Late Season Fitness

The past two mornings, my alarm has gone off at 5:00 AM, and you know what that means: I'm thinking about racing. Only an impending race could motivate me to get up at 5:00 AM to train. I'm not totally committed to the race yet, but there is a good chance I'll be doing an OLY distance race in two weeks. This morning, I did a run loop I hadn't done since late May. I set out in the early morn, not totally committed to trying to set a PR, but committed to doing at least a tempo run. About one mile in, I decided to do the entire run on feel, and not look at my watch for splits. Aerobically, I didn't feel as maxed out as when I ran a PR on this loop, but my legs felt strong, and the turnover was fast. Based on feel, I really thought I nailed a PR, but upon looking at my watch at the end, I was far off from a PR: 6:50 vs. 6:30 pace. I couldn't believe it was that far off based on how fast I felt. Oh well, I guess feel alone can be misleading. My natural inclination is to ramp up the miles, I'm a mileage junkie, and I started to add a lot of workouts into the schedule. But I caught myself, and I was reminded that I got here doing too little. And then, as confirmation, I saw a tweet or something about racing ironman on very little training. And then just like that, I started crossing out workouts. Stay the course Kiet.

Where was I in my travels. The morning I was to fly from Stockholm to Vienna, I arrived to the airport and presented my passport at the check-in counter. The attendant opened the passport, looked strangely at me, and said, "You don't look 6'2", blonde hair, and blue-eyed Mr. Stubblefield." This has got to be one of the worst feelings when traveling (I got to experience a second worst feeling about 5 days later, to be continued...). My friend and I had accidentally swapped our passports, with my passport being back at the hotel 45 minutes away. KCCO. We were able to make the switch but in the process, I missed my flight. I did make it to Vienna, and my hosts, Peter (who I trained and race IMOZ with during my sabbatical) and Monika were awesome, and they had a great rooftop flat. From my stay in Copenhagen and Vienna, I'm now convinced I want to live in a rooftop flat. Vienna turned out to be my favorite city in Europe thus far, and maybe the 50 meter pool completely lined in stainless steel and oh so clean water might have something to do with it. Or maybe it was the company I was with, I just really enjoyed my time in Vienna. There's something about Austrian/German sensibility and design that really resonates with me. The subway system is awesome, clean, you never wait more than 5 minutes for a train, and it goes everywhere (SF take note!). I also had a favorite eatery, Motto Am Fluss, where I would sit daily eating their yummy homemade granola over Greek yogurt, and people watch. This video will paint a clearer picture just in case your imagination just isn't there: https://vimeo.com/27599728. And now some pics.