Friday Swim

45 minute swim at the Y. Oly pace. I can never keep count of the laps.
I haven't swam in a couple of weeks. It seemed to take 30 minutes before I felt "comfortable".
Should be more than more than 2300 yds but how much more?

Thursday Run

Form run. 3 1/2 miles. Run a 1/4 focus on lifting legs, ball of foot strike. Not a speed drill.
I have to build up my calf muscles for this new form.

Wed. Schwinn

You gotta love the rain.
Another garage ride. 550 cals. I don't keep up with anything else - what's the point.

Monday Schwinn

500 calorie garage ride. High intensity with lots of sweat.

Disco Bust

I just found out that I will miss the Disco Man Olympic.
Bummer. Our family always has a big 4th of July celebration with about 40 family members.
I was originally planned for June 30th - it got moved to July 3rd.
I am going to try to make the pre-tri on July 1st.
So, I guess I will pick up my packet, wear my tee shirt and be a poser.

Thursday Run

Worked on running form last night. Trying to have less heel strike. So, I ran a 1/4 mile walked 100 yds focusing on staying on the balls of my feet and not letting my heel hit the pavement or just barely touch. 3 miles. Near the end I could feel my calf muscles, but no real ankle pain this morning. I am going to watch the Evolution Running video and do some of the training drills. I also plan on checking out Jeff Galloway's book.
Hopefully I can learn to run injury free.

Wed. Bike

I wish I could find somebody to ride my pace : (
18.9 but my computer cut off as I turned off of Beltline. I am sure that I lost a few 10th's of miles on the last stretch into the wind. I kept up with the "intermediate" group for the first quarter of the ride, had to slow down for the second quarter because I was maintaining a HR above 170, sped up for the last half. So I ended up riding 3/4 alone. No one wants to play with me.
Too hard of a start. Next week I am going to start at my own pace. I will probable drop down to around 18, but I know it is better for me than blowing out the first few miles.
Then maybe I will feel like swimming.

Hills with Travis

I was dressed for a slow easy run. I was going to work on my form - less heel strike, more ball of foot. And then Travis (#2 son, 17) comes in from working out and is going for a run. Dad ask meekly, "can I run with you?" Travis, "sure, but I am running the hills".
So off to the hills we go. Short sprints up a steep grass hill at the high school. He goes up 10 times, I go up 8 times. Travis, "let's move to the STEEPER hill and do 5 more". Dad's lungs say, "no"; dad's heart says "no"; dad's mouth says, "yes". Then we move to the steeper hill. We both go 5 times. Short intense workout. Time well spent with Travis.
No heart monitor which was good because I am sure that I really did not want to see my heart rate.

Tour d'Italia

You've got to watch these DAer’s or some day you will wake and see your name in a mass email as a ride coordinator.
Actually it worked out pretty good - me, Peter and 6 women (that’s right 6 women) met at the DA store at 6:00 and believe it or not everyone was on time. We left around 6:15 and headed South into the meat of a rain storm. Fortunately the rained stopped as we neared Italy.
We met up with 4 or 5 more DAer’s and got our packets and headed for the start line. I really liked the open start (from 8 -9). This was a first for me and made the start much less crowded and rushed, we actually started closer to 8:30. The group decided on the 50 mile route.
I experimented with something different on this ride. 50 miles no rest stops or stops of any kind. I had 2 bottles of Accelerade, a Camel back of water and rode by myself as if I were in a triathlon - no drafting even when the opportunity presented itself. After a few miles the rain came down pretty good. Not hard enough to stop you but it got your attention. Only lasted a few miles and the rest of the ride was pleasant.
50 miles - 2:46 which puts me well inside of 3 hours for the HH100, but realistically with the heat, double the distance and knowing that you have to have several rest stops I still need to speed up.
Average speed 17.5 mph. One big advantage of the HH100 will be drafting.

Monday Run

1 hour run.
147 AHR
95 degrees and humid.
I had been thinking about a fuel belt for the longer runs and warmer weather. I wanted one of those 4 small bottle holders.
I went to Run-On and of course they were out of those. After talking with a salesperson I decided on 1 large bottle behind the back. Started my run - went 1/2 block - turned around and went home- dumped the belt - carried the bottle in my hand. The bottle bounced around way too much. Hated it.
Ankles - during and after running both of my ankles hurt. It is not debilitating, but it does make me limp some. Rita notices and I get in trouble. So, now I am on a search to find a cure. I soaked my feet in ice water and than helped, but that is not a cure and me with my feet in a bucket of ice just gets me in more trouble. I don’t know if it is my running style (I hope so because I can change that), shoes (although I have two pair of good shoes) or just old joints (no cure for that one). We will see how it goes. Olympics may be my max.

Metroplex Tri

Another triathlon under my belt.
800 meter swim, 30k bike, 5k run.

