Paul Asay

Spending my first week of vacation in Sun City Center Florida. My sister lives on a small lake so I got in a bit of open water swimming on a couple of occasions. Also, brought the road bike with me for a little cycling in the heat. Hit the pool here today for some standard swim work as well. Need to visit the beach a couple of times for some of my favorite running. Maybe catch a sunset at the same time. Enjoyed the sleeping in as well. I'll try to get some video up later this week.

Hoosierman came around again this year at Lake Monroe Bloomington area. Last year it was a sprint tri only. Just for more fun, race director Andre gave us the Olympic Distance option, or about twice the fun. Well … on paper that is. Seeing how I’m focusing on Olympic distance racing this year, I opted for the longer one and lined up Sunday morning with my protégé Ethan Page. Ethan is 19, swims much better than I ever can, and runs like I used to in my prime. My only chance of hanging with Ethan was to build a big lead on the bike. More on that later. Jacob decided to go with me, so we set off a little after 5 AM for Bloomington with a stop by the Pages house. Ethan, Ron and Ethan’s girlfriend also came which made a nice group for the day. The race got delayed 45 minutes or so due to the crazy storm that came through the night before. No big deal except that it was going to be a hot steamy day, so later means hotter. I went in the last wave with the 45+ guys. Thankfully...

Rev3 put on a good show at Knoxville Olympic Distance Triathlon May 9th (.9 mile swim, 25.8 mile ride, 6.2 mile run). I drove down Saturday and got there just before packet pickup and the transition area closed. Having visited the Worlds Fair way back when I immediately recognized the park downtown, very nice place. Liked having all the personalization like your name on your race number and your transition spot. Race morning I stayed in the room till the last minute so as to not be cold hanging around for the start. Got my stuff set, put on the wetsuit and still had to wait a long time for the last wave to go. The swim was 400 meters or so back into the current in the Tennessee River, take a right turn around a large buoy then a straight shot to the dock at the end. All went smooth till the end where I tried to pull myself out of the water without any steps. A volunteer grabbed my arm and pulled me straight up onto the dock. It was like the hand of God reaching down. Needless...

My experience with swimming didn’t really start till I was almost 30. These days however I’m starting to spend some quality time in the pool lane lines. I remember in high school when I was taking Advanced, Advanced PE, (yes that’s correct) we did a President’s Physical Fitness Test and I could do everything except for the swim. One lap of the pool and I was completely done. That didn’t change until a few months before I turned 30. With a stress fracture from too much running and a friend who was a former swimmer headed me to the pool for an introduction. My lap swimming experience began at the Sisters of St. Benedict pool in Beech Grove. How is that for a blessed start? My swim stroke is still on the rough side, my kick is not good, and while I may claim a bit of natural cycling and running ability, I make zero claims for that in swimming. However, I have really begun to enjoy the swim time. Probably my most positive memory of swimming is completing a lap in the lake at a Han...

Had the opportunity to attend the talk last night by Civil Rights activist, former Mayor of Atlanta, Ambassador, close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King as well as a former member of Congress. This was part of the ISU Speaker Series, and free to the public. Ambassador Young started as a pastor of a church in Alabama in his early 20’s. That pastoral background was clearly evident throughout the night. He started by warming up to Indiana and some of the folks he has had good experiences with from this state. Good to relate to your audience from the start. He then began his pointed remarks in the terms that we really are in a crisis. He emphasized it we were not in just a political crisis, and an economic crisis, but also a moral crisis. He mentioned in passing that the Deacons of his church reminded him from the beginning, you may have a northern education, but here in the South, we speak from the heart. No notes allowed in the pulpit. He seemed to speak to the crowd without n...

Got to experience a max heart rate test Sunday on a Velotron. The goal of the test on several cyclist here in town was to find your lactate threshold. Basically how hard you can work before going into the red zone where you can no longer maintain that pace. Now that we know that magic number you can base you training around it. For me that number is a heart rate of 155 to 160. The test itself include an increasing incline effect until you reach you max heart rate while the machine is evaluating your oxygen uptake and co2 exhale. That part of the test told me my VO2 max was 51.2. I was told that number changes very little and it is basically tied to your God given ability. My max heart rate was 178. It was hard, but only lasted a little over 10 minutes. The way it sounded my VO2 max was higher than most (the good), but I hit my limit in the shortest amount of time (the not so good). All in all it was a good experience with some friends also getting to share the same experienc...

Paid my entry fee and made a hotel reservation for the Rev3 Olympic distance triathlon on May 9th. Figured it was as good a goal as any to start the new year with. Hope to figure in the top 5 in my age group. Something good to aim for any way. From a race technology standpoint it looks to be top notch. I can appreciate that. Hopefully we can get a good group to attend from Indiana.