Bright Angel Fault Line
A sweet looking overhang
Staring straight down at the Colorado River Gorge
We saw 4-5 deer right on the side of the road, then they all crossed the road in front of us
What a view!
The Little Colorado River Gorge
Another shot of the Little Colorado River Gorge
This crevice is the Bright Angel Fault line
I wanted to hike down this trail.....but we didn't have enough time today
Another view of Grand Canyon
This is a wicked trail that heads down to the Canyon floor, check out the switch-backs
Looking Down on the Canyon
If you look close, you can see the tractor trailer that flipped on the I17 on the way to Phoenix
Another scenery view from the race park
Jill Savege, on our course ride the day before race
The rest of the guys (L to R) Jordan, Colin, Simon, Kyle
Simon's dog Clooney.
The start of the run...Colin, myself, and Jordan
Heading out of T1
A couple of my many scratches from the cacti, etc I encountered on the trail
Jordan striking a pose the day before the race
Scenery from the race siteWell....the first race of the year is over first. Let me start off by stating my dislike for duathlons. I mean, come on, where's the swim?
This was a great race to open the season, with 13 elite men toeing the line. Included in this group was last year's 3rd place male, Lewis Elliot, as well as our group from Flag. The race distances were 5.34km/33km/4.56km
It was a bit chilly at the start, about 8 C. The first run started out quick, but I managed to catch a couple of the guys that started out a bit too quick, coming into T1 in 7th place, 1:10 down on Simon and Kyle, and 15 sec down on Colin. The beginning of the ride was rough, with it taking a bit of time to get the legs going. Jordan went flying by and the way to the fastest bike split, and riding his way from 8th after the first run to leading off the bike with a 25 sec lead on Simon. I entered T2 in 7th place, and tried desperately to hold on to the last money spot, but got caught with about a km to go, ending up 8th, 8 seconds out of some $$.
1st Simon 17:19/50:32/14:32 1:23:47
2nd Jordan 18:46/48:30/15:32 1:24:23
4th Kyle 17:26/51:57/14:25 1:25:10
5th Colin 18:16/51:05/14:46 1:25:28
8th Dano 18:32/54:24/15:30 1:29:43
On the women's side, everyone was in the money. Kirsten came 2nd, Natasha 4th, and Jill 5th.
Results to the race can be found here.
Joel, sporting his new BAMF sweatshirt from the group, cutting his birthday ice cream cake.Well, today's focus was a hard treadmill run.
75' in total (9.75 miles) as:
20' warm-up with a few pick ups
8 X 3' hard, 3' ez
warm-down
#1-4: 10.0 mph, 1.5 % incline
#5-6: 10.5 mph, 1.5 %
#7-8: 11.0 mph, 1.5 %
I had to cheat a bit on the last one and pull myself forward on the treadmill a few times.
An easy 1000yd swim afterwards, and a nice steam session finished up the workout.
The day was completed with an easy 60' spin on the trainer once I got home.
another view further down into the Crater from saturday's ride
a photo of the map showing the National Monument area we rode in.
Wed turned out to be a tough day! A 6000m swim that included some fast pulling (felt good today after yesterday's disaster).
500 choice
9 X 100 (kick, drill, swim X 3)
40 X 50 on 50' every 5th fast
200 easy
4 X (400 pull, 100 easy) (5:10,5:00,4:55,4:45)
200 kick, 200 easy
The last 400 pull was a fast one...held on until 200, then fell off a bit. Simon and Kyle went 4:37...smokin!
Next up was the workout of the day, a 2.5hr ride, with 2 X 8km TT efforts. We rode a rolling course, with a breeze out of the south (into our faces for the climbs).
I ended up riding slightly faster on the 2nd round, maybe I knew how to pace a bit better?
