Week of March 26th, 2007

This is the beginning of a rest week or two as I absorb the past several weeks of hard training and racing. My dead legs during my threshold test and overall fatigue is a sign to rest. And so I shall.

Monday:
3200 yard lunch time swim was decent. A bit of neck/shoulder/rib pain, but I completed the workout.
90 minute run after work. Ran the Hawthorne-Sellwood bridge loop along the waterfront. I haven't ran this in a while, so it was good. South Waterfront has a ton of shit going on down there. Should be pretty nice once completed. That reminds me, there is a sign on the Sellwood about the future of the bridge. The city has allowed building to be built within feet of the bridge, WTF? Where is a new bridge going to go? It's got to go up...double decker like the Marquam and Fremont. Anyway... http://www.sellwoodbridge.org/

Tuesday:
4000yard set was cut short because of my second rib hurting when breathing left and with deep breaths. Sucks. PT this afternoon was helping, but not entirely...

Wednesday:
2 hour bike with 3*5min Half Ironman (HIM) pace on 3min rest. Average HR was 150 on the first two and 158 on the last one. The third one has a few overpasses. I was doing these out by Kelly Point Park. It was also weird windy, so speed wasn't a good indicator today. I wanted 24mph+ on each set, but I wasn't close most of the time with the wind. Deep breathes hurt somewhat.

Thursday:
55 minute run with 3*5minute HIM pace intervals on 3 min rest. These were good. HR averaged 160, have no idea on pace as I was on the waterfront, but they were comfortably fast. I'm guessing sub 7:30, at least I hope so. More PT afterwards, no it's starting to work. Once I got my shoulder and trap loosened up, she was able to get my rib and vertabrae lined up again.

Friday:
Pt is working cause my rib/shoulder/neck was fine today. Yes, it was a short 2k swim with only two hard 25 yard sets, but still... I'm off to Yin Yoga in the Pearl, then as a recovery ride I will be riding to get my hair cut...

Saturday:
With my HIM simulation on Sunday I'm heading out to Sauvie Island to mark off a 13.1 mile run course. I have a 40 minute ride with 3*2min HIM pace intervals I will do while riding and then an easy 20min run. Hopfully it's not raining too hard. I will alos be picking up some used DA Cranks for the cross bike. Looking to lighten that up and stop having issues with the bottom bracket. It needs some bling anyway. Never too early to be thinking about cross.

Sunday:
Half Ironman Sim – Bill, David, Linnea and Melissa were around for this “event.” Swim:2100 yards in the pool in about 29 m,inutes. I started out fast 50, moderate 100 and settled into 1:20 pace. I pretty much held it together for the entire distance. David, Bill and Linnea were right behind me getting out of the water. We got lucky and had the whole pool…there were people waiting, some getting irritated…Bike: We went to the cars and geared up. I wore last years’ kit and was in full on race mode with the Zipps and all. I did have an extra water bottle cage, for water since I decided not to set-up a table at the Island. We all headed out, it was a cold morning, so I had a vest, arms, knees and gloves…not your typical race gear. Had a nice easy cruise out, then started in on the first of four laps. My hands and feet were very cold. My HR was under 140 for the whole ride. Lap times were from 32-35 minutes. The later laps were getting tough, whether it was the wind or my effort, but my PE was higher than it should have been. At some point David left, his IT band was flaring up. Just Bill, Linnea and I. Melissa was doing her own ride and was at T2 to run with us. I followed my malto guidelines to the tee, never hungry or crampy.Run:My legs felt similar to Vineman last year (it was my IM race simulation for Canada), so I had feeling they would be okay. They were okay and we set out closer to 8 than 8:30. I believe the mile posts were a bit inconsistent, but what are you going to do? Things were around 8:15/20 for most miles… I think I could have held that to mile 20 of the marathon, but the last 10k would be very tough. But the last 10k isn’t ever easy. Overall, it was more difficult than I had planned. Don’t know, if I was tired, lack of competition and adrenaline from a race or what. Good news is I wasn’t much, within 5 minutes, slower than the two 70.3s I did last year. I’m good with the result and I am ready to put those longer IM pace intervals to good use in the upcoming weeks before Brazil.