One year later

Last year around the same date I was getting my bike out of the basement, at that moment I had no idea that later on I would get into Duathlon and eventually Triathlon. I was just getting my road bike out of the basement in an attempt of getting back in shape.

I remember my first ride, coming back home after a ride of 20 km and I was really happy about it, telling myself that if I could ride 20km three times a week for the entire summer I would finish the summer with over than 1200 km and I was pretty happy about it.

Today it was my long run day, two weeks prior to my half marathon that will start the summer, my goal for this summer is to finish a half marathon under two hours. So as I said today was my long run day, I had a 1h45 run planned.

I left home this morning and walked for 2-3 minutes to get some warm up and get the legs moving. When I hit my Garmin 305 to start the session I realized that I had no HR data on it. I had two choices, either I was dead or I forgot my HR strap at home. After checking, I made sure that the problem was my HR strap ;)

Since I wanted to have my HR for this run I ran back home to get it. I grabbed the strap and put it on then off I go. I realized pretty fast that my pace was a lot faster than I was intending. I had in my mind to try to run today's run at a 5h45 pace or as close to that as possible. Since my goal for this summer is a sub 2 hours half I know that if I could complete today's run at 5h45 or so I would be close to my goal which requires a 5h41 pace to complete it in 2 hours. But on the other hand I didn't want to go out too fast and that's why I needed my HR strap.

After my first km I realized that my first split was 5:04 or so, no way I could hold that pace for 1h45 so I knew I had to slow down. Easier to think that than to do it I guess because my second split was around 5:10. Once again I talked myself into slowing it a bit, I got my third split around 5:17 or so and I stayed around there for 13/14 kilometers or so. After that I realized that my splits were more around 5:30. I came back home with 19.6 kilometer ran in 1:45:00 with an average split of 5:22. Which assure me that running my half under 2 hours in two weeks should not be a problem.

After that run I realized that I ran about the same as last year first ride and that's when I saw how much that my last year of training helped me.

I also had some weird idea after that run, since my legs were really sore I did try what is call a Ice bath, or in my book a new torture tool for triathletes. It was worst than running the 19.6km to be honest but I felt really good afterward.

I wanted to go ride in the afternoon, but I finally convinced myself that doing some stuff around the house wouldn't be a bad idea. So I cleaned the pool, yeah no more ice in it, and got the stuff out of the garage. Now I am ready for the summer, so please send them the memo so they know that they can send it out way.