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Fall Swims & Low Sun

Fall must officially be here because the sun stays low in the sky, giving me false senses of time and glaring at me as it sun bounces off the water. The air is lovely and cool, but not cold and everything seems like it is getting ready to take a winter nap.

 

Workouts for the Week of October 18, 2021

Monday, October 18

I ran a 13k trail run race on Saturday so Coach T had me do a quick spin out on the bike to get my legs working. I just jumped onto Zwift and did a quick spin in Watopia.


I was amazed that my legs felt as good as they did as I rode. The soreness was at a minimum and I had plenty of energy to spin away. I popped on a podcast and the 45 minutes went by very quickly.


Total Distance: 22.8 km

Total Time: 45 minutes


 

Tuesday, October 19

Today was my first day back in Avila Beach in a very long time. Honestly, nothing has changed. The parking patterns are the same, with the morning coffee crowd clearing out just before the mid-day beach crowd, giving prime parking spots to me.


The water looked like it was moving A LOT with a pretty sizeable swell rolling in on a long period. I suited up and head out.


The water was shockingly cold. I got a read of between 53°F and 55°F during the swim. My face was COLD.


I did warm up rather quickly, within 5 minutes, and was comfortable for most of the swim. I was doing a structured workout from Coach T. Forty strokes sprint, Forty strokes at race pace, forty strokes at an endurance pace, and twenty strokes easy. And then do it again. It was a great way to break up the swim. Since my endurance is pretty low right now, I did start taking a brief break between sets toward the end. And you can see how much the swell, currents, and fat high tide were pushing me around.


Total Distance: 2,275 meters

Total Time: 52 minutes, 18 seconds



 

Wednesday, October 20

Back at Avila Beach for another open water swim. The water was much kinder today with less movement all around. There were high clouds, no wind, moderate air temperature, and the water was noticeably less cold, measuring between 54°F - 55°F.


I did a quick swim to the fourth buoy and took a moment to enjoy the view. Then across to the end of the Avila Pier. From there I was contemplating a swim around the three anchored sail boats or a jaunt over to Poly Pier. I decided to swim through the sailboats to the Poly Pier and got across the roughly 600 meters pretty quickly. The water was flat, calm, and had a clear but hazy visibility.


From Poly Pier I decided to swim around the closest sailboat before aiming for the creek mouth buoy. The tide was starting to slack from a fat high tide so I had the tide working against me a little bit, but the swell was directly at my back.


Total distance: 2,400 meters

Total time: 1 hour 2 minutes



Later in the day I did a quick 5k run along the rail trail. In hindsight, I wished I had run first and swam second. I was so tired on my run. Add to it that I was chilled from my morning swim, so I overdressed, still felt cold, and then was sort of cold sweating as I overheated in 70°F weather.


But, I got the run done and had to gather up all of my energy to get back to my workday and be productive. Needless to say, I slept very good that night.

 

Thursday, October 21

Today I had a super excellent bike ride. The weather was perfect, I was feeling great, and it was a ton of fun.


It is always interesting to traverse the 1 mile exit from downtown to the open roads on Highway 1. It seems inevitable to hit every red light. But once out of town it is easy riding along wide shoulders.


I turned into Cuesta College and cut through Camp San Luis to O'Conner Road, which has a very fun descent down to Foothill. With no traffic, I was able to settle into the traffic lane and just fly down the hill. Amazingly, there was no cross traffic at Foothill, so I just kept on going and rolled right back to my start. A super easy and fun ride.


Total distance: 23.7km

Total time: 1 hour 7 minutes


 

Friday, October 22

Today I did a quick 20 minute run followed by a swim in the pool. As usual, I had my own lane at the pool and had plenty of time and space to do my workout.


Coach T had me doing head-up water polo stroke! Yikes! I have absolutely zero water polo fitness. I took my goggles off to keep me honest and it was a very difficult set of 50s to work through. In the middle of it all, she had me do a 1,000 swim with the first 25 of each 100 focused on kicking. It took me 16:54 to do the 1,000. I have a long way to go to get back in shape. Ugh.


Total distance: 2,050 yards

Total time: 42 minutes

 

Saturday, October 23

With the 13.1 City to the Sea half marathon coming up, Coach T has me running. Today was a schedule 90 minute run and I decided to just run the rail trail to simulate race day.


Wow I was so fatigued. My hamstrings are tight as can be from some strength training earlier in the day and my legs felt stiff and without energy. I muscled through the run trying to focus on just keeping my form. I made it to the end and just wanted to lay down on the sidewalk. I am knackered.

 

Sunday, October 24

A rest day! Oh so glad to take a rest. I'm tired.

 

Totals for the Week


Total Swim Distance: 6,560 meters

Total Swim Time: 2 hours 30 minutes


Total Bike Distance: 46.6 km

Total Bike Time: 1 hour 53 minutes


Total Run Distance: 20.7 km

Total Run Time: 2 hours 28 minutes


Plus a total of 40 minutes of strength training.


Total time: 7 hours 30 minutes



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