Weekly Wrap and No-Tri

Tri News - Too Cold No Tri

So that is the bad news, right at the start.  There was no "triathlon" on Sunday.  With the water temperature below 50F (10C), the race directors called off the swim leg and turned it into a run-ride-run.

A quote from the email calling it off ...

We tried to hold out as long as we could, but Sunday's race will be a Duathlon.  This is unfortunate, and we would have preferred to hold all three legs of the triathlon.  We understand that many may be upset by this news, but we have deemed it unsafe to hold the swim portion of the race.  Having swimmers in the Bay water would be irresponsible on our part.  Saturday night, the temperature is forecasted to drop below freezing, with temperatures still under 40 degrees at 9am.  The marina water is still below 48 degrees.  The combination of water and air temperatures means that hypothermia is a very real risk. 

Brrr.

Since medical advice still has me limiting my running this ruled me out (I have a credit to next years event, hopefully).  It was definitely bittersweet, I was incredibly happy not to get into the frigid water, but upset the whole things didn't come to fruition.  Now I have to start planning the next first triathlon.

I read up on the "rules" and apparently the ITU (International Triathlon Union) won't do a race (swim) if the water temperature is below 55F (12.7C), while the USTA (US Triathlon Association) don't have an explicit rule as regards to water temperature, leaving it to the discretion of the race director, apparently the race director commonly uses the ITU rules.  My personal opinion, after my very sad attempts to swim in frigid water, is that 48F (~9C) is waaaay to cold.  I cannot now imagine, having previously imagined, doing the "Escape from Alcatraz" triathlon.  The water temperature in June (Summer) is ~55F, I am not sure if I can ever consider this being a good time, especially when the entrance fee is $400!

So onto the week that was.

Wednesday

Out for a run.  Colleen graciously came with me, she was rugged up rolling beside me on her bike, while I ran just about as hard as I could.  I think she spent more time slowing the bike down (if you don't include non-riding activities like cooing at the nice houses) than she did propelling the bike.   Over the 3.3 (5.3k) normal running loop I averaged 7:37 minutes per miles and did the run in 25:34.  I spent a great deal of the run frustrated at how difficult running was compared to riding, watching Colleen riding beside me with no effort at all.  Despite my grumpiness, or perhaps because of it, this was the fastest run I have done so far and each run has been quicker than the last (when I am not doing the run in conjunction with another exercise).

For the rest of the week, laziness set in when it became apparent that the race would be called off and with Colleen's brother and sister in-law (Clayton and Pam, yes Pam of Pam's Law) in town it made for enough excuses to not do anything through until Sunday.

Sunday

On the bike and the same dilemma as usual.  I don't want to go fast, but apparently I only have one speed - as quick as i can go.  I don't want to do a ride I have done, because then I have to beat my last time or I am a failure, so I end up looking for a new route unless I am feeling confident.  So I ride out trying to go slowish (not confident), and wondering what course I am going to do  So  I manage to create a course that I haven't done post surgery.  Straight out Sand Hill and up Old La Honda and back.  It is 25 miles and OLH as it is commonly known is the local "test hill" it is very well known locally, as described here.  I was quite tentative to go up OLH again for the first time, it can never really be considered "fun".

The whole ride was 25 miles over 1 hour 32 minutes, 26 of those minutes (almost exactly) going up the ~3.3 miles (5.3k) of Old La Honda.  Thus I spent about 28% of my time doing 12% of the ride ... hills are stupid.  Here is what the ride looked like from my tricky watch: OLH Ride

One thing that happened almost as soon as I got home is that I ordered a new cassette for the back.  The current is 11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,23,25, while the new one is 11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,24,28.  Those extra teeth (one on the second biggest cog and three on the biggest) will hopefully make OLH a bit easier as I was spent by the top.  On the hill I was out of the saddle much more than I ever remember having to before.  But it could well be a combination of still being weaker and the gears, rather than just being the gears.  However the time up (26 minutes) was at the quicker end of the times I do up there, so time will tell whether my panic buying was really required.

