The Plan:
1. Get up early, go to the Manitou Pool and swim 1 mile.
2. After the swim, ride my bike up the pass to Divide and back down.
3. Run 6 miles in Garden of the Gods.

The SWIM
Everything started out great. I made it to the Manitou pool just before they opened, quickly got changed and was in the pool by about 7:05am. I swam 1 mile (1,600 yards). I would swim 75 yards freestyle and then 25 yards breaststroke for each 100. I did this for a couple of reasons. 1. I wanted to make sure that I maintained a steady pace in the water. The breaststroke would break it up so I wouldn't begin to push too hard on the freestyle. And 2. I used the breaststroke to help me count my laps. I'm a notorious mis-counter when it comes to laps so doing the breaststroke every forth lap kept me on my count.

I finished the mile in just about 34:00. So I'm pretty stoked about that.

Side note: When I parked at the pool they were setting up for the Buddy Walk in the parking lot. They had porta potties and were setting up a water station. There was also a sign where I parked that said "Parking for pool customers only between hours of 7:00am and 1:00pm". I read the sign, said to myself, "I'm a pool customer" and thought nothing else of it.

The BIKE
After getting out of the pool I put on my cycling clothes, went out to the car, ate a quick PB&J sandwich, got a drink, checked my bike and I was on my way through Manitou and up the pass.

I've ridden on Highway 24 from Manitou to the Pikes Peak Highway tollgate before so I wasn't too intimidated by the narrow shoulder on Hwy 24 through the canyon. There wasn't that much traffic and there was any rock slides so I made it through with out a scratch and continued to pedal up the pass.

About 10 miles into my climb up the pass, my mind drifted back to the parking sign at the pool. I now started to question myself. "Did I read the sign correctly?", "Did it say No Parking between 7:00am and 1:00pm?". I started to to turn it over in my mind and before long I was convinced that one of several things was going to happen. 1. I was going to get a ticket. 2. When I came down my car would be surrounded by the event and it would be trapped there, where I would get a ticket and possibly ruin the event that was happening. Or 3. my car would get towed or some combination of all 3.

So after about 13 miles of climbing, I decided to turn around and head back down the pass. I was planning on at least 7 more miles of climbing but I kept on thinking about my car.

I then turned around and bombed back down the pass. My top speed was 47 miles per hour. I'm pretty sure that I had a smile from ear to ear while I was passing some of the cars.

I got back down to Manitou and then rode to the pool and found my car safe and sound. No ticket, not surrounded by the event, everything was fine. I looked at the sign again and it said exactly what I originally thought, "Parking for pool customers only". Instead of continuing my ride, I decided to make my transition and start my run through the Garden of the Gods. But not before moving my car out of the pool parking lot.

Total time on the bike was about 1:40

The RUN
I got something to drink, prepped a water bottle to take with me, ate a little more and started my run through the Garden.

I started going up the back way to Balanced Rock and then down past the Trading Post. I then ran up over a couple of hills past the Scottsman Picnic area to the one way road that takes you to the frot side of the Garden. I then rand down to the main entrance around by the Main Parking lot, around the back and back over to Balanced Rock and out of the Garden and back to my car.

It was a pretty uneventful run. I stopped to walk on the top of some of the hills to take a drink and tried to just keep a steady easy pace. My only problem was a slight tightness in my left calf muscle.

Total time for the run was 1:10.

After getting back to my car it was getting pretty hot so I got a cool drink and went down to the creek and dipped my feet in the water. That felt pretty good.

All in all, it was a pretty good workout even though I cut my bike ride short. I've got some confidence now going into the final two weeks before the Harvest Moon Triathlon. My biggest challenge will be my nutrition on the bike. I'll really have to force myself to eat.