My plan for the run was to head towards the Sand Creek Regional Greenway which I ran past an entrance to during my brick run on Saturday and then googled it later in the day. Turns out its a hard packed gravel trail through a park that runs through Aurora / Denver. Perfect! After a little research it looked like it was going to be just long enough for me to do a 12 mile run as a 6 mile out and back. So I ran to the trailhead and then turned onto the Greenway. What a great find! Sometimes dumb luck gives you a gift and that was the case today. It felt so great to leave this strip mall suburbia where my hotel is behind and head onto a trail through a wide strip of parks and untouched land. It was gorgeous... and at sunrise it was even more beautifull.
Seriously... as far as random runs out the front door of your hotel goes... this one ranks right up there. The rest of the trail followed the creek for several miles and then wound into some large fields on the outskirts of Aurora, CO where my hotel is and then I was welcomed via a nice sign into Denver as I continued along the trail. Most of the run passed uneventfully. Highlights were that I actually listened to music on this run which I never do. But since I had to carry my phone with my anyway on an armband I figured I might as well listen to music at the same time.
I'm happy to say I managed my long run back at my usual 8:30 average. Which is what I would normally do a long run on fresh legs at. So it was nice to see me be able to manage that on much more tired legs. Speaking of which I felt a bit sore at the start but I loosened up nicely for the first 6 miles or so. Once I turned around though I didn't feel quite as strong but I pushed through it. In looking at the elevation profile afterwards though it explains that a little as the front half of the run was a 6 mile slow downhill grade and the return is the opposite of that. The profile looks like someone took the letter V and opened it up really wide to make a much softer angle in the middle. So the way back was slightly uphill the whole way which explains a bit about why it felt more challenging than the way out. But I did manage to hold my average so I'm happy with that. All in all a great run through some beautifull terrain. I'm really glad I stumbled upon that trail as I was beginning to think I was not going to get to experience Denver's beauty at all while I was out here and that kind of bummed me out.
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Weekly Summary.
Another week of training has come to an end and I'm another week closer to the Firm 1/2 and only a week away from my first triathlon. Speaking of which I'm going to have to really be carefull on these next two sprints to remember that they are really just training on the way to the half and not something I should destroy myself on to finish super fast. I still need to figure out how to fig my big weekend workouts in around the sprints as I don't plan on skipping them. I just need to shuffle them.
So how was this week? All in all it felt really good. I'm really pleased that I was able to fit in a lot of quality workouts in around my travel schedule. So that was great. I've also finally completely committed to the notion of doing the 1/2 after two weekends of large bricks. I'm now convinced I can do it. Now its just a matter of logging the rest of the training and going for it.
So what did I do this week....
Swimming : 2 Hours, 2 Open water sessions, 1 pool session. Total distance in open water is 2.2 miles. Not sure of distance covered in the pool. I lost count of laps, but swam for 40 minutes.
Biking: 5 Hours, 92 miles 4 rides. Mileage is an estimate as two of those sessions were on a spin bike with no computer. But it was the best I could do out here. But they were quality workouts as I pushed pretty hard on the bike. Also includes another PB TT where I was 12 seconds off my PR. Not bad.
Running: 3.75 Hours, 26.8 Miles, 4 runs. Two were part of brick workouts. Average Pace 8:23
Totals: 10.75 Hours
Great week all in all. I'm pretty pleased with it.
Future Goals...
Continue to train for the Firm, and find ways to be able to train around upcoming business trips and the two sprints between now and then.
Join in with either some of the SSS or Fred's swimming group in Narragansett. The more I swim down there the more comfortable I'm going to be. GVP is nice and convenient but its become too comfortable. I need to be out in the swells and covering the mile out in the ocean so there will be no surpirses or anything new on raceday. So thats my goal for the next two weeks. Get in at least one swim with one of the Narragansett groups. I'm going to try and get more info about them to see how well I'd fit in with those groups and see which one would be more suitable for me.
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So now with my long run out of the way all I have to do is work till about 6pm and then take this gig apart and stuff it back in the truck till around 9 or 10pm, go to bed, and then fly home tomorrow. I haven't taken a day off of training in over two weeks now so I think tomorrow will be a real day off. I could get up at the crack of dawn and hit the pool but I don't think that makes sense as I plan on swimming tuesday and wednesday already as well. And I can't swim three days in a row. So tomorrow will be an off day. Although I reserve the right to go for a walk in the morning at least.
Also up this week I'm going to go and visit Sean at Providence Bicycle. I'm going to add some clip on aerobars to my bike and start training with those as I'm hoping they may speed up my TT time a little bit, but more than that they should help me out on the 1/2. I'm also going to add a rear seat cage system so I can start carrying 4 bottles on my longer rides and then lose the interal frame cages for the TT/races. I'm realy struggling on these hot training days and I would much rather be able to carry the extra fluid than deal with planning stops into my route. Besides... training with a little extra weight on the bike can't be a bad thing right? And hopefully I'll be able to transfer the rear cage system to my TT bike if I'm able to add one of those to the stable for next season. I also want to talk to sean about bike trainers.
Actually speaking of purchases... I need to keep my eye out for a used road bike. I need a size 52 with SRAM components. I want to try and find something cheap I can store up in Albany at the warehouse where all the gear for most of the shows I work on comes from. That way they can throw the bike in the truck for me and I'll be able to have a bike and a trainer with me when I travel so I can ride anywhere. I can even stick it backstage and get in workouts around my schedule. But thats a longterm project... I just want to start keeping my eyes open for something cheap. But it needs to be of high enough quality I can still log some great workouts on it outside as well.
Ok... thats enough for this week!
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