It’s time to see how I shape up with my preparation for the Duke Liver Center Half Ironman in a months time.  Basically I need to know if I can pull off the distances required.  While I’m not going to do a practice race in it’s entirety for sheer practicality I am going to o each of the disciplines for their respective distance.  That means the 1.2 mile swim one day, 56 mile bike ride the next, and ending with a half-marathon on the third day.  I figure if I do this now with a month to go I’ll know how much more I need to build up or if I am on track to being able to complete the race, winning has never been a goal.

So today was the 1.2 mile swim which equates to about 84.5 laps in the pool.  I did 86 laps because if you end on an odd lap it puts you on the wrong side of the pool.  The results were that Im in really good shape for the swim.  I can tell Ill be sore tomorrow as I already feel stiff in the shoulders this afternoon.  I completed the laps in about an hour, I have to estimate because the Optimist Park pool doesn’t have all the clocks around the edge like Pullen Park does.  The cutoff for the swim in the triathlon is one hour and 15 minutes so I should be well inside that discipline.  I did like swimming in the new pool because its outdoors which was a nice change, and maybe will alleviate the farmers tan from my bike shorts and jersey.

I’m not fast by any means but I did feel like I kept a good pace going.  There was another swimmer there who I could tell was a triathalete by his gear and swim cap for Inside-Out sports.  He constantly was smoking me in the swim doing about two laps for each of my one and a third.  It was kind of disheartening till later when I saw him pulling off swim fins and sticking them on the edge of the pool.  I imagine he was doing some type of drills but it made me feel better to know he was “cheating”.  I also saw him drinking some Gatorade from a water bottle on the edge of the pool which made me realize that I had forgotten to have a breakfast bar and was swimming on an empty stomach.  That did little to help my energy and my mind grasped on to that as an excuse to try and slow down and talk myself into quitting, which I didn’t succumb to.

In the end I feel good about the swim portion of the upcoming race.  I do know now that I get bored towards the end in the pool but know that the race adrenalin will take care of that.

So I find out now that Pullen Park Aquatic Center is going to be closed until September 4th for maintenance.  That leaves me without a place to swim for three weeks in the end run of my Duke Liver Center Half Ironman training.  Not to mention that I’ll be doing the Endurance Challenge Triathlon in Hillsborough in two weeks.  Needless to say I needed to find a new place to keep swimming.  While looking I came across this site, www.swimmersguide.com, which is a good resource to find a place to swim no matter where you live.  With it I found a new swimming hole to fill in for the time that my local pool is closed.  If you’re in the market for a place to swim take a look and find a new pool.

This past weekend has been a busy one.  It started off with the monthly charity poker tournament to raise money for my Livestrong Challenge ride.  Unfortunately we had a lot of people out of town so we only had four players playing.  It was bad timing but it had to be last weekend because this weekend is the 24 Hours of Booty in Charlotte, next weekend is the Virgin Music Festival in Baltimore, and the next is the Phillies/Braves series in Philadelphia.  So in the end, even with the low turnout, it was still a fun night.  We raised $30 for the LAF with Richard beating me out for the overall.  We followed up the main tournament with another H.O.R.S.E tournament for fun.  I wont bother getting into the details of H.O.R.S.E, because its confusing enough to play let alone explain.  Suffice it to say its a different game for each letter and I lost that one too.

