Busted!

Iron Eric emailed me a couple days ago to ask how my Florida Half Ironman training had been going and I finally had to admit (mostly to myself) that I had been slacking. Yes, it's true. The last couple months I have not been training as much as I should have. Instead, I have been dealing with setting up a new home in Hawaii, lining myself for a new consulting job and rehabbing the injury from my last race. Excuses, excuses, excuses ...

My winter maintenance training has been a mish-mash. Some 30-45 minute swims here, some 1-4 hour rides there and some 1-4 hour runs sprinkled in as well. I started out following the D3 MultiSport 12 week Winter Maintenance Training Program and ended up doing mostly just the long workouts.

But this weekend I'll use the Simply Stu Worldwide Triathlon to kickstart my tri training in earnest. Really, I will. With only 8 weeks until the half ironman, I need to, even though I just hope to fuel and pace myself better to be able to run stronger than last year.

So, my plan is to do a self-administered Olympic distance tri (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run). Since I'm running the Olathe Marathon next Saturday, I will go easy to make sure I don't reinjure my ankle, which is nearly fully recovered but still a little weak. My measure of completion will only be time-based, not distance-based though, namely, swim 45 minutes, bike 1.5 hrs and run 1 hr. This way I won't be as tempted to push the pace. To further discourage myself from going too hard, I'll leave all pace-tracking devices at home and bring only my watch and swim/bike/run by feel, an easy feel.

If YOU have nothing else going on already this weekend, why not consider doing a Simply Stu triathlon as well? You don't have to register for any official event; you can do one on your own like I and many others are doing. There's no cost, no set distance requirements, no time limit. You can even spread out the events over the course of 3 days, 3/23-25.

If you're interested, just email Simply Stu to let him know you're participating. And tell a friend. Good deals like this should not be kept a secret!