Friday, July 3, 2009

Holy Hills & OWS

Disclaimer: I stole the term "Holy Hills" from Ambitious. She just recently moved and renamed her new neighborhood "holy hills." I can totally relate Ambitious and I am glad to have someone to commiserate with.
This morning I had the perfect workout. Bike ride to Crescent Lake then open water swim. It was perfect! The bike ride was only like 4 miles, but Holy Hills! Felt like 20 (especially after last nights hill repeats)*!

Arsenal of Assault

Thank God for disc brakes!

The perfect calm Warming up

Man I love OW swimming. Nothing beats it! The girls I was with told me the point we swam to was almost 1/2 mile. I'm a bad judge of water distance so I guess I'll take it for what it's worth, but I don't know exactly. It took us just over 13 minutes to get to the turnaround (~.5miles). I totally underestimated how much my swimming has improved since my last OWS because I was pretty far ahead of the group and even stopped to wait for them because I wasn't sure exactly where the turnaround was. Totally smooth, totally strong. It was awesome. On the way back, I waited for a gal who was really behind because the boats were starting to trickle in the lake and there's safety in numbers. Overall it was pretty sweet. I did however get a couple of calf cramps on the way in. What's up with that? I should have drank some electrolytes that morning. The bike ride back was a little rough, but you just can't complain about such an awesome way to spend the morning.

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*Last night's workout:

w/up

plyos

circuit w/.20m jog (2x15 pushups, 2x15 tricep dips, 2 x 10 single-leg hamstring bridge, 1x20 squat)

4 x hill - emphasis on consistent times

1st hill: 1:42/183 bpm

2nd hill: 1:39/184 bpm

3rd hill: 1:41/182 bpm

4th hill: 1:39/183 bpm

Totals: 5.38 miles

Tomorrows Workout: 10 miles easy

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Happy 4th Everybody!! This is my favorite holiday of the year. I love this country and I love my freedom!! LIFE IS GOOD! Be safe and take lots of pictures to post.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

That water looks so inviting, makes me want to dive in. Have a great weekend!

Kathleen said...

Your pics are georgeous :)
And way to go with your speedy swimming!

Niki said...

Awesome job on the hill workout and OW swim! That's so neat that you have a group to swim with! Have a Happy 4TH!!

Missy said...

Tri, tri, tri...OWS, a bike, c'mon, you're made for this stuff. OWS rocks!

jen said...

Go you!! Awesome hill workout, hilly bike ride, and OWS. You're a very strong swimmer.

I love the 4th too! I am taking plenty of pics too which I will post on Sunday. Happy Independence day!! :)

Anonymous said...

That's beautiful! Maybe I would like swimming too if I lived there.

Running and living said...

Awesome workouts! The swim is v fast. .5m in 13 min, I am impressed! Ana-Maria

Sarah said...

Very impressed with your swim time! That's awesome!!!

Jamie said...

Fantastic workouts! Hope the 10 miler went well and you had a great weekend!

{will run for margaritas} said...

I'm totally wishing I had a lake like that near me - sounds like your OW swim was awesome!

Alisa said...

Awesome!!!!! Haha, yes Holy Hills land can make for great leg burn.

I wish I had a group to go OWS with, I'm going to try to round up the PDX troops and see if I can get a crowd.

joyRuN said...

Open water swimming terrifies the living shit out of me! If I had a lake that looks as beautiful & calm as that, I might change my mind. Just tell me there's no other living creatures in there that'll brush up against me.