busy weekend

This weekend was another busy weekend. Started Saturday with my first open water swim. The experience was "lacking". A nice word to say that I did not do very well in murky salt water where I could not see my hands in front of me. After the swim we ran for 4 miles. That was much easier.

On Sunday, Tomi and I took the kids on a nice 17.5 mile bike ride. Where I would normally finish that in about 1 hr, it took us almost 3, but who cares. We went riding as a family. Gotta love that.

Now all I need to do is find more open water to do more practice swims and I should be ready for Pacific Grove. 54 more days.

Found My Swim Zen

Today's practice schedule called for a 1,500 meter swim. The first 2 250 meters were ok, the 3rd 250 was hard....so I switched to breast stroke for the 4th 250. That must have relaxed me because during my next 500 meter, I felt like I found me swim Zen. Nice strokes, kept head under water, breathing in the small air pocket. Felt nice :-)

The coaching last Sunday really seems to have improved my technique. Thanks Coach Tom.

Bike to work

Today was the perfect day to bike to work and since we had our FY10 marketing kick off meeting and FY09 picnic, I did not have to bring my laptop with me. I biked to work, then bike to Central Park in Santa Clara and then took a 15 mile detour on the bike ride home. Worked from home the rest of the day and ended the evening with a quick 3 mile neighborhood run (7:49 min mile). I'm ready for my shower and bed now. :-)

Good July so far

In addition to my first try tri (this should be a funny play on words...), I've had a good July so far. My running and biking have improved...now I need to get my swimming on par. I burned over 5,000 calories just in one week (July 3-9) but then I pay for it. I got sick, fever, bad cough...I basically was under the weather for a week. Even at my track work out after my week off, I still was coughing pretty badly for the first 20 minutes. But then as my longs warmed up, I felt much better. Yesterday I did a good bike/run combo; 15 miles biking in 50 min, followed up right away with a 3.6 mile run in 35 minutes. Today I swam 1,500 meters and went on a hike with the family in Portola Redwood State Park.

PS: the bike ride was the Portola Valley loop, there's a nice 3 mile climb. kept my cadence above 80 and my speed above 12 miles/hr for the entire climb. :-)

The Day After

I feel surprisingly ok after my Sprint triathlon yesterday. Wonder what I will do tonight. Veg out or go for a short bike ride.

Evening Update: No vegging out :-(  All I needed to do was look at my TNT training schedule and low and behold, I had to do a 50 min bike ride.  So I spent 1 hr on my bike to complete 16 miles.  Dinner was a steak on the grill.

My First Triathlon (Sprint Distance)

When I woke up this morning I decided that I was going to complete my first triathlon today.  A sprint distance, just to prove to myself that I could do it and to also get a better idea to what my estimated time for Pacific Grove would be.  96 minutes and 1,400 calories later, I did it.  22 minutes for 750 meters swim; 45 minutes for 20 km of biking and 29 minutes for 5 km of running.  YEAH!!!!  This was actually much better than I thought!

5k run for 4th of July and other activities

Our family tradition for the last couple of years has been to watch the 4th of July parade in Redwood City, CA (20 miles south of San Francisco).  Every year we looked at the runners participating in the 5k run.  So this year, we joined them.  Tomi and I finished the 5k run, Carolyne finished 3.3 km and Eryk did 1 km.  Hopefully next year they can do better.  I completed the 5k in 28'45", Tomi completed hers in 33'54".

Other preparations for my triathlon have been a 18 mile bike ride in a bit more than 1 hr, a run on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, and more Team in Training track, pool and bike activities. 

Hopefully now that my schedule is back to normal (the last 2 weeks were not), I will be able to get back on track with my workouts and preparations for the Triathlon.