Starting Week 5, post recovery

So,I really took the whole "recovery" part of recovery week to a whole new level. I missed quite a few workouts, but I suppose that's the life of a husband/father/triathlete/graduate student/part time contractor/etc. But it was also a race week so I did want to rest a bit going into the race, as I knew I had a good chance to win this week. I came into the week on the back of a couple of very good long workouts, which I wrote up in my last entry..I've really got to start doing this more often. My only excuse is pure laziness and forgetfulness, alas I digress. So first off, my workouts weren't anything to write home about so I'll go straight into the race report. First off, I knew going into this based on last years results, and my time when riding the bike course that I had to be a favorite going in(in my mind anyway). This was the MedWest Sprint Triathlon in Clyde, NC. It was a small race with only 63 competitors, but it was a really fun race. It was a short pool swim, a 10 mile bike and a 5k run. Being a pool swim you're required to enter an estimated time. As usual, the time I entered was right on the money based on my pace, sadly, the same could not be said for those in front of me. I passed my first person in the third lap, and the fact that there was another swimmer coming on at the same time, in the same lane made for problems. I got elbowed in the face making the pass, but I was able to accomplish it pretty quickly. I passed the next person around 200 yards. Come on people, submit an accurate time! Although I was the 24th person to start, I finished with the 7th fastest swim time. My submitted time was dead on where I finished, which means that almost everyone in the race ahead of me has no idea how to estimate their time. I really need to start inflating my time in pool swims, because I'm tired of dealing with that. I wound up finishing the swim in 4:39. I was satisifed with that, as that's right where I expected to be. On to the bike, this was the part I knew from having rode the course a few days prior. It started out with a downhill right out of transition, which made mounting difficult since I don't put my shoes on till I'm rolling. But I managed to get them on and got on my way. Immediately after the downhill you have about a mile steady, but not steep climb, followed by a LONG downhill into a flat. I tried to push as hard as I could up the hill knowing I could recover on the downhill. I definitely had a strong bike. Knowing the course I knew which hills I could really push and which to take it a bit easy on. I passed probably about 10 riders out there, and didn't get passed at all. I was really strong on the downhills and flats, and only slowed a bit on the long hills. I didn't want to push them too hard, with the run coming up. I finished the bike in just over 30 minutes and averaged 19.6 mph. I had hoped to be at 20, but I was close enough. I wound up finishing with the 9th best bike time overall, so I was pretty happy about that. Next came the run. Dear god, I wish I had at least driven the course before hand. This run was brutal. I started with a short moderate climb before a long steep downhill. Then came about a mile long steady, somewhat steep climb. It was brutal. I finished the first mile in about 10 minutes. Yikes! But after that it wasn't bad for the next nearly 2 miles. It was mostly steadily downhill with small, short uphill sections that didn't bother much. I picked up my pace considerably in those 2 miles, until the final half mile or so. Then we had to wind our way up a switch backing road. It was long, it was steep, and it was hot and sunny. That final push was brutal. I wound up finishing my run in 29:06. Not a bad finish considering after the first mile i was on pace for a 31 minute run, but still not nearly as good as I was hoping for. I wound up finishing 33rd overall in the run. However, I did live up to my hope and did win both my age group(which I wasn't competing in) and the Clydesdale division. So all in all I was really happy with my race performance. I feel like I could've done the run better had I known what was coming, I may have pushed that first hill a little harder if I had known how long it was. I don't know that I could've done anything differently on the last climb as that was just a push for survival. I didn't do a long bike this week because I had to choose between long bike or long run. Seeing as how my running still sucks and my biking is getting a lot better I went with the run. It was another grueling run. I had done a 1000 meter open water swim earlier in the day, and coupled with the previous race the day before, I was running on fairly worn down legs. And it showed. I actually felt pretty strong for the first 4 miles or so, but around mile 5 I really started to feel the wear. I think my biggest mistake was going too fast for the first half. like the 7 miler I did two weeks ago, I started out sub 10 min/mile only to slow considerably towards the end. Last week I started slow and increased my speed by the end. So, lesson learned. Slow the hell down!

