Hot week off in Seattle

This week is my psuedo week-off. I’m back into training, but still really low key.

It’s 98 degrees in Seattle right now, which is the hottest it will get this year. I’ve never seen it top 100, and hopefully it never will (screw you global warming, you can have Florida, but don’t mess with the Pacific Northwest!). I’m going to go sailing for the second time this week (I suddenly found friends with sailboats). I may decide the boats too hot and swim home (I’m just ballast anyway).

This Sunday I’ll kick things back up with the Seafair Triathlon. It’s a local sprint race sponsored by the Benaroya Research Institute. It has a horrible schedule conflict with the Fat Salmon (3.5 mile open water swim), and the STP (Seattle to Portland bike ride, 206 miles), which are two of the biggest athletic events in the city (I’ve done both, they’re fun), but Seafair still brings in about 1500 participant. Not too bad for the PNW.

The course will start in a beautiful park in South Seattle called Seward. The swim is in Lake Washington, the bike goes along the shore, crosses one of Seattle two floating bridges, then returns to Seward Park for a 5k run around the park. It’s mostly flat but there are a couple steep hills on both the bike and the run (the floating bridge is flat, but both ends come off the water enough that large boats can go underneath.) My buddy Brian (See “A Triathlon Is Born”) will be doing this as his second race. Again on my road bike, but this time he has tri shoes, and is actually registered for the event. I’ll be rooting for him on my way back from the bike turnaround (hear that Brian?). Chris Tremonte will also be there, which will be our first time racing head to head since Seafair 2005 (he was 3rd, ahead of me by 2 minutes and one place). With Brian and Chris, I’m expecting the swim times to be real fast.

Next week: back to Tiburon to stay with Loren, and get some physiological testing at Endurance PTC. Seafair marks the beginning of my 7 week training cycle for the World Championships is Hamburg. It is going to be some fun, hard training. How else would I want to spend my summer break?

Published by Ben

Ben Collins Professional Triathlete

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