Week 8 Wrap up

Week 8, Recovery Week: 84 miles, 10.8 hours

Well, my recovery week is over. It was a very welcomed and highly needed week. I had a couple really lousy workouts this week, which was kind of weird, considering I was more rested than normal. My thursday run was 45 minutes, and within a minute or two my heart rate jumped up to 140...normally it would take closer to 15-20 minutes before it gets that high. My walk breaks did nothing to bring it down and by the end I had topped out over 170. My legs felt very sluggish and heavy and felt like crap the whole time. I did a bike ride following a short swim saturday and my HR was higher than normal for a bike ride, and I was slower than I normally would be. Things changed on the run today. I did a 90 minute run and did 8 miles. My HR averaged 143 and barely went over 150 until the very end. I felt good the entire time, so I was at least happy to end the week on a high note. Next week is going to be a swim focused week which I'm super psyched about. But I'm trying to not think about that and enjoy the rest of my day.

Week 7 Wrap up

Week 7: Swim 8,950 yards, Bike 128 miles, Run 19.9 miles Total 155 miles, 14.6 hours.

This was by far the most difficult week to get through. The long bike on Saturday was a bit slower than the the same ride the previous week, but I was only on my 9th consecutive day of training without a day off, and it was the first time I started questioning why I was doing this. I really started thinking that I wished I wasn't doing this anymore. However, the run following the ride again went really well, slightly easier than it felt the week before. This was the first week with 7 days of training without a break. Somehow I got through it. It also had the longest run of the season so far of 2 hours, just over 10 miles. It was actually quite an easy run considering the duration. I felt good the whole time and probably could've gone considerably longer. I also had my longest swim of the season at 4,000 yards, nearly the distance of the race swim. It too wasn't very difficult, though it was broken up into several sets instead of just a long slow grind. This was the hardest week, and unfortunately I have tougher one's coming. But I am about halfway through the most grueling part of the schedule. The coming week is a recovery week and should be very easy. The next two base periods will consist of 6 considerably more challenging training weeks with 2 recovery weeks, then the final period will be tapering down. So I feel that I'm about half way through at this point. I'm going to make it! I'm definitely going to make it. I'm excited about the race day and think about it a lot. I'm going to start my race day planning, such as figuring out where the water drops and water stops are. Where I'm going to catch and say hi to my family, most of all my wife! I hope to be able to see them a lot so I can break the race up into smaller segments. So I can think about just seeing them each time instead of the long grind of the day! Its going to be a hell of a day. I haven't even done a 4 hour training session yet, and race day will be between 14-17...holy crap!!!!

Week 6 wrap up, a few days late

I finished up week six a few days ago, just haven't gotten around to writing it up yet. For this week, I ended up logging about 143 miles and . My big workouts of the week were a 9 mile run, a 55 mile bike/2.5 mile run brick, and a 2 mile swim.
The 9 mile run consisted of 75 minutes easy, and 25 minutes at basically tempo pace. I did the last 25 at a bit under 9 min/mile. I was very happy with that, especially considering I did that after running for 75 minutes already. The brick was my best workout of the season so far. After running into an old training coach from charlotte, who told me I really needed pick up my mileage I started doing more flat rides of more distance. This was another of those, I averaged around 18 mph for 3 hours, then did 2.5 miles of running after. The run felt surprisingly good, as I expected my legs to feel sluggish, however I felt surprisingly fresh. I certainly wore out towards the end, but that may have been due to the fact that the final half mile was up hill. I was ecstatic about that workout and it gave me a lot of motivation going forwards. My long swim was 3500 yards, or roughly 2 miles. It was a mental grind, as it consisted of 2 sets of 1500 yards that was not easy to get through. Felt like a very long day, but I made it.

So for the week I logged about 14 hours and 143 miles. Very happy with my progress so far, but still a long road to go.

41 days down, 99 days to go, and my best workout of the season!

