I like charts and graphs

This past weekend my buddy Dan and I went on our annual gambling trip. It's the last weekend of fun, food, and debauchery before triathlon season heats up. Dan and I had a great time, I won some money, and we went for a fantastic hike on what is marked as a "dangerous/extreme" hiking trail. I figured they were probably overstating, but it turns out they were right, this hike was fairly extreme with some very steep climbs, especially for a couple guys who aren't exactly mountaineers.

Despite the fact that I had on the wrong shoes and that we were high enough that the hawks were circling at eye level, we had a great time doing it. Doesn't really apply as training, but sometimes just doing physical activity is it's own reward. I'll post some pictures once Dan gets them to me. 

I ran and biked on Monday and last night i hit the pool for a solid workout. My original goal was to see where I was for my 1/4 mile swim, because that's what is on tap for Season Opener. Most of my swims lately have been the tail end of a two-a-day, so having the pool as my only workout was going to give me the best gauge of fitness I've had in a mile. Let's just say I was happy with how it came out:

That's right, I'm a badass

So I did a 400 swim in 9:38. The best part? I wasn't even close to going all out. I find there's a very big difference between me at 100% effort and me just swimming strong an even pace. Going all out, I could drop the first 50 yard time by 15 or so seconds, but I'd be a good bit slower on the second 50, and maybe 30 or more seconds slower for the full 400. Doing it as I did last night, I got a time I was happy with, without strong pushoffs and I had plenty of energy left.

When I finished the 400, I set my sights on a mile, which I pulled off 49 minutes, even with a little rest between intervals (1x400, 1x500, 1x600 1x200), I decided to see if I could fit the full Half-IM swim inside an hour, and I managed to, just barely at 57:50. Definitely some major progress.

Oh, and I don't know if I mentioned it, but I didn't gain any weight on my casino trip (even though there were some pizza & cheeseburgers involved). In fact, I've lost weight week over week for the past couple weeks now. It's been a pound here or a half-pound there, but it's been significant forward progress especially with the first race of the season closing in.

Notes:

- Got a lot of positive feedback on yesterdays post both here and on Facebook. Thanks so much for the kind words, and sharing your thoughts. I love comments on my posts, so feel free to share, or ask questions, or tell me I'm wrong awesome... whatever.