Entering week 4, recovery week

So far so good, training has been going well and I'm enjoying the more laid back version of training than I employed last year. I know I'm getting through this race and I'm trying to enjoy myself more, while at the same time, seeing some solid speed improvements finally! Yesterday I had my longest run in, well, since the Ironman. I did 8 miles, and not only was I faster than I've been in years, it actually felt pretty easy. My HR never spiked and I never felt all that tired. I could've easily gone on longer, had I had the need to. I guess the need would be if a bear decided to give chase. But for comparisons sake, last week I did 7 miles in 1:14. This week I did 8 miles in 1:20. Last week I felt faint and a bit nauseous, where yesterday I felt absolutely normal. So, obviously I'm thrilled with my progress. My long ride was very hard to gauge because of the heat that we rode in, and the fact that we had to stop constantly to check the map. We got lost a LOT. It was a bit frustrating. And I ran out of water towards the end and did i mention it was incredibly hot? We were insanely slow, but a lot of that was cause we were talking a LOT and not pushing very hard. But I expect that speed to increase when I'm focused on racing. And, last but not least, I had an awesome swim on sunday too. I was supposed to do 1200, but that just seemed like too short for a long swim, so I planned to do 1500. I got into it and that just seemed to easy so I went for a cool 2000. I never stopped, never felt the least bit tired and did the 2000 in 35 minutes. That puts me well ahead of where I expect to do on my race. Considering that we swim with a current and I'll have a wetsuit. So all in all, I'm quite excited about my training progress. Recovery week ahead!

It's been a while....

So I haven't written anything since my race last week. Good reason for that. Last weeks training was garbage. I missed most of my workouts, didn't do any training this past weekend, and well, it's just been really tough. Lots of responsibilities lately and getting my morning and evening workouts in has been super tough. I'm hoping that this week gets me back on track. I'm just not used to waking up at 5:30, probably because i've been going to bed at 11. I have to get back in the habit of 9-10 pm bedtime, and just sucking it up and getting out of bed when that alarm goes off. I'm actually less tired right now, despite less sleep and the workout than if I slept later. Anyway, I did get in a fairly long workout yesterday. I did a 27.5 mile bike ride in a little over an hour and a half. I love that ride, except for a small stretch where the road is terrible. But it's a really fun ride with one substantial climb and then a lot of other rollers. I did an easy run this morning on the treadmill, and my HR monitor was being really weird. There's no way I was running a 180+ HR while going at a 10 min/mile pace. I'm missing more swimming workouts than I have in the past, but seeing as how that's been my strong suit I'm ok with it. I've been doing all I can to not miss time on the bike. Not only is it the longest leg, but it's going to be the one that has the most impact overall. Being strong on the bike carries over to the run. But anyway, I just registered for Ironman Augusta, so I'm very excited about that. I don't know how it's going to go because I just don't have faith that I'm going to do well with my training. Actually, now that I think about it, it shouldn't be a problem. Now that I"ve lost my job it should be pretty easy to get my training in. Well, hopefully I'm writing again soon cause that means that I've been doing my training. Until then

