REALLY TOUGH WEEKEND

super tough weekend. friday was my rest day, that was pretty easy as it was also my birthday. But saturday was showtime as i had been telling people i was doing my b fit birthday challenge. if you don't know as i was turning 33 and i was brave, i was doing the gold challenge. That meant i would be doing a 3000 yard swim, 30 mile bike ride and then a 3 mile run. As my longest race distance prior to this weekend was a sprint triathlon ( 800m swim, 25 mile bike & 3.1 mile run ) i was well aware that this challenge was going to push me to my limits. But as i am training for a 70.3 i felt that it would be a good benchmark as to where i was currently in my fitness.

I had also managed to rope in a few friends who are also training for their own 70.3 events this year.  One of the major problems for the day was that it was only 40 degrees outside ( Training Payne is saying in his head, what 40 degrees, thats a day at the beach for us canadians ) with a wind chill that was brining it closer to freezing. This was always meant to be a casual event but when you get a few guys together there is a lot of testosterone flying around and we had a great time.

So anyway, 9:30 came around and we met at the local gym and started swimming. we were swimming in a 25 yard pool so i decided to do 6x500's as it would be easier to keep count of the laps. Daryl decided to do 3x1000's as he is an ironman canada finisher and a seasoned swimmer. ( he was doing flip turns and everything in his swim ) jim, who is pretty new to triathlons, just like me just tried to keep up with me, but as he doesnt have a history of swimming like me, fell behind and i would overtake him once or twice in every 500 yards. i averaged about 7:50 for every 500 i did.

we were in the water for about 55 minutes including breaks. jumped out, got dressed and headed to our cars to get changed again and head out on our freezing cold ride. It took us 1hr:42mins to get the bike ride done, which i felt on a hilly course and with traffic lights was a pretty good effort. We also waited at the top of a few hills for Daryl as he is 203 lbs and it takes him a while to get up hills. I drafted him down the hills as he could go faster than i could.

Daryl bailed on us for the run but a tired jim and i soldiered on and did the 3 miles at a pace of 8 mins to finish in 25 mins.

It was a really tough run and with a combined time of a little over 3 hours was by far the longest combined event i had ever attempted and i think it was a good eye opener into my 70.3 in june. One thing i did realize is that the 7 hours a week i am currently training might not be enough and i might have to bump it up a bit.

so with that in mind sunday came a long and i went out for my long run. i did 5 miles in 38:52 which is a bout a 7:45 pace and i was really happy with that as well.

My knee was taking a bit of strain this morning as i might of overdone it a little so i decided to take the day off today as well just as a precaution and i will make it up over the rest of the week.

Oh, i almost forgot, so i tried an ice bath for the first time on saturday afternoon after my 3 hours challenge and it was freeeeeeeezing. i am very sad to say though, that i think it worked as my legs felt pretty good on sunday during my long run which means i will probably have to keep on jumping in the cold bath in the future. for those who are planning on doing it, i have one line of advice, cup your balls. its the only way man.