From Ocean to Lake

After a few days of recovery from overseas trips we're getting back to "normal" if there is such a thing. Pretty interesting trips. I'd have to say, from a wanna be triathlete perspective, the highlight of the trip was open water swimming in the Cayman Islands and in Brazil. Lots of open water confidence built up!

Having said that...the diet was a disaster. So tonight I decided to put an Oly distance on the calendar. It will be Pinehurst on October 7. I feel like I have a lot of work to do before then but as long as I stick to "get serious day" on July 1 it should not be too difficult. I will put in lots of open water swims before then with Travis paddling the new kayak around while I swim in Falls Lake.

A couple of marathons are also looming so I have to up my mileage and get back to long distance Friday. I'll start with 12 miles every Friday and work up to 22 over the next 6 weeks. Then I'll be solid.

On a sad note we had an actual drowning of one of the Company guests during the Brazil trip. The surf is very rough in Rio and he got caught by the riptide. It took four days to recover his body 50 miles away. He was only playing in waist deep water when it occurred...

Blame it on Rio

Wow. Its tough to eat well and not drink too much in Rio while on this fantastic corporate celebration trip. A fun time is being had but we're lucky if we can squeeze in 5 mile runs up and down Copacabana beach every other day. Its beautiful to run here but hard not to eat too much super-rich food which partially cancels the training. Luckily fresh fruit is everywhere. Lets just call this the last vacation before I get serious about real distance beginning in July!

Off to the far south...to run/swim in different places?

Mrs. Luckytri and I are fortunate to be sitting at the Miami airport on our way to Grand Cayman Island for three days, Cocoa Beach, FL for three days, then on to Rio de Janeiro for a week. A lot of travel with no return home until 6/22 but we would not be justified complaining about any of this.

My tri objective is to get a bunch of open water swims and short runs in. While I hope to swim in Cayman and FL a few times...I read that swimming in Rio is like swimming in a McDonald's dumpster half-filled with salty rain water. In other words STAY OUT of the trashfest. I also suspect there will be a lot of sun, big food, and nice drink as its a bunch of party hosting I'll be partaking in. I need to strive to set my mind to get up early thereby avoiding the temptation of multiple late night festivals...I'm sure one or two will sneak in. I don't expect much swimming or big runs on the Rio portion of this quest.

Hey, I'm looking to sign up for my second tri - a sprint or int'l distance event in late July or early August. Any suggested races in NC, SC, VA welcome!

Kerr Lake Int'l Distance and my new toy

What a great race! There were several things that made this race very different from my first tri experience in White Lake.

1) Fewer casual triathletes. The Int'l distance seems to bring out the fast and furious.
2) A great swim course for spectators. It was a triangle where fans could see the swimmers well throughout the swim.
3) A fast finish for the bike and run down a two mile hill. This made for many "neck and neck" battles at the finish.

For me, I was the run leg of a team that won the relay division so all was good for me. The hard part is watching all those triathletes competing and working harder than I did while I ran with them all. I was, however, satisfied with a 38min 10K and our team win. Congrats to my teammates Jamie and Samantha. I was lucky to be invited to this strong team...and all I had to do was do what I do best.

Congrats also to all the members of the Finley YMCA who again showed up in large numbers as the Tri craze continues. And especially my buddy John who finished very strong in his second tri and first Int'l distance.

Finally, here is a pic of my new toy. The boat that is. Ready to accompany me at the lake when I practice my open water swims. My kids and wife will learn boat handling while I learn murky water swimming for long distances. Stay tuned.