The First Blog

In the recent weeks of boredom at work, I've drawn enormous inspiration from blogs of other people and their experiences undertaking endeavors much more interesting than sitting at a desk. I have found myself in   a unique place in the past three months. My feelings of calmness and freedom that have come with a summer at home seem amplified when I think of the whirlwind that lies ahead as I head back to school, where a full semester of classes, responsibilities, and my final 12 weeks of Ironman training await.

Back in May, I had mixed feelings about leaving behind the California sunshine to come back to suburban New England. It didn't take long at all for me to wonder how I possibly could have chosen summer in the city of smog and traffic over months of serene bike rides through the White Mountains of New Hampshire and along the rocky coast of Maine, or trail runs at the same state park I've been logging miles at since I was 15. When I decided back in November that I wanted to attempt an ironman, I was giddy at the thought of trying my hand at the full distance. As a tough spring semester of 5 difficult, time-intensive, "weed-out" classes and race directing got underway in January, the exciting progress I had been making in triathlon all fall came to a screeching halt. By the time Collegiate Nationals and the Wildflower Long Course Triathlon rolled around in April and the first week of May, I'd given up any lofty aspirations and went in with one goal: finish. With Ironman, finishing is a lofty aspiration in itself, so I came home from California hungry for a routine that would set me up to acheive my goal.

Now that the summer is coming to a close, it seems like it's finally an appropriate time to reflect on the last 12 weeks and look at the progress I've made. I think my workouts this past weekend speak for themselves. Saturday, I undertook my first really, really long brick. The training schedule called for a 3 hour ride follwed by a quick transition into a 2 hour run. For the first weekend in a while, I had no plans to go away, so I decided to explore my own backyard this time around. I've had some inconsistencies on the bike, but everything went my way from the first pedal stroke on Saturday. I easily cruised around flats and a few rolling hills right around 20mph, crouched in aero almost the entire time. After 60 miles, with a final average of 19.0 mph, I showed off a flying dismount to my imaginary audience and set off on the 2 hour run. I haven't run over 10 miles on just pavement in a long, long time, so I was nervous to try it in a brick. Since I usually run on unmeasured trails, I also have no clue what my long run pace is, so I wasn't sure how far I was going to be running. I figured 8:30-9:00 min/mile sounded about right, so I plotted a general course that I could add to or subtract from if need be. I settled into a pace that felt good and just stayed there. 8.25 miles and 1:06 hours later, I came around to my make-shift aid station (i.e. waterbottles and gu stuffed in my mailbox). I walked through the "aid station," refueling and mustering motivation to get through four more miles. Hit my stride again and it felt like nothing. One more stop for fuel and I powered through 2.75 more miles. Ended up running 15 miles in just over 2 hours, averaging 8 min/mile. So I think that nagging question in my head of "Have I made any real progress this summer?" was answered by those 5 hours and 75 miles.

Sunday was an easier day, 10 miles on Boston's Harbor Walk. I got into town before the city woke up, and made my way from South Boston to Charlestown and back before "recovering" with breakfast on Charles Street with my mom. A relaxing 2200 yd swim capped off a great weekend of training.

I think I've accomplished even more than my training workouts show, though. Having an internship forced me to really think about my future, and what I initially thought would be a depressing realization that life after college would be boring and monotonous turned into an epiphany that my options are limitless. Who knows what trails I might be running on a year from now.

All right, back to..."work"...