That's where this training blog will come in handy. Even though only a few people read it last year, it still gave me a greater sense of accountability. By making my training intentions know, hopefully it will add that last bit of motivation I'll need to get out of bed on those cold rainy Saturdays and hit the pavement. So if you've happen to stumble across this blog, I ask that you leave a few words of encouragement and check back every once in a while to see I've made the progress that I've promised myself.

Don't worry, as the days and weeks roll on, I'll be updating my blog not only with my current training regimen, but also stories and pictures from last year. I've been a little under the weather recently, but look for a complete training schedule in the next week or so.

- K

The single source of my anxiety is the pressure that I’ve put on myself to perform well. I feel I have an opportunity to race well and put down a quick time. A lot of that hinges on the swimming portion of the triathlon. I have no doubts that I can finish the 1500 meters, but a large part of me wants to well so that strong times on the bike and on the run will mean more. I try to balance this pressure by telling myself that even though this is a race, I always have the option of taking it easy and just enjoying the experience. Of course I come back with the knowledge that if I don’t give it my all, I’ll be regretting as soon as five minutes after I cross the finish line. But I know that there will be other races and regardless of what happens on the course, I’ll be able to take away something.

Even if I never cross the finish line in Florida, or even set foot in the water, I’ll know that I’ve made some great friends, and we’ve shared some amazing experience. I have no doubt that this weekend will be a fantastic culmination of the past six months. Looking back at this time, I’ve found more in Team in Training than I had ever expected. And most importantly, I have a great feeling knowing that my time spent training and fundraising is benefiting those who are facing challenges that far surpass mine.

It’s been one heck of trip. Thanks to my fellow teammates, coaches and staff for making this an experience that I won’t soon forget. Wish me luck!

www.active.com/donate/fundraiser/tntmiKSmith

I just want to thank you for support in helping the lives of blood cancer patients and their families. And hopefully with additional research, there will be less of these patients in the future.

Due to the switching of webpages, my total on the new website isn't quite right. As of the time of this post, I have just under $600 left to raise. My final deadline is May 31st.

So instead of giving you a day-by-day account of what I’ve been up to since my last post, I’ll just give you an executive summary of my training. Part of this is because I don’t have enough time to write it all down. The other part is because I probably can’t remember all the details.

On the running front, I’ve been logging around 25 miles a week over the course of three or four runs. A couple of times I’ve done some longer runs (8-10 miles) on Friday afternoon’s at some of the metro parks. That always makes for a good start to the weekend. I’ve also been running at least one morning a week before work. It works just as well, if not better, than coffee for waking me up. Plus it frees up your afternoon for general putzing around (like playing volleyball or cycling). My most recent run was yesterday afternoon at the Arb in Ann Arbor. It was a nice four miles through some woodsy areas. It reminded me a lot of running though Hawthorn park back when I was in college. I’ve also picked up some new running kicks for the race. My old shoes were in sorry shape.

Cycling has been a lot of fun as well. I think I’ve gone out on my triathlon bike at least four times since I’ve picked it up. It’s a sweet, fast ride. Three of those times have been group trainings on the weekends. Once was a bitterly cold morning with freezing rain. I cycled through 24 miles of that crap. The other trainings have been much more enjoyable to say the least. It’s an absolute blast to be on a bike outside again. I’ve also been doing some riding around town on my road bike. It’s much better suited for the stop and go nature of urban cycling.

Today, and once last week, I cycled in to work with our TNT coordinator, Anika. It works out well because we live about a mile and a half from each other and work about two miles from each other. It’s been nice to have someone to watch your back and call 911 if you get run over by a Mack truck. I probably shouldn’t be joking about that, but until I get my first close call, I’ll continue. The ride in is nice because you can take it easy and it’s still pretty cool out, so you don’t work up a sweat. But then I can drop the hammer for the 7.5 miles home and get in a good work out. After St. A’s I’ll be biking to work a lot more frequently.

Swimming has always been my weak spot, although I’ve made considerable improvement in the last month or so. I feel like I know what the proper stroke technique should feel like, and I’m able to emulate it a lot better than before. This has gone a long way to boost my confidence, which has benefited me even more. The challenge will be to continue swimming after my tri. But hopefully I’ll be able to find some friends to do it with. Anybody in?

