Mighty Man Sprint, Montauk 10/4/08
 
Swim .5 miles:  It was really cold Saturday at the start, about 50 degrees. The swim was in a pond, an easy course, but I was worried about the cold.  The gun went off and I counted to 15 to let the heat thin out.  Then I was swimming easy and passing people.  I wasn't thinking about my stroke much, I was just dealing with the people I was swimming past.  Once we rounded the last buoy to head back to the beach, I was thinking, well you're swimming kind of easy, so you're not going to do your best time.  Then the guys from the heat after me started passing me, so I tried to get in one guy's draft and let him pull me in to the beach.  It worked for a while.  I thought a hard swim would net me an 18 minute time and an easy swim would be 20 minutes.  So when I got out and saw I was at 16:25, I almost fell over.  It had been an effortless swim!
 
T1:  We shouldn't talk about this.  I was there so long, I could have or dered out for a frappachino.  But I didn't have an over all goal time.  This race I wanted to take time in transition to catch my breath and regroup in between events.
 
The bike was a 10 mile piece of cake.  There was a 1 mile long climb that didn't feel too bad.  I'm a little bummed because my time exactly matched my NYC pace.  But the up side is that it felt like I was holding back, not giving it everything.  I'm still unsure what I can do on the bike and still have gas in the tank for the run, so I was conservative.  But really, really pleased w/ my HR.
 
T2: Had a mani/pedi, chatted on the phone  
 
Run 5K:  Set out on feet that felt like ice blocks.  I honestly couldn't feel them hit the ground.  My goal was to match my Nike 10K time, or do slightly better.  The first mile was mostly up hill and once the legs thawed, they burned a lot!  Stopped at mile 1 for water and a quick stretch.  I looked at my watch and thought, I can make my time goal, but it's going to hurt.  But then I settled into a pace and started feeling really good. My HR was stil l sub LT and I felt amazing.  I start cooking along and chatting with people I PASS.  Waved to Steve Tarpinian and thanked him for camp this summer.  I didn't feel like I was working AT ALL.  I couldn't believe what my watch was telling me...that I was going to come in 5 minutes faster then I had any hope of finishing.  It was the fastest 5K I'd ever run...ever.
 
I just had no idea I was capable of doing those swim/run times outside of an LT test.  It's not just the times, it's that they were not a gut wrenching effort.  This time last year I wasn't just resistant to the HR training; I was openly hostile to the idea.  Consider me convinced!