Tri-ing my best: Ironman by 40

 I am less than 1 week out from my first triathlon. I feel mostly ready. I would like to feel more confident about the swim, so I am really thinking that I just need one more good swim at the lake, and likely I will try to get that in early tomorrow morning. If I can just swim the distance (750 yards) one time, I will feel good. I don't think I've written about this here, but my original race was cancelled. It was in Lansing, which at the time at some of the highest COVID positivity in the state, and so the restrictions that were needed made it so the race organizers felt they could not proceed. So I found another race, and this course does present some challenges that will make things a bit more interesting. 1. Swim is longer - Prev swim was 450 or 500 yards, I cannot remember which. New swim is 750 yards. 2. Hills. This course is hilly. I have really only been training on flat land for my bike ride, so that hills will be a new challenge.  When considering those two things, I...

 I am two weeks out from my triathlon and to say I am getting excited is an understatement.  Today I had a 70 min ride and 20 min run on the schedule, and I was supposed to do it at race pace. This was my third time on my bike and it went really smooth. I was able to go faster than I have yet on the bike, getting up towards 18 mph at times. It just felt awesome to move that fast, I felt like I was flying.  After the ride I headed right out on the run and I still cannot get over how weird it feels to run after riding. Mainly that whole feeling of running through molasses. Because I found myself yet again just crushing the pace (for me) and feeling really awesome. I finished 2 miles in 17 min 25 seconds. This blows my mind. When I was running previously I would have be thrilled for a 10 minute mile. I 100% know that it is strength training and cycling that has helped my running tremendously. The turn over of the pedals when riding really feels like it helped my running, bec...

 Since I last wrote 2 pretty big milestones have happened, and I want to capture some of the feelings around those events. My first outdoor bike ride. I don't event really know where to start with this, because once I finally got riding, IT WAS AWESOME. I loved it. LOVED IT just like I LOVE running outside. Its amazing what fresh air and actually moving (and not running/riding in place) can do for ya hahaha. I rode with Marti and Mary, and for the majority of the ride we cruised a bit, around 11.5 MPH. They were not on road bikes, so it was a lot more work for them than it was for me haha. As we approached just over a mile left I let them know I was going to see what the bike could do and I would meet them back at the lot. I started cruising and got to around 15 mph and it just felt awesome. Interesting to see that 15 mph felt like a good, sustainable, yet challenging pace, when on my Peloton that is usually around 17 mph. I wonder if this is where not being clipped in comes into p...