I slept in on Monday morning. I had decided to give the legs a rest after the weekend and only do a swim. Chris was at the pool at lunch time and we had to share a lane for just a few minutes. I warmed up with an easy 500 yards. Chris wanted to do some speed work and I was game. Since I so rarely do any swimming speed work I knew this was going to be tough.
Chris is quite a bit faster than I am I would just try to keep up with him. We started with 6 x 25 yards on 30. I was able to touch just behind Chris in all of these sets – they were taking about 20 seconds. We then moved up to 10 x 50 on 60 – (originally it was going to be 6 but Jim showed up a little bit late and we increased the reps). At the 25 yard mark Chris was consistently half a body link in front of me. However, with my lack of flip turn and his huge flip turn – as soon as we turned around he was a full body length in front of me. As the set continued it got harder – this was a good swim work out. Next would be 3 x 200 yards on 3:30. The same scenario – Chris just increased his lead on me after each lap – I was finishing a couple of body lengths behind him – I was finishing at 3:00 minutes.
That was it for the day – or so I thought. It was posted on the forum that there was a nice trail run at 7PM at Eply Station. It is hard for me to pass up group training when it is on the trace – I mean; I get to ride my bike there. I rode out to Eply and arrived just before 7 – Robin, Lance and Neil were there. Jim showed up a few minutes later – calling me out since I said I was only going to do the swim. There were also some of Robin’s cross-country students. An unnoticed dirt road was just off of the trail – that was the run for the evening. My plan was for a nice easy 8:30 mile pace, however, Neil was there. Neil was one of my old 5k nemeses. Last year we were running right around the same pace and I was able to use him as a rabbit in a couple of races last year (this year also). Neil was chasing the sub 20 minute 5k for much of last year and that was my goal also. In mid August I was able to follow Neil up to about the 2 ½ mile mark at a 5k and then pass him. I got a PR of 19:57 – I would not have been able to do it without the good pacing. Neil broke 20 minutes a few races later. Anyway, Neil has been running a lot and I went out on the trail run with him. The 8’s turned into 7 ½’s and then it seemed to quicken to about a 7 minute pace. I had to let Neil go. I fell back at the turn around and waited for Jim and Lance. It was a really good trail run for me – Jim and I also tacked on about 1 ½ miles along the trace to give us an even 6 miles.
Talking shop after the run I was circling Robin, Lance and Jim. I was doing figure eights on my bike – just tooling around. And bam, I slowed too much and leaned the wrong way. I did one of those super slow-mo falls in a parking lot. Luckily, I fell really well – not a cut or scrap or anything. I landed right on my rump and I don’t think I will even get a bruise – except for my ego – and even it will be just a tiny bruise. That was the first fall in a couple of years (I did have a crash last year – but that definitely was not just a fall).
Race update – I did end up registering for the Heart O’Dixie this weekend. At exactly five weeks out from IMKY it will be the last hurrah of summer. I will be sticking to the IM training plan exactly here on out – even if the taper kills me!
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