About one month away from IMTX! I have my longest training run this weekend, 18 miles. I did my 15 mile run last weekend on the actual IM course. It's awesome because it is right outside my office window. LOL. So I have all the landmarks already in my head. Now just got to get there.

Next week will be my century ride. The hardest part about this is just finding somewhere safe to ride 100 miles. Right now I ride in a very large neighborhood that is essentially a five mile loop. It gets old going that same route over and over and over. I started talking to the squirrels, dogs, horses, etc. LOL. Plus there are several decent hills in the loop. Going up the hills a few times is probably good for training. But once you start seeing them for a 9th, 10th, 11th time, there are some choice words for the hills.

Now I have a decision to make about the swim. No doubt swimming is my weakest of the three. If it is wetsuit optional, I think I am going to go with a wetsuite still and start in that last group. If it's hot outside, I will go with lava shorts. I am just that much faster with some assistance in keeping my legs up. Because of the arm and shoulder strength I have built up through the years of playing and coaching baseball, give me a pull buoy and I will go for days. So the thought process is that if I can at least use lava shorts, despite starting in the last group, I will probably finish quicker than if I swam with just my tri suite.

There will be no looking to podium or qualify here. I just want to finish. I told my coach that if I had to set a time goal, under 14 hours would be my goal.