Good Times, Bad Times...Queue the Zeppelin

Fitness testing....Always an interesting time.  It is a race against yourself.  The results can be motivating whether good or bad, or they can be disappointing.  I ran through both on Saturday.  Jaime and I joined some of our teammates for our first AeT run test of the year. The test basically measures how aerobically fit you are.  Your times/mile should come down as you gain fitness. 

So, the test goes like this:  Warm up for a couple of miles, then run 2-4 miles (25-30 mins depending on your speed) right at your AeT heart rate.  Take your average for the test miles and that is your AeT pace that you can use to establish how fast you should be running depending on the goals of a particular workout.  Last year I tested at around 7:40/mile at roughly this time last year.  This year...8:15.  There is the "bad time" of the weekend.  Clearly it was quite a disappointment, as I feel like I have been running much better in regular training sessions.  I do think my HR monitor was off, but no excuses, there is work to be done.

Next test, later that afternoon was a swim test.  After some warming up and some sets to build up to faster paces, you do a 100M time trial, a 200M time trial, and a 400M time trial, with some easy recovery swimming between the tests.  Thankfully this one went much better with PR's at all distances (1:20, 2:52, 6:03).  Good Times.

While one result was disappointing, and another was the highlight of the week, they both serve as great motivators.  On the one hand it is clear that I have work to do to get my run back to where it should be.  On the other hand, what I am doing swimming is showing some big improvements, which makes me want to keep going to the pool and working hard.

Good time # 2.  Jaime and I went to a paleo dinner party hosted by our teammate Chris and his wife Amy, and also joined by our friends Cody and Kathy.  The food was amazing; butternut squash latkes, curried shrimp and scallops, prosciutto wrapped asparagus and paleo ice cream!  Not a thing made from cows or grains anywhere, and it was delicious.  Definitely the best paleo meal of the week for both of us.

He was there, I saw him...

We finished off the week with what was looking like a great group ride over at Lookout Mountain.  We had about 12-15 people show up, which always makes things more fun.  The weather was warm, but there were some pretty strong winds.  By the time we got to the top of lookout the clouds had rolled in dropping the temperature by what felt like 20 degrees and the wind was just honkin'.  After a really sketchy descent, we all decided to hightail it back to the cars and call it a good day with just one climb.  More good times; Jaime set new power records for every duration between 1 minute and 90 minutes today.  The power agent software tracks all of the data you upload from your powertap and keeps track of your best power for given time periods.  During today's ride she beat every one of those records.  Someone is getting faster...fast!  Good times indeed.

I will start closing my posts with my favorite training song of the week, and if I can find anything motivating, funny, or otherwise interesting I be sure to share it.

Favorite song this week was:  Good Times Bad Times - Led Zeppelin (didn't see that coming?)


Motivating....I don't know, but I want to go ride here in August.  Author Credit: Tom Mozer


CDT behind Alberta Peak near Wolf Creek Pass, Co; http://www.mountainflyermagazine.com/

Where the hell did January go?

Lactate threshold test with coach Cody Waite from EPC Multisport

It is pretty hard to believe that January is already over. Maybe because this January really felt like March or April. Trust me, I'm not complaining. It has been a fun first month of the year. Training kicked back up just after the new year. There were some initial tests to establish how much fitness was lost during the off season, then it was time to build it back up.

Jaime and I have both been having a great time with our team's Tuesday/Thursday trainer workouts. The weekends have been really nice, so we have been outside getting our trail runs in at Bear Creek Park on Saturdays and our long road rides in on Sundays. Even swimming is more fun this year now that we have switched gyms to Wheat Ridge Rec Center. So far we have both had a decent start to the year, so I hope we can keep the momentum going.


 
Right now we are in a recovery week, which worked out well because I had a 2.5 day offsite for work in Vail. Good times were had by all. I got in a half day of skiing with some friends from work, and we all charged pretty hard for about 4 hours. I had some nice spills as I was embarrassingly rusty. I have the slight whiplash to take home as a souvenir. All in all, it was a good time.