Visit from the SLC boys

Visit from the SLC boys

It has been a quiet few weeks here in Napalmland. I have been steadily logging laps in the pool, miles in the saddle and on foot, and hours at the gym as my schedule permits, and not admitting to my coach the days when time does not permit. The weeks seem a lot longer during a stretch where you don't have any races scheduled; though for me it's not difficult to stay motivated, it is difficult to monitor your progress from week to week. At least, it is for me, since I haven't been training with a partner, or keeping a log. I imagine that, if I were to communicate a lesson during this post, that would be it: if you're training by yourself, or even if you're not, it's great to keep a log to watch your times go down and your weights go up (the ones that you're lifting).

I did have a bit of insight into my swim times during my last session with my coach. In the SHAC spring triathlon that I did back in March, my splits on the swim were 2:21/100m. At the time, I wasn't really pleased or displeased - I was just happy to have finished - but I used it as a measuring stick for future training. Ten days ago, my coach timed me as I swam 4x100m at a 6-7 pace, that is to say, just under my race pace. Wearing swim shorts rather than my racing suit, I swam 2:16 splits, and had plenty of breath left at the end. I commented to my coach that it's astonishing to find your workout pace drop below your last race pace. Feels great. It's not really even near the sub-2:00 splits that I saw people swimming during the Ironman St George, but I feel like I'm now at least on the path that might get me there.

But now on to the real report: Saturday, my good friends from Salt Lake City came down and joined me on a ride around the town.

Mileage: 45
Time: 3 hours
Average speed: 15 mph

At the beginning of the year, we were planning on riding a full century, from my house to Zion Natl. Park and back, but due to bad weather, injury and illness, they weren't really able to put in the miles to train for it. Curse you, Salt Lake spring weather!!

Anyway, we mapped out a nice 30-mile ride out to Sand Hollow Reservoir and back. The photo above is of us three together - as we were getting ready to go, we realized that all of us had picked our bright yellow jerseys to wear that day. Go team lemon! The ride we picked is pleasant to do and offers some good, challenging hills right off the bat. The steepest of these, in my opinion, is just 5 or 6 miles from my house - a long, windy, 5-6 minute slog up and out of Washington City and toward the land fill. Not an insane challenge, but enough of a workout that if you still are feeling the winter cobwebs in your legs, this will definitely serve to wake you up. All three of us spent a couple of minutes huffing at the top of the hill, and there were even some rumors of breakfast coming back for a visit. After that, there are some rolling hills that take you up to the SR-9, the main road that takes you into Hurricane and eventually toward Zion. We zipped down this and into the Sand Hollow recreation area, where we stopped for a few minutes to watch the St George Triathlon in progress. It was fun to watch the runners go by - I felt a few butterflies in my stomach watching these very fit people out there struggling with what looks to be a challenging course, knowing that this would be the same course that I'll be running in the fall.

We then climbed back up out of that valley to a Chevron, stopped for a quick pee and a Snickers, and then zipped on back to St George. I actually coaxed the boys into doing a few extra miles and coming with me to Bloomington Park, which on the one hand was great, as the majority of the ride is along paved bike trails, but on the other hand meant that our wives were stuck waiting for us at my house for an extra hour. Chagrin!

The post-ride afternoon consisted of a soak in my in-laws' jacuzzi, followed by burgers and a movie at my house, followed by some ice cream and sleeping, followed by more eating.



Thank you, gents, for coming down and riding with me. Let's do it again soon.

End Transmission.