Not much going on except training again. I'm finally back in the water with a few pool swims. The plan is to do a few swims a week early morning in the PEA pool. It's good because everyone at home is still asleep while I'm drowning so the cost to the clan is low.

I finally got outside on the bike, and found my set up is way too aggressive for the road. I'm thinking of undoing all the tri stuff and just set it up as a road bike and wait until I get a tri bike to go all aero and such.

I'm still not sure about doing a tri this month, but I probably will. Next week is a golf vacation week, so no swimming or biking while I'm away but maybe a few runs.

The half marathon is behind me. Very disappointing day, but lots of valuable learning. Where to begin? The race was at 11:00 AM, which is a weird time for me. I made a huge mistake eating only a light breakfast at 7 and then nothing more before the race. Long story short - I was doing fine until about mile 8.5 and then I bonked. There were some trips to the woods (and not for #1!), and the run was basically done. I finished, but slower and in a lot more discomfort than my training runs at this distance.

I admit during the ride home there were some serious doubts about continuing on this journey, I mean if I bonk in a half marathon how am I ever going to go long in a triathlon? But with a few days of perspective and some great folks giving me sound advice, I'm re-energized to get back after it.

I'm also debating adding a triathlon next month to get this taste out of my mouth and taste a little success.

Race prep in progress

Only a few days left to the half marathon. At least I know I'll PR! I still have this low level stuffy head of some sort, so hopefully it goes away this weekend.

I'm not doing too much of a taper, but I'll cut today's run short, take Friday off, and do a really short run on Sat.

I've got a plan for the race, so hopefully I can stick to it and have a good outcome. The idea is to stay disciplined and keep the pace slow for the first two/three miles, and then slowly ramp up and finish the last 5k as the fastest. We'll see how the hills affect me.

My sherpa, Zack, was planning to come cheer me on, but he has a Jiu Jitsu obligation so he is very disappointed. I told him this isn't really a race but more of a checkpoint, so he's ok with it. Stay posted since my next race is a sprint tri and he's doing the kid version. That should be a blast.

Starting point

I've caught the tri bug after a very eventful first sprint last fall. Race report is here if you want some comedy. My "A" race for this year is a half ironman in September, which is quite a stretch given I'd never run before last fall and couldn't swim with my face in the water until the sprint last year as well.

At this point, my goals for the year are really to avoid any serious injury setbacks and to teach my body what it means to train in this crazy sport, and of course to finish that half iron in a decent frame of mind. I really needed to work on running this winter, so to force myself to stay with it I signed up for a half marathon on April 11.

It's now 9 days until the half marathon. After staying very consistent all winter I'm looking forward to the race to see where my run fitness really is. I've developed a bit of a cold with some nasal drip, so hopefully this will go away quickly - or maybe I'm destined to be sick for all my races!