Reporting From the Desert

It's been a fun few days in St. George, and I thought I'd give a brief recap. I hit the road early Thursday morning, and after a 4 hour drive I hopped out and immediately rode the Ironman 70.3 St. George bike course. It was a beautiful day, warm but not hot, and not too windy. I would welcome such conditions on race day! I didn't go "all out," but wanted to put in a hard effort. This course has a lot of hills, culminating with the long climb through Snow Canyon. The nice thing is, what goes up must go down, so in most cases you're able to get some relief after climbing with a nice downhill section.

tough love from Snow Canyon

The ride took me right around 3 hours, and I really enjoyed it. Afterwards I came back to Sand Hollow reservoir (where the swim takes place) with my family to hang out on the beach for a few hours. The water was frigid... there were a few crazies water skiing and wakeboarding, but I had no interest in joining them. 

Yesterday morning I got a nice workout in at the local pool. From the several Ironman backpacks and other apparel on the pool deck, it was clear that other triathletes were in my midst. It had been a while since I'd swum a longer distance straight, so after a good warm-up I went 2 x 800, both at 14 minutes give or take a few seconds. I didn't feel great, but at least I could see where I was going. Afterwards we spent much of the day at Zions National Park, where I spent a fair amount of time searching for rocks for my kids to throw in the river. Their thirst for new rocks was insatiable, but it was a good time.

This morning I started the day with a shorter ride on part of the bike course, including the climb up Snow Canyon. I forgot that at the base of the canyon there are some small speed bumps... I took my eye off the road for just an instant, hit one of the bumps and was ejected forward. My left hand came off the handlebars, and my right shoe clipped out of the pedal. I thought for sure I was gonna eat the road, but somehow I managed to stay upright. Close one. The rest of the ride was less eventful, followed by running the course with my wife. We didn't go "hard," but running those hills at any speed is not an easy task.  

Some kids proudly running a lemonade stand on the corner provided some much needed post-brick recovery... an iced sugar cookie and lemonade never tasted so good.