Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Back on the bike

School starts back for me this week and time management is really going to become an issue now. After taking Sunday off to recover from the Saturday triathlon, I went for a bike ride Monday to work out some of the soreness in my legs. This time I went to the trace. I love the trace, I really do. It helped give me a little confidence after the wake-up call on Saturday. The trace is mostly flat which may be just what I need right now until I get in a little better bike shape.

My goal for the day was just to take it easy and spend some time on the bike. After about a mile that went right out the window. My legs were feeling ok and I was a little pissed off about my performance on Saturday so I started hitting it harder. Now my goal has changed to keeping 15 mph average pace. I started at the gateway at USM the trace is a gradual incline as you head west. Going out I was working pretty hard to keep it at 15 mph. A few times it would dip below and once my pace even fell to 14.8 but I just gritted my teeth and pushed harder until I got my average back up. I made the turn at the six mile mark. My pace was right at 15 mph. I new that I would be going down hill ever so slightly on the way back so I updated my goal to 15.5 mph pace. To be as sore as I was, I was hitting it pretty hard. At the end of the ride, I had managed to maintain a 15.55 mph pace for 12 miles. I was really happy with that especially considering this was to be an easy day.

Classes officially started today (Tuesday) and I have an 8:00 class so I had to be at the pool by 6:30 this morning. I'm really starting to enjoy this. There is something about swimming first thing in the morning that is just really invigorating. The swim was great! Don't get me wrong, it was work and I still have to stop to catch my breath regularly but it just feels good to be swimming. I swam 15 laps which is the equivalent of 750 yards. I just need to get to where I can swim it consistently without stopping. I would like to work my way up to being able to swim a full mile without having to stop before the Traditions Triathlon. If I can do that, I should be able to post a great time for the 1/3 mile swim I will have to do for the race.

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