Spin/swim

A thoroughly triaspirational day, in its way, from start to finish. Hit the allergy doc in the morning for shots (because the great incentive to get on top of these allergies and asthma is to stop getting the respiratory infections that prevent me from training and degrade my quality of life!). Then to Chelsea Piers for a lovely long midday spin - I think I was on the bike by 11:55, class starts at 12:30 and runs till 1:15, so log it at 1:20. In addition to usual climbing intervals, we did some speedwork that was pretty amazing: 3 sets of 4min in a not-easy-though-not-too-hard gear, with first minute at 100rpm, second @ 105, 3rd @110 and 4th @115. Woo-hoo! Then I had a short swim (600 warmup as 200 swim, 200 pull [breathing every 3, 5, 7, 3], 200 kick, then 6 x 100 on 2:10 as 75 build 25 easy).

I proceeded to do something naughty and entirely self-indulgent - I went to Sid's bikes and took the plunge on the tri bike! I was originally thinking of this but they had an almost unbelievable markdown on the next model up the line (it is the giddiness of consumerism that one finds oneself, in bicycle stores, saying blithely "$400 difference is nothing in the world of bicycles!"), so I went for it. (The salesperson could hardly believe the markdown either, she had to double-check that it really was valid! I guess by this time of year they are making way for 2014 models.) We did preliminary fit stuff on a fit bike, and I'll go back at the end of next week for further tweaking on the real thing. Then I just have to set aside the time to learn to ride it properly - it is going to be PROJECT TRI-BIKE the week of July 22 and July 29, as if I do not feel as happy on it as I do on my road bike, I will need to get aerobars put on the road bike before I leave for Cayman on August 8; I'm keeping an open mind about which of the two bikes I will ride in Wisconsin.

Then I went and attended the race briefing and packet pick-up for the NYC triathlon. Race day is Sunday - I am excited!

I have also gotten 98% towards having replaced the batteries on both my Suunto and my Garmin heart-rate straps. Both have been on the fritz for a while, and it is one of those little jobs that never quite seems to get done; first I got the wrong size battery, then when I got the right ones I found that though the Suunto flips open with a coin, the Garmin needs a tiny Phillips screwdriver. I have just purchased the smallest, cutest Phillips screwdriver imaginable and will soon have restored functionality...