Tri Training

As planned, last Saturday was a bit of a tri-training day. The streets were soaked from Friday's rain but luckily Saturday's showers held off until we got our workout done, a bit of gardening in and fit in a post-lunch trip to the driving range.

I woke up, sans alarm clock, at 6:30am. I immediately switched my basal rate to 60% figuring we'd be out the door before 8am but wanting to give myself at least a bit of a buffer.

My BG was 8.0 when I checked in the kitchen. I had a banana and took a 0.70 unit bolus instead of the 3.0 units I would have had if I were not about to exercise. We laid out our shoes and running hats by the door and hopped on our bikes. Doug took the lead and I rode on his back wheel, or at least as close to his back wheel as I could without drowning from all the road spray he was kicking up.

We rode at a fairly good clip (25-28km/hour) for 46 minutes. My legs were feeling good and tired by the end which was perfect since that was the whole point of this exercise but also kinda scary because I knew I had to run 40 minutes as soon as we got home.

I pushed away the memory of the challenging tri run of the weekend before and reminded myself that the weather was nice and cool and I was one week further in my rehab training.

We got home, hopped off our bikes, changed into running shoes, pulled on our hats and were ready to run. I checked my BG again. It was 8.0. It hadn't moved an inch during the bike ride. I quickly weighted the pros and cons of having a gel and decided to risk a low instead of having a high. I hate running high.

Of course I kept the gel, and a few extra carbs, in my pocket just in case.

We headed out and, as promised, Doug ran a few steps behind and let me set my pace.

Problem is that I have a really hard time setting a pace after riding. The first kilometre was done in 5:44 which is way faster than the 6:15ish pace that I was running before my injury and the 6:25ish pace I've been running lately.

I tried to slow down without slowing down too much. I was panting and felt a headache brewing - probably from lack of oxygen. Slow down, slow down, slow down.

The second kilometre was done in 5:59. Still crazy. Still panting. Beginning to wonder if I could do the whole 40 minutes or whether I should cut it down to 30.

The third felt harder, as it should after the pace I had been running and it was done in 6:03.

Halfway through the fourth, we turned around. My plan was to run 40 minutes and I was sticking to it. Our pace slowed a bit with the stop and turn move and the fourth kilometre was 6:19. That should have been a relief since that's more of my typical pace but I saw the 'high' number and got a second wind...and felt my stubborn side kick in.

Now that we were on the way home, I decided to stop trying to slow down and, instead, try to maintain the faster pace I had set. There was only one way to find out and it's not like I had to worry about tiring Doug out.

Kilometres 5 and 6 were 6:06 and 6:05 respectively.

A 6.38 kilometers, my watch read 40 minutes. I was supposed to stop running and walk the last few hundred metres home. That was the original plan anyway.

Instead I decided to see what 7k would look like at the pace I had been running.

The last kilometre took 5:59 and the total for the run was 42:14.

Last week's 7.5k run took 55 minutes which means that 7k probably took about 51 minutes.

I ran 7k in 42 minutes on Saturday. After I cycled hard for 46 minutes.

My BG at the end? Have running that crazy pace and worrying through most of it about having a low?

6.7

That, my friends, is pretty much a perfect workout.

And I feel much much better about the Olympic tri that is now less than two weeks away.