So back into a training groove until I determine a new race.

Scary Tri News

Race Update:

I recieved this email this morning from the race directors.  It didn't exactly fill me with confidence.  However it did fill me with a little bit of self esteem after my ocean swim debacle.  If it gets turned into a duathlon I might skip it.  I have doctor's advice that running more than 5k is too much for my knee this early (I am actually pushing it as they are actually saying 5k is too far), plus Colleen's brother and his wife are here for the weekend and I already feel bad about taking up some of their short time here.

The email:

Hello Treeathletes,
Yet more mail from your race directors here, We wanted to update you on our thoughts about the race as we monitor the weather for this weekend.  As you know the Treeathlon is a cold water swim; last year the water was 52 degrees.  The water temperature this year is already colder than that at 48, as your race directors and some other brave individuals experienced first hand during our race rehearsal last weekend.  Looking at the weather forecast here in the bay area, which calls for very cold temperatures for the rest of this week and potentially even some snow down to sea level on Friday and Saturday, the water will only get colder from here.

Given these conditions we feel it's possible that it will be unsafe to swim this weekend.  Hypothermia on the bike is a very real possibility for even those who are fast swimmers (ie in the water only a short time), so if the water gets colder and/or the weather is inclement  on Sunday we are going to have to change the race to a duathlon (run bike run).  I'd guess the probability of this happening to be at least 50/50, unfortunately.  Two possibilities for the race distances are (given as run, bike, run) 5k, 20k, 5k and 1.2 mile, 20k, 5k. We are working on finalizing a duathlon course, and will publish it as soon as it's ready. 

We understand that this will be disappointing to many of you, but please believe me that we are interested primarily in the safety and happiness of our racers. So here's to hoping that NOAA is dead wrong in their forecast and it will be 75 and sunny all week!

-Your Optimistic Race Directors

Disappointing?  Yes.  Hypothermia!?!  Really damn frightening!  Makes me worry about the fact I tried to swim the the ocean on Sunday.  Seems like a really stupid idea now.  I will keep up the exercise as though it is going to happen, but since I really, really hate the cold water - I am not going to cry to much if it doesn't happen.  OK now I need to start looking for the next first Tri.

T-Minus 5

Tuesday:

Home relatively early and on the bike.  Hit out really hard trying to go for a record.  The bike went well, I went as hard as I could.  Around a third of the way through I passed this guy, he was wearing bike shorts and a black t-shirt and this huge backpack.  I looked back after about a mile and he was right there, after two miles I looked back her was still there.  So I decided to talk him.  He is a forty-five year old guy and he was checking how far it was from his place to OLH.  He thanked me for giving him a "kick in the butt" and I was the first person to pass him on here for "a while".  He stayed on my tail for a bit longer, past OLH but then I (finally!) dropped him before Sandhill he was one of the fastest people I have seen out there.  I went as hard as I could for as long as I could, I started to fade a bit on the way home.  I finished up with a pretty quick time, moving time of 58:26 and a average moving speed of 20.8mph fastest ever.

The ride started at 4pm and back after 5:15pm (the extra time is because I time the ride from the "ride" side of a pedestrian bridge, as I don't want to run into some kid going 15 mph over the pedestrian bridge.

After chatting with Colleen for awhile she heads to the gym, so I go to the pool.  Hit the pool at about 6pm.

I get to the pool and do two warm-up laps.  Then hit the stopwatch and into the swim proper.  There is a guy swimming beside me.I try to put two laps on him over the course of the first twenty-two effectively lapping him.  He stops as I hit twenty, I want to stop, but I don't want him to think thats all I was doing.  So I keep going and he tees off again as I turn for twenty-four.  "Aargh!" now I have to keep going!  So I plan to go to forty-four and try to lap him again.  Everything on me hurts, I have no idea why my arms hurt as I have only been for a ride and thus not using my arms very much, but this is not a very fun swim.  To figure out why my arms hurt, I try to slow my stroke and pick up my kick to see if my legs are sore.  Yes they are!  So the conclusion I come to is that I have fatigued myself so much on the ride my body just doesn't want to do anything else.  I lap him on forty-one and then finish up on forty-four and hit the watch.  Finished the "k" (or .625 miles) in a shade under 18 minutes.  I try to do two laps of breaststroke to cool down, but after hitting the wall after the first turn,  I push off and cramp my right quad.  I finish the lap walking (I was in the very shallow lane) leading me to the following realization.

