Partial Ferrous Humanoid

Well, I am now a half-Ironman! My primary goal was (a) to finish, and the secondary goal was to (b) complete it in under 6 hours. I did finish and my time was 5 hours and 59 minutes. So, Mission Accomplished. :-)

I was so tired afterwards. After eating some snacks and cheering on other TNT participants, I took a 2+ hour nap and nearly overslept for the TNT “victory party”. Filled up on some fajitas, got the girls ready for bed and then crashed and slept from 9:30-6:30.

Feel pretty good today – no major pains or anything. A little bit of sunburn on my shoulders, but it’s not too bad – I had put on sunscreen, but I think it may have gotten scraped off when I taking off my wetsuit after the swim (in salt water – bleah). But, overall, all systems go – I’m looking forward to actually enjoying the resort after running around (figuratively and literally) the last few days.

Full race report tomorrow or the day after. I need to pack up and check out of the hotel and then I'm taking my family to the attractions of Moody Gardens today before drving back home tonight.

Houston-Bound

As planned, no workout today, driving to Houston enroute to Galveston.

Actually, my wife is driving and I am finishing up some work in the car. At times like this, I really appreciate my Verizon EV-DO Broadband Access. :-)

I think our hotel in Houston has a pool (and maybe a hot tub) - that would be nice.

Final Days

I'm following my plan for the most part. Had some solid workouts the last few days. Not quite at the normal intensity since I'm in taper mode, but still enough to keep all pistons firing.

• Tue, 25th - Brick: Bike (medium-hard intensity for 45 min), Run (2 miles at 5% incline for 20 minutes)
• Wed, 26th - Swim (1,500 yds in 31:42.5) - splits: 10:20, 10:42, 10:40.5, Easy Weights
• Thu, 27th - Reverse Tri: Run (3 mi at varying incline 0-5% in 26:30 min), Bike (medium-hard intensity for 45 min), Swim (1,000 yd in 19:07.5) - splits: 9:47, 9:20.5

Plan for the rest of the week:

• Fri, 28th - Rest/Travel to Galveston
• Sat, 29th - Open Water Swim (TNT practice at Palm Beach) + Easy Bike (probably ride the run course and part of the bike course) + Walk/Jog (probably walk around the Moody Garden grounds and check out the Expo :-)
• Sun, 30th - Lone Star HALF-IRON!

I'm getting very excited!

Lunch-time Swim & Revised Plan

The plan was to run about 75 minutes today, but my legs are still a little sore so I swam instead. 2,000 yards at lunch - splits: 10:17, 10:33, 0:18 (quick hello to Jonathan), 10:26.5, 10:23.5 ... total time: 41:59. A decent pace. Afterwards, I took Jonathan out (Happy Birthday!) for a quick lunch at Panda Express.

I think I have to update this week's training plan a little bit. Need more rest/tapering - especially for the legs. So I'm going to eliminate the cycling on Wednesday and I'll try to dial down the intensity for the reverse tris.

• Tue, 25th - Reverse Tri: Run (3 mi @ 30 min), Bike (medium @ 45 min), Swim (1,500 yd @ 30 min)
• Wed, 26th - Rest, Weights
• Thu, 27th - Reverse Tri: Run (3 mi @ 30 min), Bike (medium @ 45 min), Swim (1,000 yd)
• Fri, 28th - Rest/Travel to Galveston
• Sat, 29th - Open Water Swim (TNT practice) + Easy Bike + Walk/Jog
• Sun, 30th - Lone Star HALF-IRON!

Only a few more days to go ...

Happy Easter

Earlier in the week, Derek and I planned to ride this morning. Maybe start at 7:00 AM and get in 50 miles before we did our Easter activities. However, we cancelled our plans a few days ago when it looked like rain and cold(er) weather was in the forecast.

Well, the rain didn't materialize and the temps, while cooler, were still in the 40s-50s. But I'm still glad we cancelled the bike ride. I definitely felt little sore today (legs and shoulders) from yesterday's 16.5 miles of running. Additionally, despite sleeping about 10 hours last night (I normally average about 6 hours - so that's just crazy talk), I still feel tired. So instead of working out, I saved my energy to attack the Easter Brunch at the Marriott Solana. That buffet never stood a chance! :-)

In other news, I finally found some time to install the replacement armrests for my aerobars. I discovered that the other armrest was also cracked so I ended up replacing both of them.

