The Long Run

I am currently training for the AT&T Marathon in Austin, Texas on February 17, 2008. It will be my first marathon and yesterday morning was my longest and coldest run to date, 23 miles. I was dreading this run because I knew it was going to be cold. I had to start early because I needed to be home by 10. I woke up around 5, checked the weather, it was 27 degrees, put on several layers of cloths and headed out to Brushy Creek Park for my run. Now 27 degreees might not seem very cold too many of you, but I have lived in Texas for over 20 years and this was my first experience running in cold weather. Three weeks ago when it was cold I ran my 20 miles on a treadmill…..

To help keep me warm and motivated during the run I listened to In Transit: 2 Triathletes Take on the World with Elizabeth and Cara, thanks for the company, keep up the good work. And yes I did add myself to your Frappr Map.

Besides learning that Yes, I can run in the cold weather I also discovered that my IPhone touch screen does not respond very well to gloves. I did though become pretty proficient at using my nose to select podcast episodes……

Gota geta Garmin...

I received an early Christmas present today, a Garmin Forerunner 305. I have it sitting on the charger, I should be able to take it out tomorrow for a ride. I looked through the manual and it seems like it is a pretty serious piece of equipment. I think I got a pretty good deal on it, I ordered it from Costco.com for $179.99….I will post my thoughts after I use it a few times.

Catching the Ironman Bug

I was on my way home yesterday when I received the following email:

Tempe, AZ – Less than 200 general entry spots remain for the 2008 Ford Ironman Arizona Triathlon, set to take place on November 23, 2008. The event is expected to be sold out by Monday so athletes interested in competing in the event are urged to register to avoid being closed out. Athletes can register at http://www.ironmanarizona.com/.

Why would I even consider this? Well, lately my resistance to the Ironman bug has been lowered by several things:

• I competed in the Couples Sprint Tri and the Austin Tri (Olympic) in 2007.
• After 6 weeks of training for the swim, my swim form seemed to come back after 25 years of neglect.
• I am already training for the Austin Marathon. My runs during my Tri’s were so bad that I figured that if I trained for a marathon it would help.
• But I think what really did it was that I had recently begun listening to Triathlon Podcasts like Tri Talk, SimplyStu, Zen and the Art of Triathlon, Get your Geek On, Jetpack Show and Ironman Talk. Actually I have listened to almost every episode of these Podcasts in the past few weeks. I have enjoyed listening and reading about the journeys of others and decided to take the journey myself…..

So I clicked the link and in a matter of minutes I received my Registration Confirmation email, now there is no backing out.