I know exactly why they do the Tri in the order they do it.  It is from "most likely to die" to "least likely to die".  So doing them in reverse order would lead to more deaths.  If you launched into a swim after running and then riding your ass off, you are likely to jump in the water exhausted and then there would be a bunch of people drowning.

So that was Tuesday, probably a bit too much - try to run tomorrow, ride Thursday, swim Friday, and the rest Saturday before racing Sunday.

Week Five Wrap Up

So - this being the penultimate week before the first Triathlon, I really pushed myself in training.  Well, that is what I should have done, but due to a combination of weather (cold and raining) and work, it really didn't turn out that way.

Monday:

Hit the pool.  Swam a mile. Swimming isn't too much trouble any more I am feeling good in the water.  I am not getting any faster, so I am going to have to start implementing some sort of plan to "get better".  Doing laps however is a relatively comfortable prospect.  Swam a mile, which is about three times the length of the swim.  Still nervous about the wetsuit, but my time to test that out is rapidly running out.

Wednesday:

On the bike (the Fooj) and around the normal loop.  I had good luck with the lights and even though at the start I felt like I don't want to go to fast, I end up going as fast as I can.  As fast as I can turn out to be the quickest I have gone around the "normal loop", the moving time was 58m 58s for a moving average of 20.6mph.  I am sure some if not a lot of the speed that I am getting is attributable to the bike.  I am almost certain have never gone that fast around the loop, and I feel like I was fitter before I had the surgery.

On a side note, it is a very cool feeling to be as happy with a purchasing decision as I am with the purchasing of the Fooj.  However it is also possible to be too enamored with a purchase, as I am with the Fooj.  When I saw an ad for one I thought to myself "I could buy a second one, and one could be the 'everyday bike' and the other one could be 'the special bike'".

Saturday:

In the pool late, had some errands to do and they took longer than expected in the morning.  When I got to the pool, a bit after 4:30pm I though it was opened until 5:30.  This however was not the case and it was only opened until 5pm.  So a quick 1km (.6 miles) and then I was chucked out.  Not exactly what I had planned.

Sunday:

So I decide it is time to try the wetsuit.  And with a lot of motivation from Colleen, I get my stuff together and we drive over to Half Moon Bay, where I plan to go for a swim, in the ocean in the wetsuit.  I want to swim in the ocean, as the brown water in San Francisco Bay really doesn't appeal to me.  So the half hour drive over to HMB.

We get there and it is blowy and cold.  The waves are up a bit, but that isn't concerning me.  I am more worried about being stuck in this neoprene contraption.  After about 10 minutes of getting into it we wander down to the beach, I walk out into the water which is cold.  Not just cold, really cold, but the wetsuit is keeping me fairly warm, so I proceed out deeper, as the water hit me I sense how cold it is, but the wetsuit is doing its job and I don't feel it too bad.  I am starting to think "Hey, this is going to be ok".  Then I dive under a wave and for the first time the water hit my face.  I feel like I am going to hyperventilate and have a panic attack all in one.  I can't breathe, I am taking these shallow little gasps and all I want to do is get out.  However there is a nice rip pulling water off the beach and I am now, while probably only 20 metres (or yards) from the beach out of my depth and being sucked out deeper.  I keep enough of my head to just swim (head up, because it is FREEZING) and wait for a wave.  I body surf in a bit and then get my footing and walk up the beach to Colleen.

