Still sore, but working it out

Still sore from Saturday!

Got in a good open water swim this morning. Went the full mile in 25 mins this morning. I'm getting much more comfortable in the water now. I can actually swim a mostly straight line without looking more than every five or six strokes. I just have to keep at it.

Ran at lunch 5 miles. First half my legs were really sore on the downhill. Then the course evens out or goes uphill, and my legs felt good on that, so I pushed it a bit on the second half. I figured after three runs I should have worked everything out, but that is not the case. My legs are still sore to touch and I have trouble walking down steps. Flat or up is about 90% ok now, though.

I'm disappointed how this week has turned out. I didn't think I'd have this much of a recovery problem, and I'm missing some of the last opportunity to make gains on the bike. Every time I go up a hill on the bike, I improve, and I've missed two opportunities this week. Tomorrow I'm going to force the uphill bike workout so I don't miss that opportunity. Then this weekend, I'm camping, and I'm going to take my MTB and do a trail brick, which should be fun!

Still sore but back at it

Took today to do recovery run and ride. Still very sore. So sore that I had to drive to work instead of biking; wasn't sure I'd make it on the bike.

Run at lunch was 3.8 miles in 40 minutes. Very easy! It hurt really bad going downhill, but uphill didn't hurt too much. This run loosened me up a bit but only to about 50%.

Did a 20k easy bike after work. Nice day for a ride, and my legs were still quite sore but it didn't affect the bike too much. My time was equivalent to a hard ride on the same route in mid-April, but my notes make it sound like the wind that day was terrible, which it wasn't today.

Overall, I'm good except my quads on a downhill walk or steps. That still really hurts! This race took a lot more out of me than I thought it would. I need to get back at it this week and next before a week off before the Bismarck Triathlon, my first Olympic tri of the year.

Poky 50 results

I completed my leg of the Pocatello 50 trail race in 4hrs 27min and 12 secs, beating my goal of 4:30:00. The last five miles required some mental toughness, physical pain, and yelling at trees to get the goal. The team did alright, and we met our goal of finishing the race before the 14 hour cutoff; we came in at 13:27:12 according to my watch, but I think the official time was 13:20:XX. Anyway, it was definitely a challenge for us. I think I can say NEVER to running the entire race because it is brutal. For details, check www.pocatello50.com. The elevation is at least 5,000ft total I think, 5000ft up and 5000ft down. The people who finish this race are indeed incredibly fit physically and mentally.

My nutrition and water plan was spot on, which is always nice. The weather was good, turned cloudy and stormy but didn't threaten when I was on the trail. The morning and afternoon was awesome, almost too warm actually.

I'll post more later. I think I'm still in oxygen debt two hours after the race!

Second race tomorrow

Tomorrow is my second race of the year. This one is an ultramarathon, and I'm running the third leg that is about 20 miles and 3800ft elevation gain and loss. Basically, I'm running a trail up a mountain and then back down. It's the Pocatello 50 (www.pocatello50.com). The first time this race is being held, and the course is awesome and located in the mountains I look at every day. I wish I could run the whole thing...someday I'll probably bike it

I took off Wed, Thurs, and today to get my legs fresh. Well, mostly off anyway. The past three days I've been screwing around with a sprinler system because I can't get the zones to work correctly for the auto-timer. Basically doing a lot of squats to look at the valves and walking back and forth between the valves and the timer.

And today I was at home to take care of a post-surgery wife and the baby.

Tired legs

Yesterday wore me out, but I didn't know it til this morning. My legs were completely dead. So no run this morning. I bike to work most days in the summer, and I have to go uphill about a mile; my legs didn't like that this morning.

Did a standard hill workout on the bike at lunch. Times were off about ten percent, 9 minutes instead of 8. Very tired.

I'm running an 18-mile leg of the Pocatello 50 mile trail run this weekend, so I need to be careful with my legs. I thought I could front-load alot of the work into Monday, Tuesday, and first half of Wednesday, but that is obviously not working. I was supposed to do a 40k bike today, but that would have really killed my legs. The trail race is for fun, but I don't want to be dead-legs going into it.

And yesterday was indeed really hot. Weather service says it was a record day with 91.

