Moab Triathlon Festival — How to Goad Mr. Russell

By Mike – December 21, 2010Posted in: December Run Workout, Motivation

Type: Short, quick run
Distance: 3.0 miles
Time: 22:30
Average Pace: 7:30 min/mile
Average Heart Rate: 157 bpm

Our window wells were flooding last night with some crazy rain we were having, so I was up most of the night making sure the pumps were working. Needless to say, I was pretty worked over this morning when I finally got out of bed. My run was shorter than scheduled because I was so tired AND my back was a little tweaked because for some of the night I slept on the couch in the basement to keep a eye on the water levels regularly. I figured if I went upstairs to bed I would have not gotten up when I wanted to check water levels. Man I hate getting up in the middle of the night except for a long bike ride and duck hunting. For either one of those activities I can get out of bed no problem.

I did go on my “Holiday Diet” that I talked about a couple of weeks ago tonight. If you missed that post let me sum it up for you — I will eat what I want in moderation this entire holiday week. I will worry about the one or two pounds I may or may not gain in January and will not feel guilty about eating rich, calorie intense foods. It just isn’t worth the guilt. I went to my brother James’ house for a birthday party for his youngest girl and had a wonderful dinner full of serious calories. It was great food and good times with family. I don’t have daughters because God knows I will be a pushover for them. I have a hard enough time telling my nieces no. Forget daughters.

My Buddy Rick LaBelle and How to Trick me Into Adding a Race to My Calendar

TriUtah

You people know I have put my 2011 race calendar together already. It is full of serious bike races and a marathon, but a triathlon was conspicuously missing. I committed to my wife that I would only do Ironman St. George once every two years and she is making me stick to the schedule. The next Ironman will be in 2012. So my good buddy Rick emails a bunch of us last weekend about a race in Moab Utah called the Moab Triathlon Festival. Of course he threw his gloves off and calls all of us out.

And I have this sickness. When you challenge me to do something I have to respond. I think I am reasonable — I wouldn’t try to catch a bullet in my teeth or anything. The Moab Triathlon Festival is on May 14th and has a XTerra and road version. It looks like I will be doing the road version because I am familiar with the trail they will doing the XTerra version on and it looks like a serious challenge. If the Thanksgiving weekend mountain bike ride taught me only one thing, it would be that I am not ready to race over a highly technical mountain bike course.

Of course, the decision is now between going with the Olympic or the Sprint distance. I haven’t ever done a sprint triathlon. I know it sounds silly, but I am just not fast enough to place well in a Sprint distance. So all of my tri’s have either been Olympic, 1/2 IM or full IM races. I think one of the real reasons is I like to take my time in T2 especially. Regardless of the reason, I think this may be my Sprint Triathlon debut. Of course in the true “I can’t see a challenge and not take it” theme that sometimes rules my life and decision-making powers in this sport, I challenged Rick to a no holds barred race. I think he wants to do the XTerra version, but heaven help me I will convince him to run the road version with me.

Don’t worry though other men who will be in this race. This year I make my M 40-44 age group debut. I actually might have a chance to so something in my age group. All you fast fleet footed guys in the M 35-39 age group can just stay where you are. Let me see the possibility of winning some hardware fellas!

About the Author

I have been participating in running and triathlons for 10 years and love the feeling that training provides. You may not agree with me, but you know you just can't look away...