We sit and chat for a bit (I think she may have been laughing at me) and then I gather the courage and go back out.  It isn't quite so bad this time, but still not fun.  The water is so cold on my face all I want to do is get out.  I can't control my breathing properly.  So back out I go.  After a bit a sit, back into the water for one more try, but the water is way too cold.  I don't think the fact tht I am attempting this into surf is helping the situation at all, because the only way I can get to calmer water and "acclimatize" is through the shore break, but to get through the shore break I need to be fairly comfortable which I am not, because I cannot acclimatize.  So I get out and we call it off.  I have spend about 10 minutes in the water and the drive will take us an hour.  I feel a bit stupid.

Back home and off for a ride.  Colleen and I take a new route down a relatively flat stretch for a 22 mile ride.  Colleen says her specialty is "downhill sprinting", and this route was pretty flat to allow her to play to her strengths.  As a consequence she did the fastest average ride speed ever.  Over the 22.7 miles we had a moving average of 18.5mph.  Which was awesome.  It was even a tough ride for me in places.  When we were coming back into the wind on a flat stretch, I was doing 24mph sitting up to give her a good wind shadow, working my tail off.  She was sitting back behind me saying "you can go faster.".  But I couldn't.

Things that I have learned:

• Swimming in the wetsuit will not be an issue.  In all the time I was in the water at HMB, not once did I think to myself "this wetsuit is causing a problem with my swimming", however had I not had the wetsuit on I probably wouldn't have got in the water at all, so while it caused me to go out there, it didn't cause me any issues while actually out there (for a brief a time as it was).
• I have no idea how I am going to be able to handle the cold water during the swim.  I think it will be a lot easier than swimming at HMB, but there is a difference between reading and understanding something like this and actually being able to cope with it when the time comes.
• I am going to buy a neoprene swim cap.  I need to try to keep as warm as I can.
• I might try to have a practice swim in the brown water.  Hopefully it is warmer than the ocean, which I hunted down to be about 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8.5 Celsius).  That is SO COLD!

Triathlon Details can be found here: Stanford Treeathlon

I will try blog each days exercise this week leading up to Sunday, and then Sunday night after the event.

Week Four Wrap Up

Monday:
Feeling a little lazy, nothing happens.

Tuesday:
In the pool for a quick swim, just 1000m double the effective distance of the upcoming triathlon. Took me about 25 minutes.  Relatively slow, but felt pretty easy.

Wednesday:
On my own for a ride.  Went around the normal loop for a quick run.  A moving time of just over an hour and an average moving speed of 20mph.  Not the fastest I have been around (I am a failure!).  Actually the difference in time is (first run: 1:00:22, second run 1:00:39) 17 seconds.  I can't quite believe how close the times are.  Feel good on the bike, the Fooj is awesome.  I am going to have to get some aerobars bars soon if I want them for the race.

Thursday:
Out for a run, this time (since on the last run I ran too far) I turn one street to early.  Still a fairly good effort, every run so far (when they have been solo events) have been faster than the previous.  This one continues in that vein.  Averaged 7m 55sec miles over the 3.21 miles (just over 5km).  Knee feels good and doesn't feel too "different".  Feeling happy with it and I guess I am a fair way along the path to recovery.  Still a way from being completely recovered, but well along the path none-the-less.

Friday:
Out for a ride with Colleen.  Around the Alpine loop for a good ride.  We didn't have any issues and that was somewhat of a novelty.  Decent ride but it got a bit cold at times.  On the Trek again and tried for the "speed record" hit 45.2 mph (72.7km/h) for a new record.  On the Old Trek!  Be interesting to see if when I am not already tired from pushing myself hard all the way, what I could do on the Fooj.

Colleen's Specialized Allez

Saturday:
We have a busy morning and only get out in the afternoon for a late ride.  6.5 miles in and the Trek has a flat tire, the bike feels horrible the whole ride.  In the end with the flat tire we turn for home after a very short ride.  The Trek feels horrible and the back tire feels and is buckled.  I have no idea why the Trek feels so bad but it is "sidelined" until I have time to sort it out.  I feel pretty disappointed I spent nearly $600 on fixing it up, the bulk on the wheels which now appear, at least the back, to be buckled.  At the worst I think I might put the wheels on the Fooj for normal rides and use the "flash wheels" for the important rides.

