First, THIS Year's Goals

Before I get too carried away by the anticipation of training for an IM, I've got some unfinished business from this year to take care of. This weekend I will be racing in the Des Moines Half Marathon. I've been leading training groups for the last three years and this is my fifth group. I've been struggling with a bit of a hamstring "problem" the last few weeks. I had a similar problem a few years ago in the other hamstring and that took 2 years to heal. I've got to concentrate on getting this one dealt with ASAP so that I can be fresh for 9 months of IM training. I'm feeling a little bit of burnout from this year. I love to run, but coaching and running is more of a challenge. And, with all the running, I didn't get to spend as much time on my bike as I would like. And, swimming was basically non-existant in my schedule.

I didn't do many triathlons this summer because most of my time was spent leading the training groups. Long, slow running is not great training for sprint distance triathlons, but I did manage to fit a few into my summer. The first was the Logansport Triathlon in Logansport, IN. It was a VERY long drive, but it would be my friend's first tri, and I was NOT about to miss that. I was actually very glad that I did that one, I brought home second in my age group - my first hardware! The following weekend was the Quad Cities Triathlon in my hometown. I missed the registration dealine but the race director was kind enough to let me in anyways. Improved my time by four minutes over my 2004 race there. Lastly was the Iowa Games. It was a blistering hot day and I struggled with the run because of the heat.

Anyways, today's run was 3 easy miles at 6:30am. It was about 70 degrees and still pretty humid, even though it's mid-September. Time was right at 28 minutes. Not blistering fast, but not too bad considering the hamstring ailment and a not-so-good night of sleep last night. My hamstring started out better than it has and seemed to warm-up quickly. I iced it right when I got home and have been doing lots of gentle stretching on it all day long. One more application of ice tonight, then we'll see how it feels after another easy run tomorrow night.