As much as I look forward to it, I am so glad that the Thanksgiving holiday is over. I can get back on track (at least for 3 weeks until I start my 2 week christmas vacation).
So at the last Gulf Winds Triathletes meeting, I was told to be in the pool the Monday after Thanksgiving. Daunting considering that I haven't swam since IM Augusta 70.3 (approx 62 days ago). But I need to pick my training up a notch so when I start training for Gulf Coast on 1/1/11, I will be ready to train (and I need to do something else since I haven't run in two weeks and have the Tally Marathon on 2/7). So I set my alarm clock for 5AM (see how I started getting in the habbit last week?), my coffee to auto-brew at 4:55, and away I went.
Since I don't have a specific swim training plan right now, I decided to do the first swim workout for a HIM. My plan was a 300 warmup (200 swim, 50 kick, 50 swim), 5x100 15" rest, 200 cool down (50 kick, 50 pull, 100 swaim). I have no illusions about being fast, but when comparing this morning's 5x100 to the 5x100 I did in May to start training for IM Augusta, I was 1:34 faster (1:44, 1:53, 1:55, 1:52, 1:51 this morning). I am very happy with that, considering that I haven't been in the pool in over 60 days. I could tell that I was not in swim shape and my arms felt full of lead.
I didn't exercise any more this am (my excuse is so I could type this blog), but I may try to do a "recovery" run tonight and see how my achilles tendon holds out. It is pain free walking around, but yesterday on my ride my achilles tendon reallly started acting up. I am hoping that it was just the wind/cold making it stiff. At least it was hurting in a differnt place than was bothering me the last two weeks. Also, I lowered my tri-bars about 3 cm and tested it out on my ride yesterday. Ouch! After my ride, I raised them 2 cm. We will see how they do next time.
Yesterday, I went on a 50 mile ride with my buddy, who wanted to take his new Merckx MX5 out for a spin. I can take him down hill (40 lb advantage to me), we are mostly even on the flats, and he smokes me uphill, so we do a good job of challenging each other. It was so windy we shortened it to 43 miles. The ride was a big loop between Blountstown and I-10. Very pretty ride, but with lots of open fields, so it was extra windy. Some decent hills, but not as bad as CR 12. It kinda reminded me of the Augusta bike ride, less the steep downhills.
Anyway, all the wind got me to thinking about getting a powertap. I priced some out (ouch!), but did find out that it is compatible with the Garmin 310xt (not the 305), but the 310xt is also compatible with a new tatiana body fat/weight/water scale, and compatible with my existing 305 accessories. Hmm..... interesting, very interesting. Might have to make a list for Santa for the 310xt and scale.
May have to make a list for Uncle Sam for either powertap, zipps, cyclocross bike, or a coach for IMFL. Gotta think about that some. Lots of pros/cons there. Right now, I want a cyclocross most, but powertap is the new #2 and growing on me (especially if I get a 310xt), coach, then zipps. As much as I would love me some zipps, the $ would be better invested in any of the above (i.e., getting in shape will give me far more improvement than a set of zipps could ever do). Plus, I am hesitant to buy used, and with all the race rental options out there, I figure I can rent zipps for 2 races a year for 5 years and would have spent the cost of a new set -- and in 5 years, any zipps I would have bought would probably be used up and new (i.e., faster) models would be out there. If anyone happens to read this, post a comment and give me your .02.
Enough for today. I am sitting on the couch in my swim clothes and I am getting the seat wet and Sissy is gonna yell at me when she realizes this, so I gotta get up and hope it dries out before she wakes up. So time to finish this post.
Edit: I went on a 3.5 mile jog at lunch. Got rained on, but managed to keep the droid dry. Right achilles tendon was still tender, but I managed to run on it. I am gonna have to get used to this and rice it. Also did a easy 30 minute recovery spin on the spinnercycle. Have a 10 mile race this weekend. That will pretty much determine whether or not I run the Tallahassee Marathon.
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