It's been a good two weeks since IMCdA and I'm really starting to feel recovered.  

I spent last weekend in Hood River, Oregon celebrating the holiday.  I managed a couple of rides (probably a little more effort than I should have put in), a good solid recovery run with a little intensity and a couple of windsurfing and standup paddleboard sessions. 

It was a good weekend but I was a little sore Monday and Tuesday.  Not sure if it was from the riding or the windsurfing, I'm thinking it was the windsurfing as you use some muscles that I haven't been using. 

I've been in the pool twice this week and I'm feeling great in the water. One of my best swim workouts ever (consistent and fast splits).  I'm continuing to really get better with my form and it's amazing how little tweaks can really make me more efficient and thus faster through the water.  It also makes me in awe of the Olympic swimmers never in my wildest dreams could I swim near 1 minute for 100 yards and yet I imagine many of these guys and gals train at that pace.

While it's going to be tough training this summer schedule wise I'm looking forward to getting back to some proper training and really building on an already great base of fitness.

The fact that I'm already feeling recovered really has me believeing that there is time on the table for the taking in Kona.  I know the second half of the marathon in CdA wasn't that fast so I think my legs have recovered faster than expected. 

Getting ready to start ramping it up again.  

 
Motherland 05/27/2008
 

Yeah I'm in the Motherland of triathlon..... Kona.  I'm loving it.  I'm splurging and staying at the Mauna Lani Hotel and Resort which is hosting the IM 70.3 Hawaii race next Saturday.  It's great. 

The race isn't really the focus it's getting the final big training days in before my taper to IM Coeur d'Alene.  I love this place.  Running is tough but the swimming and riding are phenomenal.  I've been swimming every morning in the ocean at Mauna Lani Bay Beach Club it's like high speed snorkeling.  Today besides a crazy assortment of fish over the coral reef, I saw a bunch of rays, a big school of rather large something or others which I was swimming through and one little shark cruising about 30 feet below on the bottom. 

Today my coach scheduled a 25 minute "race" effort.  I took my GPS watch and put it in a zip lock and placed it in my swim cap to see just how much I've improved over the past year in the swim department.  When I downloaded the data I was shocked.  25 minutes = 1 miles.  That would put me just under 30 minutes for a half IM swim.  My fastest ever was a 34:30 which I think was a short course every other swim of that distance has been consistently 36:30.  If I can take 6 minutes off my swim time it would be crazy and today wasn't really race pace as I wasn't racing I was swimming solo. 

Riding here is also fantastic.  I'm sure over time it would get a little boring as it is an island but so far the roads I've been on all have great shoulders not a lot of debris and the drivers have been pretty cool.  The part I like best is I seem to be riding really fast here, part of it no doubt is the fact that I've got my race wheels on (Zipp 808 front and 1080 rear which has been a mixed blessing with the wind), or the aero helmet but I think it's just the terrain and I actually am enjoying the heat.  It's been really windy, there is no direction that I haven't been hammered either by head winds or side winds. 

I rode on Sunday the day after a long trip and hit 84 miles at just under a 20 mph average.  Today I rode 73 miles at just under a21 mph average.  Crazy as neither of these were crazy race efforts so I figure I'm good for about another 2-3 mph average in the race Saturday and it's giving me big confidence going into IMCDA in a few weeks.

Running is tough, it's hot and humid.  I did manage an 8+ mile negative tempo run in the heat of the day yesterday with my negative split at sub 7:00 pace.  Needless to say it's going to be a long hot run. 

My coach has changed the race plan.  Put in a hard solid swim effort to see how the winter swimming has paid off and then ride like a man possessed.  The run is now just get through it as close to 1:40 as possible.  I was quick to inform him that a 1:40 would be a half IM run 2 minute PR for me. 

I'm feeling great with the final hard training and feel like I would really love to be back here in October for the big dance.  Now just to put it all together on race day.  I'll post how things went.

 
 

Well I'm in my final few weeks leading up to IM Coeur d'Alene and just 14 days from IM 70.3 Hawaii and I'm just trying not to do anyting stupid.

Well so much for not doing anything stupid.  I had two workouts scheduled for yesterday a run and a swim.  I did the run in the late afternoon a solid netative tempo.  10 min warmup followed by 30 minutes at a moderate tempo which was just over 7:00 per mile pace.  The negative tempo is run over the same distance I had run in the first 30 minutes but you want to go faster.  I had a good day doing the second tempo at 6:34 per mile pace.  Overall a good solid 11+ mile run.  It was the first warm day we've had here in Seattle this year with temps during my run in the mid 70's and a bit humid. 

Now here's where the stupidity comes into play (although innocently enough).  After my run I headed home to refuel the body and hydrate which I did a good job.  Then about 2.5 hours after my run I hit the pool for my swim workout.  The swim workout went fine and I was in my last set whcih was a number of 25 yard all out sprint efforts.  On my second 25 about 2 yards from the wall suddenly my whole thigh (inside of leg) cramped, well pretty much siezed.  After about 5 minutes I was able to move it enough to get out of the pool (yeah no more 25's or cool down).  Basically swim before I run or bike or leave half a day between workouts to prevent cramping issues swimming.

Where it had cramped was sore, crampy and swollen last night and still is today although not nearly as painful.  I don't think I did anything serious (tear, strain, etc...) but I also couldn't run or bike on the leg today if I wanted to.  Thankfully today is my rest day.  I'm hoping that it's loosened up by tomorrow as I've got a long run in the morning and a follow up run in the afternoon scheduled with a visit to the Walk for Aidan in between. 

Needless to say I need to be much more thoughtful of when I'm doing the my training here in the last few weeks leading up to the races and with the increasing tempeatures to ensure that I minimize stress on the body. 

Besides this incident training has gone well of late and the body is feeling good.  I raced last weekend in a half marathon and it went well with a 10th place finish overall in 1:25:27 on a hilly tough course.

 
 

There have always been those run workouts which I could point to and say that was a break through workout.  Well I had one of those today in my swimming.  Now I'm improved a bunch in my swimming since last fall mostly because I was swimming more and focusing on form. 

Well after my trip to Tucson I picked up a few additional tips from the coaches and I've been working on fixing those things.  The biggest was my stroke was coming across my body a bit so I've been working on keeping my stroke in line with my shoulder which has been tough.

Today I a set of 3 x 100 descending time by a few seconds, then 2 x 400 at steady state and finally 10 x 100 at a comfortable pace.  This last set was fantastic and I really felt my break through.  I did all of the 100's between 1:23 and 1:25 but most importantly these were all pretty comfortable.  These are by far the fastest and most consistent 100's I've ever swam.  I could really feel the extra power I was getting with my stroke keeping in line with my shoulders. 

I needed this workout because I think the long run and ride this weekend are not going to be so positive as the winter weather is back and things are going to be cold, wet, and windy or more specifically miserable.