Tour de Palm Springs & Beyond

We did the Tour de Palm Springs a few weeks ago. Haven't written about it because there really isn't much to say. We had a great time, we love Palm Springs, and we enjoy this event, but nothing of real interest happened there.

Except that Basta rode his heart out the entire distance, pushing it as hard as he could for the entire 56 miles. He averaged 17.3 mph overall. That's up 2-3 mph from when we starting riding last year. He had many miles of 20+mph, but dropped the average down whenever he hit hills. He hasn't been training on hills other than on the trainer and it really shows.

This is his first year of triathlon, after all. He is nowhere near his potential on the bike. He'll get there if he keeps working at it, and if he wants to. He will become a decent hill-climber one of these days. We're both happy with 17.3 mph over that distance.

His swimmer's shoulder is finally healed and he's easing back into the pool. I walk the deck alongside him whenever I can, working on his form. Body-awareness is so hard in the pool. You can be completely convinced you're doing something one way but the coach above can see and tell you what you're really doing. I'm taking a lot of video to show him what I'm talking about. He fought me on the 'pinky-entry, palm facing inside' concept but finally gets that he will always cross his bodyline if he continues to do a cupped-hand, middle-finger-first entry. He says he likes the palm facing in approach better now, that it feels more efficient and easier. He's still rolling well. His body position is not good. He says he's pressing his chest and head down hard but his legs are still dragging significantly. His bodyfat is so low that he's really going to struggle to get those legs up. A wetsuit will help, of course.

So he's swimming again. Soon we'll get out and do some open water swimming. There are less than 5 weeks until Oceanside. Basta will have been training for 21 weeks when that arrives.

He was sick all last week. He kept it from becoming the major cold that everyone seems to have right now with Zicam, but he was still weak and snuffly. He took a day off. Then another day. Then another. Then we went skiing for four days. He took yesterday off, too. Finally, today, he says he feels fully over the cold, re-energized, and ready to train again. Fortunately, last week was a Rest&Recovery week anyway, so he didn't lose too much.

This week he starts his last Build, then it's time to Peak.