On my way home

It’s been a couple of busy days here out in Victoria, trying t get settled, and figure out where everything is in this area. Here’s an update of the past few days.

Sunday:
I awoke this morning about as stiff as I’ve ever felt. My quads and hips were extremely tight from the Gut Buster. All of the downhill running trashed my legs. It hurts to just touch the quads.

AP and I headed out for a 2hr ride. We went north on N Saanich Rd and saw the northern part of Victoria. Everything out here is so beautiful! We headed over to Commonwealth pool at 2pm to swim.

6000m with a main set as follows:
4 X 50 band, 400 pull steady, 400 swim steady (4:54)
6 X 50 band, 600 pull steady, 600 swim steady (maintain same effort as 400)
8 X 50 band, 800 pull steady, 800 swim steady (9:31) (maintain effort)

AP and I followed up with a 30’ easy easy trot. This helped loosen my legs a little bit.
I then hightailed it back over to Commonwealth pool to watch the last night of finals for Canadian Swim Nationals. The mile went tonight, and I was able to catch up with the Stingrays that were swimming (Brandon Kingston, Matthew Swanston, as well as Alan). In addition, Jess Kirkwood was there, as well as Adam Cockburn. Kristen Bradley was also swimming. Good to catch up with everyone.

Monday:
4000m swim this morning at Crystal Pool. I swam like crap. Seems I always follow up a good swim workout with a crappy one. Simon believes it could be due to my nutrition, something I’ll look into rectifying.
I then headed out to the airport to pick Colin up as he returned from the Mooloolaba World Cup. He basically left 2hrs after his race, and spent a night in the Sydney airport. He had a killer race in Mooloolaba!

AP and I had an easy 60’ spin in the afternoon, which went well. AP had a second 3km swim scheduled, so Colin and I headed over to Commonwealth with him. I had a nice soak in the hot tub, as well as a steam. Trying to loosen the legs up a bit. I think it worked.

Tuesday:
5000m swim at Crystal this morning. Kyle is back in town now as well, having arrived last night from Australia. Main Set today was 6 X 400 pull on 5:30 (holding 5:10’s) followed by 2 X 400 swim on 5:30 (5:10, 4:50).

The second workout of the day was a tempo run down at Beacon Hill Park. We ran the loop down there that the guys had created, the “Harder Than Hamish” loop. I’ll give the short story version of it, and then find Simon’s story about it on his blog and post that as well.
Basically there is a 1 mile loop around Beacon Hill park that Hamish Carter used to run when he trained out of Vic. Simon et all added going up and down Beacon Hill to the loop, to make it harder than Hamish. Our loop is 2km, predominately run on grass. The goal was 4-5 loops, building effort the whole way. I ran the first loop a bit quick today, trying to stay in contact with Simon and AP. I soon settled into a better rhythm/pace though

7:04, 7:24, 7:32, 7:28

I only ran 4 loops, as my quads were still sore from Saturday’s race. AP ran 4 as well. Simon was a machine and rolled through 5 solid loops.

AP, Colin, and I finished off the day with a 60’ ride with some stomps throughout the ride. I then packed up a bunch of stuff I’m not going to need in Vic this summer to bring home.

As I write this, I’m sitting on an Air Canada flight headed home for a few days. I’ll be heading back to Vic on Monday to get back to training. Looking forward to getting home for a few days!!

Gut Buster #1 Royal Roads

What a fun race!!

AP and I awoke Saturday morning to some light rain, and about 8 C. We headed over to Royal Roads University to register, and get ready for the Gut Buster. From what Adam had told us, it was going to be hilly, most likely pretty muddy, and a lot of fun.

The race was 11.7km, with basically all of it being run over single track trails, and grass. Numerous short ups and downs, lots of twists and turns, roots sticking out of the ground, bridges to cross, puddles to run through, a massive gravel pit, and some steep steep climbs made it a great race!

