Great Bike Ride

This morning I had a great morning bike ride.  This was my longest distance yet.  I rode 42 miles with an average of 3:50/mile.  It was very "hilly" going out and coming back was obviously a lot easier (more downhills).  I can tell a huge difference in using my bike shoes, it's a different motion/set of muscles especially going uphill.  I was used to having stirrups, now I'm locked in.  I'm still trying to figure out the right nutrition/hydration while riding longer rides.  I've got a great coach now who will be teaching me those particular things.  Overall, I feel great after this ride.  I'm going to take it easy this weekend as I will be participating/competing in my first triathlon on Monday morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  This is a "mini" triathlon...more to come on Monday afternoon.

Swimming Day

Today was a tough day.  Have you ever woken up and just felt like not working out.  That was this morning.  I've been suffering a sinus infection and I'm just tired.  I went ahead to the pool this morning and I haven't swam in over a week.  I did however swim 1/2 mile this morning in about 15 minutes.  My total weight loss this summer has been 32 pounds.  I'm hoping to lose a total of 50 by the end of this year.  Like I said before swimming is probably my weakest area. 

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - Philippians 4:13.

New Shoes/Bike Ride

I have been riding my bike for a month now.  I love bike riding!  I have now converted from stirrups to Cleats/Pedals.  This seems to have made a huge difference in my riding.  The only thing I'm trying to get use to is un-clipping my shoe from the pedal in enough time at the red lights so I don't fall over with my shoes still in my pedals at a complete stop....yes that almost happened tonight!  My easy rides now are 20-25 miles.  I normally ride 15-16 miles per hour.  I am working on riding more hills...which seems to be my weak area.  This is a picture of what most of my rides look like here in the wild wild west. 

Swimming

I started swimming 4 months ago.  I remember going to the pool for the first time and swimming 1-1/2 laps...that's it.  I was exhausted. My goal was to swim at least 30 minutes by the end of my little punch card for the Aquatic Center.  At the end of my punch card, I finally made it 30 minutes in the pool.  I was up to a one mile swim.  This is probably my weakest area in the 3 sports.  I try to swim at least 3 times a week. 

My Journey Begins

I started running a few years ago with the training most people have done "Couch to 5k".  I remember my first race...I was so nervous and just hoping I would be able to finish my first 5k race.  I trained and finished the race.  After that I was hooked.  I continued doing more 5k races which lead to 10k races.  I then decided to go for the BIG one...a Marathon.  I did some research on which one to run and decided to run the Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon in June 2010.
 

It wasn't by best race, but I finally ran and completed my first Marathon!  I remember crossing the finish line and saying to myself, "I will never do that again".  I then went back to San Diego in 2012, ran the half-marathon and did much better.

After finishing that race and other half marathons, I needed something more...I wanted to complete a half ironman (70.3).  I then talked with a Triathlon coach and I've decided to train and complete a Full Ironman (140.6) next year, 2013.  And so the ironman journey begins...