It's ON!

October is finally really here! It's here with a bang too. Let's see how September turned out:

Swim: 18,400 m, 7 swims
Bike: 418.5 miles, 15 rides
Run: 107.1 miles, 13 runs
Strength: 2 sessions
Yoga: 1 session

Wow, the S/B/R is looking like I'm in an Ironman build phase. Don't forget I lost 3 days at the start of September to strep throat, then the next week (almost) was a recovery time to get back up to speed. The only race for the month was the OBX half iron, which turned out to be a fantastic weekend and wonderful race, but there was a few recovery days after the race too.

This is also the first month that's been 18k+, 400+ and 100+ on the distance totals. There have been 400+ mile bike months that only had 75 miles running, and 18k+ meter swim months with 300 bike miles. But this is the first time that it all came together cleanly. Those numbers don't play games. Plenty of people in Kona this week are lucky to get that much training done.

Kona is racing the world championships again this upcoming saturday and I have to give huge props and shout-outs to Ryan and Marni who are out there giving it their best. Good luck guys!

October has roared in like a lion! Thanks to a cold air mass that came down from Canada and covered the east coast, we went from 85 degrees on thursday and friday, to 63 degrees saturday and sunday. Today is also supposed to stay in the low 60's before getting back up to the mid-70's for the rest of the week.

This is insane. I like the 70's. Warm enough to wear shorts but you won't be uncomfortable in a sweater either. Pleasant to run in and you won't freeze your toes on the bike. Too cold for open water swims but the indoor pools we practice in are still regulation temps. Why does it really want to skim the 70's like that? The Carolina's only get about 2 weeks of fall every year anyway, and I'm afraid you just clipped what should have been a pleasant weekend.

This weekend still was pretty pleasant. Saturday I threw the bike on the trainer for 2.5 hours and got in a real solid ride while watching football. I was supposed to ride longer but Kelley's dad scored some tickets to the NC State / Ga Tech football game that started at 3:30, so we all got dressed and went out there for the game. The seats were fantastic, but we were on the home sideline and in the shade the whole time. So it got really cold - too cold for the kids. Plus State was really playing a stinker out there so we chucked the game a bit early.

Sunday was fun. I hit the gym so I could watch football while running. The Panthers really blew a decent game. The Bears were pretty dominating, but Cam Newton still ended up with some decent numbers. He only seemed to make really bad throws when he needed to make good passes. Poor mistake timing I guess.

And while I was there watching football, I ran 18 miles straight at an 8:00 pace, no walking. It was awesome. I felt great, but could have used some more nutrition if I was going farther. I got home and noticed my nipples were actually bleeding. There's a first time for everything huh? It was a solid run. My heart rate never got very high, breathing never got hard. Just solid all the way around.

Once I got some recovery nutrition in me and stopped the gunshot wounds from bleeding, it ended up being a really pleasant evening. Bigun and I did some craft projects together. She's incredibly excited about the Indian Princesses first tribe meeting tonight. Today is her first day back at school, she was tracked out for most of September. Evil Genius had a great weekend too, she's very excited about the cold weather. We sparked up the gas logs in the fireplace, and she was loving that.

The pressing question seems to be "why don't I just walk to the gym if it's across the street from my house"? Well, that has a lot of answers but it's really the same problem: where our house is. We live in the ghetto. Most nights I work out after the kids go to bed, and you don't want to walk these streets after dark. Then, we live *on* one of the busiest roads in Raleigh. It's a four lane divided boulevard that runs on one side of the NC State campus. So there's thousands of cars on there every day and it's very easy to find our house. Imagine walking across Peachtree Industrial blvd in Atlanta/Norcross. That's the closest comparison I can think of. Actually Peachtree Industrial is 6 lanes and this is only 4. But it's the same amount of traffic. I have walked it a couple of times when we've had a car in the shop or something. It's not fun. After crossing the street I have to walk through this seedy apartment complex. ugh. Driving it takes a right turn onto the big road, then left turns at the next two stop lights to get around the divided median. It's just not as easy as it sounds.

This week is a bit of a recovery week, but I'll still push it pretty hard. Last week, at 19 hours, was the biggest week in the entire training plan. Only three more weeks in the build phase before a 2 week taper.

It's ON is a reference to a calendar. We keep a dry erase calendar with that month's events, and it typically holds 5 weeks worth of data. We started the calendar this month with Sunday Oct 2nd, so the last week is actually the first week of November, including Saturday the 5th when I'll be crushing IMFL. I usually get freaked out when dates start to show up, like when I buy a gallon of milk that expires after my birthday or something. This is that freak-out moment. I have to stare down the handwriting on the calendar now for the rest of this month. We start traveling on November 1st. Time to make sure all of the final plans are in place, people are lined up to keep the kids, everything else is solid and ready for the trip. Taking Roberta into the shop today for a final tune-up. Seeing the race date on the calendar puts the timeline really into perspective. It's go time!