So today was one of the workout days I've been dreading for some time. The always scary, brick workout. This is when you do a long bike ride and follow it immediately with a run. The run usually involves hopping off the bike and initially hoping your legs hold you up. Then the run typically feels as if you cut a tennis ball in half, and glued those halves to the bottom of your shoes. Then once your legs begin to resemble a normal feeling, you realize you're gasping for air and just hoping to finish.
Well, fortunately for me, nothing like that happened. I did a 55 mile bike ride in just over 3 hours. I hopped off and surprisingly my legs felt nearly as fresh as they did at the beginning. I went off on my run and to my amazement I had a hard time running at my typical slow pace, i was running nearly 2 min/mile faster. I had to force myself to slow down and pace myself. I wound up running about 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. Overall it wound up being a shade under 12 min/mile but the goal was to do it and feel good after. Granted, on race day i'll have to cycle twice as far and run 10 times as far, but it was a great confidence boosting day and made me feel very good about my cycling, which is the section I'm most fearful of on race day. I'm really glad to have had this workout and even more glad that it's over, at least until next week when I get to do it again. Weekly wrap up comes tomorrow night.

40 days down, 100 days till the Ironman

Hit the century mark today! 100 days to go. And it's going to be a brutal 100 days. Still so early, yet the training is really killer. I had a day off Wednesday, and my next one won't come till next monday. Yep, 9 straight days. 2 are down, so that leaves 7 more...that'll be a glorious day of nothing.
Today I accomplished another personal high. I swam 3500 yards in 1:06. My previous high was 3000 yards. I did it fairly easy, as easy as that distance can be. The main set was 2x1500. Basically getting some training in easy, long distance swimming. Good god is it boring! I'm hoping race day will be a bit more exciting, plus I won't be in all that much of a hurry considering my prize for getting done is a 112 mile bike ride through the desert. Maybe my swim will take longer than I except!
Feeling good, but quite tired these days. Tomorrow I have a brick, 3 hour bike ride followed by a 30 minute easy run. Course, nothing will be easy bout that run. Tune in tomorrow to see how that goes.

39 Days down, 101 days to go!

Since my last entry I've done a few more days that I meant to write up and as usual forgot. Today's friday morning,and if I remember(highly unlikely) I'll write up today's swim tonight.

On monday, the day after my 50 mile bike ride, I did a swim and a bike. The swim was about 2650 and I did it in about 46 minutes. It was more of a long swim training session with the main set being two sets of 1000. I don't remember it being overly difficult. The bilateral breathing is really making a huge difference. Not only in comfort level, but in technique and speed. I feel that I'm able to do more gliding since I'm taking my head out of the water much less frequently.
For the bike ride, the weather looked to be unpleasant(thunderstorms) so I did an hour long group cycling session instead of the 90 minute ride I was supposed to do. I think they are nearly equal in challenge, as I kept my HR up in the 140's the whole time, about the same that I'd do on the road bike, however the boredom level doesn't come close. Not to mention you get a lot hotter with no wind on your face and you can't rest at all. I was almost thrown off the bike multiple times, because, unlike a normal bike, the stationary bike pedals don't stop turning if you stop pedaling. Out of habit I tried to coast a couple of times, only to be lifted up off the seat by the constantly moving pedals. I didn't exactly follow the class because my schedule called for easy spinning so I just kept the resistance fairly light so I could keep my legs moving. I don't think the instructor had a problem with it.

On Tuedsay I had a 60 minute run which I covered about 5.4 miles. My HR averaged about 150 so my speed is starting to pick up. I don't know if that's due to conditioning or to cooler weather, but probably a combination of both. I've been running exclusively on flat terrain because that is what I'll be encountering on race day. That evening I did a 2 hour ride on Riverside drive again. I covered about 38 miles and muscle wise I felt fine, wasnt' too difficult, however my butt has been killing me on these longer rides. I really hope that's just cause I did several long rides in a row, and not something that is going to be a repeating pattern. 3 hours in the saddle is really hurting now, 7 hours is going to be unbearable. I hope to not have to go and buy another seat.

