mmm Jersey Mikes

Just had a Jersey Mikes cheese-steak, those things are awesome.
Been sticking with the training. Lots of swimming and a few easy runs and rides mixed it. Except Sunday. Ofer started up a running group so we've been getting 20+ guys to come out for the 1:25 run on Vista Trail. I've never seen such a good group of guys. No big names but all very solid guys. If we were a team we'd have one of the nastiest 25 man XC teams around! I ran with the group 2 weeks ago and it was friggin painful. Last week, with the previous week under my belt, things were much easier and I was able to actually push it and feel good. Gotta hold back though, my legs were tired after that one and I gotta keep em fresh so I can concentrate my good efforts on swimming.
A note about long runs. They're important. I ran 15 miles nearly every single Sunday for about 6 years. Now I don't have to be as meticulous so it frees me up to bike/swim more particularly during the season when those long runs would tire me out a bit too much. But during the off season I like to get back into them and get my body used to the 1:20-1:40 efforts. I think the key for triathletes is to not go longer than that if you're racing half iron or under. There's a temptation to think longer is better but you need some intensity or else the workout is pointless. I find that once I go over 1:40 there is little to no extra return AND my body takes much longer to recover. Nearly all my long runs are under 7:00 pace. If I want to race at 5:15 pace then there isn't much point in running over 7:00 except on recovery days (when I'll run quite slow).
I got slower in the pool the last couple of weeks. I had a great team goals a few weeks ago and did one of my team goal 100's in 1:01. Yesterday 1:04's felt HARD. It's a bit frustrating but I know that you just have to keep at it. It's simplistic to think that the body will follow a steady progression and get 1 second faster a week but that's not how things work. Sometimes you take a few steps back then make a huge jump forward.