Too Big To Fail

I’ve been trying to simplify my bike commute lately.  I’m no longer riding with my heart rate monitor and bike computer on my way to and from work, so I’m no longer getting times for those rides.  It seems like I’ve been doing that commute in a pretty consistent 18 minutes anyway, and at about five miles each way it’s such a short distance I hardly consider it training.

Still, I have been riding my bike in to work every day since I got a new rear wheel for my commuter bike.  It’s held up very well so far and I’m sure it’ll give me a lot fewer problems than the wheel it replaced.  (It was bent badly once, so it never stayed true, and it finally broke a spoke the week before last, prompting its replacement.)

Last Saturday I was scheduled for a run, but looked at the calendar and realized I was only about four weeks away from my first event. I decided it was about time to try doing all my distances back to back.  My lovely wife drove me and my bike over to the YMCA.  I set out a makeshift transition area in a locker, and went to the pool.  Due to an unfortunately timed water aerobics class I had to do my laps in the over-chlorinated kiddie pool, but I just ran through the shower quickly before changing into shoes for the ride.

I dropped my bag off in my car, and rode my 10.5 mile route, ending back at my house.  I then ran a 2.5 mile run around my neighborhood to finish up.

The biggest problem I had was with temperature.  The Y doesn’t open until 8:00 on Saturdays, and I didn’t get in the pool until almost exactly 8:30.  By the time I was running, the sun had been out a while and it was very hot.  I ran very sluggishly, but I did run the whole distance, even if it wasn’t much faster than I could have walked it.

Times:

• Swim - 400m - 10:59
• T1 - 6:54 - (That’s with a fast shower)
• Bike - 10.6 miles - 41:00
• T2 - 5:00 - Estimated
• Run - 2.5 miles - 34:25
• Total Time:  1:38:18

Those times certainly aren’t competitive, and I would have been last place in my age group at the event I volunteered for earlier this month.  However, I would not have been last place overall, and I think my time will be significantly better when it is three weeks later in the year and an hour and a half earlier in the morning.

I don’t think I’ll try a dry run again for two weeks because my wife is out of town this weekend.  My next attempt in a few weeks will be my last before the race on 10/18.  Realizing I have just over a month until the International distance event on 11/8, I’m starting to push the distance on my runs.

I ran 3.2 miles this morning in about 46 minutes (with five minute warm-up/cool-down walks included).  I’ll push it to 4 on Thursday.

I had a nice lull when the YMCA was between classes, and I was able to swim pretty much whenever I wanted to.  Now, I have to check the schedule before I go in, and even that isn’t enough to ensure I don’t waste a trip to the gym.

Today, I made it in and got my laps started.  Concentrating on kicking and staying straight, but I’m still just having general problems getting enough oxygen when I kick vigorously.  Still, my 400m time was my best ever at 12:14.  Then around lap 20 of my intended 40, a crowd started gathering at the bleachers.  Looks like there was a rescue class that wasn’t on the pool schedule.  It made me a little mad (those selfish lifeguards!), but I decided I’d try to finish up my laps.  Nobody ever asked me to get out, and I think I finished up before they were ready to get started, but I still felt hurried.

That’s not always bad though.  My .6 mile time was my best ever by almost a minute and a half.  I did the 42 laps in 28:39.