Thursday afternoon swim

After a great workout on Wednesday, I hit the pool at lunch for a swim. My triathlon is a little over a month away and I need to get a lot of endurance work in before then. I'm going to swim 2 days a week and both days will be spent swimming longer distance. Nancy says to always do a drill set as a warm-up so I proceeded with a 400 set of drills... 50 drill, 50 swim, 50 drill, 50 swim (you get the point).

The main set was a ladder. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing in the pool as far as sets but a plan never hurts (in theory). The ladder was a 50, 100, 150, 200, 150, 100, 50 with a 10-15 second rest interval. I followed up that set with a nice and easy 3 x 100 making sure I counted my strokes (SR) and keep them between 18-20.

I'm on my own now so I have to consciously remember everything Nancy taught me over the past 16 weeks so she doesn't get on my case when she sees me swimming.

My next workout is gooing to be a straight 750 swim preceeded by a drill set. I need to work my way up to about a 1150 swim (.7 mile) for my triathlon.

800 x 400= Great workout

Wednesday was speed day... again. I went to the blog and saw we would be doing 800's and 400's. Cool! I hated those mile repeats. After a warm-up, Katie explained some track etiquette. Runner's get the inside, walkers get the outside and pass on the outside. I figured I would forget one eventually and I did. I started walking to the inside. You big dummy!!!

The plan was to run 4 x 800 and 4 x 400. OUCH!!!! I hopped in with Katie, Nyle, Rob, and a couple others and we were off. I counted off the 1/4 splits each time and we were consistently hitting 1:32/33 and finishing at around 3:06. The last 200 is always the toughest.

After a breif rest, we... I mean they started the 400's. I looked up and the group had left without me. I guess that's what I get for not paying attention. I jumped in for the 2nd and knew I would need to run by myself. The 400's are kind of a blurr but the first 2 (for me) were run about 1:27. I sluffed on the 3rd, running in 1:30. Since I was flying solo on the 4th, I wanted to push the pace. I finished in 1:23.

Following a mile cool down, I was off to the race director's meeting.

Another Brick in the Wall

Multi-sport training has been going pretty well. It's tough trying to learn to balance all 3 disciplines. I figured that with this training, my running was bound to suffer a bit. I wanted to see where I was at with my running so I signed up for a 5k on Saturday. It was more of a fundraiser event so it didn't attract the bigger names in town. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but the morning was hot and humid.

I ended up finishing with a time of 20:51 which was 1 minute less than my PR. Disappointed? Kind of, but it is the first race in warm weather this year and the guys who finished 1 & 2 were also 1 minute off their PR so...

I now have a starting point for the year and hopefully my times will keep going down.

On Monday, I did my 2nd ever brick work-out. For those who don't know what a brivk is, it is when you go from say the bike to the run without any rest. After riding 21 miles, I slipped on my running shoes and ran 3 miles. My legs felt pretty good. I actually increased my pace by 30 seconds each mile. I'm on my way to my first triathlon.

This week-end, I get a taste of the multi-sport thing with a biathlon that starts with a 3.1 mile run and finishes with a 15 mile bike. I'm really looking forward to it.

Tonight is the last night of swim class so I'm on my own from here. I think I'll be able to manage.

Dog Days of Summer

Tonight was ride night. I'm thinking of running a 5K this week-end and I wanted to try to take it easy. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't take it easy. Tonight was no different. The plan was to ride 20 miles or a little over 1 hour. I had intentions of riding the course that the Wheelfast ride takes but somewhere I missed a turn. I thought I had it under control but...

I kept riding, hoping that I would eventually see a street I recognized and then... GREAT BIG dog comes flying out at me... right in front of the bike. When I say big, I mean 130 lb. rotweiller that looked like he might even be able to eat my bike. I locked up my brakes and almost lost it. I kicked the speed up a few notches and grabbed my water bottle (just in case). The dog eventually retreated and thank god, because I didn't have anything left and he was keeping up with me. Whew! Disaster averted.

I did finally pass a street I recognized but knew that if I kept heading west, I would hit Route 4. After a few winding miles, I recognized a road that would indeed take me to Route 4. At this point, I only had a few miles to go so I got in the aerobars and quickened the pace. I looked down and was riding at 24 mph. That's fast for me. I hit the trail in Chatham and rode a cooldown home with a total of 25 miles and TIRED legs. Thanks Dog!!!

