I have good intentions.  I really do.  And I’d love to document the whole summer leading up to my attempt at a sub-5 70.3, but, well, I find excuses and I just don’t.  So, no excuses.  Just do it.  Right?  Nike’s so smart.

The funny thing is that the blog is not the only thing I’m flaking out on.  You know what else I flake out on?  The run.  Running after the bike.  Running in a tri.  I plan on working on this.  I NEED to work on this (oh and a whole lot of other things) before attempting sub-5 at Augusta.  More on that later.  For now, just a quick little recap of my other races this year.

6/11/12: Eagleman Half-Iron Aquavelo: 5th OA To refresh your memory about my Eagleman history, read this.  I had something to prove.  But, I wasn’t yet ready to try to prove it over a full 70.3 (I’ll do that next year).  So, I signed up for the Aquavelo.  Jim said he thought I would swim 38, and bike 2:45 or less.  I said (and I quote) “WTF. Are you smoking crack?”  If I did that, I would have won last year.  And this year, it was the USAT Mid Atlantic Regional Aquabike Championship.

My brain during the swim: “ok, stretch out long, streeeetch.  Why do we have to be the last swim wave?  The tide is starting to come in and now we have to swim against a current.  If I’m slow, that’s why.  Yes.  Excuse!   Ok, stop making excuses.  Swim straight, have a smart swim.  Don’t give up.  It’s ok if you swim 45min.  You will be happy with 45 min.  Strong and long.  Long and strong.  And HOLY SHIT this freaking shit won’t end.  GAH!  I want it to end.  END! END!…ok, so close.  Soooooo close.  I bet it’s been 45min.  That’ll show Jim.  I can’t swim 38min.”  And then, I get out of the water, look at my watch and see 37:xx.  And holy shit!  With the grin on my face, you would have thought I had swam 27:xx.  But, I was super happy!

The bike was windy and uneventful.  I passed A LOT of people (that is the benefit in starting in the last swim wave) and probably pushed the 4-bike length limit on drafting a little in riding with a relay girl over the course.  But, it was a good race and I came in in 2:42.  My time would have won last year.  Good enough for 5th this year.  I got an Eaglehead trophy.  I’ll take it.

Eagleman and a Kona spot, I’m coming for you next June.  Watch out.

6/23/12: Tri the Midlands (SCTS): 13th OA, 1st AG. Meh swim, decent bike, flake out on the run.  In my defense, it was like 80 bagillion degrees.  But I did a lot of walking.  I can’t remember the last triathlon that I didn’t walk parts of the run.

7/14/12: Tri the Swamp Rabbit (SCTS):  7th OA, 2nd AG.  This was supposed to be MY race. 250yd pool swim, 16.5mi bike, 5k run.  MADE for me.  But you know, with the flaking out of the run, I kinda, well, flaked out.  My swim was good enough to be 11th OA, bike was 5th OA (inlcuding the time it took me to recover from a wrong turn)…and the run, yea, I don’t know.  I walked some (a lot?).  And it wasn’t even hot!  GAH!  But, I think I got out of that race what I needed to take over the lead in my AG for the SCTS Series.

Ok, folks.  11 weeks until Augusta.  I’m feeling a little time-crunched and like I can’t get to the 5hr mark.  I will need to run a 1:45 half marathon, and with my current running legs that won’t happen.  But, 11 weeks to get mentally tough.  11 weeks to lose a few more lbs.  And 11 weeks to learn how to suffer again.

Game on.  (Wait, I said that like 5 weeks ago and did nothing…but I mean it now.  I promise.)