Swim: 15:47
Spent the pre race with Peter, Eric and Dave. Eric, being so young, had an early start while the rest of us started together.
I decided to move up a little at the start of the swim and ended up getting beat on (or beating on others) almost the whole
swim. The first turn was only a couple of hundred yards from the start and it was very crowded all the way there and around
the mark. I thought it would thin out on the long second leg but nothing changed. I got kicked, punched and banged on constantly. Then I started catching some “green caps” from the previous wave. These were big guys taking up lots of room. Four or five times I had to breast stroke in order to look around to see what was happening and to try to find open water. Finally around the next mark, but it was still crowded all the way to exiting the water.
Oddly I was pleased with the swim. I felt fairly confident during the swim even with the close quarters. I go frustrated but not anxious.
If this would have happened at the TexasMan (first tri, first open water) I would have panicked.
Lesson learned - three choice: 1 - if up front swim faster, 2 - swim outside the main group, 3 - start further back.
I am going to choose number 2 at Disco. I think I can have a faster swim with out all the banging and have a better time even after adding a few yards.
Grade A, not for speed, but good experience, and not a bad time.
Pace -1:58
Disco goal - about the same.

T1: 1:52
I could always save a few seconds, but fast enough.
Grade B+
Disco goal - will be slower because I will put on socks.

Bike: 49:01
It was a good bike ride my goal was to average about 20mph. Short flat course. I felt good, but I kinda backed off in the middle third of the ride. I was making good time, but I knew that I could have pressed it more than I was at the time. Maybe thinking about the run - maybe still have not completed enough Tri’s to know how much to push it - maybe just not man enough. So, in hind sight I should/could have knocked some time off the bike. Starting in the second to the last wave does have some advantages. You get to pass allot of people and don’t get passed too often. Good for my fragile ego. I did get passed by Peter after a couple of miles. Next time I am going to stay with him through the bike.
Grade B-
Pace 20.5
Disco goal - about the same.

T1: 1:40
Same as above
Grade B+
Disco goal - about the same.

Run: 28:49
Ah the run. My favorite leg of the Tri, NOT. I can’t (choose not to) be to hard on myself about the run. I just don’t train like I should. I want to run faster because that is were I can make up some time but until I train more it is what it is. I tried to do a reverse split and believe that I did. It takes a mile of running to get past the bike legs and a get a good rhythm. It was an out and back course so I saw my nemesis Peter coming back as I was going out . We high fived as we passed each other, next time I am going to trip him. With a mile to go I picked it up some. Passed Carra with about 100 yards to go and tried to finish strong. One of these days I will get faster.
Grade B-
Pace 9:14
Disco goal - 9:14 for a 10k would make me happy.

Overall time: 1:37:10
21st out of 28 in age group
243 out of 506 overall

I believe this was a fast group of triathletes.

Overall lessons:
Swim - clean water.
Bike - press it a little more.
Run - train or except it.

As with every Tri so far - a good time was had.
Oh, almost forgot, I lost a six pack of beer to Peter.

Friday Run

Easy 3.5 mile run in preparation for the Metroplex Tri.
Me and the dog.

Wed. Bike

Rode with the faster Intermediates.
My goal was to hang on as long as I could - hung in better than I expected and finished with the back of the group. I was pulled the whole way and was proud of it.
It very windy.
Dang computer still does not work.
But I was fast. I left D, Peter and Scott in my dust. Well Scott didn't ride but if he had he would have eaten my dust too.

Tuesday Track

90 degrees.
1 mile wu
6 - 400's on 3 min.
All laps between 1:45 and 1:50.
Left more than a minute rest between laps.
1 mile cd
151 Ave HR
177 Max HR
Good workout.
I should do more like this.

Sunday Run

Trigger run
1 hour
151 AHR
163 Max
Another warm humid run. Trying to get use to it.

Sunday Swim

I don't know if I will ever be completely comfortable in the open water.
You know you can swim 2000 yards in a pool - so why have anxiety about 800 yards in a lake. It took one lap to get the tightness out of my chest. I am sure that it was just mental. The swim got better except that I had some trouble sighting. I wore my tinted goggles and as the clouds rolled in it became more difficult to see. I am swimming allot straighter than last year, but I still pull to the right some. I stighted every 12th stroke. Hopefully with more bouys and swimmer I will sight much less on Sunday. The swim was shortened due to lighting, but I still got in two loops about the distance of next Sundays Tri.
Water temperature was not an issue for me although Peter was winning like a baby in the parking lot before I made him "man up" and go without a wetsuit.
approx 800 yds.

HH Ride #1

David's first HH training ride. He wanted everyone to get to know each other and to check out the different abilities. About 15 riders, David dropped back early to stay with a slower rider and a couple of girls dropped off later. The goal was 17 mph. We had a slow start but started picking up from about 1/2 way on. I wanted to stay up front so that I could use the aero bars more in prep for the Tri on Sunday, plus a little extra work.
Coping from Peter.
40.6 miles
2:22
17.2 ave
I put a new battery in my bike computer so hopefully it will work now.