1st round: 12:40, 38.5km/hr, 313W
2nd round: 12:35, 38.8km/hr, 323W
Joel then "allowed" us to do another 8km loop, this time as a team TT. It was Simon, Kyle, and Colin setting the pace, with me hanging on for as long as possible, same with Kirsten. Kirsten fell off as we were flying down the highway, and I fell off once off the highway and into the climb at the end. I ended up coming across about 15 seconds behind the three....I was shattered after that.
An easy 30' run was the last workout of the day.
Tuesday brought 6000m in the pool.
We were scheduled for 5000m today, but ended up with 6000m. With the way I was swimming today, I definitely didn't need that extra 1000!
5 X 200 SKIDS (swim, kick, IM, drill, swim)
5 X (25 fast, 25 ez, 50 fast, 25 ez, 25 fast, 25 ez, 75 fast, 25 ez)
2 X (100,200,300,400,500) getting fast for as we moved through the set
400 warm-down
The wheels for off for me after the 300 the first time through the main set. I just couldn't catch any water, and quickly went backwards compared to everyone else. My lats were on fire. Oh well, another one of those days.
The second workout of the day was an easy 60' run. I felt like crap on that run as well. Nice to see that both workouts felt like that today.
Guess it's better to get the crappy days out of the way early in the week, as we're racing the Desert Duathlon in Phoenix on Sunday.
This morning we had the opportunity to have Phil Wharton speak to us again. He was going to run through some more stretching routines, however, due to President's Day, the pool wasn't open at 6:30 when we got there.
Instead, we headed over to the coffee shop and Phil talked to us regarding nutrition. He went over the good nutrients that athletes must take in for optimal recovery, as well as vitamins,etc.
Here are a couple random points he gave us:
He didn't really like Whey protein. He suggested hemp protein, hemp seeds
"Superfood"
He talked about Paula Radcliffe drinking it after each workout, lots of
greens (wheat grass, etc.) Hemoglobin and Chlorophyll are very similar in
structure - I think the only difference is their central atom (in hemoglobin
it's iron, whereas in chlorophyll it's magnesium).
He also said it's important to choose high alkaline foods post work-out to
balance the acidity in your body.
For the swim, Joel ended up giving us some goal times for 200's that we'd have to hit to get out of the last 2000m of the workout.
We warmed up with 600 swim, 8 X 50 drill
4 X 400 pull
Then 2 X 200 swim
Next was the get out 200. My get out time was 2:16.9
I felt great on the 200. I made the get out time, going 2:11 (1:04, 1:07). In fact, everyone made their get out times, so we all just warmed down afterwards.
Total workout was 3400m.
A 60' spin on the trainer ended the day. This week is toned down a bit, as we're racing the Desert Duathlon this Sunday down in Phoenix.
Today's long run was supposed to be 2hrs, but my legs were in real rough shape following the 130km ride the day before. I went for 90' instead. I did two different loops through town here, and then I headed down and back the Urban Trail.
A nice hearty breakfast and the Sunday paper followed.
I then sat back and watched the Daytona 500 until it was time to go swimming. It's great that NASCAR is back!
The swim turned out to be a nice loosen up workout. 5400 in total.
300 swim, 200 kick
3 X 500 (pull no paddles, pull, swim)
5 X 300 (2 pull no paddles, 2 pull, 1 swim)
15 X 100 on 1:40 (1-5) (5 pull no paddles, 5 pull, 5 swim)
200 kick, 200 swim
Wupatki Crater Scenery
Taking a quick pit stop in the crater
Descending into Wupatki Crater
Passing Sunset Canyon
The boys starting the climb back up
Today was our long ride day. A 50' run in the morning, then get ready for the ride at 11:45am. Since the roads up in Flag were dry, we decided to ride up here today, rather than Sedona. Simon led us out towards Wupatki Crater.
Here are a good link, that describes the beauty of the crater.
This link here shows the route that we rode to get to the bottom of the crater. We entered from Flagstaff on the bottom of the map, and rode past the Bonito Lava Flow, and then all the way down Loop Road to the visitor center at the bottom (4900 ft).
