Group Bike & Run Training - Mar 15

My 3 days of R&R had come to an end, and man did it feel good!! Although my left leg was still bothering me a little, I felt comfortable enough to head out for training at 8 am in the morning. I did however spent the last couple of days researching swim techniques and also purchased a pair of training fins (tritans) to improve my balance as well as my swim technique, so I was not exactly slacking off! ;)

I will admit, even though I had slept well last night, I was still feeling quite lazy getting out of bed in the morning, but I think it was about time my body started getting back into the swing of things.

The team was all assembled and ready to rock 'n roll for our session today. There were a bunch of people with some seriously bad ass bikes!! Go TNT!!!

We started with a 5 min warmup just peddling to get our muscles warmed up before we really cranked up the gears as well as the speed. Coach Stu told us today was going to be plenty of hill climbs to get our system used to pedaling hard and to control our strokes. He was not kidding, because we really had to control our strokes on very high gear ratios, with my cadence meter showing me speeds of 30 mph at some points, so we were really making good distance. Surpisingly even though I was sweating away like crazy, I did not really feel exhausted or too out of breath at any point in time. I am guessing that is a good thing and don't want to jinx it (touchwood!)! :)

Our changeover to our running gear was fairly quick and before I had even had a chance to plug my ipod earphones in my ears, I found myself running on the tarmac following Ron and Courtney. My left leg had still been hurting, but for atleast the first 2 miles, there were no issues. At some point after that, the duo ahead of me picked up the pace and that is when my legs started to whine some, but more importantly my kindeys were hurting. I think it may have to do with the fact that I did not have enough to eat given the early morning training sessions. I did however keep myself hydrated with gatorade during the biking training, so my legs were not cramping, but I had run out of fuel and my body was prolly trying to scrounge up whatever was left in the system. Regardless, I completed the 3 miles maybe 10 secs behind Ron & Courtney, all sweaty and out of breath, but the sense of accomplishment that follows makes it worth it. The team giving you high fives as you roll in to the finish area ,make it an atmosphere of optimism that is quite motivating.

I now have to focus on getting home and getting myself presentable before my cousins arrive from Chicago. Its going to be a fun weekend!!