Biltmore lake Race Report and more

So it's monday again, ugh. This past weekend I raced in the Biltmore Lake Sprint Triathlon. What a great race! Easily the hardest short distance race I've ever done. Last year was the first time I had done it and it came up a few weeks after my first main race and a couple weeks before I began my Ironman training, so I didn't train specifically for it. This year the same could sort of be said, but I'm in the middle of training so I wasn't as off as last year, but even still, I've only been training for 3 weeks so far, so I didn't know what to expect. The swim: The water was a nice 74 degrees, wetsuit legal, and the air was in the low 60's. Very nice combination cause the water actually wound up feeling a bit warm. My swim wave consisted of all the men's groups so we had a pretty large wave. I thought I was lined up pretty straight on to the turn buoy, yet, I was all the way out on the edge of the pack. So I'm not sure what everyone else saw that I didn't, unless the majority of the people thought they had to swim close or to the right of the sight buoy. Either way, it allowed me a more open swim without the battle. I wasn't overly happy with my swim. I wasn't trying to kill myself because I knew I had a brutal bike ride ahead of me, and whatever gains I'd get from the swim would more than be lost on the bike. So I tried to hold back a little bit, but it just wasn't a good swim. I started getting a stomach cramp around the half way point. My only guess for the reason for that was eating the GU's too close to the race start. I usually eat one 45 min before and 15 min before. But I forgot and probably did more like 25 and 5. So it was still sitting there. Lesson learned, eat it earlier. The swim was relatively uneventful which is usually what I go for. I wound up finishing my swim in 14:08(or something like that) which was about 1:30 faster than last year(no wetsuit last year though). So I was pretty happy with that, especially considering I didn't try to push myself too hard. The bike: The bike is where this course gets its reputation. Thirty seconds in the bike you hit your first climb, and it just never stops from there. Nearly the entire route is up or down with virtually no flat stretches. And the stretches that seem flat are usually false flats. I did feel very good getting on the course. I hit the first climb and powered through it. I reached the top not feeling tired at all and started laying into the downhill. The next nasty hill comes in a neighborhood after you've lost all your momemtum from the previous downhill so you hit the hill without much speed. It's short, but it's extremely steep. During races I try to avoid standing as much as possible since that absolutely hammers your quads and makes the run miserable. But this stretch I just had to stand up and push a bit. After the neighborhood you have some slight hills, but I was able to stay aero through these until the first slight downhill where you can really let it loose. It's a pretty fun stretch of windy roads but not too steep. This leads to the most intimidating hill on the course, what I call the roller coaster climb on Pisgah Highway. I'm not going to detail the entire course, but I was very happy with how I did out there. I pushed pretty hard up the climbs, but not too to the point of exhaustion. My only issue was my brakes. There were a few stretches were I had to go slower than I wanted because they were acting and sounding very strange, and was afraid if I went too fast they might fail on me, and that's not a course to have a brake failure. My previous time was about an hour and six minutes and some change. My previous best time just doing the route alone was an hour and four minutes. Yesterday I did it in an hour and 36 seconds. So I blew away last years time so I was thrilled about that. I had hoped to break an hour which I just barely missed, but it gives me a new goal for next year. However, with a good bike you usually have poor run time. The run: I started into the run actually feeling pretty good. Legs weren't hurting me, breathing was under control, and I felt that I was maintaining a pretty good pace. But I also recalled last year feeling the same way right off the bat. I tried to focus on the scenery, the day, anything but the massive hill you encounter right at mile one. I got to the hill still feeling very good. But I knew that was going to change. The hill is absolutely nasty. It's the same on you encounter on the bike ride. Not long, but incredibly steep. I was probably running 12 min/miles up that hill, but so was everyone else around me. One person passed me on the hill and she was barely moving any faster than I was. But when I hit the top I still had plenty of energy which was very encouraging. I knew I was through the most difficult stretch and I could recover coming down the hill and then just push for the final mile and a half. It should also be noted at this point I had yet to have been passed by another person in my division. This meant that I was winning or that I just wasn't the first one out of the water. There really was no way to tell until the awards ceremony. It was also at this point where I got passed by the first person in my division. With a mile and a half to go, and the pace he was going there was no way I could match his pace, so I had to hope that I was at least in second place. I just kept going at the pace I felt I could maintain for the rest of the race. It was a tough finish because the course did roll a little bit, but I definitely felt better than last year when I wood chip got in my shoe and sliced my pinky toe. As I approached the finish line, I realized I definitely could've pushed harder(which has become a common theme), and I came through with a run time of 25:52. Which was almost 5 minutes better than last years time! And a pace of 8:20 min/mile. Crushing my goal of 9 min miles. Wrap up: So, turns out I was second out of the water. The guy who passed me also passed that guy and took first place. I wound up in third. Missing first place by less than 2 minutes. My final time was 1:42:50(ish) which was over 10 minutes faster than last years time. I was more than happy with how I did this weekend. I've never improved that much on a race performance especially considering my lack of training. It's a great race and I hope to better my time again next year. My run is what cost me first place again. Despite my solid run time for myself, it was still one of the slowest in my division. My swim and bike bought me enough time to make up for it. The average time was in the 23's. So by next year I expect to be doing sub 8 min miles and hopefully get my time down to the lower 20's. Yesterday I did a long, recovery ride around the fletcher area. It was an awesome ride back there. It was generally flat with one substantial climb that was a blast to come back down. We went about 28.5 miles and averaged about 16 mph. Definitely took it a lot easier than we had too though after the race we were both a bit worn out. It was a great route, the only negative was the enormous amount of traffic. I plan to do it again, but next time will definitely try to get out early before too many cars take to the road.

