100 Days Till Hy-Vee Triathlon

Well I noticed this week that it is only 100 days until the Hy-Vee Triathlon June 22 in Des Moines, Iowa. What does that mean? A couple of things:

That I will be a little better prepared this year, and I am looking forward to giving it another shot. If you might remember, sometime in April of last year I decided to buy a bike and "learn how to swim" and enter in their inaugural event. In it I spent 53 minutes in the water (just an olympic distance, 1500 meter swim), which also included a few misdirections. After I finished the swim I was happy to just finish the event (which I did in 3:20:56, not particularly impressive).

This year I am already swimming, the running is again going well (as I am training for a half in April), and I am planning on biking the second the weather gets just a little warmer. Plus, with one under my belt, I have a lot better understanding on how this whole thing works.
Secondly, they ran a very good event in Des Moines last year. They through a ton of dough a the pros, picked a very good route for the age groupers, a very fun one for the pros. And it worked out pretty good for the triathlon as well as they are hosting the last of the olympic trials for the US Triathlon team for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Pretty cool stuff for Des Moines (my hometown).

Thus our nations finest triathletes also only have about 100 days to see if they can fulfill their olympic dreams. Also pretty cool.

As we are talking tri, I would also like to recommend a new tri website: Daily Triathlon. They have a couple of cool videos on it. One is of an open water swim race in Australia, the other is highlighting a Kenyan running program. Enjoy!

Speaking of Daily Triathlon and Des Moines, here is a little video of a Laura Bennett interview, who won in Des Moines last year.

As for today, my CARA group had a good 8 mile run. Weather was a warm feeling 35 degrees, the wind wasn't quite was bad as last year. I actually forgot my hat and gloves and it turned out ok.

Running:
8 miles, 1:06:05, 8:12 pace


I hope you enjoy the St Paddy's day theme. Today we are off to see the Chicago river get greener, and then we are planning some celebrations.