Hike 11/6

Rather than run, I went on a hike with some new friends. It was an 8 mile round trip hike, with a slight elevation gain of around 400 feet. I neglected to time our trip, but I estimate we walked at a reasonable clip - 15 to 20 minute per mile pace. Call it, 2.5 hours for the round trip, and some time exploring our destination and eating lunch.

Ghost Town Hike entry from my regular blog.

Rest 11/5

I woke up this morning feeling a bit out of it. Not sick, just a slight stuffy nose. But I was very tired and decided I would take a rest day rather than beat myself into the ground. After all, I'm headed out of the country next week and don't need to be ill while on vacation!

Bike 11/4

I did 45 minutes on the trainer, high cadence in the 39x17, while watching CSI.

I also bought the Computrainer... I probably won't have a chance to set it up until early next week. So tonight's ride was on my 1UpUSA trainer. I'm looking forward to using it, especially for bike course simulation!

Run 11/3

I made a friend, CD, at a running party last Friday, and we arranged to meet for an easy track workout at Lake Washington High School with our running club. We let the fast runners go ahead, and alternated running and walking, and talked most of the time. My monitor didn't record my heart rate, but I'm pretty sure I kept it under 70% the whole time. I lost track of the number of laps we did - I believe it worked out to 3 miles, in about 35:30.

I mentioned to CD that my goal was to build endurance and that I really wasn't intent on a true speed workout. CD was fine with this. I let CD set the pace and we ran on the outside lanes of the track.

The track run was really nice - nice spongy surface and well lit. Of course, doing a long run on the track would probably get boring, but it was just fine tonight.

Swim 11/3

I had two lunch meetings scheduled yesterday, so I moved my swim to today. I also had a lunch meeting today so I had to cut my swim short: 1200 yards in 30 minutes. I wanted to do 1500 yards, but that can wait until Friday.

That pace (1200 yards/30 minutes) will have me finishing the ironman swim in 1:45. My goal is 1:30, so I need to do about 1400 yards in 30 minutes. I'm also taking little breaks between each set of 100 or 200 yards, so rest is built into my time. After I get up to doing 2000 yards, I might take a stopwatch into the pool with me and get a more accurate time.

The fact is, 15 minutes won't make much of a difference for my event, so I'm really not too worried about it.

Used CT

Someone in SeaTri is selling a used CompuTrainer for $950. It is supposed to be in good condition, and includes the Pro 3D and Pro PC1 software. Bottom line: this package sells new for $1379, so this used one is $429 off.

I have a nice trainer already, but am interested in the extra features of the CT. For me, that would be the electronic load generator and power readout. Spinscan is also interesting, but I'm not sure it will be useful. With the load generator, the CT allows a more accurate simulation of hills, and when used with the Pro 3D (or Pro PC1) software, it allows simulation of race courses! I think it will be very useful simulating the IMAZ and IMCdA bike courses.

I've sent mail to see if it is still available - I hope it is and the seller and I can get together soon to complete the transaction.

Base Week 3

Oct 25 - Oct 31

	Time
Swim	1:10
Bike	3:40
Run	0:45
Strength	0:45
Weight	140.2 lb
Body Fat	17.3%

Strength training was really balance and flexibility training... I need to get into the gym.

Bike 10/31

JHS and I rode 19.2 miles in 1:27. Yeah, not exactly fast paced, but we did ride leisurely side-by-side to chat for a long time on the way back. I think we averaged between 14 and 15 mph at various points on the way out. No biggie, as both of use were wanting to do a relaxed ride.

I drove out to Carnation to meet JHS and we made our way through the town to a nice biking road with gentle rolling hills: W Snoqualmie Valley Road. Traffic was light, except for about a half-mile section between the 124th Street bridge and Novelty Hill road. That section was super busy.

Athletic Cow?

Check it out - this cow has race numbers on her ears!! ;)

We turned around after Duvall bridge (not sure of the street name), stopping for a few minutes to drink a little.

JHS at our turnaround

Usually T2 is the only one to bring a camera... I'm glad I brought mine today! I'll be better about taking it along in the future.

I have a few more pics at my other blog.

JHS was very excited I came out to ride with her - she mentioned last week she got lonely on her ride, turned back early, and finished up on the trainer. She also said she skipped the ride two weeks ago because it was raining, but two other people from our tri club showed up and she was bummed she missed them. I told her that T2 and I definitely plan to come ride as often as possible, although I will miss a few weeks in November due to my trip. Plus, since we will inevitably have to deal with more rain, we'll figure out the group indoor trainer session logistics. I'm pretty sure I can fit a total of four people in my living room as I have no furniture in it.

Anyway, it is important to me to cultivate my cycling friends as we are all about the same ability and have the same goals. (JHS doesn't yet know about the LCN project!) I know others that bike but they are more skilled and I don't want to have bike sessions turn into a hammer-fest (on my part) just to keep up. So in that respect, JHS is another great match.

I read that Norman Stadler (IM Hawaii 2004 champ) does a huge amount of base training in this fashion: small chainring, high cadence, keeping it around 12 mph, for dozens of miles. Later he gets in the quality by hammering hills... I'm not sure we'll do that kind of quality, but his method of building base sounds great to me!

Finally, the gear adjustment I did last night on my bike held up - I shifted all around the cassette and it worked great. No skipping, hesitation, jumping around, etc. This is huge as my 39x19 was a problem gear - it would skip and jump constantly. So I'd wind up riding in the 39x21 or the 39x17, and even then it would jump around once in a while.

Bike Maintainence

My bike has been shifting like crap lately, so I decided to look into it.

First, I cleaned the drive train. I hadn't done this in a while and there was a lot of dirt and crud caked onto the gears, chain, derailleurs, and so forth. After a quick scrub down I used the cassette cleaner to pick out more gunk. At this point, the bike was much quieter pedaling. I decided not to clean the chain this time around, as it looked pretty good.

Then I went to adjust the gearing. My method is mostly "play it be ear" - tighten/loosen the limit screws and see if it got worse or better. I put the bike on my trainer rather than my bike stand as I didn't want to mess with the seat height for now. I didn't get anywhere with the limit screws but noticed that the cable was just a bit slack when shifted into the smallest cog - probably a side effect of the bike fitting and moving the aerobars back. So, I tightened up the cable, and this did wonders for shifting. On the trainer, I was able to get my bike shifting perfectly.