Swim cramp

Yesterday I tried to get in a swim before track practice. At around 2150 yards I got a cramp in my right lower calf. After massaging it for awhile I decided I should skip the track workout. Since I dropped out of the Deathride I've been focusing on swimming and running which is probably the reason for the cramp. I need to stretch out more.

Heavy workout day

I got to the pool this morning shortly before a water aerobics class started so I was only able to get in 1100 yards. Also today was my long slow run day so I split it up between lunch and nighttime, ran 10.1 miles total.

Breakaway!

I actually tore myself away from work and joined Breakaway for spin class followed by a 30-minute run. It was nice to be able to get back and see everybody. Marty was there with his new bike that he crashed already. If he doesn't kill himself he'll do great at Kona.

Totals for the week ending 6/22/08

Since I dropped out of the Deathride I've given myself a short vacation from the bike. My swim and run totals are getting back up (hopefully I'm not increasing too fast)

swim-5000 yards
bike-17 miles
run-21.6 miles

Heh, I ran further than I biked.

Mid-week training check-in

Monday-off

Tuesday-45-minute spin class

Wednesday-swam 1500 yards. This was my first swim in 3 weeks, so I focused solely on form and didn't care about the clock. I felt I was swimming extremely slow, but I ended up finishing the 1500 in about 35 minutes, which is good for me. Immediately after I ran my usual Wednesday night run with Steve. It is starting to get hotter so I had to take several walk breaks. My run has really suffered in the month since Wildflower, I hope I can get it back by Vineman.

Thursday-55-minute spin class. About halfway through I got a cramp in my left calf, probably from poor running form the night before. I did a right-leg ILT for 5-minutes while the cramp went away. At night I walked 2 miles to stretch my legs out a bit.

Solanamar-ugh and no more Deathride

Today the ACE team rode from the Solana Beach train station up Palomar Mountain. 50 miles, 6 hours. 9,500 feet of climbing per my Garmin but it looks more like 7k to me. Click the picture on the right for a larger view.

When I reached the top I was so loopy I didn't want to risk crashing on the way down so I got SAGged in. I had a massive headache for about an hour, and once that cleared up I realized my knees were killing me too. I decided that I've missed too much training to finish this Deathride thing so I need to drop out. Hopefully I can salvage enough training to have a good showing at Vineman in 6 weeks. My totals for the week look pretty dismal. I'm hoping I can get away from work a bit next week and step it up.

Swim-0 yards (I'll need to do more)

Bike-85 miles

Run-9 miles

Taking it easy...

workout today consisted of 4 miles of walking. I'm trying to up my mileage without straining my ankles and knees too much

Work work work

Back to the grind, and trying to squeeze in workouts here and there. It's tough when you leave work physically and emotionally drained. So far:
Tuesday: ran 2.7 miles
Wednesday: spin 0:55 run 0:15
Thursday spin 0:50 run 0:12
According to my Deathride training schedule I need to be cycling about 200 miles a week at this point. I need to step it up.

Ice bath

I took an ice bath immediately after the Tahoe Century and I felt great the next day. Very little pain and soreness. and this is without doing any stretching after the ride, which is usually a big mistake.
Here's how I did it:

• Fill tub with cold water
• Get in tub and sit there for 5 minutes
• Dump 10 pounds of ice into the tub
• Sit there for 5 minutes
• Stand up and crank up a nice hot shower

Ride day! America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride

What an awesome ride! The water was very clear and the weather was great! It was a bit chilly in the morning (mid 40's) but we were all bundled up.

The route is a complete circle around the lake, with an out-and-back to Truckee to make the ride an even 100 miles. We stopped many times to take pictures and cheer on other teammates so this turned out to be my longest century ride (10:50). All in all, I would highly recommend doing this ride at least once in your life.

Team in Training ended up raising $8.5 million for this ride. The San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon was the same day and $12.5 million was raised there...so $21 million was raised towards cancer research that day.