Training Update

I just wanted to throw a little update up on my training since my "great day" ha ha. Friday was another "great day" with the groups first open water swim of the year at Thetis Lake. OMG was it beautiful. I barely had time to admire my surroundings before Paul put us through a hard workout that totalled around 3.5k. My shoulders were sore! I'm super excited about these workouts however, since I did no training in my wetsuit last year and didn't feel good once racing in it. After the swim I had a nice solid 1 hour tempo run through Oak Bay. Finished the night off with a 7 hour shift at the Yacht Club, and I was off to bed!

Saturday was a really solid run at Elk Beaver with the squad. I had a few pops the night before at the Sticky Wicket, but I put it out of my head and hit the 4 x 3km ramp up hard to finish in a high zone 4 heart rate. I wouldn't have did as well if Dan wasn't pushing me the whole way, keeping me honest. Sometimes I'm not sure which is the better bang for my buck, Dan giving me an expert training plan or Dan running and biking with me! I'm pretty lucky to have a coach like that.

After another night out (all my friends from out of town are here this week for a reunion), I managed to get a good long ride in on Sunday that included 8 balls out sprints for a minute up the Observatory hill. I pretty much flew up the hill at 30k per for 30 seconds until me legs couldn't take it any more and I willed my slow ass up for the last 30 seconds. After that it was a 25 minute recovery run in my new racing flats. The jury is still out on the shoes..... I don't find the left one that comfortable, and I'm pretty sure a nice new expensive pair of flats should be comfortable. On the other hand, I was pretty tired that day, so I'm gonna give them one more change to impress me before I switch them for something else!

Today was a good set in the pool with a MS of 40 x 50 on 50 seconds for the first 20, and 55 seconds for the second. I was leading the lane, and could tell that by 20, the others were barely hanging on to the time. Coach Paul switched it up, which gave us some much needed rest as well, and I was able to knock a few more seconds off my 50m times by the end!

One thing I have been thinking of lately is the intensity of all of my workouts this year compared to last. Although I am not raking up the hours every week compared to other athletes, I can honestly say that none of my time spent working out has any "junk miles" in it. All but 2 workouts are with Lifesport or Nick or others, and they are always hard (even "recovery" workouts with Nick ha ). Although it is a little more difficult to mentally get psyched for every workout when you know they are all going to be intense, I feel as if I am using my time so much better this year than last. If I didn't have to work full time all summer on my feet, I think I would get a lot more recovery time and could put even more intensity in my workouts.

Here are some pics from the Thetis swim. They are in order:

1) The early crew with Coach Paul getting ready to go

2) Getting changed with the camera crews in the background. They were filming Simon Whitfield and the rest of the Olympic team.

3) Lance Watson sporting the "Simon suit"