Jonnyo camp Day 5

Smartass coach had to go to an emergency meeting in Washington today, so it was officially Jonnyo camp today.

We arrived at the pool to Jonny explaining our swim set



As eager triathletes, we all ran to gear up and were ready for our swim in a jiffy!



Of course, being a former IMer in high school I was psyched to get in some quality fly:



But others in our group weren't so good, and Jonny had to lay the smack down on Will:



Then we ended the day with more triathlon swimming:



A quick change, a ton of food and an hour later and it was time for our ride. We were given strict instructions:

3 hour ride Zone 2 with
20 minutes low Zone 3
20 minutes high Zone 3
20 minutes low Zone 3

No drafting!

So we followed his instructions strictly with Khai as our fearless leader:




The funny thing about this pic, is that 8 miles down the road Khai actually broke the crank arm right off his bike! I told him he needs to take it easy... bikes can only safely hold so many watts!

But seriously, after we took this pic we were all off on our own for a 3 hour sufferfest. The sun was BRUTAL today and it was quite hot. And cranking out 1 hour of zone 3 work is quite a challenge when you're going long. But it was a challenge that I really wanted because I desperately wanted to guage my bike performance for Oceanside. The first 5 or so miles was easy zone 1 as we got to the highway and I decided that I was going to do my intervals at minutes 30-50 (low zone 3), 1:10-1:30 (high zone 3), and 2:10- 2:30 (low zone 3). As I started pushing I was amazed at how quickly my average speed was increasing. 16...17...17.5...18...18.5.... then the second interval....19...19.5... And then I had a goal- Get to mile 30 before I hit 1:30. That would put my average speed on the highway at about 21-22mph. I pushed the hell out of the second interval and just about tossed my Cliff Bar (I actually considered learning the art of hurling off the bike) when my odometer rolled over 30 miles right when the interval was over at 90 minutes. Yes!

But then I was spent! And when I turned around I hit a headwind. It really wasn't that bad, just a good gust every once in awhile to keep you honest. I had to will myself to do the third interval. I was so tired! And 2 minutes into the third Z3 I ran into Will who was chilling and told me how he just thought he was going to hurl as well. At least I'm not the only one!

I was SO happy to see the odometer roll past mile 56 with minutes to spare before 3 hours. Especially since the first 5 miles were easy. It shouldn't be too hard to do my half IM bike comfortably in under 3 hours if everything goes well. It's really hard to go through the winter putting in countless hours on the fluid trainer with absolutely no way to measure progress. Don't get me wrong- I'm no speed demon! I'm the slowest cyclist at the camp, but I have NO problems with that since I'm in such amazing company.

When we got back from the bike everyone was spent. Since Judy and I didn't have a run scheduled for the afternoon, we went out for huge burritos. We felt a little guilty for our indulgences so we went and took some pics of the guys on the run and served as a moving water station for big Will, our running buddy, and Andrea.

Then I ate more food.... 2 bowls of Captain Crunch Cereal (the healthy high fiber stuff has been a little too... um... high fiber for the camp), half a baguette, and a nectarine. I'm like a freaking eating machine. It's sick really. Don't anyone worry that I will waste away. I'm sure that I'll gain weight this week. But the last thing you need to do is let nutrition get behind you when you're in the middle of a 25-30 hour training week. I don't need to get sick before my race!

Bonus pic of the day... the start of our long run from yesterday. Paulo made us run it at Zone 5: