Rough totals from Garmin Connect (some activities didn’t transfer properly and a few times my Garmin Forerunner had trouble):

• Count: 57 activities
• Distance: 791.14 mi
• Time: 77:26:32 hh:mm:ss
• Elevation Gain: 57,121 ft
• Avg Speed: 10.2 mph
• Avg Heart Rate: 143 bpm
• Avg Run Cadence: –
• Avg Bike Cadence: 75 rpm
• Calories: 64,059 C

It has been a great season overall — even with the pain from back problems and even with the countless hours of running, biking and swimming….

Sunday morning at The Shores

Met up at The Shores at 8:30 am for one last long swim since we are now starting our taper to Vineman.  The day started out as what it has become typical of late — overcast skies and coolish temperatures.   Only a few of us showed up to brave the morning after the long 4th of July celebrations.

The conditions were pretty good.  Not very much chop and gentle swells.  We made our way to the water and initially it felt a bit cool.  Soon we were making our way to the 1/2 mile buoy as our goal as to swim at least a mile.

I was able to get into a decent rhythm and it was nice to be out in the water. Though I am not a fast swimmer, I as able to keep a decent pace all the way to the marker.  Once we reached the 1/2 mile marker, we decided to go to the 1/4 mile marker — which is 1/4 mile out from The Cove — for a distance out of 3/4 of a mile or so.

The sun came out just as we started on the leg back and it made the swim very pleasant.  700 or so strokes later and I was back on The Shores. With that extra 1/2 mile of distance, we ended up swimming longer than race distance and I was happy that I felt pretty good overall.

Being that running isn’t my strongest activity and that I have been suffering quite a bit with the long runs, I didn’t expect to do anything special on this run.  In the past, I tended to average the 10K in about 66 minutes or about a 10:40/mi pace.  But on this race I was feeling pretty good and I paced myself with some slightly faster runners.  The end result was that I maintained a 9:33/mi pace and completed the 10K in 59:53 — my first time completing a 10K under an hour!  It was great to set a new PR!

The ride was an inner-coastal ride.  Starting near the coast, but heading east and then north to Rancho Santa Fe.  3 notable hills to climb, but nothing we haven’t already ridden previously.

The ride was at a decent clip — under 2 hours when you take away sag stops and traffic lights.  And the 2000′ of climbing tends to slow things down a bit as well.

During the ride a teammate convinced me to run in the SROP 10K tomorrow so I decided to cut the brick short and only did 2 miles.

The course started at the east end of Los Pensaquitos Canyon, and we rode inland to Pomerado, then north to Rancho Bernardo. Then a cruise through Fairbanks Ranch, and back to Los Pensaquitos by taking the 56 bike path.  A fun route with some rolling hills.  

It was drizzling at the meet-up point.  We debated if it was going to burn off or get worse, but Trent decided that we will go ahead with the ride.  The roads were somewhat slick with a light misting so we had to be extra careful and avoid the paint whenever possible.  At the second stop light, I ended up with a slow-motion-can’t-unclip-fast-enough fall because my chain came off the sprocket.   Not a great way to start the ride, but it was the first time that I had fall this season.  Once I got my chain back on and checked over everything, I was back on the ride.

Once we were a little bit in-land, things dried out a bit.  It would have been nice but we managed to get stuck at nearly every stoplight on Pomerado.  Once we crossed back over to the west side of IH-15, we into the drizzle again which stuck with us for the rest of the ride.

After the ride, we hit the trails for a run.  Goal was 60 minutes or more.  Since it was drizzling, it was cool and made for a nice, but somewhat muddy run.  

In all, just over 41 miles with 2500′ of climbing on the bike in 3 hr 9 min and 6.2 miles on the run in 1 hr 10 min.

Bike: Elevation versus Heart Rate

Run: Elevation versus Heart Rate

Since we do spin at La Jolla High School, we are just at the bottom of Mt Soledad, which has many nice bike climbs, ranging from a slow climb to a very intense steep ride on Via Capri.  The bonus is the wonderful view of San Diego when you reach the top!

I elected to do two repeats up Mt Soledad by way of Nautilus as this was a mid-week ride and the ride this weekend is going to be brutal. The first climb didn’t seem as difficult as I expected and I didn’t max out my HR on the trip up, which was a good sign for me.  I did get close to max on the second climb, but I was already working hard and was expected.

8.85 miles in total for both climbs, which is comparable to the milage I usually get during spin, and the time for both loops was 50 minutes.  Plus with 1350′ of climbing, it was a good choice for tonight.

As for swim, I didn’t go to because of work.

Here is the summary data and elevation profile from Garmin Connect.

I felt good overall, and even climbed up inside of Torrey Pines and  didn’t come close to max HR like I normally do.  

I am now using Garmin Connect to upload my training profiles, which plots the routes against Google Maps instead of the more basic mapping in Garmin Training Center.  I occasionally used MotionBased.com, but uploading to the site was always hit or miss.  Connect seems more reliable and has less issues uploading data from my Forerunner 305 and Garmin is migrating away from MotionBased anyway.

Ran almost 7 miles along Lake Hodges.  It was a typical warm and sunny San Diego afternoon so I was looking forward to enjoying the quiet but scenic route. Recently the the new pedestrian/bike bridge over the lake was completed, so it is now easy to get to the north shore of the lake from Rancho Bernardo park.  Wanting to check out the bridge, I made my way to Bernardo Summit.

Most of the trails on the south side are wide and mostly dirt, but heading up Bernardo Summit was rocky and narrow.  It was a good climb, and I went up about 600′ up before I hit the halfway point of my run.  Next time I will go longer and head up to the top — if I can find the correct trail. My pace was slow on the way up, 12.5 min/miles, and I am not really fond of hills.  

The way down was much faster, I cruised down at at < 10 min/mile pace, which is great for me.  It might have been a bit too fast as near the bottom, my foot caught a rock and I fell forward.  Nearly a full face plant, but I managed to break my fall with my hands with only a few scrapes.

I neglected to bring my running shoes, so I did the track drills barefoot.  Fortunately, the track was rubberized so my feet didn’t get abused that much.

The strength drills left me wiped out for the swim.  My shoulders were sore and tired from the medicine ball drills and I struggled to get into a groove.  I ended up only doing about 1100 yards before I felt I was close to drowning.

My HR profile for the spin is getting better.  During one of the early bursts, I was able to get up to 160+ rpm and my HR didn’t jump extremely.  However, towards the end of the drills we were doing standing drills while increasing gears and cadence. My HR climbed because I was getting really tired.

Cadence vs HR