Thursday a.m.

Good morning! Thursday already? And it's the last day of July. Time flies. November 1st will be here before we know it. John's Ironman at Louisville is rapidly approach, just 3 weeks from Sunday! I can't imagine how I am going to feel 3 weeks out from Ironman Florida, but it does make me want to train hard now.

Yesterday morning I ran 7 miles. It went OK. The cool weather this summer certainly has made running easier than a normal summer. I have been fighting hamstring problems since late March, but I think the fight is about over for now. They feel OK. I am still running slowly and need to begin fixing that. I have not run with anyone since mid-March. Running with a/the group will force me to speed up.

Later today I will add a bike ride of at least 30 miles, and once it's in the books, I will have more than 700 miles on the bike for the month. I think that is my biggest month ever. I will fall short of running 100 miles for the month but not by much. I hope to swim sometime today, which will give me more than 10,000 yards. July has been a good month of training. I hope I can match it in August and bump the run miles up north of 100.

During July I only took 2 days off. I'm not sure what to think about that. I probably need more days off, but you know how that goes. If there is an opportunity to do something, then I'm likely going to do it. Usually weather and schedule problems force me to take more time off.

OK, I have a busy day ahead. Tomorrow I will share my year-to-date totals. I know you can hardly wait!

Wednesday Morning

My favorite thing in life right now - Cora Jane

Good morning! I didn't have any photos to go with this post, so it provides a great opportunity to show off my sweet little granddaughter! And really, isn't this better than a picture of Bill and/or Troy? I took a couple of them last night, but, and this is a complicated thing, Strava is down, which means I can't get those photos from Instagram.

Did I mention Strava is down? Horror or Horrors! We can't get our data from last night's ride, at least I can't. Now, our Neo-Luddites are in a great shape. They use stop watches. Forget Garmin! Forget Strava! Get a stopwatch! OK, the Neo-Luddites win this time. Strava will be up soon, and all of life will be OK again. For now, I wonder what I did last night, specifically on the Double TT Trouble segment.

Nine of us, if I remember correctly, rolled out of the church parking lot. Let's see, it was Roy, Troy, Jim, Tim, Rand, Bill, Scott, John and me. Rand turned back with tire trouble but found us later. We were going to do a new thing last night. Instead of usual hard 8 or 9 mile push to the country line, we would line up 10 miles out and do all 10 miles out and back in one continuous effort.

This was a great idea by Bill. It provides 20 miles of hard effort. Last night we did it individually. Being the slowest in the group, I went first. I think others took off about every 2 minutes. I was looking for a hard sustained effort of around 18-19 miles per hour. I think I did that. I will have it confirmed when Strava is back up. I think everyone else was better than 20 mph. Bill hammered it and is now the King of the Mountain on the segment (until Strava updates, this is the old data).

As usual, it was a good workout and a lot of fun. We ended up with 39 miles, followed by our trip to Wendy's. Stock-holder Tim G. came and enjoyed a Frosty with us. I think he was making sure his investment was backed by good service. He seemed pleased. The employees seemed nervous and eager to please, recognizing a distinguished customer was there.

This morning I plan to run 7 miles. I am coming off my biggest week yet of Ironman training. I had 16 hours and 20 minutes last week. I hope to make it to 20 hours in a few weeks for a few weeks. I am finding it hard to get there and to manage fatigue. I think Bill said something like this a few years ago: "Ironman training is a demanding mistress." Sounds about right to me.

Moving Toward Florida

The Bird, Jim, and Rand

Some of you used to read my blog on a regular basis. I had a computer crash a few months ago and stopped blogging. For several reasons, even with a new computer, I chose not to resume that blog. I may go back to it later, but for now I am considering releasing some of my writing urges in this place. 

My target audience for this blog is considerably different than my other blog. I don't know if I had a target for it, but it was read pretty broadly by a pretty diverse group of people. Some did not understand nor appreciate how endurance athletics fit into a broader life. Hopefully everyone who reads this has some appreciation for one of my passions. 

The title of this blog comes from two huge goals in my life. One is done. The other is to come. I am blessed with some athletic ability but not as much as some of you. Qualifying for Boston was difficult for me, so I was proud of the work and effort to achieve that. I could not have done it without many of you, friends who encouraged and pulled me along. Ironman? Totally unthinkable just 3 years ago. Ironically, it was my ill-fated RAIN ride of 2011 that put me on this path toward Ironman. You can read about it here.

How did this RAIN ride lead to Ironman? I always thought I could not endure much more than 4 hours of endurance work. This came from how I felt after several marathons. The thought of enduring a 14-15 event, plus the totally inability to swim, made Ironman impossible in my mind. 

My RAIN disaster had me on the course for around 14 hours. As I recovered from that, I thought about how I was out for about the same amount of time as an Ironman event. I was fine for most of that time. This allowed me to change my thinking from "impossible" to "possible." There was one big obstacle in the way, however. 

I could not dog paddle to save my life. Literally! Rand can testify to my first night in the BNL pool, back in February of 2012. Thanks to him, Bill, Jimmy, Tim, and a host of other encouragers/teachers, I am on track to do the 2.4 mile swim on November 1. The word miraculous has been used - ha ha.

OK, I think that brings you up to speed. I am moving from one huge accomplishment toward another one. I, like many of you, am goal-oriented, task-oriented. My life is often measured by what I achieve and accomplish. That's not always healthy, perhaps, but it is a reality. What I hope to do here is share some of my thoughts and activities as I move toward November 1 and Ironman Florida.

I would love for this to be interactive, where you comment and add your experiences. Bill's great blog usually does not get comments, so I do not have my hopes too high - ha ha!

I used to blog everyday, and I may do that here. Check back often, if you are interested.