Nine and a Half Weeks.

Except less in the way of Mickey Rourke and more in the way of me, constantly exhausted.

I have nine and a half weeks until the half-Ironman, and the training distances are ramping up. Yesterday I did a 42 mile ride, which I took easy. Several long stops to refill water bottles, and check work email, since I was riding during the day. Cutting out those, I did 42.2 miles in about 2:42. That’s still a touch slow, but I’m ok with it. The overall pace without the long stops was 15.6 mph, which is very much within striking distance of my goal speed.

I’ve gone over to SPDs, or clip-in pedals for the X-wing, and even though I’m not faster – or wasn’t yesterday – they definitely feel like they make me a bit more efficient, and distribute the work around a bit to more muscles than just the big ones I use without them. I also discovered there’s a water fountain about 21 miles away from my house on the route I like to ride, so that makes me feel better about my hydration on long, hot rides.

After the ride, I had an hour at the gym, but I took it pretty easy. Nevertheless, today my entire core is beat up like I was the side of beef in a boxing film.

I’m nervous about the distances involved but I’m beginning to think I’ll be able to do it. To crawl across the finish line, anyway. It feels nearly incomprehensible right now. That half-marathon at the end… well, ugh. That’s a long way to run on the best of days. After an hour in the water and three and a half (or more) on the bike? It’s going to be grueling. But I think I’ll be proud when I’m done.

As a ridiculous, stupid, silly tune up, BB and I are running a 5km bouncy castle race the weekend prior. It’s going to be absurd and awesome.