Busy Saturday

My day began by heading out to my parents place to hang out and eat a big breakfast before race day. As I pulled up my dad was already cleaning up the property and so I jumped in to help. When you live out in the sticks you really need to make sure you take care of your property for fire season. Recently my dad purchased a tree pruner so I began limbing up the trees. Once the limbs are down we throw them on the fire and watch them burn. Ever since I was a kid I have always liked fire.
As I headed back to town I was able to run over and catch little Emma’s soccer game. I missed last weeks but it is always a treat to watch those little munchkins run around. This time I got to see Emma score a good and her team played awesome.
Since I was unable to join Jessi for a ride this morning and to not hear a guilt trip I decided I would go for a quick ride before he headed downtown to get out Bloomsday numbers. I didn’t want to tire my legs to much but since yesterday didn’t involve a workout I knew it would be good to get out and stretch my legs. Recently it feels like you are walking out the door naked because of the warm weather. We spent months layering up the clothes and now all you need is shorts and a jersey. Gotta love nice weather. The ride went well and I am feeling more and more comfortable on the new bike.
I met up with Jessi, Emma, Tim and Andy to head down to the convention center to pick up our numbers. I am not really a crowd person but it is always fun to head down and hang out with such great people. I was fortunate enough to sit next to Miss Emma on the way down. She thought it was just too funny when I wore Jessi’s glasses. After picking up our numbers we walked around all the booths and ran into quite a few Tri-Fusionites. We also came across this awesome shirt, GOTTA LOVE TRIATHLONS!! On the way back we had a great hold your breath challenge. Emma thought she was so tricky when she would keep her cheeks full and breath out her nose. Too funny. What would the day be without some sort of competition? We decided to see who could hold their breath the longest and I am pretty sure I won with 1:19. Whoo Hoo:)

I finished off the day heading over to a birthday party and I am pretty proud of myself for not having a beer. I was home and in bed before 10. How lame have these dang race made me? Had to get a good nights rest before the race. I will do my best to write a pretty details race report. Stay tuned!

Thursday's Brick and Dinner

Today’s workout was going to consist of a group ride leaving the Thompson’s house with a small brick afterwards. Our group consisted of Roger, Tim, Jessi, Eric and I. After the brief climb out of the Thompson’s neighborhood it was on. I really should have expected this after Roger came out with his new Zipp disk and I believe 808 on the front. Eric and I were able to keep up for the first few miles and then they began to pull away. I am always amazed on how fast the front riders seem to disappear. I have to give it up to Jessi and Tim for hanging on Roger’s wheel, those two were definitely hardcore.

Eventually I pulled away from Eric and was riding all by myself again. SWEET! Overall my legs felt pretty good and I think I almost average 20 mph. I have noticed that after about 10 miles my legs start to get in a grove and usually start to feel pretty good. I was really hoping to run with Jessi and Tim but when I returned they had already left. I need the short brick so I headed off to try and find them. I found Jessi on her way back and joined her for the mile or so home. I was excited about how good my legs felt after the 20 mile ride and can’t wait until the next race to see the progress. After the ride we all joined up for some awesome lasagna and spaghetti pie prepared by Jessi. The food was awesome even Tim’s oatmeal cookies, if you want the recipe he has it memorized, just ask him:) The of course in true Tri-Fusion fashion the picture taking began. TEAM A+ (Jessi, Tiffany and Tim) were together for the first time and they had to take a group photo. Normally a group photo consists of everyone standing together and smiling, NOT in our group. As Tiffany handed me her camera, I began to click away. I am not sure if they realized it but I am pretty sure I took over 100 pictures between the planning stages and the final product. Take a look at their blogs for a full recap. It was pretty hilarious throughout and I am pretty sure by the end TEAM A+ had one more member, Lloyd. He was in almost every picture. We finished off the night watching the hilarious show “The Office”. Gotta love group workouts.

Mid-Week Workouts

Tuesday's are always about the BLT's. We usually head out at a nice warm-up pace and then slam the hammer down and go anaerobic back to the houses. Today was a nice break from the norm. Today I rode with Jessi, Tiffany and Katey. This was the maiden voyage for Tiffany's new bike and she was just a little scared. It was exciting to see her work through all the nervousness and even did a great job working into aero position. The ride was not the usual speedfest but it was still a great workout and it was fun to ride with some new people. As usual I rode home and even stayed in aero up the Francis hill. I am really trying to get my shoulders and back use to that position and each ride seems better and better. It is great to have an addition to TEAM Cervelo.
Wednesday was all about running. I was going to join Tim for a easy 4-5 mile run but since he felt like a day off was needed I had to motivate myself. After sitting at home really wanting to just relax I pushed myself out the door. This was my first real run since last Wednesday and I knew it was going to be important to push myself and see how my ankle would feel. After running for a bit and thinking every small ache was something serious I began to feel pretty good. When it was all said and done I had just over 4 miles under me and was at a respectable 7:30 pace. This is quite a bit slower that I would like to run this Sunday but I had to get out and see what I could do. The leg was a bit sore afterwards but nothing that will keep me from running this weekend.

