Malibu Tri

Did the Malibu Tri on Sunday. Fun event, well run. Basta and I both did well. I did it in around 5 minutes faster than last year and felt much more fit the whole way. Happy about both of those things.

Basta rode his tri bike and rode it hard. He averaged 19.58mph, a new record for him. The course was 18 miles of rolling hills.

Then he flew off the bike, his leg/foot completely pain-free. He had a 7:48 pace on the run, faster than he's been able to run in many months. He was very, very happy with that.

He placed 17th out of 63 in his age group. Good.

His foot pain is in the coming and going state. Sometimes he's pain-free, sometimes it comes back. The daily yoga is making a difference. If that has to be part of his life forever that's not such a bad thing. Far better than drugs or surgery or quitting triathlon.

Now our sights are on Cancun. Hurricane Ike passed it by and it doesn't look like anything is forming out in the Atlantic right now, so we should be ok there. We leave in 3 days.

Crister --- thanks for your thoughtful comments. I am taking time for myself and my training, thanks. I was just tired. Overtraining, perhaps. I feel much better, both physically and mentally, now.

As for Basta's training, I have him on a 3-week cycle. Build 2 weeks, recover 1. Still essentially following what I wrote about back when: http://coachingbasta.blogspot.com/2008/01/oopsie.html
That really works. Push, push, recover. In the beginning he really looked forward to his recovery weeks. Now, he feels like he's not training enough during them and I have to remind him to ease off with a purpose.

We hope your hip pain stays at bay. Pain like that is so frustrating. Similar to what Basta is experiencing. It's not an injury, per se, that will heal with time. That makes it so hard to diagnose and resolve.

You should come to California to do triathlon, I think. There were bunches of men in the 60-64 age group. Several in 65-69, some in their 70's, and even two men in their 80's who completed the event. Some of them are quite fast, too.

We can do Kalmar as a relay?? Is that option hidden in the Swedish words somewhere? That would be perfect if we could be a team while Basta does the event by himself. Ironman doesn’t do relays. I'd have to stay marathon-fit . . . And probably would want a respectable finish time (4:30?). That would be a challenge for me.

You might decide you want to do the whole thing yourself, too.

We have time to figure this out. First, Cancun. Then Basta needs to make up his mind for sure and commit to an event. We really appreciate your flexibility on Kalmar.