Saturday included a tough trainer ride and a recovery-type swim. The ride wasn't as difficult as I though it would be based on CV's ominous description. The only real killers were the three 2-minute all-out efforts. It felt like 2 minutes has passed 30 seconds into each effort, and I'd repeatedly glance at my watch only to be shocked that just a few seconds had passed since I last looked. I also discovered that I'm no threat to Tom Boonen or Mark Cavendish, as I pushed a pathetic gear during these efforts. I can't even get my HR that high - I maxed out at 169 bpm - because my legs are so weak. For the rest of the sets, I was nearly able to average the target HR for each set, as I was never off by more than 1 bpm. My legs feel good today; they're not too thrashed.

The recovery swim should improve my strength. 2,000m of pulling sandwiched between a warm-up and cool-down. Here's a shot of me swimming, and even though it's not the greatest shot, it's the best my director (i.e., Stacey) was able to capture:

My uneducated thought is that my arms (especially my right arm), drops too long before I initiate the catch and only after the catch do I get my elbow back up.

Friday morning began with an easy 1 hour run. I kept my HR low for an average of 129 bpm. I tried hearing footsteps by using headphones without music, but my headphones are rubber and I found out they don't transmit sound well. I'll have to get some foam ear-plugs to give this drill another shot.

Next up on Friday was a swim with a main set of 10 x 200m @ 95% following a warm-up and 10 x 75 pulling on 1:20. I completed all the 200m's between 3:22 and 3:26, and I think that's a good indication that my swim endurance has improved because my times used to drop off by a greater amount. Still, my shoulders were tired at the end of this swim.