Brick part I
HR dead on

Brick part II
HR should have been higher

Crappy swim at Dynamo

Today's brick was more successful than this morning's swim. My IT band was really bothering me on the bike but wasn't as bad on the run. I had a bunch of little aches and pains but nothing too bad.

I just couldn't get going on the swim today. It never felt right. I did Monday's scheduled swim and plan to replace Wednesday's scheduled swim with Westminster Masters on Friday. I really wish I could have made it to the meeting last night but Anna didn't get home from work until 2:30. Yikes!

After work I plan to do a 1:45/:45 brick on the SCT. I intend to leave Mavell Rd at around 6:15 if anyone would like to join me for one or both legs.

Steady run in Midtown

Back under 250 for the first time in a while. 

No meeting for me tomorrow.  A couple months ago my wife and I agreed that she would be able to do whatever she wanted on Tuesday evenings and I would get Thursday evenings.  I think I've only been to one meeting this year, two if you include the swap meet.  That's depressing.  At least the boss is letting me go down to West Pointe Lake to spectate.

Forget what I said yesterday about hydrating adequately on the bike.  Once I got home I drank like crazy but it was still over 3 hours before I needed to pee.

Today's run was rough.  It was better than last week but I still had trouble keeping my HR up.  The first mile was almost all downhill and I ended up with a 7:18 mile and average HR of 159.  I paid for that fast mile later and had to walk a couple of hills.

Plan for the week:
M - Steady Run :45, swim 1150
T - Off
W - Swim 1700, Brick 2:30 (1:45/:45)
Th - Endurance Bike 1:45, Core
F - Base run 1:00
Sa - Base Bike 4:00
Su - Soft Surface run :50

I may flip Th-Fri and Sa-Sun. 

Base bike on the SCT

T-run

What a difference a day off makes! I felt like I was back to normal today. My HR on the bike was a little lower than I have usually had on my base rides. I think I was a little worried that I would run into trouble if I pushed too hard. Of course the trail was pretty busy for most of the last 6 miles back to Mavell Rd. The t-run felt more like normal. My HR shot up immediately after I started running but I was able to keep it between 160 and 167 pretty much the whole time (only 15 minutes). I was pretty happy with both my speed on the run and my pace on the bike.

I did better with hydration today but I didn't eat nearly enough.  1/2 of a Clif bar and 24 oz of accelerade do not provide enough calories for 4 hours of working out. 

In the interest of trying to remedy my calorie deficit for the week my co-worker and I went to Fellini's and had calzones for lunch.  Mmmm good!

Today's workout was 10k step-ups 6k give-ups.  I hit a wall at the beginning of mile 3 and struggled to get back to the start.  When I got back to Mavell Rd I layed on the grass for 10 minutes before I could face the drive to work.  I'm going to throw in the towel for the rest of my planned working out today.

I think my problems this week and especially today boil down to:  never fully recovering from Sunday's ride, getting <6 hours of sleep every night this week, and not eating enough given my increasing workout load.  I have been taking in around 2100 calories per day, which probably isn't enough right now.  I've been trying to balance my desire to lose weight with my desire to have successful workouts and I think I went a little too far in the lose weight direction.  I definitely need to pull it together because training is only going to get tougher.

I am encouraged a bit by the fact that for the first two miles my pace was under 9:00 and my HR was at the bottom of Z2.  Maybe on the 21st I can hit a time that will get me into corral 1B at the Peachtree next year.

I am thinking about going to Dynamo Masters once a week or so.  A friend of mine does the morning masters, though she is a swimmer rather than a triathlete.  I may try it out next week to see how I hold up.  Of course, this is pending coach's approval.

Build up to 10k time trial at end

T-run supposedly at 10k pace

Swim at Dynamo

Today I got to swim in the 50 meter pool.  Yippee.  The problem is that I was exhausted before I even started so I wasn't really able to enjoy it.  And since the clock was not working I don't have times for my sets.  Oh well.  At least I felt like I was working hard.

Sometimes something happens at work and it puts you in a good mood for the rest of the day.  This morning I got up to head to a meeting and groaned a bit due to pain in my legs.  At the same time, a finance director from Australia walks by and says "Sounds like you need to Harden the F*** up!".  I burst out laughing as my co-worker looks at us like we are crazy.  I really needed that today. 

My legs felt dead again today and I had a very hard time getting my HR up to where it should be.  The ~10k time trial at the end was actually 6.3 miles at 21.7mph.  My avg HR was only 164bpm compared to the 183 at the Tundra Time Trial.  The t-run was the worst I have felt running off the bike since the time I tried to keep up with Leslie and David O'Rear after a Roswell ride.  I was supposed to run at 10k pace (HR around 180) but my legs just didn't have it in them.  I hope that I got some benefit from it anyway.

CALORIES:  1928