So, I continue to formulate my goals for Ironman France and so many other things in my world. Some are easy, some are lofty. For Ironman France, I plan to have a great day and enjoy the challenge. I plan to do the best I can and show up ready to have a great result. I plan on seeing my wife and family several times as I come and go and enjoy being there with them and enjoying life. I'll formulate more specific plans on the actual race later, but sub 58 swim is a given.
So this past week I drove up to Little Rock to be with my mother-in-law (I'll call her mom for simplicity). She had to have some medical tests as things seemed a bit concerning. She was a tad nervous and it was good to be there. It took a total of 8.5 hrs to make it to LR. As with any good triathlete, I planned my breaks and executed with great speed. Two stops for a total of 15 minutes. I know I can do better, but it was fair enough. Never went too fast on the road and thus never had to talk to the man.
Mom's results were great, so it's still a bit of an enigma, but the bad stuff has been ruled out. I see no point in getting specific, so don't worry about it. After, we went up to her cousin's house about an hour north of LR. Stayed there the night, then said goodbyes in the morning and headed home. Quite an improvement on the return trip. Sure, it was longer being further away, but reduced my stoppage time to 7 minutes and only one stop. Enjoyed the whole way back in silence. No radio or any other piped in sounds. Just 9.5 hours of quiet. That was good and I recommend it. It's easy to constantly be bombarded with sounds from the radio, TV, other people (I mean really!!), etc. It was such a joy to get home and be with LeNora and the kitties. Plus, I had TWO days with absolutely no training. Wow!
So back to it on Saturday. Got in a 40-40-40. 40 mile warmup, 40K time trial, 40 mile "cool-down." Rough numbers, but the total for the day was right at 104 miles. Feeling good all the way, so nice to get in some solid training. Today I got a pleasant 3500m swim in an hour, then once the sun got up and a bit of warmth, off for a brick. Did 2 hours on the bike, which was to be followed by 6x1 mile repeats. The bike was good, but not great. Couldn't hold the heart rate I was looking for. Seems the legs were still spent from Saturday. End of ride was getting pretty ugly. Really, really didn't want to run, but knew that I had to go. Put shoes on and off I went. Ended up with barely 1 mile. I had nothing. I FAILED. Not a bad thing. I pushed myself to the limit and that will help later on.
So, fun times, lots more to go. Got a 12 mile run tomorrow, so hope a good night's sleep gets me back on track. I'll leave you with a photo from Nice when we visited there in 2009 for our 25th. Au revoir!
phlojo
