Einstein Would’ve Been a Triathlete

Albert Einstein is probably one of the most well known scientists and probably one of the most outrageous theoretical physicists of the 20^th century. He developed the general theory of relativity, discovered the law of photoelectric effect, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics . He was a genius and is praised to this day. ButI believe, in today’s culture, Einstein would have been made a great triathlete.

Over the next few posts I think I will convince you too that his thoughts and ideas would have provoked him to partake in the multisport lifestyle. I’m not sure how far he would have gotten with that hair, or if it would have even fit under a swim cap, but using some of his most well known ideas he would have been able to formulate his own path to success in the sport.

To start, he worked at a patent office as a young man as an assistant examiner evaluating patent applications. In the early 1900’s, he saw many electromagnetic devices come through his office which may explain some of his future endeavors. I think that if he were to have worked in the patent offices today (or should I say 20 years ago), he would have seen carbon fiber this and aerodynamic frame that and maybe, just maybe, he would have fallen in love with the advanced bicycle machines we have the privilege to ride today. Not only that, but the shark skin suits (now illegal :/)  and the advances in shoe technology would have been coming through his office.

Imagine with me, a young physicist working behind a counter trying to throw a wrench in all of these designs. With his drive and passion, he wouldn’t have had anywhere to turn but to the streets and the water to try these tools of wonder for himself. He would have immediately fallen in love with the sport, the people, and adopted a new lifestyle as those who join the ranks of triathlete tend to do.

Now that we’ve got Mr. Einstein sucked into our little game, he has nowhere to go but up. He would use his theories and ideas to propel himself forward in the sport. I will share with you some of his ideas that I believe would have allowed him to excel at the sport. Hopefully these ideas will motivate you, inspire you, and maybe even make you think about your multisport training and lifestyle.

Thanks to top10thebest.com for the picture and some really good quotes from a man that knew more about life than science.

Weekly Review 01/27 – 02/01

Alright, Wednesday and I am just now getting to last week’s review. What can I say? Life sucks sometimes and gets in the way of the things you’d really like to do but everybody’s gotta make their Costco and grocery runs. Anyway, back to triathlon.

Last week was week 2 of the TriDot training program I signed up for and it was more work in Threshold heart rate zones and above. I was actually able to do all of the workouts as described and felt pretty good throughout the workouts. I can definitely tell that my mileage would be much more consistent and around the right ratios throughout the year with this program.

It was kind of a boring week except for the fact that I did every workout all the way through. I guess the highlight workout of the week would be my Sunday run where I did 5×5’ intervals targeting 5:45 pace. I did 5:50 on the first three, then 5:40, followed by 5:33 averages. Not bad but gotta get those first three under 5:45 and then get to the point where I can hold them for 6 miles straight with no breaks. A few more weeks and it will come.

As far as racing goes, I have pretty much decided not to do any triathlons until the June/July time frame. Last year I started in February and by the time Nationals came around in mid-August I was completely burnt out. I figured I would give myself a long “out season” to build and build and build and then race later in the year. I’m sure I will speckle in a swim meet here and a half marathon there but nothing serious. Especially since I plan to race through the beginning of December and do only 70.3 distance after August I don’t want to start too early and burn out mentally.

Until next time, Remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 9,600 yards/3 hours
Bike: 72.5 miles/3.5 hours (2 hours trainer)
Run: 24.7 miles/ 3 hours
Strength: 0.5 hours

Weekly Review 1/20 to 1/26

The first week of the TriDot training plan is in the books. I was able to complete a majority of the workouts but had some trouble getting my heart rate up to the specified zones for the majority of the workouts. I guess that is why they call them training goals. I am sure that it is because the majority of my workouts prior to starting the program were low heart rate/maintain workouts not really shooting for anything in particular (i.e. pace, heart rate).

Since the workouts are planned with intervals and specific goals, I was finally able to use the “Workouts” feature on my Garmin watch. I had a few glitches with the heart rate zones but I think I have figured them out and can get it to work for me in future workouts. I really like the feature because I just program it in (using the website is so much easier) and go. I don’t have to remember what zones I need or how long of rest I get. It beeps at me when it’s time to start the next set and even tells me the zone I should be in. Pretty sweet.

