Will you still need me, will you still feed me...

So this year, my racing age is 49... I officially hit that mark just a couple weeks ago, and my wife graciously gave me the month off the blog to make some posts of her own.

But next year, I'll age up. My racing age will enter into the penta-genarian realm. The Big Five-Oh. Sure, I'm prepared to put some real hurt on the old guys.

I remember Jack Lalanne doing some crazy things every year on his birthday (like swimming with his hands tied together, while towing his wife in a rowboat). I remember being on a team ride out in a tiny town near where I grew up, and passing the father of one of my high school classmates who was just finishing up running 60 miles on his 60th birthday.

As my birthday passed this year, I thought about how I would want to celebrate the finishing of my 5th decade, and decided that I wanted to do something 5- or 50-related, and tri-related.

I thought of doing 5 sprint-length tri's in a row. Not as a burrito, but a tri training day that would be equivalent to 5 sprint-length tri's -- 5 times (.5 mile swim, 15 mile bike, 5K run). No support, no fanfare, not a race. Not really training up to make this into speedy affair. Just me slugging out a long training day on my own, and having the satisfaction that I did it as a personal statement to my joy-of-living.

But there are some problems with that. Mostly the 5x5K, which comes in at 15 miles. I've come to the conclusion that my body just doesn't handle long distance running well. But I'm not planning on racing the distance at all... Even so, 15 miles isn't going to do me any favors.

So I decided to fiddle with the distances a bit, move the miles from the run to the bike, but keep the overall distance the same. I landed on a 2.4 mile swim, 81 mile bike, and 10 mile run. Total of 150km, one day. I figure if I go at my normal training paces for a distance like this, it would take me about 7 to 7.5 hours to complete, not including stops and transitions from swim to bike, and bike to run.

I've got the routes already planned, but one issue may be a pool for the swim. And picking a day near my birthday that will have decent weather (this year has been exceptional for nice weather STILL, now past the end of September).

So I ask you, dear readers, to keep me honest on this. My 50th B'day celebration of life Five-Times-Sprint tri training day, coming in September of 2013.