Summer of Mark Week VI

Monday: Went to noon swim alone and planned on doing a bunch of form work followed by 10 x 50 at race pace. Drills felt good but I struggled a little bit with my side balance exercises. I did a lot of work pulling with the buoy before getting into the repeats. I took 30 seconds rest between each 50 and mostly swam 38s with the occasional 37. Finished off the hour with some extra kick board work followed by more pulling. (1 hr.) Hung out during the huge thunderstorm that seemingly was centered over my house. I honestly heard some of the loudest crashes of thunder in my entire life! Super cool! At 4:45 I went out for a super easy long ten miler with Mary on the rail trail. Coming off the big running numbers from the weekend it was nice to relax and just hang out with Mary on a run. (1 hr. 15 min.) (2 hr. 15 min.)

Tuesday: 10:00 Headed out to Surry and back on The Vulture. I wore my aero helmet for the first time to get ready for Saturday. I felt like such a tool riding through town with a teardrop shaped helmet on. Needless to say I got a few cockamamie looks from the locals. The things we do in the name of speed. Out on the ride I found out pretty early that I had terrible legs today. My hip flexors were pretty tired and I am guessing that it is from all the extra kick board work that I did yesterday. I worked through twenty miles at a 23 mph avg. then I sat up for the remaining seven plus miles of the ride. No point pushing through a bad ride and ruining the rest of the day. (1 hr. 15 min.) Went to noon swim for an hour of drills and skills. I did 1000 yds. of typical drills for my warm-up before being taught some new skull drills to help me feel the water better. Ended the hour with some work on flip turns. (1 hr.) Following a nice hour long nap with Eko I headed out to Swanzey and back on the rail bed. My hip flexors and quads were still tired so I am a little nervous about swimming hard tomorrow morning and then running 400s and 200s at the track in the afternoon. (1 hr.) On another interesting note the sports editor from WMUR wrote to me today wanting to do a story on my transition to triathlon. Should be an interesting experience. (3 hr. 15 min.)

Wednesday: Off. Woke up last night and felt horrible. Had a difficult night of sleep and could not get things back on track this morning. Wicked low energy, dead legs, and general listlessness. Safe side. By the way I hate days off!!!!!!!! ( 0 )

Thursday: 9:30 out the door on The Vulture for a moderate 30 mile ride. I checked out the Surry recreation area so I could visualize getting off the bike at speed on dirt Saturday. Also did some figuring of which gear I will leave my bike in for the exit of T1. Out on the bike course I worked on the turnaround a few different times with a few different lines. It seems like I will be able to be a little risky and stay on the aero bars until the last second. Finished up with a West Keene loop full of hills. Felt better as the ride went on. ( 1 hr. 24 min.) 1:00 After watching the greatness that is Pearl Jam Live at the Garden I was pretty amped to get out for a run. With the absence of a Wednesday workout I still wanted to get in some effort before the race. Ran out and back to Yale Forest with 4 x 60, 4 x 30 on the rail bed. I did not do the repeats until I was 45 minutes into the run so I was working on running fast while tired. Went through ten miles in sub sixty-minutes then shut it down for a three mile cool-down. Felt great. ( 1 hr. 21 min.) (2 hr. 45 min.)

Friday: Ran an easy seven miler out to the dump and back on the rail bed with Mary and Pete Thomas. Slightly uphill on the way out and slightly down on the way back. It was nice to run with Mary and Pete like we used to on easy days when we were young. (53 min.) Went to noon swim and did a set of drills and a few hundreds to make sure I have a good feel for the water tomorrow. ( 20 min.) ( 1 hr. 13 min.)

Saturday: Give Peace a Tri. First place 40:20. ( 1 hr. 30 min.)

Sunday: Wicked humid long run first seven with Mary last nine solo. Recovery run at a slow pace without a whole lot of thought. (1 hr. 53 min.)

Total: 12 hours and 43 minutes. Aside from the off day this week was exactly what I was looking for. I am going to focus a little bit on being a runner this week before getting back after Tri training the following week. Cigna Thursday night and Bridge of Flowers Saturday.