1/19 - 1/25

Mondays are always days off

Tue 1/20 - Swim 12x50m 15-30s rest
- took me about 18 minutes... maybe... I'm not really sure. Tried to stay nice and easy, but I still was running out of breath... not good.

Wed 1/21 - Run :30 w/accels
- 5mph, 2 incline... 4 0:20 bursts up to 7mph. Was probably zone 3.

Thu 1/22 - Bike :45
- exercise bike, 45 minutes on easy. I plan to get some skinny tires for my cross bike, and I think I may get a trainer too so I can get more used to riding it rather than riding my exercise bike.

Fri 1/23 - Swim 6x100m, then 6x50m
- well, I strained my upper back on my left side sometime today... not sure what I did. I went to go swim anyway, hoping it would loosen up... but it just hurt. Ended up stopping after 5x100m. I was struggling without even considering the back really... finding 100s tough still... that is not good at all.

Hopefully my back feels better in the morning because I want to go skinning and hopefully riding tomorrow. I think I will start from the gate at Lockett Meadow road and practice skinning, see how fast I can go to see how far I could expect to go reasonably.

Sat 1/24 - Brick Bike :15 Run :15-:30
- I did not do this... instead I went splitboarding for 1:40 (probably 1:30 of that struggling to go uphill). I think that was enough for the day.

Sun 1/25 - Bike 1:30-2:00
- I put my new skinny tires on my bike, and setup my new bike computer last night and this morning. Struggled with the computer (not easy to stabilize a round sensor on my oval fork)... but at least I got it working and pretty stable.
Drove out to Lake Mary road, with the plan to do the 1:30 ride. It was 40 degrees and quite windy, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to ride at all. Parked at the long pull-off before upper Lake Mary, and took off on the bike. I wasn't too bad, except my hands were freezing. I had brought the fleece liners to my snowboarding mittens, but I didn't put them in my backpack... so I had to turnaround and fetch them out of the car. After that I was almost comfortable except my head and ears were pretty cold from the wind. Also I hate those stupid ear-bud things for my iPod, but don't know a good alternative for exercising (I greatly prefer the big over the ear "cans").
After about 20 minutes of riding time (yay, bike computer)... I was already getting pretty tired. Not sure it was my wind, or my legs or what, but I was losing momentum quickly. I stopped a bit and took a break, trying to warm up my ears with my gloves... and decided to just call that good and head back (still had to make it back to the car anyway). So I turned around and rode back to the car... best part of the ride was the real small downhill right before getting back to the Lake Mary Store, I managed to wind up to 25 mph for about 5 seconds...haha. Anyway, in total I rode a bit over 9 miles, averaging 13.5 mph for 40 minutes.
After this, I need to reevaluate my training plan here... and event plan for that matter. There are 3 triathlons in Phoenix in March that I was thinking of doing (they are part of a series if I understand right)... but right now I'm not sure that is a good idea. I think I need to back up and restart slower, and build up some base fitness (what the books call it). If I continue this way I'm afraid I will either hurt myself, or just get very frustrated with lack of endurance... or both. I have 2 weeks before the Flapjack Flats Time Trial that I was to do... I think I will try to focus on putting a lot of "easy" miles in on the bike rather than mixing up with running and swimming. Maybe just exercise bike an hour every day or something (real bike when I can)... I'm not sure what to do really.