Swim, bike, run.....that pretty much sums up my week. All three categories are coming along nicely.

Tom Dawson

I met with Tim and Denny over at Ellacoya on Tuesday morning and road the bike course and then ran the run course. Things went well and I now have some times to improve on from now until raceday.

I am still learning things about my bike and find myself struggling a bit with the hills. I know it is just the particular gear I am using as I'm going up the hills. I hope to get with Keith this week for some pointers in this area. I lost my chain twice during the ride going up a couple of hills. The time lost trying to fix that problem was amazing. It is little things like that that could take you right out of the race if you don't know how to deal with them.

On that note, I will be meeting with Brian McCall on Thursday to go over some maintenance and repair techniques, which will be a big help so that I will know how to change a tire and tube or adjust cables so that my chain won't keep falling off. If you don't know how do that stuff come raceday, you could be in trouble. I did take my bike in to Brian on Friday and got the chain issue taken care of. A simple fix if you know what you are looking for. Good as new on my Saturday ride.

The rain on Friday put a damper on what was potentially going to be a good day of training. Keith was going to meet us over at Ellacoya for a swim, bike, and run and then go over some transition procedures, but Mother Nature had to put her two cents in. Hopefully we'll get it in on Monday.

The best swim training came on Wednesday afternoon at Greene's Basin where I have been doing my swimming. Does anybody know the distance across the basin? I have estimated it to be approximately 200 yards across and I swam it for a total of 1,600 yards without stopping and felt great when I was done.

I will continue to bump that distance up each week. Thank you to the Wright's for the use of their beach and dock for the swim training and my apologies to those of you who may be getting woken up by that barking dog!

Well, off for a Sunday morning run while the family is still sleeping. Get well soon Ray. God bless.