Checking In

After a few weeks of "camping"(blog post still in edit mode!) Monique and I got to spend our first weekend in six weeks at home. It was a welcomed change and I found that I had some of my best quality training sessions right out of our front door this week. Another lesson learned from the training camps!


I finished up the last week of my cowboy style base training and this week I start the official Gordo plan to Kona. I have kept it pretty simple with all the training camps and travel recently and have been focusing on what (in my head) is the two most important items for my triathlon training.

#1 - Consistency between all THREE sports - its easy to play favorites
#2 - Life Balance - This is the real secret sauce to race success not to mention epic training

This week, I kept the bike miles pretty mellow and continued to work on bringing up my long long run with my favorite "mountain run" style sessions. I LOVE these mountain runs! No pace concerns, direction or anything but enjoying my time on two feet. I make up the route as I run along... My legs are finally starting to catch up and are no longer the limiter to stopping my runs just as I am getting warmed up. I'm still slow but I am enjoying these long runs and running in general more than I have ever before. I had a good start on my mountain runs while we were in Boulder, extended it around Snow Summit in Big Bear and had a solid effort around Mammoth Mountain the week before last. This week I was back at sea level and hit our local trails. I needed the extra oxygen...we have the steep stuff around here! I ran a variation of a 3 park loop (El Moro, Laguna, Aliso Woods) we use to ride on our mountain bikes. Good way to scout out new trails.

I was not able to run the time/distance I wanted to up to IMSG at what I thought was a safe increase. It has taken me a long time but slow growth is lasting growth I guess. This week was the first time since I ran the 30/30 that I took my running volume to a new level but I still have a looong ways to go. That is the fun part. I am still looking forward to running a double marathon someday... ;-)

Oh, and we got a new GoPro camera too. SICK! Can't wait to start editing some of the shots I got this weekend on our mountain bike rides and under water swim shots. Here is a quick edit from my ride with JHar on Saturday on our way back down through Whiting Ranch. Dont worry J . . . I took out BOTH of your crashes!

In the water, I joined NOVA Aquatics this weekend for my first masters swim meet. Quite the experience! Even with the 1500 meter event in the mix I learned that the top swimmers spend much of their time in the anaerobic zone absolutely smashing themselves only to repeat it again and again for each event over a three day period. Nutz! I got to try out the blueseventy nero and I have got to say it really does work! I maybe squeezing a pair of tri shorts under them for Kona or if tri shorts dont fit a speedo to rock on the run ;-)

swimmers take your markget set

AAARRRGGGGGG!!!!

I heard that all weekend long!

The relay races were my favorite part of the meet. Complete chaos and intensity swimming at a higher level knowing that we were working for a team and it was down to the last few relays to decide the team results. Most of us had four relays back to back across different events and they were ALL OUT EFFORTS. FUN! Nova ended up taking the overall team win by just a few points and it took everyone on the team to make it happen. Very cool!

the relay craze in the heat of battle

It served as a good speed baseline benchmark for me and I was happy that there were a few longer swims. I wish now that I would have signed up for all of the races and strokes. Next weekend will be a good distance swim baseline for me at the tour of buoys 5 mile open water swim. No wetsuits so I am just a bit worried about getting to cold but thanks to some advice from Charisa I should have some hot coco and coffee on deck with Monique.

Until then it is back to the grind(working in LA now) but hoping to check in early at home tonight and get some much needed sleep. I have a big week on tap!