The Best Team Ever!

Seriously folks, there are some fantastic people on my tri team!  I love how supportive everyone is.  This will become apparent later in this post, and later this week!

Tuesday Night Group Cycle – Bike/Run Repeats
We were out in Cochrane for bike/run repeats last night.  The premise is pretty simple.  Haul ass on the bike on a little 4 mile out and back.  Drop your bike, get your run shoes on and do a super speedy 1K run.  Take a minute or two to get your bike shoes back on and repeat.  Fun stuff!

My teammate James knew all about my chain debacle thanks to the wonders of Facebook.  He was super surprised that my LBS didn’t think that I needed to replace my chain after it snapped.  So even though I told him I thought I was in okay shape he brought out a spare chain, a measuring tape, some tools and a bike stand.  On repeat number two I heard my chain creaking.  It had creaked on hill repeats last week but I chalked it up to my chain probably needing a clean and a lube.  After the repeat was done James grabbed his tape measure and sure enough, my chain had stretched at least 1/8”.  Given that I’m hitting my final push to Lake Stevens (and racing really soon!) I knew I couldn’t ride with this anymore.  He swapped my chain out for me – what a great teammate!!  Thanks James!

I only made it through three repeats thanks to the impromptu bike mechanical incident, but it was such a good workout!

Wednesday Long Run – How About Some Intervals?
I had an 1:30 long run on tap for today.  It included 2 x 15 minute intervals at around my 10K pace.  I just set Garmin up to beep me if I strayed outside of a tempo pace.  Good enough I figured!

I set my alarm for 4:30 am.  I figured I’d drive downtown, run around the river, then shower and get ready for work at the Y.  When my alarm went off I was so disoriented.  What day was it?  Why was I getting up so early?  Was it to bike?  Swim?  Oh right…to run!  Given that I was starting out pretty early I decided to run the same loop around downtown, over and over.  Okay, well only three times.  Some parts get a bit sketchy as you get towards the outskirts of downtown so I was trying to avoid that.  I had a 20 minute warm up run, then started in on the first interval.  A few minutes in I looked down at my watch and it said that my pace was “Steady State.”  What?  How come Garmin isn’t yelling at me?  I picked it up and finally it clicked into “Tempo.”  I guess the legs were a bit tired from yesterday’s bike workout because I was a few seconds off from my 10K pace, but close enough!  When it came time for the second repeat I had a hard time picking the legs up and getting my pace down.  This time Garmin was yelling at me…all the time..!  Finally, I got there!  An hour and a half, done!  It felt great to get the run done before work, before it got too hot!  That gave me this evening to relax and fire up the BBQ to grill up a little fresh Sockeye salmon.  Terrific!!