Needs a Name!!

So you are a triathlete. You know you are a triathlete #537- When you push yard work to the day you don’t have to train.
After the long weekend I was pretty sore and a bit woren out. I was looking forward to allowing myself to relax. Then I had the opportunity to borrow a power rake and finally give my lawn some longer awaited TLC. It was something that had to be done and with the crazy training schedule this was really the only time I could get it done. I am always amazed to see how much dead grass comes out of a lawn after you power rake.

Since I now own my new bike I thought it would only be fitting to give her a new name. Now I am completely open for suggestions, so I am going to leave it up to you for a new name. Please feel free to be creative. The more the merrier. Thanks for the help. Isn't she BEATUIFUL:)

Long Day!!

This morning started out with the weekly Sunday morning swim. After last week I was pretty excited to see if there was any improvement. Last week I was swimming on about 4 hours of sleep and last night after a good night’s rest I should have been ready to go, right? WRONG! This week we started out with one of my least favorite pool activities, kick drills! There is just something about my kicking technique that is just not on par with the rest of the group. I feel like Nemo except instead of one bad flipper, I have two. After finally making it through all the drills we were off and swimming.

We did some unique sets of 200 and I quickly realized that I was not feeling near as fast as I had hoped. I had to sit out 50 on each of the final two hundred sets. Count: -100m. Next we did some crazy 100 meter sets on 1:30. That means that if you can swim a 50 in 45 seconds you get absolutely no rest and since that is my typical pace I was pretty much going to have to swim 1000 meters at a sprint pace. Unfortunately I had to sit out the frist 50m on two different occasions, not my idea of training. Count: -200m.

After the 200's we had a nice cool down and then started the picture session. If you have ever made it to a Sunday swim you know Jessi will always have the camera out. Today’s photo shoot included some awesome handstands by Jessi and Tiff and some rather pathetic attempts by me. I think the fact that I am almost a foot taller they had a huge advantage but at least I gave it a try.
After the pictures I was able to finish up on my final 200 meters and finished the 3,400 meter swim. I really would like to thank Jessi for all the encouragement throughout the swim. She could definitely tell I was struggling but was always trying to push me along.

I would also like to throw a quick shout out to all the Tri-Fusion people who rode in the Lilac Century. The picture below was taken in honor of all who completed the 10(2) mile ride. When I first started these swims it was Tiffany, Tim and Jessi who welcomed me into their little group and I really can’t remember the last time we all swam together. I guess that is what happens during race season. After another long day I finished my side job and got home in just in time to jump on my bike and go for a short ride. After getting so excited about the new bike this was only the second time I was able to ride it this week. I was kind of nervous to see how the Achilles held up and was pretty excited to see it didn’t bother me to much. I could feel some discomfort on the hills but overall I was back in action. Afterwards I joined Tim, Andy, Matt and Jessi for some great food and conversation at the Onion. It is really great to hang out with everyone and talk about their rides. Another great end to a crazy and busy week.

SMALL THINGS!!

FINALLY, I woke up and my ankle was feeling quite a bit better. There really was no irritation while I was walking. SWEET. I still didn’t want to go to crazy but I was nice to feel normalish again. After working all day putting in the patio on the landscape job I was working on I headed home and decided I would head out for a slow run just to see if I was feeling as good as I thought I did. I really didn’t know how far I was going to go or even if I would be able to run at all. After about 15 minutes I was beginning to feel some irritation and walked for a bit but in the end I was able to run just over two miles and as I am writing this it feels much better.

It was really weird to run even though I have been running all winter long. I just was so sure something bad was going to happen. I was fortunate to get though the run and still feel good. It is amazing how such a simple thing you take for granted every single day can be taken away and you just don’t know how to react. With everything that goes on in other people’s lives I have quickly realized that my life and the small things that happen to me are just that SMALL.

Tak'er Easy

The last couple days have been spent try to relax my foot. When I woke up Thursday morning there really was no improvement. My ankle was tight and it was still a bit difficult to walk normally. I iced throughout the day hoping to make my workout I scheduled with Tim. Early in the afternoon I knew there was no way I was going to be able to run. I thought about trying to jump on the bike for a bit but rest would be the best thing I could do. I decided I would not workout at all and try to let the ankle heal. After Tim and Andy’s workout I joined them for some Gorgonzola fries at the Downriver Grill. This was the first time I have tried these and have to admit they were pretty good. Word of advice, get the smaller portion unless you are feeding an army. We then needed to fill our weekly sweet tooth and got some awesome shakes at Maggie Moos.

Since there seems to be no running and probably no biking in the near future I woke up early Friday morning and headed to the pool. I met up with Sheena and explained to her how to read the Sunday workouts. I have lately been neglecting the pool and with this darn injury I will have made it into the pool three times after Sunday. SWEET!! Maybe I will get back into the swing of things this weekend but only if the achilles decides to cooperate.