And who could forget about the fourth sport of my triathlon, fundraising. Things have been looking up recently. The website being down was a bit of a bummer, but I have some very generous (and way cool) friends and family members who have my back. Thanks to them, I’m less than $600 away from my goal. I have until May 31st to finish up, so if you want to help me (and more importantly, blood cancer patients), you can make a donation at the following website.

www.active.com/donate/fundraiser/tntmiKSmith

So as you can see, I’ve been a busy bee lately. And even though I’ve been tapering this week by cutting back on my training, I’ve managed to stay just as busy by getting everything ready for the race this weekend. Such is life, and that’s just how I like it.

Thanks for hanging with me thus far. Even after the even this weekend I’ll continue to keep you updated with my exploits. Also, look for another post from me here in a couple days on what exactly is going through my head at this point. It should be a good read. In the mean time, Take ‘er easy.

Because I new that my usual quick-pace running partner, ‘Speed Damon’, was going to be there, I had some high hopes for the run. After Friday’s run, I thought that a 7:00 mpm pace was easily in reach. The course was pretty hilly, and it was part of the same route that the Martian Marathon ran through yesterday. Oh yeah, it was cold too.

For this run I had borrowed Anika’s Forerunner, so I could accurately track my distance and mile splits. The only downside of wearing a device like that is that it can almost be too much information. It’s easy to start pushing yourself according to what the GPS or clock says, instead of how your body feels. I’ve found that it works best when you ignore it during the run and then use it analyze your performance afterward.

The run went really well. Like Friday, I started out really strong, logging several successive sub 7:00 minute miles. After the halfway point, the course was noticeably more up hill in nature. Around mile five I started to hit the wall but kept pushing on. I kept pushing all the way through the finish. I doubt that I had an ounce of energy left in my body when it was all done. It felt awesome.

Here were my mile splits for the run:

Mile 1 – 7:00
Mile 2 – 6:39
Mile 3 – 6:41
Mile 4 – 6:49
Mile 5 – 7:19
Mile 6 – 7:03
Mile 7 – 6:52
Total – 48:24 -> 6:55 mpm

Mission Accomplished!

On a side note, during my run I ran a 10k portion in under 43 minutes.

By the time I got home, I had a route picked out that Mike, Anika and I had run a couple weeks earlier. I remember it being around four and half miles, which seemed like a good distance.

Whenever I set out to do a hard run, I’ll set a goal for myself and use that to really push it at the end. My goal for this run was to average 7:00 minute miles. I figured that the run should take me about 31 or 32 minutes to complete. I was in for a surprise.

I started out really strong, I felt like I was running under a 7:00 mpm pace. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up, but I decided to keep the throttle nailed and see how long I could sustain that pace. Even though I didn’t have any real feedback during the run to tell me if I was succeeding, I felt like I was able to really hold that pace for the entire run. I was even able to find some extra energy at the end to finish with a strong kick.

As I crossed the stop sign by my house I glanced down at my watch and saw the numbers ’27:40’ across the screen. Oh my gosh, you have got to be kidding me. There’s no way I ran that fast. That absolutely rocks! Then a little bit out doubt started to creep in. Surely I must have been off on my distance estimates. I’ll need to check this out.

After I cooled down and stretched out, I hopped in my car to drive the route I just ran. As the odometer rolled on, I started to feel more assured in my previous estimates. When I crossed the same stop sign at the end, my odo had just registered 4.4 miles…a 6:20 mpm pace! Holy crap, I’ve never run that fast for that kind of distance. I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’m in the best shape of my life right now, and I still think I can go faster.

All I have to say is wow! It’s crazy how buoyant the wetsuit makes you. It’s like giving you a few percentage points of body fat all over you body. For a natural sinker like me, it makes all the difference. And to sweeten the pot, the wetsuits are super slippery when wet, allowing you to glide through the water. I was able to complete the swim with out nearly as much difficulty as usual. The wetsuit will definitely be a boon for me in the water come race time.

After swimming around in the neoprene for a while, we took them off and did another 10 or so minutes of normal drills. As has been the case for the last couple of practices, Mary has watched me swim for a few minutes and offered some tips on how I might become more efficient. (Actually, that last statement would imply that there was some efficiency in my stroke, which is a lie if I’ve ever heard one.) Usually when she offers me some advice, I’ll try it out, but it has never been the silver built that will make it all click for me. I fell like in swimming, it’s all or nothing. You have to have a pretty solid package of stroke, breathing, body position, etc. in order to swim effectively. If you’re missing just one of those elements, it seems like the whole system breaks down. Of course that’s just my thoughts on the subject.

