My kind of dogs

On a training ride last week I met two new dogs. Big ones. I'm not well-versed in breeds, but they looked like a cross between Dobermans and Labs. Fortunately, these dogs didn't give chase. They came yelping like mad out into the road, then politely waited for me to pass before making a half-hearted attempt to inspect this Lycra-covered curiosity. No pent-up aggression, no display of hunting prowess. I guess they're getting enough love at home.

Adjustments

I'm not even a month into my new training and I am already making changes. First, I discovered that the Whistlestop Duathlon is no more. So, I won't have the chance to get my time below 1:30. The event has been moved to downtown Birmingham and the course has been shortened. A lot. 5k run, followed by 12 miles on the bike, ending with a 1 mile run. That's nearly an all-out sprint. To be competitive, I'll have to get my time below an hour. So the distance work isn't nearly as important as speed work. I have been doing long runs of 8 - 12 miles, tempos of 4 - 6 miles, and rides over 40 miles. That needs to change. I intend to shorten up the distances and do a lot more interval work, both on the bike and in the running shoes.

Also, I ran a 5k on Saturday to test my condition. I didn't hang around for the official results (I finished 4th, so no snazzy new running shoes for me) but my watch read 19:46. That means I've lost more than a minute since December. Obviously, the distance work hasn't helped with speed.

The problem is that I'm committed to ride a mountain century in May. Doing more speed work between now and April won't help get me ready to ride 100 miles in the mountains of Tennessee. Mutually-inconsistent training goals. I'll just have to pour on the miles after the duathlon in April and hope I can get ready.

Update: Official results from the 5k are up. 19:45.