Cort's Birthday Triathlon

I'm 26 36 46! No kidding! Yesterday was the big day. The whole age/number thing is pretty meaningless to me (unless of course I'm aging up to a new age group for racing). I know 70-somethings who are incredibly youthful and 30-somethings who are old. I'm not a big celebrator of particular days like birthdays in the traditional way. I'm a celebrator of every day. But this gave me an excuse to swim/bike/run a little more. I kept up my fairly recent birthday "tradition" of a sport-y recognition of the day:

2009 - 42 deadlifts of 135 lbs
2010 - 43 deadlifts of 135 lbs
2011 - 44 deadlifts of 135 lbs (video)
2012 - 4500y swim, 45 pullups (video), 45 mile bike (done over three days)

This year I did a 46k birthday triathlon: 3k swim + 19k run + 24k bike. It was built around the run Coach Jim had scheduled for me as part of my Boston preparation. He had the swim scheduled so we just added in the bike and there we had it, 46k + 1k to grow on! It was 3-1/2 hours of workouts but adding in the refueling between, changing, driving to the run, getting the bike ready, etc, it took a good chunk of the day.

Swim - 3.3k

I started with a 1200m warm-up on the Vasa Ergometer then hit the pool. My main set was a 30 minute continuous swim done as a negative split. I ended up at 2300y (2100m) in the pool.

About to get on the Vasa Ergometer. I have to break out the tiara once in a while, remind the boys in the house who is the QUEEN.

With Tanya and Coach Jim

With a "race number" to race those in adjacent lanes haha.

Run - 19k

This was the main event - 20 min warmup, 1 mile at threshold (which was a relatively easy 6:21 which made me happy), then 50 min at what was supposed to be my more aggressive marathon pace but I ended up going a little too fast. I blame the "happy feet." I did this as an out-and-back on our Huckleberry Trail. It was a balmy "feels like" 20 degrees so I was glad I had shorts on otherwise I might have overheated.

Bike - 25k

I rode from the house along North Fork Road that parallels the North Fork of the Roanoke River. It's beautiful. Frankly it's all beautiful around here. It had warmed up to about 40 but I was dressed just right. I set the Garmin to "km" and then was compulsively doing the calculations to convert speed and distance to miles!!

It was a perfect birthday by my standards!!