End of a good training week... (and July totals)

Vineman was yesterday. Always gets me motivated and a little over zealous *sigh*. It's a long rode to get there and one that is only traveled one step at a time. Everything in it's time.

This week was an awesome week at swim. Without telling us why, coach had us do (in my case) 100 yards for time (New Pool PR 1:45). He then divided that time in half so I had to make 50 yards in 53 seconds 16x on the 2 minutes with a 50 EZ after every fourth hard 50. And I nailed each one -- all a little faster than 53 seconds. Last year, I would have struggled to make 1:05. Progress. That's what this year is all about - Do It Better.

After 2 weeks of not being able to get out for a long ride, Grumpy mapped a 53 miler that took us from the foothills to the bay and back.  I was a little worried about the distance since I haven't done that distance for a couple of months. I decided to work on drafting. But that meant I had to keep up enough with Grumpy to be able to draft.

I needed to back off from drafting in order to take this shot. The point is, I was actually keeping up with him! Most of my pictures have him as a tiny spec in the distance.

The last 4-5 miles out to the bay was on multi-use trails. Riding around the bay was literally cool but, a little crowded with people having troubles staying to the right.

This was a very long mostly zone 2 ride and nicely finished off the month.



I'm NOT training for IM. But I'm right on target for the Santa Cruz Mermaids Olympic in September. A little disappointed in the biking numbers, but I'm focusing on running.

BayTeam CPE Trial Highlights

This is the only picture I have of Shelby for the weekend.

This was a really tough week of trying to fit everything in. I had 9 hours of training, 2 hours of dog class, 32 hours of work, and countless hours trying to co-chair the BayTeam's CPE trial.

Saturday and Sunday mornings started bright and early at 4:45am. After breakfast, Shelby was ready to get started on the day.

The trial was held in a horse arena in Morgan Hill. It was supposed to be low to mid-80's for the weekend, but the morning there was extremely thick fog making it a cold start for the morning.

Shelby enjoyed herself so much she interrupted her runs to visit the poll setters. But, she also managed to do some of the parts nicely.

Tazzy jumped and ran her little heart out getting several qualifying runs and some placements.

Jackpot

More Jackpot

One of the gambles in Jackpot... or practicing to be the Easter bunny.

Dip and Dash - Aquathon

Today, I did the Santa Cruz Dip and Dash Aquathon. This was a little 750 meter swim + 4 mile run I did to acclimate to ocean swimming. It was drizzling this morning on the way over to Santa Cruz. Water temperature was roughly 57F and the air was supposed to be about the same. But, can you believe how calm this water is?

We lined up on the beach. When the horn went off, we ran through the beached kelp. I dove in and swam hard. It was COLD and SALTY! I swam on auto pilot. I kept pushing hard not worrying what I would leave for the run. I was very relieved when I rounded the second buoy and started back to shore. The current would help carry me in right? Still, I kept pushing all the way to shore and hoped when I popped up I wouldn't get knocked over by a wave. I got my highest yard/minute EVER.

(I'm just above the guy at the bottom with out a wet suit)

Out of the water, we had to run across the sand and across some plywood (ah - yuck) to get to transition. I rushed through transistion making this my best T1 EVER.

The run was a 4 mile out and back along the sidewalk that follows the coast. Immediately out of T1 is a very steep hill. In the past, I've walked up the hills. But, I'm able to run them now! I kept running at the edge of what I could sustain. On the way out, I had no problem and didn't stop for water at the turn around. On the way back, I started wanting to look at the Garmin to see how fast I was going. I decided that I only wanted to see how fast so I could give myself permission to slow down ???? And that was that. No looking and NO walking!

Remember that steep hill immediately out of T1? Coming back down it at the very end of the race was an absolute blast. Ended up with a PR and a 1st in AG!

Enough fooling around. It's time to build.

Best Day Ever

Finished up base phase with a low heart rate run by the lake with the grrls. I'm loving this low heart rate running, but nervous about how slow I need to go to keep my heart rate down.

I also love multitasking and the grrls need some exercise. So Grumpy went with us so I could switch off the grrls. Eventually, he got to a place where the grrls got to play in the creek.

This is easy/taper week, but apparently that wasn't on the plan for Masters this morning. Masters kicked my butt this morning. I had a short easy run tonight and figured I'd take both grrls by myself. I thought about it all day at work and wished the day would hurry up. By the time I got home, all I wanted to do was take a nap. So I changed clothes, told the grrls we're going, and then there definitely wasn't any turning back.


WOW! That wasn't an easy run. Once they realized where they were, the grrls made a bee-line for the creek! I got a run in and a bit faster than I had planned. It was supposed to be 4.8-5 mph and I really bounced around 4.5 to 8.6mph!

The look on Shelby's face made it all worth it. That's her "Thank's Mom. This is the best day ever!" look.

Just doing my thing...

I love riding. I love riding LONG slow rides through the hilly areas around the peninsula and south bay. I love Hicks. I love Sierra (category 1 in the Tour of California). I love Mt. Hamilton. I love Old La Honda. Mind you, I'm not fast. The problem is, these routes don't work well for short duration high intensity and they don't work for the "long" low intensity.

From January to the Silicon Valley International Triathlon in July, I followed my training plan as much as possible given some extra curricular 100K rides. To get me through the last two weeks before the race, I promised myself that I would spend some time doing the other things I like to do... like riding and hiking the hills in the south bay.

I started with the some what shaded Hicks/Shannon/Kennedy loop.

 

A few days later, I had an awesome ride (with Grumpy) through Los Gatos/Saratoga/Monte Sereno around Stevens Creek including up Pearce Road (really impressed with how long I was able to stay out of the saddle on that one!)

 

And to end the holiday weekend, I joined Grumpy on a hike with the grrls. Today my glutes are screaming! Should find a way to keep that in the training plan. Can I count that as a run?

One more weekend of "Base", a week of recovery, and then it's back to Build Build BUILD!

What a difference a year and some time in the pool makes!

June seems to be a favorite month for me to do firsts in...

June 2010, I did my first EVER triathlon. It was a little fun tri of 400 yard swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. I had been swimming a month and mistakenly signed up for the June fun tri instead of the JULY fun tri. I was SO glad when those 400 yards were done.

June 2011, I did my first Olympic distance tri.Thank you very much for the first 750 meters. Please can I have another?

So what's next? Swimming in the ocean of course!


And with that, my favorite part about all this (and something all beginners should be encouraged to do from the start) - THE NUMBERS!

Note: Riding is down since I had a bike fit after the tri. That meant leaving the bike at the shop for a new handle bar and reduced mileage to adjust to the new fit.