Tough Morning

Last night was our swim practice. Simple really: swim 50 lengths (25 yards each). About 3/4 mile total. 50 minutes. Tiiiiiiiiiiired! Then we played Sharks and Minnows...

This morning, given that the kids were either at camp or sleeping over elsewhere, I had the house to myself. Went for the 15 mile, constant movement, 90rpm bike ride at Balboa Park, which proved to be difficult for the last 5 miles but I did it. Much fewer idiots out on the bike path during the week - have to remember that.

Not to be outdone, I hopped off and stowed the bike in the car and then went on a 20 minute run to turn this morning's training into a brick! The run went surprisingly well - no wobbly legs!

Going by the plan, tomorrow is another swim, Saturday a run, and Sunday a bike. Instead, I'll probably swim tomorrow, take Saturday off (or use it for stretching) and on Sunday we (most of the team) are going to Zuma to practice ocean swimming and then ride the Malibu Tri bike route (another brick!). Monday better be a day off because I'm going to need it.

Here's the workout plan for week 12:

Monday: Day off!
Tuesday: Run 5 mi with some hills Try to do a “negative split” (run. 1st half fast, 2nd half faster).
Wednesday: Coached Swim 8-9pm
Thursday: Ride 15 mi flat, all in Z3 after warm up. Get power from each moment of pedal stroke.
Friday: Swim 1400’ yards. Include: 300y WU, 200y drills, 500y swim, 200y drills, 200y CD
Saturday: TBA
Sunday: Ride 20 mi in hilly terrain

Earthquake!

"Oh my god, did you feel that?" my wife said coming into the house from walking the dogs.
"Feel what?" Ryan and I reply.
"The earthquake! I looked up and saw windows rattling!"
"We didn't feel a thing. When did it happen?"
"About 20 minutes ago."
"Oh, we were still out running." I reply.
"Well I was out walking and I felt the ground move!" she says.
"Must have been Ryan and I tramping up the hill after our run/ride." I say, smiling.

Just another day in too-sunny SoCal!

Monday Swim

Not much to report today. Ended-up taking yesterday off as I spent the morning recovering from the party the night before (Tequila - ta-kill-ya). Swam 45 minutes at the pool this morning, ran through all the drills and went home really worn out, so it must have been a good training session!

First Flat!

Yesterday I dragged the kids to the pool (honestly, who really complains except kids about hanging out at a pool and reading for 45 minutes?) and swam about a mile in laps. Based on my time I figure I've now doubled my swimming ability from when I started - which of course rocks!

Today the team had a practice in San Dimas. Two-hour bike ride followed by a 30-minute lake swim. I passed. Not because I didn't want to do it, but because I didn't feel like driving two hours that would be better spent working at home or training. So that is what I did.

I hopped on the bike (and by "hop" I mean 20+ minutes of getting dressed, preparing hydration, eating breakfast, prep'ing the bike, putting on shoes and helmet, etc.) and rode 5 miles to Balboa Park where they have a nice bike/running/walking path. Rode around that four times (5 miles each loop) and then back home for a 30.5 mile ride! Should have taken me 2 hours, but it worked out to three because - I got my first flat!

On the fourth time around the bike started riding really jerky and I looked down and saw it - flat rear tire. So I found a grassy, shady spot next to a fence off the path and set to work. Twenty minutes later I had a new tube on that was nearly fully inflated (apparently I need to use 1.25 CO2 canisters) and I was off again. On the way back I stopped at Custom Bicycles in Tarzana (18424 1/2 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, CA 91356, (818) 344-2806 - tell Kevin that "Steve sent me" and he'll likely ask "who's Steve?") to get the bike checked-out and my work was pronounced "good." Home I went, the hill getting even easier than last time, and proceeded to crash (given the topic of this post, that is not the correct word. What I meant is "pass-out") before heading out to the dentist to get a crown reattached (yesterday was quite the day).

So I got my swim and bike done and tomorrow, if I'm still able after the party tonight, I'll do my run, and Monday will be the day off, then it's back to dragging the kids to the pool for a week (poor kids!) Have a great weekend!

p.s. Current fundraising total is $2,675 - goal is $2,800 - how cool is that ?!?
p.p.s. I guess getting my core back in shape is working - my back didn't hurt nearly as bad as it did at Castaic

Auction Success - Part II

We received our distributions from the Wine Tasting and Silent Auction event last weekend and I'm overjoyed to say that the four of us who put it on each received $799 (after costs) that we will immediately donate to LLS. Thank you everyone for a great event and for providing the funding that will help so many people!

Swim Practice Update

Given my performance at the tri last weekend in the swimming leg, and the fact that I'm home watching both kids in the mornings for the next couple of weeks, I decided to focus on swimming as much as possible to get that up to a satisfactory level.

I swam Monday morning, Tuesday morning and last night (coached practice). I was told that I had visibly improved and to be honest, I felt better in the water. I had more strength and endurance, and getting into a good planing position took about 10 minutes as opposed to 35 minutes of weeks past.

Now the downside: my back is killing me! It hurt quite a bit on the bike and run legs on Saturday and I didn't quite know what to make of that. I'm going to restart my physical therapy exercises since I haven't been to the gym in weeks, and sporadically for weeks before that since starting tri training. I'm thinking I've lost core strength and am basically, from a musculature point of view, softening up too much. So back to stretching and the gym to lift weights. This of course means my endurance training will decrease a bit, but I'm not sure of any other way around it.