Sprint Rehearsal #2

I was very nervous for some reason about this rehearsal. I'm not sure of the reason. I was a little nervous about the swim I was doing it with out a wetsuit and I was scared the water would be cold. I spent yesterday at the pool with my youngest son and swam a few laps, just didn't feel good at all. Couldn't get the breathing down, so these things combined to make me wonder just how this rehearsal would go.

Up at the normal time of 4:45 to get to the lake by 6:15ish. My wave started at 7:25. This was a combined Olympic and Sprint. The Olympic people started first. The water was as calm as could be. I was still worried about what it would feel like. The temps had been around 68-70 degrees. I got in and waded up to my knees. This isn't bad, I thought, waded up to my waist, still not to bad, and finally took the plunge...this is actually pretty refreshing! I was glad to have that worry over. Pretty soon off we went, we did it opposite of what we have done, so it was a little different. And we were of course swimming into the sun. The first buoy was almost impossible to see for awhile. I just followed the crowd. It seemed like I was keeping up pretty well, I even managed to pass a few people even at the end (not sure if they were Olympic or sprint though) . I was surprised that may time was 24 minutes I thought it was faster, but I felt good. Transition I think was about 5 minutes it was a long way up from the lake to transition. I would say that way over 1/2 of the sprint bikes were still in transition. Got off on my bike pretty quickly. Bike was pretty hard to start. In the first mile you have a hill that is pretty hard on those unwamed up leg muscles. I was working hard to try to stay in double digits the whole time, which must have paid off as my time was 7 minutes faster (1:08 for 17 miles 15.22 mph) I can't say that many people passed me either, not bad on a hybrid. It was a good ride, even with all the road kill. (And you know something else I've noticed since biking and running has entered my life...a lot of people throw up on the road.) Finished the bike feeling pretty good, although my feet were a little numb. Didn't get a T2 time, but was fairly fast although I did have to make a potty stop. Run was a pretty standard 39:29, a fair amount of walking. I really need to work on forcing myself to run. Had a very good time and I always have such a feeling of accomplishment when I look at my watch and its like wow all that and it's only 10:00. :) However it was downhill from there as I ended up laying around for a couple of hours after. Legs are feeling a little sore, but not to bad.

Here's to a good week of training this week!

Woo Hoo Sprint Rehearsal done!

Rehearsal went ok I guess, didn't break any speed records, in fact I kind of reverted back somewhat to swimming without putting my face in the water. The temps were probably in the mid 50's outside and the water well let's just say not warm. But once you were in it wasn't to bad. Thank goodness for the wetsuit though. I really do like the sleeveless much better, but it will just take some real getting used to. The water was very choppy and I forgot to set my timer so I'm not sure exactly how long it took but basing on what time we were suppose to be started and my end time it was around 25 minutes. Slower then any of my open water swims last year. It was 800 yards. Really need to start swimming more. I did alot of everything, way less freestyle then I would have hoped. But either way I got the job done. T1 I'm sure pretty slow again, guessing, around 3 minutes, maybe more, long way up to transition too. On the bike and off we go. The bike was longer then most sprints (I think) which would be around 12 we actually had a choice to do only 10 or go for 17. I did the 17. Same ride that we did last weekend. This is the elevation profile.

Actually looks more intimidating then it is. Although those first 5 miles are a little though, it looks like it is mostly flat but you climb about 500'. Took me 1:15 and my average speed was 13.7. Most of it felt pretty good although I had adjusted my seat some, tilted it back a little, didn't really work for me as my whoha got a little bit numb. So will have to move it back down a bit again. The downhills are just fantastic. I really enjoy this ride for the most part. Amazing though the people that passed me...you know the ones that really know what they are doing. Not people from our group but the ones that travel in packs, matching jerseys and passing like it takes no effort on their part. Amazing they are. Coming off the bike legs felt a little better then at the duathlon last weekend. I ended up having to stop in the port-a-potty and make a trip back to my bike after for my garmin which I forgot to take off my bike. Missed timing my transition again Guessing it's with the bike time. The run was lots of walking :) it is a pretty boring out and back run on a gravelish road. It's a little rough has lots of big rocks and not an easy running surface. Time ended up being 42:44, like I said lots of walking. So I'm guessing my total time was right around 2:20-2:25. Definitely some room for improvement there!
Now while I was on that bike and run I did a lot of thinking about the ridiculous things I've been doing to my body. From the food I've been sticking in it, to the lack of training, to the cigarettes I've been smoking on and off for the last couple of weeks (they went in the trash by they way before they become another habit I don't need) So this week I'm really going to work on finding my focus and doing something good for my body instead of abusing it.
So my goals for this week are going to be

training-- run 3 times swim 2 and bike twice.

food--think I'm going for phase 1. (South Beach)

I've got to do something.