Perspective, Part I

This is part I of a yet to be determined epic series.

Wow. So much has changed in the last month for me, and in many ways it makes me realize I have a lot to be thankful for. From november until July 20, I was unemployed. It's hard to even write that term in describing myself: I spend a lot of energy in my work, and a lot of my pride is wrapped up in my job, so not working was definitely jarring. But finding an identity apart from work was important, having more time for my family was great, and realizing that a job and a paycheck are not a given was eye-opening.

First Brick of the Year

As my plans start to gel, I'm having to focus my training accordingly. For the past few Saturdays I've been building my long runs back up, now at 13 miles. But this week I decided a decent brick would be a good status check for the Big Kahuna Half Ironman, and accordingly that's what I did. In short, I did 30 on the bike followed by a 7.6 mile run. Happily, it went very well. I am still dialing in my bike position, and so I stopped twice to tweak my seat height and position as well as my bar position. It's tough to stay down in the aero position for so long, but by the second tweak I was feeling pretty comfortable. For 13 miles, including a gradual 10 mile climb
(pretty flat but gaining elevation) a 1 mile climb over Bailey, and then the race back home, I maintained 18.7 MPH. When I got home, I took about 8 minutes to transition, and then ran my local loop up a short climb and then around into Los Gatos. Surprisingly I really hit my stride on the way back, and covered the last 3.5 at a pace of ~7:35.

good confidence builder, just what I needed. It's tougher now to be regular about my workouts, so knowing I have a decent run in me is a good motivator to make a push in the next month.

New Goals

Time to put it in writing:

Big Kahuna Half-Ironman, October 25

Santa Barbara Marathon, December 5

Still here!

The Blog has been quiet, but life has not been. I am back to bike commuting once or twice a week, mainly because I have a job to commute to. I'm setting my sights on a half-ironman in October, more to come on that. And I'm back to running 25+ per week and getting about 2 miles of swimming in at least every week. So the transition off the bike, out of the house, and etc. is in full swing. Missing my old, short-lived life, but embracing my new one.