Recovery to the MAX!

After my biggest week of training last week, it was time to take some rest. Had a week long road trip planned to relax, check out some breweries and eat some good food. I had fully planned to get in at least a couple of workouts, but as things would have it I just had too much fun and are days were pretty full. We headed to Portland first for two nights, over to Newport on the coast for 3 and then back to Seattle for a night before heading home.

Highlights from the trip:
- Spending time with Ju
- Eating at and trying the beers at 4 different brewpubs.
- Camping beside a crazy family
- Rogue Brewery Tour
- trying 10 different beers at the Seattle International Beer Festival

Some pics from the week:

Loaded up and ready to go



I think I got to the show too early


On the Williamette River



Coffees at Stumptown - Probably the best I've ever had.


The Deschutes BrewPub in Portland


Deschutes Brewery in Portland Taster - Some Great IPA's


Sweet Bike Rack




A Cool Bike Sculpture


The Rogue Nation Headquarters



Looks like they knew I was coming



Our Campsite


Our Yummy Camping Dinner


Cool Action Shot



Tasting at the Seattle International Beer Festival



In other news, my first race of the year is coming up this Sunday. I'm very excited to get out there again, but a little nervous about how my high octane fitness is. I guess we'll see.

Mini Camp Review

My training has been going really well as of late and I had a few extra owed overtime days accumulated, so I decided to take a couple of extra days off this week to spend some time on the bike. And maybe do a little swimming and running. I'm counting my week from Sunday to Saturday and in that time, I have put in 21hrs of training, a new 7 day record for me. In that time I have biked 460Kms, Run 20.7kms and swam 1600M. Although the swim volume does not look big, it is the biggest week I have had since coming back from my fractured clavicle. On Friday I did a test to see if I could swim 800M's straight and I am happy to say I was able to. This means I won't be fast, but at least I'll be able to finish in my sprint race in 2 weeks.

Not a lot to say about the week except it was a lot of riding, but my legs are feeling ridiculously well so far. So I have a put together some pictures from the week. Now that my big week is over, it is time for a recovery week and I will be spending two days of it in the Microbrew Capital of the US, Portland, Or. I hope their kegs are ready for me.

Some Essentials for putting in lots of hours in the saddle


Pre Ride Fueling is very important.


The flat farmland roads


My long ride fuel


Perfect recovery drink. James had mentioned this one before. It was delicious.


Spinning Along



A possible celebrity sighting? The expected bling was definitely missing.


Jeff Kerkove styled shot


My Steed. It's nothing fancy, but it does the trick.



Another couple of shots of me riding along




Trucking along. The weather was not as ideal as had hoped, was trying to outrun some rain.



The clouds I was running away from


Riding along 0 Avenue. This sits right on the border of the US and Canada. I often see the US Border Patrol doing their rounds here.

Final ride the river was really calm

Finally got some sun




Finished!


Happy training to you all.

And for James and Ward, I tasted my new homebrewed IIPA this week. Not quite ready yet, will post some pics when it's ready.

Happy Training.

Changing Direction - kind of

Training has been going really well as of late and have been putting some big miles in on the bike. Being forced to spend more time on the bike coming back from my injury has made me realize something. I really like to ride my bike. As swimming is not coming along as quickly as I would like and my local Y is raising their rates next week I have decided to change the direction of my training for the rest of the year. I am still going to be racing the Subaru Vancouver Sprint race on July 12th. But after that I am going to put my focus into my riding for the rest of the summer with the aim of completing a Century in August and the Mt. Baker Hill Climb in September.

I will not be taking a break 100% from Tri-training as I will continue to build up my base on the swim. Right now I am only able to swim about 20 minutes without the arm going a bit floppy, so I will keep swimming twice a week. And on the run, my goal is to run a PR for the Seattle Half Marathon in November, so I will definitely still be running lots. I will just not be focused on any tri's. Although, I am a little bummed about this I think it really help me for 2010 as the bike and run are definitely the two areas I need the most work on.



The last two weeks I have put in my second biggest and biggest day on the bike. Last week was 66 Miles and followed it up this week with 71.5 miles. Probably won't be pushing the distance too much for a couple more weeks but definitely will be putting in some big days. Next week I'm taking a couple of extra days off and going to hold my own individual mini camp. Should be fun.

Heading for the Hills

Taking a Hike

Switched things up in the training a bit this week. Instead of riding long on Monday decided to go for a hike. What a great hike it was. 8km roundtrip at 24.8% grade. It was a tough hike and the 8km roundtrip is quite deceiving. It took 3 hours to the top and 2hrs on the way down. It was quite warm, but at the higher elevations we still ran into some snow, and the lake at the top was still 85% frozen over. Other than that training has been going well and my swimming is starting to feel a little better. I learned that hardway on Friday not to push it though.

Some pics from the week.

The first bridge crossing. As you can see the original bridge was out of commission. This would be a theme.


Another crossing where there used to be a bridge. This was probably the sketchiest.


And the bridge. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to go over the creek, not into the creek.


We came upon a deer about halfway up, that just stood and watched us. Can you find it in the picture?


Starting to get excited about my first race this year in 5 weeks and am pretty sure I should be able to at least finish the swim.

Keep on keeping on.

Back in to Routine

So the last couple of months have been interesting. I have definitely lost some fitness, but am not too worried. I know it will come back. My training up to this point has not been what I am used to, and my motivation had been lacking. I realized the reason I was skipping workouts, was that they were not scheduled. I was just doing what I felt like, when I felt like it. And if I didn't feel like it, well I didn't do anything and that was happening a little too often. So I developed an Annual Training Plan, assuming I will be ready to go, and now have a weekly schedule to follow. So far this week so good.




Today was my first day back in the pool in almost 4 months. I was really worried about how that was going to go, but I'm glad to report it went well. A little slow, but no pain. Some tightness for sure but that is to be expected. I'll build up for the next couple of weeks and hopefully be back with the Master's group by mid-june.

Crazy story, as I was out for a ride on Monday afternoon, in the middle of nowhere really, I come around a bend and see a police car, a cube van and half a dozen officers in full swat gear. They had the ram out and looked to be about to bust the door down. I tried to get out of there quickly, but not without a quick shot over the shoulder. It's small but you can see one officer.


Lastly, I've taken up a new hobby of Homebrewing. I enjoy microbrewed beer so why not make my own. My first batch is a Pale Ale and on Monday I tried it for the first time, a little early, but it was still delicious.



Enjoy the Ride