Adam had told AP and I about the gravel pit, and it was all that he made it out to be. I didn't handle the run down into the gravel pit properly, as I kinda slid down the hill, whereas AP said he bunny hopped down the hill. I ended up with about a dozen little rocks in each shoe as a result. Up and out of the gravel pit on the other side was just as tough! I was literally crawling up the other side, using my hands to help me up the hill. I had to grab some roots to get over the top! The rain coming down made the whole race even more interesting!

I ended feeling pretty good for the run. Started out in about 8th place, and slowly moved my way up on little stretches where we were on pavement. Worked my way up to eventually catch up to AP and the 2nd place guy. I hung with them for a little, then AP dropped the hammer a bit and pulled away to win by a minute. I had a great battle with the other guy, going back and forth, and it came down to a sprint finish, as he got me at the line by 1 second for 2nd place. I ended up with a $20 gift certificate to Frontrunners (a local running store in town) so not only did I get a good workout in, but I got a gift certificate as well!

AP 51:30
2nd place guy 52:41
Dano 52:42

Edit * I was 1:11 behind AP, not :11 :-)

One of the numerous hills we ran up

AP cruises in for the win

The lead group of 4 comin up the hill (AP on the front, I'm in 3rd)

Trying to open up a bit of gap on 2nd place guy

Sprint finish for 2nd place

The downhill part of the gravel pit

Men's Podium

Thurs/Fri in Vic

After crashing at Colin's place on Wednesday night, I had a great sleep. 10 hrs of solid sleep. Boy did I need that. I awoke Thursday at 8:15am which is a major sleep in for me!

AP and I went to see a place that we might possibly live in. It's about 3km away from U Vic, and we both really liked it. We're going to meet with the guy again tomorrow (Sat) to go over the basics of living there.

We'll basically have the basement and the two bedrooms down there. The rooms are fully furnished, and have queen size beds in them. Each room is wired for internet and cable, and have phones as well. There is also a TV out in the "rec room" area of the basement. We'd be sharing the kitchen upstairs with the homeowner, but other than that, don't think we'd really see him that much. We're also about a 2 min walk away from the ocean, where we can go after workouts and ice our legs in the 50 F water. It'll be perfect (once I get used to standing in cold water like that for 10 min at a time!)

As Thursday was my birthday, AP and I went out to dinner at the Keg. I had a great baseball sirloin with a twice baked potato and a caesar salad. I tried out a local brew, and had a Salt Spring Pale Ale. It was quite good! Thanks for dinner Mom and Dad!

Friday was our first day of organized training up here. We swam this morning at Crystal Pool, 5100m as follows

800 swim, 800 pull, 8 X 100 on 1:30
400 swim, 400 pull, 4 X 100 on 1:30
300 swim, 300 pull, 3 X 100 on 1:30
200 swim, 2 X 100 on 1:30, 200 easy

Felt like crap swimming today...but it's to be expected after sitting in a car for two days, and running around Vic trying to find a place, and get organized. We'll be doing all of our swimming at Crystal, as opposed to Commonwealth Pool (the bigger name pool in Vic). Crystal is warmer, which is fine with me!

AP and I then went out for a 90' ride here. It was raining as we headed out, which made for a miserable ride. To make things even better, AP suffered two flats, and we didn't have a 2nd CO2 cartridge, so I rode home to drive back out and get AP, but he got a ride back from some dude in the meantime as he was frozen standing in the rain.

AP and I went over to Pac Sport to try and get our Pacsport cards which we need for workouts out here. The card gets us into any gyms, etc out here for workouts. The woman wasn't there today, so we'll get our cards sometime early next week. We got a tour of the place, including Commonwealth pool center, it's a great facility.
AP and I then headed out with Adam for a 40' run. Adam showed us some of the trails around Elk and Beaver Lake. I think we'll be running there a lot, and the place we'll probably be living is pretty close, so we could drive over to run there if we want.

