"Boy, I need to take a nap"

It has been a long 3 day weekend for me. 15 hours of sleep total from Thursday on to Saturday night.

Friday: I had this crazy idea to do a solo ride on the IM Wisconsin course on Friday. Soo I blew off work and headed to Madison around 5:am. Figure it would be good to get some solo riding in to complete my 6 hour ride that was planted in my little Ironman schedule. Two hours or so later, I arrive a Fireman's park, the scene of the WIBA ride I did with some really awesome folks. Arrive there, not a single car in the parking lot except for mine. So I head out for my 1st loop along the IMWI course. Actually a casual ride since I had to take my map out every 5 minutes to make sure where I was going. I must say, the hills seemed a little bigger and more of them it seemed. I guess when you ride with a group of people, it did make the pain of the hills go away.

So after my 1st loop, head back to the car to refuel. Okay, still no other car in the parking lot. Was I the only one out here riding the course today? Okay 2nd loop coming up.. Off I go, 10 minutes into this loop I felt rain drops, Oh, this is not good, then the rain comes after 5 miles out. Not a hard rain but a constant rain which I was soo not ready for. No rain gear and it was already a cool overcast day.. Rain, wind, & cool conditions is never a good mixture. So I sucked it up, smart move on my part, uh no.. But I was able to finish the second loop, rain and all. 6 hours and around 92 miles later, I was finished with my task. But riding 3 hours in the rain really sucked ass.. I was planning to do a brick run, but I was tired of the rain on my head, socks and cycling shoes soaked, and my bike looked like a mountain bike, full of mud and whatever else I picked up along the way. Plus I think I smelled like IMooooo...

Saturday, headed out to the Chicago lakefront to do some open water swimming. Planning to do 2 miles, but only managed 1.5 miles due to the rough open water and trying to avoid getting slammed against the breakwall.. My swim in choppy waters was not pretty.

Sunday: Racine Half IM. Plan was to have a relaxed race swim, go a little harder on the bike to test my legs and IM pace on the run.

My race swim was god awful, almost got my swim goggles taken off by getting slapped on the face at the first buoy. After that I was pissed and kinda swam my old way. Single side breathing and it was not pretty. I think I managed a 46 minute swim time, slow ass, and I was pissed at myself for loosing my composure in the water.

Okay now the bike, I figure I would up the tempo a little bit without my Heart rate watch beeping at me every minute telling me my HR was above 150. So I managed to do that except on some minor hills and did a 19.8 mph avg for the 56 miles. Wanted to get above 20 mph, but today it was not meant to be.

Then the 13.1 mile run, plan was not to go above 160 on the heart rate and run at hopefully my projected IM pace. Managed to do a 9:21 minute pace. But running at that rate or faster after riding 112 mile will be a tall order for me. But, I have to get some more Long runs in before IMWI, that is for sure.

So total Half IM time was 5:43:19, and they put me in the 40 yr old age bracket, don't they know I still have a week left of being 39. WTF

So that's end of my long 3 day weekend for me. I think I accomplished most what I set out to do.

Have a solid Half IM. Check

Ride the IMWI course, Check, but maybe next time ride with a buddy, it gets lonely out there. plus next time bring rain gear. Check.

Now I will take my nap now. Check..