I only had one workout that I missed (or skipped….:/) and that was the Saturday one. I blame it on the fact that I was in Big Bear and it was really cold in the morning. Like actually cold, not Southern California cold, it was in the mid 20’s when I woke up. That and I was a little reluctant to try to do threshold repeats at 7,000+ ft of altitude after all of my training has been done at close to sea level. Someday I’ll take a week off of work and go up there to get some altitude training in. That’ll be pretty sweet too.

I have to admit that I haven’t seen anything mind blowing as far as the workouts that I got from TriDot. It follows a similar pattern to what I have tried to follow in my normal season training as far as pattern of workouts. But this is the “out season” and I would be interested to see what a “Race Prep” training plan has to offer. It is REALLY nice to have all of the workouts laid out for me and not have to try and conjure up what I am going to do. Also, there are some pretty good bike workouts that actually include intervals instead of 40 miles in 2 hours with hills. Coming up with bike workouts has always been the hardest part for me.

I am going to try and keep my weekly updates a little shorter from now on so I can spend some more time writing articles that will actually be of use to you all. With that being said, I bid you adieu.

Remember, Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 10,100 yards/ 3 hours
Bike: 28.7 miles/3.25 hours (1.75 hours trainer)
Run: 7.5 miles/1.5 hours
Strength: 0.5 hours

Weekly Review 01/13 to 01/19

This week I did my swim/bike/run assessment for the TriDot training I signed up for. It consisted of an 800 swim (yards or meters), a 15 mile TT bike, and a 5k or 10k run. All of these were supposed to be at your threshold pace of not blowing yourself up but not having a kick at the end of the effort. I did mine on almost consecutive days because I had already procrastinated a few days and was eager to get the ball rolling. Here are the results of my efforts:

Swim: 800 yards in 10:52

Bike: 15 miles in 39:26 @ 172 BPM average

Run: 10k in 37:09 @ 176 BPM average (18:25 and 18:43 5k splits)

I am pretty happy with these times and I feel that they accurately represent where I am at in my training right now. They aren’t quite what I would hope for at the peak of the season but it’ll be a good place to start the new year off. Next week I will start the training routine they provide me and I will be sure to keep you all updated in how it is going in my reviews to let you know how each week is going.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 10,050 yards/3 hours
Bike: 65.4 miles/4.5 hours (1.25 Trainer)
Run: 7 miles/0.8 hours
Strength: 0 hours

Weekly Review 01/01 to 01/12

I know, I know, this is more than a week to review but I figured I would just make it start with the beginning of the since I missed my review last time. The New Year for me started out great!! I went to bed pretty late the night before, 11:30 :o, (I knew I wouldn’t make it to midnight if we didn’t go out) but I got to sleep in and was ready to go the next day. I got my longest run of the new year in and followed that with the longest swim the next day.

I took Saturday pretty easy because Sunday was the third day of the Triple Crown with 100 repeats on 1:20 and I knew it would be a hard day. That meant Saturday was going to be spent studying flight stuff and maybe a light ride in the afternoon. Much to my delight, I got a text from a friend saying they were going flying and asked if I wanted to join. HECK YEA!!!! We flew up to Camarillo for lunch and back. It had been too long since I had been in the air and I am so glad I did it.

Sunday morning it was time for the big day. My original intent was to alternate 100 and 75 yards but when I got there my lane mates were chickening out and making me doubt the set. Instead we decided to do 100+2×75 for the set of 100. It was probably a good thing that they held me back because during that first 75 after the 100 I was huffing trying to catch my breath after getting 2-5 seconds rest. That then gave me a 75 to get my arms underneath me and ready for the next 100. We ended up doing 8,350 yards for the set and I had completed my first Triple Crown!!!

