Hey endurance -- Are ya still there?

Iron Charo is my nom de triathlon, and I did my first Ironman back in 2008. Anyway, fast forward to today, I created this blog a couple of years ago, but never posted anything, not even my spectacular 3-minute PR at the Ironman World Triathlon Championships in Kona.

Anyway, I signed up for Ironman Lake Tahoe, which is now just about exactly 13 months away. I might track my progress toward that race here. Not committing to it -- I already have another blog for my professional life and I also Tweet and Facebook (is that now a verb too?)for work.

But, with a view toward documenting it, here's some context and personal history.

I've been taking it super-easy since May, when I did a mediocre half-iron distance race at Wildflower. I wanted to build in a long recovery period, both mental and physical. I had been training pretty hard since April 2011 when I was chosen by lottery to compete at Kona. I broke my arm in August 2011, 6.5 weeks before the biggest race of my life.

I got through the race remarkably well. The cast came off ten days before, and I had some good physical therapy and training to get me through it.

Then I went into a heavy mental mode -- I was applying for a fellowship that would give me a year at Stanford University to study whatever I wanted while creating something useful for other journalists. This was a really exciting process, condensing my professional life into an application, and of a few hundred people to apply for 13 slots, I was among the final twenty.

I found out in late April that I was not selected, and the letdown was a surprisingly mental and physical process. At the same time, the fantastic gym where I had built up so much fitness going into the Kona race canceled their 7:30 a.m. coached workout. My alternative was to go to an earlier workout or do it mid-day.

I turned a lot of energy toward, of all things, knitting, and got some RSI in my right arm that kept me from doing a lot of endurance. Since May, I've backed way off the knitting, running, riding and swimming, just waiting to get back to a normal state.

So finally, about mid-June, after keeping my runs and bike rides to under 4 miles, I started back up with the endurance. I started doing weekend runs of 7 to 11 miles. Three weeks ago I popped it up to 15 miles and yesterday, I ran 18 miles in 3:25 -- about an 11:15 pace.

That puts me on track for marathon pacing season, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. On Sept. 1, I'll do about a 22-mile run and Sept. 15 I'll go about 24 miles.

Big picture, that should set me up for 5:00 and 5:30 times at the Twin Cities, Columbus, New York City, Dallas, and Disney World marathons that are on my pacing schedule, and build up the endurance and speed for another PR effort at Surf City in February.

From that point, 2013 is all about the Ironman. I'll be doing shorter triathlons through the half distance for speed, and a bunch of 10K and half-marathons. I'm not sure If I'm going to be looking for coaching. I might start a training group for the long rides and bricks.

So, now you're all up to date.