Speed 101

The saying goes... "If you want to run fast, you have to train fast". That's a hard concept to grasp when you show up for your first outside speed workout session after having done most of the miles over the winter at a slower pace while training for a marathon.

I went into this workout, 2 x 1 mile & 2 x 400, thinking I could run the miles in 6:00. At least that is what McMillen was telling me. I ended up running both miles at 6:30 and finished with burning lungs. It is early in the season so I have something to look forward to I guess. The 400's were run for the most part uphill. 1 word... TOUGH!!!

I finished with a mile cooldown contemplating whether or not I could/would attempt to try a half ironman triathlon in October. I'm going to get 2 shorter triathlons in before I make my decision.

A Long Week-end

Actually, the week-end flew by but I did get a lot of miles in. My training has gone to running specific to trying to balance swimming, running, and biking. For the past week, I was only able to run and swim since we were out in California for vacation. I ran long one day and sorta long 2 other days. I swam everyday either doing drills, swimming, or just laying out in the 100 degree weather. La Quinta, California... I could get used to that lifestyle.

We arrived back home on Wednesday evening and were greeted by storms on the drive up from St. Louis. Thursday was business as usual for both work and training. After a LONG day at work, I hit the treadmill for 8 x 400 @ 6:00 pace. It was a little difficult but manageable.

Due to the weather, I decided to run on saturday instead of biking. I managed 11.75 miles and a sore left knee. It felt pretty good until I stopped at a light within a mile from home. Then I couldn't start again. I'll be researching this injury. I had this injury when I started running a couple years ago. Maybe it is due to all the treadmill running and now that I'm hitting the roads, it's acting up.

Sunday was a much nicer day. After completing numerous honey-do's, I hopped on the bike. I planned on 35 but only managed 33.5. I'll take it. I rode from my house to Lake Sanchris and back. Most of the miles were on the same road. Kind of boring but at least I knew I would have the wind at my back on the way home. I finished in under 2 hours.

I have a 5K in site for next week-end to see how my early season endurnace is and then I will be doing my first biathlon on May 30... 3 nile run followed by a 15 mile bike.

A lot has been going on

I've been pretty busy with trying to build somewhat of a base before I embark on my first triathlon training program. I really feel like my running is going to suffer but to try something new will be kind of cool.

Thursday evening I hopped on the treadmill for some speed work. I did 6 x 400 at 6:10 pace with a 200 recovery between repeats. I preceded with 1 mile warm-up and concluded with 1 mile cool down. I love my speed work!!!!

Friday was a day off and will continue to be my day off. Fridays are left as a date/dinner night.

Saturday marning/afternoon was spent helping Kristi and Cameron. Kristi had a show that I needed to help her get set up for. She makes and sells jewelry and is really AWESOME. I might be a little biased but she really is good. I then assisted Cameon in making a science fair project, Pencil Rocket. That was good time we spent together and it actually worked the first time we tried it. Around 4:00, I finally made it out for my long run. The longest I had run prior to this was 6 miles the week before. It felt good to go long but I also felt a twinge in my knee. I'd been doing a lot of treadmill running so I hope it is just a lack of road running that is causing this. I guess I'll find out soon enough. I averaged about 8:37 for the run with the last 2 miles being run at a faster pace.

Sunday morning was spent volunteering at the Try the Tri. It's a great event for kids and adults wanting to try their hand at triathlons. We (me and Cameron) were on the bike course. It was a very fun experience. After the race and cutting the grass, I headed out for a bike ride. The plan was to do 30 miles. I missed a turn along the way but it was ok. It ended up being an out and back on a beautiful day. I eventually logged 30.5 miles in 1:45.

Monday was spent lifting weights. I decided after the weight, that I would hop on the recumbent bike for some strength work. I did 30 minutes of interval training with 4 minutes hard/ 3 minutes easy. My quads were burning when I was done.

Training for next week may be slim as we are headed to California for a few days. First San Diego and then La Quinta which is near Palm Springs. I plan on running and swimming but not much bike unless I make it to gym.