Surprisingly I wasn’t as tired or sore from the third set as I was from the previous. I still decided to take Monday off from the pool and ran instead. I’ve decided that I need to spend a little less time in the pool than I have been. Ever since my swim month in October I’ve been going 5 to 6 times a week and, although it has been showing in the pool, I have been neglecting the other disciplines. I also figure I will be limited to one workout a day most days when I start flying in a few weeks and I will need to mix up my morning routine with some running and biking to keep my fitness up.

Another highlight of the week was my Tuesday trainer ride. I showed up to Mike’s house with my Endurance Films DVDs in hand and was ready to do some Lactate Threshold work. I was pleasantly surprised when he told me to put my bike on his CompuTrainer so we could track my power and he started a new video from Strava. This was the Functional Threshold Power (FTP) video with a warm up effort followed by a 20 minute pain fest of steady, hard effort riding.

When the 20 minutes started I was pushing about 275 watts and was calling out my wattage every minute to be recorded. I really had no idea what kind of power I should be pushing and was just trying to keep it up and at a pace that felt right for 20 minutes. After 15 minutes, the video surprised me with an “OK….Let’s see if you can pick it up a notch!!” and I thought “Alright, here we go.” and took the power to over 300 watts. I ended up with an FTP of about 280 watts (average power over 20 minutes * .95).

I found a few articles about power compared to the pros and I am still not entirely sure where I would fit in. The most interesting article I found was from Luke McKenzie’s Kona Power Data where he averaged 281 watts for the ride in Kona. Now don’t get too excited, he was able to hold that average over 4 hours and 112 miles; I did it for 20 minutes (and I was ready to stop after that 20 minutes!!). This tells me 2 things with the most important that I need to spend a lot more time on the bike. The other thing it tells me is that I have it in me to put out that kind of power over some portion of time; now I just need to get used to doing it over 4 hours with an hour swim before and finish it off with a sub 3 hour marathon….Ugh!! 😀 In time….in time.

I also signed up for a 2 month trial of the TriDot training systems.  I am excited to see what it is like having a coach to plan my workouts. I will keep you posted on my progress with my coach and let you know how it goes. I’m sure it will be a great experience and if nothing else, I will learn some new workouts to put into my arsenal.

All in all the first week and a half of 2014 has been good to me. Now it is time to start planning out the season and getting a feel for what the year has in store. I think I may try to start a little later this year because last year’s February to August run was pretty rough on me mentally. But to do the full Wildflower would be an awesome  experience and would be sure to keep me in my place (or not and maybe earn that elite status…but it would probably kick my butt!!).  Decisions, decisions.

Until next time remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim:  26,500 yards (~16.88 miles)/5.8 hours
Bike:  50.9 miles/4.5 hours
Run:  22.4 miles/ 2.5 hours
Strength: 0 hours

2013: A look at the numbers.

I would say that 2013 was a pretty successful year for me with some big accomplishments. These accomplishments came through a lot of hard work and a year full of training. Thanks to the USMS Fitness Log system and Strava, I am able to log and look back at my numbers for the year. My total training time is logged to be 428 hours covering 3,650.9 miles for 2013.

In all of that training I had several accomplishments and breakthroughs in my. Some to note were:

• New personal record for 100 SCY swim of 1:06.
• Longest swim ever of 7,525 yards.
• Longest ride ever of 82.2 miles.
• First sub 1:10-400 meter lap since high school.

A year full of training would not be complete without the accomplishments made during racing. Here is a list of some of the biggest racing accomplishments I achieved in 2013:

• Completed first ever Half Marathon in a time of 1:22:13.3.
• Completed first ever Half Ironman in a time of 4:51:46.6.
• Set two Olympic Distance personal records; 2:05:30 in March and 2:01:52 in August.
• 76^th Overall place at first USAT National Championship appearance.
• First sub one hour Olympic Distance bike split.
• Qualified for 2014 Team USA and ITU World Championships in Edmonton.
• First ever swim meet (1500 SCM in 21:48.14).
  
  

This last year was also a very big and exciting year for me because Iwas selected to be a member of the Endurance
Films Racing Team and given the chance to represent Endurance Films and all of their fine sponsors. With the sponsorship I have gotten several goodies that are of the highest quality an athlete can get. Some of the things I have received from them are:

• Endurance Films RIDES DVDs (my trainer buddies keep begging me to bring these).
  
