Summer of Healing and Speed

As I posted earlier I took most of this summer to heal. I have stayed away from my Blog and purposely took the emphasis off triathlon. I haven't really taken a step back in almost 11 years. My left leg and back were begging me for a break. So I spent a lot of time just living and not worrying about diet and abs and how many hours and miles I trained each week.

Biking felt good on my back and my leg so that is where I spent most of my summer. I started to feel the pressure to up my mileage to prepare for the Quakerman HIM and it took a huge effort to squash it. I did not do a run over 12 miles or a bike ride over 50 all summer. In fact, most weeks I ran only 2 or 3 times.

As my Au gust OLY neared I felt zero pressure to do well. For one of the first times I really had no time goals. I thought I could swim well and I was feeling very strong on the bike. In fact I never felt so fast on a bike before. I attribute it to the low volume of running miles. I had no idea how I would do on the run. I ended up having one of the best races in my life. 22 mph on the bike and sub 7 minute miles on the run. If my swim was a bit better I would have earned a podium spot. Top 40 out of 500 isn 't bad.

My next race was the OlY + in early September. This race is made for my strengths. .6 swim, 39 mile bike, and a 10k. The bonus this year was that college teams were competing. They brought an awesome energy with them that was contagious. I had a subpar swim but then I had the race of my life. I was seriously moving on the bike without going all out. In fact I almost equaled my time from last year when I had borrowed carbon aero wheels and was in IM shape. I got off e bike and knocked off a 6:30 mile. Sweet. The co ruse got hilly and i slowed but kept the pace around 7:00. Finished 1st in my age group and 7th overall. Only 3 college kids beat me. Not bad being that I am twice their age. That is weird to think about. Time flies.

I feel revitalized reenergized and healed. So now i am beating the heck out of myself training for the Philly Marathon. My energy and results from the summer have convinced me to give a sub 3hour marathon one more shot. After my Boston performance last April I had pretty much given up on it, but I feel like a new man. So far so good with the training. I have my mileage up in the 60 per week range already and have gotten up to 7 Yasso 800's all under 3 minutes. If I can stay strong with my diet and get down about 5 more lbs. I think i have a good chance. 6 more weeks of busting my butt to meet my last and ultimate running goal. Then it will be a month off and then I begin my quest for a third Chesapeakeman IM. Life is good.