And then there were hills....

Saturday 2/25:

Holy cow!! This past Saturday felt like training truly started. We were up early (6am-ish) and out the door by 7am.

Up first, a 45-60min swim in the 'bubble'. (At Burgess aquatic center they have two pools, one of which is covered in the winter months - the Bubble!) When it is cold outside and you walk into the bubble, it is awesome...nice and warm. As we started our 500yd warm up, I found myself having a hard time breathing. I would stop, catch my breath, and then continue. It was weird though...almost felt like my asthma was acting up. I soon came to realize this too was one of the affects of being in the bubble. The hot steamy air makes it more difficult to breathe. We soon finished the warm up and were on to drills. First, 6x50yd - kicking, 6x50yd - kicking/side roll followed by, 6x50yd - thumb to thigh, 6x50yd - fingertip drag. Next our main set was to do 4x100yd in 2:30ea. If you finished under 2:30min for one 100yd you got to rest, if not you kept going. WHOA!!! The idea here is consistency...or on the marathon team, we called it pacing. Same concept! After, we finished the main set, we had another drill 2x50 with the "leg float thing" (don't know the name). With swimming you want to get the majority of your power from your upper body, so this drill helps you work on the efficiency of your stroke. To wrap up our swim....cool down.

In between the swim and bike much goes on - quick shower to get that chlorine like smell off you, change (which is more difficult than one might think...spandex and damp bodies don't mix), get your bike/gear all ready, have a snack, double check to make sure you haven't forgotten anything, remind yourself of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society's (LLS) mission and why you are up at the 'butt crack' of dawn doing this craziness. :o)

Bike time!! This week our goal: 27mi. The first 1/3 of the ride was pretty flat overall. Once we turned onto Arastradero there was a gradual incline for a few miles. We eventually made a turn into the neighborhoods behind Foothill College. This is when the hill training happened. Holy moly! We went up and down and up and down for a hour. One hill in particular (Altamont Rd) is the absolute hardest...for this ride. In the latter part of last season we rode this hill a couple of times and I wasn't able to make it up the whole thing. Saturday, I thought "I am going to do this". I started out doing great - slow and steady, legs spinning. However, unfortunately I had to walk, BUT I got farther up the hill than ever before. WOOT!! Only one person in our riding group made it all the way up...my hubby, YAY!!! So proud of us! Then we turned around and did the same course back in reverse. ;o)

Needless to say...we were beat! A very challenging ride for this early in the season and yet we all were proud of the outcome, welcoming the early hill training.

Don't forget...I am fund raising - help me fight cancer: Swim, Bike, Run....Go Get it Done Dena!!