Cray Cray May May

Wow, May was totally insane. April was as well. I'm going to explain it all, but first we should start with the numbers.

Swim: 30,050 m, 7 swims, 1 race
Bike: 181 miles, 9 rides
Run: 86 miles, 12 runs
Strength: only once
Yoga: 13 sessions

So there was a lot of swimming, but most of that is logged in the 5 mile race. 181 miles is not bad, but I know that will eventually go to the 200 mile weeks (well, eventually is like next month). and 86 miles of running is a bit of a surprise. I thought for sure that was going to come in about 110 miles. It sure felt like I got to run a lot.

So why, in the middle of Ironman training, and the summer heat blazing down, are the numbers so low? Well let me tell you why. It's been totally insane up in here.

It really started April 12 weekend with a visit to the parents in SC
Then Easter Weekend
Boy's Weekend up in Boone NC
Morgan's Wedding weekend was May 3
Next weekend Evil Genius Goes To Camp
The first work trip up to Virginia on May 14
Then Ella's Epic Mountain Adventure May 17
Another work trip to Cincinnati May 19
Memorial Day had the Lowcountry Splash 5 mile swim race in Charleston SC with Kelley
Then the final work trip - Florida
Then Evil Genius had a great birthday party

I haven't had a 5 day work week since March. All of these long weekend workouts? Not happening. I have been going and going and going and going. The midweek stuff has been carrying me through so far, but I can only get by on 2 a days for so long.  I have to get my weekends back now!

May saw the end of Base 2. Base 3, week 9, started 5/26. I don't think this overload plan is actually working so I'm going back to the steady pattern of increasing times. It was really nice to only have to bike heavy mileage one out of every 4 weeks, but the speed wasn't coming and the muscular endurance wasn't there. Running overload weeks were great fun, but I wasn't getting the monthly mileage in to generate any speed. And the swim overload week of Base 3 had me in Florida for 3 days, so I didn't actually get to swim at all.

I still have one more thing. Today (Friday) my wonderful niece is graduating from high school. So we're going down for the graduation ceremony but coming back to Raleigh this afternoon. My weekends come back to my long workouts now. Saturday and Sunday will be in Raleigh with no other plans but long workouts. June, July, August - all with no plans. Settling in for a hot summer with time on the bike trainer & treadmill when the weather doesn't cooperate.

Memorial Day held the only long workout so far. I got 2 hours on the bike and a 10 mile run all bricked up. It felt great, but I could really tell that the bike endurance wasn't there. My legs could just barely hold up for 2 hours. This is not how I need to prepare for a 7 hour bike split in Rev3 Cedar Point! Running after that bike ride felt great, so I do have confidence in my running off of the bike. But I have to do something about this bike endurance, and 1 hour rides before work are not going to cut it. Time to get steady.

Travelling and brooding about missing my long runs aren't the only things that have been going on. There is this stuff too:

EG FINALLY wanted to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels!

Big sis was so sweet giving her tips and demonstrations of her bike skills

Peer pressure works! Evil Genius came home from Indian Princess camp and wanted to take the training wheels off of her Barbie Bling-it bike. It takes several sessions to really get the hang of it, but she will eventually get her balance up there. We've had a few sessions with more to come. She was scared of falling down until I told stories of me falling down when I couldn't unclip from my pedals in time. Then when she did fall down and didn't get hurt, it all made more sense.  She'll get it soon enough. This is very exciting for me.

Last day of 3rd grade!

 School is out! We are done with first and third grade, and ready to have a great summer trackout. They start back sometime in July. Of course, EG refused to pose for a "last day" picture.

Facing towards downtown - aide station

Facing away from downtown - Mile 3 marker sign

This past weekend was Ironman Raleigh 70.3 on Sunday morning. Since Kelley's mom was in town for the birthday party, they occupied themselves for a while and I walked down to spectate the run course for a bit after church. This was my view. I saw several friends run by, a few people on the RAM swim team, and it was a beautiful day to be racing. It was about 20* cooler than it was last year so it was nice to spectate as well.  I haven't done a triathlon yet this year, so being in that environment was really exciting. I was determined to sign up for at least 3 races after that, but only got in a couple.

Me and Ashley after the ride

My dirty little secret is that Sunday afternoon I finally put my bike on the road for the first time since Beach 2 Battleship last October. Being pretty paranoid about safety, weather, and pooping availability means that I use the trainer or stationary bike at the gym almost exclusively. Ashley is one of my AAA Triathlon Team teammates, and she was in Raleigh for a work thing on Monday. Sunday afternoon she wanted to meetup for a brick workout, so we met at the White Oak parking lot for the American Tobacco Trail. First we rode about 18 miles on the roads around Jordan Lake, coming very close to the Ironman Raleigh bike course. Then after taking a quick selfie, we ran 4 miles on the trail at about a 9 minute pace. It was a great workout, and a great day to be training outside. She hasn't trained much around Raleigh (lives about 2 hours west), and I think she really enjoyed the roads, the lake, and the trail. I had a blast too, and I hope we get to brick it again sometime.

My final rant about May is about getting it all in. Yes I have a full time job, a loving wife and two great kids - and I still get to train and race Ironman and marathons. If you've ever wanted to know how I make it all work this is it. I train before the kids get up for school and again after they go to bed at night. Next week the RAM team switches evening practices to long course (50 meter pool) and they move to 8 pm. This will make things a lot easier for me. I hope to be done with work travel for a while. I've been at this job for 1 year (on June 10) and these 3 work trips in May are the only time I've had to travel for business since 2012 - 2 jobs ago. I like having events and things lined up that I can look forward to, so I planned a few things and then had a few other things skip in there. I have the word Balance tattoo'd on my chest for a reason - I have to balance everything that comes my way and still do whatever I can to accomplish my goals. I don't fall asleep at my desk at work or ignore the kids. I don't spend every waking moment working out. I get it all done.  And now, I'm just glad that May is done.