30 50's

AM: Jane calls this THE 30 50's- 3 easy, 1 fly, 3 easy 2 fly, 3 easy, 3 fly, 3 easy, 4 fly, 3 easy, 5 fly. Everything on 1 minute. Jane, Dave, Jim, and I gutted it out. That was the most fly I've done since my bike accident 2 years ago. Felt like old times.
Then off the the gym for some core.
PM: 90 minute run followed by 90 minute bike.

Ride on

90 minute ride today. 30 minutes at half ironman pace.

Wednesday

AM: Once again I torture myself with tough swim workout- main set: 3x200, 4x100, 2x200, 2x100
Noon: off to the gym for some core.
PM: Track- 2mile @ 13:55, 1 mile @ 6:40, 2x 800 @ 3:10 Not too bad. Trying not to go crazy and run too fast.

Fly day

AM: Masters Swim- butterfly day, I left early.
PM: The rain let up a bit for a run. easy 50 minutes.

The 10th Day

Its been 10 days since my last rest day, so today I rest!
Yesterday I was reading the USA Weekend section in the SB NewsPress. The Fit Smart section was titled "Mix up your routine: Try a triathlon" One of their tips was "...complete a sprint triathlon before tackling an Ironman..." Wow, who knew...

In the Long Run

AM: Long run with Ken. 30 minute jog warm up, 30 minutes tempo, around 7:20 pace, then eased up a bit and ran for a total of 2 hours. I saw a lot of friends out there, either running or biking which is always nice. This was the end of a good week of training.

It's a Girl!

Cook and Delia are the proud parents of 3 month old girl, Dory. They rescued Dory from a kill shelter in Bakersfield. What a lucky dog!
Today's workout: 4 hour bike- plenty of hills with a climb up to La Cumbre Peak. Started raining at the top which made the decent cold and wet. Where's global warming when you need it.

Too Much Beef

This has been the nicest weather in SB in a while. Great Day!
Here is what I did today:
AM: Masters Swim- fast sprint 50's today.
Then off the the gym for an hour of core.
Big Mistake- I couldn't control myself and ate a HUGE roast beef sandwich for lunch. I regreted that decision later.
PM: 90 minute bike followed by 90 minute run. The roast beef kept me company the entire workout. :(

Easy Rider

Easy bike today. 60 minutes. Tomorrow will be a big day so I'll have a good dinner and rest up.

6 and out

My good friend Mike T. is hanging out in Bermuda covering the Bermuda Film Festival. He says Michael Douglas and him are good buds now and he is trying to worm his way into his next film.
AM: Masters Swim- main set 12 x 150m. Everything got progressively faster and I pretty much blew after the first 6.
Lunchtime: off to the gym for some core work and legs.
PM: Track- main set 3x 2000m @ 7 minute pace. That seemed pretty easy which was a good thing after this morining's swim struggle.

20 minutes

Slept in a bit this morning.
This evenings workout:
Bike- 20 min warmup, 20 minutes holding 210 watts, 20 minutes spin, 20 minutes run

No Legs

No legs today, just swim.
Main set: 300m, 200m, 300m, 2x200m, 300m, 3x200m. Whew!

Pandora

If you spend some time in front of the computer and like to listen to music, check out Pandora.com. They have created what is called the music genome project. It is basically a way to customize a music playlist. I think it is brilliant, clever idea. Anyway that is my geek tip of the week.
Today's workout: Ran 1:30 with Mike and Ken thru the hills of Hope Ranch. My total run was about 2 hours.

Not too long

I was at a meeting most of the day so all I could squeeze in was a 2 hour ride. It was cool, breezy, and even rained a bit. I am really looking forward to some spring weather.

A Good Day

Yesterday was a rest day so today I stepped it up a bit.
AM- Masters Swim- Main set 16x100m. Groups of 4. Each group we got more rest, but were expected to hold a faster pace.
Then off to the gym for a hour of core work.
PM- Bike 2 hours, then run 1 hour
Now its off to dinner to celebrate Ellen's Birthday!

Rest Day

Rest today, tomorrow hopefully a big fun day!

Making tracks

AM: Masters Swim- main set- 200m, 2x 150m, 100m, 3x thru. Intervals were pretty tough and I struggled half way thru.
PM: Track workout- alternating fast and moderate 400's for a continous 4 mile distance. Fast was on 1:35 pace, moderate was on 1:50. It started easy, but I definitely felt it at the end!

Another day

Not too exciting:
Lunch time- at the gym doing my core stuff
Evening- 55 minutes on the computrainer using my power cranks

End of the Rainbow

Do we live in an awesome place or what! This pic was taken yesterday afternoon as the clouds disapated.
AM: Masters- main set- 300m, 3x200m, 300, 2x200, 300, 1x200
PM: Run 55 minutes, moderate pace

Bad Idea

Long run today: 2 hours thru Hope ranch. Nice and easy pace. I was thinking of maybe doing the Gaviota OCR next month. I'm not nearly in shape for it so it's probably a bad idea. So that probably means I'll sign up tomorrow.