First hot day

First hot day of the year. Yesterday was a "warm" in my book, but today got hot. 92 I think was the max.

Did my first morning open water swim workout. About 1200 yards in 18:25. Kind of slow, but 1:35 faster than yesterday. That improvement is simply from getting in the water and getting comfortable with open water. It was such a beautiful morning! 50 degrees, no wind, sun breaking the ridgeline of the mountains to the east. That's my kind of morning!

Ran 5 miles at lunch and the heat got me a bit. Added 3.5 minutes onto the standard time with the same effort. As the post title says, it was the first hot day, so of course my body isn't used to the heat. That will come in time. I actually prefer to run when it's hot, or early in the morning when it's warm but not many people have woken up yet.

After work I hit the Portland tri sim route for two laps up. My bike computer was on the fritz today, so I couldn't tell how fast I was going or my cadence. I must have done pretty good from a natural feel for it because my times matched pretty closely to what I did last week, which is really nice because my legs were quite tired from the run at lunch...that, and the fact that I was on a bit of a time crunch cuz Tera wasn't feeling well....she didn't have any problems with me going as long as I got back by 6:30, which I missed by three minutes.

I love days like today. Two good workouts and one that wasn't so good but helps in the big picture (running in the heat).

First OWS of the year!

Another simply incredibly beautiful Idaho spring day. 80 and sunny w/ little wind.

Went for a family picnic at Jensen's Grove in Blackfoot. Of course, the secondary agenda was an open water swim (OWS). It went well. The water was cold, probably 55-60, but I didn't have the hesitation to get in that I thought I would. I simply got and got going. My form in open water really sucks! But my new wide-view goggles didn't leak, which is nice. I forgot my earplugs, so I stopped a few times and stood up to see how dizzy I was...the first two times I stood up I fell over nearly instantly. I'll be sure to never forget my earplugs.

Interestingly, I found that I could breathe to my right side fairly easily, which is not normal for me. With earplugs, it would have worked pretty well. The water was really calm, which helped that. But I really do need to know how to breathe on both sides to counteract any wave action and to be able to sight appropriately.

I wasn't really tired at the end of 1200 yards, but I could tell that I'm using different muscles because my form is crap. My pecs and triceps get used much more. If I can relax more, that will go away. I was able to get my head in the water and pull for a few strokes similar to how I do it in the pool, which is alot further than I was last year for OWS form.

My goal is to hit Jensen's Grove M,W,F morning this week and see how it goes. I don't even know if they are open that early (there are some gates to get in). At this point, getting comfortable in open water is much more important and time-saving in the race than getting into the pool and churning laps. And it's great to swim outside in the morning!

Brick 40k/10k today, another PR on the bike!

An awesome day for a great workout. Started an Olympic distance brick today at 10am. 60 degrees, sunny, and no wind. Truly awesome.

I got another PR on the bike route, beating last week's time by about 30 seconds. Finished my 40k route in 1:11:15. Felt good along the way, and I finally had an average cadence of 88, meeting my average cadence goal. I don't know why it's so hard to get that up there; it feels like I am at about 95 the entire time! This effort level was a bit lower than last week, and I think the wind had alot to do with it. I always wonder if winds really make that much of a difference because don't you get pushed as much as you push into it? Anywho.

The run was five minutes faster than my last 10k run after 40k bike. I had a 15 minute transition to talk to the guy doing my sprinklers, and honestly I think that was more detrimental than helpful. I was SOOO tight when I started running, much tighter than straight off the bike. The first two miles were much more painful than normal, but then I loosened up into a good stride. I averaged 165bpm once I got loosened up, and I didn't feel like I was running that hard. I'm really happy with this time because there are two hills on this route that I think add about 3 or 4 minutes onto my time; subtracting that gets me into the 48 minute range with a non-race effort. I really think I can hit 45 minutes on a flat race course. We'll see.

Tomorrow should be the first open water swim if all goes well.

Nice bike tonight

Weather turned out to be AWESOME today. Sunny, 60, and little wind. And my evening meeting got cancelled. Sweeeet! Hopped on the bike and did my Portland triathlon simulation course. Times were a bit better than average, especially on the last two of the four hills, which I take to mean that my endurance is better. Even more so considering I did a different hill workout yesterday. Woohoo!

