Solid Effort = Great Day

Today was a good day. The weather was amazing and I put in a solid effort starting with an easy 35 min run this morning. This run felt good and my heart rate was pretty steady between 135 on flats and 145 on hills. It was pretty cloudy and cool enough for me to wear a long sleeve tech shirt and still be comfortable.

After a quick breakfast of fruit porridge, raisins and flax, I took a short nap before heading out for my ride. By this time the sun was out and the temps were in the mid 70's. The ride was also done at an easy pace for an hour just to get the legs turning over and working on using my core to drive my pedal stroke.

The key workout for my day was in the afternoon which consisted of an hour running the hills on the Scenic loop here in Austin. I felt strong here and had no problem maintaining a healthy pace and keeping things interesting although on one of the larger ascents my heart rate hit 160 just as I crested. Other than that it was 150 or less for most of the hour meaning I got the benefit of the strength work hills can bestow without loosing any aerobic efficiency to pull it off.

I've decided this year I am going to add more hill training into my routine as I work primarily on strength for 2011.

Made It

Today I rode with Jason. The other super cyclist I know. In the past month I've ridden at least once a week with either Du Shun (the original super cyclist) or Jason. Technically these guys are so strong I just try to keep them in sight. The only thing I have going for me is whatever endurance comes from doing Ironman because at this point I haven't even really started to put in any real concerted training. But things are looking up. Today I didn't get dropped though I broke all my normal MAF rules to make it happen. Technically I got as high as 163bpm which is still aerobic for me but JUST BARELY. So I was still talking and wasn't breathing hard. But I could feel the effort when it got that high.

2:45 on the bike. Solid effort. Didn't get dropped. Wasn't destroyed. All in all a good day. 2011 might just be shaping up after all.

The Day Begins Here

So I started my day with breakfast which consisted of fruit porridge and green coconut water. This is the first time I've eaten the porridge before. The taste was amazing for such a simple and satisfying dish.

To make it all you need is an apple, a pear, and a banana. Cut and seed the pear and the apple. Place the pear into a blender first and blend until chunky. Add the banana and blend again. Finally add the apple, some vanilla, cinnamon, and a scoop of protein powder. Top with flax seed and raisins. Makes about two servings.

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Today Was Nothing Special

Today wasn't anything special. I swam with the crew at T3 at 11:45 this morning. Some days I really feel like rocking my swim workouts but today I really felt as if I was barely surviving the sets. Especially the sets where I am forced to use swim aids. So many other people speed up when given paddles and pull buoys but unfortunately I am not one of them. I don't even really speed up when I put on fins. I've thought a lot about this as I've been lapped in the pool and have come to the conclusion that these aids really through off my feel of the water. I think they also throw off my body position and rotation and just make the whole swimming motion unfamiliar.

Case in point today's swim workout was largely aided. And I largely struggled. I got lapped in every set. Until the aids came off and we had to do a straight 800m. Of course I went last in the lane because everyone had been passing me all practice. Except for this one set. On this single set I caught the two swimmers ahead of me even though they each started at 10 second intervals. Take away. At least I don't totally suck at swimming. I just suck at swimming with swim aids.

At any rate, after swimming I fueled up on lunch which consisted of some vegan chili and my daily serving of spirulina and chlorella. At 3:00 I went for a 7 to 8 mile run. I'm not sure why but my heart rate was a bit up today prior to the run. It was also a bit high for the pace I was holding as well so I'm going to get to bed early tonight and see if more rest addresses it. If not I'll watch my diet in the coming days more closely.