2 2 2

A lot of 2's over the past 2 days. I did my 2nd tango lesson. We learned how to turn and the women learned the "ocho." In other words, Im doing a lot of standing while the woman does all of the work. We improved a LOT over the past week. We had been struggling a bit with the basic parallel step, but since learning the turn and ocho, the basic parallel step suddenly feels easier.

Then this morning I got out for my 2nd run back. I will admit first though that my quads were sore yesterday from Monday's run. Amazing! Months and months of building it up, 2 weeks to lose it. haha!

The run this morning felt great with some more awesome running weather. Did 3.1 for a slow 29:40 or a 9:34 pace. Just went slow and steady.

Running season started TODAY

OH! and what a glorious morning it was for running! This is the running weather you dream of: 57 degrees, clear skies and a slight breeze. NO humidity!

So this was my first run in exactly 2 weeks. I did my usual 3 mile route in 26:50 for a 8:57 pace. Perfect. Not too fast, not too slow. I felt great at the finish. Only thing that was wierd was my body felt a little awkward. I think thats with anything you drop for 2 weeks after religiously doing it.

Then, right now, I am finishing up my breakfast of champions:
Cider Donut
Fresh Apple Cider
homemade Blueberry pancakes
REAL maple syrup
bacon

Ok, a little high on the glycemic index, but man, what a perfect Fall breakfast.

Fall is truly my favorite season.

woah, we kicked butt yesterday

I found the results for our race yesterday: OVERALL RESULTS

Bob, our swimmer had the 2nd fastest swim OVERALL!!! with a time of 11:06 for a 1:15/100 pace. He shaved off 1:25 from last year. He obviously had the fastest relay swim split.

My bike was 42:55 for an average of 21 mph flat. (I shaved off 1:42 from last year). I had the 14th fastest bike overall and the 2nd fastest bike for the relay division. The guy who came in after me told me that he was trying to catch me the entire time, but couldn't. Man does that not make you feel like a rockstar?!?!?! This is compared to the 31st fastest bike split last year.

Our runner, Stewart, did a 37:48 for a 7:33 pace. 48th overall and 3rd fastest for relays.

We did 9th overall!!!

Relays are awesome and are sooooooooo much more relaxing to do.

last race of the season

I did my last race of the season this morning, the ITPMan sprint triathlon. I did it as part of a relay team, like I did last year. I did the biking part. So this was a good race in that I could basically measure a year's worth of progress.

Well! I progressed! Actually our whole team did!

So we came in 9th overall and 2nd in the relay division. The first place relay team took the overall honors. We beat them in the swim, but I was soon caught within the first 3 miles by the cyclist. No worries though, as I was out there to improve from last year and also do my first race on the new bike.

I was able to get in a 30 min warmup by bringing my road bike and my trainer. As everyone else was getting ready for the swim, I was on the trainer spinning away. It helped I think, but I soon realized that I should have done some harder efforts similar to the race to REALLY get warmed up.

I stripped all non essential stuff of the bike to bring it back to its fighting weight of "this bike is really freaking light!!!"....so that helped a bit on some of the ups.

I did the 15 miles in about 42:3X for an average of 21 mph flat. That is new bike average for me. PERIOD. I have never sustained a pace like that ever. I am curious to see how I did overall.

Good race for us! It was also a good breakthrough year for our swimmer, who raced competitively through college, but had to give it up as life got in the way. He shed 40 pounds since last April, got his butt back in shape and put up probably a top 10 swim split for us. Look out for next year!

Our runner, fresh off of an Ironman and half Ironman also put up an amazing 5 mile run with a 7:33 min/mile pace.

Cold, but crisp and beautiful fall day for a race. I was glad I didnt have to jump into that water this morning!!!

Doing the Tango

I started tango lessons last night! That is, the Argentinian Tango. A friend is getting married and he wants to do the tango @ his wedding, but he wants another couple to be able to dance it as well, so we volunteered for the job.

Its fun! We started off with the parallel step, which is an 8-stepper. We picked it up quickly, but now the finessing part is gonna be tough. I have two left feet, mind you, so this is gonna be interesting.

La, dee dee da! Dee dee da!

back @ it on the bike

After 5 full days off of doing nothing (besides 3 days of kayaking) I hopped back onto the bike this morning and knocked out 21 miles. My legs didnt feel fast, but they were fast. I was able to average 18mph for the entire ride despite doing intervals. When I was going fast, I was going fast, otherwise, it was @ a recovery pace.

Another good ride. Last race is this Saturday!

off to go kayak camping

Heading up to Long Lake, NY tonight to do 3 days of kayak camping. Time to become one with nature!

I have a feeling my arms are gonna hurt by Sunday, but I hope to see some nice scenery and enjoy the peace and quiet of nature.

And the goal setter in me has set two goals for the weekend (both involving FIRE!):

#1: Bow drill fire starter:
http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/bowdrill/pmoc/basicbowdrill.html

#2: Coke and Chocolate bar fire starter:
http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/cokeandchocolatebar/index.html

This will give me 4 days off from biking and everything else. This will also bring me to a full week of no running. Wow.