I also installed new Look-compatible cleats on my bike shoes. That task actually a little longer than expected because the screws holding the cleats had been damaged from too much contact with the road and were slightly stripped. Now that the new cleats and screws are in place, I'll keep better track of their wear so that they can be replaced at a more appropriate (earlier) time.

Training Continues

Friday: 90 minutes on the spin bike at home. Wanted to do 2 hours but didn't have the time nor the motivation. Watched Lost and Leno (yay for TiVo) to keep from being bored out of my mind. :-)

Saturday: Last tough training day. A lot of running.

Almost 10 miles this morning in my neighborhood before taking the kids out for an Easter Egg hunt. Then after a TNT open water swim practice in (chilly - sub-60 degree water) Lake Grapevine (3 short trips: about 1000 yards and 20 minutes total), Derek and I ran 6.5 miles from Oak Grove Park. The second run was tough (and much slower). When we did the second half on the Oak Grove Park trails, we saw some in-line skaters and I was thinking "Hmmm, a pair of Rollerblades would definitely be the easier way to do this."

Morning Run: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5215854 (9.91 miles in 1:25:46 - 8:39/mi pace)

Afternoon Run: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5219352 (6.5 miles in 1:02:11 - 9:33/mi pace)

The TNT open water swim was pretty good but the distance was not as far as I would have liked. If I hadn't had done the third swim with the team captains, it probably would have just been 500 yards of swimming - not enough when I have to go more than 2,000 yards next Sunday. I did get to use my wetsuit, which is great. The new wetsuit definitely is not as tough to get on and off as the previous (too small) one. Spraying some Pam on my legs and shoulders ("Hmmm, do you smell fried chicken?") also helped a lot.

Training Plan

Here's my training plan for the last week and a half for the tri. It's pretty aggressive but should be doable.

• Thu, March 20th - Bike (60 min), Swim (1000 yd) - COMPLETE!
• Fri, 21th - Elliptical/Spin (2 hours)
• Sat, 22th - TNT Open Water Swim (2 laps? = 573 m x 4) + Run (90 min)
• Sun, 23th - Elliptical/Spin (2 hours) - originally was going to be a bike ride, but it looks like rain for Easter Sunday :-(
• Mon, 24th - Run (9 mi @ 75 min)
• Tue, 25th - Reverse Tri: Run (3 mi @ 30 min), Bike (hard @ 45 min), Swim (1,500 yd @ 30 min)
• Wed, 26th - Bike (medium @ 60 min), Weights
• Thu, 27th - Reverse Tri: Run (3 mi @ 30 min), Bike (medium @ 45 min), Swim (1,000 yd)
• Fri, 28th - Rest/Travel to Galveston
• Sat, 29th - Open Water Swim (TNT practice) + Easy Bike + Walk/Jog
• Sun, 30th - Lone Star HALF-IRON!

Today, I got to spin class early and did 15 mins by myself and then joined in for a high-end aerobic session on the stationary bike. Afterwards, I swam 1,000 yds with splits of 9:23.5 & 9:32 with a 28 second break in between.

In other news, I got my replacement aerobar arm rests today and Don gave me two tires that he had ordered for me (Don, Derek, Scott, and I put in a bulk order of eight Vredestein Fortezza TriComps so I'll have to do some bike repair/upgrade work tonight.

TNT Packet Pickup

No workout today. Went with Derek at lunch time to the Dallas TNT office to do my fundraising account closeout and packet pickup for the upcoming Lone Star Tri. The packet included my tickets to the pasta carbo-load Saturday night before the race and victory party Sunday night after the race, as well as lots of good information (driving directions, weekend schedule, pre-race meeting, etc.)

I also got my running singlet - a very nice Nike DriFit tank (though purple is not really my color) and my new wetsuit (the one I got earlier this month was a little too small and cut into my shoulders - so they ordered me a replacement). And Leah, our TNT tri coordinator, confirmed my reservations at the Moody Gardens resort.

Finally, I ended up raising $2950 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society - $350 more than my goal! Thanks everyone for your support of this great cause and organization.