Sunday - Practice Tri:
Decide since I haven't done to much this week that I will do a practice triathlon.  I will do all the "legs" Swim, Ride and Run and do them back-to-back.  I spend the morning trying to figure out routes to make it all work out into a nice loop and all the right distances.  So I end up with a 600m swim (a little longer than the "real" swim).  A ride of 12.6 miles (20 km) from the pool in a loop back to home and then a 3.2 mile (5 km) run from home back to the pool (so I can pick up the car).  I get everything ready.  Put my bike and all my bike gear in the back of the car, setup my gear for the run inside the front door, get my swimming gear together an go to the pool.

Swim:  Put the gear in the locker and jump in the pool, do two laps warm-up.  Then I am ready to go.  Hit the start button on the watch and start swimming.  The first thing I notice is that it weird to swim with a watch.  If i feel this strange about swimming with a watch I am not really looking forward to swimming in a wetsuit.  The swim feels good, I go out quickly to mimic a swim with lot of people and trying to find your own space.  After six laps I slow into a rhythm, and keep that until lap twenty.  For the last six laps I push a little harder finish up the 26 laps in almost exactly 10 minutes.

Transition #1:  I go to the locker and get my stuff and dry off a little on the walk to the car.  This section is not much of a representation of a real transition, but it is the best I can do.  I throw my swimming stuff into the car and get the bike and my bike gear out and on.  In the end it takes something more than seven minutes to sort everything out.

Bike:  On the bike in just swimmers is not real fun, the things we sacrifice in the name of speed.  I have never ridden the route I mapped out before and it starts out (and finishes) with a lot of traffic lights and seem to have to stop at almost all of them.  Something I will have to check on before I figure out the next route.  The Fooj feels fast and the ride feels pretty good.  Over the 12.6 miles (20 km) I average about 20mph.

Transition #2:  I stop at the gate at home and wheel the bike in through the front door.  Looking at my stopwatch it is right on the hour mark.  Pull on my shorts and change by shirt.  I put the 310XT on my right wrist, the left still has my stopwatch on it.  I know I must look pretty weird with two watches, but apparently these are the lengths you will go to when you start getting into triathlons.  Leaving the house about 4 minutes has passed.

Road:  Start running back to the pool.  Everything feels good, just tired.  I keep a relatively good pace, While running I came up with a name for this pseudo-maximum dynamic effort, it is the most you feel like you can do without completely exhausting yourself.  I am pretty sure it isn't actually the maximum I can do but it is the maximum my brain and body will let me, hence "pseudo".  The run takes me a shade under 26 minutes and feels about as good as I could expect.  The stopwatch that has timed the whole journey is showing 1 hour 29 minutes.

So the totals:
Swim - 0.37m (600m): 10 minutes
Ride - 12.4m (20km): 37min 56sec
Run - 3.2m (5km): 25min 56sec

Total Activity Time: 1hr 13min 52sec
Total Elapsed Time: 1hr 29mins

So 15 minutes of down time, this would include transitions and time stopped at traffic lights on the ride.  A decent effort but nothing special.  It makes me feel better about doing the triathlon, although I am still uninitiated in the wearing of the wetsuit.

Hopefully more exercise this coming week, was pretty ordinary apart from Sunday.

Week Three Wrap Up

Thursday:

On the bike.  Bust out the "Fooj" for a quick sprint.  This is the second fast ride on the bike.  I am keen to go fast, but don't want the pressure of having to beat the last time I rode on the bike (as going slower would obviously be a failure).  So I take a different route so that it has to be the fastest ride I have done on the bike on that particular route.  So I go the Alpine Loop, it is a little faster route than the "Normal Loop" (I think) because it is a bit less hilly.

I get through the ride in a moving time in 59:23 with an average moving speed of 20.5mph.  As I got to the downhill where I hit 43.3mph on the Trek, I didn't think I would have the legs to go faster, but I tried anyway.  The result 44.6 mph (71.7 km/h) new record!

