My friend Michelle drove down from Asheville yesterday to hangout with me for the day.

We completed a 9.5 mile bike ride around Ft. Jackson in 58 minutes. This is the longest distance I’ve ridden without stopping to date.

For the triathlon I would like to be able to complete the bike portion in under an hour so I have a lot of room for improvement until then.

We also went to the downtown YMCA to go swimming. Michelle was nice enough to take me to school on my horrible swimming technique and show me how to improve. After an hour of swimming, I was beat. We worked on breathing and timing and the proper way to use your legs and feet.

The first lap I took was horrible! I have no idea how to actually swim like a professional but I was pretty much pulling my body through the water with my hands and looked like I was drowning along the way. It was laughable.

By the end of the session it was much easier to swim from one end of the pool to the other. I can’t get my mind off the 500 meter distance of the swim portion of the triathlon. I still have much, much more work to do.

In other good news, my friend Mary purchased her first road bike: A Trek Lexa. Looks like she’s thinking about joining us in this triathlon. 5+ points for her effort!