After the bike, I went to see Paul's "swim practice." He started splashing a bit more now. I'm still not sure he really likes it, though. But he doesn't cry at all, so I guess that's a good sign.

The Pocatello 50 trail race is only ten days away. I'm sure I'll do alright the first ten miles, then I just have to gut out eight miles, mostly downhill. I think it will be a really cool race, though, and I'm excited to be part of the first one.

Also got news that our tri club might be able to swim in the outdoor pool in the mornings this summer. This is GREAT news! We have a nice 25m outdoor pool that would be great to swim in, but the city doesn't open it in the mornings for general public lap swim, just the local swim team. There is nothing better than swimming outside on a nice summer morning. Those workouts I could easily get up for...every day (but we'll only get Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday I guess..better than nothing). When I was at Camp Pendleton, I loved swimming at 0600 every morning (even the winter!). I got up at 0430 to get to the pool (long drive), and swam for an hour. There is simply no better way to start the day.

Strange things

My training hours have been lower than normal the past two weeks, but my times on usual workouts are better with less effort, and I finally broke through on some weight loss. What's happening? I haven't figured it out. Nothing changed but the hours. Intensity remains the same, but volume dropped. I would like to simply call it better recovery, but I don't think that's it (gut feeling). I am sleeping better, so maybe that's the deal. I'm a bit more consistent, and everyone says consistency is the key. My diet hasn't changed at all. I'm not swimming because the pool is closed. Maybe it's just the weather; it feels like winter has really left us, and we're having standard spring weather (some rain, wind, cool but not cold).

Whatever it is, I'll take it.

Monday was a good run at lunch. Nothing else. Pool is still closed this week.

Tuesday was an easy 3 mile run this morning, and hill work on the bike for lunch. I only got in two hills instead of planned three because my lunch hour was a bit short. The times were 8:05 and 8:25 versus 8:20, 8:40, and 8:55 last week. I think the 40mph tailwind on the up might have had something to do with it!

I'm focusing on getting in two sets of planks after at least one workout each day. My abs are sore right now, so I guess that means my core is relatively weak. Gotta keep up those planks!

Bike 40k PR today!

Yesterday I didn't get to do the brick I was planning, and it was a beautiful day....a beautiful day to spend at the golf course for the Marine Corps League's annual fundraiser golf tourney. I don't golf, but it's an important day for our Marine Corps League. We use the funds raised to help out various former Marines in financial need, assist as needed at the veteran's home, and sponsor various things around town like Simplot Games and such.

But today was different. After church, I wanted to bike on another beautiful Idaho spring day. 60 degrees and sunny without much wind. So I headed out for a 40k cruise. I quickly realized that I wanted to hit it as hard as a could. Maybe it was some wind that pushed me to my fastest speeds on a flat by Century High School, but at that point I wanted to go for a PR. And my legs felt good even after a good hill workout on Friday.

I came in at 1 hour 11 minutes, the best for me ever on 40k. My only race 40k was 1:12 at the Bear Lake Brawl last year. The previous best on the course today was 1:16. On the way home, there was a fair amount of wind, so I'm calling this an average wind day and counting it as a true PR. In November, I decided my goal for a race was 24mph at cadence of 88 in my second highest gear. Today, I pushed the 24mph in the third highest gear at cadence of 88. Not sure how that all works out, but the main point is that I was holding 24mph on the flats, which is good for me. I also maintained a good pace on the ups, which is always nice. And even better, my legs weren't fried at the end. My average cadence was 87, but I felt it should have been much higher than that. I was pedaling 95 or so for what I thought was much of the course. I'm truly realizing that I need to think I'm averaging a cadence of about 93 to actually hit 88.

It was a good end to a wierd week.

Pool is closed all this coming week. More time to focus on the bike I guess. If I could get up mentally, I could go jump in Jensen's Grove, but I can't bring myself to do it. The water is probably about 55, which is doable, but I would prefer above 80 degrees on land so that I can warm up when I get done. Then I have to ask myself "How bad do I want that goal time?"

