Today, February 10th was my Birthday.
And Finally I can write about a crazy idea I had a couple of weeks ago when Paola asked me what did I wanted to do in my birthday. The Usual stuff would be a party right? But I really didn't wanted to be forced to eat cake and have a drink just 30 days before Abu Dhabi, and just when my training should be at it's highest intensity. So I remembered bits and pieces of birthday sets that I've heard in the past, like the 100x100mt swim set, or beer miles, but since I was like I said, just 30 days away from The Abu Dhabi Triathlon, the best thing to do, would be a race, but there are no races in Wednesdays, so I thought about doing something more race like it.
I didn't wanted to write about it "before" because I really didn't knew if I was going to be able to finish the day within the parameters that I established before I started. I wanted it to be really challenging, so it will be rewarding as well. The idea was to swim 40x100 every 2 minutes if I did every 100 in 1:30 it will be Great, then a 40km Bike Time Trial, and then to finish up the day, a run set of 40x400mt every 2 minutes, this one was what I knew it was going to be hard, I was hoping to make every 400 at 1:36, that's a 4 minute per km Pace.
And Finally I can write about a crazy idea I had a couple of weeks ago when Paola asked me what did I wanted to do in my birthday. The Usual stuff would be a party right? But I really didn't wanted to be forced to eat cake and have a drink just 30 days before Abu Dhabi, and just when my training should be at it's highest intensity. So I remembered bits and pieces of birthday sets that I've heard in the past, like the 100x100mt swim set, or beer miles, but since I was like I said, just 30 days away from The Abu Dhabi Triathlon, the best thing to do, would be a race, but there are no races in Wednesdays, so I thought about doing something more race like it.
I didn't wanted to write about it "before" because I really didn't knew if I was going to be able to finish the day within the parameters that I established before I started. I wanted it to be really challenging, so it will be rewarding as well. The idea was to swim 40x100 every 2 minutes if I did every 100 in 1:30 it will be Great, then a 40km Bike Time Trial, and then to finish up the day, a run set of 40x400mt every 2 minutes, this one was what I knew it was going to be hard, I was hoping to make every 400 at 1:36, that's a 4 minute per km Pace.
So here we go.
6:45am: Breakfast # 1.
7:45am: Swim Set: 400mt easy, and 40x100mt every 2 minutes. Average per 100mt= 1:26, and the last 100mt @ 1:21
9:30am: Breakfast #2 with my friends, they were at the pool making sure I go out every 2 min.
Rest & Hydration.
11:30am: While getting my bike gear ready, and making a little seat height adjustment I broke the seat clamp screw, so we had to hurry up to find a new one.
12:30: After a 15min Run and a 10km bike warm up, with race gear & my Kiwami new Suit. 40km Time Trail in a hilly and windy road, similar to the last 20kms up to Hawii. Time 1:05 @ 143 bpm & 153 max, 10km cool down.
3:00pm When we got home there they were, my family waiting with my favorite food, presents, cake, and good coffee (Paola told them about my day plans)
5:30pm: I was already frightened about my idea of doing 40 times 400 meters going out every 2 minutes, the plan was to do them at a 4 minute/km pace, that's 1:36 every 400 meters, the previous days seemed possible, but I was having a little of doubt, So I started easy, thinking that I might take it easy at least on the first 4.
The Park is called "The Art Park" ( I had no idea why, since there's not even a sculpture ) and it has a flat trail of 1 mile, marked every 100 meters, so I pretty know my rhythm in that particular place.
So I started easy, and the first 400 came out at 1:34, that gave me 26 seconds to erase every bit of doubt and go for all or nothing, so the second 400 came out at 1:29, so in the next 31 seconds and now with no trace of doubt in my mind, I decided to keep the pace, It was fairly easy until the 12th 400 when I did it in 1:34, in that moment I was feeling a little funny in the stomach, so I decided to stop in the middle and rest for 5 minutes. But suddenly my mate Robert Oliver
appeared, I was just finishing the lap # 5 and about to rest, So seeing him was like a big energy rush, in the morning he told me that he wanted to run some of my 400's with me, to help me keep the pace, so how could I stop to rest just when he was arriving?I was very grateful and soon, I forgot about that 5 minute rest that would have ruined my perfect day.
At the end, the 40X 400 time splits were like this:
1:34, 1:29, 1:30, 1:30, 1:29, 1:29, 1:30, 1:30, 1:31, 1:29,
1:31, 1:34, 1:32, 1:31, 1:34, 1:34, 1:32, 1:32, 1:34, 1:33,
1:34, 1:36, 1:37, 1:37, 1:34, 1:32, 1:34, 1:35, 1:35, 1:35,
1:35, 1:39, 1:36, 1:34, 1:40, 1:40, 1:36, 1:34, 1:32, 1:26. @ 150 bpm average 159 bpm max
I can't describe how happy I was, since at the middle of the set I was already thinking about cutting the set with a 5 minute rest, I know that, doing that would have been a reason to be mad the rest of my day.
It was already 7:00pm and I had to take a well deserved (needed) shower because we had
planned a birthday dinner with friends at 8:30pm in very cool french restaurant where they have a delicious fondue.
So after a big recovery Shake we were on our way to the restaurant when Paola told me that there was a slightly change of plans, I really believed her and just followed her directions to the supposed new dinner location.
The place looked very nice, and when we entered "Surprise" my first ever surprise party!
There they were............. my really good friends all together waiting to surprise me.
The place is called MiTra, and the garden was adorned with fire torches, and had 3 little lounge huts, it was very very cool!
It was my "Perfect Day" and nobody had to force me to eat cake or have a few beers........
I did it on my own..........
p.s. after analyzing my birthday set, I guess that you guys know my age, right?
It was already 7:00pm and I had to take a well deserved (needed) shower because we had
planned a birthday dinner with friends at 8:30pm in very cool french restaurant where they have a delicious fondue.So after a big recovery Shake we were on our way to the restaurant when Paola told me that there was a slightly change of plans, I really believed her and just followed her directions to the supposed new dinner location.
The place looked very nice, and when we entered "Surprise" my first ever surprise party!
There they were............. my really good friends all together waiting to surprise me.
The place is called MiTra, and the garden was adorned with fire torches, and had 3 little lounge huts, it was very very cool!
It was my "Perfect Day" and nobody had to force me to eat cake or have a few beers........
I did it on my own..........
p.s. after analyzing my birthday set, I guess that you guys know my age, right?