It was at this point that we stopped to re-fuel, and get ready for the climb back up. During the climb back up, we had a little duel going on, with points available at the Visitor Center at the top, as well as the final parking lot just before the highway.
The pace on the climb was pretty consistent until we caught up to Will and Natasha. At this point, Jordan started to pick the pace up. Will continued to climb with us, as the pace quickened. At one point (with Doctor Jones dictating the pace on the front) I got dropped by 25m, and it took all I had to bridge the gap (hammer a slight downhill, and TT back into the group).
At this point I think I got a 2nd wind, and felt good again. I soon realized that we were close to the visitor gate house, as we crested a short steep climb. I made a bit of an early lead out for Kyle and Colin, with Will and Simon taking the top two spots through check-point #1.
Kyle and Colin though got retribution for our team as they took the top two spots up to the parking lot. We climbed a little over 2000 ft in 30km, in a total time of 67'. My average power for the climb was 270W.
From there, it was another 30km back into Flag and home. Grand total for the day was 4hrs 15' in the saddle, 130km in total.
A painful swim this morning.
5800 m broken up as:
3 X 800 (swim, pull, 8 X 100 on 1:35)
3 X 400 (swim, pull, 4 X 100 on 1:30)
3 X 300 (swim, pull, 3 X 100 on 1:25)
3 X 200 (swim, pull, 2 X 100 on 1:20)
3 X 100 (swim, pull, 1 X 100 on 1:15)
400 warm down
I just couldn't get moving in the pool this morning, just one of those days. We had a very informative stretching session with Phil Wharton from Wharton Performance, who has helped over 500 Olympians. Very knowledgeable guy when it comes to stretching. Changed my views on how stretching should be done. He specializes in Active-Isolated Flexibility.
A 45' easy run was next up, followed by a 90' spin on the trainer. A much needed Epsom salt bath ended the day.
A busy/tough past couple of days.
Wednesday :
We started out the day with a 6000m swim.
400 swim, 400 pull, 8 X 50 drill, 400 Kick
2000 swim, descend by 500
100 easy
10 X 100 on 1:40 (50 build, 50 easy)
2 X 500 (1 pull, 1 swim)
300 easy
We were supposed to head down to Sedona for the workouts, but it was raining down in Sedona, so we opted to stay in Flag, and do Thursday's treadmill workout instead, and head to Sedona on Thursday.
The treadmill workout was 80' as
20' warm-up
3 X 3' @ 9.5mph/1% incline w. 3' easy jog in between
4 X 2' @ 10.0mph/1% incline w. 3' easy jog in between
5 X 1' @ 10.0mph/3% incline w. 1.5' easy jog in between
10' warm-down
That's a really good workout, a tough one! That'll have to be a keeper.
The last workout was an easy 1000 swim to loosen up.
Thursday:
An easy swim this morning, 3000m mixed. Nice and easy, just get in, and get it done.
We then headed down to Sedona for our workouts.
A 90' negative split ride, straight into a 65' run (40' easy, 15' tempo, 10' easy)
The ride went well, felt pretty strong today. The power numbers for the 45' hard effort (280W) were higher than the last time we did the workout, which is a good thing. The run on the other hand wasn't so good.
My legs were fried once we got to the run. In addition, I was having a few stomach problems on the run, even a quick pit stop didn't help too much. Oh well, it's over with.
Tomorrow is a long swim, an easy cross ride, and an easy run. There will be an Epsom salt afterwards as well.
OK,
we had perhaps the most epic ride I have ever been on today. We met at Late For the Train and headed out towards the mysterious Schultz pass. This dirt road that climbs forever, has been a nemesis of Mr Simon Whitfield's since last year here. Today we decided to climb as much of it as was possible. We figure we made it about 4-5 miles up, until the snow just got too deep for us to continue. Simon figures we were at about 8500 ft, so we climbed 1500 vertical feet.