Over I was pretty happy with the ride.  Riding the Trek and the Fuji alternately it is really easy to tell the difference between aluminum and carbon framed bikes.  The Fuji is so much stiffer and more agile, it reacts faster than the Trek.  The gears themselves I am not so impressed with, the difference between the old Shimano Tiagra and the new Shimano Ultegra doesn't seem to be too much, probably because the Ultegra needs a bit of work.  The 50-34 compact on the front crank of the Fuji seems easier to hold speed on than the 52-42-30 on the Trek.  Although I am pretty sure I am going to have some trouble on Old La Honda with the Fuji's gearing.  The other disadvantage for the Trek is I was also pretty well fitted for the Fuji, but I picked the Trek off a rack, so I am guessing the Fuji should "feel" better anyway.

Friday:

Got home a bit early and Colleen and I got all suited up for a ride.  Colleen's tire was down a little before the start and stupidly I just pumped it up and off we went.  4 miles in and her tire is flat again.  We go through the tire and find a bit of glass (which has now cost us three tubes).  I decide to take the tire with the hole in it off Colleen's bike's rear and put it on my front.  In doing all this messing around pumping up the tire I bust the valve stem (4th tube).  Colleen has had about enough of this so she sends me home.  I ride home as hard as I can and grab the car.  Driving back get her and her bike and now it is too late for a ride (and Colleen needs a new tire anyway) so off to Sports Basement for tires and tubes.  I also rented a wetsuit it was only $50 for a month, also the rental costs go towards a purchase so win-win.  I spent the rest of the night putting everything back together.

Saturday:

We planned to go to Capitola in the morning, but spent the morning selling the Subaru.  When we were finally done we decided there wasn't enough time required to get to Capitola and back and a swim and do anything else.  So we decided to go off on a long ride.  We were six miles in and phissht Colleen has another flat tire.  Now both our patience is getting frayed.  Colleen is losing patience because this is the third ride in a row where her bike has an issue and the third attempt to fix it.  Colleen is a bit upset that it isn't working out - she wants to ride, but the bike keeps breaking.  I am trying to tell her I can fix it - but there is a lot of evidence to the contrary.

So I try to explain to her the first one was the initial glass in the tire, the second and third ones were the the glass re-puncturing the tire until we found it.  The fourth one was the valve stem being torn by the fact that I was too rough pumping up the tire, and this the fifth was just because the tire bead didn't hold onto the rim properly.  I can imagine her frustration pretty well because mine was mirroring it.  She somehow believe all this and let me fix the tire again.  We then go forward into a proper ride for, instead of turning for home.

And what a ride it was, we went 34.5 miles in just about 2 hours (riding time, excluding the tire fixing).  Colleen and I averaged over 16 mph (16.8mph moving average) and the tire held up fine.  Thankfully she didn't get another flat tire just by coincidence, that might have pushed us into madness.

I went for a run later in the day.  I was hurting a bit from the ride, but still wanted a back-to-back exercice day.  So I went for the normal loop running (5k/3.3m) but in the late dusk I ran out of light, and ran past the normal turn and ran to a set of traffic lights that weren't suppose to be there.  As I got to them I figured out where I was and realized my mistake.  I ran an extra three-quarters of a mile, making in a just over a 4 mile run (6.5k's), rather than the 3.3 mile run I had planned.  I finished it up in just over 36 minutes, making it about 9 minute miles which I was fairly impressed with give the earlier ride and the longer run than I anticipated.

Sunday:

Keen to swim again, but it is just to far to the water I want to swim in.  Capitola is over an hour drive (each way) and Half Moon Bay is probably 30 minutes each way.  If I am only going to swim for 30 or 40 minutes it is just too much driving.  Now swimming in the lagoon's or the bay is much closer - but it all looks so icky.  So the wetsuit and a bay/ocean swim is still shelved at this point.

