Last weekend was my first appearance of a Build #2 workout with the team. I’ve always somehow managed to be out of town since the first of it this season – Monterey for a company party, and also Texas for the Austin Marathon. A quick rundown of what happened – Friday, met up with teammates Jeff and Val at the Equinox down the street from work, 3,800 yards. Whew! Saturday a minimum 4 hour bike ride & 30 minute run. Sunday, run another 11 hilly miles, then more swimming.
Saturday
We met up at our usual spot in Santa Monica spot, Ocean/San Vicente, and our route was simple – head north on PCH for 2 hours, then head back. Since it’s a build week, this was my opportunity to push it and see where I compare to last year. Alumni was supposed to spin up and add 2mph for 15 minutes, then back to normal pace, but after a few hours I lost track. Out of the gate, we did a fairly high cadence but high speed warmup for 30 minutes. Took a while to get into rhythm, but eventually averaged out to a 25mph range. Attacked the flats, and was smart going uphill. At one point, my teammate Donovan, Jasmine, and I hit about 43mph on a downhill! A new PR! (42 was last year). I made it out to Las Posas, pretty much where the regular roadway of PCH ends and becomes a full on highway, so I took the exit and headed east. I even saw At the 2 hour mark, I was near the Camarillo area. On the way back though, there were some MAJOR headwinds, and my speed was about 14-16mph. Legs were burning by the time I hit “Big Rock”, a part on PCH where you bike in between two large cliff-like rocks. The headwinds were so strong that the second half ran 20 minutes more. I was looking at my GPS watch near the end and really wanted to get to 80, but 79.82 at 4:22 was the final tally. A teammate who did the exact same route as me said he did 80.1, so I’ll take take that! Oh, but the workout wasn’t over. Out to a hilly Amalfi to do 15 minutes out and back.
Sunday
Not to get into details, but I was invited out Saturday night to go have a beer. Oh, sure, I’ll come hang out for ONE beer, then head home early to sleep. Ummm… that always never happens, and didn’t end up getting home until 2am! Woke up at around 7:30 for an 9am run. Leisurely got out of bed, wanting to make a big breakfast, looked at my phone… NOOOOOOO it was 8:30am!! Did I just time travel?!? We had to Spring Forward an hour and I totally forgot about it!! Good thing I live pretty close to practice, but I didn’t have breakfast. A big no-no! Got some Gu and headed out the door.
The route was our infamous Amalfi Loop, which takes us around the Palasades and Santa Monica. 3/4 uphill, but after one loop reverse it. It actually became my new favorite run route because it’s a great variety of hills, flats, and terrain. Score! I hope we get to do this again! I was so spent by the time I got home, became super lazy on the couch, but I really needed to get a swim in. I was on a time crunch because I had to make it to a Drag Queen Bingo Fundraiser in WeHo’s Hamburger Mary. I swam for an hour, so I ended up doing 2,200 out of the scheduled 3,800. Better than nothing, but my shoulder was feeling a little sore, so I needed to lay low on that a little.
Overall, probably one of the toughest IronTEAM weekend workouts to date, and it brings back memories of last year’s hard workouts. Very challenging, but feels very rewarding. It made my recovery week so much sweeter though… love those!
So, what do you think ?