run and swim

First the run....upped the mileage again to 4.25 miles, which I did in 37:00 flat, or 8.7 mins/mile! yeah!!! THAT I am proud of, that I finally broke the 9 min/mile mark. Of course, I had 2 COMPLETE days of rest, which was well needed. Towards the end of this run my heart did not feel like it was going to explode out of my chest, but my right calf was acting up in not a good way. I am going to monitor that over the next few days...

Now for the swim. I did 1 mile in 43 minutes. Yeah...43 minutes!!! This reminds me of my first post about swimming for the first time this year:

Kinda funny to read now. I did 4 lengths then basically died. Did 22 lengths total and felt like my arms were going to fall off. This was 3 months ago. I can't even imagine where I will be in three months. Oh wait, RACING!

Today was a succesful day.

turned out to be a gorgeous day!

The f-ing weatherman....says its gonna rain the past two saturdays. I mean 60% change of rain and thunderstorms. Thats more than a 50/50 chance of rain. Did it happen either day? NO!

Well I am glad he was wrong today. Today showed what the meaning of perfect cycling conditions are: 70 degrees flat, no wind, slight clouds with no barring down sun. Thats what I just rode through. Poor me, right? Well unfortunately my legs were a little sore not only from this past week's 10+ hours of working out (the bike ride brought me up to 10 hours 51 mins) but also my run this AM.

I did another 4 miles but on a newer route that was a lot hillier and also took me through a neighborhood of some pretty incredible houses. It was a good route and the hills on it are exactly what I am looking for. That route in the brooklyn duathlon kinda set a bar for me on what a hard course is. At the end of the run, because the hills were adding up, my heart felt like it was about to explode. I was happy that the run ended. Here is my route and elevation profile:



Then this afternoon the weather just kept getting better. I didn't feel like doing a long ride and I wanted to get some more hill work in. So I hit one of my hill climbing extravaganza hills that has about 6 good climbs in it which end with the hardest of them all. I passed a BMW as he was waiting to turn off the hill that I call "beemer hill" and I was coming onto the road. That counts, right? The hill climbing was great and @ times I didn't want to or think I could do the last two hills. HTFU! I knew I would kick myself if I didn't finish the original ride, so I HTFU and did it. I am glad I did put in the extra effort. I was kinda surprised that it took me 1:38:00 to do only 25 miles. I guess its cuz of all of the hills that I went a bit slower. I didn't feel like I was going slow up the hills. I tried to get up them @ a moderate pace. Whatever, these efforts will pay off for sure. Here is this route and elevation profile (I guess I did 835 feet of climbing...not bad!):

swam for an hour tonight

i got lost in my thoughts and forgot how many lengths I had done so I just said forget it and decided to swim for an hour and call it quits. Figure by then I would have done about a mile or so.

The good news is that when I forgot how many lengths I had done (I was trying to do sets of 10) I just.....went. I think I did about a quarter of a mile non-stop.

All throughout the night I was still feeling the mile that I did the other night. By the time I finished this one hour swim, my arms were pretty shot, which is a GOOD thing. I just need to start upping my weekly swim count 3x.

more confident on TT bike

things are feeling better on the TT bike. I almost ate it once going down the only real downhill on the 3 mile loop that I do @ the local college. I got down to the bottom and was really doing some serious speed when I hit a few bumps and felt my rear wheel feel a bit light on the road. It was enough for me, considering that stupid fall I took the other weekend.

Other than that I got 15 miles in or 5 loops. I did 2 full loops in the TT position, but then after that I alternated between sitting up and taking it easy and a few spurts back in the position. I am still a bit sore from last night's ride. AND i keep forgetting that I ran a new personal long only this MORNING of 4 miles.

a real 4 mile run this AM

I actually ran 4 miles this time. haha

Did it in 36 mins flat, so a 9 min mile. yay! I felt great again. Not as great as Tuesday's run, but my body is still showing that it has adjusted to running. I guess the real kicker will be if I can do the ride backwards.

Here is the route.

19 miles on the bike tonight

and boy did it get dark on me! i thought that the light would last a bit longer tonight, but it was cloudy and it got dark a bit sooner than I had hoped. I did the ride that goes up the hill that a BMW always passes me on. Not sure why, but there is always a BMW on that road when I climb it. Here is the elevation profile for the route:

and swam 1 mile tonight

I DEFINATELY feel a change in my training now. I just have the endurance overall to go longer and harder.

I did 1 mile in the pool. Not too fast, but 7 mins faster than the last time I swam 1 mile. Oh and thanks to BodyGlide for keeping my underarms from chafing. Such a lifesaver.