The Weekend Grind (is over...)

Good Day to you all,

Yes, I have been posting more infrequently as of late. My taper workouts have not been outstanding to note, so I felt that instead of wasting time and blogspace, I would just wait until Monday and do an extensive recap. I finished playing Fable this weekend, took up about 7-8 hours of my time from Friday to Sunday afternoon. Those RPG games are addictive! With a game like NCAA Football 20XX (there are multiple years out), you can play a game within 20 minutes (you can manipulate how short/long the quarters are). This particular game I was playing, if you get into a "quest", then you cannot leave in the middle of it, or else you have to start all over again. However it is "free" entertainment (already paid for, just playing again).

Anyways, back to triathlon stuff. Here is my workouts through yesterday. Today is my off day, to clean the bike, you will see why in a minute.

THURSDAY
BIKE
Mellow Mushroom (Brookhaven) Loop x 2
1 hour 13 min 19 seconds
20.12 miles

Supposed to be like a recovery/easy ride. I finished 2nd behind Pete (new riding friend in Thursday night's group). Not that it was a race. I just picked it up on the second half of the ride. The course was awsome, there were some hills that mimicked the course on Saturday, and there were never any huge hills, just some small rollers, and long low grade hills. The after bike ride was great, pizza and beer at Mellow Mushroom!!!

FRIDAY
SWIM
50M sides
200M warmup (freestyle)
400M @ race pace - 7 min 35 seconds!!!!
50M x 4 cooldown (just below race pace)

I cannot believe it, 7 min 35 seconds! I was having problems in warmup with my goggles, but during the actual swim they were ok.

Question: When you guys count laps, no matter how big the pool, do you count one way a lap, or do you count down and back one lap. I was on a forum the other day posting someting, and I specifically told everyone how I counted laps, and then said I did this many "laps" (I count down and back as a one lap), and then there were a slew of posts where everyone said I was counting wrong and that the distance did not work out for that many laps. Do people not pay attention?!?!? I guess I am the only one who counts that way. For me I equate it to going around a race track. You have to come back to the start/finish line eventually to make it a complete "lap." So it would make sense (at least to me) that in order to complete a lap in a pool, you go down and back to where you began for a "lap."

SATURDAY
RUN
100m warmup
not too much stretching (bad Andy!)
5K run @ race pace - 20min 35 seconds!!!

Again, awsome! I know I have run faster than this in my life (I think the fastest 5K I have ever run, when I was really into running, was 18:30-18:45). I know I did not warm up really well, but I did not have much time that evening, so I could not do a 5k warmup (i.e. negative splits) to simulate activity before the run part of the race. Oh well, I am trying for sub 22 min if I can during the race. I have been training on my "Chastain Loop," so I have been training on a more hilly course than what I will actually be running on.

SUNDAY
BIKE
Silver Comet Trail - 12.5 miles
48 minutes, 16 seconds. I did not go at it full effort, obviously...
Rain...

No fun... Got really wet although it had rained much harder, earlier in the evening. I kept fairly dry, except for my lower body. Soaking wet! Good thing I brought a change of clothes. It was also late in the evening, and got pretty dark out there. Speaking of which, it is beginning to get darker earlier in the evening. I am going to have to put my bike lights back on my bike when I go on my weeknight training rides. Anyone want to get me a trainer for Christmas???

Today is off day, I have some things to do around the apartment, as well as clean my bike from last night's escapades. My light workouts will be Tue, Wed, Thu. I am going to do a couple of transition workouts on Thu/Fri, so I can practice getting down the transition. I am looking to split 1:30/1:00 on T1/T2.

Less than 5 days! I am excitied, not just because my race is coming up, but I have not done anything since May with respect to Triathlon events, and I am craving for another one.

Keep it up on your Ironman training, I know that most of you have either Ironman Wisconson or Ironman Florida coming up. I am thinking of taking a three day weekend (Saturday/Sunday/Monday) so I can come down there and cheer you on, as well as hopefully meet a few of you. It will also be my first race as a spectator, and i think that will be helpful.

Signing off,

Murtha...