Wednesday was an off day and it was glorious.

Thursday was a long run day, speed swim day. The long run was 100 minutes, 75 of which was done at my slow easy pace and the final 25 were at tempo pace. For the first 75 I averaged a shade under 12 min miles(still an improvement as I had been closer to 12:30 for that distance) and my HR was 139. I felt good going into the final 25 and I upped my pace to just under 9 min miles. I held that pace for the entire time, aside from my 1 minute walks. I actually think my speed picked up as the time went on. I averaged about a 175 HR for that time period, and maxed out at 190. I was kind of anxious to get to 9 miles so it took some serious pushing to get it there.
My swim was a speed workout. The main set consisted of 20 x 75 at an RPE of 5. I did really well with this and might've gone a bit faster than I needed to. I did make an interesting discovery. I had a few sets where I felt I had gone too fast and did the set in about 1:11. I decided to do a more relaxing set where I focused on gliding more and doing less strokes. When I did that I did the set in 1:08 and felt more rested. So I was actually faster when I focused on technique and gliding. Something to make sure and remember in the future.

So that brings me up to date. Off to the pool for a VERY long session.

Lake Logan International Triathlon - Race Report

This was an absolutely wonderful race. The venue is beautiful, it was organized very well, and had very good post race food.
My goal for the race today was not to finish fast or even place in my category, but to treat it as a training session and keep my pace nice and easy, and finish the race feeling like I could keep going for a while longer. For future reading when I mention my goal times, those are the times in intended to finish slower than as opposed to faster than. Like I said, I wanted to to go slowly not fast.
Everything started out well, got there on time and with plenty of time to take it easy and get everything set up. The water temp was 74 and wet suit legal. I haven\'t swam in a wet suit since may so I wasn\'t used to the feel of it. But wow, swimming without it, made swimming with it SO much easier. My goal for this segment was to be slower than 30 minutes. I really felt that I took my time and went nice and easy. As usual, making it to the turn around buoy is always harder than making it back. And I don\'t know why that is, but I always feel stronger in the second half of a swim. Maybe I need to warm up longer? Anyway, I took the swim nice and easy and didn\'t really encounter too many other swimmers. The sight buoys were set up terribly out of line, and I think a lot of swimmers were fooled by them and swim a longer distance than need be. I swam straight at the turn buoy and stayed pretty much alone. One fun aspect of the race was that the river which feeds the lake is MUCH colder than the lake, and you finish the swim by swimming up the river a tad bit. And wow could you feel the separation. Anyway, I finished the swim in about 28 minutes. Faster than I intended, but I definitely was not pushing it.
The transition was FAR. It took about 2 minutes of running just to get to my gear. I ran, but ran slowly as I was really in no rush. Getting the wet suit off is always a fun time and I as usual struggled like crazy getting the stupid thing off. But I did, got my gear together and headed out on the bike. Overall I think the transition took me 1:56 according to the official record, but i think they counted a good bit of that run as swim time.
Next came the bike. The bike course was beautiful for the most part(i\'ll get into that in a minute). It started out with a fairly long climb, but nothing overly difficult, and then came to a half mile screaming downhill. From there it was 12 miles of rolling hills, but generally downhill. And all around you were surrounded mostly by sprawling farm land and mountains. It was a beautiful ride. I was taking my time, averaging about 18.5 mph. Faster than I intended, however I was getting passed constantly, it was a pretty fast course. It was very difficult maintaining my pace with everyone else going so fast, but it was a good lesson in mental discipline. At the turn around we encountered the only ugly part of the race. The race course turned around in Canton, and we were treated with an absolutely lovely view of the disgusting paper mill spewing toxic crap into the air. That was the only eyesore of the course. Upon the turn around there were no more rolling hills. It was just about 6 miles or so of steady, not steep climbing. It wasn\'t easy. Eventually the course rejoined the out part and it started rolling a bit so there were at least a few small stretches where one could rest a bit. Eventually we hit what was a screaming downhill on the way out, which means it was a crying uphill. It was the only stretch of the bike course where I actually passed people. I guess it was the only place where my taking it easy paid off. Most people seemed to really be struggling up the hill but I was able to cruise up it fairly easily. Then once hitting the top it was fun. I was able to push over 30 mph while resting and getting ready for the 10k that was coming. I wound up finishing the bike in about 1:20, about 10 minutes faster than I intended, but the course was faster than I thought it would be too, so it was a good ride.
I had a really fast and uneventufl transition from bike to run and I was off. The run course was equally beautiful. It was an out and back up a road that ran right along side a large creek. The first half was all up hill, varying steepness. I really took it easy up the hill and paced just under 12 min miles. There was nothing overly eventful on the run, I ran the whole time except for about 10 second walk breaks when I reached the water stops. When I got to the turn around i was about 35 minutes, and 2:30 min into the race. I had a chance at breaking 3 hours, despite my goal of 3:10(again, finishing slower than), I decided to just let myself go a bit faster and see what I could do. My pace quickened, to a bit under 10 min/miles. I still felt really good, despite the quickened pace. For the final 3 minutes I picked up the pace further cause I just wanted to come in under 3 hours and I did just barely make it. I was kinda dead coming through but recovered quickly and easily could\'ve kept going after a small walk break. I ended up finishing the run in 1:05:55. Which was probably about a 10:40/mile pace, but I had the largest negative split I've ever had in a triathlon. I did the first half in about 35 minutes, and the second half in about 30. Like I said, I felt really good on the second half.
I wound up finishing in 2:59:17. It was a great race and one I intend to do year after year.

