5 weeks to go!

Five weeks to go, but who's counting??? It's been a week and a half since I posted last. Sorry for the delay, but the increase in volume had seriously sucked my other time commitments dry. So the last week and half have been crazy busy with all the biking and running. I didn't get nearly all the swimming in, but that's ok. In fact, the last week, I don't think I came any where near my illustrious goal of 120miles on the bike for the week.

I know that I did somewhere in the range of 90-100 miles. I say that because one of my days was on a spin bike here at work. I was working an extra shift and left my bike at home thinking that I was going to be at a different station. Last minute I get moved to my home station, which was awesome. I'd much rather be out of my home station where all my stuff and food is than another station. Only problem was that my crew, especially the Capt Jeff, is serious into cycling. Not a big deal IF I had taken my bike to work that day. So without my wheels, I did the next best thing, grabbed the spin bike and let it abuse me. Unfortunately, our spin bike has no computer at all. I was not only unable to gauge my distance, but I was also unable to even get a cadence of my rhythm. So I had to guess about my overall distance, but with being on the bike for 90 min and doing some intense intervals, I was calling that day a 20+ mile day. The following day, I did a 40mile solo ride south of town.
For that ride, I got up early, before the kids woke and left shortly after the sun was up over the horizon. It was cold when I first started out. Luckily I had my Zoot long sleeve running top on, but my legs were chilly. I still don't have a ton of cycling gear, so I have to piece together what I can. I want to say that the temp was in the high 40's maybe, with a little breeze and sunny. A beautiful day except for the chill. When I got home, my feet and hands were numb and even after a hot shower I couldn't get warm. The only big problem on the ride was that I got hungry, real hungry. I didn't really eat before I left. I had a Gu gel pack and hit the road. Just over half way through I had another gel pack, but with still about 8-10 miles out, I was just starving. Next time, I'll plan better, or at least get up earlier and eat. I love riding away from the people and the cars. Boise is known for being fairly friendly when it comes to the cycling community, and it really is. But I still enjoy getting out and away from the city when I ride. I purposely choose roads that will be less traveled with cars for not only the safety, but just the enjoyment of being away. That is one thing that I love, I can be a few min ride or run in certain directions and get away from the concrete jungle of the city. Smell the manure and "moo" at the cows as I go buy. I definitely didn't have that option when I was living in California!

With all the volume increase that I've had this past couple of weeks, I've noticed that my cycling has gotten a little slower in the pace category. I'm chalking that up to exhaustion more than anything else. I can tell you that I have definitely felt more tired over the last week and half than I have before. I know that it doesn't help that i continue to struggle with getting to bed at a decent time and getting good recovery sleep. When I go to sleep, I'm out and dead to the world (mostly). But like last night, I was planning on going to bed early; 10-1030 LATEST. But when child #2 doesn't go to sleep until 1030, you don't get to go to sleep until after 11. Not that we didn't try, but he just wasn't tired. He's in the process of starting to ween from his afternoon naps. Some days he takes them, and some days he doesn't. Well yesterday he did, and because of his nap, he wasn't tired at 9 when we put him to bed with his brother. Every 10 min he was getting up and wondering around the house looking for us. So I'm continuing to work on the sleep category.

Running is moving along, still haven't decided anything about my shoes, and I'll probably just keep my Inno8's that I have right now and call it good. They still have a decent amount of tread left, and I'm fairly confident that they will get me through at least the Spudman Triathlon at the end of July. I did, however find a new running partner. It's the daughter! Shawna had taken the boys to a play date and left me with her. Well, it was a beautifully sunny day, a little chilly, but otherwise perfect for running. I bundled her up with a jacket and a towel (all I could find in the garage for her legs) in the single jogger stroller; grabbed some snacks, her bunny and sunglasses and off we went. I had to return a video to the library, so I figured that I would stop there for my run. The library is about 2.25miles from the house, and I thought that I'd do at least 6 miles. Hit the library on the way out there, turn around at 3 miles and head home. At the 3 mile mark though, there was still not a single fuss, whine or complaint; so I pushed out another mile before turning around and heading home. A total of 8 miles and she was a champ! There were a few mishaps along the way; dropped sippy cup, dropped sunglasses, dropped snack trap, but otherwise it was great. My pace, of course, was slower but not that much. I kept an 8:15-ish pace except the last mile coming home when I really turned on the gas a little bit. You can only go so fast while pushing a jogging stroller and having to worry about driveways, crossing residential streets and wondering what and when will fall out of the stroller next.
The last thing that I wanted to mention was that I've noticed over these last couple of days that my strength seems to have taken a toll with all the endurance work that I've been putting in, and I don't particularly care for that loss. Now that the volume weeks are over, I'll be seriously working on getting those Strength and Conditioning (S+C) days in. Once the Spudman is over at the end of July, I'll be hitting the weights harder to regain the strength that I've lost. I might have one more tri after Spudman, and that will be in the middle of Aug, and could be either a sprint or olympic distance. I still haven't registered for it yet. I'm waiting to see how my body holds up and how I feel when it gets closer. Right now, I'm seriously considering doing just the sprint distance as I think that I'd be fun to just  go out there and hammer it really hard for just over an hour and then call it good. I don't know, we'll see what happens.
I've already started looking at my training after this first, inaugural season is done. After the season is over, I plan on re-working my swim technique to get faster (possibly swim smooth) and my cycling. My current Capt will be retiring at the end of the month, and my new Capt is really into cycling, so I plan on learning a lot in the off season and really improving my cycling this fall and winter.

I have just under 5 weeks until the big event. That means 4 weeks of the CFE, with still an emphasis on some more volume, but emphasising the S+C portion as well. I will do a taper week the week before the event, and then it will be time to rock. I will be hitting the bike course later this week with Jeff and we'll get a chance to see what most of the course looks like for the bike, so I can't wait! The bike is now complete and ready for the event, except for maybe some new tires. I still have the stock tires on them, but with over 900 miles on the rear, we're starting to push the envelope a little bit on the life span. I'd rather spend some cash now and get fresh tires, than have my race ruined because of a blow out. Now, it's off to Ebay to shop for tires and then shower and bed!