Joel had been trailing us in the van, but he wasn't able to make it up Schultz's pass, as the road was closed to vehicles. We descended back down and met Joel at the bottom. A little food, then it was back on the road, and up Hwy 180 towards the Snow Bowl.
Once onto the road to snow bowl, we climbed, climbed, and climbed some more.
The climb to the base lodge at the top is basically a 10km climb at roughly a 5-6% grade. The base lodge we climbed to was situated at 9500ft (2500 ft vertical gain). What an epic ride. It started out with a dry road at the bottom. As we continued to climb, Jordan and Kyle disappeared in front of me. Soon, we started to ride into some snowflakes. Joel and Greg were ahead in the van offering support as we continued to climb. Soon enough, I saw the 5 mile sign, and knew that it was only about 1 mile to go. This is when it started to snow a bit more. Once the whole group got to the top, it was really coming down. The girls hopped in the van, while the guys put on any warm clothing they could from the back of the van, and got ready for the descent.
I had on a base layer, and a cycling jacket for the climb, then added a warm vest, and a rain jacket for the descent. Luckily I also had dry warm gloves that I changed into. By this point, the road at the top was completely snow covered. Once everyone was ready, we started descending.
On the descent, my hands were frozen, despite warm dry ski gloves. It got to a point that it was tough for me to squeeze the brakes. Add to that, the blowing snow as we started out, which turned into a freezing rain mix half-way down. I had ice particles frozen to my glasses, as well as my shifter cables freezing underneath my bike (from the kick-up off the road) so I couldn't shift gears (not that I needed to). I constantly kept alternating shaking my hands to try to get some feeling into my fingers. Luckily I didn't crash on the way down (it must have been quite the sight for Joel and those in the van watching us descending).
The 5 of us regrouped at the bottom, and trued to get some feeling back into our hands. After about 15 seconds of doing arm circles, I started to get some blood flowing into my fingers. Man did that sting!! It was back onto the bike, and get home as quickly as possible!!!
The ride turned out to be about 4 hrs in length, with a rough total of 4000 vertical feet climbed.
All that's left for the day is a 50' run on the treadmill later tonite. We can't get into the FAC between the hours of 4-7pm, so we're heading over at 7pm to run. There will definitely be a hot tub and a steam bath after the run. A fitting end to an Epic Day.
View of the pool where we swim, if only we could swim yards.....
A tough swim set kicked off the hard week of training.
400 swim, 200 kick
16 X 50 on 55" every 4th fast
100 easy
8 X 400 w. 20-30" rest (the last 4 were on 5:30)
The goal of the set was to descend every two 400's, so #1 and 2 the same speed, #3 and 4 the same speed, but faster than 1-2, etc
#1-6 pull (5;15, 5;15, 5:07, 5:08, 4:55, 4:55)
#7-8 swim (4:55, 4:45)
200 kick, 200 swim to warm-down
We handed in a urine sample this morning, to monitor our hydration levels. We got the results back today before riding, and it turns out I was really dehydrated when I gave my sample this morning. Guess I've got to get the fluid/electrolyte levels up a bit. We'll be giving samples the rest of the week, so it'll give me a chance to better my levels.
Boy was I stiff on Sunday.
That 5km took a bit more out of my legs than I thought it would.
An EASY 30' run sunday morning to flush the legs out, a 90' cross ride in the rain, and a 5000m swim to end the day. I don't remember too much of the swim, other than the fact that there was lots of pull involved.
Today turned out to be a bit of a recovery day as well. 3000m this morning in the pool as follows:
400 mix
8X50 kick
8X25 swim
2X 400 IM
8X25 swim
800 Pull
200 easy
The group did blood work after the swim to monitor the effects of the altitude on the body thus far. We all went out for breakfast afterwards, and the last workout of the day was a 60' spin on the trainer.
Watched 24 tonight, it's about time it started to get interesting.
Tomorrow we are back to some harder training...the rest of the week is pretty solid.
