Bike 4/23

Today's goal was to ride 80 miles, and I'm pretty sure I did 84 in 5:25. I'm not sure because my bike computer conked out 47 seconds into my ride, so I picked up my Forerunner after my initial out-and-back and used it. But sometimes I would forget to start and stop it. The distance and time sounds about right - this ride was flatter compared to the other long ride I did with T2 and RG. Plus, I now have a better nutrition plan and wasn't beat halfway through.

Speaking of nutrition, I want to try some e-gel. A recent issue of Inside Triathlon covered gels and the fact that only e-gel contains electolytes. e-gel also has no caffiene. For today I packed Gu and some sports drinks. T2 said she didn't get enough salt on the bike, so that is something for me to watch. Anyway, my nutrition today was fine - I didn't feel tired, just sore from riding for that long (sore neck and lower back).

I picked a loopy course where the benefit was I could ride with some friends, but not force anybody into doing the same distance I did. So it was great to ride with CB, T1, T2, and MM for various segments.

CB and her snazzy Jamba Juice jersey.


T1 and MM.


Are those aerobars on the unicycle?


Along the way we passed a unicycle club out riding on the SRT. The unicycle tire look like it is at least 50% bigger than a road bike tire. I'm sure it is quite a core workout just to balance on those!

Rest 4/22

It was another beautiful day I was very tempted to head out again. But, all workout and no rest leads to burnout and injury. So, I planned out a ride for tomorrow.

Also, I took my bike into the shop and had one spacer removed off the headset/steertube (I'm not sure the correct term for where the spacer was). I figure, time to start stretching into a less open position - I am currently about 105 degrees on the bike and the ideal is about 90 degress. This will get me closer. If it feels great then maybe in a week or two I'll have another spacer removed. Otherwise comfortable is more important than 90 degrees.

Swim 4/21

I can't swim tomorrow at lunch, so I decided to try an evening swim at the pool. I did 1600 yards in about 33:30. It was OK, the pool was busy - two people per lane!

Bike 4/21

The sun peeked out so I jumped on my bike and rode 41.3 miles in 2:44. I rode from my house around 60 Acres Park to Marymoor park, around Lake Sammamish, and then to Wilmot Gateway park, before backtracking to 124th and up the hill to home.

My new equipment for the day was the under appreciated TNI Bento Box, very handy for keeping gels easily available. It was great! I stuffed it with eight gels which fit easily (I probably could stuff another 2 in there) and only ate four.

I recently reloaded by Gu supply, only buying Banana Blitz, Vanilla, and Orange Burst. I decided not to get any Espresso Loves because they have twice the caffiene, and I'm not sure I want to get used to that. I also picked up a few random gels from PowerBar and Clif. I tried out a Vanilla Clif Shot and let me say ugh - WAY to thick, sweet, and syrupy.

Run 4/20

I rode from work to lunch with my friend CB - a nice round trip of about 6 miles maybe? I'm not sure, I didn't bother wearing the Forerunner to time and measure it. CB said she would like to start riding again so perhaps this weekend I can arrange to ride with CB and T1!

Anyway, I ran the 5 mile outer loop at the Redmond Watershed in about 48 minutes. No HRM, so I just went at a "comfortably fast" pace. I'm sure I was somewhere between 70% and 85% of my max heart rate.

Bike 4/19

I took advantage of some great weather to try out my race bike, with the new handlebars and aerobars. I rode 28.3 miles in 1:54, along the SRT and then the 520 hill route home.

The nice part was being able to actually ride in the aero position for long periods of time! I'm pretty excited about these changes, because riding comfortably in the aero position is critical - from resting hands/arms to lowered wind resistance.

Race Bike

Check out the Syntace bars and clip-on aero bars!

This is more comfortable than the Cinelli Angels, because the new system is basically up and back towards me several inches. I'm a bit open, at a 105 degree hip angle (ideally it would be 90 degrees), but as I get comfortable I can have the spacers removed on the head tube and grow or stretch into a more aero position.

