Another tough weekend of training in the Gorge

It was another great of training and having fun in the Gorge this past Memorial Day weekend. After a long trip down on Friday evening I kicked things off Saturday morning with a 95 mile ride (picture is of the old Highway - one of my favorite stretches of road in the Gorge to ride). My bike riding is great as I had a 20+ average with lots of climbing on the day. After the ride, lunch and a quick nap I headed out for a quick 8 mile run which also felt great.

Saturday evening was a very late one by my recent standards stretching late into the evening at the River City Saloon with some friends (new and old). Sunday morning was a rough one but I got up got breakfast and headed to the Syncline for a trail run up the Coyote Trail. It was a great run since it's not too steep but it was challenging trying to avoid the poison oak.

After the run and a quick bite to eat I headed east to Rowena to get a little windsurfing session in. This was despite my intent not to do anything stupid with only 4 weeks until the race and windsurfing is a good way to do something stupid. I headed out for a session in what I can only describe as wild wind. It was seriously some of the strongest wind I've ever sailed in. At one point I was literally pinned down in the middle of the river just holding my rig as the wind was too strong to waterstart. So after a few minutes it subsided just enough for me to get started and make a run for the beach. The gusts ended up being into the mid 50's. I survived without getting hurt.

Next weekend is the Issaquah Sprint Triathlon so I'm ready looking forward to a fairly mellow week of training. I'll post how it goes.

Tough week for training but great 1/2 Marathon result

It ended up being a tough week for training. Work was exceedingly busy and this cut into my training time this week which was frustrating but the week ended well.

I managed to get a few swims, rides and runs in this week which culminated with the Capitol City Half Marathon today as planned. I had planned to test the legs today and see just what kind of run shape I'm really in under a controlled pace. Things went much better than I had expected. Going into the race I had expected to be able to run in the low 1:30's around 7:00/mile. I got out quicker than expected and felt great so I just went with it.

I ended up finishing in 1:27:51 with a 6:42/mile average and I still felt really good at the end which is really a positive heading into the Ironman in just 5 weeks!!! I ended up in 20th place overall and really felt great from miles 3 through 10 where I was picking off a large number of runners who went out a little too fast. I ended up giving back a couple spots in the last three miles. Mile 10 is a long uphill and this was my slowest mile at 7:04. I regrouped after this mile and closed out with a couple good miles including a final mile of 6:47.

Given my performance today I feel like I have a very good shot at averaging between 7:10 and 7:20/mile during the marathon in Ironman to be in the 3:10 to 3:15 range.

HR Weekend.....good for windsurfing not for biking

Headed to Hood River this weekend for a change of scenery for my long ride and training.

Awoke to filtered sunshine, mid 50's and west winds gusting to about 20mph. I headed east on the old Columbia Gorge Highway. Plan was to cross the river at The Dalles and continue east on Highway 14. After crossing the bridge the wind was blowing me 4-5 feet to the left and right and at that point I decided to abandon my trip on highway 14 due to the exposure to the wind and sketchy situation with the number of semi's that frequent the highway. I rerouted and rode a road that heads east from the The Dalles called 8 mile road which winds through this canyon and ends at Highway 197 and is great fun for riding as it's pretty sheltered from the wind, I did the out and back on this road twice which was about 50 miles (it's not actually 8 miles). It's really deceiving as you head east it looks like the road is going downhill but in reality your going uphill which just messes with you mind. The good news is that the return trip is really fast. Heading east I average about 18 mph heading west my average was around 26 mph.

As I headed back through The Dalles towards Hood River I knew it was going to be a white knuckled sufferfest. I was riding into a head/side wind that was blowing 30 mph gusting into the low 40's. Where I would normally be averaging in the low 20's for mph I was only managing 15 or 16. Things got really intersting after climbing up the Rowena butte as I was now riding completely unprotected downhill at 30 mph with swirling 40mph gusts getting tossed around the road a couple of times I got whipped 8-10 feet across the road and it was all I could do to keep the bike upright. This riding sucks physically and more unexpected mentally because your concentrating so hard to keep the bike upright and trying to predict and repsond to the gusts. It was a true white knuckle ride. Ended up riding 126 miles in just 6 1/2 hours.

Closed out the weekend with a nice 50 mile recovery ride (still a lot of wind) and followed that up with a 12 mile run with a 7:15 avg/mile on Sunday before heading back to Seattle.

Overall a good week of training 250 miles on the bike, 38 miles of running and 7 miles of swimming. Just 6 weeks to race weekend and about 4 1/2 weeks till I begin my serious taper. Next weekend the Capital City 1/2 marathon.

Rest Weekend (well sort of)......and Cold Water

On my run Friday night I ws feeling tired and went back and looked at the last few weeks of training and despite having planned a long ride and run this weekend I decided to take the weekend off (well mostly......) and recharge.

Being so active all the time I feel like I have to continue to be working out and I actually feel sore and stiff if I take a day off but I know that my body needs it.

I decided to hit the lake again this evening and I swam like a madman!!! I think the water tempeature dropped five degrees since earlier this week with all the rain we'd had this week. Needless to say I wanted to get out of the water as my fingers and toes began to get a little numb. Still a good swim and I'm looking forward to a good week of training.