Anyway, back to Mary’s advice. She really wasn’t suggesting anything new, just the same tips for arm entry in to the water, but this time it seemed to click. Which helped with my body rotation in the water, which in turn cut down on my resistance and helped my breathing. I was pretty tired because of the swimming we had down earlier, so I didn’t have my energy to try out the newest addition to my swimming toolbox, but needless to say, I’ve very excited about our swim tomorrow. It’s been a while since I’ve said that.

So a couple of Fridays ago, I went on an afternoon training run with my friend, Ms. Holiday. You may remember her as one of my kidnappers from about a month ago. You would have thought that I would have learned my lesson, but no, I kept coming back for more. I must have Stockholm syndrome or something. That’s the only possible explanation I can come up with.

Anyway, it was supposed to be a 12-mile tune up for the Martian Marathon in a few weeks. I honestly thought that it was going to be the prescribed distance, boy was I wrong. So we’re running a long for a while and I’m being a slave to this Garmin Forerunner that I’m wearing. But a couple hours in to it, it’s telling me that we’ve ran 11.8 miles, and judging by our current location, we’re still a good two miles out. I should have know better. I could tell that Holiday miles were in full effect. Ends up we did 13.4 before it was all said and done. Go figure. Luckily, before any more torture could take place, a good Samaritan by the name of Jacob Michaels, showed up with vittles in the form of pizza and beer. A true gentleman that Jacob is.

By the suffering was by no means through. Both of the original kidnappers had planned a torture spinning and running session the next morning. And to make things worse, we were forced to spin outside in the freezing cold. I was laboring so hard that steam was rolling off my body. What followed was a torturous five miles, seemingly all up hill, and punctuated by a sprint though foot deep snow. As I was nearing the end, the released one of the vicious attack dogs again to take me down. Luckily I was able to dodge its massive jaws and claw my way to freedom.

When it was all said and done, I had ran 18.5 miles, spun on my bike for an hour, and managed to sneak in a few hours of rest, all in a 18 hour time period. That’s a definite first for me, although I was totally spent for the rest of the weekend. And it looks like I’m going to loose a toenail because of it too. Awesome.

I’m sure there’s going to be a few photographers down in Florida snapping photos to use to blackmail me later. So in an effort to circumvent their plot, I’ve decided to preemptively post a few pictures of my own. Warning! You may want to cover your eyes before reading any further. These images may not be suitable for small children.

I’m anxious to try my wetsuit out in a pool. I’ve heard rumors that the added buoyancy makes you float on top of the water. And since I don’t have much fat to do that now, the wetsuit might actually help me swim better. Because to be honest, this sinking thing sucks.

However the big news of the weekend was that I purchased a new ride. I made the big jump and bought an all-out triathlon bike, a 2005 Felt S25. Now I wasn’t planning to purchase a tri bike until this summer, but a local bike shop, Great Lakes Cycles, was having an absolutely killer deal for Team in Training members. I ended up with over 20% off on the bike, wich is unheard of, especially for a current model year bike. The margins on new bikes are so thin that the best you can normally hope for is $50 under sticker. I don’t know how they did it, but I appreciate it. Right now my steed is on order, and I should be able to pick it up this weekend or sometime early next week. I’m totally geeked!

The two gentlemen who put on the info session were from Infiterra Sports here in Michigan. These two guys took about and hour to explain what adventure racing (AR) is and isn’t. They went through the types of races (who’s ever hear of an eight hour sprint race?), what to expect in a race, what gear you need, and they even threw in a couple tips from seasoned veterans. As they went through their presentation, I found myself getting more and more excited about AR. Turns out they have a race coming up at the end of April called Spring Fury, and it would be perfect for newbies wanting to get their feet wet…literally. The only down side was that it was six days after my triathlon in Florida. That would barely be enough time to recouperate.

I was definitely sitting on the fence on this one. That was until they put all our names in to an drawing. The first few prizes were socks or water bottles, however, the final prize they gave away was a free entry to their Spring Fury race, normally a $75 entry free. Without so much as a drumroll, and much to my surprise, they pulled out my name! That was the push that sent me over the edge.

So now Damon, Jesse, Steve and I (aka, Team RaceStrong) are going to take the Michigan AR scene by storm come April 30th. Watch out!

ps - If you have a mountain bike I could borrow, I'd appreciate it!