Track Workout

Well, yesterday's workout was the last track practice before Wildflower. We did a brick workout which is basically a bike ride immediately followed by a run. The ride was fairly flat, some rolling hills. It felt good, because I wasn't having trouble keeping up with the group. I suppose having my tires pumped properly really helps :) Anyway, we rode for about an hour and got in a good 16.5 miles. When we got back to the school we put our bikes away as fast as we could so we could start our run while we were still warm. They told us to push the first mile and then do a one mile cool down. I felt surprisingly good on the run and somehow (I'm still amazed) I managed to run a mile in 9:52! I never thought I'd break the 10 minute mark. I pushed myself, but I felt like I could've pushed a little more. So, this next week is our taper. I've been tapering since I got back from Washington DC because I haven't been able to get myself back in a routine. Tomorrow will be our last open water swim and bike together until after Wildflower. Crazy how time flies. Thanks to all of your kind words, encouragement, and support of Team in Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Please pray for me next Sunday at 10:10am. That's when my wave start will be heading into the water and it'll be go go go for at least 4 solid hours. I WILL finish this thing. There is no doubt in my mind.

GO TEAM!

Back in Business

Well, its been awhile since I've posted. And its not necessarily because I haven't been working out, because I have (although, not as much as I should). Last Saturday was the ride-n-tie workout. We paired up and did sort of a leap frog workout where someone rides the bike while the other person runs. Then the rider drops the bike and starts running, and the other person picks up the bike and passes the runner, and on and on. It was a darn good workout, especially since my partner ran passed the bike on the very first loop. I ended up having to run back to the bike (about 1/2 mile) so we could keep going. Anyway, we ended up doing 2 loops (about 2 miles each). It was interesting, needless to say.

Sunday was Easter and a bit of its own marathon. My mom was in town, which was nice. Sunday night I did laundry and packed in order to get ready for my trip to Washington DC.

While in DC, I swam once in a pool that was less than optimal (not long enough and was cloudy probably from the gobs of kids i saw playing in it the day before). I also ran 2 miles on the treadmill on Wednesday morning. That evening we walked from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial, past a few of the war memorials, by the White House and then back to our hotel. We must've walked a good 10 miles that evening.

I got back from DC on Friday night around 10:30pm California time (which is 1:30 DC time), then got up early on Saturday for the practice tri at Stevens Creek Canyon Park. The tri was a sprint length (about half the olympic length) and it took me 2 hours. The swim and bike both felt pretty good. I lost interest during the run until I joined up with Christine. We ran the last mile or so of the course together and kept each other motivated. I was tired at the end, but not so much that I needed to keel over. My calves and my biceps are a little sore, but I'm otherwise feeling pretty good.

Less than 2 weeks til Wildflower!

GO TEAM!

Today's Ride

I woke up this morning to find that it wasn't raining, so I took the opportunity to get some mileage in on the bike. Here's the route I took...

University Ave.
R on Los Gatos/Saratoga Road
R on Three Oaks Way
L on Fruitvale (did a few hill repeats here)
R on Saratoga
R on Quito
L on Los Gatos/Saratoga Road
L on University

It was quite an adventure. After about 10 minutes on the bike, it started to sprinkle. It wouldn't have been a big deal because there really wasn't much coming down, but the rain that accumulated on the ground is what got me the worst. My bike was spitting up water and dirt at me for half of the ride. And then, to make things a bit more interesting, I didn't have the best understanding of the roads and I ended up taking a longer ride than I originally intended. It wasn't bad. Just made for an interesting ride. I was quite surprised when I found that I had made it all the way to Lawrence and could see REI. Anyway, overall it was a really good ride. I felt pretty comfortable being on the road with cars and I'm get much more comfortable with the downhill. Perhaps I'll do this ride again sometime.

Total Distance - 14 miles

Today's Workout

Well, I got to bed kind of late last night and 7:15 came much too early for me this morning. I lay in bed trying to decided if I wanted to just skip the workout this morning and stay in bed. But I couldn't let such an amazing day go to waste. And I am really glad I went.

The swim workout was pretty easy. It went something like this...
200 warm up
10 x 50 (25 heads-up, 25 drill)
5 x 200 (4' intervals)
4 x 50 (non-freestyle)

Total Distance - 1900 yards

And the bike was really good. Hard, but good. We did the Foothill-El Monte-Elena-Taffe loop. Taffe is a fairly intense hill about a mile long. The first time up Taffe I only had to stop once. The second time (yes, I actually did it twice) I didn't stop at all. And I've found that I'm a bit more comfortable on the downhill than I once was. It helps to have the wider mountain bike slicks rather than the skinny road bike tires. Anyway, it was a tough ride, but it felt really good to get in the mileage. Oh, and I found that its much easier to ride a bike that has the proper tire pressure. I found that my tires were at about 40psi and they're supposed to be at 80psi. Oops :)

Total Distance - 22.5 miles

Last Night's Workout

Last night we did a 2 miles marker set. We warmed up with some drills on the field and a 1 mile run with a 400 recovery. Then we did our 2 mile marker. I was totally not feeling the running vibe when we first started last night, but by the time I hit about the middle of the marker set, I was feeling pretty good and in a good rhythm.

Here are my times...
Mile 1 - 10:14
2 Mile Marker - 20:57 (10:38, 10:18)

Just a reminder for folks...
My first 2 mile marker was
Mile 1 = 12:47
Mile 2 = 13:03
Total time = 25:50

Not too shabby, eh?

Soooo, now I just need to get myself back into a workout routine during the week. I got sick and stopped working out for a few weeks. Now I'm starting to feel the effects of my lack of workoutness (you like that word?). It's also been hard to stay motivated to run and bike when the weather has been so cruddy. Just pray that I can get my rear in gear again.

Wildflower is in 30 days!!

GO TEAM!

Saturday's Workout

I did not end up going on the Jr. High retreat this weekend so I decided to go to the Saturday workout.

The swim workout was as follows...
10 x 50 - 25 head-up, 25 drill
500 marker set (8:35)
8 x 25 - sprint on 45" interval
8 x 25 - easy on 1' interval

Total Distance = 1400 yards

For the bike we did the 5 mile marker that we did at the beginning of the season. I didn't really feel too good about it. My bike felt really sluggish and I'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that I haven't gone for a good long ride in awhile. If I'm gonna feel good about the Wildflower ride I'm gonna have to get some more mileage in on the bike.

Total Distance = 15.5 miles