An era on hiatus

So Christine, my ever-faithful tri-buddy, officially announced her intent to sit out spring season on the TNT website today. Poor C...she has been having major GI issues for about 2+ months, and just last week was finally diagnosed, definitively, with Crohn's disease. No doubt she'll be back into the mix before long--there's no keeping that girl down. In the meantime, I'm bummed she won't be around the next couple months. More than anything, I feel bad that she has to sit out so many things that are important to her. Gotta do what you gotta do for your health, though!

Otherwise, training is going pretty well. It's kicking up quick, though--Wildflower is such a tough course that the training is already pretty challenging early in the season.

This past weekend we started hill training on the bike. Eesh...I felt a bit humbled by my performance. I'll have to work in some hill repeats on my own on Valparaiso, and maybe a ride or two up Bernal. My speed on the flats is pretty encouraging, though--I had no problem keeping it up to 19-20mph on Foothill...when I didn't have to stop. Darn those red lights!

Swimming is no problem and never has been. Long Course (the race I'm doing) Pro (more experienced level) workouts are up to about 2400-2500m three days per week.

Running is also going pretty well. I'm glad I spent a little time in the off-season building my fatigue resistance with nice, long, slow runs. Now at the track I'm smokin' it. I think Coach Harold my make me move up to the Pro group soon. Last week we did 3 mile repeats in a row and each one was faster than the one before it! :-) The only problem with running...it tears up my calves, big-time. I need to stretch more, but a little body work from Kristi tomorrow won't hurt either!

Overall...I'm a little nervous at this point...mostly about the bike. The Wildflower course is notorious. It's hilly and exposed...and the worst hill on the ride comes at mile 41! It's called Nasty Grade, and I will get my first introduction to it at Wildflower practice weekend in a bit less than 3 weeks. In the meantime, I'm trying to think good thoughts--and making definite plans to get in a ride up Page Mill to test my mettle...