Hair today - gone tomorrow ...

I got a good swim in on Friday afternoon but I am still drifting – undecided – for my next goals. I have determined that I am going to join the Master’s Swim club down a t the YMCA. IT seems like a good program – everyone raves about the coach and I respond pretty well to direction. I am sure just having an experienced set of eyes on my swim technique will benefit me more than just splashing around on my own.

With a triathlon and a century ride within a couple of hours of Hattiesburg I knew that there would not be anyone up for the Saturday group ride. Regardless I set off towards the trail head to see if there were any stragglers. I ran into Pierre again. He is in the French Navy and is stationed at the naval base in Meridian for a couple of years. I met him a few weeks ago and it turns out that we have done many triathlon races together and not realized it. He is pretty quick – always placing in the 20 – 24 age group. We only got 30 miles – I was not looking for much – I just wanted to get out and get a few miles before the rains set in – It has been raining tons here. After the ride I did some much needed yard work, cleaned out the garage and spooned new tires on my training wheels for my race bike. I got a lot of things done that have seemed to pile up – It feels like I have tons of time on the weekends.

I also shaved my head. I have wanted to do this for a very long time and I have just not had the guts to do it! I really thought hard about it before the ironman but did not want to risk sunburn or anything. I did not want to change anything up for race day. It definitely looks different but it is growing on me… Let me know what you think – try to disregard the deer in head lights - looks like I have been beat look.



I got an easy 6.5 mile run in on Sunday morning and ran into Steve P (the postman). He was out on a recovery ride – He had done the century ride the day before and averaged just 20.1 MPH solo. He is training for IMAZ and has really been getting the volume. We chatted for a couple of miles and I turned back towards home. The marathon training plan that I have been looking at has day1 being 3 x 1600m @ 6:12 (1min RI). At mile 5 I decided to pick up the pace to see what was in the tank – is this training plan even possible? I started strong and was able to maintain but the time was not happening. I clicked off the mile at 6:30. That is a far cry from 6:12 much less with two more reps to go. In the spring this would not have been a problem but I guess I am still waiting for my speed. I thought the streamed line dome would have at least given me a few seconds.