Weekend recap (and about 13 days to go...)

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood..."

This weekend's weather was awsome. I don't know if it was the same everywhere else, but cloudy, misty Saturday and partly cloudy Sunday were great! Both days were under 90 degrees. Saturday felt like a muggy 75 degrees, and Sunday was around 80 degrees, with a slight breeze (headwind for me of course). Here were the workouts;

SATURDAY
SWIM
none

BIKE
none

RUN
5K x 2 (Chastain Loop), Negative Splits
Lap 1: 26 min 04 sec
Lap 2: 22 min 27 sec

SUNDAY
SWIM
none

BIKE
12.5 miles in 38min 20 sec ?!?!?!?!

RUN
none

I did not complete a brick workout on Sunday, number one, since I did not feel like it, and number two, because of my ride.

I REFUSE to accept the fact that I have only improved my time, on average, by one minute on a "flat course." Everywhere else in my triathlon arena I have improved (even on bike rides with actual elevation changes), but for some reason I am slower on my flat course. I know that I could probably shave about 15-20 seconds off of my ride from last night (my bike computer will not stop until 3.2 seconds after the last pass, so there were a few times where I almost stopped at a bike crossing, just to start pedaling again.), maybe a few more. Other than the slow downs on the crosswalk and between miles 2-4 where there is a slight elevation gain (avg speed closer to 18 during that section), I was averaging closer to 19+ mph. In fact the last four miles, I was doing something between 21-23mph, due to a "slight downhill" on the return (i.e. looks flat, but you can tell since you are going faster). I have never gone that pace for that long of a distance.

This leads me to one conclustion. If the Silver Comet trail is right, and my bike computer is right, then the distance on last year's race has to be off! (Even by just a bit) I understand from the feedback that I received from many of you stated that it is harder to maintain pace on a flat course and that some of you are in the same arena as me (you have improved everywhere but on flat course bike). I just refuse to accept it. Maybe I need to get into a 12 step program to accept my slowness on flat course, I dunno. Isn't denial the first symptom?

I digress. Thu/Fri were slack nights. My little sister Erin (who will always be my little sis) had her wisdom teeth and an adult molar removed on Thursday, so I spent some quality time with her. I also went up to Athens on Saturday night to hang out with the Fraternity, and I spent some time up there with her as well (note: bike ride was on Sunday AFTERNOON).

Taper seems to be going fairly well. This week I have scheduled two off nights with weights. The other nights are easy rides (I promise I will ride easy tuesday night, even if I am the last person to finish), easy runs, and a couple of key swims (one night I have two 400M @ race pace as my workout and the other night is a moderate 800M as my main swim. Not as much distance as the rest of you, but then again I am not training for an Ironman event). No brick this weekend since it will be the weekend prior to the race. Is that a good idea or bad idea? I would like some advice on the matter.

Next week (race week) I am planning to do Mon: off, Tue, Wed Thu: on, but very light, Fri: I am going to try something I read in Triathlete Magazine about nutrition loading... Yes I know, never try anything new, but it is not as if I am trying new nutrition or anything, I am just doing a really quick high intensity run or bike. It is supposed to do something to your body so that you absorb and store your night before nutrition better. I forget the science behind it, you can read it in one of the summer issues of triathlete magazine. Besides that quick 2-4 minute thing, Friday is off.

For some reasone I did not sleep well at all last night, I think it was due to sleeping so much the night before. When I got back from Athens, I slept from about 2:30am-1:00pm. I have not slept in, in so long, it felt great! I guess I did not really need the sleep last night, since I feel pretty good this morning.

I will be reading your blogs a little later...


Murtha...