I run therefore, I am!

I set up and poured a floor for Ranna Bieshke, the race director of Moab half today.  It was 91 degrees and windy which didnt help out the flat work.  It was 22 yards and im glad its over.  I was going to try to run down there in moab but it was too hot by the time i was done. Not to mention i was wiped out.

Swam 1 mile this morning.  I did it without stopping which is something ive been building up to do. I ran 1 easy mile on the treadmill while conversing with a potential blog user. I just wanted to get something in before i had to go to work and made it a mile. better than nothing!

swam with my wetsuit on for a half a mile.

I swam 1800 yards this morning and then ran a slow 2 miles and thats all i can say about that.

Ok I lied, I ran 7 miles on the park trail at 4 pm and did it at an extremely slow pace 8 min miles to get my miles in but be very carefull  with my knee. It felt good but it was hot.

I know this is going to sound absurd but I did a speed workout this morning with some friends that are training for St. George and I ran there speed.  I did 10*200's at a 45 second pace.  I did 1*400 at a 1:35 pace.  we warmed up with 1.5 miles and cooled down with 1 mile.  total of 6.5 miles.

Ok here is my pathetic attempt to do something out of the ordinary.  I got to the start line of the swim in the Snake river in Burley.  There was at least a 40 mph wind coming from the west blowing east.  I thought it wouldnt affect me because the current is going west and would pull me but with the wind hitting the water, it turned into whitecaps similar to the sand hollow disaster a couple of weeks ago.  I started my swim and it was my first open water so I was nervous.  I tried to get air but everytime i tried to pull my head up out of water,  a wave would crush down on me.  At one point it hit me three breaths in a row and I was suffocating.  The boat tried getting me in but i wouldnt get in I treaded water for a bit till I could breathe and worked my way to the finish. I had swallowed a fair amount of the river as well as alot of the other swimmers. In fact they had pulled almost half the swimmers out of the water before they finished so I felt like I was ahead of the game a bit. I got my bike jersey on and thought Id be alright because it was about 60 degrees and I started biking and that head wind was slowing everyone down.  I was going on average 10-11 mph on my bike which I could run faster!  It was 25 miles of head wind and the rest was at our back.  At mile 20 I had to go to the bathroom bad and saw a gas station so I went in and asked if I could use there facility and they said NO! so I went outside and just as I opened the doors to come out of the station, I puked!   just outside the doors.  Most of it was river water and I walked over to my bike and puked 2 more times.  I made it to the aid station at mile 23 and went to the bathroom and puked again and I had a line waiting for me outside the portapotti so I forced myself to go out and get back on my bike and I started biking and made it to mile 25 and we finally got a tailwind that was nice, but I was so wiped out from puking that everytime I tried drinking my water Id puke. I made it to mile 33 where there was an ambulance and they pulled me from the race and took my bike back.  I probably would have made the bike with only 23 miles to go but I knew I would be in trouble for the season if I forced myself to try and finish.  It was the first race Ive never been able to complete and it frustrated me but I have to think about the bigger picture for this year. Maybe next time ill plan one out at the end of the year.  It was the hardest thing ive ever done and at the end of the race I talked to a couple of good triathletes that ran down in st. george when they stopped the race on the sprint triathletes and he told me the water was way worse here than down there so Im chalking this up as a learning race and if the elements are this extreme Ill never do one again.