Another week down....

Training last week had it’s moment’s. Sunday I did a slow brick with a six mile run in the morning that was rain free, surprise! Then I didn’t want to rush into a bike because I was going to be doing hill repeats, so I waited about 2 hours before hitting the bike. I was looking forward to seeing how the bike would handle going from a triple sprocket to a compact, basically no “Granny Gear’. Not too bad on the training hill that I have. I was a little scared that without the gear I’d have to turn back from the hill or simply not make it up or even whose – walk!

OK maybe not walk. But it all went fine and the bike wasn’t really even fitted for me yet.

Monday was cool, it was my birthday and AK scored tix to the Mariners season opener. Neither one of us are big baseball fans, but hey it’s tix to a game! Wednesday I had a great swim at 1.3 miles, felt like form was improving, while my lap time got slightly quicker, I could cover the same length with using less energy.

So to cover .75 miles on ave. before I was swimming at about 90%. With the last 3-4 weeks I can cover the same .75 miles in the same time, but feel like I can drop to about 75-80% output.

And great news, last Thursday I went in for my FOURTH!!! bike fit and came out with the same bike.

The new bike feels amazing!!! Saturday I hit 25 miles, mostly hills to test the new bike (and my legs) and had a great ride in an almost sunny day. All in all a pretty good training week, thirty minutes short on the goal of 8 hours, but I think that’s fine.

Here's a picture of George watching a (the endless) storm come in over the Olympics on This past Mondays ride.

Weeks workouts….
2 Swim – 1.7 miles for 1:20 minutes
3 Bike – 47 miles for 3:40 minutes
3 Run – 13.32 miles for 1:50 minutes
1 Other – for 35 mintues


AK Workouts
5 Runs for 22 miles

Penny
5 Runs for 7 miles


Penny talking AK into a run or AK talking Penny into a run.
Hard to tell

This past week, back at it....

Last Sunday I hit the day with a good steady swim and a smaller hilly bike ride. After Saturdays longer brick I thought I felt good enough for a smaller one on Sunday. This week I felt good health wise and inshape wise. Hour goal for the week was 7 hours and I knew I could hit that, but I couldn’t get lazy!!! Schedule had me at 3 doubles this week with a long bike on Saturday. I was looking forward to getting to my Friday day off from training. Mostly glad this week for getting my swimming back on track with hitting 2.21 miles for the week. Also, yesterdays bike ride.

About yesterdays bike ride, I just have to say, I love my bike George. I’ve been having some issues with getting a new race bike for this years races and that will be one entry when it finally gets resolved. However, for all the full carbon bikes and compacts and this and that for the new bikes that I’ve been trying, nothing has felt as good as my ol’ George ,1200 Trek w/ an aluminum frame. I went out yesterday and hit the hills hard! Going from the house up to Blue Ridge and over Crown Hill down to Golden Gardens then out to Fremont and across the Fremont Bridge to the SPU college and straight up Queen Anne then around to Dravus ave. and out over to do a loop around the Mag to the Disco. Back down from the Disco to the downtown area of Magnolia and finally back up to the Disco. Were I met AK and Penny for a quick walk with the Penster after she did a lap at the Disco with AK.
Here's a pic of Penny taking in the views of Discovery...

All in all a great ride!! George handled the hills fine and what great weather!!!
I’d like to thank Team Cannoli for helping Eileen out Saturday when she was lost on her bike ride in their neck of the woods. She called and my phone was dying, but I got a call out in time to TK and Shell to help her out. Thanks!

Week Totals…..

3 Swim - 2.21 miles for 1:32 hours
3 Bike – 41.5 miles for 2:40 hours
2 Run – 8.4 miles for 1:20 hours
2 Other for 1:28 hours

10 workouts for 7:01 hours - Hit goal hours for the week"Sweet"

AK
5 runs for 22 miles

Penny – ruff
4 runs for 10 miles – WOW! She has more miles than me!!! – but she does have four legs??!!??

Out and about....

Last weekend I got out with George on the great ride. From the house to the Ballard Bridge then around the Mag Loop ( Magnolia bike loop) via the Disco for a out and back from the Locks. Then up 34th St. around by Swansons and back to the house. It's kind of a butt kicker of a course and I wanted to see how the legs were doing this early in the season. Lots of running and swimming so far, but not really any bike for the last three months. However, tomorrow I'll ride the Chilly Hilly with Eileen, Shell and a friend of hers and that will start real bike training for this year. Nothing like climbing back into bike training. Plenty of pictures to come after.....

Week totals
1 Swim .71 miles 40 min
2 Bike 24 miles 1:17 hrs
2 Run 9.47 miles 1:14 hrs
3 Other 1:32 hrs

8 workouts 4:45 hrs

Not a very productive week, too many other things going on last week to put together any really good intense workouts. One good run and a 13 mile spin is about all that felt right. The goal for last week in hours was 6:30. The goal for this week has to be 7 hrs minimum.

AK totals

4 Run 16 miles
7 Core 2:10 hrs

What's the weather like tomorrow?

OK, I’m so ready for the sun and heat of spring and summer to start. The cold and rainy days are I know ”Life”. I still wouldn’t mind maybe a small chunk of warm weather to run in maybe once every 3 weeks or so. It’s kind of funny because I vividly remember on my 22 mile training run for Phoenix last year, on a cold freezing rain day, running down the Burke saying or yelling to myself “ NO MORE TRAINING THROUGH WINTER!”. And thinking last year at the end of the Pumpkin Push,‘ Just 3.1 miles away from having to run in the cold’. Well, I can’t understand what happened, one minute I’m sitting on the couch munching on cheez-it’s and the next I’m looking at the 29 degree weather as I’m strapping on my forerunner. I blame AK, or Moose for having lousy conversations on the couch???

Moose blowing the candles out on his birthday cake this last year.

With this years training starting out in December it’s hard to get up and face another 28-38 degree weather run or “ cringe, yuck “ bike ride. I can run in most any weather, for better or worst, but unless I’m caught in it and have no choice, I can’t bike in ice cold weather. However, seeing the progress this far in my swim and strength training, as well as keeping my weight at “fighting weight”, even over the holidays is a great payoff.

I got to take out the new bike the other day for a quick 20 minute ride down to Green Lake and back. I can’t wait to get it fitted and start doing longer training rides. Speaking of rides, last Saturday I took George on a ride with Eileen. George was running really smooth and felt like a champ on the hills. He was running good enough to let me keep up with Eileen, which isn’t the easiest thing to do most times. She’s training for the STP this year, to finish in one day. Totally cool.