08/03/07: Shuffling Workouts

With last nights rain at rush hour, traffic was SLOW to say the least. I got home too late to make it to either the masters swim or to UNF. So, instead of swimming last night I put my bike on the trainer for 45 minutes of easy zone 1 spinning.

Tonight I'll head to UNF and swim for a 1/2 hour or so...just long enough to do a warmup (200 swim kick pull) and swim a few laps focusing on form...that should be enough to hopefully have me as ready as I'm going to be for tomorrow's 2.5 mile ocean swim.

I just read an interesting quote from Joe Friel (author of the Triathlete's Training Bible)that seems appropriate for tomorrow’s swim: “How do you know when you’re ready to go long? You don’t. You commit, train, and pray.”

After tonight's warmup swim I'll be doing a lot of praying.

I’ll admit to being a bit nervous (translation: terrified) of the swim – 2.5 miles is a LONG way to go in the ocean, and I’ve never gone anywhere near that far. I guess I’ll see how much progress I’ve really made swimming with the masters group.

Looks like we’ll have good weather at least:

000
FZUS52 KJAX 030805
SRFJAX

SURF ZONE FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSONVILLE FL
405 AM EDT FRI AUG 3 2007

FLZ024-025-033-038-GAZ154-166-032300-
NASSAU-DUVAL-ST JOHNS-FLAGLER-COASTAL GLYNN-COASTAL CAMDEN-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...FERNANDINA BEACH...JACKSONVILLE...
ST AUGUSTINE...PALM COAST...BRUNSWICK...ST MARYS
405 AM EDT FRI AUG 3 2007

RIP CURRENT OUTLOOK: LOW. RIP CURRENTS ARE POSSIBLE TODAY AND ARE
LIKELY TO BE WEAK BUT MAY POSE A DANGER TO POOR SWIMMERS.
HOWEVER...THEY ARE STRONGER AND MORE FREQUENT IN THE VICINITY
OF JETTIES...INLETS...AND PIERS. KNOW HOW TO SWIM AND HEED THE
ADVICE OF THE BEACH PATROL.

WIND: SOUTH 5 TO 10 MPH.

SURF: BREAKERS WILL AVERAGE 1 TO 2 FEET.

WATER TEMPERATURE: LOWER 80S.

UV INDEX: 6...IN THE HIGH RANGE.

OUTLOOK: A LOW RIP CURRENT RISK IS EXPECTED ON SATURDAY.

Now onto some blog housecleaning items:

1. First of all, there's no way in hell I'm hiking the Appalachian trail. It's 2,175 miles. I can't even to begin to imagine living out of a tent for 6 months. I think I'll stick to much easier endeavors, like going 140.6 miles less than 17 hours.

2. July in revew (no wonder I'm tired):

Swimming: 15.75 hours, 17.44 miles

Cycling: 17.50 hours, 313.36 miles

Running: 12.21 hours, 80.38 miles

Overall my training hours seem to be right on target.

3. A few schedule revisions:

Instead of doing the Disney Olympic in September, I'm going to do our local HOT Olympic on Aug 26. Based on my training, my goal is to take off 20 minutes from last years race and finish in under 3 hours, which I thing is a very realistic goal if I have a decent swim.

Everyone warned me not to do the Florida Challenge 1/2 since it's only a couple of weeks before the full, so I'm going to do the Palm Valley 1/2 instead in mid September. A few years ago, Susan Wallace, the Hammerheads president, was looking for a fall 1/2 and couldn't find anything to fit her schedule, so she created one.

It's a local, unsupported, no t-shirt, no crowds, totally unnoficial half - perfect.

Last but not least, my goals for tomorrow's swim:

a. Don't drown
b. Finish in under 1:45

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure....