Monday, May 30, 2011

A Bike/Run, A Bike & Run And The Pool

Gear
Over the weekend, I finished up week 1 and started week 2 of a 16 week 70.3 training plan.  And though it's only been a week (or perhaps BECAUSE it's only been a week), so far so good.

The plan definitely changes the way I spend my training time.  For example, I usually join OC Velo and set off to points unknown for a long ride every Saturday morning.  But the training plan calls for a bike/run workout every Saturday.  And since I have committed to following the plan's schedule more or less to the letter, it's not until Week 5 that the rides get long enough for the OC Velo ride to make sense.

Instead I opted to join the Out-spoke-n Cycles ride.  I should/need to be doing this anyway, as the shop is the main sponsor of a team that TRI714 are putting together.  So it all worked out perfectly.  And as a bonus, I got to sleep an extra hour.

Out-Spoke-n
Because it was a holiday weekend, only 5 other people turned up.  Everyone turned out to be a decent rider, but I could tell right away that most of these guys lacked any real group riding experience.  The planned ride was a 25 mile out and back route.  On the outbound leg, at any given time at least one of the five guys in the group was attacking off the front of what little group we had, only to blow up and fall behind, and then recover to do it again.  I must admit it was driving me a little crazy, because I like proper group rides.  So at the halfway point, I suggested we do a pace line back and explained the mechanics of same to those who didn't know what it was.  Everyone caught on pretty quick and for the return trip we where making good time taking :30-:45 second pulls each.  There WAS one guy who on his first few pulls could not resist the urge to really put the hammer down the millisecond he got on the front, but I gave him a little guidance on the matter and he did great after that.

Once back at the shop, I changed into my running shoes quick (not quite a proper T1 time but not bad) and set out for the run.  Out-spoke-n is right on PCH in Sunset Beach, so all I had to do is cross over to the beach side, get on the beach path and start running.  I did just over 5 miles out and back south towards the Bolsa Chica lifeguard station.  The run felt good.  Actually, it felt really good.  So good in fact that I was not the least bit annoyed that the day marked the first day for the next 3-4 months that I'm going to have to share the beach path with tons of out-of-towners.  When I got back, the Saturday farmers market that happens in the Out-spoke-n parking lot was in full swing.  There is a stand there making what look to be amazingly tasty tamales.  I was able to resist this time, though I doubt my will-power will last much longer.


Post wind & Velominati rule violation
Sunday called for another bike and run, but not as a brick.  Since I was riding alone, I took the TT bike out for this one.  It was windy Sunday - really windy.  When I hit PCH and turned south, I had a tail wind and hit 32-33 MPH pretty easy.  But even though I was having a great time, it didn't take much presence of mind to realize that I somehow had to get back.  So I couldn't help but start feeling a little bit of dread as the outbound miles flew by.  Eventually, all good things come to an end - after a few repeats on this little kicker of a hill near Hoag Hospital, it was time to go back.  And let's just say the ride back totally sucked.

But I did make it back intact and a few hours later, I went out for the run.  Again I did another 5 miles and again it felt great.

Heck yes, Stanford!
Today I hit the pool.  The swim is where I am really breaking it down to basics again.  After a 400 yard warm-up, I did a few 200's of various drills and then swam a 50-100-150-200-150-100-50 pyramid with each interval on :20 seconds rest, before doing some sprints and a cool down.  I tried, as best I could, to really think about one specific component of my stroke on each interval - reach, head position, body roll, pull and so on and so forth.  I was sharing a lane with a collegiate swimmer.  She was from Stanford if you can go by swim caps, and we got to talking a little.  After a bit of swim training small talk (to which I could add very little), she pointed out that I was crossing my stroke across the center line.  I'm always more than happy to get swimming advice, so I took note and made an adjustment.  And something changed, because I could definitely feel my shoulder and back muscles engaging in a slightly different way.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, I've got a short Z2 run and the El Dorado Criterium tomorrow, a core workout Wednesday, another swim and some run speed-work on Thursday, a day off Friday and then I'll basically repeat what I did this weekend next weekend, adding a bit of time to each session.

I'm into it.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Enjoy your training!!!!

Christi said...

Sounds like you had a great weekend of training. Congrats!

The Green Girl said...

Wow, go Patrick!

I've yet to ride with a group so this was particularly interesting for me to read.

KovasP said...

Really impressed that you are feeling so strong on the run off the bike - that's ususally most people's weakness.

Unknown said...

Can't wait to see how it is feeling in Week 12 ...lol! You'll start to consider printing out your weekly training plans to use as toilet paper!!

NattyBumpo said...

I love how your profile says "Moderately serious athlete" because everyone I know that trains for the tri are a bunch of lazy people who drink beer starting a 10:00 am and stay out until after 2:30 when the bartenders kick them out.

I bet with the proper sail configuration, I could hit 33 mph with a good tailwind on a downhill. As for pool work, um, a good water slide is hard to beat. The ones in Manteca are pretty good.

TRI714 said...

Just got real, real quick huh. Good for you. And that farmers market has something grilling up over there that I keep away from. I'm also ready to venture in ther for some grub though.

Tri4Success said...

Group rides were smaller than usual in my neck of the woods too. Sounds like you had some great workouts though! Oh, and I would so get a tamale ..... and then shove a dozen in my jersey for the trip home.

Aimee said...

Nice job with your training so far! It sounds like you're doing great! Woohoo!

XLMIC said...

Lucky for you that girl in the pool was nice... looks like your pool karma is evening out.
I can't believe you passed on the tamales. A good tamale should never be passed up.
Nice of you to teach those guys proper group etiquette... instead of just being an ass to them ;-)

Hope the run and ride today go swimmingly... hhahahahha!

Kate Geisen said...

Good workouts. And very smart to do some paceline tutoring rather than just getting annoyed. Most people don't want to ride like asses, they just don't know better. I've just started doing group rides with my tri club, and I'm very appreciative of their help.

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