I signed up for the Tupper Lake Tinman. It’s a half ironman distance race (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run). I was originally looking at doing the Musselman half ironman distance race. It is much closer to me. But it is on the same weekend as the Wakely Dam Ultra. I am not sure if I am going to do Wakely. I have done it the last two years, and it is a fun race. If I do run it this year, I will likely take it very easy as I can’t afford to get hurt that close to the Louisville Ironman. Maybe take lots of pictures, and basically have fun.
I will be using the Tupper Lake Tinman as a practice for the full Ironman. I think the bike ride is hillier than the Musselman. According to Bikely.com, it has about 2300 feet of climbing. Which is less than many of the rides I do around home.
It will give me a chance to use my wetsuit. And I can practice transitions. It will be interesting as I haven’t done a race this long without an mp3 player. Heck, I even swim my laps with an mp3 player.
I hope I can get an open water swim in before this race. I am sure I will get a chance since the race isn’t until June. Maybe I will go out to one of the open water swims organized by the masters swim group in the area.
I swam 2 miles last night! That is the longest/farthest I have ever swam. I did one length of freestyle, one length backstroke, and did the most of the distance like that. I mixed in a few lengths of elementary backstroke in too to rest my calves, especially after the left calf cramped. I was swimming easy going for long slow distance. It took me 1:32. I did get a calf cramp around the 57th lap. I stopped and got it stretched and rubbed out. My right shoulder was starting to get a little sore in the last 10-15 laps, but nothing big.
It was fun swimming as lifeguards came and went during their 15 minute shifts. I just swam easy listening to music on my Swimp3 mp3 player.
I feel pretty good today, though I am feeling the effort.
Firday, I will do more of a tempo type effort where I wont swim as long, or far, but I will swim at a faster pace.