I had a great week of training. I just finished my third week of training under Peter's guidance and I can feel my body responding. When you're a United States Marine, the typical physical training consists of running as fast as you can for 20-30 minutes. In order to score a perfect 300 points on the Marine Corps physical fitness test, you must run 3 miles in 18:00, conduct 20 dead hang pull ups in a row, and execute 100 crunches in two minutes. It took me a while to get used to staying in a specific heart rate zone. It is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.

Running slowly up a hill to stay in HR zone 2 felt strange to me, but I am now seeing the results. When I started, I felt like I wasn't giving a hard enough effort due to my past training experiences.

Peter has me building my aerobic base for Ironman Arizona and my body is starting to respond by going harder and longer with less effort. The highlight of the week had to be Swami's group bike ride. Swami's bike ride meets every Saturday in front of B & L Bike in Solana Beach, California and attracts some of the best cyclist and triathletes in Southern California.

Several club riders and very talented endurance athletes show up for the 4 hour Saturday ride. Peter suggested that I ride with the group and use the Swami ride as my long weekend ride. I talked to several people that told me that "Swami's ride is a death ride". I was obviously concerned about my ability to ride with a hard core group of cyclist! The ride did not disappoint me. The first twenty miles were like a peleton time trial with 50 plus cyclists trying to hang with the lead group of riders. It took everything I had just to stay on the rear wheel of these talented riders.

I thought my heart was going to explode! I looked down a few times to hear my heart rate monitor tell me that I was giving a maximum effort. The vehicle traffic was crazy. Just imagine 50+ cyclist averaging 25+ MPH on the flat sections and over 40 MPH coming down hill. I am not an experienced group rider and one of the only guys with a TRI bike that was riding in the Swami group. There were times I was praying that we didn't wreck as we dodged road debris and trash cans!

In the end, I am happy to report that I was able to finish the ride with the lead pack and had a great time. If you ever come to the San Diego area and you want to ride with some of the best cyclists in Southern California, check out Swami's ride. Be prepared for a hard, fast ride that will push your limits! I can't wait to see what Peter has in store for me next week!

Semper Fidelis,

Andy