July 30-August 5: Not Terrible. Not Great. But OK.

I’m currently sitting 19 days from IM Louisville, in that odd spot where there isn’t much left to do except check off some shorter workouts and go over packing lists.

And race one last time.

I knew to not expect a stellar performance after two months of nearly nonstop heavy training, and of course, there was no real rest available three weeks before doing an ironman. So I went and raced the Culpeper International Distance Triathlon on Saturday just a week after biking almost all of the IM Louisville course.

The result?

It was OK. And OK is about the best you can hope for under these circumstances. I’d have liked to have broken three hours for a real international-distance race, but 3:05 in a race with a very technical bike course and an incredibly hot and hilly run course isn’t terrible.

Not terrible.

Not great, but not terrible.

In other words, OK.

The remainder of one of my final weeks of IM Louisville training:

Monday: Rest day.

Tuesday: In the morning, a bike session mostly around Hains Point that added up to 26.2 miles (I kid you not) and 4.5 miles of bike commuting home in the evening.

Wednesday: Spent all day flying to Seattle for work, then did a “track” workout on the hotel treadmill overlooking the city. 1600 (8:34), 2x800 (4:03, 3:57), 4x400 (1:56, 1:52, 1:55, 1:54) as part of a 5.15 mile workout.

Thursday: An early morning pre-meeting swim. 2.4 miles straight in the pool (that is 4250 yards, in case you care) in 1:02:53. So close to under an hour, yet so far. Maybe in 2.5 weeks in Louisville, I’ll make it.

Friday: Rest day. Used to catch up on work after all the flight time around the country and pack for the race in Culpeper.

Saturday: 1500 meters of swimming in 26 minutes, 24 miles of biking in 1:31 and a 10k run in 1:04 at the Culpeper Triathlon.

Sunday: Easy 58 mile recovery bike ride around the Capital Crescent trail, Bethesda, and Beach Drive.

*Remember that 50k in May challenge? I just realized that I never announced that we all swam enough that I have to donate $250 to NAMI. Nice swimming, folks.