Tapering vs. Training

Lots of literature that I have read wants me to "taper" my training these last two weeks before my half-Iron tri, but I truly believe that I only need about one week to "gather steam" for the big event. Additionally, Derek got a tri training book and it definitely still has some serious workouts planned up through the "week before last" for its 18-week half-Ironman training schedule.

Since I put in a monster swim session yesterday, I decided to concentrate on leg work today. I started off with 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer and then attended Leslie's 45-minute spin class ("Tuesdays we go high-end aerobic pushing occasionally into the anaerobic zone"). After that, some brick work with a 3-mile run on the treadmill. I averaged 8:00/mile and so that distance took exactly 24 minutes.

My plan is to do a few more solid workouts this week and then really tone it down next week. Hopefully, this plan won't backfire.

Broken Aerobars & Misc Shopping

Executive Summary: Broken aerobar armrest starts compulsive shopping spree.

Shortly before this morning's bike ride, my bike fell over (darn wind). No major damage except that one of the armrests of my Profile Design Aerolite tri-bars, split into three chunks of plastic. I duct-taped it together so that it would semi-usable for the ride, but I had to do a permanent fix.

So when I got home, I set about doing just that. Luckily, Tri-Zone sold reasonably-priced F-19 replacement armrests ($29.95 - 10% for my "Team Tri-Zone" discount). Of course, since $50+ orders get free shipping and they were also tossing a free running hat and 2008 triathlon wall calendar as bonuses, I just had to get some more gear.

So I also got some additional items to pad my order:

• Xterra Sunscreen (supposedly very waterproof) - will apply before the half-Ironman
• BodyGlide (anti-chaffing compound) - for my feet and arms for long runs! Can also be used under a wetsuit to aid removal, but I've heard PAM cooking spray works just as well or better.

As a separate shopping endeavor, I've been meaning to get some Penguin Sport Wash laundry detergent for a while now. I got some sample packs with various run/tri packets and it seemed to work well with cleaning my racewear and I like how it's marketed as not damaging the mosture-wicking and other technical properties of sports apparel.

I've looked for it everywhere to no avail - Derek even tried to buy it for me from the RunOn store near his house but they have been sold out for months. So I searched the Internet for an alternate vendor. Surprisingly, that vendor was not some esoteric extreme sports outlet, but rather, Sports Authority. With a 15% off coupon code and diminishing marginal shipping costs for multiple bottles, I ended up ordering five 2-packs or ten bottles total. So I shouldn't be running out of it any time soon. :-P

Brick & Swim

Sunday: Feeling pretty good after yesterday's tri. This morning I did a 33.5 mile bike ride with Don T and Derek. We averaged around 14 MPH with a few stops along the way. Not a blistering pace, but still a solid ride. Afterwards, we ran 2 miles to get more bricks in.

Bike Route: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/roanoke/141933372

Monday: After fighting an emerging cold last night and this morning (achy, dizzy, and weakness - Theraflu, sleeping in and a mid-morning nap did wonders), I did my third "Ironman" swim this afternoon. After a slightly disappointing tri on Saturday and brick on Sunday, I was pleased that my time was my fastest yet for this distance - I completed the 80 laps (4,000 yds) in 1:24:22 - more than 3 minutes faster than my Ironman swim back in November. Here are my 500 yd splits - the times in parentheses are from the Nov 11 swim:

• 1st 500 yds: 10:01 (10:13)
• 2nd 500 yds: 10:20.5 (10:19)
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:23 (10:28.5)
• 4th 500 yds: 10:29 (10:48.5)
• Water break: 0:29.5 (0:54)
• 5th 500 yds: 10:25.5 (11:04)
• 6th 500 yds: 10:39 (11:18)
• 7th 500 yds: 10:47 (11:13)
• 8th 500 yds: 10:47.5 (11:19)

So, although my speed still slowed over the course of the swim, it stayed more consistent than prior outings - with only about a 45 second difference between the first/fastest set and the last/slowest one. I'm definitely getting better at this discipline. I don't think a sub-40-minute swim time for the half-Ironman tri is unrealistic - especially since I'll be wearing a wetsuit (with its added buoyancy). Hopefully, it won't be too choppy when I swim in the Gulf of Mexico!

St. Patrick's Day Triathlon

This morning, I completed the Dallas Athletes St. Patrick's Day Sprint Triathlon. The race consisted of a 300 meter pool swim, 12 mile bike, and 5K run on the same course as the Monster Tri back in October.

