July Round Up

I'm still not where I'd like to be - on the year, for the month, leading up to a race - but all in all, I think it's getting better.

Swimming: 10013.06m
Cycling: 188.5 mi
Running: 51.32 mi
Lifting: 14 sessions (4:18)
Other: one hike (2:40)

Swimming ticked back up to the 10K minimum I like to get in a month ... partially because I was finally a grown-up about things and found a different pool to swim at. I had to make lane reservations (which, yay lane to myself, but boo the obvious), but I made it work. My regular pool finally opened up by the end of the month as well, so that was nice. B thought it might never reopen since the five days it was originally shut down for turned into well over a month.

Bike got upped a tiny bit from June, but my rides were probably more efficient. I got in some nice climbing up in Boulder as well as a bit of course recon. I haven't gotten nearly the distance I'd like - gotta do that before Memphis for sure - but I'm feeling okay there.

The run ... is. Skipped a few, but it's seriously the one thing I'm not really worried about right now.

I may be getting a little bored with the daily workout - that's clearly gone by the wayside - and I may need to seriously reconsider that moving forward. The format has changed a little which might help ... or I might just need to go to a few specific lifting days again. Who knows.

Not much extra, unfortunately, but the one hike I did get in was really freaking awesome up in Crested Butte. I really do need to take the time to hike more.

We'll see what August has in store - a 70.3, for one, the recovery that will be inevitable, a trip for B's birthday - and hopefully I can just maintain where I'm at right now.

... oh, and I may have signed up for IM Lake Placid next July. Maybe not the wisest decision given how things are going for me currently, but what's done is done ...

Race #2 of the Season: MLB All-Star 5K

I'm not 100% sure why I decided to run this race. Maybe because I missed the Rockies race. Maybe because I've missed racing. Maybe because I wanted to do something part of the All-Star Weekend festivities since we opted to not purchase game (and entire weekend) tickets and this also got me into PlayBall Park. 

Who knows.

In any case, I decided to run this. Timing looked horrible - 9am race in July? - but whatever.

As you've known from my update blogs, running has been okay this year. Probably the only sport that has. Nothing has really been speedy in training, but I have a decent amount of miles on the legs, all things considered. This was also going to be a completely new downtown course so I had literally no expectations going in.

I woke up that morning and drove downtown, finding a spot like half a block from the start line (and about 2, 2.5 from the finish). I did, however, realize that I forgot my race belt and would actually have to use safety pins for my bib for the first time in a good five years. At least. D'oh.

I also got downtown at like 7a. Oops. That's when they said packet pick-up started ...?

Regardless, got my stuff and then sat in the car and hung out until it got close to race time. I thought that the nervous colon may make an appearance, but thankfully, it did not. So already a win over the Saguaro Half.

Finish line getting all set up. This was near the City and County Building on the other side of Civic Center Park.

Waiting to start. Uphill. Next to the Capitol.

Race started and off I went. I really had no expectations (and I was running with my Rockies jersey on, because why not?), but I wanted to at least try to run well.

I didn't see the first mile sign, but my Garmin beeped at like a 9:28, despite the walking I had already been having to do. Um, okay, cool. Let's try to keep that up, shall we?

Off through the neighborhoods and we got to run on Speer some, too, which was kind of neat. A bit more downhill, but mile two (with a banner sign this time) was at the top of a hill, which is just cruel. Still, the Garmin beeped in the 9:30s, which was great.

However, it was getting warm. A race starting at 9am in early July is not nice. I started having to walk more and more. I still tried to run as much and as hard as I could though. I distracted myself with some of the great street art I saw (and walked back to get pictures of post-race). Finally, we came up to the final bit. I knew if I pushed it, I could possibly get sub-30, which I was in no way expecting to do.

DONE. And there was a Dinger to get a selfie with. (and see? ran in a jersey)

Seriously no clue how I pulled this out of my ass.

Final Stats:

Time: 29:50

19/197 AG (F35-39)

116/780 gender

444/1616 overall

Walked through Civic Center Park to the very sad water and banana table ... but then saw the greatest thing ... the best sign that racing in Colorado truly IS back ...

That's right, Flippin' Flapjacks. Good lord have I missed this. Best post-race food.

I'm also glad I finished *relatively* quick, because the line after I got mine and wandered around a bit? Like three times as long.

Glad I ran it, glad it was only like two seconds slower than the last 5K I ran pre-COVID, glad I could still drag my butt sub-30.

June Round Up

 June was good in some respects and absolutely terrible in others. You'll see which soon enough. Read on ...