• Endurance Films Cycling Fitness Results (another requested series from the trainer group).
• Champion Systems racing kit, hat, jacket, and beanie (keep me racing fast and looking good.)
• AquaSphere goggles (clear as glass and oh so comfortable!!).

It has been a pleasure representing them and I hope to continue representing them throughout the next year and for years to come.

Believe it or not, there is more to life than training and racing and sometimes the accomplishments outside of the water and off the road make your multi-sport life that much more fulfilling. Some personal changes that happened to me last year were:

• Moved to Irvine, CA for a new job.
• Started my blog (this is mostly tri-related but I have more than tri stuff on there).
• Re-kindled my passion for aerospace and flying and seriously started progressing to earning my private pilot’s license.
• Moved into a place with my wonderful girlfriend, Julie, and her dog, Tucker.

The year started out for me in a new place with few friends or connections. Thankfully there is no paucity of multi-sport athletes in Southern California and I was soon surrounded by new training partners and friends. The beautiful weather of my new surroundings has been very conducive to a successful season and my continuing offseason preparation for a new year of racing and reaching my goals.

I look forward to 2014 and the many dreams I wish to accomplish. They say that two of the best ways to achieve your goals is to 1) write them down and 2) share them with others. Well, here’s for killing two birds with one stone:

• Break 2 hours in an Olympic Distance Triathlon.
• Go sub 4:30 in my 70.3 distance races.
• Complete my first Century ride (100 miles…not metric century).
• Complete 10 hill running workouts in preparation for Wildflower half distance.
• Compete in 3 swim meets (800 SCY, SCM, or LCM or above).

I am excited to continue sharing my journey with you through the next year. I hope that I can pass on some good stories, knowledge, and passion for the multi-sport lifestyle to you in the upcoming year. Until next time, I hope you have a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Remember, Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Race Review: HITS Palm Springs Half

This last weekend the time finally came for my last race of the year. If you’ve been keeping up with my weekly reviews, you may recall that my I have been battling with motivation and my training has been pretty lack luster and sporadic at best. The two weeks leading up to the race were no different between travelling for Thanksgiving and moving into my new place. About the only thing I could say about my preparedness for the race is that I was definitely well rested with little fatigue in the body.

The Wednesday before the race I got out of the pool early when I hit 3,000 yards (not to mention how hard it felt not having swam in a week :/) and got to talking to my coach. I hadn’t checked the weather for the weekend and he warned me of the cold, rain and wind that was forecast to hit the desert right around race time. I kept an eye on the forecast as the weekend approached and the rain and 25 mph wind was expected to arrive between 9 and 10 am; right when I would be getting off the bike. I decided to go ahead and get my Karbon Speed aero wheels on the bike because I shouldn’t have to battle high winds for long if at all. I brought my regular trainer wheels just in case things looked bad and I wanted to change them out.

We arrived at about 6 pm to the check-in on Friday and it was already getting down into the 40’s. As we took turns taking a bathroom break after the 2 hour drive, I made my way to the water to give it a feel and was pleasantly surprised because, although it was still cold, it was not as cold as I had expected. Tucker even checked it out with me and went in up to the top of his “socks” which is a lot for such a pansy OC dog!!! J Check-in and bike drop off were a snap and I got a little more information from the guys that were helping with the drop off too. I didn’t spend too long talking because my hands were getting frosty and it was time to go check out the hotel room and go through my goodie bag!! 😀

Saturday morning came a little earlier than usual with a 4:45 alarm to start getting my tri suit on followed by several layers of warm clothes. I got to transition area just before 6 am and had about 45 minutes to set up and get out of transition area before it was closed. I was very happy for my EFRT beanie that was provided by Champion System a few weeks back. It kept my head and ears nice and toasty in the 30° F cold while I was setting up. I got my transition area put together and had everything set and I decided to check the weather to make sure the aero wheels would still be ok. I looked up and left, then up and right; not a cloud in the sky. This might actually turn out to be a good day; so I kept the wheels on and I put 130 psi into the tires.

