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This morning, I headed back to the YMCA after a three week furlough. I’ve had the nasty flu/cold stuff going around and while I still have a slight cough, was tired of not working out. So after the 42 mile ride on Sunday I figured it was time to get back for the Triathlon class.

I hit the pool at 5:20 this morning, didn’t sleep a wink the night before so I was early. Started out with a 400 yard warm up, followed by 150 yards of drills and another 150 yards of kicking. At that point someone said “Today are time trials right?” Wha!? (The t was left off the previous word for dramatic effect) Oh right, every first Tuesday of the month are time trials. A 1,000 yard swim followed by a 5 mile bike and finishing with a 2 mile run. Lovely. No sleep, wearing cargo shorts in the pool and we’re doing time trials.

At least our 1,000 yards was really a 10 X 100 set with :10 between each 100. Unfortunately the guys in my lane dubbed me the “fast” guy and so I got to start first. Nothing keeps you motivated like 3 skinny guys pressing you, but I held my own. The 1st 100 was a 1:26 . . . Only 30 seconds off my fastest ever. HA! That seemed a lot funnier in my head. Sorry for the early morning swimming humor. I finished the set in 16:36. No where near WR time, but extrapolating that to my tri, I think I should easily be under my goal of an hour for 1.2 miles.

Next up was the bike. We’re on the LeMond Revmasters in the spin room with the Pilot computer, so I’m not sure how accurate they are, but I completed my 5.0 miles in about 16:46 . . . Or avg 17.89 MPH, so could be pretty close?

Now, my FAAAAAAAVORITE sport. Running. Not. I do enjoy it, but would much rather be in the pool or on the bike. But here’s where I surprised myself. In my previous post I estimated that I’d do about a 12:00 mile pace over a 5K distance. Putting my time for a 1/2 marathon at 2:52 and I figured if I could come CLOSE to 3:00 on the run, I’d consider that a victory. However this morning, we did a 2 mile time trial on the track (No treadmill SS!!) and I knocked it out in 19:29!!! I just started at a pace I figured I could do for the whole 12 laps (1/6 of a mile track) and kept plodding along. When Bob called out my time at the finish, I was like “Wha!?” (See how dramatic that is?) and some quick calculations in my head put that at a 9:45 pace! SUB 10 minute miles! Wowsers! There may be hope for me after all! Now plugging THAT into the running calculator at Runners World and they have my 1/2 Marathon time at 2:22, a full 30 minutes faster. Sweet!

GOTTA get some more lbs off though. I’m not going to get much faster at this weight. But I’m psyched for now!