Sunday, October 25, 2009

Hope You Enjoyed The Rest, Have a Helping from the Hurt Box

Big week ahead, so hopefully I’ve done my best job resting up.

Saturday’s swim-bike-run brick was not especially fun…pool swim by myself, slow-feeling bike ride by myself, hot but fast run by myself. Allllllll byyyyy myseeelllff….. I guess I should get used to this, I race alone, right? Anyway, it got done and some days that’s all that really matters. It can’t always be pretty, fast, fun and beautiful.

After the workout, I went to Stanford with Jeff to see the ASU football game. With Jeff’s college roommate Chris, we had a good time.

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The alarm went off WAY too early this morning (4am, to be precise) and after walking/feeding dogs and packing up our stuff we were off to Santa Cruz for the Big Kahuna 1/2 IM triathlon.

My brother was racing his 2nd 1/2 IM.

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Team Pub Inspectors was racing as a relay team.

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Unfortunately the fog was so thick and persisted well past the intended race start time, to the point where organizers had to make the call for safety to cancel the swim and turn the race into a duathlon. There was simply no way for swimmers to see the course, or for the lifeguards to see the swimmers.

And so…they started on the beach and raced for transition!

Robert (my brother)

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Nigel heading off on the ride (Steve sprinted so fast from the “swim” exit that I missed him!)

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Of course as soon as the waves begin to go off, the fog cleared. Thanks, Mother Nature, thanks a lot.

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Our spectating crew

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By the time my brother and Nigel rolled in, it was getting warm!

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And then the men were off on a little 13.1 mile run.

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Go Jeff!!!

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Since the whole course is out and back, we just hung out at the finish line from that point on and tried to stay in the shade!

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I guess 2 out of 3 ain’t bad…

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A little under 2 hours, my love rolled on in, hamstring pull and all!

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I tried as best I could to stay off my feet and rest for tomorrow’s first big workout of the last BIG week. It was fun to be around a racing atmosphere but I was also happy to not be racing. I’m perfectly content saving myself for the big day that’s only 4 weeks (ACK!) away.

In the meantime, while we were gone, the dogs amused themselves with a garden relocation project. Objective: dig as much as possible in the dirt, carry dirt in on your coat, dry off while sleeping in the humans’ bed. Sweet.

Training totals for week 44 (October 19-25):
Swim: 4200 yards
Bike: 68.7 miles
Run: 11.2 miles
Total time: 8.25 hours

6 comments:

D said...

If we hadn't had the conversation we had earlier, I'd ban your blog for the appearance of purple :P

Maria said...

way to be an excellent support crew! hope the jeff's hamstring isn't too bad. tell the dogs good luck on the relocation project!

ADC said...

Fun weekend. Love the pictures. Well done Jeff.

Lisa T said...

Best title for a post ever. Reminds me why I'm hoping I'm never crazy enough to train for an ironman.

Trishie said...

congrats to all the racers ! You know.... I know we race "alone" (it is, after all, an individual sport) but - for me, at least - having other people around me is motivating. Something about pain loves compnay? ;)

Rainmaker said...

Very cool - the Big Kahuna - my first half-iron race. :)

Bummer about the fog, I heard about that on ST. I had nearly the same thing at a sprint race earlier this year, but the fog 'sorta-but-not-realy' lifted enough so the race organizers let us go. :)

Congrats to Jeff!