Finally bought a wetsuit

Since I have my first Tri of the year coming up this weekend, I finally picked up a wetsuit. I struggled trying to decided between a full and a sleeveless, but after swimming in the full, I decided to get a 2007 Blue Seventy Helix. Jack and Adams only had a few 2007's left over, but they happened to have my size at a great price. In a test during my first swim in the suit, I was about 7 seconds faster for 100 yards in the wetsuit. I tried to keep the effort the same with and without the wetsuit, but I think the lack of needing to kick in a wetsuit will even help more over longer swims. I am doing my first Half Ironman this weekend in Galveston Texas.

Back in the Pool

With my first marathon completed a few weeks back, I have been getting back in the pool and getting a little more consistent with my swimming. Looking at my workout log, I have logged just over 60,000 yards this year, much of that in the past few weeks.

Coach Mike had a surprise for us this morning. After a warm-up we had a 30 minute swim. Many of my pool buddies started suggesting alternative sets so we did not have to swim for 30 minutes straight, but Coach Mike would not let us off the hook. In my mind I was trying to calculate how far I could go. I felt I might be able to handle 500 yds in 6 minutes, so I settled on a goal of 2,500 yards, a 1:12 per 100 yards average.

I was not really sure how realistic this was since the longest straight swim I have done in practice was maybe a set of 500’s. My first 500 was right at 6:00, I was feeling pretty good. I was at 19:25 for my 1650 and completed almost 2,550 yards in the 30 minutes. I was pretty happy with the distance, but I could feel my stroke falling apart at the end. Coach Mike says we will periodically do timed swims like this one, we will see how it goes….

Marathon Results

Well, it has been several weeks since the AT&T marathon..It did not turn out the way I had planned. My goal was a 3:45, but I was not even close. I cramped up at about 15 miles and basically walked the last 11 miles and ended up crossing the finish line at 4:47.
I just uploaded my data from my Garmin and have just taken my first look at it. I was at 1:50 at the half, just hanging with the 3:40 pace group, my heart rate was in check and I felt very good. It looks like at 15.3 miles I started walking. I would periodicaly stop and stretch, then try to jog some more, but I could not get rid of the cramps in my legs. I remember at about 22 miles I was going to stop, but I had come so far, I figured that I could make it the last 4 miles, plus I wanted to get the finisher shirt......
Even though it did not turn out as I had planned, I was happy to finish. My half marathon time at 1:50 was 22 minutes faster than the half marathon that I ran about 4 years ago.
I signed up for and trained for the marathon because the run leg of Tri's were very poor in my first 2 triathlons last year. I do feel like I am much more of a "runner" now then before training for the marathon. I will see how this translates to the run leg of my triathlons in 2008.