Beer Drinkers Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2023 Mentor Group - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 48)

Hey, folks.  Looks like we had a big weekend around here. 

@Nathalie:  yay 2023 Nat!!!  Nice work and like Andrew said you seemed to hold back just enough to hammer the run and I know that's been a bugaboo of yours in the past; I'm going to assume you crushed the transitions as well; podium!!!

@Gretchen:  you never disappoint with your training stories!!  re:  aero helmet...yes they really help but only if you are comfortable with it on AND hold aero position correctly otherwise it's slower than not having one - there's a nice middle ground with an aero road helmet (more gear!!!) but like Andrew said I wouldn't try anything new right now; I'm also hitting the weather pages - looking at mid-80s (probably around 75 at race start) with no chance in hell of wetsuits

@Andrew:  solid week for you...here's to hoping it continues; 19 weeks?  that's a freakin' prime number dude and it's giving me a headache; do you have four 4-week blocks then 3 weeks of peak/taper/race?  I personally like plans divisible by four 

The weekend was a practice tri on Saturday - 500 yard swim +/-, 10 miles on the bike @ race pace (averaged 21.6 mph) and then just under 2 miles running at race pace with my daughter - as usual she smoked me on the swim, I destroyed her on the bike, and then we ran the same pace; we both felt great and looked at each other afterwards and both said "you know, we could CRUSH a sprint right now" but we both committed to the Oly (her first, and probably my last) so we're going to stick with that.

Sunday was supposed to be 2500 in the pool but I don't do math well and ran out of time, so finished at 2100 (yes, I know...).  Then The Wife and I walked 5 miles at a pretty good clip then I race-walked another 3/4 mile or so to finish.  That puts a wrap on July for me, easily the biggest training month of my "career" with almost 53 hours and 2,700 TSS of training.  I also rescued my swim and run training with a really good last week.

Swim: 7h 10m 48s - 17900 Yd (in the top ten monthly all-time)
Bike: 28h 51m 13s - 524.45 Mi (all-time monthly record)
Run: 3h 41m 32s - 19.33 Mi
Strength: 4h 23m
Hiking/Walking : 8h 14m - 29+ miles, so ~ 50 total run/walk

Based on how training has gone lately I'm adjusting my expectations/goals higher and shooting for my Olympic PR of 2:38...I'm a faster swimmer and cyclist now and while I'm not sniffing my 50:17 10K during that race I know I have a sub-hour in me.  The bike course is a little short of 40K so I'll gain five minutes there, and I'm hoping no wetsuit won't kill my swim time.  I guess it all depends on how my back holds out on the run and hopefully the weather doesn't get too warm during the run.

We are looking to run down 2014 Mike.  It's going to be a tough one as that guy was running like the wind with a 46:20 10K and a 21:57 5K in two months leading up to that 2:38:01 Oly.  All that run fitness came at a cost, tough, as his cycling wasn't great and he was still a sketchy open water swimmer back then. 

@Nathalie:  great new profile picture!! 

One more solid run effort this morning during taper with 45 minutes on the treadmill, one mile @ T pace and a couple of 30" sprints towards the end while watching our soccer team stink up the joint against Portugal.  Looks like we got Sweden next in the knockout round and if we don't improve that's going to be all she wrote for the USWNT.

Must be race week as I had a dream last night that I forgot like half my crap for transitions.