a new 5K PR!..and then I decided to go for a long bike ride...

This morning I did the NYRR Al Gordon Snowflake 5K in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. My time was 23:43, or a 7:39 min/mile average, a 30 second per min/mile improvement in speed over my last fastest time in a race.

Uhhhhh, WOW! I was totally spent...They bumped me up to an even faster corral this time, which I was excited about, cuz that meant there wouldn't be as many people going super slow in front of me. Maybe my time from the last race bumped me up? Who knows.

But still there were people who went slow in front of me, not too bad, but still they were there. I think it was good that they were there this time, because the race started on a 1/4 mile of flat then hit a 1/4 mile uphill that could kill the rest of your race if you went too hard. I think the crowds kept me back and that prevented me from blowing up.

My mile splits are as follows:
7:38
7:24
7:26

Because tomorrow is supposed to have TERRIBLE weather, I chose to ride tomorrow's ride today. I figured, what the heck?!? since I have a duathlon in exactly 4 weeks, I guess a fast 5K followed by a 2+ hour ride would somewhat prepare me. We did a hilly 34.27 miles in 2:22:48...another slow pace, but it was VERY hilly. Here is the wattage data:


and elevation:

an uplifting swim

I have been really depressed after Wednesday's swim. I realized that swimming 2X per week was just not cutting it, and its not that I was slow @ Wednesday's class, it was that I am OUT OF SHAPE in the pool!

So this morning I said f*&^ it and hopped into the pool and swam 1800 yards, or 1 mile and slight change (more like a few pennies). It felt good....my arms are sore, but it was needed. And I need to do this longer endurance swim at least 1X/week. Drills are cool, but the type of drills that I was doing was giving me too much rest or not enough conistent yardage without stopping. I did a sort of ladder during the swim:
4 X 100
4 X 150
4 X 200

Hopefully this extra long swim will start to pay off in the next few weeks.

Take that pool!

squeak! squeak! squeak!

thats the sound of my new rear tire on the trainer. its really annoying.

I was up @ the crack of stupid this morning to do a short strength workout.

5 min run warm up
strength
5 min run warmdown

Then onto the trainer for 30 solid minutes. I put in a really strong recovery ride, all the while keeping in the recovery zone:

I averaged 140 watts over the 30 mins vs last week's same recovery ride was @ 117 watts for 30 mins. A 23 watt difference while at the same perceived effort is a good thing. Either I am more recovered or I am stronger. I'll go half way on that one, cuz I better be stronger and I better be recovered, or else my 5K on saturday is gonna suck!

Speaking of which, I think I am going to give myself a goal on this one...finish in under 24 mins.

Can I?

short run, hard swim

First, I had ZERO motivation this morning to run. 22 degrees made me not want to outdoors, so I stayed inside on the dreadmill. I got about 15 mins through it and called it quits. Two straight 9 hour weeks just takes it out of you, especially this early in the season. I had no regrets about calling it a short run.

Second, tonight was part 2/10 of my swim clinic. There are a lot of fast swimmers in this clinic, especially all of them! i.e. I am the slowest :)

Its cool though, gives me something to shoot for....that is not be the slowest swimmer.

The video showed that I am dropping my elbows upon entry into the water and into the reach. This is because I am not digging my arms deep enough upon entry. If I can first fix entry to be more downward, this will set me up for a better catch and pull. Fist drilling here we come!

a not so hard spin class

i mean tonight was still really really hard, just not AS hard as the past two weeks. Here is my proof:
The main set was 3 x 30 second REALLY hard then on the 3rd 30 second sprint go immediately into a 5 min piece @ time trial pace. Do this entire thing 3x through. My 3rd, 5 min time trial piece turned out to be my strongest. The 30 second all outs hurt a lot and I felt it the most because I am still not recovered from this past weekend's fun.

Run in the morning.

another day of pain

I have been having days and days of pain. Its the cumulative effect that has been adding up, now to a point that I don't know how much more I can take before I start to go into "over training" mode. I know fatiguing your body will make you strong, but after awhile feeling nothing but pain just takes the fun out of this stuff.

Take for today, which I ran 9.41 miles in 90 mins. I ran it slow, not because I tried to take it easy to get the distance in, but it was slow because my body physically could not go any faster. The first 3 miles were hellish. My legs hurt and I felt really slow. The 2nd 30 mins actually felt pretty good. The 3rd 30 mins I had to force my body to go for 15, stop, then finish the last 15 mins. My knee joints are hurting pretty bad and I am dreading this Tuesday's spin class. I know I will be able to finish it, but I feel like I am digging myself into a hole that has been getting deeper and deeper.

The good news out of all of this is that I can put in a moderate-hard ~34 mile ride, then run 90 mins over two days. I think that means that I should be able to do an Olympic distance triathlon no problem, at least I am not scared the of the distance!

33.78 miles of hurt

I think the cumulative effect of this past week's amount of work made today's 33.78 mile ride hurt a LOT more than it should have. My climbing legs were completely flat throughout the first half of the ride and didn't improve any better towards the end. I was also on my TT bike today while my road bike (with the PowerTap) is in the shop getting a major tune up. When a pin starts to come out of the rear shifter, I think something is messed up.

Here is today's ride:


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I averaged a slow 15 mph, but that was totally due to my legs being fatigued and a TON of rollers on the route. I was kinda surprised at how much I was standing, sitting down, then standing again. I felt like I was climbing the entire day!