Whew, this last week and into this week have been crazy busy for me on the work front. Which means that the training has been creative and sometimes non-existant. Being in class for 2 days straight was making me go bonkers! I'm not used to sitting in one place for so long, being tied to a table and chair like that. Shawna didn't like it either. I was taking an awesome 12 lead ECG class, and the instructor was very good, but still after about a day and a half I was ready to run for the hills. Both days of the class were in the middle of my 4 days off, which meant time away from the family. Shawna said that if this was what it's like having an 8-5 job, then forget it! She'd much rather have me gone for a whole 24 hours and then be home the next day, rather than home for 2-3 hours before the kids go to bed. I agree!
Training this last week was squeezed around the class and everything else that I had going on. The weather is still hit and miss, but I have been getting out on the road more with my bike. I went for a ride 2 weekends ago and hit some major head winds. That was my first experience in the winds like that, and man did it suck. I went from a steady 19mph done to, at times 9 1/2mph. It was horrible. The crosswinds wasn't nearly as bad, but I was just holding on and pedaling, trying to not get blown into traffic. I do have to say though that the tail wind, yeah that ROCKS! The 11-9.5 head wind, not so bueno. The 26-27mph tail wind, es muy bueno! I did also do some hill repeats on the bike this last weekend. About a mile and a half from the house is the freeway, and there's a hill that takes you over the freeway and then keeps climbing to the top of the hill. It's just under 1/2mile from the base to just on the other side of the summit. I know that hills on the bike are a weak point for me, so I decided to tackle a weakness. I did 3 climbs, and was starting my fourth when I dropped the chain going into my smaller ring. Luckily, the road opens up and there is enough room for me to stand on the side away from traffic and get it fixed. Then I went down and did the fourth one to finish off the set. Since I had the break with fixing the chain, the 4th set wasn't soo bad, #3 was way worse. Im hoping that next week I will get a chance to do 5-6 hills. I've also scoped out a different hill for some repeats that looks steeper and is way longer. It's only a couple of miles down the road from the house, and it's way over a 1/2 mile in length. I also did a road ride yesterday since the day was beautiful. I only had enough time for about an hour, but I was still able to enjoy the ride. The biggest thing that I noticed about the ride yesterday was how comfortable I was on my bike in the aero position. Except for intersections, or reaching down to grab some Roctane from the bottle on the down tube, I was on my aerobars. Being in the aero position for an entire hour and not even thinking about my comfort or position was awesome. It only occured to me after I was home that I didn't get off the bars. They say that comfort is half the battle for the bike portion, and so far, it looks like I'm doing pretty good on that front.
Swimming this last week has been rough, but that mostly comes from my lack of sleep and recovery. My swims are almost exclusively early am swims before work, or on the way home from work. I did a 1500yd swim the other day that was absolutely horrible. It was the first time that I was not having fun in the water. Being tired and trying to swim sucks. I couldn't mentally get into any sort of rythm and it took all my effort just to stay focused and count to 4, so I knew when I hit another 100yds and could hit the split timer on the watch. I've decided to not change my swim technique at this moment. I simply dont have enough time, and it stresses me out trying to revamp my entire swim with less than 9 weeks to go. I'd rather be a little slower in the swim this year and be comfortable with where I'm at, than be faster and uncomfortable in the water.
Running is coming along. I feel that if I slack in anything, it's the run training thinking that this is probably my one strength right now; although I know that I shouldn't slack at anything. Since I did a ride on Sat I had to do my run on Sun. A long run, at work, on the treadmill. 10 miles on the treadmill when the weather was soo nice out was really a bummer. I actually waiting until the evening so I couldn't see how nice it was through the windows. I'm thinking that I'm going to be needing some new running shoes before the event, but that cost money, and money is tight. I have been using my Innov8's which I love, but they're about $100. I could try a pair of Brooks pure cadence that I can get from Promotive for about $50 so that's tempting, although Brooks says on their website that they are only good for about 350 miles, where my Innov8's can go for 600+.
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