Tues:
Swim 5000m
Cross ride 2.5-3hr
Run 50' easy
Wed:
Swim 6000m
Ride 90' neg split in Sedona
into a 65' transition tempo run
Thurs:
Swim 3000m
Run 80' on treadmill
Swim 1000m post run
Fri:
Swim 6000m
Ride 90' cross
Run 50' easy
Sat:
Ride 4hrs
Run 50' easy
Sun:
Run 2hrs
Swim 5000m
Here is a link to the front page of the Sedona Red Rock News, with the start of the article on the Marathon.
for some reason, this guy thought he'd ride his bike in the parking lot, in the back of his truck for all to watch.
Jordan showing off his medal from the half marathon.
Jill and the newspaper article about our group and the Sedona marathon. Jill is in the picture that accompanies the story.
The half marathon winners...Simon Whitfield and Jill Savege
Colin, Joel, and Adam after our intense game of soccer while waiting for the half marathon awards to begin.
Friday was a short 3km swim, a 40' run with 6-8 X 50m strides, and a 60' easy high cadence spin on the bike.
Now, onto today's festivities.
We headed down to Sedona to run in the 2nd annual Sedona Marathon.
Simon, Adam, Jordan, and Jill ran the half marathon, while Kyle, Colin, Kirsten and myself ran the 5km.
We received free entry into the race in exchange for some Q&A with the local press. We answered some Q's for the local paper, the Sedona Red Rock News. They did a good write up on the event, and the group, unfortunately they don't have a link to the story up yet. If I can get a copy, I'll try to get it on here.
It turned out to be a great day to run. Joel told us not to expect much more than a hard effort of running today. No fast times were expected, as a result of the altitude (4500 ft) and the fact that we were slightly tired this week.
It was a great day all around in both the Half and the 5km. Simon and Adam dueled it out at the front in the half, finishing within 1' of each other, and Jordan ran to a solid 5th place finish. Jill took the women's overall win, finishing 6th overall.
1st Simon Whitfield 1:13:06
2nd Adam Campbell 1:13:53
5th Jordan Rapp 1:20:42
1st Jill Savege 1:23:17
Link to results here.
The 5km went off 5' after the half marathon runners, which in hindsight, wasn't the greatest idea. Within 2', we were catching up to the tail end of the half marathon, and we ran the first 3km weaving in and out of all the runners. We went 1-2-3 on the men's side, and Kirsten took the women's overall win (7th overall)
1st Kyle Jones 15:44
2nd Colin Jenkins 16:22
3rd Daniel Wells 17:07
1st Kirsten Sweetland 18:34
Links to 5km results here.
Overall, I'm happy with the 5km time this early in the season. went through mile 1 in 5:11, missed the 2 mile split, and went through 3 miles in 16:31.
We warmed up for 20' and did a cool-down run of 40' after the race.
The day finished with a 90' ride in Sedona, the legs were a bit stiff.
Here's a course profile of the 5km, that climb in the last mile was a killer!
There were lots of photo's taken during the race (none by Joel unfortunately as he was out on the course on his bike) but once the race photos are put on-line, I'll try to get some up. They should be posted by Sunday night.
I've run some altitude adjustments based off the NCAA guidelines for the race elevation and these would be the rough equivalent sea level times
Kyle: 15:22
Colin: 16:00
Dano: 16:44
Kirsten: 18:08
Only one workout today....a 60' easy run
Well, that was the plan at least. I went and ran with Adam, Kyle, Simon and the Flag running group this morning. Somehow I ended up running with our three, as well as two of the flag runners. The pace started out good for me, but soon turned into a tempo run for me (easy for them I assume) A period of 20' with the HR up around 175. Definately working up a good sweat!
Turned out to be a good run though. A nice piece of tempo running for me, then a bagel afterwards.
I lounged around the rest of the day, played some playstation, had an Epsom salt bath, and ending the night watching Survivor and CSI.
Another great day of weather in Flagstaff. The high hit roughly 55 F !
