm happy to report, my eyeballs are still intact, thank goodness. about 4 miles into the ride as we were getting ready to make our right hand turn onto the main loop, i saw a guy at the water station filling up his bottles. he was wearing a florida ironman finisher jersey and was riding a cervelo p2...i know this guy! ok, we've never officially met but we follow each others blog. now i can say that i have met a fellow blogger IRL (in real life). meet Iron Bob from One hour ironman blog. he joined jc and i for almost our entire ride. it was a pleasure meeting you Bob and keep up the solid training for ironman st. george, utah, which happens to be right around the corner on may 1st. we ended up with 50.5 miles and a 21.4 average speed at the end. felt great considering the ass kicking my legs took yesterday in the hills...mantra constantly cycling (no pun intended) thru my head yesterday during the ride:
That which does not kill us makes us stronger~Friedrich Nietzsche
so, so true!

well, i can't believe that we are already in april. a quarter of the year is behind us. that went really fast folks. i began swimming again on january 4th of this year, after a long, long lay-off. basically, because i sucked at it and still do but not nearly as much. i've gone from really super crappy swimmer to a crappy swimmer, so i'll take that improvement and go from there. can't expect miracles in 3 months. i've been running for 20 years and biking for 17 years, so i figure the swimming will take some more time being that it is, in my opinion, the hardest of the 3 disciplines to master. at least for me it is. i will never give up on it; not this time. here are my training numbers from jan 1 thru march 31:

run
distance 354.46 miles
duration 46 hours 39 minutes

bike
distance: 2155.95 miles
duration: 106 hours 28 minutes 

swim
distance: 32.17 miles or 51772.5 meters
duration 24 hours 55 minutes

good overall totals i think but need to up the swimming a little more. maybe 1 more day a week but for a shorter period of time. i officially start my 6 month training plan for the great floridian ironman distance race on may 15th. that's the same day that i'm doing, my "comeback" race. an oly distance race in sarasota/siesta key. looking forward to it and this time around with a lot more swimming under my belt. shouldn't be as pathetic as st. anthony's was in the late 90's for me. no sink or swim this time. this time, i'm swimming with no fear!

this weeks numbers were good too:

run
distance 28.25 miles
duration 3 hours 50 minutes

bike
distance 270 miles (this is normal distance for me this time of year, until around october)
duration 13 hours 40 minutes

swim
distance 4600 meters (had to cut a session short to meet up for a ride)
duration 1 hour 45 minutes

hundred pushups challenge - week 2, done!
abs x 2

my goal this week is to plan 2 open water swims with this coach, who has on-going, wednesday evening open water swim workouts, starting at 5:30pm. i have no excuse. it's very close to where i work and i can time my work schedule accordingly.  lord knows i need to do this for my psyche. to know i can do this without freaking out. i know deep down i can do it and having others around me will help. plus, i'm dying to try my new wetsuit out.

in a nutshell, i think my training is going as planned. i think Alan Lakein said it best, "failing to plan is planning to fail." with that onward and upward!

much love and peace out!