Rain, Iightning and run

Took Trigger for a run in the rain last night.
Approx 4 1/2 miles.
Details later.

Wed. Bike/Swim

The bike ride spanked my butt. Like a fool I led for a couple of miles into the wind and that took the wind out of me. It took me the next 10 miles to recover any legs at all. I did enjoy the first Wed. ride of the year. 20.8 miles at just over 17 hph or so, my computer was down so I am copying from others.
The swim:
long wu - 250 I guess I was early.
4 - 100 swim
8 min swim, out at HIM, in at Oly.
6 min swim, 50 pull, 50 swim
4 - 100, out on back, in on belly.
6 - 100 fin
I feel like there was more, but I can't remember.
cd
Around 2,400 yds.
Needless to say it was a good hard Wed. workout - looking forward to more.

Saturday Bike Ride

I started out with the old 101's but caught a light and got left behind early in the ride. I waited for the next group to catch up with me. We rode 32.5 miles and averaged 17 MPH. Other than my "friends" leaving me it was a great ride (I cried a little). Nice cool day with cloud cover and 17 MPH was plenty fast for my second road trip of the year. Later in the day I went back to DA and talked to Gary about getting some aero bars for my bike. I might give them a try for a transition to tri bike and to help out on some of the 60 and 100 mile rides. About $100 bucks, but I have not decided yet.

7 Miler

7 mile recovery run, time 1:10, AHR 146.
I have only run this far once in my life and that was more than 25 years ago.
I figure if I am going to do an Olympic I might want to run more than a 5k at least once.
We will see how if feel in the morning. Am I proud of 10m miles - your darn right. I hope by the
end of the season my recovery run will be down to 9 or below. I will have to fake as long as Rita is watching. If she thinks I am hurting she gets made at me. I can't figure that out.

Wed. Swim

Tom was not the devil last night. A good workout
I copied this from Peter (no, I'm not smarter than a 5th grader).

w/u 200 yards easy
w/o 15 minutes @ HIM pace 800 yards
200 HIM pace/200 Oly pace/ 100 hard(1:45)
250 pull
4 X 25easy/25 hard/25 easy
c/d 200 HIM pace

total 2250 yards in 55 min

A little pain in my left shoulder. I tried to do some pushups and could not do even one. Fortunately there are no pushups in Tri's.

Run

Approx 4 1/2 miles, AHR 153, MHR 179, Time 49:37.
Ran the middle mile above threshold HR175 (168 is threshold).
I had to walk about 1/3 of the time after the threshold run in order
to keep my HR below recovery 147. It felt like a good workout.
Trigger was tired.

Spenc

The hockey boy.

Swim with Spenc

Spencer (my 18 year old) and I went for a swim at CAC last night.
Almost every time I go for a run or swim I ask both boys if they want to go.
It is just part of my ritual. Their part of the ritual is - "huh, what, are you kidding, no way".
Last night was different. Spenc is getting a little more "homey", maybe because he will going off to Tech, maybe it is just my imagination. Either way I was thrilled to have him along. I did not get in much of a workout and would trade all of my workouts to be able to spend time with my sons, we were in the water for about 30 minutes. I gave him a few pointers and if you have kids you know there is a fine line that is very easy to cross with too much advice. I believe that I stayed on the good side of the line last night (unusual for me). I thought that his stroke was pretty good although he got tired very fast, faster than he expected. Who knows, maybe he will come again, maybe Travis (17) will grace me with his presence. One can only hope.

This morning? I blame it on the alarm.

My good friend and "teammate" Peter has been obsessing over a silly little medal they gave out at the St. Paddy's Day Triathlon. So for his benefit I provide this picture of how he actually felt after receiving the award. For him this is a smile.

ST. PATRICK's Day

The facts:
Swim 6:12 Pace 1:54, T1 1:54, Bike 42:02 Rate 17.1, T2 1:24, Run 27.04 Pace 8:44 - Overall 1:18:09
Place 137.
I was very please with the race. To be only 56 seconds slower than the Monster Tri in October of '06 ,which was the exact same course, surprised me. Faster swim and run, slower transitions and bike, but not by much. I have been on the only bike twice in the last 4 months. I feel like that I have a great head start on the season. Realistic Monster Goals:
Swim 6:00, T1 1:15, Bike 36:00, T2 1:00, Run 24:00 - Total 1:08:15
Even with my motto “tri-ing not so hard” I know that I will make improvements this season.
One reason for this early season race was just to get another Tri under my belt and to get a base time. There was less pre race anxiety than the other two Tri’s and everything went smoothly.
After getting up at 5:00 and racing at 7:40 and ending in less than an
hour and 20 minutes I have decided that Olympics will be done. I may be under prepared but probable better off than I was for the Texas Man Tri (my first).

LSD Run

Approx 4 1/2 miles of base running yesterday with my trusty side kick Trigger.
We did not work too hard - gotta save up for the first Tri of the season.
Looking forward to it . . . kinda.

