It was still in the high to mid 80s Thursday afternoon when Col and I met to do some trail running in the Bridal Trails area. We headed out from the golf course and got on to some trails pretty quick - though there were crazy up and downs just to get to the park area. Once we got to the part the trails are great - nice and wide for the horses, soft compact dirt and almost completely in the shade - don't get me wrong it was still very warm but at least no sun pounding down on us. We fallowed the coyote trail for about a 3.5 mile loop and then back to the cars. I felt fairly good - though I had a hard time keeping my breathing underhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif control - esp when going up hills. I'm not sure exactly how far we ran we thought somewhere around 5 miles total - though it took us 54 minutes so it may have been longer. In any case I had no pain and found that I really like to run trails more than roads.
During the run and I also talked about a run plan for Canada - start out running off the bike as far as I feel good then transition to a run walk pattern - run 5 - walk 2 and the aid stations. Mostly that it is ok and I should fully expect to walk parts of the marathon and I should be ready and ok with that.
Lets see what did I do on Friday - oh yeah I swam in the pool. Total distance was 3000 yrds - 400 warm up + drills, 200 x 3, 250 x 4, 300 x 2, 100 x 3, 100 cool down + kick. It was sort of a random assortment of long and short sets. I felt really good and I was able to keep my pace up all the way though - my last set of 100s were all 1:47 :) The biggest thing was was that I realized that I really like being able to feel the resistance on my arms when I pull - I seem to use it as a gauge as how hard I'm working. So when I swim open water in a full wet suit I don't get that and so I don't think I pull as hard and swim slower. So now I'm pretty sure I want a sleeveless wetsuit. Anyway it took me about 63 minutes - including all rests.
Saturday the crew got together for a 70-75 mile bike ride - the Lake Washington loop and 20 miles on the cedar river trail in Renton. It was kind of weird ride - we had some confusion when we got started and it made everyone a little cranky. Luckily we all just focused on riding and moved on. I took it easy the first 20 or so miles and just stayed at the back of the pack. We started in Lake Forest Park which put us on the climb up Juanita almost right away which is hard warm up but I actually felt pretty good - my legs felt strong and ready. The day got warmed as we went and my usual nutrition plan worked well for me - I did make sure to drink a bit more as it got warmer and took a few extra salts. I tried to eat some of a cliff bar about half way but the flavor did not go well at all with the accelerade. I shocked everyone (or maybe just Kyle) by spending more time actually down in my aero bars, I gave hand signal and swerved. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful - though the last 10-15 miles on the burke gilman trail dragged on forever. I finished at almost exactly 70 miles in 4:23 and felt like I could ride again :).
Ok finally today Kyle and I procrastinated most of the day and waited until almost 7:45pm to start a 8 mile run. I really wanted to stay off sidewalks or roads so I talked him into going with me to the Bridle Trails park and doing the 3.5 mile loop twice then do another loop that is 1 mile. We got going and again I had a hard time keeping/getting my breathing under control for most of the 1st loop esp on the uphills. Before starting the second loop I stopped had a gel and some water that I had staged so I did not have to carry it. Luckily my 2nd loop felt much better - I was warmed up and my breathing was well under control. I'm glad I brought my little headlamp because it started getting darker and made me feel more visible. By the time My left knee got a bit tight on the last bit of the 2nd loop - but nothing bad enough to stop and it kind of faded as I went. I finished my second loop it was getting pretty dark and Kyle was done with his 8 miles - he said the 1 mile loop was even darker and the trail was not as nice so I ran back out on the loop I had been on for 5 minutes and back which was probably about a mile or so (close enough). In all it took me 1:12:34 to run about 8 miles on trail - not record breaking but I felt good and enjoyed myself which is what matters (right?).
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