Blog

Broken?

This was supposed to be a post about the new ocean swim workout I did on Friday and about the great long brick I did yesterday and about the 4th of July and about the fact that it’s nine weeks until the Ironman. Instead, it’s going to open with my probably broken right pinky toe. Dammit!

We bought a dining room table (finally) but I’m not used to it being in the dining room, so this morning after my ride I guess I mis-judged the space between it and the wall and stubbed my toe BADLY on the wall. This picture just doesn’t do it justice:

(sorry if the picture was too gross)
It’s badly bruised at the base of the toe (arrow) and there’s another nice bruise extending about 2 inches down my foot (circled, you can’t really see it, but trust me it’s there). It hurts to put pressure on it. I’m icing it and buddy taping it to the next toe and trying to keep it elevated. Thankfully I don’t have a run scheduled until Tuesday night, so I don’t feel any pressure to run on it right away, but Tuesday’s going to come quick and given it’s condition right now, I’m worried that it will be longer than that before I can get back on it.

Anyway…

Up until I jammed my toe, it was a good first week of July. This was a high volume training week (even with Monday off, it was 16 hours), with some good, long runs, swims in the pool and ocean and a little over nine hours on the bike. I am (or was) feeling good and pain free and ready for one more big week before heading off to Death Valley next Saturday for Badwater. I’ll be in Death Valley/Mt. Whitney from Saturday until Wednesday night and will be pretty busy during that time – and without a bike or a pool – so that was scheduled to be a recovery week. Either way, I’m still hoping that I’ll be able to at least have a big swimming and cycling week before I go.

I did a new ocean swim workout last Friday. It was a coached workout, led by Gerry Rodrigues, the masters swim coach at UCLA. It was a good, intense workout. It was 90 minutes, with about an hour of swimming, a bunch of running on the sand between sets and not a lot of time standing around. It was a good workout that I’ll attend again. While exiting from one of the first swims I got knocked over by a wave and lost my goggles; I figured my workout was over. Thankfully, a stranger (Keith) offered to loan me a extra goggles that he had in his bag. Thank you Keith for saving my workout! I’ll be sure to pay that one forward.

LA Tri Ocean Speed Circuit – July 1
Distance: 2,500 yards (5 laps)
Time: 47 minutes
Conditions: Rough and tumble! Warm water.

Run – July 1
Distance: 2.5 miles
Time: 20 minutes
Course: Santa Monica
Conditions: Cloudy, mid-60’s

Run – July 2
Distance: 11.5 miles
Time: 1:30
Average heart rate: 149
Course: West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Hollywood
Conditions: Sunny, 70’s

Indoor Bike – July 2
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 118

Ocean Swim – July 3
Distance: ~3,500 yards
Time: 1:30
Details: Coached swim, 10 min. warm-up run, 12 min. warm-up swim, 4×600 yards with short runs between, 3×200 yards

Brick – July 4
Total Time: 6:08
Bike:
Distance: 75 miles
Time: 4:48
Average heart rate: 119
Bike course: PCH, up Decker, down Encinal, up Latigo, down Kanan Dume, PCH back
Transition Time: 4:45
Run:
Distance: 8.75 miles
Time: 1:16 minutes
Average heart rate: 128
Run course: San Vicente through Santa Monica and Brentwood
Conditions: Early (6:30am) start, a bit cloudy and low 60’s to start, but burned off and got into low 70’s and sunny by end

Bike – July 5
Distance: 43.6 miles
Time: 2:30
Average heart rate: 122
Course: Griffith Park, LA River
Conditions: Sunny, high 60’s