Awesome Training Ride!

Such a great training ride today - 11 miles in 55 minutes, a vast improvement over last week's ride.  I was pretty pleased, as this is only my second ride outside this year and really my first outdoor training ride because last week was more experimental than anything else.  I attribute the improvement to having fully inflated tires and using my cycling shoes with clipless pedals instead of my usual sneakers.  The shoes really make a difference, especially when going uphill - I get more power out of each stroke.  Riding outdoors is also less abusive to my butt - my bike seat is nice and soft, and my bike has good shocks so I don't feel the bumps.  Far preferable to the pain after spin class!

After today's ride I'm starting to think of goal times for the SheRox Tri in August - previously I was just hoping to finish but now I'm hoping for more - I want to not finish last!   

I looked up race times for my age group from previous years, and it looks like finish times range from 1.5-3 hours.  I'd be OVERJOYED with a finish time of 2.5 hours.  I think this is possible - if I do the swim in 25 minutes, the bike in 75 and the run in 40, plus 5 minutes each for T1 and T2 (since this is my first tri I'm assuming I'll be a total spaz in transition) that's a total of 2.5 hours.  Right now I can swim 900 yards in the pool in 25, and today's ride time was a 12 mph pace, which puts me at 75 min.  At this point I could probably manage 45 minutes for the 5K so I definitely need some work there.  And of course I need to account for being tired after each leg of the race!  But that's what training is for, right?

After a calorie-heavy lunch of whole wheat rotini, pesto, pine nuts and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, I'm off to do some yard work to burn off some energy.  Today Ken and I are assembling our compost bins, cutting the lawn, cleaning up the yard and planning out the garden.  Hoping to grill some buffalo burgers later today, YUM!