Friday, September 29, 2006

9/29/2006 Getting Ready for Little Miami!

After a few days off for rest, and mostly to spend a lot of time at work and driving back and forth to Florence I was able to get out and do a little running this morning. I just wanted to do enough to loosen up and see how my neck, back and knees were feeling after a couple of chiropractic appointments. I ran about 3 miles in approximately 25 minutes. I forgot to start my watch so I'm not entirely sure. It just felt good to get out and run at a nice easy pace.

I had my first visit with the chiropractor on Wednesday. Ever since I pulled a muscle in my upper back last week my neck and left shoulder haven't felt quite right. They've been a little stiff and achy. Instead of risk doing further damage I decided to seek help. It was quite an eye opening experience. Of course I'm out of alignment and I have lots of little issues from old injuries in soccer and a car accident, but all in all the body is in pretty good shape. He suggested a couple visits a week for about 6 weeks, or one visit per week but it will take longer. After that I can continue with well visits if I'd like, and I may just do that because going in there after a long day of work and getting crunched, cracked and rolled by this massage table felt quite fantastic! If it keeps me healthy enough to keep competing, riding and running for a long time it's well worth it.

My favorite event of the year is finally here! The Little Miami Triathlon is in 2 days and I am totally stoked for this race. Well, I was totally stoked for the race because of many reasons one of which was that a good friend was supposed to come into to town and compete in the race. He has since had to bail out, which is a bit of a letdown, but I'm still 97% stoked.

I've been thinking about this race for a year now and have some high expectations on my performance this year. Last year I was just starting to see improvements in my conditioning, and I was riding a borrowed hybrid bicycle. It was still a lot of fun, but I was at a disadvantage. Even with my disadvantage I still pulled in a time of 2:59:48 meeting my 3 hour goal.

I'm setting a goal this year for 2 hours and 30 minutes. I've thought about dialing it back a bit and setting my expectations a bit lower, but I really think I have it in my to make that mark. I've met most of my goals this year, and this is a big one for me so I'm gonna set my sights high and do my best. The deciding factor will be in the first leg. I can pretty accurately determine what my run and bike time will be based on my experience on the course and knowing my fitness level right now, but the kayak is my weakest event. I am more prepared this year for the kayak than I was last year, but I'm still not good in the kayak.

Here are the splits I'm shooting for:

6 mile Kayak - 60 minutes
5.5 mile Run - 45 minutes
18 mile Bike - 45 minutes

No comments: