Go ahead and tri--make my day!!

This is the first time I have swam for 45 min straight.  I tried to stay relaxed with good form.  Not exactally successful, but not too bad.  I was swimming 62 sec per laps.  Now a 800 just does not seem too long. 

I biked around West Mountain this morning.  It was cool and pretty.  I was going to go with Morgan, but he had bike problems.  I kept an even pace.  I did not have any technology other than the watch to tell me my speed.  It was kind of nice not having a pace nag.  I just went by feel and I was just trying to work on distance and not speed.  I used my road bike.  I made sure I had plenty of fluids and food.  Last time I did this ride last year I bonked.

Ran a yucky 7 miler. I was tight and not a lot of energy. I perhaps was a little sore from the bike ride on sat. 8:30 miles.

Had a great swim.  Swam a timed mile in 31:35, two min faster than last week (but I was trying to go fast this time)  My second 800 was 15:59 so that was good.  Did 400 of drills and 400 of intervals after.

Trying to conquer the mental mile.  It still takes metal effort to swim a mile.

By starting with the timed mile, I have increased my swim volume by 50%.

10 miles of evening errands on the bike and out with my oldest daugter.

I did an evening bike ride.  I ran out of daylight so I tried to go fast and sweet.  I went around the golf course and up Harry's hill.  I have only gone up that hill one other time and I remember it being harder than it was this time.  Big wind so it was a safety issue going down the hill.  I used my tri bike today.  I might try to go fast on wednesday on my tri bike and long on saturday with my road bike--that might keep me in shape with both sets of muscles.  I wish I could go more, but it just does not work.

Lifted in the morning.

Ran a lunch time sweaty 8 miles.  Quite uneventful.  I was tired and tight by the end.  I ran a new route down by the old BYU Farm and back.

Signed up for Camp Yuba tri on Sept 6th.  It is Olympic distance.  So I have to practice my mile swim and 40K bike.  The bike is kind on hilly.

A week from Saturday I get to do the Spanish Fork Crosscountry team tri.  I have done this race two other times and won them both.  It is against high school kids and a few parents.   Dave thinks he is going to beat me.  He is a good biker (the course is mountain bike, which I have to use our $100 bike) so I do not get an advantage with using my wick fast tri bike.  Last year they started with me in the bathroom and I started two min late and was still the third on my bike. 

Did a timed mile in 31:35.  15:46 at 800 so my second 800 was 15:51.  It is nice to have better balance.

Rode around West Mountain again, this time with Morgan.  He had not been putting in too many miles this summer.

The last part was quite eventful in that we joined the Utah half tri and got passed by some.  We were in 11 and 12 place--we were awesome,  (some guy was counting how many passed him on the out and back bike route.  We were passed by some super fast guys--for a 56 mile ride, they were flying.

Then we got passed by many groups of bikes going the other way.  They were on some long ride.  They were drafting (which touring bikes do) and were going on the same course as the triathlon--which they can't draft.  I wonder if that will cause problems.

I went over the rail road tracks, but there were 6 bikes with flat tires after the tracks.  Poor riders.

My knee seemed to be acting up.  I just might not be destined to do longer distances.

Ran a fairly uneventful 7 at lunch time.  I lifted in the morning. I am starting to lift again on my knee and see if I can strengthen the quads to keep the patella tendonitis out.

I did not feel my knee on the run today.  I ran 7:50s and ended with a 7:20.  I don't seem to have much speed right now, but I am in a small base/build phase as I try to peak again for Yuba.

Ran without water and actually wished I had it.  I usually don't need it. 

I am trying a more aggresive mid morning snack.  I have a good breakfast but a couple pieces of fruit does not do it for me for a snack.  I will try  a good peanut butter sandwich. 

Swam an uninsprired workout. Did a 400 (going to go for a mile, but I was not swimming too good so I switched to drills). Did 400 of pull boay and 300 of fist gloves.

Then did 6x100 in 51 and 52 seconds. Could not find speed.

Had one of my best bike workout today.  Rode a hard 27.  Went up several hills (Goosenest to Elk Ridge and down Loafer Canyon Road.

Hit 23 mph many times.  I listened to some other triathletes who talked about relaxing on the bike and that helped.  Noon workout.  Did a morning lifting session.

Ok, one of the yuckiest workout of the year as far as running goes.  Perhaps it was the two chocolate chip cookies and milk I had before running.  Or it was the hot weather or the 4 PM time.  But I did not have the legs . . . . I did a one mile warm up at the new ball park.  (I was actually checking it out to see if I wanted to have a elementary school one mile championship run there in the fall.) Then did 4x 800 in 3:20s. 

I think I was tired from the bike yesterday.  It was more than what I was use to.

Swam a timed mile and got the fast time of the summer (I have not swam the mile too many times, but I am looking on the bright side).  31:31.  The nice thing about todays swim was I was within two seconds on 200 splits 2-8 (3:57).  Usually I go back to at least 4:00min.

I worked harder than race pace.  When I went well I was reaching down deeper and getting my feet up.

I race against the high school cross country team on saturday.  Should be fun.  I have won the event two other times.

I will call this a race report.  I competed in the "fun" high school cross country team triathlon.  This is the fourth or fifth year they have done it.  Some of the athletes I use to coach are still on the high school team.  My high school coach is still there, after 21 years.

We started at the Spanish Fork reservoir.  It was a 7 AM start time and it was windy.  I had my nice cosy full wetsuit on, and few others had a wet suit.  Last year they started the race as I sat on the pot so I got a 2 min late start.  That did not happen this year.  I think I swam about 90 seconds faster than I usually do.  I felt pretty good and was leading after the first minute.  I come out of the water 57 seconds in front of second place, an dad who is a triathlete. 

