Woke up early again this morning to get in some quality workouts. Despite being summer break I have yet to sleep in. It is just in my nature to wake up and workout. The downfall is that I am ready for bed by 9 pm and just cannot stay awake any longer.
This morning Chad rode over to my house and we set off on a ride around 5:45. I had 32 miles to get in. I wanted to get in some good aerobic miles, but I also wanted to push a few miles at race pace to begin to build up endurance racing at that pace.
It was cold this morning. Despite the forecast calling for zero to little wind, it was windy as all get out in the country. I tried a new route. Well, a new road and circle loop.
Chad held on for most of the ride, but due to his Nascar race pace on his trainer yesterday and his race pace run his legs were shot. I don’t know how he does it day in and day out with how hard he trains. I continued on the McCausland and took a quick stop for water. At this point my chain popped off twice. I got things back on track and tried out the new part of my ride.
Despite the elevation map telling me the ride back home was relatively flat, I would have to disagree. The rolling hills proved a workout for me. I think it was more mental than anything being that I assumed a nice flat 12 mile ride home. With about 5 miles left it became nice and flat and I was able to really cruise at a nice pace.
I knocked out a good ride overall despite being cold and riding in shorts and one long sleeve running jacket. My last few miles were real good to end up. I got home around 7:40 and quickly ate some new amazing cinnamon snickerdoodle bread that Amanda made(this stuff is the best stuff ever….AWESOMESAUCE Part Deux) and left to pick up Chad at his house to head out for a swim with Jeff and Adam.
I was not sure how my body would respond as I did fuel during the ride besides water. I mixed a recovery drink by Vega(great stuff) and headed out.
It was cold when we started, but as the sun began to rise it felt wonderful to be out there swimming. I am really starting to enjoy open water swimming. I am finding such a peace that comes with being out in open water. Today I felt relaxed and my swim times are improving with each open water swim. I had some really good swim splits today.
I used my Finis HydroTracker again and I just love the data it shows. One thing I noticed today that reminded me that humans are not designed for water is that despite my good swim times we were only going 2 mph. That is crazy!
The first loop we swam as warm-up was around two ducks. This was a good start to the swimming today.
Next up was a long swim out to the other side of the lake. This is when I started to get into a good pac and form.
Then we had to swim back adding one more little path back to the shore. You can see how I lost track a little bit on this one.
At this point Jeff and Adam did some race simulations. Chad did his thing and I did mine. I needed to get in a longer swim. I was not sure what to do so I just went with the flow and swim all over until I saw the others head back to shore.
It was a great day. I could have swam all day, but I do have family and obligations. I got home later than I wanted to as we have a house to clean for a birthday party for Ava now that she is healthy. We have lots to do, but it was great getting in two great workouts early in the morning.
Total Yardage: 2546.7
Total Time: 40:31
Up early ready to run 13 miles at 4:30 am and then birthday party and then Live Uncommon Torchlight Parade. What a day to the weekend.
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