Vineman Week Nine

6/13-6/19

With my first Olympic triathlon on Saturday (which rocked!), this week was a bit of a step back. Two of my swims were in open water which gave me some much needed practice, and I finally managed to run three times this week! My riding took the biggest cut back, but I think that paid off with fresh legs during Saturday's race. I finished the week up with a nice Father's Day run with my dad in the sweltering heat that has finally arrived here in Sac. Plenty of good sweating this week!

Monday
[brick]

swim: approx. 0.5 mi, 20 min.
I'd been meaning to get a little open water practice in before my Olympic race on Saturday, and with this being my only other day off this week I figured it was now or never. I borrowed a wetsuit from work and my dad and I took off for Lake Natoma. The plan was for me to swim around the lake while my dad was in his kayak next to me. This ended up being really helpful both for safety, sighting purposes, and for the company and encouragement. It was a warm day out and I struggled to get into my fullsleeve wetsuit, but as soon as I got into the water I was happy to have it! I started out feeling pretty good. The water was cold and cloudy - I couldn't see anything with my face in the water, which was a little unsettling. 

 Lake Natoma and dad in his kayak!

We set our sights on a buoy out in the middle of the lake, and I made it there still feeling ok. Then we turned to our right and headed toward another buoy in the distance. At this point, I was starting to struggle a little bit. I couldn't catch my breath very well, and I was swimming against the current (from the water being released from the dam). And for some reason I couldn't get a breath on my right side, making bilateral breathing difficult. I've swum much more than this distance in the pool and felt fine, I guess I'd just forgotten how different open water is. My dad also pointed out that my left hand wasn't pulling much water because my fingers were all spread out (from the ulnar nerve damage that started with my pinky). I managed to reach the next buoy though, and after a short break to catch my breath we headed back to the dock. I have no idea how far exactly I swam, but I'm guessing around half a mile.

bike: 20 mi, avg 17.0 mph.

After finishing the swim, I changed into my bike gear and hopped on the bike trail at Hazel Ave. My legs were feeling the effects of my 10 mile run the day before, but warmed up a bit after a few miles. Finished my first swim-bike brick feeling pretty good : )

Tuesday
rest.

Wednesday
swim: 2,500 yds, 60 min.

• 200 warm-up (100 w. pb)
• repeated twice:
• 50-50
• 50-100
• 50-150
• 50-200
• 50-250
• 300 cool-down (200 w/ pb)

This ended up being my only pool workout this week since my other two swims would be open water. Since I usually swim after work,  during the week I often get there in the middle of the swim team practice. While there isn't a designated lap swim lane during the practice, there is usually at least one lane open, and the coaches will sometimes merge two lanes so I have one to swim in. But tonight it was pretty crowded, so I ended up sitting and waiting for a half hour just to start my workout. Finally at 8pm I got in the pool and got started on a new workout. I found this one from doing a little Googling and modified it to fit my needs. I liked that it was longer (2,000 yds for the main set) and something different from my usual workouts. After a warm-up I started the set, swimming the 50s with the pull buoy and the longer intervals without. The plan called for swimming the longer intervals faster and swim the 50s at a recovery pace on the first pass through, then vice versa on the second pass through. I decided to swim the 50s easy with the buoy instead, but I think I'd like the try the original variation in the future. I was definitely tired at the end as this was my longest workout yet and involved more straight swimming than usual, but I felt pretty good throughout.


Thursday
run: 6 mi, 9:02 avg pace.
I got off work a little early and decided o take advantage of the cooler evening temps to get a run in. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but I told myself to at least do 4 miles and then I'd be done. I ended up feeling awesome from the start and my 4 miles turned into 6, feeling easy at this pace. I didn't look at my Garmin the entire run because I just wanted to run on feel, but I was pleased to see what I ended up with. Afterword I felt invigorated and motivated, and so happy I didn't skip the run! I also tested out the new shorts and tank I was planning on wearing Saturday and both got a thumbs up! It was just what I needed to boost my confidence going into my race Saturday.

Friday
rest.

Saturday
[Sac Intl. Olympic Triathlon]
swim: .92 mi, 31 min.
bike: 24 mi, avg 17.6 mph.
run: 6.2 mi, 9:32 avg pace.

The race went so much better than I could have expected! I'm working on a race report, but here are a few highlights:

• The swim, which I was easily the most nervous about, ended up being my favorite leg of the race. 
• I just squeaked under my secret finish time goal of 3 hours with a 2:59 overall finish
• I took second in my age group! (ok, so there were only 2 of us, but I'll take what I can get!)

Overall it gave me so much confidence going into my last few weeks of training and for Vineman next month. It was nice to see all my training pay off, and to finally put everything together. 

Sunday

run: 4 mi, 9:38 avg pace. 
Went on a great run with my dad and the pup to celebrate Father's Day. Although it was early evening when we headed out it was warm, so we kept it easy. Halfway through we stopped to let the pup cool off in the river, then headed back. Probably because of the heat and the holiday, hardly anyone was out on the bike trail, but about a half mile from home we ended up having a little altercation with some jerk on his bike. My dad and I were running on the left hand side, only taking up one lane (and the shoulder wasn't runnable at the part) when this guy starts heading toward us on his bike. We assume that, like most bikers, he'll simply move to the other lane to go around us, but instead he heads straight at us!! He yelled out "Pick a lane!", obviously trying to make some kind of point, but both my dad and I reacted by getting angry and yelling back at him. Luckily it didn't turn into anything ugly, but it just pissed me off to see how inconsiderate people can be. Totally lame. Anyway, despite this asshole, I was glad to get a short run in and to be able to share it with my dad on Father's Day.

Totals:

swim - 5,000 yards

bike - 44 miles

run - 16.2 miles