Here We Go!

It's about this time of year that I start to wish I was one of those people that casually hit my indoor, cushy, air-conditioned gym for a little recumbent bike/book reading...or maybe that I decided that light yoga was for me instead of running and triathlons. Nope, I decided to pick a sport that requires outdoor racing in sometimes brutal conditions, which ideally should include a little outdoor training as well in equally brutal conditions. The wool blanket has descended upon Austin manifesting the almost permanent sweat glow that will be around until about November.

And because I have a Half-Ironman one month from today, I can no longer make excuses about recovery or vacations or whatever lame-o excuse I can muster about not wanting to be outdoors. 

Our Gazelle workout yesterday had us all questioning the sanity of Coach G. We did 10 x 500m repeats on the track. Yep--the lesser known workout of 500m. That's a 1 1/4 lap on the track. So just when you want to be done with the lap, you still have to find another gear for the final straight-away all Kentucky Derby style.  His reasoning behind the odd distance?? We're supposed to be having fun right now and not worrying about or comparing our times. Of course he knows that we all go home to our logs and try to evaluate whether or not we're getting faster or slower. Nope-today was more like recess because there was nothing to compare it to. My times (because of course I want to know) ranged from 2:07 (#1) to 1:53 (#10) (6:03-6:48 pace). Our "goal pace" was to hover around the 2:00min mark so I would give it an A++ for effort. 

You want to know what's funny about having a fitness-based blog as opposed to a knitting blog, American Idol blog or even an adoption blog?  Well, when you get the pleasure of meeting fellow bloggers, it's not like, "Hey, let's meet for a cup of coffee and talk about the Civil War that we both blog about and love so much." Oh no...when tri bloggers get together, it's all about sweating.  

This week I'm also having fun playing host to TriGreyhound while he hangs in Austin for some crazy important Lawyer Conferences doing whatever it is that lawyers do when they get together. In Greyhound's case, he trains like a savage since he's officially 3 weeks away from IMCdA. So, I'm showing him how we train all ATX-Style (which is my suburban white girl speak for Austin Style). We met this morning for a 7 mile run with some of my partners Skud, Richard and Running Hubby Mike. We started nice and slow, but ended up averaging about 9:18 for the run.   Tonight, Greyhound will join me at the T3 Indoor Cycling Class and then an open water swim tomorrow at Barton Springs. Let me tell you...that boy is ready for this race and he's keeping me on my toes!   I promise to get some pics tonight at cycling class. Opportunities like these are too good to pass up!