Saturday 01/09/10

Another cool and foggy morning greeted me this am. I was out of the house at 7:15 am to go to Pleasant Hill. I notice as I am in the car that I need to get gas. No problem, I will stop at the Shell Station on the way there. I am pumping the gas and I realize, I do not have my sunglasses. Crap!!! I know it is foggy now, but an hour from now the sun will be out and I will be blinded by the light.
Not a good feeling. Back to the house to grab my glasses.
I am leaving the house again at 7:30 and I am still OK. It will take about 25 minutes to get there and I already have my swim suit on, so I'll have plenty of time.
I pull into the parking lot at 7:55 and all I see is my fellow teammates getting on their bikes.
SH!T!!!
In a hurry, I get my bike ready to roll. I already had the tires pumped, my water bottles filled, but I had to get my nutrition on to the bike and my clothes changed.
I was ready in an instant and we were rolling. We were doing an out and back on Pig Farm Hill. It is not a lot of climbing (compared to the DeathRide) but it is some. The first ascent of Pig Farm Hill is longer and steady. I struggled a bit on the first climb but managed my way up without incident. I enjoyed the descent as I always do.
Phil, Rocky, and I made it out to the turn around together and started our way back. We were working against the wind on the return trip and tried our best to paceline. After a few hiccups, we got it together and moved along. The back side of Pig Farm is a much shorter, but substantially steeper ascent. We plugged away and got to the top and got to enjoy a very long gradual descent. I love this type of descent. The legs keep moving but you never have to pedal hard and you get to go really fast.
Part two of the day is a swim. We are in the water warming up our swim muscles by 10:30. I don't feel great at the start, but I know it will come. We do our warmup and then some drills and on to the main part of our swim. I finish up the first set and we have a choice of doing another set or going to learn flip turns. Do I want to swim hard or go goof off learning flip turns...
After a couple of internal debates about what I needed most, I stuck with the swimming and did the second set. By the end of the second set, I felt good. I am more confident in the pool than I ever have been. I still don't feel great, but I am no longer hating the pool.
I actual finished the set fast enough that I slid over to the flip turn lanes and received a quick lesson on a proper turn. I certainly didn't master it, but I know how it is supposed to work. This could come in handy in two weeks when I do my first practice triathlon.
The last part of the day was core training. I know this area needs work for me. I need to not blow off these workouts any more. It was so bad, that I asked if I can go back to the pool to swim.....