We're relaxing right now watching some March Madness....what a comeback by my Buckeyes Thurs night (never count them out Simon!). We're running a local trail race here tomorrow, called the Gut Buster, it's an 11.7km race, should be hilly, and it'll be mucky as it's supposed to be raining (surprise surprise!)

Quick Update

Just a quick update tonite.

I'm up in Vic now, the drive up went well, 2 days of driving, and then we caught the ferry this morning into Vic. AP and I are crashing at Colin's place for a few days (he's in Australia) while we search for our own place. Simon showed us around town today, and helped us get settled.

Time for bed now, I'll provide a better recap of the trip north soon.

Last Day in Flag

Well...Sunday March 18th is my last day in Flag.

Today was a long run in the morning with Simon, Adam, and AP.
We ran from Late for the Train, and went out into Sinclair Wash, and some other fire roads. What a great way to spend a last run here. 95' in total, and then we did some strides and drills afterwards.

4300m in the pool. 1000 warm-up done as SKIPS (200 each of swim,kick,IM,pull,swim)
8 X 25m (1-3, #4 easy)

Main Set was 3X through the following:

50 fast, 150 easy (32's for all three rounds)
100 fast, 200 easy (1:05.2, 1:05.2, 1:01.9)
150 fast, 250 easy (1:40-1:43)

200 kick and 200 swim warm-down

Then the fun really began. Time to pack up all of my crap, which I've done a pretty good job of so far. Everything is basically ready to be put in the car.

Tomorrow morning I am dropping Kirsten off at the airport at 5:45, then coming back, finishing cleaning up, returning our internet modem, and finally packing the car. Then I'll pick AP up from the pool, and hit the road.

For those of you interested in my route, I'm looking at taking I40 into California, working my way through Bakersfield to the I5.

Once on the I5, it's a beeline due North all the way to Port Angeles, where we'll take the ferry across to Victoria. I'm hoping to make it somewhere around Sacramento by Monday night (11.5 hours or so), and then that will leave 13 hours or so to Port Angeles the next day. Most likely stay over night in Port Angeles, and then catch the Wed morning 8:30 ferry to Victoria.

I hope everyone has enjoyed my chronicles here in Flagstaff, it's been such an incredible experience here. The group has been awesome to train with, and Joel and Adam have been great. I'm looking forward to continuing in Victoria. I'll keep the blogging going in Victoria...

Dano

Group Photo from Buffalo Park Run

Back row (L to R): Adam Campbell, AP
Middle row (L to R): Dave Scott Thomas, Calvin Staples, Joel Filliol
Front Row (L to R): Kirsten Sweetland, Reid Coolsaet, Jordan Rapp, Daniel Wells, Simon Whitfield, Kyle Jones

Awesome Run at Buffalo Park

Well, today turned out to be a tough day!

5000m in the pool. I could tell on the first interval of the main set that it wasn't going to be a great day in the pool.

400 swim 200 kick, 8 X 50 (alt drill and build)

The main set was three times through the following:

3 X 200 on 3:10 (1-3), 3 X 50 on 1:00 (1-3) 150 easy

Swam like crap, nothing like the 2000m TT we had the other day. Oh well.

3 X 400 Pull, then 100 easy to finish off the workout.

Colin flew out today back to Vic. He flies onward to Mooloolaba on Monday for the first World Cup of the season. He's all pimped out with his new bike, and his new Zipp 808 wheel set. The bike looks sweet!

The main workout of the day was our run up at Buffalo Park. Dave Scott Thomas (head coach of Speed River TC) was in town for the weekend, so he came up for the workout and brought along his two stud runners, Reid and Calvin.

2 mile warm-up, some strides, then the fun began. Let me tell you, running hard, long intervals at 7000 ft is really tough! But, it's great training, so the pain is worth it. We ran the workout on a 2 mile loop in Buffalo park. the back half of the loop included a pretty decent hill, that fried my legs each time I ran up it (first 2 mile interval, the 2nd 1 mile interval, and the final 2 mile interval).

