My training is starting to heat up as my Half Iron Man gets closer. Here is my last 30 days alone:
Biking: 9 hours 6 min
Running: 2 hours 12min
Swimming: 7 hours 31min
Hot Yoga: 2 hours
Strength: 1 hour 40min
I learned about Hot Yoga through some friends and have fallen in love with it. It is standard yoga but in 105 degree room with 30% humidity. I have done two sessions so far and cannot describe how great I have felt afterwards. I plan on incorporating this into my training twice a month if possible. I took a little time off from running in December due to a pain I had in my foot. That seems to have passed, so I am slowly getting back to normal with that.
I have also gone back to filling out a food journal and working on getting my diet more in line. Working on cutting out all pop too. So far I am averaging about 1-2 a week, which is way better than the 1-2 a day I used to have.
I have 6 smaller events lined up before the big event in July. A few runs, bikes and a couple triathlons. I hope to start doing more brick work before the end of January. A year ago I would have never guess I would have come this far.

Invested in a new Cannondale road bike to get ready for my half-ironman. I have been using a mountain bike up until this point and its amazing what a difference it can make. The first time out my average speed was 2 mph faster without any effort. We got our first snow yesterday and it’s finally too cold to be riding outside, so I got myself a Kurt Kinetic bike training and have it setup in my office. I am very please with how quiet it is. Especially since we are in a 2nd floor apartment. I warned my neighbor ahead of time in case any noise went though the floor, but he says he cannot hear anything. I have only been on it a couple of times, but I am really happy with it so far.

I got over a major hurdle of reaching my half Ironman goal. I got my first open water swim in. I rented a wetsuit and headed into Gull Lake at Cragun’s resort near Brainerd Minnesota. The water was 57 degrees, but the wetsuit performed wonderfully and better than expected. My hands and feet were exposed, but I was not cold at all. I was very comfortable in the water. The only thing I did not have was big waves, which might cause a problem if there are waves on race day and I don’t get a chance to practice in them.

Last Thursday I really jumped in to this Triathlon thing with both feet. I signed up for the 2012 Racine WI Half Iron Man. A 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a half marathon. There is no going back now. Especially since there is no refund on the registration.

I told my trainer what I did and she was super excited and immediately had me on a treadmill with a incline of 15 as my first workout. Needless to say, I am seriously increasing the amount of training I am doing. I doubled my bike workouts to 2 hours and felt great afterwards. I swam the 1.2 miles in the pool without much trouble. The run however, will take some time to get up to a half marathon. I am still running in my Vibram Five Fingers and am only doing about 6 miles a week. I have to ramp that up. Then, I have to put everything together so I can actually do all 3 in the same day. I still have a lot of progress to make before I will be ready for this event. Getting my nutrition inline might end up being the hardest part since I love sugar so much. But I am really excited to do this event and am totally committed to putting the effort in so I finish and finish strong. I would be lying if I didn’t say I want to do a full Iron Man the next year.

I have already made plans for renting a wet suit and doing my first open water (cold) swim in early October. It seems weird to be making plans to go swimming outdoors the same weekend Hockey season starts.

Another fair is in the books. In all, I spent 5 days at the fair, over 41 hours, walked over 30 miles in my Vibrams, and ate my way though every stick mounted food I could find. My feet feel great and I didn’t get tired until the few hours on Sunday. Nicole got 3 days in and could not be happier with her time at the fair. Now it’s back to 6 days a week of triathlon training and a semi-normal diet.

As an added bonus, on the way home I stopped at Jim’s Apple Farm and the first batch of Honey Crisp apples were in! I picked up two bags and immediately ate two of them. (They are small this year) What a great end to a great week. Below are the pictures I took this year along with the food diary.
MN State Fair 2011 Pictures
MN State Fair Food Diary

I have had 3 consecutive days at the fair now and could not be happier. I have walked about 15 miles in those 3 days. Far less than previous years, but I am seriously pacing myself knowing I still have a couple more days at the fair. The food has been amazing, I have tried new things and plenty of old favorites. The two that stick out in my mind are the Egg Roll on a stick and the Noddles w/veggies. Both were impulse buys and were very good. I have posted many more pictures to our Flickr page and the link is in the previous post.