North to Alaska...

The rush is on. Thanks to Sun County's great last minute specials Janet, Bijou, Mom, Dad, Jayna and I are heading to Alaska to visit Mark Hill in Soldotna Alaska. It's Janet's last week to travel before the baby. Adam drove up with Mark (an old collage buddy) the summer of 06. When he got back he said that someday we would have to see it. That some day is this weekend for us. Janet and I were in this area in 01 and really look forward to seeing the school that Mark is running up there. If you are interested in checking out the school go to http://aecak.org

Training over the past week has been tiring. After the half marathon I felt pretty good. The day after I went on a long bike ride with and old team mate (Angel Colon-Perez) from the Disney tri last year. This year he is doing the Madison Ironman. Big time crazy! Sunday was his light bike day so I decided to join him. Three hours and 48 miles later we were done. Probably a bit much after a half marathon race. None the less, I was careful training this week not to over due it. luckily my half-iron training schedule is on a "recovery week" where you ramp down from a four week ramp up period. GOOD TIMING!

Tonight we had a team swim. It was a big night for most of us. The workout was a few short warm ups, then a half hour continuous swim. My longest continuous (staying in the freestyle the whole time) swim by double. It was a great mental challenge to get through the mental/physical fatigue that comes and goes. Holding your stroke and focusing on long efficient technique is a great challenge. I was right around 2000 meters in the long set. A mile is 1750, what a confidence booster! I'm sure it gets easier the more you do "long swims" like that. It is such a great feeling to know I can do it. I have been working on my swim the hardest over the past two months and it's really paying off. Erek and Wes have thankfully taken to the swim much faster that I did. I am very proud of their progress. They have accelerated at an amaizing pace and the race is still over a month and a half away.

One of the reasons the swim was a great success is because our coaches challenged us before we started the long set to focus on why we are training. We went around and each of us named the person/s we are training in honor/memory of. It is not an option for me to quit or complain when you are focused on those who are fighting cancer or have passed on because of it.

PERSPECTIVE! we all need it.