I did get to the pool on Thursday. I swam 2,150 yards in 51:11. I started with 5 sets of 100 yards on a 2:15 interval, rested for a little over a minute, then did another set of 5 100s on a 2:15. After another short rest, I started a set of 2 250 yard swims on a 5:30 interval, then followed that by a 500 yard swim.
I had intended to do 200 yards of cool-down, but after about 80 or 85 yards my right calf cramped up bad. The cramp happened in the deep end of the pool, so I was not able to just immediately stand up and put some weight on it. After treading water for 30 seconds or so, I finished out the rest of the 20 or 25 yards of the first 100 of my cool down and promptly stood up to work the cramp out. I was contemplating finishing out the last 100 yards, but my left calf started cramping up while I was standing in the shallow end and at that point I decided I was just done for the night.
Overall the swim went well. Even with the cramp at the end, I got over a mile in. I was happy with the way I responded, epsecially since it'd been awhile since I swam.
On Saturday morning I headed down to the downtown airport for a biking workout (less traffic to deal with there as opposed to the streets around my house). I did two laps of the airport, which worked out to 7.4 miles in 29 minutes and 39 seconds.
This was my first bike ride outside this year. Overall, I feel it went well. I was a bit disappointed that my overall speed was only at 15 MPH, as I was hoping for something around 16 or 17 MPH, but since this is my first ride outside I can't complain. I am faster than last year. Last year my max average speed was 13 MPH, and it typically hovered around 12.5 MPH.
There were a few things that I was actually fairly nervous about before this ride. The first thing that had me worried was how I was going to get started riding. I recently had my bike fit to me, and one of the things that changed was the height of my seat. I'm happy with the new seat position as it gives me more power, but those of you that know me know that I'm not exactly tall. Last year, I was able to straddle my seat and have my left foot on the ground. This year, with the seat raised, that's not possible, and I was worried about how I was going to get clipped into my pedals and actually start riding. I took some advice from a biking friend and instead of straddling the seat, I straddled the center post and clipped my right shoe into the pedal. I then pushed off and started going, standing on the pedal to raise myself up enough to get seated, then just started pedaling without clipping my left shoe in. I managed to clip myself into the left pedal while riding. It worked well. I took a short break between the two laps and was thus able to practice this twice, and it worked well both times.
The pedals I have on the bike now are nice. Over the winter I upgraded from Shimanos to Crank Brothers Eggbeaters. The Eggbeaters are technically mountain bike pedals, but they work very well on my road bike. They are super easy to clip into and out of. Today was my first time I used them on the actual road, and I was very impressed with them. I'll be using these for awhile.
The other thing I was nervous about was using the new aero bars. I knew from reading I'd done that controlling the bike was more difficult while on the aero bars, and I was worried about falling, especially while I was getting into and out of the aero position. This ended up not being an issue. The bike was certainly a bit harder to control from the aero position, but that makes sense since you're essentialy controlling the bike with your elbows instead of your hands. But it wasn't too bad. There was some weaving, but I think that was expected, and I never even came close to laying the bike down, even when I was switching positions.
I really liked being in the aero position, and I attribute that position to the increase in MPH from last year. I think I'm going to be spending alot of time in this position as it was pretty comfortable and allowed me to get some really good power from the pedals.
One other point of interest to talk about regarding this ride: my new tires. I upgraded my tire to Vitorria Rubino IIIs recently and had not ridden them yet. I really liked them. They rode well, and I could tell a bit of difference from my old stock tires.
Overall my week wasn't terribly productive workout-wise, but I was happy with the work I did get in. This week has me reenergized in terms of wanting to work out, so hopefully this next week will be a little bit better.
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