July Recap

Well so much for having a purpose drive me to keep my blog up-to-date. So in short, here is a summary of my July. It has actually been very good for training and achieving my sub 80 round despite the onslaught of heat hovering over the midwest.

• In late June I traveled with the Levings family and Trevor to El Dorado for a spontaneous tri to battle some demons.  The tri was a success for all and helped me overcome my struggles on the swim which I encountered my previous tri.
• Since then, my training has picked up considerably.  I finally feel like I have reached a good level of fitness in all 3 disciplines and should hopefully be able to tackle the trials of Branson.  There is one more stop in Illinois prior to the half that will give me a good feel for where I stand.
• Swimming in SMP over the last month has been a good test for swimming long distances in the open water.

And now golf...

• My last couple of weeks on the golf course have also been good to me.  Starting with a couple good rounds at the Tarkio 2Day, I carried the momentum forward and had two sub 80 rounds back to back.  My ball striking has improved as well as my putting allowing me to post a 79 and 75 in consecutive rounds.  2011 Goal 1 of 2 complete!

Father's Day Golf

For Father's Day, Mike and I treated my Dad to a round of golf. It was a scorcher, but it was a fun afternoon. Looking back on my round, I was actually closer to breaking 80 than I realized. 2 holes pretty much destroyed my score from careless tee shots resulting in 8 over for those holes alone. Basically, I shot par on 6 of the last 7 holes on the front nine and was only 2 over on the back with 3 holes to play. Of course I had an errant tee shot, poor bailout and approach shot, and horrible putt. Eliminate that lapse in play and I was right on the cusp of my goal. With the half ironman training taking up a lot of my time, it might be tough for me to get in the necessary practice to really improve my golf game, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make this year.

On my drive home from the golf course, I just put into perspective how long my mile swim is going to be. Look at a stretch of road you know to be a half mile long and imagine it lined with orange buoys and swimming. It doesn't seem so long in the pool, but when you visualize it like that it seems a bit more daunting.

Week in Training

Good week of training. I'm not sure what is different about this week than the past couple of weeks, but my body felt pretty good even though I packed in a lot the last couple of days. Perhaps I'm finally getting over some of my soreness from various corporate challenge events or I'm finally reaching a certain level of fitness. Whatever the case, I hope it continues.

During Thursday's ride, I had a bout of misfortune followed by fortune. I was following another cyclist who I should have easily stayed up with, but all of a sudden, my bike started pulling hard. Looking down, I notice a flat rear tire. At this point, I'm about 5 miles from home. I don't have my cell on me nor my CO2 pump and it's a long walk in cycling shoes. Thankfully, I do have a spare tube and wouldn't you know, a bicycle shop is right around the corner less than a quarter of a mile. I change my tire and grabbed some air from the shop. I will now carry my cell and a credit card should anything happen again.

Saturday, I finally worked in my first 40 mile ride and some hill work. I'll need many more of these preparing for Branson.

Still have work to do on the swim, but feeling better. Will hopefully have my first open water swim on Tuesday. I think these will be crucial.

Wake up call

I participated in my first tri of the year on Sunday and it was a success but also a failure. I wouldn't even call this a sprint tri, but more like a mini tri as you don't bike more than 10 miles and run less than 3. First, the success. I set my goal to finish under 1 hour which I did at 59:48 thanks to a strong performance on the bike, but it was well off my previous time from 6 years ago by over 3 minutes. Leading into my failure. The swim was a disaster and I completely panicked in the open water not being used the to low visibility of the water. I was prepared from past experience, but I let my emotions take over and had no breathing rhythm resulting in a very tiring and slow swim. It was a huge wake up call for my training if I want to get through a 1.2 mile swim. After Sunday's experience that seems like an impossibility. My run was satisfactory, but not where it should be. I've kind of been coasting through training and have now recommitted to working harder.

I gained a little confidence today as I had a good run this morning and a good swim this evening.

Cracked!

I cracked! To use a cycling term, that is the best way to describe my golf and training this weekend. It was a hot but pleasant evening on the golf course last night, but my game never showed up to join us. Based on my first tee shot, I thought I was in for a very enjoyable round. Everything was going good enough until my putter (a different one I was trying) decided to catch the yips and caused a 5 putt. To putt that many times, you pretty much aren't trying. As you can imagine, that set the tone for the rest of the round and made my sub 80 seem like an impossible feat. I did manage a birdie and somehow still only shot a bogey round, but much work is to be done.

After playing flag football all afternoon in 100 degree heat followed by a round of golf, I somehow believed I could put in a good 40 mile ride today with temperatures again in the 90-100 range. From the start, my legs were questioning that decision. One day I'll figure out I'm not as young as I used to be. Regardless, I gave it my best effort and CRACKED at mile 25. If you every watch cycling, you'll understand that term. Basically, I had nothing left to give and was pedaling with no energy or power. As I was slowing laboring along, I realized, Branson will have no sympathy for my shortcomings on the bike. Of course that was not enough to motivate me to push through the full 40. I was spent at 33.

With cracking being the theme of this post, on top of everything else, I "cracked" my foot on the last play of the last football game yesterday. With a tri coming up this weekend. It better be nothing more than a bruise. So I've got that going for me...

Not a great start

I was really hoping my first post was going to be more uplifting, but sometimes you have to take a step back and reassess before you can move forward. Today was the Annual Amy Thompson Run to Daylight 8k which I try to race in most years. And as in most years, it is the start of the hot and muggy season in KC. Evidence 1 that today might be a tough day. Despite some good mileage this past week, I woke up feeling pretty good and fast. Sometimes you just feel fast in certain running gear. As I parked and made my way to the start, I realized I had forgotten my race chip. Evidence 2 that the race may not go as planned. Indecision immediately took over...do I have time to run back and get the chip or not...yes, no, yes, no. I could probably make it, but that would just cause too much pre-race anxiety. I walked to the start as the unknown runner. The gun sounded and I took it at a quick but easy pace and by the time I reached mile 1 and heard the times called, I knew it was going to be a long 5 miles. It was a fight the entire way against tired legs, nausea, and what felt like constant uphills. It is an up and down course, but usually doesn't seem quite as bad. I pushed through the finish and was thankful to be done and very perplexed by the poor performance. I can do that time on a training run and ran a faster 5 a few weeks ago with a 12 mile bike ride stuffed in the middle. I feel like I'm in much better shape, but apparently I have a ways to go.

where have all the posts gone???

I decided to get out the defibrillator and jump start this blog again. While being dormant, I'm sure I've lost all my viewers, but in time maybe they'll return. Since I rarely feel my daily snippets of life are worth sharing, I decided this blog needs a purpose. Earlier in the year, I set two athletic goals for myself. First, I'd like to break 80 in a round of golf again. Preferably on a par 72, but since the club I joined is a par 71, that is going to have to do this year. Secondly, I plan to complete my first half ironman in Branson in September. For the remainder of the year or until I complete each of these, I will be blogging about my struggles and successes in these pursuits.

Please visit Tri fr Tasha and Stacie to kick start my tri training posts.

Snowboarding in KC