Workout:

1 mile (5:24) w. 3' easy jog afterwards
2 mile (11:32) w. 3' easy jog afterwards
1 mile (5:36) w. 3' easy jog afterwards
2 mile (11:54)

I was fried on the last interval, but managed to pull through it.
2 mile warm-down at the end. 10 miles total. A great workout.

I was really pleased with the workout, as being at 7000 ft altitude is worth roughly 20-25 seconds per mile. So at sea level, those times should be roughly: 5:00, 10:50, 5:15, 11:15

A 60' ride afterwards with 8 X 20" stomps ended off the day. I hopped in the bath for an epsom salt bath, as my legs were fried, and we've got the Flagstaff group ride tomorrow (100km).


On a sad note, we've only got 2 more days left in beautiful flagstaff before we leave. We've had three straight days with record highs. It's a shame that we've got to leave when it's finally warm....

BUT,

I'm going to head up to Victoria with the group and train from there this summer! I'm really looking forward to carrying forward all of the hard training I've been fortunate to get in with the group here in Flag. The group has been great to me, and they're open to having me train with them in Vic. I'll have amazing training partners for all my workouts this summer...it's going to be great! I'm really looking forward to translating all of my hard training into some good results this year!

It's Been A While

Sorry for the delay in blogging....I'm back at it now

Tuesday:
4000m this morning at the pool. We did some blasts (or speed stuff). Didn't feel that great in the pool, maybe the day off yesterday had something to do with it.

AP and I went for an easy 30' run along the Urban Trail, and then we had a 60' ride in the afternoon. The main efforts for the ride was 8 X 20" Stomps (starting for an almost standstill, and in a big gear). Nice ride along Lake Mary Rd, in the nice warm weather.


Wednesday:
Whew, this was a tough day. Two brick workouts today

700 warm-up
2000m TT (24:36)
straight onto the bike for 15 min hard TT effort
400 easy in the pool
500m TT (6:04)
straight onto the bike for 5 min hard TT effort

warm-down

Then in the afternoon we headed out for a bike/run brick
30' warm-up on the bike, then we did 3 loops of the Mooloolaba hill simulation reps we did last week. After the third loop, we hopped off, and went straight into a 1 mile hard run.
Then we cooled down with 15' easy run, and spun back to our place.

A great day of workouts, these are just the type of workouts I need.

Thursday:
3000m easy in the pool this morning.
3x400 (swim, drill, kick)
3x300 (swim, pull w. paddles, pull buoy only)
3X200 (swim, 8 X 25, 200 kick)
3X100 (choice)

Now I'm watching March Madness the rest of the day.....with a 50' easy run in between games later this afternoon.

Buckeyes to win the whole thing. Greg Oden and Mike Conley.....

It's That Time of Year!!

Sunday's Long Run and Monday's Rest Day

Sunday was our scheduled long run.

Simon had discovered a sweet trail down in Sedona, so 6 of us headed down to Sedona to meet Simon for the run. Colin, Kyle, and Kirsten were doing a tough treadmill workout in prep for Mooloolaba, so they stayed back in Flag.

I was running with a very distinguished group of runners, which made it a bit tough for me to hang on near the end. Our group consisted of Simon, Adam, Jordan, AP, and myself, along with two fast Canadian runners who just got to Flag: Reid Coolsaet and Calvin Staples.

The run was awesome! Great morning for a run, and a great group of guys to run with. We even had water support in a couple locations (thanks to Jenny!).

Total run was 1:45 and I managed to hang on til the very end....

Check out Simon's blog for a much better recap of the run (simonwhitfield.blogspot.com)

We finished off the day with 6000m in the pool

300 mix, 200 kick, 10 X 50 drill
3 X 500 (pull bouy only, pull w. paddles, swim)
5X 300 on 4:30 (2 pb only, 2 pull w. paddles, 1 swim)
15 X 100 on 1:40 (1-5) (5 pb only, 5 pull w. paddles, 5 swim)

300 kick, 200 warm-down

Everyone was swimming well today, got the last pull w. paddles down to 1:06, and the last swim down to 1:02.5

Another solid day in the books.

