inauspicio.us

Ok, ok mom, there’s more.  I still haven’t taken any pictures, but I swear I will try to take some today or tomorrow.  Jodi has some on her blog (Day 1 and day 2) if you want to look at photos.

I will bring you up to speed though.  Yesterday we had The Dread Long Brick.  We grouped up at 8 am, with workouts of 4 to 5 hours with varying main sets.  I had three times 30 minutes zone 3 in a 4 hour ride.  We rolled out together into a stiff headwind – I can’t stress the stiffness of this headwind enough.  I am feeling pretty used to windy weather these days, and I’ve ridden in stronger headwinds from time to time.  But this was right up there.  It’s not every day that I have to push 270 watts to go 16 miles per hour.

So anyhow, I turned around at the 2 1/2 hour mark and rode home with a booming tailwind, which was awesome.  Then I ran forty minutes off the bike, unless Paulo is reading this, in which case it was 35.  It was a hard workout for sure but I wasn’t nearly as cooked as some other times when I’ve done the same thing.  Maybe it’s the camaraderie.

After a rest we had an easy 3k swim (with “triathlon 50s”, it’s a good thing no one got hurt) and  went more or less straight to bed.  Tired!

I’m here in Las Cruces courtesy of an eight hour, six hundred mile drive that took me, among other places, the entire north-south span of New Mexico.  I was really impressed with myself for driving so far in one go until I met Grant, who also drove all the way here.  From Des Moines.  Holy crap.  Whenever I think I am tough I just hang out with some triathletes for a while and that puts me in my place.  Wouldn’t want me getting too uppity.Even though my trip pales in comparison, it was still a pretty neat road trip and I got to see a lot of the country that I hadn’t seen before.  I crossed the continental divide at Raton Pass – a beautiful area – and came down into northern New Mexico, an area that makes western Kansas seem crowded.  I came through Albuquerque and Truth or Consequences (this is a real town.  I had to stop to be sure) and eventually arrived last night around 10:30 pm.  Not bad for an afternoon’s travel.

Day 1 of camp was challenging as expected.  We had a “meat and potatoes” swim workout of 4500 meters first thing this morning – “meat and potatoes” means “a bit dull”, which I suppose might be the most specific type of training one could possibly hope for in preparation for a long distance triathlon.  Right after swimming we went out for a 2 hour-ish ride with zone 3.  I had 2 hours 20 minutes, with most of my zone 3 done with jonnyo of slowtwitch fame.  It became a bit spirited when we overtook an overweight older man wearing an iPod, but for the most part it was just good clean riding in the sun.  I even borrowed sunscreen.

We grocery shopped in the afternoon before a “bread and butter” run workout – do you sense a nascent theme in these workouts? – and got together in the evening for an introduction dinner.  Dinner was excellent, but there was a sense of impending doom over tomorrow’s workout(s).  I’ll let you know how they go.

Seems like every time I try to come back from a posting hiatus it’s to blog about some weird triathlon-related activity. Ah, good thing I have such consistent hobbies!

I’m off this afternoon to Las Cruces, NM for a 10 day training camp with a big crew of up-and-comers, might-bes, and hopefuls just like me. I did this same camp last year during my Ironman Arizona build up. Subsequent races last year were a little lackluster (note extreme understatement), but this year I am confident that things will go more smoothly, and I’ll be able to transition back into a normal training schedule once I get back home.

It should be a pretty demanding week of training. After driving some 600 miles this afternoon, tomorrow I’ll have a 1 1/2 hour swim, 3 hour bike ride, and 1 hour run to join in the first day of the camp. Then on Sunday, having warmed up with an easy day, we’ll get into it for real :-) By next Sunday, I hope to be toughened up and ready for my next race, the Lone Star half ironman on April 1.

I’ll be trying to post updates from camp, including photos (!) if I get lucky. I’m still trying to make up my mind between flickr and gallery2 for my photos.

[Edit]:  I’ve been made aware that the quote is in fact “unto the breach”, not “into the breach”, even though the latter sounds much smoother in modern english.  I’m a dumbass.