Then out to "The Dish" at Stanford for a walk.  The Dish loop is about a 3 mile loop, with the path to the loop that we take being about a mile, thus being about a 5 mile walk.  Colleen and Laura had set up this exercise date and I tagged along.  They walk fast.  Walking to me is supposed to be walking, running is how you exercise.  Apparently I was wrong.  My average heart rate was 110 and my clever watch was telling me I burnt about 500 calories over the hour and 25 minute walk.  That is fairly comparable to a 4 mile run for me.

After the Dish, over to the pool.  Colleen came for a swim, I think mainly because she hopes to lie around in the sun because of the summer like weather.  When I tell her I am half way done (1km/0.625m), she take this as a sign to "hit the sun" and is out sunbathing on the side of the pool.  I spend my time in the pool keeping pace with the fastest people I can see easily.  One guy with flippers proves a bit too fast.  I start to cramp in my calves again towards the end.  I gather cramping is a sign of a lack of hydration which always seems unrealistic given the vast amount of water in a pool.  Shouldn't some of that seep into me?  I swim 2k in 35 minutes.  Not too bad but I need to mix it up a bit to get a bit faster.

Mid Week Message

Monday:

Hit the pool in the afternoon and decided to go for 2km.  86 laps later it all looked sweet.  I was doing fine cruising along when as I did the final tumble turn to wrap up 87 and push off to start 88 I got a cramp in my right calf.  It must have looked hilarious, I pushed off the wall and basically went straight into a ball grabbing at my calf ... it took me a while to realize I had to breathe.   I struggled to get my head up while still hold and trying to massage my calf.  I slowly worked out the cramp and dragged myself up to finish off 88.  The lifeguard was at the block and I thought he had observantly seen i was in distress.  No, of course not - he was telling me I was cycling in the lane the wrong way.

Tuesday:

Riding with Colleen.  Unfortunately it seems the tyre we fixed on the Sunday ride deflated somewhat since.  It was down at 40psi.  Stupidly I just pumped it up again, somehow assuming that would make it.  It didn't, obviously.  So about 4 miles in Colleen was struggling with it going down.  So I pumped it up and we went a bit further and then had to turn back.  We had to stop twice more on the way home for me to pump it up to keep the rim from hitting the road.  I spent the rest of the night fixing the tyre.  Ensuring there was nothing in the tyre causing the puncture, checking the the punctures were in different locations on the tubes to double check that it wasn't something in the tyre.  Since the punctures were in different location and I couldn't find anything in the tyre that could have cause it - I am going to assume it was either:

• Colleen got another puncture (very unlucky), 
• Pinch flat, read about them, never had one before (unlikely, given one hole), or
• Issue with the tube (again unlikely)

So whatever happened - even if it wasn't one of these it was unlucky.  So only a slow 10 mile ride.

Wednesday: Part 1 Run

Out for the second run.  Everything was tight and I pushed out pretty fast to try and losen up while running (because warming up isn't my speciality).  It was another 3.3 mile run a slightly different route to last time.  It will be the new "Normal Loop" for the 3.3 mile run.  This run, over the 3.3 miles compared to last time I was 2 minutes faster, or about 40 seconds per mile finishing up in 27:06.  All in all it felt as good as I can expect.  My right quad was a little sore right above the knee i think i might be taking more impact on it as I may be subconsciously favouring it.  Or it is just lazy having not been the subject of the PT and is weak.  One or the other.

Wednesday: Part 2 Swim

Since I had already run, I was happy to just do a quick "k" (1000m or 0.6 miles), basically double the swim length of the probable first tri (Pam's Law*).  It was amazing how tight my shoulders are.  I think the running is making them sore as well.  I haven't had my shoulders move it that running motion for a long, long time. Did the "k" in 17 minutes.  It took me longer to drive there and back.

* Colleen's sister-in-law Pam told me that you need to be comfortable swimming twice the race distance to be ready for the swim leg.

So 4 "exercise events" in 3 days - pretty happy with how the week is progressing.

Week Two Wrap Up

So since I seem not to be the most active blogger, weekly updates will probably be the norm with the odd daily blog thrown in.

Tuesday:
Swim.  It got it's own post where I learned the pool length (still not ratified by a human source) so I won't rehash it here.

