coast-AL

WHEREIN AL DISCUSSES WORKOUTS AND HANGIN' WITH THE HOOKERS ON THE JERSEY SHORE THIS SUNDAY



Today was a great workout. Al K and I swam an open water mile in the Great South Bay to start our work. The bay was like glass with little or no boat traffic. We focused solely on good stroke work and on tri technique in the open water: holding a good line with limited visuals, staying in good body position, being as efficient as possible. The swim was great with mission accomplished on technique work. The only issue we had was that we discovered some damage to Al K's wetsuit. Al K pulled an "8th mile" move last time he used the suit. (8th mile move: Al K seems to go soft in the skull after 8 miles. He'll run just fine but he seems to lose mental capacity rather than physical. He'll get lost, speak incoherently, run into things when he crosses the 8 mile mark.) Seems Al K stuffed his wetsuit in his tri bag with his bike shoes after the last tri. Bad move. The neoprene now has 5 or 6 nicks in it from the cleats. None have gone through yet, but Al has a bunch of patch work to do. FUCK!

After the water, we headed out for a 6 mile run on the flat and fast Bayport/Bluepoint streets. Al K's mile markers were a bit off, but we had a good run. Nice and easy at 8:30s. The humidity was annoying but, in all, it was good day.

Sunday, I'm going to do a sprint tri in the ocean and along the Jersey shore--1 K SWIM, 19 MILE BIKE, 5 MILE RUN--with the Sandy Hookers Tri Club. The course is not very challenging EXCEPT FOR THE SWIM. Ocean swims are very unpredictable. Wave action, weather, visibility, and tide can make a short swim seem epic. Lake, bay, pool swims are, quite frankly, nothing compared to an ocean swim. I won't call this a race as it is really a buinch of clubbers getting together to pound out some tough brick work. everyone keeps his/her own splits etc. COOL! Great workout and practive for my upcoming Olympic at the end of July.

The only other news to report is that the Cervelo is back in tip top shape. After my first couple of hundred miles on it, I've noticed an increasing creak in the bottom bracket. Thanks to the advice of Solo, I didn't ignore it. After an adjustment and some lube, she's good as new. Got my new tri shoes too. Sunday will be fun!!!

condition-AL

AL Discusses His Poor Monday Morning Condition and the Week That Got Him There





Hello, sports fans. I am road kill today. I've got that "run down," lactic acid, monday morning blah feeling again. It seems counter-intuitive but I'm always beat up and looking for the license plate of the vehicle that got me on Monday mornings (counter-intuitive because Mondays are either an OFF day or a very light day in my schedule). But I know it makes sense. Mondays always follow 6 hard days of work. Mondays are the day that all the ache and acid can settle in. A light walk or a little spin usually sets me right. But right now--8 AM--I'm just working through a few cups of coffee and holding the head aloft with my other hand.




Last week was a good week for training. I swam about 4 miles, logged about 40 run miles, biked about 60, and got in 3 good weight circuits. I felt pretty good through all. Highlights were a brutal hill set on wednesday. This run was a two mile warm then a few miles worth of hill repeats. The hill I use is a 1/4 mile climb. I repeated this about 8 times: sprint uphill, jog down in between. It's a steep climb and is a serious beating. I had one nice open water swim on Tuesday, I think. I swam about a mile in the Great South Bay. It was late afternoon, no one on the beach really. I had the bay to myself 'cept for some distant boats. Yesterday, I did a 20m bike/ 6 m run brick. It was a good day. The bike leg was an out and back along the paved trail down to Jones Beach from Wantagh (with a few loops at the park to make up the extra distance). It was very windy on the way down to the beach. I could only hold about 13-15 mph though I was working hard. The way back was a real cruise though. I had the wind at the back and was cranking at 25 mph the whole way without much effort it seemed. Once back, I worked a tri transition. (As an aside: I recently purchased some tri-specific shoes. I've been beating the shit out of my SIDI's in my tri transitions. These bad boys cost me $250 and they are not right for tri anyway. So I got some cheap--$70--tri shoes with one velcro strap.) I had the shoes clipped into the bike, and I did 3 or 4 transitions getting on/off the bike to get used to this. The run was just 6 loops on the 1 mile course at Cedar Creek, Wantagh. This course is relatively flat with one rise. In all, a good brick.

Well, maybe I'll take that little walk now. The kids are scampering about my feet and the dog looks like he could use a break too. Maybe we'll all take a stroll. Sayonara.