Thursday, July 12, 2007

coyote creek

Last night the knee was feeling relatively good and Fast Eddie looking rather dejected against the dining room wall, so I went for a spin on the Coyote Creek trail.

It's a 15 mile paved recreational trail that runs from San Jose down to Morgan Hill. I've been on it a few times to run or to rollerblade and seen lots of cyclists, so I thought I would give it a try. Talk about an awesome spin course!

It's not a challenging trail by any means. It's pretty flat along its entire course, although there is a gradual gain in elevation as you head south, which makes for some pretty fun, fast spinning on the way north. Also, at 630pm last night it was deserted. I biked a total of 16.53 miles and passed 3 cyclists and two park rangers.

The northern end of the trail is not necessarily in the greatest neighborhoods, but once you get south of Bailey, the fields open up around you and there are awesome views of the hills to the east and west. Quail and wild turkeys abound. *Once when I was out for a run on this trail, I saw a great big red bobcat crossing up ahead of me.* As I was headed northwest back to my car, the sun was setting dead ahead and the breeze was filled with the scent of manzanita.

Anyway, it made for the perfect low-key ride. Knee kicked a bit after 6 miles or so, but not too bad. Best of all...today I don't even feel it! It's finally showing signs of being on the mend. :-)

Monday, July 09, 2007

active recovery

In training:

I did end up going for that ride on Tuesday evening. I followed my client and his friend (a former racer, as it turns out) on the Portola Loop...or so I thought. We took a couple new twists on one of my old favorites, making it a hiller, slightly longer ride. It was fun!

My knee held up. It didn't feel great, but it certainly didn't feel as crappy as it did on my last ride. Interestingly, it feels just fine when I'm climbing out of the saddle. Maybe I need yet another seat height adjustment; I still find myself shifting my position backwards an awful lot.

I also learned how to draft. Whee!

Since then, it's been active recovery all the way. A light (somewhat hot) hike on the 4th, a light functional hip workout on the 6th, and swimming in Lake San Antonio for about 45 minutes on the 7th. Incedentally, it was about 20 degrees warmer than the last time I was in it. :-)

Today I took my first real swim since SJIT. For a total of 2300m:
300 swim
300 kick
300 pull
8x50 drill
300 pull
250 swim
200 pull
150 swim
100 cool down

Yes, I will definitely sign up for Ti2Y and, I think, the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon.

In coaching:

Nothing new yet! Next meeting is this Thursday evening.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

set adrift

So, I guess now my entries will cover two realms: my adventures in training and my new adventures as a fledgling tri coach.

On the training side:

Aaaahhhhh... After SJIT I took 8 days completely off from training. A little bit of flexibility thrown in as stretching, sticking, and foam rolling. My body and mind both needed the time, I think. Knees are feeling up to par for ADL's, which for me is saying a lot, demonstrating lunges and squats as I do all the livelong day.

My first real workout was about 30 minutes ago. I headed over to the pool for a short session, only about 1600m or so. I didn't even do a good job of keeping track! Felt great, though. Christine was there when I got there, so I shared a lane with her for a while. What luck, huh? She hardly ever swims at Burgess. We made tentative plans for a morning 4th of July ride.

Next, I'm meeting a client (and one of his friends) for a short ride at 530 today. Just the Portola Loop. I'm hoping it goes well--last time I got onto my bike was two weeks ago, and about 5 miles in my right knee was screaming for mercy. Oh, when will I ever learn that superhero-personal-trainer-girls need to stretch, too?

With nothing to traing for or look forward to at the moment, I'm feeling a little drifty. I need something to sign up for. Unfortunately, now that I'm a coach I can't race at Treasure Island; it's now my job to help others through it on their big day.

Some thoughts in the meantime:
*Treasure Island to Embarcadero open water swim
*Happy Fish 10k run (Kinda gotta do that one!)
*Santa Cruz Sentinal Olympic Tri
*Triathlon at Pacific Grove (Maybe I'll try a sprint for fun!)

On the coaching side:

Not too much is happening quite yet.

I signed up to work three informational meetings, and the first was last night, down in Gilroy. We actually got THREE people to sign up! You may be saying "big whoop," but at a meeting where only 15 people show up, snagging three of them is quite a haul for the tri team! Most people are interested in the run and cycle teams; I guess a triathlon just sounds hard to them or something... *wink*

Anyway, other than that, the coaching staff has been finalized. Seems like a pretty good crew; I'm looking forward to a fun season!