Monday is a rest day, optional spin....will most likely spin for a bit

Photos from the Group Ride

Headin Back towards Flag

Colin chillin at the store in Morman Lake

Thor Hushovd chatting with Kyle and I in Morman Lake

Colin leading out Thor

Kyle 2nd up the first hill sprint

Flag Group Ride

Today we met at the Late for the Train coffee shop downtown at 10am to do the local flagstaff group ride. The group started out at roughly 40-50 riders, as we headed out of town.

It was a great group ride, with some specific group sprint points on the course. Everyone re-grouped at the top of the first sprint (up a hill that was a lot steeper than it looked) which was a good thing, as I got popped on the climb.

From there it was down into a town called Morman Lake I believe, where there was another sprint before we stopped at the convenience store, and regrouped and had a Snickers.
The last stretch back towards Flag was a tricky one, as it was into the wind, and the group got strung out a bit. I was on the back, and the yo-yo effect of the speed up front made me have to accelerate even more than everyone else.

A great ride overall though

100 km (including ride over to coffee shop)
2:56
34.3km/hr
Average Power 171 (sitting in the group lowers it, burst were over 450 Watts)

A 25' run off the bike (5' hard, 20' easy) ended the day

Friday

Friday brought another day in the pool, with an easy spin in the afternoon.

6000m

Main Set was
8 X 100 on 1:30, 2X50 (25 fast, 25 ez)
7 X 100 on 1:30, 2X50 (25 fast, 25 ez)
6 X 100 on 1:30, 2X50 (25 fast, 25 ez)
5 X 100 on 1:30, 2X50 (25 fast, 25 ez)
4 X 100 on 1:30, 2X50 (25 fast, 25 ez)
3 X 100 on 1:30, 2X50 (25 fast, 25 ez)
2 X 100 on 1:30, 2X50 (25 fast, 25 ez)

A total of 35 X 100 hard, a pretty tough workout. I was good through the first 20, then I was struggling to the end.

60' spin to end the day

Tim Don Special

Double run today.
30' nice and easy in the morning to wake the legs up. Then the Main workout at 11am.

20' warm-up at the track, followed by the Tim Don Special.
What might the Tim Don Special be?


32 X 200 on 60" (with an additional 30" rest after every 4)

Everyone ran really well today, including AP with his first day at altitude.
Kyle and Simon alternated setting the pace on the front, leading us through all 32 in under 33 seconds. Colin ran really strong as well. I was running 35-36's for the first 20, until my quads started to lock up. The last 12 were a struggle, coming home in 38's.

We did ice baths back at our place, though I couldn't get myself into the cold water (too big a wuss) so I waited a bit until it warmed up a bit (and after I added a bit of hot water).

Tomorrow we are doing contrast bathing again at NAU (that I can handle!)

An easy spin on the trainer to flush out the legs and end the day.

Tough Swim!

Wow....that was a tough swim set we had Wednesday morning.

400 warm up
800 swim, 800 pull, 8X100 on 1:20 (1:16's)
400 swim, 400 pull, 4X100 on 1:15 (1:11-1:12's)
300 swim, 300 pull, 3X100 on 1:15 (1:11's)
200 swim, 200 pull, 2X100 on 1:12.5 (1:07,1:08)
100 swim, 100 pull, 100 under 1:10 (1:03.5)
200 warm-down

Done and done.

We backed this workout up with a tough bike workout. It was meant as a simulation for the group going to Mooloolaba. Up and over a hill on one side (steep section then level out a bit, 1km long) then down turn around and up and over the other side (more gradual, shorter). We did this 8 times, for a total of 16 climbs. My legs were shot after 2 rounds. Dragged myself through the last 6 reps. Tough, but the workout was done.

An easy 30' run for me afterwards, while the Mooloolaba group did their heat training.

Kyle and Colin sweating through their heat session.
The absolute temperature (including humidity) was close to 50 C!

