Back in the saddle

I can't say it was my most impressive workout, but I did hop on the bike for the first time in a week. I took it easier than I should have because my head was still congested. 38 minutes later I was up at the Killingworth farm ready for Memorial day festivities.

Peter Fitton has graciously offered to take me out for a spin tomorrow morning. At least now I know I can actually generate a few watts without dying.

I think total uphills comes out to about 1100 feet. Not significant, but roughly the equivalent of the stupid rental bike ride I made out in CA.

Joe Friel's Training Bible

This is an interesting book. I wish I had started it last October as it seems to be best suited for those who are just beginning off season training.

It breaks down your training into 6 zones. Got it. However to identify your 6 training zones you need to have time trials. Not ready for that yet. Maybe in June.

Nasal Congestion

I have a cold. This sucks. Cancelled a weights workout on Tuesday, and had to cancel a bike ride tonight. If I am lucky, I am going to get three sessions in this week.

Yes, this bothers me.

46 Lengths at the Y

I made the decision tonight that I am no longer going to attend the learn to swim class. I officially know enough to wait until the Fall before I take more lessons.

Hopped in the pool today and cranked out 40 lengths (about 2/3 of a mile). Things went well, but I am TERRIBLY slow at swimming. I just cannot seem to get faster.

I seem to be well suited for distance swimming. Only problem is that my longest plan race this year is 0.5 miles of swimming. Not exactly distance material.

The coaches are telling me to keep swimming for distance and speed we'll come. I am trusting them for now, but as of June 20th (40 days before my 1st A race), I am starting intervals.

High Kicking

Did the typical 6 mile loop down to the green, the fairgrounds and back. This time, about half way in, I did some "High Kicking" exercises. Bascially touch my heel to my butt every stride.

Interestingly, I think my overall cadence went down but my pace did not. It was awkward, and my quads feel tight, but this is worth exploring.

Also, check out the new RSS feed of my training calendar to the right!

0.87 mile swim and 50m TT

Nice-

Pulled out of work an hour early and headed to the YMCA. Got my own lane and off I went. I had planned on tackling 1000 meters, but all my parts seemed to be moving properly.

I can swim long distances. That part (which certainly wasn't true a year ago) is clear now. Unfortunately, I am snail-pace slow.

To confirm this, I chose to do a 50m time trial at the end of the 1400 meters. Spurred on by notes on the white board that showed Peter Fitton and Bridget's 37 second 50mm TT the night before, I put all I had into it....53 seconds.

At least I have a benchmark. Hopefully I can improve from there. But for those of you who aren't math majors, Peter and Bridget's time was 43% faster than mine, and it was the shortest unit of measurement you can pace at. Imagine what the damage would have been (in minutes, I assume the % wouldn't change much) had it been a quarter mile swim like the SHYC tri.

Greenwich Cup Duathlon Goals

Harcourt, Peter Fitton and I are going to head down to Greenwich on Sunday for a 7:00AM duathlon. 2.5 run / 10 bike / 2.5 run.

The course map is below:



Here is my "projected" math:

Run 1 - 2.5 miles (1 mile @ 7:45, second and last half mile @ 7:30 split) = 19 mins
T1 - 1 min
Bike - 10 miles @ 20mph (the course is fairly flat) = 30 mins
T2 - 1 min
Run 2 - 2.5 miles (1 mile @7:45, second and last half mile @ 7:30) = 19 mins

That comes out to a total of 1:10:02....let's hope I can shave off the 2 seconds to break 1:10.

This should be a fairly reasonable goal, when I do the math. I have become much more comfortable in the aero position thanks to the new Felt. I may even be able to shave a bit off the bike.

The run is where I am most concerned. I am concerned for two reasons:

1. I have a tendency to start out slow. I need to get over this, hopefully with a good warmup
2. My performace in Brian's Beachside Boogie revealed that I do get calf cramps after the bike (something I didn't get last season for whatever reason).

The weather should be OK (a bit of risk of rain, which wouldn't be good for aero).

We'll see.

Mission

The inaugural post is devoted to the mission of the blog. Before that, a few sentences on background.

As new to the tri scene, I have to rely on the knowledge, support, encouragement and time of friends to improve. I am fortunate that these friends deliver on all fronts. While I am no competitive threat to any of these people (note the blog title), I have gotten the sense the the time and attention that I am putting into multisport concerns them.

So the mission of this blog is to publicly post my triathlon training activity. This has three benefits:

• By publicly training noone can accuse me of "pulling a Harcourt" as one friend put it (note that Harcourt Schutz had an impressive performance last season by quietly training on his own for several weeks. His performance surprised his friends as well as himself I think it would be fair to say)


• By stating season goals I might be able to keep motivation high throughout the summer


• By reporting regularly I should be able to maintain a systematic log of performance

Let's see how it goes. Knowing me I will have moved on to another activity within three weeks.