Bike Karma

For those that know me and my history of triathlons, you are no doubt familiar with my bad bike karma. Out of the 9 or so tris I've completed, I've had some sort of bike mechanical issue in at least 1/2 of them, usually in the form of a flat tire...or two...or three...or four (yep, 4 flat tires in one race isn't fun). I've never had a DNF, but I've been mentally and emotionally close to throwing my bike on the side of the road and walking home.

I bought a Kestrel bike last Fall. I actually bought it on e-bay and I LOVE it. We're still getting to know each other. Some days the bike feels great and other days it doesn't. The good news? I haven't had one flat tire! Of course, that's scary in itself because you know it will happen someday. Let's just hope it's not in a race. This morning I was scheduled to do a short 30 minute ride with a couple of pickups. I hopped on the bike this morning at 7am and it felt great. About 5 minutes into the ride, I heard something metal hit the ground, but I didn't know what it was. I just assumed that I ran over something. About 100 or so yards down the road. I stopped at a stop sign and my freaking seat fell to to the side!! It was hanging by one screw--barely!! Damn, if it's not one thing it's another with my bicycling. It wasn't just loose. This thing was hanging by a thread. I didn't want to quit 5 minutes into a measley 30 minute ride. I tighened the one good screw as much as I could with my fingers (I didn't bring any tools with me since it was such a short ride--grrr) and rode on a loose seat for the next 25 minutes. Today's bike workout turned out to be as much of a core workout than anything!

Let's hope my 45 minute swim is less eventful.

I decided to hit the pool around 12:15pm. I was scheduled to swim 45 minutes. At first I thought I would just hop in the pool and do an endurance swim for 45 minutes...no real speed, no real drills...just swim. I was exhausted after about 18 minutes :-) How is it that I can run for almost 4 hours straight, but can't swim more than 15 minutes? In any event, I abandoned the straight swimming idea as I could feel my form starting to break down a bit. I slowed it all down and began to work on some drills. Catch-Up (Touch-Pull-Roll), 3-6-3 kick/stroke. In between each drill, I would also swim a lap to work on the drill I had just completed. I spent the last few minutes with a little bit of speed work. I did 5 x 50s. It's not a lot, but I had them between 55 sec and 1 min consistently. I think it's a vast improvement from some previous times. I cooled down with a 200 swim for a total pool time of 42 minutes. I also have to point out the fact that I actually lapped the guy who was swimming in the next lane. I LAPPED SOMEONE!!! Granted, his form was the equivalent of a fish gasping for its last breath or Elaine from "Seinfeld" trying to dance under water, but I don't care. My body passed someone else's in the water! That's good enough for me today.

Nutrition:
8:30am apple on the way to work and a bottle of water
9:45 am Kashi/Uncle Sams, yogurt, blueberries, coffee and bottle of water with Crystal Lite
1:30pm Post-Swim Salmon Caesar Salad from Zax, couple of bites of brown rice (needed a carb fix), 1/2 cup of Kashi Mighty Bites, Can of Minute Maid Lite Lemonade (5 cals)

7:30pm (bad things happen when I don't eat every four hours or so) We had a "going away" celebration for our fellow runner/triathlete Jason who is moving to Seattle. After much debate, we ended up at a Mexican Restaurant called El Rey. I proceeded to eat way too many chips and also had 2 smoked chicken enchiladas (I scraped all the cheese off), refried beans and rice. I ate every morsel. I'm chalking it up to my "dietary cheat" meal. Actually, it probably wasn't horrible, but the only thing that resembled a vegetable of any kind was the salsa with which I was dipping my chips. I also didn't drink any alcohol and settled in for water and a diet coke. Let's just call it my 20-miler carb loading!