Then it was time for the dreaded change into the wetsuit and go get acclimated to the water. A quick shimmy into the bottom half of the suit, followed by a fast removal of jackets and putting the top half of the suit on and I was ready to head out of transition to the water. The water was a balmy 61° F compared to the 40° F or so air temperature and I was happy to keep my feet in the water during the pre-race meeting to discuss the last minute change to the swim course. Fortunately, they didn’t add any extra hills on the swim course for us so it wasn’t a big deal; just a two loop course instead of the original one. J

Soon enough we were off and starting the race with all of the men for the Full and Half starting at the same time. I actually remembered to start my watch at the start of the swim and I still had the 5-minute buzz set on the watch. This meant I should feel five or six buzzes during the ~30 minute swim and I could tell where I was during the 4 parts of the course (2 loops with 2 directions on each loop). The out portion of the swim was straight into the sun and it was hard to see the buoys with my clear AquaSphere goggles. On the way back though, those goggles were so fog free and clean that I could see the turnaround buoy well before I needed to consider turning. I made it to the start of the 2^nd lap just before my watch buzzed for the third time and I knew I would need to pick it up to get the sub-30 minute swim I was hoping for. Unfortunately, I started doing some Army swimming (you know…Left, Right, Left) and I came out of the water in 31:18 which still isn’t bad for the extra .18 miles I swam.

My transition went smoothly and, at 1:59 according to the results, was the fastest T1 by over a minute. I even made up almost 5 minutes on the eventual winner of the day!!! I got out on the bike and felt good and ready to tackle this thing. After the first few turns and passing the swim specialists, I was on a long stretch of road and was skeptical as to if I had missed a turn. About 6 miles of wondering I finally saw a sign at a bend in the road to turn left. Thank goodness!!! About this time, I was slowly passed by my first biker and I was able to pick up my pace and let him set the pace so I could take a mental break as long as I could.

We made it to the turn around and I decided not to grab any water or HEED….BIG MISTAKE. About 5 miles after the turnaround, I drank the last of my water in my bladder and was left with only the Perpetuem in my bottle. This would’ve been fine if I hadn’t planned to eat my PB&J rice cakes I packed in my jacket pocket. The peanut butter stuck and stuck and stuck in my mouth and I had to take about 3 gulps for every bite. At least I was eating something, though!! At the half way turn around I was feeling good and opted to take water to refill my bladder. Another mistake!!!

By the time I made it to mile 35 (still 7 miles from turnaround and 21 miles from finish), I started to feel my legs fatigue and had to slow the pace and lost my pace setter. I ate my 2nd rice cake with better success and limited my water intake. At the final turnaround, I wasn’t able to grab a bottle because the aid station was right before the turn and I was trying to slow down. The last 10 miles or so I was struggling to keep a decent pace and just make it to the run where I could use some different muscles and start my strong leg.

I finished the bike on 2:34:52 and had an efficient transition T2 in 1:27 to start the run. I started out at what felt like an easy pace, got yelled at by my coach to straighten my posture, and was passed the first guy in the less than a mile. At this point I was in 8^th place overall and was feeling good and starting to put together a good run. I looked down at my watch to see a pace of sub-5:30 on a slight downhill and forced myself to lean less and slow down a bit. The first 2.5 miles were done in 16:10 (~6:30 pace) and I was still feeling good; only 10 miles to go and I have a sub 1:30 half and probably a top 10 finish.

That all changed shortly after mile 4 when the lack of electrolytes hit me like a bomb. Yep, I started cramping. Mostly in my quads, then in my hamstrings, and everything tightened up and my pace slowed to a painfully slow 8 minute pace. I stopped at the next aid station drank 2 HEEDs, a water, and did some stretching. I took off at 7 minute pace and ran a mile or so before the cramping came back. I thought “Okay, that’s the way it’s gonna be. This race is over now but use the experience to learn about yourself.” I forced myself to continue running between the aid stations and walk to ensure I drank a full HEED and a full water at each station. It soon became a race to the next aid station, which were fortunately placed 1.5 to 2 miles apart. I would walk for about a minute while I drank and then take off again running about 7:30 pace for a mile before my muscles would begin to tense and I would be praying for the next aid station.

