19 Day!! No Way!!

I cannot believe the race is only 19 days away!! The running has been a bit of a challenge w/ a small tear in my right leg calf muscle....but it's on the mend and one treatment of 'active release' by a great chiropractor has done wonders.  Another session scheduled for tomorrow. 

Swim's going great.  Personal best in speed occured last week w/ 25 yards in 35 seconds....for this slow poke...that's good in my book.  Still can't believe the currents are supposed to be 5mph on race day.  If I don't make it across the moving river w/in 50 minutes....I'll be swept out to see...how dramtic is that. :)

Biking is the weekness and need to move from spin class to the actual bike.  Bike is tuned and ready to go, so it happens this week.

I guess I should start sleeping w/ the windows open and taking cold showers to prep for the chilly waters that await.

Rock'n the Run and Swim! Swear P90X is the Source! Broke Personal Bests AGAIN!

Honestly can't believe how amazing the training has gone.  I look at my times and scratch my head as I've broken my running course record again (on Sunday, specs below...24:39).  This was on Sunday.  I shaved off another 50 seconds.  LOVE IT!  Specs below, you might say that's nothing spectacular for a 3 mile course, but I'm having to conquer 4 steep hills over the course of the run. 

Track 001

Perry has created a track with MotionX-GPS on the iPhone

Date:Mar 14, 2010 12:11 pm

Distance:3.03 miles

Elapsed Time:24:39.4

Avg. Speed:7.4 mph

Max. Speed:11.2 mph

Avg. Pace:08' 08" per mile

Map link expires:Apr 13, 2010 2:26 PM PDT

And this morning I cranked out a 2 mile swim and pushed for speed on two of the half miles.  1/4 mile was at 7:29 and then 7:19, 1/2 mile was at 15:15 and then 14:40.  Average laps for the 1/2 mile at 15:15 and 14:40 are 51 and 49 second laps.  Prior to today's swim, my lap pool personal best for the 1/2 mile was 15:30 and that was right before a race where I had been swimming quite a bit.  CRAZY!!


I'm day 47 into P90X and I swear this is the source for me breaking these records.  My core feels so incredibly strong, and P90X is the only thing I can attribute this too.  I should be swimming, running and biking at least 3x/week and I've been averaging at the most 2x/week for each, so P90X is helping w/ the training beyond belief. If I weren't doing this program, I am certain I would not be breaking these records.  And the really cool thing is that my body is shedding the fat (was at 21% at start of P90X on Jan 29, 2010...goal is 10% for Day 90, Apr 28th) and doing a pretty cool transformation.  I had a really nice gut going on Day 1....post Holiday as well as many years of just something I couldn't shed off. SORRY to go off on this...it just amazes me though.


If you want more specs on the program, shoot me an email and I'll give you more specs on how I'm implementing P90X w/ the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon training. It's important to coordinate your tri training w/ the very specific P90X days as you don't want to hurt the P90X 'muscle confusion' which is trademark for the program. My email is sjogren@gmail.com  


For those of you doing the race, I hope the training is going well for you. Share your stories w/ me if you like.  45 DAYS AND WE'LL BE JUMPING OFF THAT BOAT NEXT TO THAT ISLAND CALLED ALCATRAZ. WOOOHOOO!!!

Training Winding Down

9 Days Left!! Yesterday I put in a non-stop 1.5 mile and it felt pretty good. I did it in 38 minutes, so if the Bay had the same conditions as the pool, I'd have 22 minutes to spare before the one hour cut off. Unfortunately, I'll have a few more obstacles, but I think the 22 minutes will be plenty of time to get me to shore under the cutoff.

This morning I did my Capital Hill loop (about 6 miles) and the loop is certainly getting easier each time I do it.

And then this eve my master's swim group had us working on core work for freestyle and I fine-tuned mine a bit more which felt great.

Workout for this Saturday is a 2 - 2.5 mile swim in Lake Washington followed by a one hour bike and 8 mile run. Then post Saturday, it's definitely tapering way down til race days.

That's that low-down, latest and greatest.

More Race Support.....Whooohoooo!!!

In addition to my pops, I now have my sister Shauna, Aunt Gloria, Uncle Gene and maybe even my cousin Kristen coming up to eat clam chowder bread bowls and cheer my on. Whooohhooooooo!!! I'm never had an audience like this for an out of town race and am totally excited to have them there. I'm sure their support will give me an extra boost...crank'n the adrelanlin a bit more, which will definitely be welcomed for all three legs of the race.

So mucho thanks you four for coming out for the race. It will be a good time. I'll probably be a bit nervy leading up to the race but it will definitely make it easier having you all there.

50 Minutes in the Lake

Whoohooooo . . . . . still can't believe it, but I was able to swim in the lake for 50 minutes this morning and after about 15 minutes of getting used to the cold and fungus amungus floating about, I was actually able to enjoy it. I kept waiting for my body to go in shock w/ the cold, but this is the first time it didn't do it. And to make it even better, as I was getting out of the water I was chatt'n w/ a diver going into the water and I asked him if he knew the temp and he said he checked less than a week ago and it was 49 degrees. That's at leat five degrees cooler than Alcatraz, so hearing that was a huge boost for me. No wonder why I froze my cahones off last week when I did a plunge w/o my wet suit.

Post swim I did a nice 6 mile loop from Madison Beach to Capital Hill and there is a huge hill I was constantly climbing for the first three miles.

So, in a nutshell, great training day and feeling like I truly might be able to do this Alcatraz swim. Whoohooooo!!!

Dad Came to Town

This past week has been a whirl and my bad for not providing any new entries. Pops has been visiting for a few days, so we've been going non-stop since his arrival. I've still managed to get my workouts in and everything is feeling great. I ran 8 miles this a.m. The knee's a tad sore post runs but not any worse w/ the gradual increase in mileage. Increasing the mileage has always made it worse, so no complaints from this guy.

I swam on Thursday and Saturday and broke my 500 yard record, which felt great. I also had a great spin class on Saturday. My training camp in San Francisco is the following weekend and we'll be riding the entire bike course at the camp, so this weekend I must get on the bike.

It also seems like my energy level is much higher than normal since I started taking the magic acai juice.

That's the excitement for now.