Swimming

S - 16, 570 yds - 4:50:00 hrs
B - 212 miles - 11:11:30 hrs
R - 49.4 miles - 6:02:00 hrs

Time - 22.06 hrs

So one thing I forgot to mention in last week's review was the fact that I'd set a massive PR in a 500 yard time trial on Monday (of two weeks ago as you're reading this I guess).  I'd been wanting to do one for a while but was nervous because I was unsure how much faster I'd go.  The last time I did one was March of 2010 and I almost vomited on the way to a 6:20 (1:15/100 yard pace).  Trust me, puking in the pool is no fun.  Nor is puking in your mouth in the pool.  Best stay away from it if at all possible.  So needless to say, I was hesitant about the TT this more recent time.  Firstly, I was nervous I wasn't much faster than 1:15/100 pace.  That's pretty fast, considering how little time (relatively speaking) I've been in the pool in my life.  I was certainly pleased when I did it.  These days, I do 100 repeats much faster than that but there's a big difference between stringing together a bunch of 100s on 1:25/1:30 and 5 continuous 100s as hard as you can.  Anyway, I managed to squeeze in just under 6:00 for the TT, touching the wall and looking at the clock to see 5:58.  While in the back of my head I was hoping for sub-6, I wasn't sure I had it in me so to see 5:58 on the clock (1:11/100 yds pace) was pretty awesome.

To back that up, this Saturday (so now we're in the "current" week) I had a swim on my schedule that included "2x1000 with 60s rest, negative splitting the 2nd one."  No special instructions so I just took the first one out nice and steady (at what I'd generically call an "aerobic" pace) and ended up hitting the wall for a 12:50.  It didn't really register at first, but the last time I did a timed 1000 was a TT effort (admittedly, time trialling 1000 yards is pretty tough so experience plays a big part and I didn't have much when I did it last) and I believe it was 13:20.  It was either 13:15 or 13:20.  I'd never gone under 13 that's for sure.  So when I saw 12:50 I was pretty surprised (1:17/100yds).  So for the second one I got to negative split, going 6:28, 6:12 for a 12:40 (1:16/100 yds).  Considering that is only 1 second/100 yards slower than my TT effort of last year, I was quite happy.

Anywayyyy, after all that exciting talk, let's move on to the rest of the stuffz.

Biking was good this week; my Tues/Thurs/Friday rides were all pretty normal.  Nothing has changed on that front for a while.  Saturday was a slightly bigger group ride than normal and it was definitely more akin to the "shootout" style of Saturday rides we had at the end of last year.  I was trying to ride while keeping the fact that I had a planned bike race on Sunday in the back of my head.  The weather was pretty bad this weekend and it managed to affect both the Saturday ride (in which we got very wet) and the Sunday ride (which was supposed to be a race down in Greenville but turned into a 2:10:00 ride on the rollers at home...).

Running was consistent again this week, almost (but not quite) hitting 50 miles.  It's becoming easier and easier to get out the door and bang out the runs (not the bad kind...); I can tell that I'm very aerobically fit right now.  My tempo sections on the long runs is getting easier (in the sense that sub 6 or 6 minute pace is feeling more and more "controlled") and the Friday fartlek workouts are getting slightly longer but don't feel quite as "stressful."

Cool Breeze is only 3 weeks away and NOLA 70.3 is only 6 weeks away so it's getting close!  I don't really care that much about Cool Breeze (I mean, I'd like to do well but not at the sacrifice of a good workout that prepares me better for NOLA) and it's good because I'm not sure if I will have a triathlon bike by that point!  Unfortunately, Cervelo continues to drop the ball with actually shipping me my bike and it's getting quite frustrating.  It's slightly ironic to me that I'm supposed to sell these bikes but I cannot seem to get my hands on one for myself.  Do you hear that Cervelo?  Oh well...I've lined up a bike that I can borrow for Cool Breeze (a 56cm P3 actually) but I'd really like to get some solid hours in the aero position before NOLA.  Is that too much to ask?  Maybe, but I hope not.

Here's a sweet pic from the race last weekend.  Our breakaway has just come through the start/finish and I'm leading because I know that's who gets the best pictures: the guy in front.