Wednesday: A Hellava Good Training Day

When you can fit a swim, bike, and run into one day, it MUST be a good, hard training day.

The day started with 4 of us heading off to Square Lake. We met Denny there, and 2 others showed up as well. So we had a nice gang ready for a swim.

We headed out for about 21 minutes, and then 2 of us decided to head back. Three others cut across the lake at that point, and 2 others were still catching up. We had a few groups of swimmers all just doing their own thing. I ended up having a nice 42:00 swim, and the sun was just coming through the trees by the time I wrapped up:

Then Julia gave some "starting" tips and critiqued "starting" form:

Running in


Dolphin-diving

Finally, they all went in together:

Nice high knees, Julia!


Everyone hitting the water

That evening, I did Kevin O'Connor's "Killer Duathlon Workout." It's a workout I'd done twice before. (Read about the first time here, and read about the second time here.) I had Marie with me the first time, and Matt with me the second time, but this time I was hitting the track solo. I knew that'd be a harder mental workout - it's easier to "give in" when no one else is around.

I got to the track, and there was a major middle-school lacrosse tournament going on. I would NOT be able to use the track.

Side note: Screw "soccer moms." Lacrosse moms are where it's at! Trust me!

But just off the track, near the gates to the street, there was a little "nook" where I felt like I could safely tuck my bike:

Then I figured I could run out onto the sidewalk, run up to a major intersection, run back past the track (checking on my bike) to another major intersection, and then run back to my bike. I knew that'd be just under a mile. Sure enough, after mapping it out after the workout, it was 0.92 miles.

The workout was basically 10:00 on the bike followed by a 1 mile run, and you do that 4 times. Click here to read the details of Kevin's workout.

10:01 easy spinning. Did I mention it was 88 degrees, very humid, and dead calm? I was dripping sweat everywhere in no time.
0:10 transition.
5:59 0.92 mile run.
0:16 transition.

9:29 of intervals on the bike (0:30 hard, 0:30 easy).
0:16 transition.
5:58 0.92 mile run.
0:19 transition.

9:28 of intervals on the bike (0:30 hard, 0:30 easy).
0:11 transition.
5:55 0.92 mile run.
0:19 transition.

9:33 of intervals on the bike (0:30 hard, 0:30 easy).
0:12 transition.
5:57 0.92 mile run.

1:04:10 total workout time.

I had been using my shirt as a towel for my sweaty face, so I had kept it balled up in my aero bars:

I had COMPLETELY sweat through it! It was 100% soaked with Steve juice:

Well, I threw on that wet / heavy shirt, grabbed one last photo, and got packed up to go home:

What a great training day! Now, it's off to Chisago City for Matt's first triathlon tomorrow!!! Wish him luck!