Another week down, another week closer

Well, two weeks down. Only a short 17 to go. I really really enjoy training now. It's crazy. I did miss a workout friday, but, oh well. It was a short bike ride. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't going to make any difference in the long run. We had a trip to Virginia that made getting a double workout in friday pretty difficult. But I did make myself get out for my longish ride yesterday. That was a really nice ride, but I did push a little harder than I intended. But it felt good. I think I actually enjoy pushing myself than the laid back training I was doing last year. Not to mention the fact that riding hundreds of miles on Riverside drive got very old after a while. So doing new and different routes is a lot more enjoyable. I did the same ride yesterday that I did last week and I improved by 5 minutes. But I did push harder. I haven't looked at my average HR but I'm sure it was higher. But I'm starting to think I'm going to get a better return on the investment than by just going along at an easy pace the whole time. However, my cruising speeds are far higher than they were last year. Last year I'd usually cruise around 18 I'm pushing 21-22. Probably a combination of better aero position and using the big ring in the front instead of the small. I'm using a bit more power but it doesn't seem to be wearing me out any more. I've also used this strategy in races and my runs haven't been affected. Today I had my first truly long swim. The warmup was a 4 x 200 with a main set of 1500. It was very easy. Speed was ok, but the ease of it was what I was going for, and I truly hate long distance in a pool. Nothing like staring at the same blue line for 30 straight minutes. I much prefer open water swims for those kind of distances. I need to find a lake I can go swimming in close by. All in all training is still going great. My weight is starting to creep down much sooner than I'd have liked. Time to start ramping up the amount of food I eat. I'm at 205 right now, down from 210 just two weeks ago. I don't want to drop below 200 until more like september. At this late i'll be in the low 190's by then. Rachel will NOT approve of that!