I’m happy to say that I am feeling a little bit better today. I won’t say that I’m back to normal, but it’s not so bad that I recommend that people avoid me. I promise I won’t bite… today.

I originally wanted to go see my friend race Grandma’s Marathon this weekend. It’s in Duluth which is about 2.5 hours from here. I didn’t plan in advance though and his room was already pretty full with he and his wife, mom, and brother. So I opted to stay here instead and do my long ride as I had scheduled. Nothing too much to say about that either. I rode 80 miles on the nose. I had the wind in my face the whole way out, but had a nice tailwind all the way home. My biking fitness seems to doing ok. With each long ride, I build confidence that I’ll be able to come off the bike leg at IM Moo not totally shelled. I’ll be plenty tired, but hopefully I’ll be able to run afterwards. For how long, it’s anyone’s guess.

I did a quick transition run after my ride - just two miles. Somehow between the winter and now, I’ve learned how to run (well, relatively speaking anyway). I’m not fast by any means, but my normal cruising pace is now somewhere around 8:30 where it used to be between 9-10. Today after riding 80 miles, I cruised the first mile of my transition run in about 8:20. I doubt you’ll see 26 of those back to back, but it makes me think that a 5 hour marathon split is a realistic goal come race day.