I'm tearing up right now. The Ironman Canada reports have started feeding into my local triathlon mailing list. I just read this one here. (NB: Link may only work on Aug. 31, 2005)
Whether it's Ironman, marathon, or something else, endurance events inspire me like nothing else.
Well, Thursday's run was fantastic, but it had me being cautious this weekend. While my cardio fitness is fantastic at the moment, I've been habitually short on running miles. After Thursday's strong effort, I decided to skip a Friday evening or Saturday morning run, in the interest of protecting my legs for Sunday.
I ran into a couple of running friends, Karen and Eric, on Saturday night, and they assued me they'd be at the Running Room on Sunday morning. Which was good to know, because the place was fairly deserted. It had a lot to do, I think, with the parking regulations in the area for the Ex, and especially for the Rolling Stones concert later in the day. Folks stayed away in droves.
Tuesday's swim tied my longest ever, 2550 metres in 1:15. The last time I swam that much in a session was when we had our 30 minute challenge, and I forged out a reported 1500m in 30 minutes.
This morning, I slept in and skipped swimming. Oh well. At least it afforded me the opportunity (read: energy) to put in a run tonight. And run I did. Despite the fact that I had picked out my home 5 mile loop (gmapped at 8.3km), I felt absolutely zero reason to hold back, so I flew right out of the gate. I had the Rio with me again, but this time my mind was largely shut down. I hit the first turnaround in 12:30, and knew I was flying. I hit the next one in 26:00 or so, probably less, but I knew I needed to step it up. I came home in 37:30, a PB on that route by 55 seconds (and only the third time I've broken 40:00).
I signed up for one more sprint triathlon this year. It'll be September 3rd, and there will be half and full iron distances the same day. It promises to be a fantastic event.
Press Play. Press Start. We're off.
Big Sugar, If I Had My Way. Well, if I had my way, today would have gone differently. It all started when I slept in. No, that part was good, maybe not ideal, but ok. But wife sick, kids on each other's cases. Warm. Lazy. Unproductive, yet not as restful as I'd have liked. It's quiet out here. Cool. Glad I didn't run in the heat of the day, even though July's heat, real heat, is long gone. Lady walking her dog, let's go wide around so I don't make her nervous. It's a small dog. There's my imaginary 1k bush. 6 minutes? Sheesh. Oh well, long runs are supposed to be slow. I just don't seem to think it through.
Having finally rediscovered my speed last week, it occurred to me that maybe I was barking up the wrong tree. In my discussion with Mark (a strong swimmer) earlier in the summer, he was stressing technique over effort, and at the time I found myself agreeing with him. I would do well, I figured, to slow down a bit, and focus on technique and form.
(Attempt number 2, due to power outage.)
My son had a soccer tournament this weekend. He had two games scheduled for Sunday morning, and one for Sunday afternoon.
I had originally planned to get my long run in on Saturday, but I really wasn't up for it. Sunday morning, we all slept in, and we had to rush out to the first game. It wasn't until we went home between the morning and afternoon games that a plot was hatched.
Ok, now I know why the out-of-town route felt so much faster than the in-town route. The in-town route is almost 4km longer.
I'm super-happy with this morning's swim. 6x100 freestyle on 2:15, and all repetitions were within 3-4 seconds of 1:45. Yay me!
I went to a race, and I was the only one who ran.
Well, technically untrue. Still, I was the only non-child, non-parent who ran the 1 mile. The race was a mass-start for the 1 mile and 4 mile races. When I turned around, I had a strange feeling that I was running all alone.
And I was.
I was back at swimming this morning, after a two week hiatus. The sets were a mix of freestyle and backstroke. The freestyle was fine, but the backstroke was a write-off. I've never had good body position for my backstroke, and the drills today really highlighted that weakness.
The main set involved 100m freestyle repeats. We did 3 on 2:15, then 100 choice (active rest, I guess), then 2 more, harder, on 2:20. We were reminded to focus on having a powerful finish to the pull, really pushing when our hands got to our hips. It was a timely reminder for me, as I think I've been overpulling. As a guideline for effort, we were supposed to go about 10 seconds slower than our fastest 100 free. For me, this would have been about 1:50. Yikes!
As it turned out, my repeats were all in the 1:43-1:48 range. It was tough, but by focusing on applying the power at the end of the pull, I seemed to get more speed and efficiency than I'd been getting for most of the summer.
At least something went well for me this morning. =)
I was determined to get in a long ride while I was on vacation. I didn't really come up with much of a route in advance, so I ended up just winging it.
I'm on vacation this week. Of course, the break from work means more time for training, not less.
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