Wrapping Up August 2009

August has now passed. What happened?

This last month has been a mentally challenging month for me. I raced only 1 race early in the month. While the race went very well and I medaled in my age group, I spent most of the remainder of the month recovering. Not just recovering from that 1 race, but from the whole year to date. I took more than 10 days off from training - completely off. I took off more time in the month of August than in any month prior dating back into 2008. That was a hard thing to do and most of those days it was not by my choice. Family and work are priorities and the way my schedule fell, I was taking of my daughters on my off days; and while on shift we were busy enough to block out serious training.

August's totals:
(Minus Sports/Elliptical and Fire Training)
Bike: 4h 23m 29s - 88.74 Mi
Run: 7h 46m 59s - 52.32 Mi
Swim: 2h 33m 29s - 5046.81 Yd
Strength:3h 35m

September brings a new challenge. This month I have only 1 race planned, the Capital City River Run on the 27th. This will be another half marathon. I plan to run my fastest half marathon although I've only ever done 2. I hope for this race to be a benchmark for future runs. I plan to race the 13.1 miles in less than 1 hour and 40 minutes. But my goal is a little faster, push the pace towards a 7 minute mile.

September also brings me to the point where I will start more swim training. This fall and winter I hope to be able to join the US Masters Swimming and compete in a regional swim meet. I would like to swim the 50 Freestyle, 100 Freestyle, 200 Freestyle and 500 Freestyle. While I don't expect to win any medals, I do hope that will challenge me enough to get in the water and become a better swimmer for next years races (where I'd like to think I will be competing at the Olympic distance level).

I was also fortunate to wrap up a set of photo's with Darryl Evans of Pure Enchantment Photography. This will allow me to finish a comp/ZED card and put my image out for a few companies to consider. I've had a lot of fun doing these photo shoots and can only hope that this leads to more.

Lastly, I will be in the Lansing based Healthy and Fit Magazine. I was nominated for an athlete profile in the magazine, but after talking to the columnist it was decided that I would better fit into a success story. These columns are huge (vs the profile is only a quarter page). So I'm honored to tell my story of weight loss and how I got into racing.

Thank you to those who have supported my racing addiction this past month. My wife and daughters are my biggest support right down to the sweaty hugs when I get home after a training session. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do some training while I'm on shift at the fire department as the strength and endurance also enable me to better perform my job.

Until next time, train smart and race hard.