Rock n Relays

As team captain for OWGR (Scott, Ken & Greg) I am very proud of the team effort.
I expect all members to continue to train hard and make improvement in your times. I will be sending out a training schedule that should be strictly adhered to. A couple of areas of potential improvement. 1. Ken - do a better job of getting the directions to the race site. For some reason everyone thought that I knew where I was going. 2. Scott - know exactly how far to run. You said that you had a 1/2 mile kick left in you when he ran out of room to run (sure you did). Scott it’s 5.25 not 5.75.
3. Greg - stop stopping and smelling the roses. I think you also fit in a little time for fishing along the way.
Other than that we were good.
Scott/Kim continue to be aloof. We cheered them on, but they would not even acknowledge the we existed. I think Scott even sneered at us as he went by. And why not, he and Kim were running 9 miles each. We were mere mortals among gods.
Dave had a team that may have done slightly better than us, but I don’t know their team name. So, until I find out we will call it a tie.
And then there was “Achille’s Heels”. I’m not sure their finished yet.
OWGR over all time - 2:49:01
If Ken was only 2 seconds faster we would have been sub 2:49. Come on Ken all I ask is a little more effort - for the team.
We were slightly off the 2:30 that I was shooting for - next year?
My leg 3.75 miles @ 33.42, 8.9 min/mile., AHR 168.
Note: no water on the course

Swim or Torture

If you scream under water does anyone hear you? NO.
Because I did and no one stopped to help me. I was going to make this entry last night but I could not raise my arms above my waist.
Rita had to spoon feed me oatmeal while I stared blankly into space.
The boys sat trembling in the corner watching their Dad, but were afraid to say anything. I am afraid of the water - very afraid. When Rita turn on the water in the kitchen I found myself cowering behind the couch. I don’ remember how I got there. A shower? Forget it. I did “gut it up” and brushed my teeth before I slithered into bed.
Almost 1000 yards as fast as I could swim. We would swim 100 and go on 2 min. If you finished in 1:45 you got 15 seconds of recovery. I now understand Einstein's Theory of Relativity”. Time in the water moves faster than time on land ie. 15 second rest after 800 yards of swimming = 2 seconds when you look at the clock on the wall. Tom (the devil) was on deck. I think that I could hear his evil cackle as I was struggling through this “workout” and every time my head popped up he seamed to be growing horns. “We’re going at the top” - “we’re going at the top” - “5,4,3,2,1 you should be off”. I began to cry for my Mommy. Finally a break - some fin and pull work.
Then the devil said “Do it again”. That’s right another 1000.
I did get in a little open water workout. They guy next to me kept swimming into my lane and bumping into me just like a “real” triathlon. I think we were both swimming like a drunken driver. Weaving in and out of lanes.
I love me some DA.

Base Run

I like the words "base" or "engine". That was the term used by Ahmed instead of recovery. I built my "base" today. Took Trigger for a 5.8 mile run around the soccer fields. 59.03 min. AHR 146. I promise - after St. Patty's Tri I will start some threshold training. Right now though, I am rebuilding my engine.

Sunday's Bike

If you go on a bike ride organized by Peter be sure to bring your drivers licence and a get out of jail free card. About 2/3 of the way thru the ride the last in line announces "car back". We tighten up on the shoulder and then hear a loud "WHOOP" followed a few second later by "WHOOP" followed by "please pull over". We were pulled over by the police and it was not for speeding. We did not come to a complete stop at a stop sign although we did get props for signaling our left turn.
They were nice enough and "reminded" us that just like any other vehicle - we had to stop at all Stop signs. All in all a great first season ride.
30.3 miles, 1:52 and 16.2 avg mph.

Chicken

I was going for a track work out last night and was really going to push it. I had decide that it was time. Then why did I end up on a causal run with Trigger. Why? Well . . . I took off work a little early to help Number 1 son, Spencer, get signed up for Texas Tech. That went well, with him being 18, and all that goes with being 18, we don’t “just visit” all that often. And then two of his friends show up and we sit in the living room talking. Talking mostly about nothing, me listening mostly. Spenc has known Kent sense birth. We shared lots of laughs especially when the story about Spenc knocking Kent's tooth out when they were playing football in the front yard and Spenc was the only one wearing a helmet. They decided to go eat. I gave Spenc $8
bucks, yes even though he works he gets a stipend sometimes.
So, why did I run with Trigger and not head to the track?
I was afraid of hurting my foot so I chickened out - that’s why.
Run:
about 4 miles
3 - harder 225
the rest recovery

Wed. Swim

2250 yds (57 min)

w/u 200
10 X 50 (25 swim/25 drill)
3 X 100 pull
5 X 200 HIM pace w/20 sec rest
(4:13, 5:18, 4:13, 4:16, 4:14) extra 50 on 2nd set
100 kick
c/d 100

It is so nice to swim with Peter. I can just copy his blog.
This swim wasn't as good as last Wed. Not as many people
a little less intense, but still a good workout. I only kicked for
50 and that took forever.