On the bike

Since my first ever triathlon is now only a month away, it makes sense that I should probably get on a bike for the first time in 2008. I think Beth and I did a spinning class once back in the winter, but I forget if that was December or January or February. Regardless, since a triathlon consists of swim/bike/run, I shouldn't ignore the middle third.

So, out I went this afternoon once Beth got all packed up and left for a triathlon camp in New Jersey that is hosted by her online coaching group Mark Allen Online. The course I chose is one that Beth and I did a few years back when she was first getting into triathlons and wanted to ride a bike. The loop is a HILLY 8.7 miles (I just checked it out on a mapping program) and I sure need to pick up the pace if I want to do well at my first tri. I took a little under 35:00 give or take if you factor in stopping for one red light. So, for you math majors that's just under 15 miles an hour. Then, I took this time and calculated what it would be for 7 miles (the distance of the bike in my sprint tri) and it came out to just over 28 minutes. So, feeling good that I had a good ride, I looked up the results from when Beth did it a few years ago and saw that the top people were 20-23 minute range. Hmmm.

So, what kind of people were around 28 minutes? People like a 16 year old girl who swam under 9 minutes for the 400 meter swim. People like 45-50 year old females and 60+ males. But, it was my first time out on a bike and a hilly course and a training run, so hopefully I'll be faster come race day.

Then, comes the run. I figured I'd try a brick to see what that feels like. My goal was to just go out around the neighborhood for 10-15 minutes and try to run "hard"--not race pace, but try to go pretty hard. So, I ended up doing 1.8 miles in 11:24 which comes out to about 6:25 pace. Not bad--that'll put me in a good position to run my 5k on race day.

Today was the first official day of summer vacation. Graduation was last night and now it's done. It was neat seeing some of the students last night now that I've been at the school for two years now and have been involved with xc/track. It's sad to see some of the kids go, but it's neat to look forward to next fall with xc.

Well, with Beth not around I'm going to be a little crazy and have pancakes for dinner. I'm looking forward to it and I think they're just about ready!!! Bon appetit!!!