Bike vs. Dog

Sat morning we had a planned s/b/r training session planned. I have had a good week training by sticking to my HIM plan and my schedule only called for a 2 hr ride and a 30 minute run, so I fudged one of the swims on Friday, and planned on making that up on Saturday with an OWS. I am really trusting this plan!!

Anyways, Greg, John and I met around 7 AM and headed to the "Manatees" house. (The Manatee is a multi sport enthusiast, that does a lot in this area with racing, he lives on the lake and either races or volunteers at about every race!) There were about 15 people that crashed his place and used the dock to get in some OWSing. I swam 500 yards. It felt good and I felt comfortable in the water. I timed my 500 OWS at 8:56 and I was happy with that. I wasn't pushing it, but I was going at a decent pace, so I am feeling good about all the swim training my HIM plan has called for.

After the swim, we had a 2 hour ride scheduled. It was already getting hot here in Memphis, but the heat got bad fast. I was really using the draft on this ride. Greg and John noted my excuse, but this was the first time I had been on the road on my bike in over 3 weeks due to my vacation, so I felt like I struggled. Excuse #2 would have been the heat, either way, I was not very strong on the bike, which made me realize I am not HIM ready on the bike. I have time to work on it and I know my plan has a more bike focused workouts coming.

As we were riding, there is always a section that Greg always warns us about loose dogs running him down. I have never seen them. I always look for them, but never, have I seen them, until Saturday. John and Greg were ahead of me (I was dragging, struggling and praying for a flat tire, it was that bad!) and out of the corner of my eye I see a little black and white pooch running their flank barking. The dog was running at an angle heading to the street. While I was watching that dog, I saw another bigger dog joining his buddy and I was more worried about the bigger dog, just because it was a bigger dog. The little dog ran into the street after John and Greg had passed it. The stupid dog was watching them and had not seen me. He turned as I was maybe 3 feet from him and he moved over and my front tire runs over the butt end of the dog. The dog yelps (might have been me, not sure) and spins him in a circle. I was very lucky to not crash, but it freaked me out a bit. I was actually more worried about some redneck chasing me down in his pickup truck yelling "you ran over my dog!" On the way back, the dog never approached us, so I guessed he learned his lesson. I felt very lucky.

After the bike (38 miles) we decided to do a short run. I was toast at this point. The heat was bad at 10AM and I knew the run would be tough, but we ran a mile. It was about a 9 minute mile, nothing great, but just getting through it was good for me. I am racing next weekend and this was a good mini race/training session for me.

Last time I the Dragonfly Tri was in 2008. I finished in 2 hours. It is an 800 yd swim, 18 mile ride and 4 mile run. The swim portion for me then was 16:47, which I am hoping to crush. I am still focused on Ironman Branson as my A race this year, but I admit I am looking forward to the Dragonfly this weekend.