I finished in 1 hour, 11 minutes, and 59 seconds for 17th out of 52 in the men's 35-39 age group ... and 103rd out of 462 total participants overall. (I think a couple of the times in front of me are flawed, though - two people must have only done one loop of the bike course because they had average speeds of 29.7 and 33.1 MPH)

Here were my times:

• Swim: 5:55 (1:49/100yd pace)
• T1: 1:34
• Bike: 37:41 (19.1 mph average)
• T2: 1:07
• Run: 25:44 (8:18/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:11:59

Compared to the Monster Tri (times below), my swim, T1 and bike times were a little faster, T2 was exactly the same, but my run was slower. So, unfortunately, my overall time was 28 seconds slower.

• Swim: 6:02 (1:51/100yd pace)
• T1: 1:39
• Bike: 37:52 (19.0 mph average)
• T2: 1:07
• Run: 24:54 (8:02/mi pace)
• TOTAL: 1:11:31

Full results at http://www.stpatrickstriathlon.com/images/StPattyOverall2008.txt and http://www.stpatrickstriathlon.com/images/StPattyAgeGroup2008.txt.

This was an "official" Team In Training practice tri for all the TNTers heading to the Lavaman (in Hawaii!) and Lonestar tris in the coming weeks. So I saw a lot of fellow teammates before during and after the tri. Also with a lot of my friends doing this event and the out-and-back run course, I was waving and high-fiving people every few minutes on the course - Archie, Don T, and Coach Todd on the way out and Derek and Don on the way back in. (Jarrod and Matt started in a later in the swim so I had already crossed the finish line before they started the run).

After the race, we all met up and had some pancakes, enjoyed the live Irish band, took some photos with our finisher's medals. It was a little chilly in the early morning before the start, but the sun came out and it warmed up nicely.

Although not quite a PR, the St. Patrick's Day Triathlon was still a decent kickoff to "Tri Season 2008". I'm getting psyched for the BIG ONE in only two weeks!

Gearing Up for Tri Season '08

I'm getting excited. This Saturday's Dallas Athletes St. Patrick's Day Sprint Tri will be my first triathlon of 2008. Unfortunately, it's only a sprint distance tri (300m swim, 12mi bike, 5K run) - I wish I could have something longer as a stepping stone to my half-Ironman at the end of this month. However, I am still psyched about the start of "Tri Season 2008"!

Monday: I did a 3,000 yard swim - completed in 1:06:02 with splits of:

• 1st 500 yds: 10:50
• 2nd 500 yds: 11:01.5
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:58.5
• 4th 500 yds: 10:56
• Accel Gel & water break: 0:30
• 5th 500 yds: 10:56.5
• 6th 500 yds: 10:48.5

This is one of my slower swims for this distance in quite a while, but only by a minute or two and it was after a tough weekend of cycling and running.

Tuesday: Decided to concentrate on cycling today; I'll save the multisport workout for Thursday. Did a solid 45-minute spin class and then continued on by myself for another 35 minutes ... 1 hour, 20 minutes total. As they say, it's tough to work out by yourself, and sitting on a stationary bike in an empty classroom is about as lonely as it gets. But I am motivated - by motivated, I mean worried that I'm not ready to do the 56 miles of a half-Iron - so I actually kept the intensity up. Average HR during spin class: 152 bpm, Average HR during solo cycling: 156 bpm. Mission accomplished.

Wednesday: Busy at work and with home life. Took a day off from working out and had a sushi buffet lunch instead.

Thursday: Multisport workout. Started with 20 minutes on the StairMaster. Haven't been on that machine in months and it still whips me. Good ... don't want to get cocky. :-) After that, a 45-minute spin class (average heart rate: 152 bpm), an additional 15-minutes of cycling and then 2.5 miles of running on the treadmill (done in just over 20 minutes at an 8:10/mi pace) for a solid brick.

The run at the end was pretty tough (note heart rate climb - 164 bpm average), but that was to be expected since it followed an hour and 20 minutes of stair climbing and cycling. So a 1 hour, 40 minute workout.