Today's swim session had a common theme...1000's
6X1000 as follows
1) as 5X200 (swim, kick, IM, drill, swim)
2) 2 X (6 X 50 w. band on 55", 2 X 100 build swim on 1:30)
3) 1000 swim (switch off lead within the lane)
4) 1000 pull steady
5) 1000 swim (6 person draft, switch off every 100)
6) 1000 pull
Suffice to say, my lats, and triceps were slightly tired once we got out of the pool.
Despite the gorgeous weather, we headed up to FAC to run indoors on the treadmill. We needed the treadmills to focus on the speed intervals of our 3-2-1 workout (w. 2' easy in between).
70' run broken up as:
30' easy warm-up
Round One
3' @ 9.5 mph, 1.0 % incline
2' @ 10.0, 1.0 %
1' @ 11.0, 1.0 %
Round Two (switched to a different treadmill (lower top speed) after the other shut down)
3' @ 9.5, 1.5 %
2' @ 10.0, 2.0 %
1' @ 10.0, 3.0 %
Round Three
3' @ 9.5, 2.0 %
2' @ 10.0, 2.5 %
1' @ 10.0, 3.0 %
This is a fairly tough workout, but it's a good one, as the speed gets progressively faster, as the intervals get slower. The legs felt a bit heavy today, hopefully the recovery week helps.
Wow....
I'd have to say this was the warmest day we've had in Flagstaff. When we went riding at 1pm, it was knee warmers, and could get away with short sleeves. Nice for a change :)
Another morning in the pool, it seems the Japanese team just keeps getting bigger every time we head to the pool. 5300m, though it went by pretty quick.
800 choice warm-up
800 steady pull (hold under 1:20 per 100)
8 X 100 on 1:25 (1:12-1:13's)
400 swim
400 steady pull (hold under 1:20 per 100)
4 X 100 on 1:20 (1:11's)
300 swim
300 steady pull (hold under 1:20 per 100)
3 X 100 on 1:20 (1:09, 1:10, 1:10)
200 swim
200 steady pull (hold under 1:20 per 100)
2 X 100 on 1:15 (1:09's)
200 warm-down
The cross ride in the afternoon was great. We re-visited a few roads/trails that we rode a couple weeks ago (when it was about -20 C) and it was such a change to ride them with out snow on them. Mind you, it made it harder, as it's a bit easier to ride on the snow (traction wise) than the mud. Nice and mucky by the time we got home. We found a new way of getting home, as we rode through a field, hopped over a barb-wire fence, and found the highway we were looking for to get back home.... 2:15 ride in total.
Today was an active recovery type day.
We slept in a bit this morning, as we weren't into the water until 10am.
3000m of fun in the water. 800m warm up and then some fun competition events, and a relay.
The only other workout of the day was a 40' easy run. The weather has warmed up nicely, and I was able to run in shorts today as it was 50 F when I headed out the door. Sure beats the wacky weather we have experienced so far here.
Totals from Week Four:
Swim: 26,000 m
Bike: 7.5 hrs
Run: 7 hrs
Well...the Bears just couldn't do it tonite. I guess Rex was playing for Indy or something to that degree.
We ran a squares pool here, and Kirsten won $45 of the $50 in the pot. She got lucky with the missed FG at the half, and Peyton's decision not to kick a FG at the end of the game.
Today was our long run of the week, 1:50.
We headed halfway down to Sedona, parked and headed out running. We started out up the main road, and then dipped into a side trail. It was a bit muddy, so Kyle, Jill and I turned around and let Simon, Adam and Jordan go that way. We came back to the car, dropped off our pants (it was warm, and shorts were the only thing needed). from there we ran down another trail and continued running downhill for 43' (close to 1000 ft change in elevation) before turning around the head home. Coming back was tough, uphill the whole way. I tried to keep my HR in my long run zone (165 bpm)
We headed back up to Flag, had a bit of food, and it was off to the pool for our bumped up swim so we could watch Super Bowl later on.