Swimming: 3382.88m (2.1 mi)
Cycling: 173.9 mi
Running: 52.27 mi
Lifting: 26 sessions (5:33)
Other: 3 hikes (3:15), one walk (1:00), one session yoga (:15)

As you can probably tell, the swim was absolutely abysmal. Part of that is travel at the beginning of the month and then the gym closed for painting on the 10th ... was supposed to reopen the 14th, actually reopened the 16th ... and the pool is still closed from that. Yes, I absolutely should have found another gym to go to, but clearly ... I didn't. That's a fail on my part and I own that.

I actually did try to swim at our hotel in Utah at the end of the month, but the water was so warm that it was uncomfortable and made me nauseous to do so.

Cycling is a nice improvement over May. I still have a lot of miles to put in this month for Boulder 70.3 panic training, but the rides I've been doing up in Boulder have involved a lot of climbing and have been going fairly well, all things considered. There might be some bike memory still in these legs.

I skipped a few more runs than I'd like this month, but 50 miles is still really decent for me and it's the one sport I feel like I'm still on track with.

I kept up with the consistency of the daily strength until the end of the month, but I'm officially caught back up there, so let's hope that sticks again. It's obvious that hiking season has returned and I am all for it in every way.

Now ... to ramp it all up (especially swimming and biking) so I don't die in my 70.3 in August. Although ... I have already gotten in more of everything than I did the entire year of 2011 which, if you recall, is the year of my first ever 70.3. So I've got that going for me.

The other thing in July ... I actually put a 5K on the schedule. Woo!

May Round Up

 May ... ended up being pretty good, all things considered. In some ways. It was back to the "standard numbers" I'd hoped for in the April recap post ...

Swimming: 12200m (7.58 mi)
Cycling: 114.32 mi
Running: 70.83 mi
Lifting: 31 sessions (6:06)
Other: one day skiing (1:00), two walks (5:30)

Still not swimming as much as I'd like to be (or should be), but back up over 10K for the month makes me happy.

The bike ... it's a stop and start thing. I'm getting there. I think.

Running ... well damn. I essentially tripled my run mileage from last month. I guess that's what I do when I'm actually consistent with something. 

I went back to a daily lift and I think it did me a lot of good. I also mostly quit half-assing it (and am adding a few extra things that I'm doing each day).

The other maybe wasn't as much as I'd like, but it was nice to actually get in a day of skiing in May (even if it was just a few runs) and all that walking was done over two days in Boston at the end of the month.

For June, I really would like both the swimming and cycling numbers to go up. Which might be a touch interesting as my gym (and therefore my pool) is closed for five days for repainting and my bike is making weird sounds and may need to go into the shop. But we'll see what I can do regardless. I also hope to get hiking again soon. And maybe throw myself into a random race. We'll see.

April Round Up

April started off like the rest of the year, but by the last few weeks, I was finally able to pull my head out of my ass and get sorted again.

Swimming: 5500m (3.42 mi)
Cycling: 52.7 mi
Running: 23.13 mi
Lifting: 21 sessions (4:38)
Other: one day skiing (2:30)

The numbers might seem kind of crappy, but consider that they were all in the last week, week and a half of the month? Then it's not so bad. I'm slowly starting to feel like myself again, too. Maybe I needed to feel like a triathlete again. Maybe it's more in my blood than I ever thought.

That last day (so I thought ... *spoiler*) of skiing was also a nice bonus for a late April day.

Hopefully May is back to "standard"-ish numbers (around 10k swimming, at least 100 mi on the bike, and 30-40 run miles).

Race #1 of the Season: Saguaro Half-Marathon

Almost 13 months later, we finally got to race an actual, in-person race again.

(Okay, to be perfectly honest we probably could have before, but this is the one we signed up for that worked out. Wasn't just going to pick something to race for the sake of racing especially since, as you know if you've been following this here blog, my training has been CRAP.)

When Vacation Races came out with the Saguaro Half-Marathon, both of us automatically wanted to be in on it. We thought that, given Arizona, there'd be a high likelihood of it taking place. It was in Tucson, which duh, we both love, and bigger bonus, a late March date meant a shot at seeing a Rockies Spring Training game if those were a thing.

The possibility of the race got dicey for a while and we ended up getting shuffled to a Sunday race day as opposed to a Saturday race day (they split us up over two days). However, it did go on. And we got to go to Spring Training which meant our first live sporting event since sometime in 2019 which was also amazing.

Bib pick up was Friday and drive-thru style, but we were able to park and get out for the small expo, where we got this picture.

We're so happy.