Taking a break tomorrow (Friday). Going to pick up my packet at Bicycles Inc. in Keller at lunch time and then get all my tri gear packed up in the afternoon or evening. Woo-hoo, the adrenaline rush begins!

Weekend Warriors

Kudos to Don for hanging with me for back-to-back training events this weekend.

Saturday morning, I was planning to run a 10-mile route with RVG. However, they recently moved their start times to 6:00 AM to accommodate busy spring/summer schedules. I woke up at 4:30 AM ... and just shook my head and went back to sleep.

So instead, Don and I attended the Sam's Club (Frisco-to-Fort Worth) MS-150 kickoff at Texas Motor Speedway at 9:00. We met Smitty, our Plano Cycling MS-150 team captain, who gave our bikes a mini-tuneup and "approved" inspection stickers. Then, we did 90+ minutes of riding around the 5-mile loop. I did 6 laps – 30.2 miles total in 1 hour, 33 minutes with an average speed of 19.5 MPH. Pretty fast! Afterward, we had free BBQ sandwiches, potato salad, and iced tea and enjoyed some music.

The 5-mile loop around the NASCAR track was quite/disappointingly familiar – it would have been nice to do a new route – but it was good to have a "time trial" type of set-up and the loop is fairly flat. The MS-150 organizers also arranged to have police support at all of the intersections with the loop. It felt good to be able tp blast through those 4-way stop signs.

The wind at the venue wasn't quite as bad as when we did the TMS Sprint Du a few weeks ago, but it was still quite cold. After a few laps, my hand/fingers warmed up, but my toes were cold all the way until the finish. :-(


Overall, I feel I pushed myself well. A couple summary charts (speed and heart rate) - note how they are "cyclical" for each of the six laps of the 5-mile loop:

Sunday: We had a great (reverse brick) workout today! In fact, my legs and glutes were a little sore from yesterday's TMS ride, so this morning's race was almost like a brick run as well.

Derek, Don and I did the Fort Worth Runners Club Lucky 7 race; Derek even placed third in his age group! (Top performances listed at http://www.fwrunners.org/Results/2008/Mar_08_Results_Top.pdf)

I had a pretty good run myself. I completed the mostly flat 7-mile course in 55:44, which works out to a 7:58/mi pace. For reference, this is only 1 second per mile slower than that pace for my personal best 10K (6.2 miles). So I am happy about my performance.

Afterwards, Matt joined us for a roughly 25-mile out-and-back bike ride from the River Plaza parking lot to the Benbrook Park gate (unfortunately, none of us brought any cash along so the $1/person entry fee was still too rich for our blood :-P). The ride out to the lake was at a relaxing clip – partly because we were recovering the run and partly because it was almost all uphill. The return trip was mostly downhill and Matt and I high-tailed it back at a 20+ MPH pace.

After dropping off Matt back at the parking lot, I continued on for about another 5.5 miles before coming to a closed gate. Turned around and headed back to meet Derek and Don and ended up with a mileage total of just over 36 miles.

MotionBased links:

Run: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5128587
Ride: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5128588

So a weekend full of good training rides and a solid run. However, I *really* need to get in a 50+ mile ride in the very near future – hopefully this coming Sunday. After that I need to start tapering for my half-Iron at the end of this month. Less than 3 weeks to go! :-P

Snow!

Brrr ... it's actually snowing in Dallas. Stuck at home, I'll update my training blog for the last few days.

Tuesday: Forgot my goggles so I did a indoor duathlon instead of the normal reverse tri. Ran 2.75 miles in 23.5 minutes, did the normal 45-minute spin class, and then run another 2.75 miles, also in 23:30. Between the two runs, that's a total of 5.5 miles - almost a 10K. When I think of it that way, the 8:33 pace for the runs doesn't seem that bad/slow. (My personal best pace for a 10K is about 8:00/mi and that is without all the cycling in the middle!)

Wednesday: Felt tired and a little dizzy so I took a rest day. Hope I'm not coming down with anything ...

Thursday: Yesterday must have been a fluke. Today, I feel much better. Wasn't able to make it to the gym early enough to run before spin class so it was just 45 minutes of cycling and then some swimming - 1,500 yards in 29:28 (splits: 9:45, 9:53, 9:50).

Tomorrow, TGIF. :-)

TNT Update - Final Month!

