PRIEST LAKE RIDE

Friday was a real mixed bag. I went for a 26 mile mountain bike ride on one of the most beautiful trails I've ever ridden on. If you ever get the chance, or find yourself in north Idaho, ride the Lakeshore Trail on the west side of Priest Lake. This trail runs through beautiful old growth forests from Nordman all the way to Navigation point. It's not a technical ride nor is there a ton climbing, but a little. But the trail is very well maintained and provides some of the most incredible views of the lake and surrounding mountains. Most of the trail is middle chain ring kind of rollercoaster ride. We ate lunch at Navigation point. And made several stops along the route, my son was having bike issues. On the way back to the truck I broke a chain, which was an interesting experience. Having never had to fix a chain myself and not having my own chain tool made me a little nervous.Luckily, one of my friends had a tool and it was really a piece of cake. The weather started changing, a storm was blowing in From Canada and it was moving pretty fast. It's quite unnerving to be in the woods when the wind starts blowing hard. One large red fir had fallen along the trail blocking our way so we had to get off the bike and carry them through the woods for 40-50 ft. And a mile or so later a birch had fallen accross the trail and broke into several pieces which we were able to clear off the trail. But all in all it was a spectacular day, great workout and a fun ride.

SPRINTS

Yesterday it was up early and off to the track. 1/2 mile warm up then 12 x 400 on 3 minute repeats. My goal was to keep my sprints < 1:30 then 1:30 rest. I would then take 3 min rest between each mile. The 1st mile all laps were < 1:20. I did have 1 lap in the 2nd mile in which my time was 1:35. But all in all I felt pretty good about my effort.
After the workout it was off to the lake and skied a set. This is the 2nd time this week that I skied after my workout. It's weird I seem to ski better after the workouts than I do if I go out fresh. I think beacause I'm a little tired and that causes me to be less aggressive.

SOMETHING NEW

Today I tried something new that I got from http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/walk_breaks.html . This long run workout incorperates walking with the running. I ran 8 minutes then walked 1 min. You can read the article to get all the specifics. Today I ran 10 miles, normally I run Long runs slower than normal at around 9 min/mil. A 10 mile run would normally leave me feeling pretty spent as my longest runs have been 13 miles. But today at the 7 mile point I felt great and at 8 miles I felt so good I did not take the prescribe walk break. I finished in 1:33:58 which is 9:23/mile and I walked ~ 9 min. and at the end I felt good to go another 5 miles. I also tried to incorperate something I read on Trifuel about critical speed. The article was gear toward cycling but I figured it would help with running as well. When I would come to a hill, and this route has alot of long hills, I would increase my cadence and not try to power up the hill. By taking the choppier steps my heart rate did not come up as fast and when I crested the hill I was able to maintain the higher cadence and increase my speed without feeling like I was going to blow up. All in all it was a great run.

TOUGH RUN

Yesterday was a tough long run. The goal was 12 miles using the same run 8 minutes walk 1 min. apporoach that I did last week. I had a tougher time this week though probably for a couple of reasons. 1st on Sat. I did a short tempo run of 4 miles. But I didn't do it until about 7pm. Then i was up the next morning at 0800 for a ski, skied like crap. Then Tony and I ran about 1030. At the beginning of the run it was about 75 but I think by the time we got done it was about 85. The first half though we ran the just as I had planned finishing the 1st 6 miles in ~ 54 min. But on the way back as it began to heat up, and I had no water or anything, I began to slow down, miles 9,10 were real tough as this was a brutely hilly section. By the time I got back to the Jeep I was ready to be done. All in all it was a good run but it was tougher than I thought it was going to be. makes me a little nervous to increase to 14 miles next week.

HIGH CADENCE??? RIDE

Today's ride was a short 20 miler on a fairly hilly ride through Riverside State Park. My goal was to keep my cadence above 80 and as close to 90 as possible. I don't know how in the world Lance and those guys can rev at above 100. The few times that was above 90 I felt like a cartoon character, legs going like crazy and not moving. Apparently I have alot of work to do on my technique. I try to maintain the circles and I can really tell on the hills when I try to focus more on pulling the pedals instead of pushing them, my quads don't burn so soon.
Love my new bike!!! Serrotta's rock

SPRINTS

Today was a sprint day. Jayne and I ran from the house through the woods to our little interval section of trail. Running sprints on a trail is harder than running on a track, I don't think it's quite as effective. Because I can't run as fast over the uneven ground. But we wanted to take Gus (lab) with us because the boy just looks so sad if we go running and he doesn't get to go. Anyway it's about 3/4 mile to the trail which serves as a good warm up. Then we started doing our sprints 1/4 mi. sprint followed by 1/4 mile jog. My 1st 3 were all at 1:23 and the last 3 were at 1:19 so I was pushing harder. Probably should have done a few more but it was starting to get dark and Jayne and Gus had had enough. Next week though I'm going to do them on the track.