March

March was a good month. At the start, I proclaimed it swim month. And it was. I swam more this month than I ever had, 23,000+ yards, substantially more than January and February combined, but still less than the plan called for. I'm not really any faster compared to last year at this time, but I feel much more comfortable in the water.

I'm guessing that if I swam according to the plan, April swim totals would reach 35k-40k. I'm going to shoot for 30k+, and want to be doing the complete workouts called for by the end of the month (3k 3x/week). Getting there.

Bike wise, I spent a whole lot of time going nowhere, and not really all that fast. I only rode outdoors three times, twice on my mountain bike and once on Wilson. April should put an end to my trainer days, I just hope it comes sooner than later. Oddly enough, biking feels like my weakest link right now.

I'm thrilled with my running progress over the last month, I just need to keep it up. Training runs are starting to be more consistently below the 10:00 minute/mile pace. Goal for April is to kiss the 10 minute/mile good bye for good.

If nothing else April should be an interesting month. Scheduling is already hard, weekly volume is starting to build, both kids start soccer next week, and little league starts just a couple of weeks after that. Planning (and sticking to that plan) is going to be imperative.

Open Water

Lake Monona appears to be completely free of ice, which leads me to start thinking about open water swimming.  At lunch today running down the lakeshore path I noticed there were already half a dozen or so loons out there swimming.  Even stranger, none of them appeared to be together.

Also saw a large white pelican and numerous ducks and geese.  Yes, I was referring to the feathered type of loon.  While I think triathletes in general are a little odd, I don't any of us crazy enough to swim just after ice out.  I still find the loon siting odd, very rarely do I spot them this far south.

Good run, nice day, with a little urban wildlife mixed in.

Candy

Every year I pillage most of the chocolate from the kids Halloween collection, it's for their own good.  Really, I do it for the children. 

I just realized that my supply is dangerously low.  I obviously don't eat much of it, but it's nice to have around for emergencies, and they are cropping up more often the further I get into training.

So if you're planning on buying my kids Easter candy (you know who you are), this is what I like:

Peanut butter M&M's
Snickers (the really little ones)
any other chocolate, especially if it encapsulates peanut butter or caramel
Jelly Belly jelly beans
Starburst jelly beans

That should get me through.

Stick a Fork in Me

I'm done.

After what turned into a long afternoon nap I finally got on the bike just before 4:00. Three hours is a long time to go nowhere on a bike. The first hour wasn't too bad. Second hour seemed to take forever, but I held the best pace over the course of it. After two hours I got off for a bathroom break and stretched a bit before resuming. The last hour wasn't all bad. Ass was/is really sore, but with the end in site, the time went by a bit quicker.

Coming off the bike I actually felt really good. I've since collapsed into a very comfy chair and now everything hurts. I thought I figured out a couple of things during the ride, but right now I can only think of one.

I started eating a bar of some sort about 1-1/2 hours in, just taking a small bite every 5-10 minutes. After 2 hours, it got to be very difficult to swallow. Taste was fine, stomach was fine, just hard to get it down. Other than the bar I downed two bottles of Infinit and most of a bottle of water. Nutrition come race day is a great unknown for me. Planning on using solely Infinit on the bike, but I'd like to figure out Plan B should something go awry. Run nutrition? I have no idea.