Wednesday, August 20, 2008

who's up for a tri?

is it considered a triathlon if there are only two participants?
As with most of my workouts - or torture sessions as they have so lovingly been referred to as of late by those partaking - CB sends me the time/mileage and i devise the routes and effort level. this weekend consisted of the following:

45min swim/at least 1mi + 90min bike/at least 25mi + 40min run/at least 5mi = great workout on already tired legs from the time trials of hell the week following up to this day.

i only had one brave soul answer my call to arms and with that Ryan M and i met at the shores Saturday morning at 730 to begin our day of training. we swam the mile on the clearest day yet, seeing to the bottom almost the entire way out to the half mile buoy. it was beautiful. it was peaceful. it was breathtaking. it was me thinking, "i better get this swim over with quick so my sandals are still there when i get out and my car hasn't been stolen with my not-so-hidden key!" we exited the water in 32 minutes to the very fantastic fact that all of my belongings were just as i left them. thank God drunks and thieves normally aren't early morning risers. next up the ride...

is it considered a triathlon if there is no official course or aid stations?
i decided the day prior that the bike portion of our day would consist of a 15 mile out and back. i thought it might be nice to head up Shores Dr (the horrible knee blowing downhill of the La Jolla Half Marathon), out to the infamous Torrey Pines hill and then along the coast until we hit the 15 mile marker as dictated by my bike computer. right off the bat, our first climb set the standard for the day's ride. in a word - gnarly. Ryan and i kept exchanging curses to the effect that who ever came up with this route must die, that she must be an evil bitch and that Ryan needed to set up better SPAM filters so those pesky emails couldn't get through. too bad all of said comments were directed at yours truly and even as i said them, i smiled a devilish smile of victory because i knew - in essence - we were about to get our asses handed to us on a platter. those comments continued throughout the entire ride and as we neared the turnaround point, Ryan noticed i was out of my nutrition mixture and would need to restock with water at the very least. that's when we had the very grand idea to crash the TNT transition workout just a mile ahead and steal their water and hopefully snacks :) steal we did and off we were to tackle the dreaded Torrey Pines hill (my first attempt at the task in over a year and a half) and get back to transition to start the run. i'll be nice here and just say that i had a good ride - as in i dropped Ryan :) i held a steady 21/22mph on the way back and even caught up to a pack of male riders and quite quickly dropped them. at the next light, they caught back up (okay - so i didn't really drop drop them, more like pass dropped them) where one of the riders made the comment "sorry. i just caught up, i was trying to find a bungee cord to wrap around your back tire" YES! SCORE! YIPPEEE! i'm not gonna lie, it felt good. really good. i gloated - just a little - with a quick smirk and soft laugh. i never saw the other riders again after that light. they must have turned but Bungee decided to stick with me and Ryan up Torrey and that's when Ryan got dropped. i only say this because he's fast and it makes me feel good to say that i beat him. in his defense, he was only going on 4 hours of sleep AND a night of drinking. so it was me and Bungee, duking it out to the top. i won :) and back to transition it was...

is it considered a triathlon if you get attacked by a yappy dog on the run?
i waited for Ryan to get back before we both headed out on the last leg of the workout. it was a gorgeous day at the beach with tons of people out playing football, soaking up the sun and walking their dogs. Ryan stopped about 10 minutes or so into the run to stretch, but i kept trucking along so i could just get it done - by this time i was beyond starving. i'd had one scoop of Accelerade/Ultima in my water bottle on the way out, one Accelgel at the half way point on the bike and water for the run. i had infact been asking Ryan where we were going for lunch since minute 10 of the ride. now it was minute 10 of the run and i needed food! at my run turn around - which i estimated to be about 2-2.5 miles - i was accosted by one of those yappy, shaggy dogs that can't weigh more than 5 pounds wet. the dadgum thing came out of nowhere and just started barking and lunging and God knows what else. i was lucky enough to divert disaster and continued on. Ryan wasn't so lucky. i kept wondering why i wasn't catching up to him on my way back to the cars. i mean, i was miraculously NOT lost and retracing me exact path out - he had to be here somewhere...right? that's when i saw him limping towards me with a hole in his tri shorts and in his leg. one of those yappy, shaggy dogs that can't weigh more than 5 pounds wet had accosted him as well, but got much more than my attacker did - a piece of his quad! he had already washed it out by the time i returned and was just ready to leave to get food.

is it considered a triathlon if you don't have a 4th event?
so that's what we did. we ate. we ate a lot. we ate a whole lot and afterward i smacked Bri (who was so nice to come and join us at our celebratory meal after his TNT session) for letting me eat ALL of my ginormo burger with bacon, cheese and avocado + all of my caesar salad. in my defense, CB had just told me on the phone to, "eat. eat protein. eat as much protein as you possibly can to rebuild those muscles." so that's what i did, and was completely chockablock of cow walking back to my car. so full infact that i all needed was a shower and a nap to complete my day.

is it considered a triathlon if you do more/less than was prescribed?
so our final day of training tallied up to the following:

32min swim/1mi + 112min bike/30mi + 40min run/4.5mi = kick you in the teeth workout that leaves you begging for your mommy and an ice bath :)

it was a great day of training. we worked hard. we got a lot done. we kicked ass and we took names. so who's up for the double loop Iron Mountain ride and run this Saturday? i promise it will be just as much fun if not more ;)

1 comment:

rocketpants said...

Definitely a triathlon, even if it only has 1 person in it. swim bike run...sounds like a crazy weekend of training.

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