Tri Tomorrow!

The week just flew by and now here I am, only hours away from my first triathlon of the season!

It is a sprint distance race up at Blue Lake near the Columbia River in eastern Portland. I’m definitely prepared for it but still have no idea what to expect. The race is a half-mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 5k run. I should be able to complete all three legs of the race strong and I know for a fact that I am going to have a blast. Zach, Emily, and Anne are all racing too so I will have lots of friends out on the course. Also, my parents are coming into town from Montana to watch the race! My mom has seen us do a Tri but it’s the first time for my dad. I think they’ll really enjoy it- triathlons (especially short ones) are great to spectate because you get to see your athlete several times and always doing something different.

The conditions should be good: the weather is still pretty cool and cloudy here but no rain really so hopefully it will be great racing weather. I think the water will be almost 70 degrees and I’ll be wearing my wetsuit. The bike and run courses are flat along the south bank of the Columbia River with the only variable being a chance of wind, but I’m not too worried about it. My main goal is to do my best and have fun. I have a long season ahead of me so I’m not placing any pressure or importance on this event.

Speaking of the long season ahead, I spent a lot of time this week finalizing my IM training schedule. With about 24 weeks to go, I want to have it locked in place. I am using the plan from Don Fink’s book IronFit, but I wanted to make a spreadsheet with all the workouts in place along with every race, trip, and other event I have going on this summer accounted for. I was able to work around all that stuff and still keep very close to his program. I ended up basically using the Competitive program rather than Intermediate because the Intermediate program seemed awfully light. I did adjust down the peak weeks - the plan as written peaks with several weeks at or near 20 hours, with long brick workouts both Saturday AND Sunday of every weekend… so I cut some of that back. I’ll be updating the list on my side bar to reflect all the other races I have penciled in, no new triathlons but a new open water swim event and a couple half marathons.

Well, this week went OK I suppose, nothing revolutionary. My quads were pretty sore and I really don’t know why. I would suspect it was just lingering soreness/tiredness from the hard weekend ride/run/swim but I only started really feeling it on Wednesday. Then it got kind of worse after spinning and running but has since subsided. Weird. Anyway, it was a pretty good week and I only missed one workout. I skipped Masters Wednesday night because that was the only time I could put together the schedule like I talked about before. I decided it was important enough that I could skip one swim. It’s going to end up being a little week anyway since I’m only doing a short race instead of several hours of training.

Here’s the wrap up:

Monday: rest
I went home after work and took a nap. No weights or anything

Tuesday: run
6.0 miles/51:30/8:33 average pace
I met Emily at the track downtown but we didn’t do any actual fast running, just ran ‘round and ‘round and talked about the upcoming tri. I did sprint down and back on the football field at the end of the workout… maybe that’s why my legs were sore? If so, sad!!!

Tuesday: swim
2100 yards/1:00
Masters
I got stupid foot cramps again, annoying. I need to drink more water I guess.

Wednesday: bike
Spin class/1:00
Alisa was there too, it’s so nice to have some company! We did long intervals and I just zoned out. I alternated visualizing the Ironman and contemplating the amount of sweat that was dripping off my body (lots).

Wednesday: run
1.8 miles/15:00/8:20 average pace?
Brick run on the treadmill after spin class. Alisa did the same – again it is so nice to have a training partner!

Wednesday: ST
Wrapped up the day at the gym with some a weight circuit with Alisa. She’s pretty hardcore.. made me feel like a weakling! I like lifting with other people though, I feel so aimless when I’m alone in the weight room.

Thursday: bike
19.2 miles/1:22:10/14.0 MPH
Easy ride after work with Zach on the Springwater. I made a point to keep it easy since my quads were hurting and would object if I pushed at all. So we just stuck to the trail and talked the whole time. It was fun. We spent the rest of the evening at Emily and Josh’s house eating pasta and drinking wine and talking weddings, triathlons, etc.

Friday: rest
I was going to do a short run but instead I went and got a pedicure with Emily and am going to kick back for the rest of the night. My parents will be rolling into town soon and I have to get all my race stuff ready and get to bed early. I'm so excited for the race! I'll post a report this weekend as soon as possible. Have a great weekend! :)