Morning Swim/ Afternoon Bike Ride

Swam a the Y this AM. I spent about 45 min. in the pool. I started with drills as usual to work on form. Today was a lot of practicing turning and breathing. In all I swam about 1200m. I even did two sets of 500m free swims. I actually tried to swim them slow, so I could watch if I was bobbing down too much. Felt great in the pool. I'm starting to feel more relaxed.

This afternoon I rode with a group from Summitt Cycles. One of the owners talked me into it yesterday when I came in to size my road bike up. I did not feel comfortable when I rode at the beach. I ended up getting a new seat, raising the seat about 1 inch, and rotated the handle bars down a tad. I felt much better in the saddle. Also, I picked up some hanner gel, heed mix, and water bottles for the race.

The group left out and basically looped from two notch out past Lake Carolina through Summit. We ended up in Kershaw and headed around the new Y and back. It was a 20 mile ride, and I enjoyed it a lot. I did not have trouble keeping up, and in fact ended up passing people who just could not hold a pace up any hills. I like to hang back and just watch the others ride and stay out of the way, but several times, I just had to climb. My mountain biking work really paid off on the hills. Most the roadies would click-click-click down shifting all the way up a climb, and I never felt the need on my trusty blue steel 12 speed.

Met some Tri Guys on the ride. They were nice and wished me luck next week. They had the light tri bikes with aerobars, and zoomed downhill. Man, those things make a big difference. They went dead leg down hill, and passed people spinning full out.

Tried Heed for the first time. Not sure about it. Sticky, sugary? Not sure it made any difference. I will try mixing a half scoop instead next time and bring a bottle of just water. I got the flavorless kind, but being so sweet maybe the orange would have been better? I felt kinda jacked up getting off the bike, and my body seems just a tad strange. Not sure about the Heed.

The bike changes seemed to help a lot with power tonight. I felt great climbing the hills, and could have pushed much harder.

Bike Stats:
Time: 1:11:35
Distance: 20.10 mi.
Avg Speed: 16.85 mph
Max Speed: 38:16 mph (Lake Carolina Hills are fast!!!)
Avg HR: 144 bpm
Max HR: 166 bpm
Cals.: 909

Next Goal: Tri the Pee Dee under 2 hours

Current Status: Sore Right Shoulder; good otherwise

Upcoming: Light Day Spin Class only (Friday will be a full Tri Trial)