Wednesday:
Riding with Colleen, she did well our moving average speed was 16mph.  The ride was thankfully without incident.

Thursday:
Swam.  Started out with 24 x22.86 for a warm-up (a little under 550m).  Then to mix it up I did some "timed runs".  Going down and back on 55 seconds.  So wait until the clock hits :00, swim down an back (2x22.86) and rest until the clock hits :55, then go again.  I did 12 of these (24 x22.86 total).  I was going as quickly as I could without destroying myself and had a good 15 seconds to rest at the end of each one.  So I probably should have been doing them on 50 seconds and will next time,  For the first time I was relatively pleased with how quickly I was doing them but a little alarmed at how hard I was breathing at the end of each.  Finished out with another 22 x22.86 (500m) to complete the metric mile (1600m)

Got home late on Friday which precluded the chance to go for a ride.  Looking forward to  better weather, daylight savings and longer spring and summer days and we can ride until 8pm.

Saturday with the weather bad, I headed to the Sports Basement in Santa Clara and bought a bunch of stuff to "re-animate" my old Trek.  The thinking is - if I want to ride to work, I don't really want to do it on the "pretty bike".  I don't want it getting all the miles, but more importantly bashed, scratched, scraped and/or stolen in a bike rack.  So I spend the majority of Saturday learning how to take everything on the bike apart, clean it and put it back together.  It scrubbed up well.  Unfortunately I might have spend as much "fixing it" as I did buying it in the first place!  The components I put on it are of much superior quality than those I took off, of course.  But it is going to have to go for another 3 years before I am going to see this as a "win".  Although in searching for a picture for a future "before and after" blog on the Trek I did learn it was Cycling Plus' 2006 Budget Bike of the Year, so perhaps it was worth saving.

Sunday:  Part 1 Ride
With the weather terrible it seemed unlikely that anything outdoor exercise related was going to happen.  However late in the day there seemed to be enough of a break to get a 1+hr ride in, so we took off.  We decide to the the "Alpine Loop" about the same distance (20miles) as the "Normal Loop" but a little faster as there is less climbing.

I decided to debut the revitalized Trek.  We got hit with a bit of rain at about half way and it was probably the coldest ride I have ever done, but better than sitting around doing nothing.  On a downhill the old Trek took the record for the fastest speed recorded on the 310XT so far at 43.3mph (a shade under 70km/h) however probably not the smartest moving on a bike that I had just put back together and was riding for the first time on wet roads, but I survived.

The Trek

Colleen said she "felt slow", and our speed confirmed that, I thought it was just the cold.  Later in the ride she seemed slow in places where it is downhill and she is generally quite quick.  Finally coming up the back of Sand Hill hill, heading East.  I noticed her back tyre almost flat!  We have no idea how long it had been like that, but gave her "feeling slow" credence.  So off with her back tyre and in with a new tube and a quick fill with the compressed air bottle (I love those things).

Sunday: Part 2 Run
When we got back, I guess because of the slower speeds (due to Colleen's slowly deflating tyre) and the stop to fix it, I felt like I need to do more.  With the pool shut and my PT telling me I could start running, I decided it was time.  So on with the running shoes, 310XT into running mode and off I went.  I told Colleen I would try to do 3 miles and I would be back in about inside 40 minutes.  About 400 meters into it I was wondering "what am I doing!?!"  But I pushed through.  Then the watch beeped for the first mile, and I was thinking "2 miles is enough, turn around" but I persevered.  I looked down at the watch after forever and it said 1.67 miles.  So I turned around and started back.

Apart from consistently fighting my desire to just stop, everything felt fine.  My surgically repaired left knee, now just under 16 week post surgery felt fine.   In the end I did it a whole lot better than I expected to (especially given all my internal complaining).  The 310XT said I did 3.32miles in 29:43, not a bad first run at all, especially considering the aforementioned knee surgery and the fact I haven't run 3 miles in more than 8 months, plus I had just ridden 20 miles.  All in all a good first run.  I am guaranteed to be sore on Monday!

Finished the week icing my left knee.