New Record Distance

FIFTY miles today! Yes, this was my longest ride ever! And yes, I'm pleased... I'm very glad that Kim was with the group today or else I'd have been left alone in the back of the pack. But, that's okay - I'm new to this.

Total Distance: 50.19 miles
Avg Speed. 14.8 mph
(we did stop twice though) It is slow, but thats okay. We still have several weeks to improve before Longhorn.

Fun in the Pool.

I finally gained the courage to try the YMCA Masters class again - I'm hooked. The coach is great and was willing to work with me. Gave me numerous pointers throughout the night and really broke my stroke down. I was told that I have a lot of room for improvement and that each week he will make a necessary adjustment. Also, at the end of the practice, we did an exercise that breaks down each element of the freestyle stroke - very helpful!

Randomness...

Okay, its been a while... a long while. I never did the race report. I'll make it short - everything but the swim went well. Somehow I averaged 19.1 mph on the bike and 9:33 miles on the run. I'm happy with the bike and I'll accept the run. I haven't been pushing myself enough on the runs and I'm working on it - honest. With regard to the swim, it just sucked. Yes, that is the technical word. For some reason, I flipped out at about 20m into it. I think that it was a combination of nerves, breathing, and only swimming a handful of times in a 50m pool.

Since the tri, work has been crazy. In this day of settlement, we actually went to trial... Needless to say, I had several busy weeks. Now, I'm really back with it and have learned a few lessons -

1) My swim sucks... I gotta spend a lot of time in the pool. I'm giving the Downtown Y Masters class another try this week and will try UH Masters next week.

2) My core is weak... Haven't done core in ages and did it yesterday - boy was it embarrassing.

3) Hills are tough... Yes, I know that this is not really a revelation; however, this past weekend was my first round of hills on the bike. I was hurting Saturday afternoon.

4) ATP is practice... Houston Fit ATP is not a running group. We have practices that require mandatory attendance unless a prior excuse has been cleared with the coach. Well, at least this is what I'm telling myself.

5) The scale can be a dirty liar... So, I've been a bit frustrated that I haven't actually dropped that much weight. Then, yesterday at the office, someone commented that I was looking good and that she could tell that I'd lost some weight. Yes, I have a new favorite assistant.