Following nursing my foot injury for over 4 months, I started on July 13th with a flat 10 miles.  Then, on 7/15 increased it to 23 miles.  7/22 and 7/29 featured 30 and 40 miles respectfully with the Tri Club San Diego group.  Amazingly, in just over two weeks I am back to some serious mileage.

On this day, I was hungry from the success of the past few weeks.  With the bike course at 70.3 Half Ironman Austin at 56 miles and a little over 1,200 feet of climbing, I wanted to see if I was in the ballpark to replicate that.  Maybe not a full speed, but in distance and vertical feet.  I took a look at what a coast route with the addition of the San Luis Rey River path would net me and sure enough it was about 50 miles.  The perfect test.

I parked in a residential area behind the famous Self-Realization Fellowship ashram for added karma or something.  Then, headed North towards Oceanside.  It was a glorius day on the coast with a little overcast which was nice as we were still in a heat and humidity wave.

The ride was strong and I had plenty of energy rounding the turn onto the river path which headed inland where I knew it would heat up.  I was not denied the heat.  Less than a half mile in the sun was beating down, but I had the wind to my back so I was sailing regularly over 20mph down the trail.  Needless to day, the ride back was challenging riding straight into the strong on-shore wind.

However, the ride back down the coast gave me another tail wind that kept me sailing all the way back to my van.  Karma, divine intervention, luck, whatever it was I took it.  This was

Karma, divine intervention, luck, whatever it was I took it.  Today, I received a huge piece of  mental currency that made a sizeable deposit in my confidence bank.  This proves I am in a great place already to meet the requirements to complete the bike.  I am swimming over a mile at a time four times a week.  In other words, I’ve got the bike and I’ve got the swim.

Now, it is all about the run.  The run that I haven’t even tried in now 5 months.  I have had to continue to take my orthotics back to get adjusted to my previously injured left foot, so I have not put any stress on it yet in a true running situation let alone even a quarter mile jog.  The clock is ticking, but the good news is that I have my cardio back which is often the hardest part of conditioning to regain after a long hiatus.  I am feeling good, but I would feel better if I could be in a place to start trying out a few miles in some shoes.