The week of halfs

I would start by saying half number one: Training - only about half as much as I would have liked due to this sprained ankle that is taking its sweet time getting better. I do feel I made a big jump in how it feels Sunday night to Monday morning, so as they say I am starting the week off on the right foot(its actually my left) I managed to get in a few workouts, including a new 14 or so mile bike that had some challenging hills. I spent one of the long stretches trying to catch up to another biker I saw, I gained almost all of the ground and then saw him turn when I was about 250 yards back. All of this kept me at a reasonable heart rate but I was still pushing hard for the new route.

I also did an open water swim on Sunday, thanks to Bill, race director for the Waconia Tri this coming weekend. He and his wife Wendy allowed about a dozen of us to come and swim the course. They even put up markers and had the GPS to map it out. .25 miles exactly! This was probably my last hard workout and was only about half what I would normally swim for a workout session, but it got me some time in open water. I even tested out my Garmin 305 on the swim, looks like I could work on swimming a straight line a bit better when in open water!


The race takes place in Clear Lake, my little rant to the people in charge of naming lakes... if its not clear... stay away from the name Clear Lake. Green Lake would have been a better fit. The water was calm which was a huge change from my last OWS with 2.5 ft chop.


All things said, I was happy with my swim as I did not push at race pace, but enough to get a good feel for the distance in my wetsuit and after having a bit of time off. See the results below.

I was the last person in the water, and the first one out. I shocked myself since everyone else started a few minutes ahead of me. Hope to have my swim split less than 8 minutes for the race, ideally 7:30-7:45.

Even with my ankle not being 100% my goal for the .25 Swim, 14 Bike, 4.4 mile run Waseca Tri : 1:31:30 by my rough calculations. If I do it less than 1:30:00 chances are I met all of my set goals for this race:

• Swim less than 8 minutes
• Under 3 minute T1 (I need work on this one)
• 20 MPH Bike Average (nice flat course should help for this)
• Less than 8 mins / mile on the run

Time to get back on subject of halfs. As some know I have a technical background and I love my technology and having information at my fingertips. I could read things on the internet for hours at a time just to learn new things. I also am a big fan of Craigslist for picking up some good deals.

When my wife and I started training for our first tri, we had to buy bikes. I couldn't quite get her convinced to get a road bike so she ended up with a hybrid to be in a less aggressive stance. Now she wishes she had gotten a road bike as I so often hear "Remember your bike is faster than mine!"

I happened to see a posting Friday for a Quintana Roo Chicqilo tri bike that was a year old and used, but at a very very good price. I did some contacting and we ended up going Friday to test the bike out, although we thought it could have been a bit large, it turns out it was a perfect fit. Picked it up Saturday after hitting the bank! Rather than having to go out and buy her a new bike, we snagged this good deal at considerably less than half the cost it would have been new, plus it has a wireless Cateye V2c computer and speedplay pedals included. We will eventually grab her a Garmin 305, but she loves her new bike, and its pink too!

[Her Bike]

We went out for a quick spin after swapping out to plain pedals until she gets used to clip ins. She noticed how much quicker it was, and I must admit I can tell its much faster than her other. She realized it very quickly that the more aggressive bike equals different muscles being worked and thus she will be building some new ones as she starts using it. We went out and snagged her some fancy new Specialized Trivent shoes and now just need her to get used to the bike and then start learning the pedals.

Of course learning to clip in is easier on a trainer... gosh wouldn't it be great if we had one of those, well we do not, but I am sure craigslist does! I had done research before and found that the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine trainer is highly praised, and thus has a higher price. It just turns out that in the Minneapolis area, two were put up within 2 hours of each other Sunday afternoon. After a few phone calls and a few miles in the car. I brought home a new trainer that had a total of 30 minutes of usage before the guy realized he did not like riding indoors at all. Sticking with the theme, walked out paying less than half the cost of the trainer new and it included a floor mat. Great for people like me that sweat just looking at a bike or thinking about running.

[Trainer]

It would be a great if I only had to work a half week, but no such luck. I may end up with a half day on Friday at least to meet my family who is comming up to watch us do our triathlon. An easy week of training this week in hopes that my ankle recovers to almost full before the race.