Family Time

Well some interesting days ahead, some good and some we'll see.

But to back up a step, had a great weekend last week.  Got in a solid brick on Saturday totaling 80 miles on the machine followed by a 4 mile run.  The cycling was fun.  Started out a smidge chilly, but not bad.  No wind to speak of, no mist or rain, and plenty of sunshine.  After an hour it was already warming up nicely and no biggie.  Rode the 1st loop with Alissa, doing a 53 mile trip over to Helotes, up the backroads to Boerne, then back home.  Dropped her off and did some "fun" interval work to round out the enjoyment.  The run felt really nice and kept a solid pace.  I like it after a longer ride to have happy running legs!  Sunday was an early AM swim, 3K, followed by a nice 14 mile run.  The run went very well and legs were fine, but with the slightest fade the last couple of miles.  Mostly, no pain anywhere, so that's good news for this nearly 51 year old body!  Ended the week with some 16+ hrs. of training, but didn't seem like too much.  Hope Coach isn't reading this!  So again, nice training and progress continues to come.

Had lots of swimming the last couple of weeks and I feel like I'm on the cusp of breaking to a higher level.  Sure, I swim freaky fast, but there's room for improvement and I have a lofty goal.  I'm striving for a sub 58 IM swim that is.  Best so far is 58.5, so I think it's possible with reasonable conditions on race day.  Did a test 1500 a couple of days ago in 22:44, so that's on target.  Just need to go 2.5x further at that pace.  Now some of you (all 2) that are reading this are like "shut up!!"  Hey, swimming is my deal.  When you trash me on the run, you'll feel better. 

Family time?  Yep.  Heading out early early (like when I usually go to the gym!) tomorrow and driving to Little Rock.  LeNora's mom is having some medical testing and it seemed good for one of us to be there.  We'll see how things goes and what's next.  Don't worry, life is full of medical testing, but we shall see.  Hope to drive back on Friday and do a bike race of some sort this weekend.  Keeping it loose.

Next weekend I get to go visit my parents and one of my two brothers in Hilton Head, SC.  Parents rent a place there to escape the New York mud of March.  March is my birthday and upstate NY is usually in a thawing/freezing/thawing period.  Makes for mud, frozen mud and more mud.  Kind of a messy time.  Can't ski or skate anymore and anything outdoors is less than fun.  They like to leave that behind and return for beautiful April.  I'll hang out with the folks, yick yack, do some training, drink some wine w/ my mom and bro and just enjoy being with family.  We are quite spread apart, so getting together once or twice a year is a treat.  I'll also get to jump into the Atlantic with my full wetsuit and SwimIt and do some IM open water training. 

Well that's it for this little bloggy thing.  Thanks for reading, both of you!

Cheers!!

phlojo