Even in doing this I was able to put together a run time of 1:39:06 (my watch said it was about a half mile short so really about a 1:45 half time) that made my complete finish time of 4:48:43. This was about 11 minutes faster on a super flat course compared to my first half in April. I am happy that it was faster but I still think I did better at the first one. That is okay though because I was able to eat something on the bike and didn’t bonk as badly on the run as I previously had done. Now I just have to dial in the electrolytes, figure out some better biking food, and I’m sure I will be sub 4:30 soon enough.

Thanks for reading and remember to train smart and recover hard.

Sporting my EFRT swag and my AquaSphere goggles. Totally forgot about the clear glasses on the hat but they sure did come in handy on that cloudy ride.

So, What is Recover Hard?!

If you’ve been reading my posts you’ve probably seen (at least I hope I’ve been able to grab your attention enough to get the end) my signature that I have put at the end of the majority of my posts. For those of you who fell asleep before making that far or are just new to my blog, here it is: “Remember, train smart and recover hard.”

Train smart has become a pretty popular thing to see with lots of articles about training smarter not harder to avoid overtraining, injury, and burn out. I have to say that I believe in the methodology that most of these articles talk about when it comes to progressing your training through various cycles and putting your body through different stresses to accomplish the best results as fast as possible with fewer injuries.

Now you are probably saying “Ok, Ok, I get that one!! Now, how the heck do you recover hard?!?! Isn’t that supposed to be the easy part?” Well there are a couple of reasons why I like to remember to “recover hard” during my recovery phases of training.

The first and hardest part about recovering is the mental aspect of the recovery phase which has two parts to it. First of all, it is easy to look at a recovery work out and say “I don’t feel like going on that easy swim/bike/run. I’ll just rest.” Well that is fine and dandy if you are looking for rest but if you are trying to recover from the last hard training session you are better off doing that light recovery work to help your muscles recover faster. (Rest and recovery are not the same thing…Did I just blow your mind?!?! More on this topic later.) That means you have to do the hard thing and get out there and do that easy workout. (Seems contradictory, huh? :-I)

Second, as triathlete’s we are naturally driven to excel and always want to get the most out of our time and workouts. This often translates into pushing too hard during a workout, causing more fatigue, and not being ready for the next planned hard session. I have too often found myself half way through an easy workout feeling outstanding and deciding to push it just a little too much. Pretty much every time, I find myself at the next big workout not being able to push as hard as I wanted because I had not adequately recovered during my previous workout.

During my recovery workouts I mentally force myself to “recover hard” and go easy through the entire workout. These are sometimes the hardest mental workouts I have for the week because I am constantly checking my breathing and heart rate to keep them in check. Doing this however is not only good for recovery but it helps with pacing as well and teaches you how to hold back during a long race so you will have the energy for that extra effort at the end.

Next, your muscles are rebuilt during the recovery phase and, if done correctly, this can be done faster and harder than being stagnant rest. Even though the work on your part is done after a hard training session, the work has just begun for your body to rebuild the muscles you just broke down. Doing these lighter workouts increases blood flow to the muscles bringing fresh oxygen and nutrients to the muscles without overly fatiguing or breaking them down. This increased blood flow and decreased fatigue allows the muscles to recover faster and harder than without a light workout.

Lastly, I find that after my recovery days is when I sleep the hardest. It seems contradicting but after a hard day of training I tend to be restless and want to continue moving even though I am so very fatigued. On the contrary, after a good recovery day (usually following a hard work out and a restless night) I find that I sleep like a rock (which is pretty hard) which promotes the whole muscle rebuilding thing mentioned earlier.

