Blog

Group Workouts

Zero group training in four years, now two in 12 hours.

BRICK:

Last night I met up with the “World Famous” Tuesday Night Griffith Park Brick group for a long brick workout. The group meets at the LA Zoo parking lot at 5:30 on Tuesdays. Last night, we started with about 20 men and women and when the ride started, they shot out of the parking lot towards the LA River Bike Path, with the front group flying at a blazing fast speed of at least 26mph. I hung towards the back and even though I passed a bunch of people, there was no way I was catching the front group. At the end of the bike path (about 3.5 miles in), the group slowed to turn around and I caught up, but they took off again and since I started about 30 seconds behind them and they were riding in a pace group there was no way I was catching them. At about mile 9.5, the bike path ends and the climbing begins. The next part is a five mile climb up to the Griffith Park Observatory. It’s a moderate-to-steep route that requires a lot of time in high gears. The climb is car-free, which is great, but the road isn’t maintained very well, so there are some sizable pot holes, rough patches and places with thick sand. During the climb I caught some of the main group and then met up with the rest of them at the top. The descent is fun, but a bit hairy because of the curvy road and the crap conditions.

After getting back to the parking lot, the group re-grouped and after about a 10 minute wait for people to get ready, we were off on the 7.1 mile run. At this point there were only about eight of us, all guys. I’m not sure if there were others still behind us (I don’t think so) or if the rest bailed after the ride. The run was hard – and fast. It’s all on trails, but the first couple miles are on pretty loose sand. The first sand running I’ve done in years and I forgot how tough it is. There’s also a lot of climbing – about 1,200 feet according to one of the guys. It’s a beautiful run though, with great views of city and mountains to the south and east. The group mostly hung together for the first two or three miles but then a large pack split off the front. They were going faster than I was comfortable with, so I let them go. I ended up finishing the run with one other guy. We finished in about 57:30, which is about an 8 min/mile pace. With the hills and sand though, it felt more like we were going a full minute faster per mile! It was my longest run since Boston and the strongest effort I’ve given in a long time. Thankfully, I am still good running off the bike, even after a challenging effort.

It was different than most of my training, which has been long, steady, low heart rate efforts. The Ironman training requires that I do the lower intensity training and frankly I like that better these days, but pushing it once a week will be great for me. I met some pretty nice guys at the brick and will likely be back for some more of that pain in the coming weeks.

OCEAN SWIM:

After getting home and eating as much as possible as quickly as possible, I tried to catch a few hours of sleep before my 4:50 wake-up call to head to the beach for the LA Tri Club Wednesday Morning Ocean Speed Circuit. They set up two cones on the beach in Ocean Park about a hundred apart and you start at one cone, swim about 250 yards to a buoy, go around the buoy, and then swim back to the beach toward the second cone. Once out, you run across the beach to the starting cone and jump back in for another loop. Today I did four loops for about 2,000 yards.

I got to the beach at about 5:50 and met a couple of the guys from last night’s brick. A little later I found Cat and Jeff and hung out with them while we waited for the swim to begin. Today was a special event because Inside Tri magazine was there to take pictures for an upcoming feature. So they took a big group photo (I’m near the back in the middle) and then we were off. The water was great! I think it was about 63 degrees, which is plenty warm in my wetsuit. It didn’t even have that shocking feeling when I first got in. Probably a little too cold to go sans suit (for me, at least), but close. And it was very very calm. I finished my first loop and ran into Jeff on the beach, we ended up swimming together for each of the next three, which was really nice.

All in all, a great introduction to the LA Tri Club and to group training. After the last 12 hours, I’m glad to have the rest of the day off from training!

LA Tri Club Griffith Park Brick – May 19
Bike:
Distance: 21.3 miles
Time: 1:18
Average heart rate: 133
Transition Time: 9:11
Run:
Distance: 7.1 miles
Time: 57:30
Average heart rate: 155
Conditions: Evening, low 70’s/high 60’s, sunny and clear

LA Tri Club Ocean Speed Circuit
Distance: 2,000 yards (4 laps)
Time: 38 minutes
Water conditions: 63 degrees, calm