Snowy Day

On a day that brought rare snow to our foothills, the brave rode the Solvang Century. I stayed home and drank a latte at Pete's. Did I mention I'm training for Ironman Canada?

Friday!

AM: Morning masters swim- The main emphasis of the workout was some fast 100's with moderate rest. I kept them all under 1:20 which I was happy about but my arms were pretty noodlely at the end.
PM: It was off for a quick ride up Painted Cave, roughly 2 hours, before the rain rolled in. Hwy 154 was closed for a bit 'cause of snow!
I spent this evening helping Ronnie G. set up his computrainer. Ronnie showed me his new race wheels- a rear zipp disc and a front 808. He just got himself a new Cervelo carbon P3. I think Ronnie has the fastest, if not the most $$ rig in Santa Barbara!

Breezy!

Not much doing today. A little workout at the gym at lunch. Thought about a run this evening but just a little to breezy and cold. What a whimp. A cold storm is supose to roll in this weekend. Brrrrrr.

Herman Munster

My friend Brian Cook has this unfortunate problem of his right leg being like 6 inches shorter than his left leg. Over the past few days I have been watching him on my Computrainer trying to tweak his cycling position. The great thing about the Computrainer is it can show relative strenghts of each leg. Cook's right peg leg is significantly less efficient than his left to no surprise. So today I see him riding around with his right shoe built up with a Herman Munster type cleat. Further analysis will deterimine whether this change will improve his cycling.
Today's workouts:
AM: Swim Masters- main set 300m on 4:30, 3x100m on 1:30,1:25,1:25, 300m on 4:35, 3x100m on 1:25, 1:25, 1:20, 300m on 4:40, 3x100m on 1:25, 1:20, 1:20
Lunch time: Run- 2mile warmup, 5mile tempo @ 7:20 pace, 2 mile cool down.

Hard Core

Lunch time at the gym. I really try to emphasize a lot of ab stuff. Strong core and all that stuff. This evening 6.5 mile run. One thing about Santa Barbara, there isn't many places to run at night. Either its down at the beach along Cabrillo, or up and down State St. So for me it was my State St. Run. I'm really looking forward to daylight savings time.

Rainy Day

It rained most of the day but I did manage to swim in the morning.
main set: 400-300-200-100, 300-200-100, 200-100-100

Hawaii Ironman No More?

My inside source says this may be the last year of the Hawaii Ironman. Apparently the WTC is pulling the race out of Hawaii and will relocate the World Ironman Championship to Florida. The lava fields of the Queen K Highway vs. Florida Waffle Houses. Somehow I don't think it will be the same.
My workout today: easy run 1 1/2 hours

It's Cold in them Hills

It seems I can never bring enough to wear when I descend down from La Cumbre Peak. Todays ride: up old San Marcos, Painted Cave, down to Paradise Store, up to La Cumbre, then down Gilbraltar and home. Froze all the way down. That hot shower felt gooood. 4 hour ride and then off to Mike T.'s 40th. Happy Birthday Mike!

Swim Golf

Today at morning masters we did a great drill called Swim Golf. The idea is to combine your stroke count and time over 50 meters. So if your stroke count is 40 and it takes you 40 seconds to swim the 50 meters, your score is 80. The goal is to progressively lower your score. Jane scores in the 70's; I'm in the mid 80's. So Jane is Tiger Woods, and I'm a duffer. My excuse is my short arms! The rain has cleared so hopfully I'll get a run in this afternoon.
-Ok, got a nice run up tunnel trail "powerlines". I haven't been up there in a while. Nice!

Work means rest

Well too much work sometimes means a self imposed rest day, so today I rest. I did walk the dogs this morning if that counts for anything. We'll see about tomorrow. Looks like rain!

Day One!

And so it begins. Day one of my six month plan to get in somewhat decent shape for Ironman Canada in August 2006.
Most of my swim workouts are at the Los Banos del Mar Pool. LB is a beautiful 50 meter pool located at the Santa Barbara Harbor. We have an awesome Masters program with morning and evening workouts. This morning was a typical "Challenge Wednesday" 1600 meters warmup. Main set: 4x100m @ 1:25, 200m @ 3:00, 3x100m @ 1:20, 4x50m @ 1 min, 2x100m @ 1:25, 200m @ 3:00, 1x 100m @ 1:15, 5x50m @ 1 min. Scotty, Dave, and Jane are my lane mates. They are REAL swimmers. I just hang on.
This evening run: 2 mile warmup, 4 miles tempo @ 7:15, 2 mile warmdown