Maccabi Training

It's going well.  I've survived my four back-to-back-to-back-to-back race weekends to prove that in a week I can do a 40k bike time trial, a half marathon, an Olympic distance tri, AND a 5k swim. 

Two weekends ago, I completed the Valley Crest Half Marathon, 13.1 miles of running with 1800 or so feet of climbing.  My finishing time was about 2:13.  I'd run a flat marathon quite a bit faster, but this was a good challenge.

Running in the Santa Monica Mountains can be tough, but the scenery is awesome.

This past weekend, I competed at the Big Bear Triathlon.  This was the first Big Bear Tri, and the race director is the cousin of one of my team's coaches.  I had a great time, but someone forgot to measure the course.  The swim was 1.3 miles instead of the pre-stated 0.93 miles.  We were told the bike would be long at 28 miles due to lack of an adequate turn-around point, but it came out to more like 31 miles.  So by the time I got to the run, I thought to myself, I know this is supposed to be 6.2 miles, but I am emotionally ready to run 8 if that's what the course is.

Running at 7000 feet of altitude is tough!!!!  What for me is usually an 8:30-9:00 pace was more like 10-11 minutes per mile, and I was breathing hard!

And that's the finish line.

It's hard to believe, but I leave for Israel in less than four weeks -- on July 16!!!  I'm still training hard.  Today started just before 5 am, with a swim from 6-7 am, a full work day, and then a 90 minute brick in the evening.  Tomorrow I'll be at the ocean at 6:15 am to do it all over again.  Some days are tough, but this is what makes us athletes.