Ever have one of those days where it feels like some force
is conspiring to keep you from being productive? That’s my day today.
It was an interesting and very busy weekend. A group of us
from work went whitewater rafting and in spite of my initial objections and
trepidations, I had a lot of fun. It was a 3 hour tour aboard the S.S. Minnow
down the Cache la Poudre river. I am, of
course, kidding about the S.S. Minnow. We rode with and our guide was Kelly, who
happened to be a fellow marathoner (and cute enough that it seemed everyone in
the boat was trying to impress her)!
None of us ended up swimming but we all got nicely soaked by
the 54 degree water. It felt pretty good since it was in the 90’s that
day.
Sunday was a brute of a day. I had a 30’/120’/30’
swim/bike/run workout scheduled. The swim went off fine and I got 1200m in feeling
very strong. That would put me on pace for a 48’ swim in the 5430, which
is actually a slightly slower pace than my open water swims for the Stroke
& Stride have been. The ride, on the other hand, was really, really tough.
I decided to do a loop of the 5430 Long Course and it took about 20 minutes to
get there from my starting point. Once I did, the storm that had been gathering
over the mountains finally decided to break. There were two or three flashes of
lightning and a little bit of rain (my only thought connected to either of them
was that I hoped my running shoes didn’t get wet as I had left them out
in the open back at home). The problem was the wind. I couldn’t get into
the aerobars during the first 10-12 miles of the course because the wind was
coming so hard from my left I was afraid I’d be blown over or, even
worse, overcompensate for the wind and end up getting hit by a car. Once I
turned onto St. Vrain I was able to drop down and put out some easy speed for a
while, but then once I turned onto 75th and started going south, it
got worse again. Much worse.
How bad is much worse? How about what must have been a 40mph
headwind that made it tough to top even 10mph on the downhills? It didn’t
help that much of that portion of the ride is a slight (or worse) uphill but my
pace dropped off drastically and the wind really gave me a beating. Still, I
eventually finished the ride and looking back later I did the long course loop
in ~108’, which I should definitely be able to improve on in better
weather conditions so a 3:30 bike doesn’t seem unreasonable.
The 30’ run was a nightmare. I decided, foolishly, to
do the hill by my house. It’s a steady climb of ~430ft over just under a
mile (.8 miles I believe). It was hot, I was tired and I only got in two miles
in just under the allotted 30 minutes but by then I didn’t care. I had
overexerted myself on the bike and run out of fluid (stupid mistake) and was
then foolish enough to throw myself at that &@#% hill, which I won’t
face anything like that in the 5430.
Tonight I have a long swim ahead of me (just shy of 3000m)
and I need to work in the freestyle drills Mike Ricci laid out for me. I’ll
wait until 6:30 or 7:00 to head out for it so the swim coaches will be done and
I’ll get back before my roommate gets home from her flight.
Peace Out!
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