Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Time for a little recap

Time flies when you are recovering from a broken hip!! The good news is I was cleared to run a few weeks before the original recovery date.  I attribute this to staying positively focused on healing as opposed to feeling sorry for myself because of another set back.  In the whole scheme of what I've been through, missing 10 weeks isn't a big deal.

Once I cleared to start running again I noted that the Rattlesnake Triathlon Sprint was 4 weeks out so I signed up.  I started by running 1 minute and walking 1 minute for the first week and then bumped it up a minute each week.  My initial runs were 2 miles but by week 3 I did a couple of 4 milers.  My pacing including my walks had me around a 9:45 minute mile sometimes 10 minutes per mile. Not fast by any means but I was up and moving.  I started to get some knee discomfort and this was attributed to some muscle imbalances caused by rehab and the break.  I saw my ART Dr. a few times and my PT. I was taped up race week and ready to roll.

In the mean time I continued to swim as my key race of the year will be the Big Shoulders open water 5k swim in Lake Michigan.  I've been putting in 4-5 days a week between 3500-5500 yards.  This includes several 3 mile open water swims at Grant Ranch.  I've never trained for this long of a swim.  I think I may have peaked too early but my only goal is to finish and get the experience of a distance open water swim under my belt.

The coaching business continues to prosper and I couldn't be prouder of the entire Mile High Multisport family.  Our coaches have really started to peak and many of us are already full for next season with clients.  Last weekend, we had 3 more people qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. This brings the total to 7 MHM athletes who will race that day. We also have a number of athletes who are racing at the 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas on September 9.  In addition to that we have had some many positive experiences with athletes who are setting goals to live healthy lives and in the end that is mostly what matters.

After the Big Shoulders swim I will race an Olympic distance triathlon on the Western slope of Colorado on 10/7 then shut her down for a little while before ..........big announcement here...... starting training for Ironman Texas.  I've always wanted to do a 5th Ironman and  the timing of this race fits in perfect with our work schedule.  I have no goal other than to finish and prove to myself that I can overcome a lot of set backs and still be in shape to complete an Ironman. I will also have completed one Ironman in each of the decades starting with my 20's.  I did Ironman Canada at age 28, Ironman Wisconsin when I was 39 and 40, Ironman Canada when I was 41 and now Ironman Texas when I'm 50.. Then I'm good with Ironman for at lease 19 more years!!

If you've read this far, thank you.. I'll try to blog a little more frequently in the future.