Another Gym Tri (Sprint/Reverse)

Completely different energy level from yesterday.  I wonder what the difference was?  Whatever it was, I sure wish I could bottle it.  Felt great today and pulled off a good workout for an moderate day.  I'm planning on full-effort 5k sandwiched between two easy 1-milers, so I hope I didn't expend too much energy today.

The plan called for a normal HM pace run of about 5-6 miles.  But with Robert canceling on me for racquetball, I had spare time, so I altered the plan to try to knock out a tri-pace 5K in time to catch the last 30 minutes of Renee's spin class and then top it off with a quick 500 in the pool.  I figured I'd mimic the Tinsel Triathlon again and double check my status with the reverse sequence and how well I could handle the time and distance. 

I set my swim gear up in the locker room to try to minimize the amount of time it would take me to go from the bike to the pool and avoid too much of a rest, and then I checked in on Renee to make sure there were a few bikes available.  I snagged the treadmill at the end of the row on the mezzanine and tried to jump right into the 5K.  I stalled a bit trying to get my Nike+iPod to work since I wanted to track my mileage.  I wasn't going to bother with headphones.  I had to reboot it for some reason, but finally got going. 

I didn't even warm up.  I started right off at around 7:30 pace and inched up the speed, progressive style, until I was at 6:40 during the final 880.  I felt amazingly strong at the halfway point.  I was laboring at the end, but it felt good.  My HR was way up to 168.  Yesterday, I was so uncomfortable at 160.  I can't really figure out why the difference. 

I finished that off and grabbed my towel and bottle, making it down to the spin studio where Renee had about 20 minutes left to go.  I didn't track the time, but I think I only took 2-3 minutes to start pedaling.  They were already into a high cadence climb and I had to struggle to get my legs pumping at the rate they were going.  But I settled in and only had to rest for a couple of times for less than a minute.  Renee runs a pretty intense class, but her music gets me amped and pulls me through. 

I chose to go 10 minutes beyond her class to round out the time on the bike and hopefully closer approximate the time it might take to go 12km.  I think it'll actually take me about 35 minutes to cover that sort of distance, but I doubt I'll ride at the sort of intensity of spinning. 

My legs were noodles, but I moved swiftly to the locker room where I changed and did a quick rinse in the shower to clean off the sweat before jumping in the pool.  I slipped twice on the deck on the way to the pool.  I don't know if I was just tired or what.  I never slip like that. 

I wanted to go 500 yds instead of the Tinsel's 200m, and I admit I felt a lot of fatigue in the arms and shoulders which surprised me.  I kept an 8:00 pace for 500 and called it a day.  I felt so much better about the workout; it washed the bad taste of yesterday out of my mouth.  I might have gone too hard and too long to set myself up for a good test in the 5K tomorrow, but I don't care.  I needed that.

I may skip the Shred workout tonight just so that I don't go even further over the edge than what I might have done already.  My quads have been getting quite the workout and could probably use a rest tonight. 

I'm pretty much decided that I'm going to target the Silver Strand 5K for my official attempt at best time before turning 50.  After that, it's sole focus on the marathon and I'll worry about 5K work after that, focused on the Carlsbad 5000.  (Oh, except for the 5K at the Tinsel if I do decide to do that.  I'm going to have to figure out where I'm going to get a bike first.  I can't Spin my way through the race.)