It's a half ironman distance triathlon. VBR is Virginia's Blue Ridge. My second (did the same one last year). Swim went okay, then I was slow today on the bike and just tried to hold things together on the run. 6:42 or something like that. Faster than last year but still leaves huge room for progress.
Thanks for the information and great work!
When I was younger, my brother would ride his 10-speed with a friend and me, being the younger brother would try to emulate. I eventually got to doing around 12 miles a day after school and timing myself. I have no clue what my times were, but i had a route I rode and tried to improve as time went on.
In highschool, we had to take PE and one semester was running and I found out I actually liked track running late at night. Not competitively, but I would ride my motorcycle to the school track around 10pm and run 10-20 laps at a medium pace and think. It was healthy, I think. Regretfully, I screwed up a knee in college and now get a ton of swelling every time i try to start running again.
We put in a swimming pool a couple of years ago and I found out that swimming really tells you a bunch about your health. I was never a super strong swimmer, but I could do ok. Today, if I did one lap trying to swim hard, I'd need a paramedic on call just in case.
Very cool that you did the event for the second time and I hope you enjoyed the process. My opinion at my age and state of fitness is that I'd be more sore than you just watching. . .
It is funny, to me how much the swimming part is different than running or biking recreationally. If you've got bad knees, you walk not run. If you're getting worn down on a bike, you downshift and slow down. When swimming, if you are struggling, you die.
Again, great job and I hope to use your success as well as Chris's posts to motivate me to become slightly more healthy with exercise, as I should be better than I am at my age.