5100m in the pool, broken up as follows:
300 swim, 200 kick
5 X 300 pull with band w. 20" rest
5 X 300 pull w. 20" rest
5 X 300 swim w. 20" rest
100 easy
The group came over for Super Bowl, a good time watching the game. I exhibited outstanding willpower and stayed away from the beer, even though Simon brought over some beers for the game (I think he did this to tease me) :)
I made my Joe Wray beans for the game, Kyle, Colin and Adam had some and enjoyed them. The whole group got to enjoy them in the 4th Q as I had some world class gas!
Tomorrow is a recovery day, 3000m swim and a 40' run.
It'll be a quick blog tonite, I'm beat from the ride.
Easy 30' run this AM to wake up, loaded up the trailer later with the bikes and headed down to Sedona for a warmer ride.
Out along Hwy 89A towards Cottonwood, Clarkdale, then the climb up towards Jerome. We ended up climbing 15km (48') through Jerome and continuing up the Hwy towards Prescott. Jordan, Kyle, and Colin went off the front, and I just tried to stay on Simon's wheel. Going through Jerome was amazing....a little tourist town, tight roads, great feeling riding through it. From Jerome, we could see Flagstaff to the North.
Once we reached the top, we grabbed some warmer clothes from Adam who provided support on the ride (Thx Adam), re-filled the bottles, and began the fun descent down.
Stats from the climb:
approx 15km
48 min
294 W average power
18.3km/hr
I had a feeling that climb was going to come back and hurt me later in the ride, and I was right. At about 82km or so, I fell off the back of the group, TT'd behind Adam in the car as he pulled me back up to the group, and then fell off for good around 85km. It was a long, lonely ride back into Sedona for me! I was a hurting unit.
Total ride was 3:31, 104km, avg power 202 W, 29.4km/hr
Dinner, Epsom salt bath, and bed.
Sunday brings a 1:50 run followed by a 5km swim at 12:30. We moved the swim up from 4pm, so we can watch the Super Bowl. I'll be cheering for Da Bears.
Another solid day of training.
I awoke this morning to one of the coldest mornings thus far in Flag. It was -2 F (-21C). That made for a brisk 30 min easy run this morning. The usual stretch and breakfast before heading to the pool followed the run.
Two main sets awaited us at the pool.
400 swim
200 kick
Main Set #1
6 X 400 pull w. 30" rest (1-3) (5:20, 5:05, 4:55)(5:15, 5:10, 4:50)
200 easy
Main Set #2
2 X (3 X 200 (1-3) 3 X 50 (1-3), 250 ez)
First round was pull (2:40, 2:35, 2:25)
Second round swim (2:48, 2:35, 2:30)
The last workout of the day was a 65' run broken up as 40' base, 15' hard, 10' ez.
We headed out towards the airport to run on the roads out there, not as much traffic.
The 15' was hard. This was our first real hard prolonged effort while running here at altitude. My heart rate hovered up around 175 for the whole period (felt higher though). The legs were hurting a bit today, but that's OK...means I'm working hard!
A light workout day...very nice.
This morning was a 3000m swim, whatever we wanted to do. Just get in and get 3km in.
We headed out for some grub after swimming, Simon suggested this place called La Bellavia which has these outstanding Swedish Oat Pancakes!
If you can eat three Oat Pancakes, then your meal is free, and you get a free mug from the restaurant. I only ordered one pancake (filled with banana), and that was a meal itself. Kyle (who can eat like a horse) couldn't finish two pancakes. Jordan made an attempt and ordered 3 oat pancakes, but could only stomach 1.5 pancakes. It's a great deal as well, $3.75 for one, $7.25 for two, and $7.95 for three.
I'll definitely hit that place up again, good value, and a great meal.
I ended the day with a relaxed 45' run on the treadmill at FAC. I was forced inside once again today, as it was blowing snow, and I didn't feel like battling through that. Another good stretch on the Stretch Station, an outdoor hot tub, and a steam session to top it off.
