Climbing

Went riding with Kebby today. Just did 20 miles but it was after a slowish 90 miler on Saturday, so the legs were a little dead. She wanted to do some climbing, so we headed over toward the Elfin Forest. She had found some climb called double peaks or something like that.

It started off ok with about a 3/4 mile 7% grade. Then she hopped over to the turn lane and I thought she was turning around . But noooo! Rather, we made the turn on to the real climb. It may have been about half a mile but whoa nelly. What a ride. Average grade probably around 10% with spots up to 16%. Thought I was going to stain my shorts from the effort!

Glad to get it done. Rare to get a good workout on a Monday.

Karma

Somewhat decent week of training. Managed to get workouts in six of the seven days and increased the distance on my long run and ride. Speaking of rides, had a lot of fun yesterday on the bike. Headed out early for a 70 miler that started off a little cold. Around 8:00 a.m. the sun began to climb and a beautiful day started to shape up. Seemed like everyone I saw either waved or said hello.

I've got a planned stop at a gas station that is about 20 miles out. When I pulled in, I saw a guy pulling his bike out of his truck. He waved as I pulled in and bought some water. When I was coming out of the gas station door, he asked if I had some sunscreen. Unfortunately, I didn't and we talked about how sunny a day it was going to be. Just then, a woman walked over from the gas pumps and gave us a tube. She said she was a cyclist too and knew what it was like to ride in the sun. That was so freakin nice! And that was the theme for 90% of the rest of the ride. Smiles and waves all around.

One notable exception happened when I was almost home. I turned onto a somewhat deserted section of road and saw a cyclist ahead of me by about a quarter of a mile. I was slowly catching him even though it wasn't intentional. He looked back and saw me and picked up the pace. I wasn't racing him and I'm not that fast anyway. Even if I was...who really cares? In any event, he kept looking back and for the next mile or so. Then a light turned red and he had to stop. As expected, he had to look back one more time to see how much he had "beaten" me by. But...oh...guess who forgot to unclip??? Yep! Bam! Face plant from a standstill!! He quickly picked himself up and made point not to look my way. I know it's not polite to laugh at other people's misfortunes but wow...was that Karma or what?

Ok..it's on

I'm going to do it. Do what? You ask. I'm going to do Ironman Hawaii. What the hell are you talking about? I'm going to do the race. I still don't understand? Ok...let me step back and provide some context. I'm a very average triathlete. I triangulated on this opinion by (1) having my V02 max tested..."the coach called me a "buckhead betty", (2) getting constantly smashed by my wife and her business partner Steph during training and (3) racing four Ironman races over the past three years and having a PR of only 12 hours and 19 minutes. But, right or wrong, I managed to get a slot to the Hawaii Ironman through a program called the Executive Challenge....twice. The first was at IMCDA and the second was last year at Ironman Arizona. While most people would jump at the chance to go to Kona, I was having doubts. First was the question about actually deserving to go (I don't and know one can convince me otherwise) and the second was the fact that I kinda suck in the heat. Actually, I really suck. When I did Kona the first time, I finished over ten pounds lighter and almost deaf. Now, second time around, I know not only how hard the race can be due to the conditions, I also know how much training I need to do to complete the event without ending up in the medical tent. But after several months of reflection, I have not only come to terms with having a slot (I didn't make the rules and a boycott won't change anything) and...I think I'm ready to make a commitment to the training. So, with that as background...I'm going to do the race. Training log and navel gazing ruminations to follow.