A Week In Review

Since stepping on the scale last Thursday to see that I had dropped below 250 lbs, everything has been going great. Currently, I am a week and a half from my next race, the Dam to Dam half marathon in Des Moines and I am certainly ready to go.

All of my runs have gone very well, including my 11 miler on Sunday evening. I wasn't expecting much out of it as I had spent all weekend working at the cabin and was probably fairly dehydrated and tired. However, I managed to average an easy pace of 11:00 min/mi which is what I aim for on my long runs.

Last Thursday I managed to break a spoke on my road bike while out training. Luckily, Bike World was able to get it in and out on Monday and was ready for my next training ride yesterday. Last week, I also ordered some clip on aerobars for my bike, not as much for speed as for comfort while riding longer distances. I tried them out last night for the first time and they made a huge difference. For the first time in awhile, neither my upper back or wrists hurt when I finished my ride.

New aerobars installed

Quick picture after finishing a ride in the July-like humidity

I also had some very good swims over the past couple of weeks. I still don't think I'm to a point that I will be able to count the swim portion a strength of mine, but I have progressed from focusing on just surviving it. The past 2 weeks I completed my long swim of 1,250 yards with 100 yard pace under 3 minutes. I've also been focusing on breathing to both sides during my drill swim days (I usually breathe just to my right) and that has been going well too. 

Lastly, I've been thinking about how I want to end my season this year. Last year I added a 5 mile turkey trot (that Erin and I ran in the pouring rain), but this year I'm really thinking about doing a lot of speed work in the fall and running a 5k race to see what these legs can really do. Only time will tell what I decide.