River Cities Tri

Had a lot of fun this weekend. This is the 2nd time I've done River Cities and it is just an awesome race. Went up there with some very good friends. Goals for the race: 1) Mental - Since IMTX 2011, my pattern for racing has gone from preparing for a race and competing to the best of my ability to not preparing but still doing races, to signing up for stuff but not preparing and not doing the race. Earlier this year, I started signing up for stuff that I wanted to do, only to end up not following through with preparation and not even doing the race. I'm really trying to break that pattern so I looked at River Cities as an opportunity to say, Vic, you signed up for this thing, did a little preparation and no, you're not in the shape you were this time last year but just go out and START the race, do it smart, and see if you can finish. Practice FINISHING something. Someone told me this year that I'm a habitual starter. I start a lot of things and don't finish them. So, I want to break that pattern and FINISH something. That was my goal for going to this race, show up! Finish! 2) Physical - My #1 goal in anything I'm doing nowadays is to burn some calories and get a workout. I figured also that this would be a pretty good physical challenge, especially on the bike as River Cities is a pretty hilly course. So, pacing, being controlled up the hills on the bike, being consistent on the run and burn some calories. 3) HAVE FUN! Swim - 800m in 27:03 (3:07/100y). Something I'd like to work on this year. There is some disconnect between my pool swimming and OWS. I swim 2:20-2:30 in the pool. Bike - 18.2 miles in 1:25:10 - The good news is I finished the bike. Very hilly course, especially for a guy with my power:weight ratio. :) Cadence meter wasn't working but if you looked at the graph, you would see a LOT of coasting. So, basically lowest gear, zone 4 going up for periods of 1 min - 3 minutes, then coasting on the downside. There were some gentle rollers where I was able to get in the big chain and go for a little bit. So, if the goal for the day was to do some work on the bike and get some z4 work done, mission accomplished. Run - 3.1 miles in 54:27 - Again, my goal for this race was a) to get a workout and b) to finish and finish "strong" and I think I did that. I stayed within myself given my current conditioning and body comp. My plan was to do 2min walk/1 min run. I did that all the way through and kept my overall pace pretty even through the entire run. I was able to run in the last 1/2 mile. At the end of the race, I was DONE! Having been out there right at 3 hours, I mean I was toast. I really feel good that I gave it my all. I entertained all the thoughts about packing it in after the bike, cutting the run course short which would have been a very easy thing to do as the course was cut up into a series of out and backs through little cul-de-sacs the the park. But I didn't do that. I knew it wouldn't be pretty but I was going to finish what I signed up for. Thanks Joel, Judy, Belinda, and Pat for the encouragement and camaraderie. Can't wait until next year.

Masters Swim

Through Cypress Triathlon Club's discount program, members can join Fleet Masters Swim Team for the low, low price of $30/month. Man, you can't beat that ANYWHERE in town so I joined up. Fleet Aquatic Center is a beautiful facility. Really a nice pool.

I've been to two practices and there are some things I like about Masters swim and a few things I wish were different.

Things I love about Masters:
1) It gets me to the pool. I really look forward to getting there and swimming with a team.
2) Gives me a structured workout that I don't really have to think about. Coach Amy is on deck and all I have to do is execute what she tells me to do.
3) While a slow swimmer like me needs to focus primarily on technique, Masters gives me an opportunity to just swim, and swim hard if I need/want to. This fits well into my primary goal of losing weight.
4) Being part of a Masters Team, I can actually compete in Masters swim meets. This is a new thing for me and I'm kind of interested in doing it. We have a meet coming up in a month where if you are new to Masters Swim and you've never competed in a swim meet, it's FREE. I think I'm going to swallow whatever self respect I still have left and DO IT!!!
5) It's super close to my house and very convenient to get to practice either in the morning before work or in the evening.

Things I wish were different about Masters:
1) Since this is a real swim team, it is broadly focused on swimming and not on triathlon swimming. For example, last night's "focus" for the night was dolphin kicking off the wall. Well, I have no use for that skill in triathlon. Parts of the workouts include other stokes besides crawl. While this does me no good in triathlon, it DOES keep in interesting. And it's not like I HAVE to do the other strokes. Coach Amy is cool and gives constant guidance on what I can do "instead". But frankly, I'll give anything a shot.
2) The best thing for my swimming would be one-on-one instruction and technique work. I don't get so much of that at Masters practice, not would I expect to. As I mentioned before, my primary goal is losing weight and Masters swimming is doing me good. But as far as a secondary goal of becoming a faster swimmer, no so much.

So, overall, I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars and I'm really enjoying it. I'll likely try to hit 2 practices a week and then add a 3rd swim workout on my own to work on technique.

Training Plan for Week Ending 1/29

Here is the plan for this week.

Goals for the week:
1) Lose 2 pounds
2) Log EVERY meal in MyFitnessPal
3) Show up for EVERY workout