Then, nothing until Sunday morning. We ended up chatting with one of Saturday's pacers in Waffle House while getting breakfast and got a lot of good info from him - mainly the course was a lot of uphill. Great. We didn't have time goals, though, so whatever.

We drove out to park at Old Tucson (RIP) and hung out in the car until it was time to queue up in our wave. And poop like four times, since pre-race nervous colon was on overdrive. 

Hanging out.

Gorgeous full moon spotted while walking to the queue area/"corrals."

Hanging out pre-race.

Photo-op sign.

7:25 or whatever rolled around and it was time to run. The first half mile or so was on the roads and then we popped into the trails (around Gates Pass in Tucson Mountain Park). The trails were hard-packed dirt (unless you were kinda in a wash in which case it was more sand) with rocks. Sometimes just straight rocks.

But we were RACING.

We were in a train of people that was pretty close together for probably the first mile, mile and a half, but we started naturally spreading out ... particularly as the trail started to climb. And climb. We had a couple miles, according to the ol' Garmin, that were only straight elevation gain with no loss. One also in the later miles. Greeeeeeat.

I think this was heading up to the mile 4 marker. As Paula Abdul would say, straight up.

Despite the climbing (and oh was it fairly brutal), we were still enjoying ourselves. In typical desert fashion, it got warm and it got warm quickly. I had my handheld that I was topping off/refilling at every aid station. I probably drank more in that half-marathon than I have in any other half I've run outside of a 70.3 (and even then ...). And I probably could have stood to ingest more salt (knew I should have brought an extra Skratch packet - started off with Skratch but I was drinking straight water by the end) given how poofy my hands got by the end.

Image credit Lucid Images. Still managed a jump mid-race! This was probably sometime before mile 6 since we were still on trail.

Sometime around the above photo we started chatting with one of the pacers who was hilarious and we were off and on with her over the next probably four miles. I think it was sometime around mile 6 (mile 6.5 maybe? I don't remember ...) that we popped off the trails and back on Kinney Road ... straight uphill toward the Desert Museum. So. Much. Climbing.

We finally got a little bit of a downhill reprieve when we made the left onto the McCain Loop (which I'd last been on in 2017 at SMASH camp when we time trialed it on our bikes ...). The downhill bits were nice, but as the road wound its way back toward the finish ... we also went into the wind. There was a nice good stretch at like mile 10 that we were literally running uphill into the wind. Go figure. Silly Tucson and its wind ...

I will say that it was really easy to go into my brain to focus on the race. I was actually surprised at how easy it was given how long I had exercised that part of my brain. Unintended COVID/social distancing/lockdown/whatever consequence? Guess I've been beefing up the mental toughness muscle over the last year without even realizing it. Hooray?

We had heard from multiple Saturday finishers that the course was long, and indeed, the ol' Garmin registered around 13.3. It was nice knowing that going in so I wasn't looking at the watch wondering why the hell I wasn't done yet.

Final Stats:
Time: 2:54:54.92
68/116 AG (F35-39)
450/857 gender
773/1291 overall

DONE. Plus bomb-ass medal.

Photo op sign got moved.

B and I ran together for most of the race - probably until the last mile or so when I finally pulled away. I crossed the line only around 20 seconds prior.

All things considered, for racing in the post-COVID (or is it just COVID?) era, it was a well-run race. I'd be willing to try another event by Vacation Races in the future, too, particularly if/when things ever go back to "normal".

I may actually consider this race again, too, but I may want to actually put in a good training cycle for it. And run rocky trails.

March Round Up

 Okay, here's already the tl;dr version of March - it was pretty shitty. Read on if you want a few more details.

Swimming: 2200m (1.37 mi)
Cycling: 27.38 mi
Running: 32.61 mi
Lifting: 16 sessions (4:03)
Other: one hike (1:50), two days skiing (4:45), one stint snow shoveling (:45)

I swam twice. I got on my bike three times. Run numbers look marginally decent, but over a third of those came in one race (yes, the Saguaro Half did take place. Yes, I meant to blog about it Wednesday. Yes, you'll actually get to read about it next week).

I'm still attempting to keep up with a strength program, even if it's not daily. It's basically me catching up on three days' worth of stuff in one day. And then that's all I do.

The hike came in Tucson. Skiing was a bit rougher to get out for since B is actually back on a normal schedule again. The snow shoveling ... well, we got like two feet mid-month so shoveling that was a hell of a workout so I counted it. And my old, late-30s self definitely felt it for a few days afterward, so there's that.

I'm hoping (like always) that April will be better, but currently, that seems to not be the case. We'll see.