Dude..are you racing this year or what?

It has been three weeks since I last blogged and you had to hear about my gout issue.  Well I think it is finally going away.  The severe pain was probably gone about 2 weeks ago but the constant throbbing and "OMG" pain whenever I hit the foot wrong have basically kept me from running since..well maybe the last week in June.  Which obviously is a problem. However coach Sonja has kept me swimming and biking and hopefully things will come around.

As far as the swim is concerned I am happy.  I did 1.2 miles at the gravel pond in about 38:00. That is roughly 1:55 per 100 yards.  My best times in the pool for that distance are about 45-46 minutes. So obviously the wetsuit and the straight line swimming help me quite a bit.

The gravel pond at Chattfield park is one of the only places to OWS in the Denver area.  It is cool in that everyone shows up on Saturday mornings to get their long swim for the week in..thus you can talk to a lot of familiar people.  The out and back in the gravel pond is about 1900 meters ..or pretty close to 1.2 miles..the half ironman distance.  The bad thing about the gravel pond is its limited hours and that you must belong to Colorado Masters Swimming or one of the multisport clubs to use it.  I belong to Colorado Masters and actually the price is not too bad. Actually there are two really bad things about the gravel pond.  The first is guys in speedos.  Yeah..whether they are 100 lbs overweight or 4% body fat..the plum smugglers just scare me.  And the worst thing is that they are damn proud of their speedos and thus strut around in them. No one needs to see that..especially at 7:30 a.m.  The second really bad thing is watching people get in their wetsuits.  Some mornings you can actually hear the wetsuits screaming as their seams are stretched and flesh is stuffed into them much like sausage into a casing.  And again no one looks good..especially as they are doing their little dance to get into the wetsuits.

The biking is also coming along..I think.  I have a new tri bike the year.  The QR Lucero that I picked up from Kompetitive Edge. This was before my wife banned me from the store.  I had Scott Geffre of Fit and Tri take my measurements before buying my bike and basically with my girth, lack of flexibility and weird ass measurements, the only bike we researched that had a tall enough headtube was the QR Lucero.  The bad thing is that the Lucero is no where near as cool a looking bike as the CD0.1 and Illicito.  The good thing is that it is one of the cheaper QR - tri bikes.

I can honestly say I truly hate the bike.  Anyone who says they love their tri bike is either the size and weight of a jockey or a liar.  Except for Evil Jen.  I think she truly loves her tri bike..but she is also insane.   I love my Giant OCR 1.  It is comfortable..has a triple chain ring and I can ride all day on it. The tri bike is twitchy, uncomfortable..and I look like a tri geek wannabe.  However, the truth is that I am probably about 2 mph faster on the Lucero..and for me that is huge. I had Ryan at KE put a compact crank on the bike as well as change the rear cassette to add a granny gear. So I have basically changed the Porsche into a Buick..and I am perfectly fine with that..I love my Buicks.

Anyway I enjoy biking, my coach Sonja knows this, and being the person she is she tries to make my workouts as crappy as possible.  Hmm. Scott is heavy and spins at a 90 cadence..I think he should probably do hills at a low cadence for his long days...How about Deer Creek Canyon.  I hate Deer Creek Canyon. It is about 1800 feet of elevation gain in 8 miles. I want a flat road..or preferably a downhill for three hours..but it never happens.

Since I haven't been running I have been doing more walking and hiking. Luckily for me and my family we live in Colorado with plenty of places to hike including Rocky Mountain National Park which offers tons of  options.  We are trying to hit at least one new trail every week this year.

On the Cub Lake trail in Rocky Mountain National Park

 
 However, I did run today for an extended time and was actually quite surprised.  Although still very slow..my foot held up for 5.5 miles on the treadmill.  Also, my heart rate was downright low.  Even at 10:00 miles (which is fast for me) I was only at about 142 bpm.  Oh..a bonus today. I ran with my cadence tape and sung out loud.  Yep..I had people moving away from me within a minute. The video below contains some of the cadence I listen to.  It really helps me stay focused and just run.

Lastly for all of those who were wondering, I am actually gong to race this year. Saturday I am signed up to do the HITS Olympic distance in Sterling Colorado.  I was going to do the My Way or the Tri Way sprint in Aurora.  I wanted to do a short race because I am very worried about my running. However, my coach quilted me into signing up for the longer distance.  She is a smart lady and knows what she is doing..thus it is probably good that I listen to her at least some of the time.  I just looked at the forecast for Saturday..100 degrees..and there is no shade on the course.  Should be fun.

Oh..and the one good thing about the gout..I am eating less sugar, fat and meat and finally dropping the pounds.

I think my head is getting thinner..which is a good thing.