4 days to go

Lots of other things going on this week so I have had a VERY light week of training leading up to Ralphs. Legs did not feel great on the bike at the end of last week, but they always feel bad mid taper so I'll just hope they are ready to go on Saturday.

Had a good swim workout at lunch today, swimming 3000 lcm with a main set of 2x400 on 6:00 and 5x200 on 3:10. Was coming in on 2:40 on the 200's so at least I know my swim is coming together for Saturday.

Last week Kylie was in Palm Springs for a conference and since I have Thursday morning off I drove out there Wednesday night. We went for nice ride together Thursday morning. Here's a self portrait of us somewhere around where Ramon turns into Washington north of the 10 freeway:

Yes we are geeks in our matching IM Louisville jerseys and matching R3's ;-)

You know you are in Palm Springs when the bike lanes are actually shared bike/golf cart lanes:

Taper Time!

I had my last hard workout yesterday and am now tapering for Cali 70.3

While I haven't got the amount of training in I had hoped for, I feel pretty fit. I recently started adding a bit more intensity to my workouts and am feeling some fatique. So, I am definately ready for the taper and hope to show up to Oceanside rested, sharp and ready to race.

I have some time goals in my head, one probable goal and an other "if everything goes right" goal. Of course, time goals can go out the window based on weather or other things so as long as I race up to the level of my current fitness, I will be quite happy.

While I have been very busy with work and other things, this race provided me with the motivation to keep fit this winter, so really it is already successful.

Good luck to everyone else racing and we'll se you out there!

Todays Ride

There has been a lot of online coverage of a tragedy in the Bay Area where two cyclists were killed by a police officer when he crossed the double yellow line and hit them head on this past Sunday.

I usually just do a short run on Tuesdays but my left shin is bothering me a bit so I decided to get in a bike ride today at lunch instead.

I rode out San Gabriel Canyon up highway 39 to East Fork and back. While riding through the windy canyon, each time I rounded a corner I thought about that if a car came from the other way and did not negotiate the corner properly that there was no way I would be able to avoid them.

It was ironic to be enjoying a beautiful day in a beautiful mountain area and to realize how fragile everything is and the inherent risks we must face to enjoy our sport.

Be careful out there people.

Training update

Its been a while since I last had a training update, but some of that is due to how many other things I have had going on recently.

I have been training consistently but have not been able to get in as much cycling as I would have liked. In particular I have not been getting in any longer rides on the weekend, which is usually a staple of my training. Going over my logs today I realized that before this week I had only done three rides over 50 miles.

A couple weeks ago I started adding some intervals into my Monday runs. This is an eight mile relatively flat run, I am doing three 5 minute intervals holding sub six pace, spaced throughout the run.

Last Sunday I rode in the mountains with a couple other guys. The weather was beautiful for the first hour but then the winds picked up. They were worse than I have ever seen up there. We had originally planned to follow a road along a ridge to Mt. Baldy village but headed down the mountain at the top of Glendora Mountain Road because it was not safe to ride the ridge in the wind. At one point I stopped to pull out some branches that had blown into my front wheel. While bending over the front of my bike the wind blew my back wheel off the ground!

At the bottom of the mountain I headed further East and did two hard loops around Bonelli Park.

On Monday I swam in the morning and did my interval run at lunch. Wednesday I did my long run (14 miles in 1:44). Thursday I rode a local hill ride with Rich Sawiris of Wheelbuilder.com and we really pummeled each other, probably the highest quality ride I have had in a LONG time. Friday I swam in the AM and ran eight miles at lunch at sub 7 pace. Saturday was an easy 56 mile bike. Today I rode 95 miles with Rich Strauss on the bike path averaging just under 21mph. I was WORKED when it was over. This was my biggest training week in terms of distance and intensity since prior to Kona. Hopefully it pays off at 1/2 IM California at the end of the month.

I'm Engaged!

Kylie and I got engaged last weekend!

The question was popped on a bike ride/run workout up to a local waterfall in Monrovia Canyon.

Here is the waterfall:

Here is the ring that belonged to her grandmother: