8-25-10

Coach John prescribed 3x20 minute sweet spot efforts and 3 hours of total riding. I went out at lunch to get in the first 2. Had to be back to work by 1pm for an experiment and had to race back from Hyalite Canyon. Felt pretty beat for the rest of the day. Went out again when I got home to do the last one. My bike fit is awful and I finally decided to change the handlebar position. Only got in a mile or so on the new position, so will see. My neck and back weren't so cramped up though. The 20 minute efforts were much easier (mentally) than having to ride around in zone 2. Was a little short on the 3 hours because we had a meeting for LCCP.

8-24-10

Did a short run around the neighborhood and through the trees by the creek. After 10 minutes I stopped to do some active stretching. My quads, hamstring, and hips are super tight and the beginning of the run is usually pretty uncomfortable. Did 3x10 seconds of high knees. This was harder than I thought it would be.
Total time 25 minutes, zone 2-3

Followed run with a bike. On the bike I did some spin ups. One thing I need to work on is my cadence. I am much more comfortable at 75rpm than 100. Also, Erik made me some tubeless tires. It was great. The low air pressure allowed me to ride over bumpy trail and roads like it was smooth. I also felt a had good grip cornerning. I have new tires so maybe that is part of it also. I also did 6 10 second sprints with a long recovery. I think in races I just need to be calm and get my foot in the pedal without to much anxiety. Each sprint I always found the pedal. I need to trust myself. Also, my bike hasn't been ridden by me for a while and a few people have borrowed it. I think the fit is awful right now. My upper back and neck painfully cramped up during and after the ride.
Total time 1:30 Mostly zone 2

Monday 8-23-10

Easy recovery day. Rode to and from work. Then took the bike and a backpack to Michaels and Target to purchase some items for LCCP. The ride home was a little uncomfortable. The backpack was bulky and heavy. Motivation to lose 5 lbs. Tomorrow is the real start date of my cyclocross season. It was nice to have the first day be easy.

Weekend Fun!!!

Now that triathlon training is over for the time being I was able to get up into the mountains for some fun biking. I have been wanting to mt bike and enjoy the mountain trails for weeks now, but just haven't had the time.

Sat. - Erik took me on a loop south of town that he has ridden a couple of times. I was excited about the elk herd and the coyote. We didn't see either. 32 miles later I was pretty tired.

Sun.- The weather cooled off and it was raining off and on but we decided the Bangtail Divide would be fun. It was a blast. About 25 miles of single track with great views of the Bridgers, Crazies, and Castle mtns. Can't beat that for a Sunday. We were a little creeped out by all the law enforcement up there. We didn't get kidnapped though and made it home for pizza and beer.

Now it is time again to buckle down and start training for cyclocross. Coach John I am ready!!

Lake Stevens 70.3 Report

Lake Stevens was really a great race. There was 1 transition area and there were about 1,000 less people than Boise. Erik and I drove over on Friday and spent Saturday preparing for the race and touring Boeing field. It was pretty cool, we saw the 787, a carbon composite plane being built. I did a bike and run in the morning and felt great. Totally excited for the race and plenty nervous. We took the bike over to the transition area on Sat. and drove the course. It was shady with lots of uphill and some super steed downhill. Perfect for me and Georgie!! I didn't check out the run which might of come in helpful but more on that later. We had some dinner and I settled into our King hotel room bed to rest for the evening with the alarm set at 4:15 I had an early start.
Race morning, I had a hard time getting down much breakfast. Probably should have planned to have some energy bars on hand. The race start was nice, cool and everybody seemed pretty collected. I saw Art who was psyched and Aubrey who. I also did a little gape out at the pros and their gear. The swim start was easy, I didn't get run over by anybody and I found the cord underwater pretty quickly. I just settled in and swam. Tried to focus on keeping my eyes pointed down and my body turning to maximize glide. I came out about 2 minutes faster than other races!! I was happy.
Jumped on the bike and settled in quickly. The climbing was fun and I kept getting paced by or was pacing a Scott Plasma. I passed a lot of people in my age group who were faster swimmers. Even got going 50+mph on a downhill. I have never gone that fast before. At one point I was in the zone. Just pedalling and pedalling. My bottle however, had 3hours worth of calories in it and I didn't drink all of it. Maybe had an hours worth in the end. This I think was the beginning of the end.
For the run I had prepared a Perpeteum bottle with 2 hours of calories and my goal was not to stop at the aid stations, but grab water on the go. In actuality though, on the run I just lost it. I felt like I was anemic with lack of energy just emminating from my core. After one lap I realized I had to do something or this race was going to get very painful. I was covered in a layer of salt which doesn't usually happen so tried eating gels at the aid station to replenish a potential electrolyte imbalance/depletion. It really seemed to work. I started feeling better and my feet would go around a little faster. The last couple of miles felt better but I was still pretty bummed. If I had eaten more and had some endurolytes I think I could have taken 10 minutes off my overall time in the run.
In the end it was a good race with a disappointing finish. I learned a lot though. The next race will be on the new Cannondale Slice which I am very excited about.

