Back from Business Trip

*dusts off blog*

Hello? *tap* *tap*

Anybody still around?

Seriously though, I can't believe I haven't updated in two weeks. I spent the second week of December in L.A. on a business trip, where the only workout I managed to get in was a 1.5 hour ride on a recumbent bike. (The only bike the hotel "gym" had.)

I've managed to get right back into the swing of things though, so yay! I've been missing the swim workouts because of the pool being closed, but am hitting all of the bike and run sessions.

Yesterday was an hour easy on the bike. The plan said to find rolling hills, so I simulated that on my trainer by putting it into a higher gear for a few minutes every so often.

Last night Dr. Z and I went out and helped with the children's class. It was SUPER easy - no one-on-one training at all. Spent most of the time just kinda standing around. We got a half hour of private training afterwords as our reward. Well worth it!

Today was one of the toughest run workouts I've ever done: 20 minutes easy at 8:57 pace, then seven sets of 3 minutes at an 8:00 pace followed by a two minute recovery at 9:05. Finish that off with another 20 minutes easy, this time at 9:05 because I was TIRED. Total workout: 8.54 miles in 1:15. WOW!

Tomorrow is a well-deserved day off. (There's supposed to be an easy swim workout, but...POOL CLOSED.) I'll do some walking to loosen up the legs but that's it.

Swim and Run

Yesterday's swim workout went fairly well. I did 3x400 for my main set and hit 10:03 in the middle one. ALMOST a 2:30 pace. I'm looking forward to taking another swim lesson when I get back from L.A. I don't expect to ever be a fish, but I do need to get my long-distance speed down to 2:00-2:15/100, which I think is a perfectly reasonable goal.

Today was long run day. I did seven miles again. It took me longer than last week on the treadmill, but there's some nasty hills, a strong headwind, AND my hamstrings were killing me. I did keep it at my goal 9:00 pace with a time of 1:02:42.

Anyway, tomorrow will be hitting the pool and a short stint on the bike trainer. Sunday is my day off, which works out well since I'll be spending most of it travelling.

Let's see if I get up early Monday morning to do a long bike before meeting my client. At least I have the time zone change working in my favor!

Officially Signed Up! AAAAHHH!!!

It's official. I'm signed up for the Tinman 70.6 in June. Bib number 67. I've added a countdown at the top of the blog. AAAAAHHH!!!

Anyway, been a few frustrations lately. I cut yesterday's long swim short after not being able to crack a 2:45 pace. Dr. Z. keeps going on about how at least I'm not exhausted at the end and can go forever, but I've been looking at even MOP people's paces and that just won't cut it. I was hoping to see much more improvement between all the time I'm putting in and the lesson I took, but no luck. I'll definitely be scheduling another lesson after next week's trip. That brings up another annoyance with swimming: The pool will be closed for the holidays when I return. It's a college and everything closes down for winter break. ARGH!

On top of that, I had to bring the bike to the shop today. Turns out that I had the trainer drum too close to the wheel and have prematurely worn out my tire - to the canvas in one part! Now I have to go online and try to find a trainer wheel in a 650 size - they only had 700s.

So anyway, much frustration. Many technical and form issues to work out before my swim and bike are on par with my running.