Monday

Cora is 8 months old

Good morning! This needs to be fairly quick. I want to get 7 miles in before 8 a.m. This means I will need to start before too long, and I have to pack up for the day as well. It is going to be another nice cool morning to run. I am not quite ready for this kind of cool, but here it is!

I hope you had a good weekend. I had a great weekend, a busy one mixed with a lot of church activity, along with some good endurance work. After a rest day on Friday I was ready to attempt my first 20 miler in a long time. Saturday morning was very cool--low 50s-- and fairly windy out of the northwest.

Seven a.m. was a good start time. I needed to check my phone periodically, so I went out for 6-7 miles at a time, coming back for nutrition/hydration and phone checks. I am pleased to say I did the 20 miles without any problems. Naturally I slowed some in the last 3-4 miles, but that's quite ok. My heart rate stayed good throughout. I felt good afterwards.

If you are interested in the data, I think you see it here: Strava and Garmin. I was certainly not fast, but I was fairly steady. I also did a 100 mile bike ride on Thursday, so I am pleased about my fitness level. We are less than 7 weeks out from Ironman Florida and everything is looking good.

Yesterday afternoon some of us went swimming: Jimmy, Roy, Brent, and me. It was cool, and the water was cool. Jimmy wanted me to try his sleeveless wet suit, so I did. I liked it, though my arms never warmed up during the swim.

I went into the water with an intentionality of working on my rotation, kick, and reach. Yes, that is too much to concentrate on, but I tried to work on each one at various times. I am not sure if it was that or the wet suit--probably both--but I took nearly 5 minutes of my 1.2 mile time from my last attempt. I was happy about that but not totally satisfied. I can work on swimming all the way to Ironman, which is good.

OK, need to run. Literally.