Tri Class #20: Bike/Run Lagoon Drive

Short Version:
4 laps up and down Lagoon Drive on the bike. Two easy, two as hard as you can go.
20 minute out and back run.

Long Version:
Monday night was great! I really need to take note of what I ate today, and when I ate it because I had loads of energy.

We started off with an easy warm-up ride up and down Lagoon Drive (~4 miles rt). Next, we did it again, this time in a pace line. A fairly low speed, so I wasn't even puffing. It was a beautiful day and I had a hard time not getting distracted and watching the paddlers in the water.

Now we were told to do two laps, riding as if we were in a race. No drafting. Keep at least 3 bike lengths behind the person in front of you and if you go to pass, it must be done within 15 seconds.

This went really well. I practiced keeping the distance, and seeing how hard it was to pass someone within 15 seconds. At one point, I'm not sure I did it in that time, but it would have been close.

I learned that there's one girl in our group who I can't let get too far in front of me. She would really kick butt going with the wind, but I would gain on her going into the wind. I just let her get too far ahead and ran out of room to catch her. I was trying really hard, but to no avail. A little more effort upfront will be needed next time. At least nobody passed me and I did manage to pass a few people.

I thought I put everything I had into the bike, and as I rode slowly back to the car, I was dreading the run. It was only a 20 minute out-and-back, but still. I put my bike away and pulled on my running shoes. With a groan, I trotted away at a pace that could barely be called jogging.

By five minutes into it, I was feeling somewhat better and had slowly started to pick up the pace. At the 11 minute mark, I was feeling pretty good and turned around at the same time as another runner from our group pulled near. He had gone out a little further than I, but we headed back together, planning to finish the return in 9 minutes.

As we went along, he picked up the pace, and I stayed with him. This trend continued, slowly escalating. Around one minute out, we were even with each other and really pushing hard. It turned into a race, and I WON! Normally, I wouldn't gloat, but this is the same guy who passed me on the run during the mini-triathlon over at Kapiolani Park. This was very sweet.

Afterwords people commented on how fast we were going on our way back. The fellow I ran with told me that he thought one day I would be a very fast runner. He said there are other distances than the marathon, and I would probably be really good over a 5 or 10k. To someone else, that might seem like a back-handed compliment, but I think it was well meant, and I really appreciated it. Considering nobody would have ever said that to me just five months ago, I'm ecstatic. It's another sign that I really am getting stronger.