Swim 4/18

I hadn't been in the pool in over a week, so I was looking forward to getting in 2000 yards. Amazing isn't it, last year I'm not sure I ever would have "looked forward" to swimming 2000 yards in a day!

I warmed up with 100 yards, then did 600 yards, 400 yards, 500 yards, and 400 yards. Times were 12:15, 8:15, 10:45, 8:45; and yes I did slow down as the yards piled up. So the total was 42 minutes for 2000 yards. At that pace I'll cover the 4224 yards of the IM swim in under 89 minutes. Good enough for me!

I swam in chunks because I was trying out a piece of equipment I forgot I had: a ring counter. Since my HRM is off having its battery replaced, I dug around in my bag to find something else I could use to keep time. Instead of a watch, I found a ring lap counter I forgot I bought.

This thing is pretty cool, because I nearly always lose count of my laps while swimming. I've tried all sorts of strategies - the best one is based around my speed. Since I swim 100 yards in about 2 minutes, I would just swim about 8 minutes and stop at the next lap, as a way of measuring 400 yards. But with the ring lap counter, I can just hit the button and have it remember for me. Nice! Especially because I want to start swimming longer and longer sets, without losing track of where I am.

The ring counter was comfortable on my index finger, where my thumb could easily reach the button. It doesn't interfere with my stroke at all. I decided to make 2 lengths a lap, so every 50 yards I would hit the button. I found myself pausing a bit to make sure I hit it - perhaps over time I'll be able to do it without breaking my rhythm at all.

At the end, the counter will display total laps and time, fastest lap and time, slowest lap and time, and average lap time. It is super easy to use - just hit the big button all the time, and hold it at the end to stop.

Week 15

Apr 11 - Apr 17

	Time
Swim	0
Bike	7:16
Run	0:53
Strength	0:00
Weight	139.6 lb
Body Fat	15.4 %

No swimming because JHS was closed for spring break. Time to start getting more workouts in!

Brick 4/17

JHS is out to kill me, I know it. I'm pretty much going to be phoning it in at volleyball tonight.

It was drizzly this morning so we skipped out of the Cascade ride and did another brick session in my house. It was generally 50 minutes of riding, and then 15 or 20 minutes of a mix (run, then situps, pushups, leg lifts), and then repeat. It isn't so bad, but back to back with yesterday the workout is a bit grueling. The ride was a mix of high cadence, single-leg drills, lots of gear shifting, climbing (pedaling out of the saddle). We watched Shrek and Toy Story, both great movies I hadn't seen in quite a while.

Bike time was 3:00 hours, covering 43.9 miles. We did another 50 minutes of running, corework, and stretching because we were at it for 3:50 total.

Brick 4/16

I'm not sure how to record this, so I'll just go on time. JHS suggested we do one of her coach's brick sessions, so T1 and JHS met at my house and we set up. I popped in The Incredibles which played while we worked out.

JHS had a printout for a rather complicated brick session - it involved a lot of shifting around on the gears, interspersed with short runs and crunches and push-ups. JHS called out the directions, and we followed. The description of the workout was three printed pages! We did things like pyramid sets (shift up and down at fixed intervals), single leg sets (unclip on leg while pedaling circles with the other), up/down sets (stand up and pedal for intervals), and then broke to rehydrate and run outside for a few minutes.

We worked out a total of 4 hours, but my bike computer said 42.9 miles in 2:43. I'm not sure where the other 1:17 went, because I didn't think the short runs and core work took that much time. But, maybe they did.

It was fun though, certainly a lot of variety. Part of the reason we did this workout was fear of rain. Plus, JHS and I intend to join Cascade tomorrow for a ride so we figured getting rained on one day is better than two. But I think the weather held and we would have been OK outside. Oh well, hopefully we'll get lucky and be dry during our ride.