oh what a beautiful day

Today was my first group ride with the DCTri club. It was a lovely morning, about 65 degrees, low humidity, and a few light clouds. The pollen was high, but I drugged myself up with Allegra and Nasanex and off I went. The ride was terrific - 25 miles out and back on MacArthur. Nice people, a few tough hills, some great descents and just a good pedal. Also nice to know I can do 25 which just happens to be the distance I have to ride in the tri in July.

This is why I swim in the pool, lakes and rivers only

See the below article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24313314/

A shark attacked and killed a swimmer Friday morning who was training in the ocean off San Diego County with a group of local triathletes, authorities said.

A 66-year-old man was swimming with others at Tide Beach around 7 a.m. when he was attacked, according to a statement on the Solana Beach city Web site.

The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken to the Fletcher Cove Park lifeguard station north of San Diego for emergency treatment but was pronounced dead at the scene, the statement said.

According to KNTV, a group of nine swimmers were heading northward in the water when the man was bitten on both thighs. Other swimmers looked back and saw the man flailing before he was pulled under the water, the spokesman said.

Witnesses said the victim resurfaced screaming. Several other swimmers pulled the man to shore.

Swimmers were ordered out of the water for a 17-mile stretch around the attack site and the county Sheriff's Department sent up helicopters to scan the waters for the shark.

"The shark is still in the area. We're sure of that," Mayor Joe Kellejian said.

It was unknown what kind of shark was involved.

Solana Beach is 14 miles northwest of San Diego.

Shark attacks are extremely rare. There were 71 confirmed unprovoked cases worldwide last year, up from 63 in 2006, according to the University of Florida. Only one 2007 attack, in the South Pacific, was fatal.

The last fatal shark attack in California, according to data from the state Department of Fish and Game, took place in 2004, when a man skin diving for abalone was attacked by a great white shark off the coast of Mendocino County.

well, he was a fish

Turns out now retired baseball player Jeff Conine has turned to triathlons. He's planning to compete in the KONA Irnman, the ultimate tri-event. His workouts make mine seem pretty tame, but heck - I had enough trouble swimming 800 meters this morning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/sports/othersports/23conine.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

DA-Tri

Spent the last week in Moscow and, let's be honest - no one wants to train for anything after flying all day and suffering from jetlag. Fortunately, last week was an "easy" week. So no high intensity workouts were called for. A couple of light jobs and some time on the bike - and not too bad. Upon return, I was thrilled to find out that even though the weather in Moscow was rainy and 45 that things in Washington had turned darn right summery. So this weekend required a great long ride (20 miles) on Saturday morning.

Of course, all good things come to and end. This morning was my last easy day before a real hard ass week. And of course it was pouring cats and dogs. So 3.5 miles later, I must have put on five pounds of water weight. Tomorrow calls for bike intervals and then back into the pool for wednesday. I hate to think how bad that is going to feel after 7 days out of the pool, but I am actually looking forward to it. OH NO< I AM BECOMING ONE OF THEM>>>>>>>>>>>.

Tired but Studly

So mood swings appear part of triathlon life. The last 30 hours have brought me from dispair to diety-like euphoria. I started Tuesday morning with a tough swim session. 200 yard warm up, 200 yards of drills, and then 4x100 ladders (25yards hard-75 easy, then 50 hard, 50 easy, 75 hard, 25 easy . . . . . .) then cool down. I felt slow, sluggish and basically, like whale who can't swim. I was flailing my arms, not gliding enough, and it showed. So I did it, but did not enjoy it.

Because I ran 10 miles on Sunday, I had to take Monday off. This meant I had to do my Monday workout on Tuesday, in addition to the regular Tuesday workout. So in addition to the swim in the AM, I hopped on my bike and trainer in the afternoon for 45 minutes of low intensity riding. That was a little better - hard to bike poorly, especially in a trainer -although drills on the bile are another story.

The this morning (Wednesday) I needef to do a 30 minute low intensity run. I put the leash on Markie (my trusty and wonderful but not great running partner of a dog) and off we went.


It turned out to be a good, run, markie did not stop at all and I felt pretty good. Then I realized in the last 30 hours I'd tone a triathlon!!! And I feel pretty good today not completely exhausted, etc. I just need to keep working at it and compress the time into a few hours instead of a few days. :)

The Weather and the Blossoms

I've lived in DC for 20 years, and run the annual Cherry Blossom for about 12 of those years and I don't remember the weather EVER being nice. I remember snow, wind, rain, and hail, but never 60 degrees and sunny with a light breeze. It must have happened once, but it's gone from the memory banks.

It was kind of a tough race this year. New course made for a few changes and a few narrow stretches, but the worst was getting stuck in a slow wave. the first 2 miles was a lot of work to get into the clear and it really took a lot of effort. In the end, I ran my usual time - just over 9 minute miles - 1:34:05 but was really dead at the end. The day after was a total rest day, but got up and swam this morning.

I am a little discouraged about my swimming. I don't feel like i am improving much. I can get the distance done - if i stop, but the stroke does not feel fluid and it takes a lot of effort to get through the workouts. I may attend a swim clinic being run this weekend by the club - maybe that will help.

It is a far far farther thing I swim than I have ever . . . .

swam 1300 yards yesterday. 1300!!! I've been doing shorter morning swims (about 700-800) so this would be more than that, wouldn't it? My arms hurt, I drank a lot of pool water, and I slept like a rock. Tell me when this gets fun? The workout was run by DC Tri. The coach pointed out a few serious flaws with my stroke, so I have a few more things to work on in the hope swimming will get easier.

making it up as I go along

So I have been following a training plan put together by the DCTRI club. They are my main source of support and information, and have put together a great new triathlete program. It explains what to do each day - length of time and intensity (according to heart rate). But I have also signed up for the Cherry Blossom 10 mile race, which is this Sunday at 7:50am. So I tried to put in a few extra miles a few weeks ago and this week have been avoiding the run so as to rest my legs. Biking also takes a bit out of my legs, so it is swim week. Swam both Monday and this morning at G'town - about 750 meters each day. I actually found myself looking forward to swimming last night and despite it still being tough in the pool, I had an OK time both mornings.

So I'll try to make up some bike miles next week to make up for a few skipped workout this week - but I am still making 6 days a week and feeling pretty good about it.