It's Coming......

Warm weather that is. Spring. I know it’s coming. The robins are everywhere around here. Everything will be green and blooming and coming back to life soon.
The picture below is one of my all time favorites of my daughter. It was taken out on our patio during spring a few years ago. When the weather gets too cold and nasty to train outside, I pull up this picture as a reminder of what’s coming....bare feet, warm weather and time in the sun.

Day light saving time is just around the corner (March 11…also DJ’s birthday), which means weekday group rides with the roadies will be firing back up soon. I’m looking forward to a bit of fast riding that’s always a part of riding with that gang. I’ll be scraping the salt from my chinstrap in no time.

My training has been steady lately. I road three hours last Saturday. The temps weren’t too bad, but the sun didn't shine much and the winds were howling.
Sunday is my day off from training and I enjoyed a little afternoon road trip with the family.
Monday was a federal holiday, which meant a day off of work for me. I skipped swimming Monday morning and slept in….or at least tried to. My internal clock didn’t seem to want to recognize the holiday. I did my long run of ten miles Monday evening.
I did about 40 minutes of strength work Tuesday morning. I hit the trainer Tuesday evening for 1.5 hours.
I got in a mile of swimming Wednesday morning. I had to get home earlier than normal Wednesday evening, so I decided to do a 5k test run to get an idea of were my fitness is. I warmed up during the first 3-4 minutes at a moderate pace. I then built my speed up over the next half mile until I was at what felt like 5k pace. I did the last 200 yards flat out and ended up with a time of 22:31. Not bad for me at this time of year. I haven’t done any speed work to speak of since fall. I think I’ve done one “speed” session and one tempo run. I’ll be doing one speed session per week for a while and I’ll use this time to gauge my progress.
I was back in the gym this morning for more strength work. I’ll be back on the trainer tonight for and hour and I’ll do a short run on the treadmill afterwards.
Tomorrow is my long swim day. I’ll probably do an hour or thereabouts of straight swimming in the morning. I’ll get in about an hour of running tomorrow afternoon.
I’m looking forward to a nice long ride in the sun Saturday. The forecast is looking good……

TJ