it’s a toss up.

On Saturday morning, I got up early to drive over an hour to get to a swimming hole near Allentown PA. Swimming hole sounded weird, but that’s exactly what it was. A place called Dutch Springs I’m guessing was quarry at one point in it’s life. Their website is geared toward scuba diving but had one tiny paragraph about swimming. When I called the day before, they said I could use the whole hole to swim. It’s 1.3 miles around the perimeter of the water. Just after 9 am I pulled into the empty parking lot. I was instantly happy about that. When . . . → Read More: it’s a toss up.

River of Dreams

My first open water swim caught on video (thanks Chris). I never knew what I looked like from that angle when I swam. I’m proud of having been able to go from just being able to float to swimming like that. I think I look like I know what I’m doing (I even fooled myself). As of right now, my biggest challenge of the three sports will be swimming. I’m going to constantly mentally review this video until I can cross to the other side.

Check out the video.

At least I’m not swimming in circles.

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The first time I….

On Sunday Chris and Steve took me to lake Wallenpaupak in the Poconos to try out my wetsuit for the first time in open water. Chris happened upon this lake like he finds everything else….. and I have no idea how. He showed me a picture of it on Friday and I have to admit it was a little intimidating. It’s a huge lake.  There are three or four companies that rent boats that you can take on the lake. The plan was to rent one of the boats, and have them follow next to me in the boat as . . . → Read More: The first time I….

new bike

The new ride arrived! After a few adjustments, I hit the road last night. The bike is so light, it’s going to take a few rides to get used to it

Like a D6

With Thursday will arrive (I hope) my new ride. It’s a Fuji D6. My brother Steve says it doesn’t even look like a 10 speed, it looks VERY fast (like a G6)(my parentheses not his). John at TriCountyBikes.com is picking it up for me tonight, putting my longer crank arms and bigger sprocket on in the morning, then I’m ready to ride. You can’t imagine how bad I want to ride it. It seems like a month has passed since I ordered it. The Fuji race team techs are putting it together (so I didn’t mind waiting for . . . → Read More: Like a D6

Sounds made up

This week I hit 27,000 sit-ups, 5,000 push-ups, 2,000 miles on the bike, 250 miles run, and 50 hours in the water, all in just less than 250 hours (I should do 3,000 more sit-up in 3 hours to make all the numbers weirdly even). It’s pretty neat that all the numbers came together like that. I have no idea what the numbers will end up being come November 20, 2011, but just reading the totals makes me feel exhausted (excited to do even more).

it IS too

It’s too early, it’s too cold, it’s too hard, it’s too much work, it’s too much on your body. It’s too mentally taxing. It’s too physically draining. It’s too scary. It takes too much time. It’s too expensive. There is too much travel involved.  I’ve thought of some of these things and some have been implanted into my head from people I know.

Though I’ve been pretty good auditing things I allow through my mind, some still creep in. I understand that some people may think some or all of the above. I may have at one point. It’s true that . . . → Read More: it IS too

next thing you know, you’re running

If I actually slept well in June of 2010, I wouldn’t have a bike, and I certainly still would  not know how to swim. That morning after I made the decision to fly to Phoenix in November 2010 to sign up for ironman 2011, I put on my sneaker (weren’t called running shoes yet) and walked around the block. I don’t think I walked very fast or very far, but I felt like it was “something”. I wasn’t very consistent with walking or jogging over the next few months, because I wasn’t sure that I would actually get a slot . . . → Read More: next thing you know, you’re running

IM…. I said

IM…I said.

There is a life guard at the Kroc center that calls me IM, since I told her I was training for my first ever ironman. Her attitude is to act as if I already accomplished it to get me in the mindset that doing so is inevitable. I have no doubt in my mind that I will finish the race on November 20, 2011 before the stroke of midnight. The only unknown is how long before 12 o’clock I will cross the line. I’d really like to do be so fast that I qualify for the world championship . . . → Read More: IM…. I said

2 more months left!

September 20, 2011: I have 2 months to the ironman, but just about a month of buid-up training to go. I can’t continually build up distances in November and have to take at least a week or two before it to ease off a bit. That’s the theory anyway. I don’t know how I’m going to build up those distances in such a short period. The furthest I’ve swam was 1 mile. The furthest I’ve biked was 112 miles and the furthest I’ve run was 15 miles. Even if I could do all my furthests in one day and I’m still . . . → Read More: 2 more months left!