Week 5 - 12/21/06

Well another few weeks have come and gone and I am still working hard on my training for the tri in April. Over the past two weeks I have received my new bike, got it dialed in and am really enjoying all aspects of the training. On Saturday 12/16 we did hill repeats at Torrey Pines. Wow, this was pretty grueling. I joined the advanced group and we did each hill either staying in the same gear, sitting down or standing and so on. I tried to maintain a high cadence (rpm), but those of you who know Torrey Pines understand it is hard to maintain a cadence of 90 standing up in your large chain ring!!!!

My swimming has been coming along also in the last few weeks. As of last Tuesday 12/19 I can finally say I am starting to feel more and more comfortable about swimming a mile in the ocean without looking like a beluga whale breaching all the time. I am nowhere near able to swim 1 mile nonstop at this point, but all the small nuances about swimming effectively are coming together: my breathing feels more natural, I am swimming from my hips and not my shoulders anymore, my neck is not feeling like it is going to snap and I am kicking much more proportionately now.

As for my running, I am doing real well in my own eyes. I did the 1 mile time trial (TT) in 6:52 seconds and could have easily shaven 20 seconds off of that. I also have done a 3 mile TT and ended up with a 22.20. Over the past two weeks I have been running in the advanced group doing interval training. The first interval training was 5x 1000 meters at our training pace (which was calculated on factors I cannot even begin to explain) and then most recently we did 4x 1200 meters. Since a very important part of running for a tri is pacing and split times I have been concentrating on adhering to what the program calls for on our split times. I use my Ironman watch to check my times, but now my body pretty much knows what running a 1:35 lap vs. a 1:50 lap feels like.

This weekend we will be riding in Scripps Poway Parkway and doing laps on a 16 mile course with a pretty brutal hill. I am sure I will be pretty tired after this ride, but Sunday is Christmas Eve so that will be nice to spend some time with the family.

Till next time,
Troy