Hay in the Barn

These past two weeks have been very good. I continue to put hay in the barn, and make effort-ed deposits into my bank. my legs are heavy, and tired, but they will be ready for my final withdrawal at itu worlds.

My legs feel better, after introducing some resistance training into the workload. at first it was a shock, but now it is a regular pain i have gotten used to enjoyably enduring. my legs have not been as used up as they felt last week in a long time. which tells me something, a lesson learned, we must always change our training up to manipulate our systems into continual growth. i hope its working, but i think it is.

sunday was the webster duathlon # , the last in the series. a sprint race down in the random pastures of texas, offering a 2 mile run, 12 mile bike, and 2 mile jaunt to the finish. i knew my bike had been improving, and the regulat guys would be there, so i was going for the win. Janda
(my coach)had warned me that i would be tired, and reminded me it was a training race. he was right, the gun went off and i immediately got in the lead pack with heavy legs, then a high school runner started to make the pace. it was then just him and i, and i was going to let him keep it, bc i was feeling it. knowing he would probably die out in the bike, and the regulars where behind me, i let him take the lead.

i got to the transition, and ran out with my bike directly into a newspaper photographer, and she geared my rear derailleur down, so when i hopped on my bike the chain was stuck! i got off fixed the problem, lost a few seconds, and got out on my bike. the toop loop course was nice and flat, but had a steady head wind on one side. i felt strong, but the wind hurt. one of the local duathlon savages passed me at mile 5, and i stayed with him, until his pedal fell off! i was kind of bummed bc i planned on pacing him form the ride. i was once again feeling the lactic acid and toxins attempting to repair my muscles from the hard week. i got off the bike averaging 23.5, ill take it.

when i started running there was 2 people in front of me. i knew right away, that my legs were not the way they usually are. my quads felt like they should look like norman stadlers', but they don't. i pressed on, passing a guy and continued to close the gap with the leader who averaged a whopping 26mph on the bike(duathlete). he ended up beating me by 40 seconds, and my running pace was 20-30 seconds slower than usual!

at first i was bummed, bc the win would have been nice, and i think i could have gotten it if my run was normal, but this is good stuff. my training is working, and i am getting there. my legs will be fine on the real race day, and my run will be there, this race tells me, my bike will too.
so fire tired trained legs, i feel good with the 2nd place finish, and time of 54:50.

A full week of training lies ahead, as well as a full week of uscg duty(10 days in a row!) then i will recover up for steelhead 70.3 and see what damage i can bring to the shores of michigan.

i hope everyones training is going well. a big kudos to all the sweet people from sugar cycles road team that competed or supported the duathlon this weekend, it was a fun day, the pancakes being the best part. oh yea, if anyone finds sugar tri shorts on 45 north, they are mine :)