last long-ish ride

and boy was it a hot soupy nasty blah mix out today. No rain, just 100% humidity with 80 degree temperatures. These conditions just sap you. I was able to get through the humid conditions and get in a strong ride. I felt great up the hills and am confident for next sunday's race!

I think I played chicken with about 5 squirrels today. They were everywhere! Freaking squirrels! Everytime I saw one it just reminded me of the guy layed out in front of me with a squirrel in his wheel. They are like little kamakazi machine-suicide bombers!

And now the taper officially begins. No more super hard stuff until next sunday. Phew!

not cold, but dark

The sun slept in this morning. By 6:30 it was still unsafe-dark out and that was the time I needed to be on my bike. So I had to get a late start.

I had a good ride. Considering how bad my glutes and hammies still hurt from yesterday's treadmill extravaganza, I rode the hilliest part of the race course. Just going as is I averaged a touch over 16MPH.

Then I got on my running shoes and belted out 1.68 miles in 14 mins and change. I am a cooked goose again who needs a LOT of sleep.

fast run and a strong swim

This morning I was out with my couch for a run session. It was mostly done indoors on the treadmill. Fortunately the treadmill I was on was an awesome treadmill that felt really good to run on. I don't think I could have classified it as a dreadmill.

Anyways, I was doing intervals on the thing, 3 min zone 2, 1 min zone 3, 1 min zone 5, then rinse and repeat 2 more times. Funny how its a relief to get back down to zone 2 but yet it almost hurts ever MORE than the previous zone 5-my heart feels like its gonna come outa my chest-feeling. So my legs obviously hurt a lot right now from that.

So as of right now I just got back from the pool and am pounding down a bowl cereal in preparation from tomorrow morning's early brick workout. I think tomorrow will be my last brick of the season and I am looking forward to it. Getting up @ 5AM to prepare for this workout is taking its toll on me. Sleep is a commodity I can't lose.

Almost there....almost there.

Oh and for the swim itself, I did 1 mile in 43:20. Not super great, but I felt smooth and strong the entire way and my breathing couldn't have been better. I feel like I am in a good place for my swimming for the race......enough to get me through it, yet still keep reserves for the bike and run.

hill repeats and a tail

Got up @ the crack of stupid this morning for a hill repeat workout. It was freaking COLD and fortunately my workout only lasted 50 mins.

During my warmup to the hill I heard this rattling behind me and it never went away. I thought my bike was making strange noises until I looked behind me and I had a guy (who looked like a racer) drafting off of me. He seemed like the type to go fast so I picked it up and pulled.

It was awesome. I was expecting the guy to just pull around me and take off but when I would add more pressure to the pedals and increase my speed I could hear him changing to a harder gear to stay on me wheel. Now thats super awesome :)

Eventually I got to my turn and as I turned he said "You are looking strong, man!". I told him to have a nice ride and we parted ways. So that was a bit of a confidence boost. I felt strong and we were going pretty fast!

Now onto the hill intervals. Basically went up this hill 4 times, starting seated until the top when I stood up and gave it all I had. The 4th time I gave it all I had but my legs didn't have as much juice left. I still got in a quality workout and my legs were mostly recovered by the very end of the ride.

Run tomorrow morning with my coach.

blah swim

swam a mile in 56 mins....yeah pretty terrible

BUT! over a 3rd of that was for drills on my back. My legs are hurting and I have lost some form while kicking on my back.

My breathing is doing really well for extended freestyle sets.

I tried doing some 50 yard sprints and I died out pretty quickly. OUCH! gotta do some more of those in the next two weeks.

Good thing a hard swim lesson doesnt kill me as bad anymore.

Up @ 5 AM tomorrow. 7 hours away....

3.6 miles

I turned off the heart rate alarm this morning cuz it was going to be annoying and I just wanted to run at my own pace.

I took it easy mostly. My legs were actually hurting a lot for a good half of the run. I did a different route than normal (ran through Scarsdales big houses neighborhood) to switch things up.

I ended up going about 3.6 miles in 32 mins and change. Things are starting to gradually taper off. Its a welcomed relief. The past two weeks have been murder.

AM run

After sleeping in for two straight days, getting up this morning sucked and I didn't want to run, but I had to.

I ran an 8:48 min/mile pace with my heart rate alarm on. I basically wanted to run right under the limit of 162 BPM and to my surprise I had to push it pretty hard to get myself up to that limit, and I only broke it when I hit the small hit towards the end of the run. I guess that means my heart has hit a new level of conditioning?

I did 3.5 miles in 30:48. My legs actually feel pretty good considering last friday I was pretty cooked.