Benchmarks

Yesterday was a benchmark day (sounds of groaning and whining very applicable here). I've done benchmarks on the track and even in the pool, but never on the bike. In case you're wondering a benchmark is picking a distance - 5k run or 1000m swim - and going as fast as you can for that distance. That time becomes your benchmark and is used to guide your training until your next benchmark set. They are hard, and in the case of the track - boring and hard. But the bike ride turned out to be quite fun. We all headed out to Calaveras Rd and did 8 mile time trials. It's fun and a little competitive, which makes it easier to go all out. The time trial format is fun too. Everyone lines up at a start line and one by one they send us out in 1 min intervals. Since it's an out and back you can see where you are in comparison to everyone; and you can try to catch the person in front of you, or - much more likely in my case - try not to get dropped by the people who have passed you.

After a quick cool down, we headed back to the cars to drop off our bikes and get in a quick 30 min run. Not a bad day way to spend a Saturday morning. My time trial was 29:47 and as an extra bonus I got some props from my coach on my bike handling skills - amazing!

It's been a while

Wow. February 19th. Really, that was the last time I posted? I can't believe it's already June! Thankfully, my training hasn't been as slack as my writing. I did my half-marathon in March and Wildflower Olympic triathlon in May (pictures coming) with relative success. The big daddy Half Iron man is looming closer and closer though; so I went and got myself a team and a personal coach and I'm well on my way to finishing my race! I'm so excited to have a team to practice with again. Let's face it, training on your own sucks. It's just so much easier to cut practice short and go have a beer when no one else is watching. Now, I swim bike run 6 days a week! This weekend's adventure was an open water swim at Shadow Cliffs followed by a 38 mile ride on Saturday and a 6 mile tempo run on Sunday. It seems like just yesterday that the thought of back to back days of training made me cower on the couch with a bottle of chardonnay and a list of excuses.