Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Invisible Hills

Swim Day
1 x 150- Warm-up
5 x 100- 1, 2, 3, Swim
5 x 100- 1:30 w/negative split focus
3 x 50- Sideline kick
4 x 200- 100- 5, 7, 9/100- stroke count
1 x 100- Cool down
total- 2200 yards

Ride Day
distance- 30.5mi
time- 1:43

Today's swim was brought to you by Old People. Old People: Getting in the Way of Your Workout Since Before You Were Born. The pool was crawling with them today. My fault. I normally swim at 5am, and today I went at 9 because I don't have school this week and I am not waking up that early if I don't have to. I should have checked the class schedule for the gym. I got there an hour before Aqua Aerobics started, and some class members were early to warm up. Or something. I don't know. They were mostly out of the way.
As for the actual swim, it went well. If you check out the workout, there wasn't a ton of intensity built in. Monday is more of a stroke-focused day. I'm trying to get some feeling back, some speed and body position. I've been thinking a lot recently about having my elbows high on the catch to use as much forearm as possible, and then I realized that I've been slacking on my finish. So there are spots at both ends of the stroke which need work. It's a never-ending tweakfest in the pool. Something always needs attention.
My ride today was time trialing down by Dillingham Airport on the North Shore. I've done this once before and it was a great speed workout. That time heading in there was a little headwind to push against, and coming out there was some tailwind giving me a push. Well today was slightly different. Today there was a ton of headwind slowing me down on the way in and a ton of tailwind helping rocket me back out. See the difference there? Did ya catch it? So I spent these laps doing five miles of, "Oof oof oof wind oof sucks rrrr so much groan," and trying to maintain something over 15mph. Then I'd hit my turn-around it it would be more of a, "I AM THE FASTEST CYCLIST IN THE HISTORY OF EVER!" kinf of thing. I capped 26mph flat out a few times today heading back out with the wind's help. Awesome.
But by the third lap I was pretty damn toasty and done for. The wind had kicked my ass and I was hurting for the whole five mile stretch, putting down sad times and pace averages. Its good for me, but until Cycle Dirtbag called wind the "invisible hill" I was planning on calling this post, "Five Survive, Five Drive" because that's what the ride today felt like. His is better. Still, it was a great speed-building workout and I feel it in my legs. I'll do it again next week. Looking to have a strong ride at the Anniversary Tri.
Yes, tikis are everywhere in Hawaii. Found this one just sitting on the side of the road. This is the god of, errr, cycling.

1 comment:

  1. I have done a couple time trials at Dillingham too. It is a great workout for sure. The wind gets brutal!!! Good job on you training ride!

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