Tough Workouts

Well, today turned out to be two really good workouts.

6000m in the pool

400 mix, 200 kick, 8X50 drill
8X25 (1-3, #4 easy)
4X50 (1-3, #4 easy)

5X400 Pull (1-5) on 5:30 (5:10,5:06,5:00,4:56,4:48)
200 easy
5X400 swim (1-3, maintain #4-5) (5:15,5:10,4:54,4:57,4:47)
400 warm-down

The swim was a tough one today. Didn't feel great at the start of the pull set, however I swam out of it, and felt good starting the swim set. Felt like I was swimming faster than the times indicated on #1 and #2, but in the end, I toughed it out and was a BAMF.

I was able to build off the good workout this morning, and carry it into the treadmill workout

90' total (12 miles)

20' warm-up including a few strides

10 X (3' fast, 3' ez) @ 2%
#1-2: 10.0 mph
#3-4: 10.3 mph
#5-6: 10.6 mph|
#7-8: 10.9 mph
#9-10: 11.1 mph

10' warm-down

We did a workout similar to this two weeks ago, except it was 8 X (3' hard, 3' ez) I did that workout at 1.5% (4 @10.0, 2 @10.5, 2 @11.0). So it's good to see a bit of improvement in the level of my workouts. Think I'm getting the hang of doing these hard workouts on the treadmill.


The people going to Mooloolaba WC (Kyle, Colin, Jill, and Kirsten) started their heat acclimatization today. It involves swallowing a special pill that determines your internal body temperature (read by Joel via a monitor). The workout is conducted in a HOT room, where the goal is to bring the body temperature up to a certain level, and maintain that for 70'. great prep for the conditions they will face in Mooloolaba.

Monday was an easier day.

5000m in the pool, and an easy 30' run later in the day.

400 warm
3 X (4X50 (1-4) w. band 100 easy, 2 X100 (1-2) w. band, 100 easy)
16 X 50 on 45" every 4th fast
12 X 50 on 50" every 3rd fast
8 X 50 on 55" every 2nd fast
4 X 50 on 60" all fast (31's)
800 pull
100 easy

We've got some nice warm weather here in Flag currently, able to go out running in shorts and a shirt!!! Temps should hit 60 F every day this week

Sunday

This will be another post without a photo, I'll do my best to get some new photos to put up here.

Long run this morning, 90 min, in and around Flag. Did my usual loop out toward Simon and Jordan's place, then headed out along the Urban Trail out that way, then headed on home.

60' spin on the trainer in the afternoon, watching the golf on TV.

We ended the day with 5000m in the pool.

400 swim, 200 kick, 8 X 50 choice
3 X 400 (2 pull, 4 X 100 on 1:20)
3 X 300 (2 pull, 3 X 100 on 1:20)
3 X 200 (2 pull, 2 X 100 on 1:20)
3 X 100 (2 pull, 1 X 100 on 1:20)

100 easy, 8 X 25 (3 fast, 1 ez), 100 ez, 8 X 25 (3 fast, 1 ez),
400 warm-down

Where'd this weather come from??

Wow....it feels like I'm back in Ontario!
The high today was only about -1 C, but combined with the 50km/h winds here in Flagstaff, it felt more like -10C

It was a chilly, yet exhilarating 60' run first thing this morning. Ran along the Urban trail, with 5 X 50 m strides.

We were supposed to do a bike workout outside, however, due to the weather, we convinced Joel to let us do an indoor trainer workout instead. Turns out the trainer workout was probably harder, but at least it was warm!!

30' warm-up on the bike, then we got into the main set

3 x 3' zone 5 effort with 3' recovery (322W, 315W, 306W)
3 x 2' zone 5 effort with 2' recovery (309W, 327W, 320W)
3 x 2' zone 5 effort with 4' recovery (318W, 281W , 309W)
9 x 1' zone 5 effort with 2' recovery (356W, 356W, 356W, 332W, 341W, 347W, 363W, 332W, 352W)

10' warm-down

I had a second run to finish off the day (was going to be straight off the bike, but I opted to warm-down, cool off, then put warm clothes on and go running)

5' easy 5' hard running, 10' easy cool-down.

