Training Update

This week is off to a good start. I completed my own mini Duathlon on Sunday. I ran three miles at 6:50 pace, rode for an hour and a half on the trainer while watching "Cinderella Man," and finished with a 3 mile run holding strong at a 7:14 pace. I still need to set my computer to read off my back tire rather than my front tire so I can keep up with speed rather than just cadence and RPE. This is all in prep for Powerman AL which is a 5 mi run, 34 mi Bike, 5 mi run duathlon. More on that in a bit.
Monday is a recovery/swim day. Here's what my swim work out looks like: 10 X 50 (leaving every minute), 5 X 100, 3 X 200, 2 X 300, 1 X 400. These are all out efforts. I'm doing my best to keep my pace around a 45 second lap. It's easy early on, but just ain't happening later on.
Tuesday - I shouldn't have done it, but I took the day off from running. I wanted to be in good form for the local Tuesday Night World Championships. It's a 30 mile ride where all the local cycling groups get together and see how fast they can ride the course. It's an all out hammer fest once we make it through the neighborhoods. I'm in a kind of love/hate thing with this ride right now. I love the camaraderie and the challenge of riding in a fast moving peleton with a lot of jockeying for position. BUT, I'm just not getting a great workout. The group averages anywhere from 27-36 mph in the flats, but for me, it's all in a windless vacuum. I'm just getting swept along. I'll either have to start moving up to the front and doing my share of pulls or I'll just need to suck it up and enjoy the ride for what it is.
Wednesday - Alarm clock went off at 5:30 am for a date with the bike on a trainer. I popped in Fight Club (awesome movie by the way) and put in a hour of work while doing 3 sets of 8 minute intervals in Zone 4. Great workout. Loved watching a messed up movie before work too.
Lunch was spent back in the pool. Just an endurance swim today. 1.2 miles of easy going laps. Felt great, but time is always a factor. Had to be back at work.

Transition to Powerman. The race has been moved to downtown Birmingham for the first time this year. The course was finally revealed today, and it was exactly like I feared. It's going to be three 10.3 mile loops that stay downtown featuring twenty-five 90 degree turns per lap. I was pretty disappointed to see this. The course resembles more of a criterium than a time trial course. Now, I'm having to decide whether to ride the TT bike or the road bike. Which is better? How much time will I lose trying to make the turns on my TT bike compared to the road bike? I decided that I will have to start practicing making these types of turns and hitting the gas afterwards. Regardless. I'll make it work and will race my best.

That's all for now. Tailwinds....