Mini Vacation

We had a few days off in addition to last weekend. We went back to Warren to spend time with family and friends and to do some workouts (of course).

I think we did the friends and family thing well but in terms of Half Iron preparation, well I’d give that a C+.

We got an A for running tho’. We ran with Todd and Jerry for 60 minutes one night. Picked them up along the way of our 1:40:00 run another night. That run was probably the slowest they’ve ever run but it was what Genine and I needed to do and we were glad for the company.

Genine and I went up to do some biking along the reservoir. I don’t think we were prepared for the course. It was all climbing and descending. We didn’t mind the climbing but not knowing the roads well enough we had to take it easy on the descents. Some descents were long enough that we probably could have set new PRs on max speed.

Then came Tango training day. Initially I thought I would swim the 2.2 miles with Genine but it seemed like a better plan to do the 4.5 mile run with Todd and Jerry. This test swim for Genine was more about testing her nerves regarding swimming in the reservoir. It’s a big swim but she gets to use fins and has Michelle beside her in the kayak. (this is also the situation on race day). Once she got herself in the water she was fine and she did great. I think it’s very likely that she will post the best swim split of any of our previous years, or very close.

Todd, Jerry and I ran from the beach to the tail waters. We timed it but there was no warmup. The first mile or so was the warmup. None of us have run this course before and everyone has told us how awful it is, so we held back. Along the way I tried to give them every bit of advice I could that might help on race day. It turned out to be a pretty solid run. Once we were warmed up things started to pickup and I was running what would probably be close to my 10K race pace. Then when it got to the last mile… Well Todd opened it up and I had to give it nearly everything I had. I probably should have let up when we hit the off road section. That could have ended badly for me if I twisted an ankle or something but I wanted to be able to stop my watch when he reached the finish. The time was good and there is a good amount of free time to be taken off at the beginning of that run.

I think everyone left the weekend feeling pretty good about our Tango team. It’s going to be fun to see if we can beat our time from last year.