Back
Everything would have worked if the service provider hadn't dropped my page every week or so. I'd come onto the page only to find it was 0 kilobytes, meaning there was nothing there. For those that don't know, I had dropped this blog for a free consolidation of all my Web properties. It was ok but lacked the simplicity that Blogger offers. So I'm back and blogging here again.
To catch up I've only really had one event since leaving. That was the CapTexTri, Olympic distance. Long race report short, it reflected my training to a tee. The swim was almost as good as the end of last season with only one or two swims before the event. The cycling, which is was I did most over the winter months, increased 3 mph over my best time last year. My run was horrible as by the time I got to the run, it was blistering hot. Overall I was pleased.
I took three weeks off of running after that event. It's the only time of the season where I can take that much time off. My knees thanked me. they feel much better now. They also feel better as a result of my Saturday yoga sessions. Yoga for runners every Saturday morning at 8 o'clock. It's amazing how much of a workout it entails and how much my hips, hams and quads get out of it. My legs feel much more rubbery afterwards.
Another change for this year is staying off the concrete and asphalt. It's only trails, grass or dirt from now on unless it's for a race. I've been cycling on the fixed gear bike to and from the trails. The legs aren't as stiff by staying on the trails.
I'll post the new schedule for the summer in the next day or so.
Labels: back, CapTexTri
Triathlon Cancelled
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It was a very triathlon-like weekend even though no triathlon took place. Rained out. Flooded out is more like it. At 5:30 am, my temp tattoo #139 was still drying, I sat next to the transition area with my yellow raincoat top hood pulled over my Nike cap, watching my cell phone in a zip-lock baggie for a text message stating the swim was cancelled. It never came but another athlete sitting next to me got one. "The swim is cancelled. We'll evaluate and inform you at 7:30 am." I left to go back to the car and at least warm up a little and drop off the wetsuit. I knew what had happened before the text message came and before 7:30 am arrived. People started walking past my car with their bikes. One person and a bike could've meant he'd had enough. Ten people with their bikes and walking to their cars meant the event had been cancelled. It had been.
At that point I was ok with the cancellation. I mean I didn't sign up to do a duathlon. The swim had to be part of the event. I also wasn't so sure of my bike at that point. See, I bought a used Cannondale CAAD4 Road frame for $35 on Saturday and then proceeded to see if I could get all of the components transferred to the new frame and re-cabled in time for bike check-in. Kind of crazy but it all worked. I got the new bike set up by 3:00 pm, Sunday and checked it in to the transition area. For the first time, my bike blended in with the other tri bikes. It wasn't a pawn shop bike with serious components. It now was a tri bike that looked like the others. By the way, not only did I get the 2.8-pound frame for $35, but I also got a carbon seat-post for $5.
The bike swap-meet went well. The above bling-bling was paid for by selling all the wheels and spare parts I had putting the last three bikes together. The "Lawsuit" wheel was the first to go. The Shimano front wheel was next. The swap-meet brought out all types of cyclists; hairy legged, no hair, old schoolers, Yellow Bike Project wrenchers, and of course a couple of triathletes. Go to Frankenbike.org for more information.
So today my mind and body are out of whack. They don't know what to do. I was supposed to be recovering today with a break from exercise for the rest of the week. Now, I have to wait and see if the event will be rescheduled, cancelled altogether or some other option. So I guess I'll keep the workouts scheduled until I hear what's going on. I wouldn't imagine they could reschedule for this coming weekend so it would make sense not to continue to taper but go back to full interval/speed training and the corresponding diet. I was so looking forward to being able to eat and drink anything I wanted this week, but it's not to be.
BTW, I couldn't resist the suds. Who could unless they didn't drink at all. Sitting in a beer garten and not having a beer. Who was I kidding?
Frankenbike Photos
Labels: cancelled, CapTexTri, Frankenbike, rain, triathlon
Race2Replace & Taper Week
It's taper week before the
Capital of Texas Triathlon next Monday. This week is a the same 'ol workouts, but for less time. It's also motivation week to try and get psyched for the race. So as I'm spinning I'm listening to a lot of podcasts on transitions, tips and techniques, interviews with racers, etc. I finally got my proxy server to cooperate with iTunes so a whole other world just opened back up. I'm a year behind on the
Race2Replace - Discovery Channel series showing the Team Discovery Cycling Team. That's ok, it's great motivational material for this week. Nineteen episodes are online so that should keep me busy until the end of the week.
I ordered a new cassette for Salsa Verde from Nashbar.com. As the CapTexTri Olympic distance course won't have any monster hills on it, I opted for the 12-21 (12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21t).
Labels: CapTexTri, Nashbar, Race2Replace
Drunk On Training
I don't know if it's because I did more swim sessions this week, which always make me light headed, or it seemed I was always going to do another workout. When I was driving home tonight, I felt the same feeling as when I've had one too many beers. I thought it could be over-training but I still look forward to the workouts. It's the first thing that pops into my head in the morning. What's the weather going to be like today? I was more tired this week. I was hungrier this week. After todays swim I had no problem with the Monster Freebird Burrito and then four or five oatmeal cookies. One more intense week before the taper to the Capital of Texas Triathlon.
Looking at the workouts, they were on par with the other weeks but the intensity has ramped up quite a bit. Everything has been tempo pace or intervals. Everything just below lactate threshold. Even when I planned to go easy to have a recovery day the workout went tempo again. I told Da Fish when we ran seven miles the other day that I wanted to stay at 150 heart rate. It was higher and on the second loop averaged 159 which meant it went in the 160s at times or average miles were in the 7:30 range. I think my subconscious took over as coach and had me pushing each workout a little bit more. Thank my lucky stars I found NUUN tablets with the heat and humidity. Headaches and dehydration are a thing of the past.
The time trials have been going well. The swim test came in faster than the targeted 33:00. 31:30 for the 1500K on Tuesday at Barton Springs. That's 2:08 per 100m which not great but much better than last year. The run came in a minute faster for each average mile. The only thing left is finding out what will happen on the bike. Tomorrow I'll go out and do a 24-mile TT on the Mopac 8-mile TT route. With all the time spent on the bike this winter, I hope it's at least a little faster. If it's not, there's not much I can do about it now.
I also spent the week checking out the Race Athlete triathletes at Wildflower. Iron Kahuna and the merry band of the Tri-Geek Alliance were in rare form early in the season. The smack-talk was thick before the race but it came down to Bolder getting spanked by Simply Stu and Rural Girl taking Roman to school. I wanted to go but other plans had me in Dallas last weekend while "K" won her first three first place gold medals at an ice skating district championship. Maybe I'll meet up with the tri-gang in 2008.
Labels: CapTexTri, time trial, triathlon
