This morning, I met up with one of my best friends, Brad, to do our first training session together in preparation for his first triathlon in August. \u00a0He’s been around my triathlon world for many years now having heard me talk about it ad nauseam, having seen me in various events, and having been witness to my ridiculous training sessions including a 16 mile run in the Las Vegas desert after a night of debauchery, an 18 miler in Columbus, Ohio after another night of drinking, and a ton of other craziness.<\/p>\n
We started off with a pool session as that’s the area where new triathletes need the most direction. \u00a0In swimming, unlike cycling and running, you don’t get better by doing more of it. \u00a0Technique improvement is the primary way in which an athlete gets better and faster. \u00a0We did a few drills together and he improved quickly. \u00a0We then transitioned to a 40 minute run and ran it easily, with another few drills mixed in.<\/p>\n
It was so great to see Brad’s enthusiasm as he enters this new world. \u00a0He’s tremendously athletic and I’m certain he’ll have a great experience on race day. \u00a0As I think back to my first race 11 years ago, I didn’t have anyone to show me the ropes and I didn’t know if I’d like the experience. \u00a0For me, it was to do one triathlon and for it to be a sentinel event. \u00a0Turns out, I had a terrible first race and didn’t enjoy myself at all… until it was over and I had time to reflect. \u00a0I figured that I’d try another one to validate the first one, and then decided on a third, and a fourth, and then finished my first triathlon season with four triathlon finishes and with the confirmation that I had gotten the bug.<\/p>\n
I don’t know if Brad will get the bug too, but he’s certainly on his way. \u00a0What I can’t help but do however is reflect back on the 84 triathlon finishes under my belt as I contemplate number 85 which also happens to coincide with my third Ironman. \u00a0I’m as excited about this huge event in my life as I was with my first triathlon. \u00a0The kind of nerves that I’ll have will be different, but it will be thrilling nonetheless.<\/p>\n
I did feel good this morning in the short training sessions I did with Brad. \u00a0I feel like I have plenty of energy, my legs feel great, and I am in good spirits. \u00a0All the ingredients seem to be in place. \u00a0Now the trick is to keep this feeling going for the next seven days. \u00a0Oh man, I am getting pumped!<\/p>\n
P.S. \u00a0New photos are now loaded onto the pics page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This morning, I met up with one of my best friends, Brad, to do our first training session together in preparation for his first triathlon in August. \u00a0He’s been around my triathlon world for many years now having heard me talk about it ad nauseam, having seen me in various events, and having been witness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}