Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Tackling the climbs and more

Here we are, into April, with Eagleman only about 2 months away. An amazing thought -- in about 60-odd days, I'll be setting out my gear, dealing with pre-race nerves, and focusing on the task at hand.

I'm proud to say that I'm way past any "I want to finish" thoughts. I'll finish -- no doubt about that. It's only a question of how well I'll race the event now. That feeling comes from the solid training I've gotten under my belt. Coach Debi's program has built me up so that I'm confident in my abilities, because I've done the work.

I've felt the training paying off over the last few weeks. I've done a lot of riding, much of it over familiar routes, and I can both feel and see my improvement on the bike. The climbs that used to wipe me out are now just steady efforts, and my average speeds have been increasing while requiring less effort.

My running has been very solid. I did the Charlottesville 10 Miler last weekend and came in at 1:16:48 -- 7:43 pace, good for 26 out 110 in my age group. I ran a good race, too -- an even effort throughout, with a negative split for the last 5 miles.

This month looks challenging, but doable. 12 miles running on Saturday, a 4 hour bike on Sunday, then another hard week before I get to taper a bit for my first tri of the season, the Kinetic Sprint. No predictions yet from me on that, but I'm optimistic that I'll have a good race.

The highlight of the month? Has to be on the last weekend, when I've got a triple brick day: 20 mile bike, 3 mile run, 20 mile bike, 3 mile run, 20 mile bike, 2 mile run. Should be loads of fun!

Ken

Keep up with my training log here!

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