LA Tri Club Bonanza

Managed to haul my lazy butt out of bed this morning at 5:40 or so (actually
wasn't that hard--I was brooding on a recent audition disappointment) and head
out to Santa Monica for some ocean swimming. Same workout that I've done
twice before now: start at cone #1, run in, brave the breakers, swim 45 degrees
out to a buoy 200 meters out, right shoulder 90 degrees around the buoy, swim
in to cone #2, run about 300 meters back to the first cone. Repeat till all
major organs thoroughly vomited out onto the sand. Doesn't get any bloody
easier! I did four repeats, which most other people did (there were probably 20
people there today), though some freaks did 5. Every time I got out of the
water I was sucking wind big time. What's the deal? I wonder if transitioning
from swim to run is just hard metabolically...all the O2 is going to the upper
body for the swim and then you go into a run, asking for blood in the legs all
of a sudden. Told myself that it was good prep for transitioning, and that
the Redondo beach exit wouldn't have been as manageable without that practice.

I think the most noticable way in which my fitness has improved is that I
don't need as much recovery time after an anaerobic effort. I noticed this
further during my speed run: I did about 4 miles in 27:10, broken down as follows:
5 min easy warmup, 2 min fast run/1 min. easy jog, repeated 5X, then 2 min
easy, 1 minute sprint, 1 min easy, 2-3 minute fast run in. I was planning on
taking 2 minute breaks between the hard efforts but felt good enough--even
after my hard swim--to do 1 minute easy pushes. And all told I held my pace to
under 7 min/mile, even though overall pace was less of a concern to me than
getting good efforts on the sprints.

So it's good to know that my recovery is getting better, and that I can catch
my breath fairly efficiently after a hard push...just have to go into
recovery pace--biking, swimming OR running, and it kicks in.

All told it was about 75 minutes worth of pushing...completed the swim in
about 42 minutes and the run in 27, then did 5 minutes of stretching to round
things out. Wow...

Incidentally, I read about the Arrowhead Tri: 10 mile bike ride with 900
feet of climbing! A tough, tough ride. Moreover, the course is at 5200 feet!
Anyone who trains at real altitude will have a serious advantage. I suppose
this means a couple of things: that I need to keep working those hills, on the
bike, and that I need to get myself out there at least one weekend to work the
course and feel what it's like, preferably a few weeks out so I know how to
prep for it. But wow...it's going to be a toughie.

A