I did go for socks on transition.  I took a few luxuries, since I figured I was going to beat them anyway.  We went zooming down the hill and traveled along the highland canal road.  It is a dirt road so I had to use my $100 Walmart mountain bike instead of the tri bike.  I did not have clips for my feet so it was a different pedal stroke for me since I could not lift at all.  I ave. 16 mph on the dirt road.  We finished at Mt. Loafer elem and dropped the bike and switched the garmin over to running from bike mode.  The run course is 2.5 miles on the Salem Days course.  I was please with how good I felt on the run.  I hit a 6:00 mile then a 6:05.  It is down hill but the second mile was not a lot of down hill.  Came in feeling good and 6 min ahead of the field.  I have taken first place all three times I have competed in this event.  I am not sure if I had the fastest split on the run.  We there were some good runners, but I am not sure how they competed after the swim and bike.  I am pretty sure I won the bike leg, even though one of the high school boys prides himself on biking (I beat him on the bike last year).

I ran the course backwards to my bike and then biked back up to the resevior.  That is the first time I have biked up to the resevior--and my legs have felt that all day. 

As an advocate for wellness, it is nice to go back to my old high school team and be able to compete at that level as a 40 year old.  I hope many of them will value fitness enough to stay fit when they are 40 and beyond.

I lifted in the morning, after sleeping in.  Then I felt good enough to do a recovery run.  I was still sore from Saturday.  I ran 3 miles at 8 min then I visited the crapper. . . after that much of a rest, my legs felt better.  I ran a 7:40, 7:20, 6:47 with finishing on the last mile of the MVP run.  I felt great all day from the run (not from the visit to the crapper).

I added push ups to my lifting.  So I do back extensions, sit ups, three way neck, trapezius pull with the bands, glute lift on stability ball and wall squats with the ball.  All lifts are critical to keep me moving!

Rode an excellent workout at lunch.  I did the "Elk Ridge figure 8".  I went up Mt. Loafer Dr. to Elk Ridge down Elk Ridge Dr. over to Goosenest and back up to Elk Ridge Dr.  A nice balance between flats and hills.  I was going fast for some reason home.  I am not sure if the wind was at my back.  Sometimes I can go fast after going up a hill. 

Got stung for my second time this month.  As I was scrambling to scratch the sting, a bug flew in my mouth.  The joys of biking.

I am trying to sneak an extra bike in this week and cut out one swim.  I will swim in the morning and that will be my only swim this week.  I had better make it worth it.

I think the higher miles is helping my bike.

Started off my swim workout by blowing up. 

My time dropped to 4:05s for the 200 so I bagged the time swim and started to drill.  All the favorites for the drills-- fist gloves, pull boay and even fist gloves with the pull boay, handpaddles and flippers.  I think that was the first time I used every trick in my bag . . . . swim bag that is.

By the end of my drills I put all the toys away and did some old fashioned kick drills on my back, which I have not done without flippers too often.

I did 4x200 after the drills and for some reason was going a little faster than I usaully do.  50 sec instead of 51-52.  I wonder if I had to kick harder on the finless drills, which caused me to kick harder on the interval swim.  I will have to do some more finless drills and check out my hypothesis.

An excellent work out.  I started on the track.  I did a 9x400.  Most of the splits were 1:25 or 1:23.  # 8 was 1:20.  I felt great, and often wondered how I ran four laps 15 seconds per laps faster back in high school.  Ran a recovery 200 in between (1:45).

Ran a 3 mile cool down.

An evening bike workout.  Felt great for this workout.  I did the Elk Ridge figure 8 but I added going around the golf course to start.  Most flat was at 23 mph. 

Had to go to a scout meeting all day so I had to get a earlier workout in.  I figured I was going to need an easier workout since I had just hit a breakthrough bike workout Friday evening.  I ran 30 min of recovery run and then 23 min of faster running. 

Three run workouts in this week and only two bikes, but the bikes were good solid workouts.  Two weeks until Yuba, so I have another work week next week and then the taper.

Did an evening run and it did not work.  I bonked at the 2.5 mile mark and never recovered.  I walked it home.  I will fight another day.

May have been the family home evening treats threw me off.

Did a 3 x 400 with drilling in between.  It was hard to make it all work, but I did have some faster times on the 400. 

Biked an all out 14 out and back.  Tried to push it and keep my speed up.  I was not really impressed with my speed.  I am not so paranoid about going harder at the first of the race now.  I did hit the wall at 18.

Here it is Thursday, and I have not entered any blogs this week.  Busy time.

I ran a 6 x 800.  I wanted to run 2:55.  I actually hit 2:55 on 4 of them and was at 2:54 and 2:57 on the others.  I was a littled disappointed that I did not run a sub 1:30 on the second lap on any of them.  The first lap was just as fast as my 400 workout last week (1:22-1:25).   When I relaxed and tried to pace and not sprint, I did better.  Felt good all run and I should not cramp next week at Yuba.

Snuck in a mile swim as I took the girls to the pool.  Strapped a life jacket on my youngest girl and they played while I worked.  32:35.  My elbow had a pain as I turned so I had to be careful on the wall.  Thought I was going to come up with a goose egg today since I slept in.

I rode with some members or our Nebo Tri club.  I planned on going for a couple hours then run a 10 K.  I got a flat tire on Harry's Hill.  I fixed it (I have never changed a tube on the road.  The tube did not set in good and it looked quite ugly and unsafe. I went back home and planned on going out again, but I did not.  I figured if I went out I would not have any energy to do anything else so I did not. 

I washed the windows and screens on the house for 4 hours . . . . .

I guy at our church talked about the book "Love Languages" (I found out later, he has not read the book) but it reminded me of what my wife's language is, which is "service"  So happy 13th anniversary, I cleaned the windows.