The Calm Before the Storm

Yesterday I spent the morning and part of the afternoon at our triathlon clinic. Nick, my friend who works for Carmichael Training Systems in Colorado Springs, did our (and his old) triathlon club a HUGE favor and came back to Ames to lead the clinic. He did an awesome job and we had a great turnout - very good for our club! We learned about how to set up a training program, race week and race day nutrition, and, most beneficial to me, using heart rate for training. To ascertain our lactate thresholds, we had to do a most painful trial on the track. Thankfully, we got permission to use the Lied Rec Center track so that we didn't have to run outside. The trial consisted of an 8-minute run as fast as we could sustain for the entire 8 minutes. It was not a lot of fun, especially with the desert-like air in the Rec - kept me coughing the rest of the day. But, I was able to learn what my lactate threshold heart rate is (175) and how far I can run in 8 minutes (a little over a mile). That means that I can run a mile in about 7:20-7:30-ish. I think it's been years and years and years since I've run that fast (if ever). The truth of that is actually pretty brutal considering I was on the cross country team for 4 years in high school... but not too bad considering I've done zero speed work in years.

The other great parts of the day were getting reconnected with some friends from the tri club and meeting lots more athletes from the Ames area. I even had a couple of my personal training clients come and take away some very valuable information. There were 3-4 athletes there who had done IM Wisconsin in the last couple years, and I picked their brains quite a bit. I also reconnected with some great women triathletes who I'm planning on training with at points throughout the summer. We are all in the same age group (drats!), but get along great and will push each other to improve.

It was a pretty cold day yesterday and the blowing wind did not help. I wanted to get a good long run in, so I talked one of the other participants into running with me. It turned out to be a pretty good run - longer and faster than I would have done on my own. Not too bad considering the nearly all-out effort from the clinic.

When I got back home, Sparkle had a surprise for me. She brought home the Cannondale IM600 from the bike store for me to try out on the trainer for a couple of days. It's a beautiful bike, and I think its just about the right size for me. With a little tweaking, it just might be my new bike! I rode it on the trainer today. It was a great ride, but the concrete saddle has got to go! It only took me a few minutes on it to realize just how much I LOVE the saddle on my road bike. I suffered through an hour workout, but before my next trial, I'll be swapping saddles...

This is my final week of training before the week of "rest" in Colorado. From my mom's experience in Vail, it doesn't sound like rest is truely what the experience will entail. The girls (and therefore all in the house) are on a strict 3-hour feeding schedule. Then the big stuff starts!!