Long workouts, short-ish summary

So I've started training for an Olympic distance race that takes place at the end of the summer and I had my first two long distance workouts this weekend. Saturday was a run and Sunday was a bike. After the swim workout I had on Thursday I needed these to be good workouts.

What happened on during Thursdays swim you ask?

I swam into a rock. I kid you not. It was a R.O.U.S. - Rock of Unusual Size. Apparently the lake is a little low due to the TWO WEEKS of 100 degree weather we've been having around here, so the rocks that you didn't notice last time, you swim into this time. Lovely. It scared the crap out of me too because, really, you don't expect to hit anything in the middle of the f'ing lake.

You know that scene from the cartoon version of The Grinch where the Grinch and Max are sledding down the hill and Max is wrapped around the Grinch's head, clinging for dear life? Picture me in my wetsuit, cursing & clinging to the front of the kayak. Yeah.

At least I got my 2/3 mile in. Hopefully a whole mile next time!

Saturday was the first long run & I was shooting for about 6 miles. (In an Olympic distance you run 6.2, so this was right on target). Thankfully the weather broke and it was a glorious 70 degrees first thing in the morning. I fueled up, grabbed my trusty iPod and water bottle, and headed out to Shady Acres, which would be my turn around point. It's a specially chosen turn around because my in-laws live out there. This means that if I'm dying half way through, at least I know whose front lawn I'm dying on.

It's all about strategy.

The goal was to keep the pace around 10:00min/mile on the way out so I'd have enough legs to make it all the way back and maybe pick up speed. I was able to do both, but keeping that 10:00 pace gets to be a challenge! Overall I averaged 9:34 per mile, ran 7 miles and passed another runner on the hill at the very end. WooHoo!!

Today was my long bike - supposed to be between 1:30 - 2:30. Oh goodness. My longest bike till now has been 1:30, so I figured I'd shoot for 2:00. It was another cool morning with NO wind (I hate wind on the bike), so I had breakfast, loaded the gear on the Tri-Mobile and headed out.

Today's goals were to enjoy the ride, figure out a nutrition plan that works and to be able to make it back home. Managed to do all three. I've been doing some research into race nutrition lately because I have a serious problem taking in all the calories I need to get me through these workouts and races. The plan for today was at the top of the hour gel, electrolytes, water; at the :15 HEED; at :30 2 Fig Newtons and water; and the :45 HEED. It seemed to work ok - I was supposed to be taking in somewhere between 180-200 calories per hour and I'm pretty sure I got there. Next time I'll have to see if I can run afterward with that much stuff in my tummy!

It was a perfect morning to ride & I was actually a little chilly to start out with. I got to try out my new bike shorts and spiffy Livestrong jersey. Love the jersey, the bike shorts are going to take some getting used to - the kind of feel like someone took a superplus maxi pad and shoved it in my tri shorts. Not pleasant.

My ride took me out Dodson, Road 5, Road A, Road 3 and back in. I averaged about 18 mph on the way out, and 15/16mph on the way in. Freaking headwind. Technically I don't think you could even call it wind. More like a breeze. Just enough that I felt it - so the way back was about 15 miles of resistance training. FUN! But it makes me better, so I suppose it's ok.

Overall, I'm very happy with this week of training! The goal for this week is to work on some speedy 400's in the pool for the next race (Aug. 22, Daroga State Park in wenatchee if anyone is interested) and to get a mile swim done in the lake.