Oh boy, less than one month to go until the big event. The training and fundraising are really picking up steam heading into the final three weeks before the Lone Star Half-Ironman Triathlon (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run). Here’s what’s been going on in the past month.

On February 16, I did the Texas Motor Speedway Duathlon with a few friends from work. It was a “sprint du” consisting of a 2-mile run, 15-mile bike, and another 2-mile run. It was my first multisport race of the new year and quite tough because of very windy conditions around the NASCAR track. My Team in Training mentor, Derek, said that biking in the wind was good practice because the roads around Galveston exhibit similar conditions.

Two Sundays ago, I ran the (Fort Worth) Cowtown Half-Marathon with Derek. We both did really well – in fact, I ran the 13.1 miles in a personal-best 1 hour, 51 minutes. Very happy to cross that finish line. And afterwards we “tagged” cars in various parking garages and lots with LLS flyers – I think we walked/jogged another 3 miles after the race!

This weekend, we’re going to have a TNT practice tri at Joe Pool Lake. It’s going to be a good opportunity for me and the Team to practice our transitions (swim-to-bike, bike-to-run) as we’ll be doing a short race course and repeating it 3+ times. It will also be the first time since last September that I’ve done an open-water swim; I’ll get a chance to try out my new wetsuit (the water temperature in the lake is going to be around 60 degrees – BRRR). And the following Saturday, March 15, we have a sprint triathlon (300 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run) right here in Keller (very convenient :-) It’s an official TNT event, so it’ll be a great opportunity to get the entire Team together for a real race (not just practicing/training).

The middle of March (17th) also marks the Leukemia & Lymphoma fundraising deadline for this event. I’m doing pretty well towards my fundraising goal of $2,600 for the LLS, but am still about $450 short. So if you’d like to donate to this a great cause (see left side-bar) but just never got around to it, it would be great if you could do it soon. If you would like to help, you can contribute to my fundraising account by making a tax-deductible donation via my online account at http://www.active.com/donate/tntntx/Andrien_Wang.

Thanks for your support!

Best Regards,
- Andy

=====

Facts about Blood Cancers

· Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are cancers that originate in the bone marrow or lymphatic tissue as the result of an acquired genetic injury to the DNA of a single cell, which becomes malignant and multiplies continuously. This abnormal accumulation interferes with the production of healthy blood cells.

· Every five minutes someone new is diagnosed and every 10 minutes someone will lose the fight.

· In the US, blood-related cancers are the leading fatal malignant diseases in young men and women under the age of 35.

· Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under the age 20.

Progress from Research

· The survival rate for Leukemia has tripled from 14% in 1960 to 46.3% today.

· The five-year survival rate for children with Acute Lymphatic leukemia (ALL) was 4% in 1960 and is 85% today.

· Radiation-induced cures are now possible for patients with early stage Hodgkin’s disease.

· The five-year survival rate for Hodgkin Lymphoma in people under 20 years of age is now 96%.

· The overall five-year survival in patients with Myeloma has shown a modest improvement from 24.5% in 1970 to 32.4% today.

Back From Vacation

Woo-hoo, skiing in Alta was awesome. Good snow, decent weather, reasonable prices, and no lines! I highly recommend it. (And, even better, I didn't wipe out and injure myself - double woo-hoo.)

Rode the DFW Loop on Sunday with Don and Derek again. We completed the bulk of the 26.5 mile loop and then continued on North Airfield Drive to start another (slightly shortened) lap. However, Derek got into a minor accident with a concrete seam in the road. Luckily, he wasn't hurt, but his bike suffered a flat tire and messsed-up rim. After replacing the tube, we "limped" back to Don's house - uphill, into a stiff headwinds (speeds of 8-9 MPH :-P) - and ended up logging just over 33 miles for the ride. Not bad, though, all things considered.

Today, I did a 3,000 yard swim - completed in 1:04:28 with splits of:

• 1st 500 yds: 10:26
• 2nd 500 yds: 10:52.5
• 3rd 500 yds: 10:44.5
• 4th 500 yds: 10:41
• 5th 500 yds: 10:47
• 6th 500 yds: 10:58

Note that there was no water/gel break; this was non-stop, straight through! Other than that, nothing special, just a solid swim workout.

Tomorrow, back into multi-sport mode with the (now weekly) LA Fitness reverse tri.