Week 16 3/05/07

16.5 Hours and 3 mornings up before 6am - That was my training this past week. This was probably the most intensive training week I have had to date, and maybe even ever in my life!!!! It was totally worth it...I had a great week....and the weird part is...I really enjoyed all of it. Now for the details.....I will make it short I promise..

Monday - usual spin, Tuesday - usual swim...except that Bill (another teammate) and I swam with Coach Robbie and he kicked our rear, which is what I needed. Even better, it started to rain about 20 minutes into the workout....pretty fun swimming in the rain. Wednesday - usual track day....but honestly I was feeling pretty worked at this point, going on my 5th day of training in a row without a break. I would say I had an okay track night....probably the weakest workout of my week....oh well made it through, gotta take the good days with the bad......maybe it is because I was thinking about saving energy for Thursday....

Thursday - I got up at 5am to do my make up time trial (TT) at Fiesta Island. Remember my issues from last Saturday in the last blog....BROKEN CRANK????? Well the boys at Adams Avenue took care of me and put on a compact FSA Gossamer crank set for me....free of charge. I started my TT at about 6:30 am....a few other teammates were on the island to do some interval training. Temperature at starting time: 39 freaking degrees....yes i had on gloves, full length tights and arm warmers....had to....it was fricking cold. Well i didn't know what to expect, but all in all I did pretty good. I did 40k (25 miles) TT in 1:12:03, for about a 20.30 MPH average......first time....so I know I can improve. Friday - light run and then relax and ate dinner with my bro and his wife Michele.

Saturday - We had planned on doing the longest ride of the training, 50 miles...out from Scripps Poway Parkway to Ramona, to Lakeside back to Iron Mountain and the home to Scripps Poway Parkway.....um mother nature had another idea. The day started off gorgeous, but as those who know what Santa Ana winds are like.....we knew they were going to be a problem today. We started off okay and then started going up the hill, making our way to Highway 67 and then the winds became very prevalent.....let me just tell you that going up the 8 or 9 mile incline was not the easiest thing I have ever done. I ended up doing this twice, hitting a max mph of 51.5 down the hill the second time before I hit my brakes due to the wind pushing my front tire over about a foot and making my heart skip a beat or two!!!! All in all, a great workout, very challenging but also very gratifying.

On Sunday I woke up at 5 am to get ready for the March Madness 10k trail run in Rancho Bernardo. Once again the air was very dry and the wind was kicking up...good 'ol Santa Ana's..... I guess I should be grateful is was about 65degrees and crystal clear by race time right? This was another very challenging, yet fun training activity for the weekend. I think there were at least 20 others from the team running in the race so that made the whole event even better. I did okay, finishing in 52.11 with an 8:23 pace and 7th in my age division. I know 52.11 seems pretty darn slow, but this was no flat trail....lots of valleys and hills, narrow trails where you get stuck in a line behind others, the dryness and the headwinds!!!! So if I can run 45 minutes in Hawaii I will happy... After the race I stuck around for a little bit to see some of my teammates get their medals, for finishing in the top 3 of their age groups. I think we had 5 winners overall, which was great.

After the race I ate a much deserved breakfast...at Denny's nonetheless with a few others. Of course I ate really light....the meat lovers plate....ha ha. Well you gotta get your protein from somewhere right? and what better way than from mowing on a bunch of different meat treats??? (hmm that didn't sound right, oh well)... I was able to come home and get about a 30 minute nap before getting ready for the next training event...our Sunday Swim at La Jolla shores.

I tell you I had absolutely no energy when I woke from my nap, but I got my wetsuit, grabbed my bag, a piece of cheese, some crackers and headed to the beach. What a beautiful day, sunny out and about 75 at the beach. I know I said I was going to keep this short, so in keeping with that theme....my swim turned out way better in reality than what I thought I was going to do in my head. I swam the farthest to date in the ocean, felt real strong even on my 9th day of training, getting up at 5 am to run a 10k race and got to swim with dolphins around me.....

great day, great week of training.............23 days till I leave for Hawaii, 27 till the event.......