T26 - Hit the Groun Biking - Bike/Swim

Sacramento

Going on about an hour and a half of sleep, I got to my dad's house in Sac around 1. I was informed that we were going to a baseball game at 6:30, and that my niece Emily was especially excited that I was going. Well, much as I hate little kids, Emily is the one on Earth I actually like, and I didn't want to disappoint her. So, I sacked up and took my Dad's bike out on the American River trail.

Bike: 120 Minutes

2 Lipodrene
Dads are funny sometimes. I asked my dad to use his bike, which is actually nicer than mine with Ultegra componentry and a lighter frame (carbon or aluminum or whatever the ligher one is that mine is not). It also has three rings, but fuck it, I'm not using it for a race. Anywhay, I had to pump up the tires and in the process I managed to snap a valve off one of them. No problem, I change out the tube and put in a new one. But I can't figure out how to use my dad's pump and use a hand pump instead. I made the mistake of telling this to my dad, who then says "No, I'll show you, it's easy to use the pump," and proceeds to let all the air out of the front tire so he can re-pump it showing me how to use the bigger pump. In the process, he snaps the valve stem off this tube, theoreticaly forcing me to change the tire AGAIN. Fortunately, he opted to just switch it out with the front tire on my step-mom's bike, a wheel that cost something like $300, and take this one to the bike shop. It was nice.

My dad's bike rode a a lot faster than mine, and the shifting on that compontentry makes my bike feel like a Carmenghia going up a hill. But the 3-ring setup made going up hills in the big ring harder for some reason. Or maybe it was just the 2 hours of sleep. Because he did not have a computer on it (I believe I was the last person to use it LAST summer) I had no idea how fast I was going or how long I'd been out there. Also, this trail doesn't offer a lot of shade, so the ride was fairly warm at 2:30 in the afternoon. Not so tough without my shade, I guess. I also was not a fan of not being able to drop into aero at all, as that path has some great spots for it. The change of scenery on the ride was nice, and even though I got a little lost, I remembered a lot of the path from last year. Also, without the humidity I can make it on a little less water, which is nice.

Swim: wu: 500
main: 15 x 100, RPE 4-5, concentrate on smooth and efficient rather than
all-out speed

Had a couple of Gatorades and another Lipodrene and headed over to the outdoor pool at Rio Del Oro (that's River of Gold for you non-Spanish speakers) Raquet and Tennis club. Its a fun spot to find upper-middle class Sacramento Milfs, and their daughters home from college for the summer. Sadly, none were in the outdoor pool. It was also really cool to swim outdoors on a cloudless, 86 degree evening rather than indoors in Gainesville.

I liked the instructions on this training day, since it said to focus on being steady rather than all out. I'm all about steady, moderate effort. It's sort of the theme of my life.

Anyway, I skipped the warmup for the sake of time, which I definitely noticed on the first 4 or 5 100s. But the rest went solid and I cactually took less recovery time at the end between sets than I was at the beginning. I'm starting to think I need to consider warmups part of the workout more. But whatever. The swim went well, and I made it to the ballgame.