Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Rising Sun

After another three week block of hard training my rest week is finally here. This past week was our hardest yet and I'll admit that I was looking forward to some R & R.  The calf snag aside (which is much better now) training has been going great. I feel stronger than I ever have and have hardly been experiencing the soreness I used to associate with heavy training.

While Friday's schedule simply says "rest day" the early part of this week featured our typical time trials.  I was mildly disappointed that yesterday's swim times were nearly identical to last month's trial; however, despite not being faster I definitely felt better in the water.  Perhaps I should take this as an indication that I could have pushed harder than I did, but I'm just glad to feel some kind of improvement.

Today's time trial consisted of a 15 minute warmup followed by 30 minutes of all out riding.  Unfortunately I had to add some additional distance (due to my increased pace), which included a small hill, to my route.  Because of the change it's hard for me to make a true comparison to last month's time trial.  With the hill my pace was almost identical to the last time I did this workout.  I'll have to see what happens next time when I will have a true apples to apples comparison.

The best thing about my bike time trials is riding on the Jones Beach Bikeway from Cedar Creek Park.  Riding along the water is invigorating and watching the sun rise over the still water is a great way to start the day.  Following the ride I headed to my parents' house to drop off my bike (which Dad graciously brought to the shop for me) and get ready for work.  I wish I hadn't forgotten my key and been locked out for about 20 minutes, but instead of being frustrated I made the most of my extra time.  I had my best stretching session in quite some time and even had a few minutes to check the news. 

With two down, I have only one more time trial left: an all out 5K run on Thursday.  Then I have a rest day on Friday and some relatively easy brick workouts on Saturday and Sunday.  I can't help but feel that eerie "calm before the storm" feeling knowing that more tough workouts are right around the corner. 


 

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