training weekend

Saturday:

I got up at 6am and it was POURING in the south bay. I debated whether I should even take my bike with me to practice! I went ahead and put it IN my car, instead of on it. That way it wouldn't be out in the rain.

Headed out to MVHS for team practice. Luckily it wasn't really raining up in Los Altos, just sort of misting heavily. The coaches debated for awhile and then opted to send us out for an easy ride on Foothill instead of our planned marker set. I chose to go with the elite group and sped along pretty fast, catching up to some of the pros. We went out to Alpine and then headed back--maybe 20 miles in all?

Even though it wasn't raining and Foothill is pretty clear of debris, my bike got GRIMY. By the end of the ride, the most awful noises were coming from my rims whenever I braked. I shuddered at the thought of all the junk that must've been getting caught up in my drivetrain.

Anyway, once back at MVHS, I downed some sport beans (yum!) and transitioned into my swim gear. The pool hadn't completely heated up yet, so...brrrrr!!!! Jumped into a pro lane and warmed up for 300. Then we did 8 x 50 drills. After that, 1 more 100 to get blood flowing and then our swim marker set. Last season our swim marker set was always a timed 500, but this year, Alfredo had us do 20 minutes of constant swimming, counting how many laps we could do in the alloted time. I ended up with 44 on the nose--exactly 1100. I was pretty happy with that. As long as my sighting is good, that puts me on track for a much faster swim pace this year.

**Note to self--my leg warmers DO NOT work with tri-shorts on the bike...only with real bike shorts. Either that, or my tri-shorts are just to big and stretched out to do any good helping hold them up any more! My leg warmers kept falling down on the bike, and it was so annoying I eventually had to just stuff them in a jersey pocket.

Sunday:

Opted to skip the buddy run and sleep late. I went out for my own run later on the Los Alamitos Creek Trail, which has usurped the Los Gatos Creek Trail as my favorite site for endurance runs. Mostly flat and not at all crowded. That makes it quiet enough for the occasional sighting of some nifty birds: egrets, herons, mergansers, and of course, mallards and coots. Anyway, kept it up for an hour at L1, so pretty comfy. Endurance steadily building. :-)

Once home, I set about the task of cleaning up my bike. While cleaning the rims and hubs, I discovered that my rear tire had no air at all...and upon further inspection, found a rock lodged through the tire and into the tube. DOH! Headed to the bike shop for a couple new tires (might as well replace them both).