Still at it.

OK, so I feel a little guilty when I saw how long it had been since my last post. My bad. I'll try not to let it happen again. I now have three weeks left in the tennis season, and with three matches a week, it is going to be a full schedule. Last week my excuse is that we were in Virginia. It was a great week with visits to Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown, and we topped it off with a day at Busch Gardens. For my training, it was a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is that I didn't get any swimming in. The place we stayed at did have a lap pool, but they had a cold snap and I couldn't force myself into the pool. I did sit on the edge one day and got wet up to my knees and did a little kicking. Does that count? In all the time we were there, I saw one guy get in the pool for about three minutes, then he headed for the spa. For the good news, I got on-line before we left and found a couple of spots to do some mountain biking and trail running. By getting up early and having a teen age daughter help out by sleeping in, I ended up at Freedom Park five of the days we were there. Mountain biking and trail running are what I really enjoy doing, so I had a great time. The park didn't have a lot of technical sections, except for the manmade ramps and jumps, but it provided a really fun, fast track. I, of course, kept my wheels pretty much firmly planted on the ground, but it would have been interesting to see some of the young guns taking off on those ramps. After we got back, I didn't do my long weekend workouts, but I did jump on the bike tonight and hopefully will pick up the training from here. I am going to have to skip some workouts, and I tend to focus on the "main sets," so I'm not out as long as the plan calls for, but I feel pretty good about where I am. This week will be week 12 in the countdown to the race, so progress is being made. Slowly but surely we're getting there!

A New Experience

Generally speaking, not a bad week. On the publicity side, my daughter and a friend posted the blog address on Facebook, and the hits started coming in. Another good reason to have kids! (There are actually quite a few of them!) I'm hoping to get together with Student Council at school and see if we can figure out a way to do some marketing. Any ideas, and I'll take them. One person has suggested making T-shirts with my image on them! Oh, yeah, I can see the possibilities!
On the training side, it's a bit busy with school, tennis (I coach the school's tennis team) and training. (But we did win one of our matches this week!) It seems to be going alright, with me adjusting where I have to to compensate for reality. The new experience for the week, thought, was something I really have not had happen before. After my long Saturday workout, I started to feel a bit off. Nothing too bad, but definitely not right. Truth be told, one of my biggest fears is not being undertrained for the race, but the nutritional issues. Back in the day, I knew someone who ran in three Ironman races, and only completed one. It wasn't that he didn't train, it was getting hit with stomach issues. Racing for that amount of time you need to eat and drink, but the stress on the body can make unpleasant things happen. They actually talk about the nutritional component of the race as the fourth element. So I'm going to be a tad bit concerned for the next few weeks to see what happens - which hopefully will be nothing.
Thanks for reading and spread the word.
Chip
PS. And please consider making a donation!

The Power of Facebook

Well, Cathy, Julie and I are sitting around talking about getting the word out about the race and Cathy just starts typing onto her Facebook account about the race and then adds a link, and lo, within a couple of minutes, a response comes back, followed later by others. I'm impressed. My problem, of course, is that I only have about seven friends, so that doesn't work for me. So, feel free to spread the news as you see fit and help out a good cause!
The training this week got bumped up a bit. The regular workouts stay pretty much the same, but weekends are the time for the long workouts. This week for the first time the bike was upped to over three hours, I did 3:20, and the run hit two hours. I'm feeling pretty good afterward, but trying to squeeze in everything that needs to get done over the course of the day, or the week, is beginning to be an issue. We'll see how it all works out.
Also, if anyone wants to jump on board and give triathlons a try, we can set up any length course you want. It's a great way to get in shape, stay in shape, lose weight, cross train, or just enjoy the outdoors. Doing the race as a relay with different partners is also fun, and actually that was how I did my first triathlon. We can set up whatever you desire!
And as an aside, I can't wait for warm weather!

And don't forget, donations are gladly accepted - you don't want me to do this all for nothing, do you?!