12 days to go...

Whew...busy weekend. My friend and business associate, David Glover, he himself an incredible Ironman triathlete directs the Luray Triathlons. He hires me to help him out during the weekend doing various tasks to insure safety, quality, and satisfaction of the participants. I was busy all weekend in Luray, VA helping him out. Great turn out for both races and fantastic weather all weekend for outdoor activities. I left NOVA early last Friday morning and headed for Luray. I needed to do one last "Race Rehearsal" ride and run. Race Rehearsal means I wear what I plan to wear during my race: Aero Helmet, outfit, nutrition, etc. I was trying out a new plan for my nutrition. An aero bottle on the downtube of my bike with a "Bomb" bottle of 650 calories with my customized Infinit Drink Mix. Water in the aero bottle between my bars, 1 GU Gel pack per hour, and 1-2 Thermolyte Pills per hour based on heat.

My plan was to do as many loops of the 16 mile triathlon course this weekend that would equal 100-105 miles or roughly 5.5 hours. After the first 5 laps, I got pretty bored and started doing some out and backs and reversing the loops. I lost track of how many laps I did. The course is not easy. Not incredibly hilly but a lot of long stretches with 2-4.5% grades which are grinding efforts on your legs. The road looks flat but it is clearly not.

The 2-4% grinders took their toll on my legs during this workout. I averaged 170 watts for the ride (low for me) and 19 mph (also low). That just showed how challenging the ride actually was. I managed a 35' out and back run post ride that I had to keep in check. My left hamstring is still acting up. It catches when I step the pace above approximately an 8:30/mile pace. It also seems to catch on any hills. I'm a little worried about this but I have some time until race day and I am calling on all my resources to help me get this better.

I had a massage with Barb Boinest of Transitions Massage in Fairfax yesterday. She is a fellow triathlete and a great, great massage therapist. She helped work things out a bit and though I was a little sore afterwards, I feel it helped. I also saw Daniel Hockstra, Chiropractor and Active Release Technique Certified Specialist. Active Release is amazing for athletes. Tight muscles, pulls, adhesions, muscles that aren't tracking right...these situations can be helped by A.R.T. I've worked with Kirsten Grove, D.O.C. after meeting her in Ironman Florida in 2000 and without her help, Ironman training would have been more difficult and injury riddled.

Saturday...pretty tired from getting up early and helping out with the race. I think we had somewhere around 550 participants for the Olympic and 650+ for the Sprint on Sunday. Amazing how much this sport has grown. While the swim course was still set-up on Saturday, I swam 3 laps of the 750 meter loop. The water temperature was a perfect 74 degrees and the air temp in the mid-80's with low humidity. A wonderful day for an open water swim.

This week...another birthday. Who counts these anymore? I'm glad I've got Ironman to look forward to so I can forget my birthday.