All in all, I think training smart is the first key to having a good training year and continually improving. All too often however, too much emphasis is put on the hard workouts and much of this hard work is not “soaked” up by your muscles because they are not adequately recovered before you go out to break them down again. Remember to recover hard and you will get the most out of those dreaded sessions that make you cringe. One day you will find yourself improving so quickly that you actually look forward to those breakthrough workouts just so you can have the opportunity to (insert cheesy melody here)…..

Train Smart and Recover Hard.

When have you made it?

When have you made it?
Is it when you are standing at the edge of the water about to begin?
Or maybe it is when you have finished that grueling swim?
Or is it when you are running down the finish chute with the masses cheering you in?

When have you made it?
Perhaps it is simpler than making it through a race.
Maybe it is just finishing a workout at your goal pace;
Or waking up early enough to actually lift some weights.

When have you made it?
It can be a simple thing to complete;
And is not reserved for the only the elite;
But it can only be achieved by those who won’t cheat.

When have you made it?
It is followed by a sense of honor and great joy;
But all too often leaves you with a void;
And calls you to come back to you have enjoyed.

So, when have you made it?

Weekly Review 11/11 to 11/17

This week started off with the lingering sickness from the previous weekend ruining my Monday workout plans. I woke up for swimming after 9+ hours of sleep and still felt exhausted with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and head in the sky feeling. After a great internal struggle, I got back into bed and fell right back asleep. I knew something was up because when I usually do that I lay and ponder about how the other guy is doing his workout right now and getting faster than me but this time I fell right back asleep.

By mid-afternoon I was feeling a lot better but didn’t want to risk it and took the afternoon off as well to ensure that I had really kicked this thing in the butt. I took the time to catch up on some reading and finished my flight ground school which was really exciting even though I still have some practice with charts and weather briefings before I will feel comfortable taking the ground test .:/

Tuesday morning I was up and at’em dark and early to meet the group for the trainer ride I do. I brought my Florida Rides DVD from Endurance Films and we got a good hard interval ride in. It was a good change of pace from the technique and strength workouts we have been doing. The hard work was nice and allowed us to practice some of the technique we had been working on under real load.

Wednesday I decided to do something pretty crazy…I ran to work!!! (Well I actually made the decision Tuesday and brought clothes and my lunch for Wednesday but whatever.) Granted I only live 4.5 miles from my house but that makes for a 9 mile day by the time I get home. If you think people look at you crazy when you show up on your bike, imagine the looks I got when I walked through the door (and left) in my running shorts, shoes, and little camelback pack I used to carry my keys, wallet, work id, etc. I got some pretty crazy looks and some ataboys when I was asked what I was doing.

The end of the week brought some really warm weather (>85^o F) and funky winds that made my allergies go absolutely bonkers. I usually don’t have a problem with but for some reason or another I was totally grounded by something in the air and had a hard time until I finally got some allergy medicine in me on Saturday morning.

Enough excuses had been made this week already and after finally finishing our DIY projects from a few weeks past I decided I was going to do my longer ride with a run after that I had promised myself I would do. This could be the last weekend to do a long workout before my half in December with moving next weekend and the Thanksgiving holiday coming up. (I’m still gonna try to sneak one in next weekend…Shhh!! Don’t tell. :D)

I pulled down The Shiv and went out for a 46 mile ride where I kept my heart rate in zone 3-4 for the majority of the way (even up most of the hills) only letting myself go into the upper regions of zone 4 toward the end of the ride going up the last few hills. This was followed by a 3 mile run at my recently comfortable 6:27/mile pace with plenty of gas left in the tank. Granted it is a pretty flat course I have been running but the race in December is going to flat as well. I am hoping that I can translate this training pace into the longer distance with the help of a little more calories consumed and the adrenaline of the race atmosphere to get me through the last few miles.

I would say it was a pretty good week filled with some good workouts and some good rest. Hopefully this upcoming week will be better than ever since I have seem to found my motivation to get out on the road and not just the pool.

Remember, train smart and recover hard.

 Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 10,400 yds (~5.9 miles)/ 3.3 hours
Bike: 57 miles/ 3.5 hours
Run: 12.1 miles/ 1.25 hours
Strength: 1 hour