Time Travel (With Special Unrelated Side Note!)

Swim Day

1 x 150- Warm-up
3 x 200- 3:00
Ladder
1 x 300- 4:30
1 x 400- 6:00
1 x 500- 7:30
3 x 50- Sideline kick
1 x 100- Cool down
total- 2200 yards

This week was supposed to be next week. This week I was supposed to finish my century training strong, get some decent runs and swims in, and head into Sunday feeling awesome. Then, after the century, I was going to take the next week super-easy.
Then I over-compensated for a sore knee. I admit, I probably don't need to be going quite as easy as I am. My swim felt all right, but as I was teaching and standing all day today my knee got more and more sore, so I decided to take the run off. Could I have run? Probably. But I'm overly concerned about Sunday's century, I really want to be tip-top for it, so I'm resting and icing instead. And next week will still have to be an easier week as a fade out of Century training-fade in to speed work for Ko'Olina.
I need a Doctor.

***Totally Unrelated Side Note***
The new Primus and Anthrax albums, Green Naugahyde and Worship Music respectively, both kick major ass. It's great to have both bands back.

 

 

Let the Wussy Win (Or: Is That A Bottle Coming Out of Your Butt?)

Rest Day

Today's plan was a brick to make up for the lameness of yesterday's run. But I got home from school, looked a my gear, and just felt tired. So I'm taking the day off. I feel guilty, even though I know I shouldn't. It bugs me to no end when I know I ought to work out, but I'm not feeling it at all. I'll end up burning out if I'm not careful. Days like today make me respect Ironman triathletes even more. So I could spend 500 words dwelling on my two days of bleh, or I could move on.
MOVING ON...
I have once again mended something! After being inspired by Tri Cook's hydration set-up and being tired of shoving a third water bottle in my jersey pocket, I went to Amazon and did some shopping around. I ended up with a Minora Rear-Mount Saddle bracket and a Cheap Basic Water Bottle Cage. After little fussing, almost no cursing, and never saying the magic words, "How hard could it be? Really?" I was able to get that bad boy on there. 

I moved my spare bag out of the way for mounting.

At first it stuck right up the back of the seat. Luckily I am very manly and strong so I bent it down veeery slightly.

Ahhhhh!

I also squeezed the cage around the bottle to get the fit nice and tight.

I'm hoping this will prevent bottle rockets.

Pew pew!

I will report back after my first ride how well this set-up works. I'm hoping I can get the bottle in there tight enough that I won't go flying when I hit a bump. And bumps we got plenty of here in Hawaii.
Tomorrow is a swim/run day. Depending on how I feel after school it might become a swim/brick day to make up for being covered in weak sauce today.

To the Last Drop

Swim Day

1 x 150- Warm-up
5 x 200- 3:00
5 x 100- 5, 7, 9
3 x 300- 4:30
2 x 400- even laps easy/odd laps hard
1 x 100- Cool down
total- 3450 yds

This swim was supposed to happen Thursday. Then my body remembered teaching had just started on Monday and I had changed very little about my training. I was wiped when I got home Thursday. When I teach its a full body workout, and there was some adjusting going on. It ain't easy going from a few weeks off to bam in with 30 kids. Anyone who says different, punch them in the face.
So I was worn out and moved my rest day up. (These ideas are my own and also come from the excellent Run: The Mind-Body Method of Running By Feel. Read my review here.) There are benefits to training fatigued, like the body learning how to break through soreness and maintain stroke/stride/pedal quality and to suffer greater, but there is a line too. At some point in the fatigue spectrum you no longer do any good and start instead to over-punish, get past that last drop, and everything starts falling apart. My body told me we were riding an edge and laying in bed after school, then relaxing with the wife was a better choice.
Was it ever! I felt so much better Friday. Still tired after school, because that's how you feel, but nowhere near what I was feeling 24 hours earlier. And I killed the above workout. Everything was made on the time standards, the 200s set with ten seconds rest and the 300s with five to one second (!). Love that last set too! Having the safety blanket of an easy odd lap meant that it was easier to break through any mental bonds and really attack each odd lap. Having Rocket Queen by GnR on repeat in my head doesn't hurt either (By the way, Rocket Queen is one of the most underrated Guns songs of all time. The way the song shifts gears after three minutes and turns into a completely different song is amazing, and the lyrical content for the final 2:45 is unlike anything else on the album.) I was nailing that wall on the flip at the end of each lap and finished like a swimmer. Heavy breathing and wall hanging did ensue. I'm a pleased Dirtbag. Now getting ready and digested for today's long ride. Hope Pineapple Hill is a little more gentle this time.

Rest Day- The Training Montage Post

In honor of my last full-on week of training (next week is a preparation week) I present
The Training Montage:









From these I have learned I don't need a gym, just a jungle gym, I should have had an old guy or a black guy yelling at me the whole time, and when I finish my run on Sunday I just might yell, "DRAGO!!!!"

Rest Day

Rest Day

I know yesterday I said I was going to hit the treadmill for two hard miles today to teach my legs a thing or two about going fast, but after much internal debate and bothering of Sister Dirtbag, Official Trainer of Team Dirtbag, I've decided to use the rest day as a rest day. I know the run is in my head. I'm going to kill it this Sunday on my actual run day with serious interval training for an hour. I'm concerned about over-training, being tired on race day, all that stuff that makes me think maybe I'm thinking a little too much about this. After all, I'm not a professional, never will be, and I should be doing this to have fun. Right? So I'm going to try not to feel guilty about not running and try not to think about it for the rest of today (except maybe visualizing what a fast run feels like).

Instead, here's a funny video that makes me laugh all the time and even more now: