It has been a cold Spring here in Saratoga, but I didn’t let that slow me down. This month has been fun but exhausting, with training peaking with a 22 hour training week. Cycling volume has gone up appropriately, while I’ve been able to more or less maintain the great progress made this winter in swimming and running.
At the beginning of April, the Monument Masters swim team in Bennington hosted their annual open meet. It was great to get to the pool to see some old training friends and kids I used to coach. It was time to hop up on the blocks for some fast pool swims. There were relays and sprints, but my focus was on swimming the fastest 500 freestyle possible. The previous year, I swam the event in 5:59, so the goal was to lower that mark. I dove in, put my head down, and worked as hard as I could. The opening hundred split was 1:05, then I settled into a great rhythm at 1:11-12 for the remaining splits. I touched the wall in 5:52, and couldn’t be happier with the result. Even amidst the heavy cycling, the work done with Dave Luscan’s Finding Freestyle program had paid off and I was swimming my fastest since leaving college. My best 1.2 mile wetsuit swim is 26 minutes in 2015, and this swim restored my faith in my ability to match that or swim even quicker the triathlon season.
The Delmar Dash, a fast and flat 5 mile road race, took place in the middle of the month. The timing was awful, with training volume being highest in the build up to Wildflower. The day before the race included 3.5 hours on the bike, a short run, and a short swim, so when I got up to run on Sunday morning, I thought there was no way I’d be able to get the kind of run out of my legs that I wanted. Surprise! The legs went, my fastest mile was 5:27, and slowest was 5:38. I hit the 5k point in 17:06, a new personal best, but more work to do! I held onto the guys I was running with for as long as possible, but they had much better kicks in that last half mile and left me in the dust. When I crossed the line in 28:02 though, I had nothing to complain about. It was a 30+ second personal best for 5 miles! Just goes to show you, when you feel slow and sluggish, that doesn’t mean you have to be slow and sluggish.
Confidence has been inspired, and just in time for the first triathlon of the season. This Thursday I will fly out to California for the Wildflower Triathlon, and I couldn’t be more excited. My last bike workout featured 3 x 30 minute intervals on 3 minutes rest, and 270 watts never felt easier. I don’t need that sort of power on the 56 mile course, but I’m confident that I can hold 240-50 and come off the bike with some good running legs. I cannot wait to tell you all how this race goes, so keep your eyes peeled for an update on Facebook (Tim Russell Pro Triathlete) or Instagram (@timbikerun). Thanks for reading and enjoy the warming weather!
