good weekend of racing

I went in my first 10 k race in quite a while, this past saturday. (i have done tons of 10 k races but that last few years have mostly been in triathlons) i was a bit hungover which was not great but i generally wanted to see where i was at in terms of speed. At the best of times, I have never been super fast with 42 minutes being a good time for me at my best. I did a little over 43 minutes and was quite pleased with that for my first race in a while. Sunday, I did the china point duathlon and came 3rd out of 12 people and felt pretty strong. My first run was a little over 21 mins for 5 k and my second 5 k run (after biking 20 k) was only about a minute slower. I am thinking that is I keep doing these shorter races my triathlon run times will be faster this year. I am crazy busy at work this week and teaching two nights at UPEI so won't get much training. I swam 2000 metres on tuesday morning and am going to swim thursday morning. I will do hot yoga tonight and the charlottetown rec ride tomorrow night. Saturday, I am doing the red island relay solo and really looking forward to that. I feel like i should do pretty well. I think my speed is getting better and my endurance is quite good.

2 weeks to Mooseman

Since monday, I did a hot yoga class; swam on tuesday and wednesday and felt fairly strong in the pool; did a speed workout at the outdoor UPEI track and felt pretty strong and did the Cycling PEI rec ride last night and didn't feel so strong (relative to other people) Cycling full out with a bunch of people takes me out of my comfort zone quite a bit. I have trained for triathlons for so long that I have really prefected maintaining a low steady heart rate. (which is great for long distance triathlons but not so great for a 50-60 k rides with a bunch of competitive guys.)
this weekend, i am planning on doing a 10 k race to see how my speed is and a duathlon on Sunday. I am looking forward to the duathlon.

Getting Slack about Blogging

I just looked at my blog as was surprised to see that my last post was over a week ago. The time flies by pretty quick. One useful thing about this blog as a record of my training is that it allows me to look back to last year to compare. I recently went back into my blog archive to see how I was doing last year at the same time getting ready for the Mooseman triathlon. I think I am a bit ahead this year mainly because the early spring.

One of the highlights of last week's training was doing some sprinting at the UPEI track on Tuesday. I ran with my friend, Rob. We did a 10 minute warmup and then ran one lap hard and then then two laps easy and repeated that 5 times. It was a great speed workout and something I need to do more often. Otherwise, it was a bit slck for me during the week; I had two solid swims on wednesday and friday mornings; did not yoga Friday night. I had a very good weekend of training and sort of made up for a slack week. I biked for three hours Saturday morning and felt great; I ran for a half hour afterwards and felt like I could have run much further. Sunday I ran for two hours; felt really heavy for the first hour or so and then it got better as I went along. I was a bit slower than I was last weekend when I timed myself with my garmin. Then I did a ninety minute hot yoga class after the run.

Week ending May 10, 2010

This has been a good week of moederate training after my vacation in Cuba. My law practice is getting busier as it usually does in the Spring and Summer. I swam a couple of times last week and each time swam around 2000 metres. I probably should be swimming three times a week but haven't been able to fit that in. I ran once on Tuesday and had a good fast run. I did hot yoga on monday and friday. Saturday I did the mother's day time trial and added some training by biking out to it and back. The time trial was 20 k in windy conditions and I biked about 80 k in total. Today I ran for about 2 hours. I took my garmin with me and was surprised by how slow I was actually running. I ran about 22.5 k which is not that fast. But, I think you tend to run slower by yourself. I have run this route many times and it usually takes me longer. I am a bit sore and my right knee is aching at this moment (the one i think has a bit of arthritis)

It is amazing how your body adjusts to whatever distance you are training for. Last year during my ironman training, 2 hours would not have been a really long run. Now it is. I am planning on doing the China point duathlon in a couple of weeks and maybe the Red Island relay. I am hoping to make this summer about participating and having fun.

back from Cuba

I got back from Cuba on Friday evening. Saturday (may 1) i was going to go for a long run but I took it easy and did hot yoga in the afternoon. Sunday I went for a 3 hour bike ride at a moderate pace and ran 5 k after and felt pretty good (which is encouraging) While i was in cuba, I ran once for 45 minutes and swam about 20minutes to a half hour every day. I also did stretching class and a water aerobics class everyday. monday this week, I did hot yoga again and Tuesday, (today) I plan to run 17 k after work and maybe do some speed work as part of that. Tomorrow morning I will be back to the pool and Thursday night I plan to do the cycle PEI rec ride followed by a run. I am trying to get in as many brick workouts as I can this month.

Vacation

I am leaving tomorrow for a week vacation. i am looking forward to it. I am hoping to do a couple of long runs. I will be teaching 3 short fitness classes a day. So far this week, I ran on Tuesday about 9 k and felt pretty slow; I swam tuesday morning about 2000 metres; Wednesday I went biking for about 90 minutes and today I swam again and did a hot yoga class.

Count down to Cuba

On friday last week, I swam at lunch time. On Saturday I tuaght spinning and did a hot yoga class in the afternoon. I had planned to go biking but it was about 4 degrees and raining and I draw the line at biking in that. Sunday, I planned to go for a long run and it was raining again. I kind of used that as an excuse and went to the gym instead and ran 5 miles on the treadmill and did some weights. the weather has taken a turn for the worse but I guess we have been lucky to get in the amount of biking we did in March on PEI. I still feel that I am ahead of last year. I plan to do a couple of 90 minute runs in cuba next week and I will do some swimming in the pool and the ocean. I would like to do a short brick workout before i go to boost my confidence a bit. We will see how the weather goes. I am thinking about going for a short run today at lunch if it stops raining and I am doing hot yoga after work.