Sunday, October 30th 2011

Swim:  4,000 meters
transition:  less than 10 minutes
Bike:  160km
transition:  less than 5 minutes
Run:  30km

Comments:
I am icing my knees as I type.

A good day.
I am swimming fast pace, but giving no effort, using the swim just as a warm up  – I had Mario remeasure the course to confirm the distance is really 4,000 meters.

Getting naked with Bob…

Today, the transition between the swim and the bike is quite funny…I asked Bob to hold up a towelas so I could get naked and wash off the salt, take a mini shower pouring water on myself.  Bob held the towel up blocking my chest and face, but my torso was completely uncovered so I stood there in the wind at the beach, in one of the most conservative emirates of the UAE, completely naked.

I can onlyshake my head and wonder what bob was thinking when he held the towel up to block everything, but my nakedness..

Mario changed the bike course, and we did 80km out and back, and we skipped the very steep, hellish climb in the mountain.

We have the film crew tomorrow, and I think Mario wants to ensure he looks good when he is on the Discovery Channel.

We had a good, easy ride and it went by quite fast.

Today is the first day of the week in the middle east/Gulf and the roads were 90% less cars than the first two days.  Incredible how much less cars were on the road today, some parts were like a ghost town because we saw no cars (the day before there were so many cars that we spent a lot of time not getting hit)

I purposefully, did not push at all on the ride, and was much more clever today with my nutrition and drinking to ensure the run would be better.

We changed the run location to begin in the same area where I swim, along the cornich.  The run was a 7.5km out and back twice.
Mario kicked my ass on the first 15km, but he only ran 15km … I went very slow and easy … and I felt much better than yesterday – but yesterday, I ran much faster pace than today.

Every day this week, Mario is doing the full bike and half the run with me … so he understands the heat, transition and what to expect so he can best prepare me for the actual challenge.
Very impressive.  

Overall I feel good.  I am not as sore as I was in Austria during the last test.
The bike is going well, no neck or back pain at all and my legs feel strong.

The run is ok – my knees do not hurt, but my pace is very slow and I dont know how to run faster.
My goal for the challenge is to run every marathon and not walk.

All three days so far, I am running around a 4:30 marathon pace
After this challenge is over, I will re-do my running position to learn to run faster

Tomorrow is 4,000 meter swim, 160km bike, and 40 km run.