Fun ride yesterday, freaking exhausted today

Yesterday I did another great route, but I had to call an audible about halfway through. I had mapped it out, but unfortunately, the map doesn't distinguish paved from unpaved roads. So I got to where I needed to turn and was not about to do another climb on a dirt road. The funny part was that I saw the road and was pretty sure that was it. So, I pulled out my phone to look at the map. Of course I was in a dead zone, so as I'm sitting there waiting for it to load I hear some kind of weird snorting sound. And then I heard it again. I don't know where it could've been coming from as it was fairly open where I was standing, but there were some obstacles. The only thing I could think of was a bear was not liking where I was standing and was kindly telling me that I should be moving on. I chose not to think anymore about what it was, assume it was a bear politely asking me to move and I responded to his request. But all in all it was another good ride. My speed has been way up considering the hills, my HR has been at a decent level, low enough that I had plenty more in the tank for race day confidence. My exhaustion today though, wow. It's probably related to going to bed later than usual last night and perhaps adjusting to the new workload of training. Fortunately, after tomorrow I get three days in a row to sleep in. Oh no I don't. Early race on saturday. Well, I have two days to catch up. Going to be a fun weekend though. Biltmore lake is a great race.

Another day

Still feeling good. Last night I did a 40 minute run around the neighborhood with Rachel on her bike. As usual the neighborhood is a pretty tough route. I did 3.75 miles in 40 minutes. So my pace was a 10:41 min/mile with an average HR of 156. I'm trying not to focus on HR while running but instead on how I feel. So considering the hilly nature of that route I'm really happy with that time and HR. I'm definitely running faster by focusing on RPE rather than watching my HR constantly, and running is a bit more enjoyable by just enjoying the outdoors instead of constantly focusing on my watch. I missed my run this morning since I woke up and it was pouring. But I"ll more than make up for it with the Biltmore Triathlon on saturday. That race is a killer, but it's a pretty fun race as well. I'm looking forward to it! Going for another podium finish! Woohoo!

Another week down, another week closer

Well, two weeks down. Only a short 17 to go. I really really enjoy training now. It's crazy. I did miss a workout friday, but, oh well. It was a short bike ride. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't going to make any difference in the long run. We had a trip to Virginia that made getting a double workout in friday pretty difficult. But I did make myself get out for my longish ride yesterday. That was a really nice ride, but I did push a little harder than I intended. But it felt good. I think I actually enjoy pushing myself than the laid back training I was doing last year. Not to mention the fact that riding hundreds of miles on Riverside drive got very old after a while. So doing new and different routes is a lot more enjoyable. I did the same ride yesterday that I did last week and I improved by 5 minutes. But I did push harder. I haven't looked at my average HR but I'm sure it was higher. But I'm starting to think I'm going to get a better return on the investment than by just going along at an easy pace the whole time. However, my cruising speeds are far higher than they were last year. Last year I'd usually cruise around 18 I'm pushing 21-22. Probably a combination of better aero position and using the big ring in the front instead of the small. I'm using a bit more power but it doesn't seem to be wearing me out any more. I've also used this strategy in races and my runs haven't been affected. Today I had my first truly long swim. The warmup was a 4 x 200 with a main set of 1500. It was very easy. Speed was ok, but the ease of it was what I was going for, and I truly hate long distance in a pool. Nothing like staring at the same blue line for 30 straight minutes. I much prefer open water swims for those kind of distances. I need to find a lake I can go swimming in close by. All in all training is still going great. My weight is starting to creep down much sooner than I'd have liked. Time to start ramping up the amount of food I eat. I'm at 205 right now, down from 210 just two weeks ago. I don't want to drop below 200 until more like september. At this late i'll be in the low 190's by then. Rachel will NOT approve of that!