Not much posting since Boise

In general after Boise I took about two weeks to recuperate before getting back into training for Lake Stevens 70.3. I honestly felt pretty good right after the race. Not sure if that means I should have worked harder? I went to DC for work and took Erik. We spent lots of time walking around looking at Memorials and visiting with Jaimee and William. I got a couple of runs in on the hotel treadmill and worked with the weights and core one day. The following week I started to get back into doing some bike intervals and spent the weekend in CdA getting inspired by all the the Bozeman Tritons racing and doing so well and Linsey Corbin winning. I started a build week the following week.

Build week 1- can't remember exactly what the week consisted of, but it was 4th of July weekend and we went to Wieboux to visit Gabe. He isn't very motivated so that was a little frusturating. On Saturday we did the 30 mile loop on bikes through Theodore Roosevelt Park ( I tried to go up and down some extra hills) and on Sunday I did a two hour run outside of town.

Build week 2 and 3- Can't remember exactly what I did. I had a lot of thought into it though. I did track workouts followed by Masters swims on Tuesdays. One weekend I raced the whole Tour de Bozeman and one weekend I did a double brick (3 hrs total with about 50 minute bike intervals and 20 minute run intervals with a 10 min. warmup) . The double brick wiped me out. The next day all I could do was a swim and then a nap.

Build week 4 rest week- At the end of this week I raced xterra. I tried to get in 2-3 of each swim, bike, run. I just kept them shorter.

Peak Week 1- Hard effort every 72-96 hours - Raced on Tuesday with Erik in the TTT. I was tired for the rest of the week. Did a couple of easy runs. On Friday got out on the bike for 3:30 and went up Jackson Cr. to do lots of climbing. Saturday I got in a 40 min. easy run and went up to watch the Mules finish the Butte 50 and 100. Sunday I did a 1:30 tempo run up S. Cottonwood and back.
Peak Week 2- (am really trying to focus on resting the next two weeks, don't think I rested enough for Boise)
Monday- short easy swim in pond and transition practice to the bike. Then did the WMSR Prologue time trial. 5 miles. Tried to keep it above 22mph. This is a potential goal pace of mine, but it was pretty hard. My legs felt like they were going to fall off. I think that run yesterday was harder than I thought.
Tuesday- easy run followed by easy bike. I rode the bike with the trailer to the grocery store. There was a monsterous headwind.
Wed. - 30 minute tempo swim in pond
Thursday- Ride with a few steep hills and then a 10 minute tempo run
Friday-off-rode around town. Ordered the Cannondale Slice!!!
Sat. Ran the Sweet Pea 5k. Haven't tun a 5k in a long time. My time was 21:54. I will take that. Had a little confidence burst when I decided to pass this girl at the end and thought she was going to blow up with her breathing and I felt totally great. She was this girl that bought a bunch of stuff at the last PQ party and is a Team Delphine girl. Funny.