Thwarted AGAIN..I need backup plans

Today was the day I was going to up my sprint work to two sets each of 800,400,200, and 100. As I rode up to the track at the university, I saw a bunch of school kids in track suits..."This can't be good." All the gates were closed except one, where a couple of ladies were taking money for entry. "I guess I'm not running my speed interval set today, huh?" She said, "Not today, not until about 5:00pm anyway. And not tomorrow, either. Two day city track meet."

As I did on Monday morning when I found the pool closed for the week, I just went away. I really need to have backup plans for each workout. Pool closed. Track not available because of a track meet. Wind. Rain. Snow. My problem is that I simply walk away from the workout when I can't do what I wanted.

I'll take this as the learning point for this week.

A decent day

Raining this morning. I'm a fair weather biker, so I went to the gym and did 30mins of recovery bike on the recumbent. That was so incredibly boring that I may just take up biking in the rain! Did 15minutes of stretching.

At lunch, skies were cleared up and ran 5 miles very easy. The run I did yesterday in 38:58 took me 44:14 today, about 1m15sec min/mile slower. My legs were feeling really tired today.

Tomorrow is the day I do a full two sets of the sprint workouts on the track. That means 1x800, 1x400, 1x200, 1x100 then repeat. It's always the thought of doing the second 800 that stops me. I just don't want to feel that pain. I'm convinced that tomorrow I'll fight through it! I ate alot of crap tonight at an end-of-school-year party, so I'll just guilt myself into it.

Friday and Saturday weather is forecasted for sunny. Yeah!

Lunch Run, evening bike

Got in a nice 5 mile run at lunch. Only a minute slower than last week's run for time, and my effort level was slightly lower.

Biked the Portland Triathlon simulation route tonight. Up the hill twice. Times were a bit slower than two weeks ago, but I didn't have a five mile run earlier in that day.

Overall, a good day once I got over the pool closure.

Looking at a different open water swim area near town in American Falls Reservoir. I'll have to recon the route to see if it's truly accessible. Google Earth makes it look like it's good to go. I'd like to bike the 18 miles out there (kind of in the middle of nowhere with no facilities) then bike back, maybe even make a couple hours out of it by doing a run after the swim before biking back. I'm pretty excited about this plan if it works out. Heck, I guess I could drive out there with Tera and Paul; they could hang out while I swim and run. I just need the roads to be paved and not gravel, which entirely possible.

My favorite type of morning...not

So I actually got out of bed this morning at 0550 to be at the pool at 0600 cuz now I'm excited about a few changes to my schedule. And I actually talked to Tera about getting up in the morning instead of lounging around. I got up, got to the pool, and the pool is close. I love when this happens....yeah, right. I would normally be really pissed but after I read the sign I remember a coworker telling me he thought the pool was going to be closed this week. Still, ISU communications systems suck.

On Saturday, I saw an opportunity for one hour of biking at a local area (Bartz Field) that has a nice little hill and a loop road. Basically, you can do laps that are the equivalent of hill intervals, which is nice. I decided to do that with a one hour window of no rain and before guests came for dinner, and also because I wanted to see how long each lap takes so I can schedule this during a lunch period...and, I wanted to stay close to home in case my tire repair didn't work out so well. I did two laps, each just over 2:00 on the uphill when my tire lost its seal with the rim. No problem, I just aired down to push it back on, then I realized my air was sitting on the bench in the garage right where I put it so I couldn't forget to put it on my bike. Yeehaw....walk one mile to home and end of workout.

Mowed the yard yesterday. I'm counting this as an hour long workout. My heartrate gets to at least 140 for that hour, and I have to push the mower up a small hill. I think it's a legitimate workout. In the summer heat it can kick my butt.

This week kind of fell apart

After a good first three days, this week has kind of fallen apart for training. Monday and Tuesday went well, then Wednesday was ok, and Thursday, Friday, today, and probably tomorrow are not good. Thursday I did get a good, hard 5 mile run in, but Friday turned into nothing. Today is raining and "various tasks," so nothing happening today, either. Tomorrow isn't looking good, either, but maybe I can bring myself to an inside bike workout after a swim.

My last training cycle was pretty good, and I was obviously trying to continue that trend. I wish this rain would go away and come back in November and December as snow. But I know all the rain is good for us. Maybe I can just believe that three lost days doesn't translate to lost fitness, just lost gains.