Easy warm up and still felt tired but the TT went really well! The wind was all over the place. Had a slight tail wind at one part of the course and then a head wind at another. overall the wind was probably on my side.

4km Time Trial

1) 7:50- started in small chain ring like I did a month ago but it was way to easy a gear. Avg cadence was around 100-105. Avg Speed 30.64kph.

took my time to fully recover before doing it again.

2)7:38- started in large chain ring 19 on rear. Avg cadence 90-95. Felt a lot better. avg speed 31.4kph. Nice to go flying by a group ride of about 6 people just taking it easy.

Pervious best of 8:02 on Jan 13, 2008. 

I have also finally gotten around to dropping my handle bars about 3mm. Feels good. Still need to work on my seat so its a bit more comfortable.

Swim was cut short because I didn't plan my time well today. Also dropped the pace way down to work on breathing every 3rd stroke and to work on my new pull. Breathing on the left is really uncomfortable and reaching farther above water seems to get everything out of alignment. Right shoulder is sore slightly from only breathing on that side for so long :)

Good workout day before my trip. Glad everything worked out.

BRUTAL BRUTAL BRUTAL. So last week's club ride was the best... This one was the WORST. Got a flat 3 minutes in. someone else had major pedal issues and had to bail. I lost my chain once. AND we Rode out to Whitecliff park. Legs were SCREAMING the whole time. Our club jacket is to warm and I overheated and got dehydrated. I was COOKED by the time we reached the north shore. HR was way to high the whole ride. there was only 4 of us and I got dropped pretty quick. 2 women went off and Connie was kind enough to stay back with me. "Just grab onto my wheel and hang on close" she said. That's what I did. Found some energy after a break at the community center and the ride down and back up from Whitecliff felt good. Then just flat out died on the way back. Connie turned around at one point to see where I was, I was able to use the downhills to reel the other two women in again and damn near caught them before dying on another hill. As connie passed she asked "how you doing? you gonna make home" I answered: "my legs keep pedalling. I'll make it." But man was it a battle. crawled over the lions gate bridge and wanted to enjoy myself so pushed hard on the stanley park down hill. Parted the group and basically CRAWLED home.

I MADE IT!!! I MADE IT!!! I MADE IT!!!! Had several moments of, maybe I should just turn around but determination kept me going. I stayed in a positive mood. It SUCKED but I was still smiling. I rode all the way home (no catching the bus for me). And riding Connie's wheel was great practice at riding close and just staying focused. Really proud that I stayed determined and just kept going. Recognizing that we all have days like today but what matters is whether you suck it up and finish it or let it finish you. I sucked it up and finished!!!

Lessons Learned:
1) club jacket is to hot for 9 degrees and hill work.
2) Cytomax helped cause I was roasting and sweating. Perhaps just cytomax, instead of one bottle of water and one bottle of Cyto.
3)make friday's my rest day again so I am charged for the club rides
4) talking about connie about how my good days were so good and my bad days were so bad she mentioned it happened a lot when she first started racing. "It's a matter of base and just getting those base miles in which takes time" So this makes since since I have literally only been building an endurance base since August.

Swam with the triathlon club for the first time today. It was good. Actually got me to do a full swim workout again! Coach told me to reach more above water so I focused on that. It threw my stroke off. Felt like I was rotating a lot and kind of all over the place (I blame my massive hangover). my swimming endurance has dropped a bit and was feeling out of breath a lot but I may also have been swimming faster do to swimming with people but I forgot my watch. got tired around 1200 but pulled it out. did the west coast trail drill where you swim in groups of 4, five seconds apart and over each 50 meters, who ever is last has to sprint and take the first persons spot. My sprint felt AWESOME!

ANOTHER MENTAL HURDLE CONQUERED!!! nice to get aback to swimming longer after being a wimp the last two weeks. the outdoor pool is AWESOME! only three people in a lane who actually know how to lane swim... AWESOME. Going helped me stick with a workout and put the pool time in.

I conquered 4th ave! the last hill in my area that I was scared of, And as usual. Not that bad. Just went slow and didn't even need to drop into my easiest gear to keep a 70 cadence. Went down SW marine in my big ring the whole time. Standing on the small hills. Took it easier on the way back. Put the bike in the easiest gear and spun up dunbar hill at 95-100 cadence (harder than it sounds). Hit headwinds along the beach and suddenly felt like my energy was spent. turned off Jericho hill and went up arcadia to do a few mor short steep hills that I needed to stand on. Tired now.

I think my chicks club kit has super powers!!!! Looking the part seems to make you ride better. Really enjoying the hill work this week. And its feeling easier to get my average speed up.

Chickened out on trying out the Tri Club swim practice. Starting having flashbacks of swim practice as a kid. Need to get over that and go on thursday!!