Saturday I put in my long run that was scheduled for Friday.  I went up to Lake Lynn and ran laps there again for variety which is a circuit of about 2 miles.   My run called for 90 minutes and I managed to knock it out but my feet paid the price.  A while back I mentioned that I bought some new running shoes but didn’t start using them because i read my old shoes still had miles to go.  A few weeks ago I decided it was time to make the switch and started out with the new shoes.  I had a few small blisters from a long run in the old shoes that were aggravated by the new ones.  I figured it was just because the shoes were being broken in and the blisters hadn’t healed enough.  Now after a couple weeks I know it is the shoes.  Every single time I use them I get blisters and Saturday ended with a nice blood blister the size of two quarters end to end.  Needless to say those shoes are retired, but unfortunately I cant take them back since I waited so long before using them.  Ill be heading out to Inside-Out sports next paycheck to get refitted for a new pair and just use the tainted shoes as a casual pair.  Inside-Out is a local running/triathlon store that has a really good reputation for fitting shoes correctly.  New Balance did me right for my first two pairs but i’m getting up there in mileage and I dont want to risk a repeat of this last pair and be knocked out of commission from avoidable blisters.  Sunday was 90 minutes on the trainer for my cycling fix.

Monday I knocked out my first full mile in the pool, well it was 10 yards short but Ill call it a mile.  I did 70 laps that worked out to 1750 yards and a mile is 1760 yards.  As I’m writing this I just got out off the trainer for another hour and a half at a pretty good clip.  That was my last cycling session till the 24 Hours of Booty Friday.  I’m looking forward to getting over 150 miles which will be a nice dent in my weight loss bet.   And as a final update on that side I’m ranging between 190-195 while last week i was between 195-200.  Anyone on a scale knows that it will fluctuate all day long if you watch it.

Out at trivia last night Ron gave me the info on an insanely tempting offer.  Ive wanted/needed a new bike for awhile, but at every turn my efforts are foiled.  My air conditioning for the house goes out and has to be replaced costing upwards of 4K.  My car is in a wreck and totaled by the insurance company and now I have to buy a new one.  Its one thing after another and the new bike just slips further and further down the list of priorities.  A bike is a luxury and not a necessity as long as my old heavy aluminum Raleigh can still pedal.

So Ron tells me that for 3000 he can get me a Trek Madone SL 5.9 Project One bike all decked out with the best equipment money can buy and only has 2500 miles on it.  The bike retails for over $5400 and from Ron’s description and enthusiasm this bike is worth way more than that.   I realize how crazy it sounds, to normal people like me, to spend 3K on a bike but that’s not out of line with what you find in the cycling shops if you go and look for a decent bike thats got the bells and whistles and is most importantly light.  If there were any way possible, and any way financially responsible, at this point I would buy it in a heartbeat.  In the end its another of the deals that got away stories.

This morning I put in another 50 laps at the pool for 1250 yards and yesterday I rode the cycling trainer for an hour and 20 minutes for 21.29 miles.  Word to the wise, don’t bump your leg against the fan of the trainer after riding if you can help it.  It’ll leave a nice burn on your leg.

It seems to be a pretty popular opinion from those I’ve talked to that its great to run after it rains because it feels so much better outside and everything is cooled off.  I’d have to break with tradition though and say that 90% of the time I really dislike running after rains.  The humidity is so much higher it makes me feel like I cant get a deep breath while Im running which makes the whole effort uncomfortable.  Such was the case yesterday when I had to put in my 45 minute run which ended up being about 5.3 miles total.  My average pace was pretty slow which I attribute to the humidity and more likely the Moe’s burrito.  Those things are like crack and I have to have at least one a week.  Maybe someday Ill get to a point where I can get a sponsorship from them and get some free ones.  How nice would that be?  Then again I’d have to win something first.

Today was supposed to be a 2.5 hour bike ride but I dont have the time to squeeze it in.  I need to catch up on some work, pick up my tux for a wedding this weekend, buy a wedding present for the same wedding, and then go out to eat with my dad whose in town.  I did knock out a quick 30 minutes on the trainer for a little over eight miles before I sat down to get some work done.  Not the same as what I was supposed to knock out but its always better to do something than nothing.

Swimming is out of the picture this week with my back issues.  I want to make sure I give it time to heal up before hitting the pool again.  I hate the fact it’s keeping me out of the pool because swimming is still a major issue to me, or at least I feel like it is.  The flip side is my back isn’t cutting into my Livestrong Challenge training, only the half-Ironman training.