Yesterday, I figured if I said let’s leave by 6:30 AM, then for sure we’d be out the door by 7:00 AM. Murray was never late for any of his personal training sessions with me at LA|FITNESS, but I’ve learned that if we need to be somewhere at a certain time, I need to plan for at least half an hour of “Murray” time.

We did leave by 7:00 for our two-hour bike ride to the coast in Carlsbad. It was a fairly comfortable ride for me, averaging a slower speed than what I usually ride. We rode at about 17 mph for 34 miles. Both of us had two hours on the bike as our planned workout.

Murray had a 10-mile run planned afterwards, and I figured it would be no big deal to join him. I was scheduled for a 20-minute brick run afterwards, but running 10 miles would be significantly longer than 20 minutes. I’m pleased to say that I did complete all 10 miles even though the temperature had risen to 105 degrees. The last two miles were pretty painful, nevertheless, I trudged on, refusing to walk. I think my average pace was about a 12-minute mile.

This milestone was a good wake up call for me. I know I have a long ways to go if I want to get close to my goal of going under 5:30 for my first half Ironman in March, 2010 @ California 70.3. By then I want to be at a level of fitness where I can handle that final half marathon run with no problem and still complete the run in under 1:40.

I have more than seven months to prepare.