"Training Camp"

With my sites set on Las Vegas, my "Training Camp" kicked-off last weekend with a heavy load of biking with Beth Shutt, my mentor.  I owe a lot of my success in triathlon to Beth.  She has given me advice on every aspect of triathlon and has encouraged me to push myself year-after-year.  I remember, when I first started to ride with Beth, she used to have to wait for me to catch-up because she would get so far ahead.  Well, let's just say, I've come a long way since then.  Thanks Beth!

Last Saturday, I swam 4000 yds and biked 90 miles.  This was the longest distance I had ever biked.  I followed up Saturday's training with a 75 mile ride and a 1 hr run.  Heading into the weekend, I wasn't sure how I would handle the heavy workload, but was quite pleased about how I felt Sunday evening.  Going into the weekend, I had thought Monday might need to be a recovery day, but Sunday evening I felt completely healthy and looking forward to Monday's workouts.  Although I had planned a swim and run on Monday, I gladly eliminated the swim in order to watch Luke in the morning, attend a meeting at Luke's KinderCare in the afternoon, and go to Luke's first Pirate game in the evening.  We had a blast as the Pirates beat the Cardinals 6-2.

Luke & "Papa Bob" at the game

The rest of the week has been fairly routine with the following workouts:

Tuesday: 3000 meter swim, 2 hr bike

Wednesday: 3000 meter swim, 1 hr run

Thursday: 1.5 hr bike followed immediately by a 40 min run

And tomorrow is going to be somewhat of a rest day with a morning swim (about 3500 m) and an afternoon yoga session.  I incorporate the yoga every now and then to maintain balance between the left and right sides of my body and flexibility.

This brings us to the plans for this coming weekend.  I'm really excited about Saturday's 120 mile bike ride (my longest ride ever) with Matt Mauclair, a beast on the bike.  I know Matt will push me and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how I do.  Sunday will consist of a long run (10-15 miles) and a swim, if I can fit it in before my cousin Jen's daughter's baptism.  I'm also anxious to see how the long run goes after the long ride on Saturday.  My intentions this weekend are to tear down some of my own personal perceptions or limits.  If I can follow-up Saturday's ride with a strong run on Sunday, my perception of biking 56 miles and running 13.1 in a half-ironman will change drastically.  I took a big step towards this last weekend, and am hoping to make another stride in that direction.  I'll let you know how it goes...

So with Vegas only 23 days 1 hr and 24 min away, I'm putting in the work that will hopefully pay-off in my best performance to date.