Trying to Race Focus

Swim Day

1 x 150- Warm-up
4 x 200- Pull- 3:15
4 x 300- 100-5, 7, 9/100- fingertip drag/100- swim w/ kick focus
1 x 100- IM
1 x 100- Cool down

No time standards on anything but the 200s because I forgot my watch at home. D'oh!
Spring break started today and it's strange. Normally, I get up in the pre-light of morning, hit the pool, then go teach. After school I come home and immediately change for go back out for my ride or run. Its a system. A tired-making system, but a system none the less. But on breaks my system is disrupted. I slept in (BONUS!) until about 8:30, got up, got my gear together, and hit the pool. Very different people at the pool at 9am than at 5am. I think that I just missed a Silver Shoes old people aqua aerobics class because by the time I was done I was the youngest person in the water by decades. Yes, decades. At least they didn't get in my way. I would hate to crush 80-year old ribs against the wall during a flip turn. Then I'd have to dodge the body every lap. What a pain.
Swim felt pretty strong if not especially fast. Monday swims aren't about speed, and I do think the pull set and the 300s helped stroke development. I really tried to focus on finishing past my hip and getting a good rotation through the stroke. I'm thinking a lot about what I learned during the Guard Dog Tri swim and how I can apply that to the much longer Honolulu Tri swim. There will be no sprinting, except maybe right at the start to find a hole. I need to develop a long, strong stroke that is quick enough to keep me with the front group but efficient enough that I'm not gassed for the first few miles of the bike, until I an get my heart rate back under control. Lots of long swims in my future. Should probably find time for an open water or two as well, get used the waves and the modified heads-up freestyle I need to use to spot buoys and the swim exit.
Now I have breakfast, which is another spring break bonus. Then I need to mow the lawn, a non-bonus, then chill for a little while before my 25 mile ride this afternoon. See? It's easier to organize when there is work in the middle.

Cycle Day

time- approx. 1:20
distance- 23.77mi

I forget to restart my watch after one of the last red lights so that last time it says is 1:11 and I know that's not right but I'm not sure how not right. So I figured I'd guess a little high tha was if I'm wrong I'll feel quicker next time I do this route.
Rode to school and back today, a ride full of rollers. This ride messes with your head. There is an elevation loss from my house to my school, but it is very subtle. Just small enough that I feel like I'm going nice and fast on my own. It's, for the most part, a big ring ride. I know that helps at least two people understand. The ride back, then, is a very subtle elevation gain. And when put up against the first half of the ride it made me feel very slow. It's a small ring ride. If you look at the road at a lot of points, where there aren't big rollers, you can't see the angle. Its hard to tell until you're actually zipping down it one way thinking, "Hell yeah, if I can keep this pace during the race I'll be fiiiiine," and then slogging up it the other way thinking, "What the hell?"
So that's how the ride went. I tried to push for the entire thing but I think I lost some focus during the second half and my effort level suffered for that. Part of getting my body ready for the Olympic tri is stacking miles and miles on to my legs so they are strong enough to handle th 20 of the race without blowing up. But the other part is stacking fast, hard miles in smaller intervals so that not only will I survive the cycle leg, I'll be able to work it and be competitive in my own head. I have no illusions about hanging with the pack, but I think I can get to a point where not every single person I swim by passes me during the ride. Ride my own race. Must build that intensity and focus now.