My legs were shattered by the end of the day, had a nice Epsom Salt bath and a session on my foam roller to help the legs recover.

Jenkins B-Day Swim

10,000m

That's how far we swam today. Since I'd never swum that far in all my years of swimming, I brought a few provisions along to workout, in case I was struggling towards the end; coke and a snickers bar. Luckily I didn't have a need for either (though I did have the coke afterwards in the shower)

Ended up going through 1.5 L of gatorade, as well as a gel taken after 4km.

10 X 1000m

#1 SKIDS (continuous, swim, kick, IM, drill, swim)
#2 Pull
#3 50 build, 50 back, 50 kick (repeat)
#4 swim neg. split
#5 SKIPS (pull instead of drill)
#6 Pull
#7 50 build, 50 back, 50 kick
#8 swim neg. split
#9 IM (100's IM continuous)
#10 Pull

Felt great at the end, had at least another couple thousand in me, which was a good feeling to have. Better than I've felt after some 5km workouts.

A 60' run on the Urban Trail completed the day. The legs were still tight from the treadmill workout yesterday, but the run helped to loosen them up.

Dinner at the Outback for Colin's 24th B-Day....a nice juicy 12 oz. piece of center cut sirloin (The Outback Special) MMMmmmm

Treadmill Thursday

Another treadmill workout was the focus for today.

The morning started out with an easy 3000m swim at NAU. A bunch of drills and some pull.

The treadmill workout was a good one. 80' in total.

20' warm-up, including some faster pick-ups.
24 X 1' with 1' passive rest (just step off the moving belt). All the intervals were conducted at an incline of 2%.

#1-10 11.0 mph
#11-12 11.2 mph
#13-14 11.4 mph
#15-18 11.6 mph
#19-20 11.8 mph
#21-24 12.0 mph

10' warm-down.
Felt pretty good, happy that the leg speed is coming around. My quads started to cramp up a bit by #18, but it's over with

A nice 60' high cadence spin on the bike to loosen the legs up after the run ended off the day.

Friday is Colin's b-day, and it brings a 10,000m swim!!! Will be my longest swim ever.

Wednesday...

We arrived at the pool, much to my delight, to see the pool set up in SCM as well as SCY. I was really looking forward to swimming yards that morning....but Joel threw us in for meters. So close!

6000m swim which ended up being painful

400 warm-up
8 X 75 (25 kick, 25 drill, 25 swim)
2 X (4 X 50 descend, 100 easy)

Big Main Set
8X100 on 1:30
2X50 on 1' (25 fast, 25 ez)
7X100 on 1:30
2X50 on 1' (25 fast, 25 ez)
6X100 on 1:30
2X50 on 1' (25 fast, 25 ez)
5X100 on 1:30
2X50 on 1' (25 fast, 25 ez)
4X100 on 1:30
2X50 on 1' (25 fast, 25 ez)
3X100 on 1:30
2X50 on 1' (25 fast, 25 ez)
2x100 on 1:30
2X50 on 1' (25 fast, 25 ez)

200 warm down.
I felt like absolute garbage swimming, an inclining of what was to come later on in the ride.

We headed down to Sedona to ride, as it was a high of 29F in Flag, with sustained winds of 30mph. The high in Sedona was only 44F, but still windy. No snow at least.
We rode out towards Jerome, and did the same 15km climb through town like we have done before. It was a headwind the whole way up. I had no legs at all on the climb, and was dropped by the guys after about 5 min. It was a long lonely ride to the top and my warm clothes for the descent. My power for the climb was 50W lower than last time (298W versus 249W).

The day ended with a 45' run up in Flag with Colin, in which we included 6 strides of 50-100m or so. Felt decent on the run at least!