Monday, April 28, 2008

Reflections and Thanks!

Yesterday when I went to go for a run it was my first time since IMAZ that I have used my Garmin. Lo and behold when I started it up the mileage ticker on the bottom showed 138.0 miles even. That means that the sucker was within .2 miles for the 140.6 distance. Considering I didn't use it in the swim which was 2.4 miles, that is pretty darn accurate.
After resetting it, I went for a nice easy 10 miler, OUTSIDE, which has not happened in quite some time. The weather has been brutal, but yesterday it appeared that we have finally got spring happening. The temperature was around 13 C with a light north westerly wind. I chose the road out toward the old Entrance Airport as it is relatively flat and there are a large number of game trails which you can follow. As it was I pretty much stuck to the road to avoid getting muddy. Running when you are not training with a specific event in mind is very relaxing and the miles just ticked by like nothing. This was not work at all.
So in the end I managed a nice 10 mile run in just over 1 hour and 11 minutes. Not bad for a recovery run!
After seeing my time and distance on the Garmin yesterday I got a little reflective on the race that was. It was without a doubt a great day and an amazing experience. I was pleased with how it went and I know my plan, with some minor tweaks, is sound and I would use it again.
But all the training and planning is nothing unless you have support in your efforts, and that I do have. My wife, Angela, still shakes her head when she sees me sweating it out on the trainer for the 4th hour, or sees another credit card statement with a $600 charge for entry fees. Yes, triathlon is not cheap! Between entry fees, accessories, shoes, travel, the costs mount pretty quickly, but I would say it is all worth it. But in the end Angela is my biggest supporter and she will endure the 62 hours of driving to make sure that she was there for me at the end. You can't beat that now can you!
My two kids also think I am a little on the extreme side. But they also follow my training and racing and check the race results to see how the crazy old dude is doing!
Also all the people who read and comment on my blog, your advice and encouragement definitely helps and I really appreciate it.
So it is time to move on and start training for the 1/2 Iron Man in Sylvan Lake. I am going to download a new training plan today and start the journey. Come along for the ride!
Have a great day!

1 comment:

Love2Run said...

2 weeks to the day and you're moving on already! So will you be doing 1/2 the training this time around or how does it work? When I'm training for a 1/2 marathon it's basically the same plan as for a marathon, maybe 10% less mileage.