Pre-Triathlon Vacation Workouts

Pharmie, Henry, and I were on a family vacation from Saturday through yesterday afternoon. I was able to get in some decent workouts while we were in Alexandria, MN.

• SUNDAY: 11 mile long run with 6 descending miles. I had a crappy long run last week, so I wanted to make up for it here. I had a solid descend and felt pretty good. My 6 "hard" miles were 6:35, 6:25, 6:17, 6:09, 6:08, and 6:01 (for an average of 6:15 pace for those 6 miles).

• MONDAY: 29 mile ride with 2 x 5 mile efforts. Last year, I did a similar ride with my wife, only I just did 1 hard effort. It was with the wind, and I did 5 miles in 12:01.9, which was 1.9 seconds from a 25.0 mph average. This year, I did my first interval into the wind, and then finished with the wind at my back:

The red areas are the 2 intervals.

My first interval was 14:57, or just a few seconds faster than 20 mph pace. Ouch. Slow. (Maybe not for a hilly, windy Oly Tri, but SLOW for 5 miles "all out.") I turned and went with the wind for the final interval. My Garmin said it was an 11 mph wind. It started off fast, and then there was a SLIGHT uphill incline for 1.5 miles, and then it got fast again (note the speed profile in the screenshot above). I did that one in 12:00.5 seconds, or just 0.5 seconds from a 25.0 mph average! D'oh!! Last year I had a 24.934 mph average, and this year I had a 24.983 mph average! The Garmin officially rounded it up to 25.0 mph, but I won't be happy until I see 12:00.00 or faster! :)

Oh, and my wife did 45 miles, so I got back to the car, stretched a lot, and did some push ups, dips, lunges, sit ups, and planks while waiting. It was a good morning workout for both of us!

• TUESDAY: 1000 yard open water swim. FINALLY an OWS in 2013! I just hopped in the lake and did a quick out and back as Henry went for a boat ride with Grandpa.

Getting ready to hop in as family is getting in the boat in front of me.


A shot of me bobbing as I looked up to see the boat go by.


Henry looking for me on the boat ride.


Later that day, I took Henry on his first jet ski ride!

• WEDNESDAY: 2 x 2 mile run. I wanted to do a little speed work on vacation, but I didn't want to go NUTS being I'm doing a triathlon this weekend. So 2x2 miles (walking for 3 minutes in between) sounded fine. Here's what it looked like:

Intervals in red.

I did them in 11:45 (6:01, 5:44) and 11:53 (6:02, 5:51). There were some random little hills here-and-there, so the splits were a little all over the place.

Back with a few vacation photos shortly. And keep checking back next week for a race report from the Waseca Triathlon that both Pharmie and I will be doing this weekend!!