5 Week wrap up. 37 days of training, 103 days left to go

Yea, so as usual I haven't been updating this blog. Here's another write up of last week. I'll try and remember to write up yesterday and today tonight, but likely, I'll forget, but alas, I digress.
So I made a huge increase in mileage last week. I did 146 miles in a total of 12 hours. I did a couple long rides this week, including a 28 miler up the parkway and my long ride of 50.5 miles. The parkway ride was extremely difficult with about 2500 feet of climbing or so all one way. I rode along riverside rd back and forth multiple times. This week also included an Olympic distance Triathlon, the race report will be written up in a separate entry on here. The long ride felt good in my legs, however my sit bones were in agony towards the end. I'm hoping that was mainly due to having been on the bike for a while the day before in the race. The swimming is going very well. I have the bi-lateral breathing down very well now and am comfortable breathing out of the left side as well. With this came increased speed. I'm about 4-5 seconds faster per 100 now at the same effort level just by breathing out of both sides. Running is improving the slowest and I hope the bike and swim can make up for what I'm lacking in the run.
All in all this week really kicked up the training to a whole new level, and I guess I can assume its going to keep going at this rate. The prep period is clearly over and training is getting going hard core now.

Day 31 of Training, 109 days till the Ironman

Woah, training is really getting difficult. This week really started out with a bang. Well, monday was just a swim, but a tough swim. Speed training. Yesterday was brutal. The morning started with a 2 hour ride, which turned into a 2 hr 10 minute ride. We started out at the French Broad River overlook on the parkway and rode South almost all the way to Mt Pisgah. I fell just a few miles short, but it would've likely been a pretty tough few miles. I gained an elevation of 3,317 feet over about 14 miles. If that wasn't enough, I had a swim last night for about 2,275 yards. I made it tougher than it should've been as the swim should've been a bit more relaxed.
I woke up this morning feeling pretty beat, and had to wake up at 6 am for an easy 45 minute run, which was anything but. I kept the pace pretty slow, but still had and HR in the 150's for most of it. I have a LONG swim tonight which I'm doing in the open water at Lake Logan.
I've just entered the base 1 period, but it's going to be a long grueling run till November. Yikes