As of Friday afternoon, I have found myself in an interesting predicament where I am going to be racing the Rochester Triathlon in two weeks. Although this has been on my calendar all summer, the sudden reality of actually registering for it and committing to the race has sent me into a full-fledge training panic.

Just turned one!

We have been a bit more active since adding Peggy to our pack, as she has boundless energy and actively punishes us if we are below 10,000 steps in a day. She's been able to run up to four miles with us now, though her typical run with us is about two. She really pushes the pace, finding her comfortable stride at about 9 minute miles, which is significantly faster than our normal pace.

Aside from runs with Peggy, to start dialing in our race pace, Ellie and I have been adding some speed work to our runs. So far we've experimented with a couple of different strategies. The first is the standard track workout. For this, we are fortunate to have a beautiful track about a mile from the house. We do a mile warm up run to get to the track itself, and then a series of 400 meter laps at or slightly faster than our ideal race pace. On Saturday for example, we targeted 8 minute miles and were able to do 5x400 meter.

A lot of information here! The first is run cadence, as i've been working on getting my feet turning over faster. The second in red is heart rate, and third is pace. Our intervals were at or faster than 8 minute miles for the most part.

Aside from the track workout, which the overall goal is to build the number of speed intervals we are doing in a row, we also did a Fartlek run. We alternated picking distances off in the distance and would run hard to those markers. It was a fun way to break up the run and just something different than plodding away at our usual 10:30 pace.

So, why are we mixing the fast runs into our daily workouts? Well, the goal is to get our pace down, and speed work is essential. The only way to really run faster is to actually run faster in training. Over the next two weeks leading up to and through the Rochester Triathlon, and then two more weeks to the Hyannis Triathlon, we hope to lower our 5k time off the bike. Zwift has been super helpful and I'm feeling good about the bike section, and for the swim . . . it is what it is.

Now for the real question of the day. Will I be able to squeeze in to the wetsuit for Rochester?