Long Swim/Fast Bike/Fast Run

TRILAB
Approx. 2 hours

This was a long, fun workout—very tough, especially the bike/run, which were real effortful pushes. The swim workout was good: in the pool, with Gina and the advanced swimmers – Eric, Stefan, Goatee Mountain Biker Todd…was that all? Can’t remember. Anyway, we pushed through lots of drills—and hell, I was the fastest one! Too bad tri swims aren’t in pools, I’d do well. I did 150 yards in 2:16…pretty good—averaging 45 seconds per 50. When I started I couldn’t do a single 50 in 45 seconds, full out! Learned a type of wall turn that’s easier and faster than what I’m used to. We probably did 1500 meters. Drilling, drilling, drilling. Gina seemed to think my main problem was overreaching—what she called “disco fishing”—crossing my centerline on my overhead extension. So I worked on that and got better. Also got better at gliding, which she wanted me to exaggerate. And speed was good. Usually I’ve had to sacrifice form for speed, but soon I think they’ll come together. Gotta keep with 3x/week—it makes a difference.

As for the bike/run, we did a short course with lots of turns: a total of about 10 miles in roughly 1/2 hour…I averaged over 19 mph again AND—finished first, beating Eric at the finishline. He’s a fast starter, but he slows at the end. Same thing on the run—beat him in the last 3/4 mile or so, but was bested myself by goatee man Todd, who ran strong the whole time. He was good, that’s for sure! The run lasted about 22 minutes, and I averaged 149 hr. between that and the bike. I’ve learned that the bike will just be painful on the quads. It’s such a concentrated exercise. Fortunately there are ways to move the pain around…keep working the hams on the bike. MHR was probably in the 160s—my HRM got messed up again and is reading way too high. Funny, my exercise HR is WAY below that of other people. I can’t go to 175 like a lot of folks…

Anyway—the run was about 3 miles. So it was almost a mile swim plus 10 miles of bike plus 3 miles of run: pretty much a full sprint tri—plus a little bit, and with slower transitions. And I feel good today (Sunday). So—that’s good. I’m going to go for an easy bike after I train Scott this morning. That’s going to be it for me this week. I’ve DONE all 3 disciplines 3 times now! So this will be sort of a bonus workout! But I’m going to go easy.

Great work! This was really my final “hard work” week. Next week I’m going to follow the taper plan in the Harr book so I’m good and rested for the tri on Sunday in San Dimas. After that, hey, it will be back to hard training, maybe for Newport or Redondo? We’ll see.