So today I finished my last major workout before the Over the Mountain Triathlon. I have three 20 minute workouts of each sport left, but those are basically just going through the motions. Very very easy sessions then the big day.
Today was a 1300 yard swim. I tried simulating the race conditions as much as possible. I did a main set of 800 yards, with a 300 warm up and a 200 cool down. For the main set, I did the first 150 really hard, then tried to settle into an easy pace. I was breathing very heavy after the 150 but was able to settle in and had no problem completely the distance. I have no idea what my time was since I can't seem to really count my laps without my watch. But mainly my goal was to go really hard, then settle in to a comfortable pace. I think I will go with this strategy on saturday, but it is a long race, and I did have those breathing problems last time. But at least this time I'll know that I"ll be able to settle down and control my breathing better.
Last year my time was 3:16:52. This year my goal is to crack 3:10:00. I believe I can shave 6 minutes off my run and 5 from my swim. So that makes my dream time around 3:05:00.
My next post will likely be my race report.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Clemson Triathlon Race Report
Saturday May 14th was the Clemson Triathlon. I finished 7th of 19 in the Clydesdale Division and 119th out of 289 overall.
It was a lake swim with a fairly large wave. However, despite the size it was a relatively easy swim as far as the punch/kick factor. I started out in front and probably started out a little too fast. But that may have been what kept from getting knocked around. It was also the first race in my new wetsuit, and I experienced an interesting sensation. I had some trouble breathing in the first 300 yards of the swim because it felt like the wetsuit was keeping me from being able to fully expand my lungs. It was a big scary feeling at first, but it was a good learning experience. By the second half of the swim it wasn't bothering me too much anymore. The questions remains...do I keep my pace down early on and deal with the mass of swimmers, or do I get out to a fast start, scale back a bit, struggle a bit with my breathing, but avoid the pounding of the mass? This coming weekend is my big race that I've really been focusing on and a much longer swim that the Clemson race so it remains to be seen how I'll go about it. In the end I finished 6th in my group in the swim. Which wasn't too bad, but certainly room for improvement. I finished the 750 meter swim in 14:27.
The bike portion was very good for me. It started out with a long downhill then finally hit a couple uphills. There was much talk about the "big" climb at mile 8, which had me worried because there were several long climbs already, none of which were written of in the description. However, the mile 8 climb was almost nothing because a long hill led to it, that allowed to you make it to nearly the top without much work. I averaged 18.7 mph for the ride, which is pretty good for me and the climbs didn't push me too hard. The transition to the bike I went the simple route and did not pre attach my shoes to the pedals, which probably cost me a few seconds, but since I hadn't been practicing it, I didn't want to screw up and cost myself more time. I did my standard dismount by removing my shoes before the end and popped off easily. I finished the bike 8th in my group with a time of 34:47.
The run was a pretty difficult one, but I enjoyed it. It started out flat, if not a very slight uphill, which then turned downhill and then substantially downhill for a while. After flattening out at about .8 miles, it remained flat for a half mile. Around 1.3 was a monster hill. It wasn't long, but man was it steep. I just focused on the ground and pushed through it. After that it was flat for about a mile and then you got back to the hill, but it was a steep descent this time, which I flew through and tried to recover a bit knowing the long, but not steep ascent was coming. I made it through that climb pretty well, and was able to really push hard through the final half mile and finish very strong. I finished the run 7th in my group with a time of 25:38, which was a pace of 8:15 per mile. Not too bad, but I want to improve upon that next time.
Next up, Over the Mountain Olympic Triathlon.
*Side note, interesting training ride yesterday. This was the first time I chose not to bring a wallet or my phone. So this happened to be the first time since I've owned the bike that I got a flat tire on a ride. And of course it happened literally at the turn around of an out and back. The furthest point away from home. Fortunately I remembered Youngblood Bicycles was about 2 miles away. So I walked there and they were kind of enough to not only fill my tires, but lend me a couple CO2 cartridges in case I had another problem. The other lesson learned, learn to use your equipment before you need it. I had CO2 and another tube but didn't know how to use the CO2 and blew it out without filling the tube.
Good to learn the lesson a short ride in town though. Could've been much worse.
It was a lake swim with a fairly large wave. However, despite the size it was a relatively easy swim as far as the punch/kick factor. I started out in front and probably started out a little too fast. But that may have been what kept from getting knocked around. It was also the first race in my new wetsuit, and I experienced an interesting sensation. I had some trouble breathing in the first 300 yards of the swim because it felt like the wetsuit was keeping me from being able to fully expand my lungs. It was a big scary feeling at first, but it was a good learning experience. By the second half of the swim it wasn't bothering me too much anymore. The questions remains...do I keep my pace down early on and deal with the mass of swimmers, or do I get out to a fast start, scale back a bit, struggle a bit with my breathing, but avoid the pounding of the mass? This coming weekend is my big race that I've really been focusing on and a much longer swim that the Clemson race so it remains to be seen how I'll go about it. In the end I finished 6th in my group in the swim. Which wasn't too bad, but certainly room for improvement. I finished the 750 meter swim in 14:27.
The bike portion was very good for me. It started out with a long downhill then finally hit a couple uphills. There was much talk about the "big" climb at mile 8, which had me worried because there were several long climbs already, none of which were written of in the description. However, the mile 8 climb was almost nothing because a long hill led to it, that allowed to you make it to nearly the top without much work. I averaged 18.7 mph for the ride, which is pretty good for me and the climbs didn't push me too hard. The transition to the bike I went the simple route and did not pre attach my shoes to the pedals, which probably cost me a few seconds, but since I hadn't been practicing it, I didn't want to screw up and cost myself more time. I did my standard dismount by removing my shoes before the end and popped off easily. I finished the bike 8th in my group with a time of 34:47.
The run was a pretty difficult one, but I enjoyed it. It started out flat, if not a very slight uphill, which then turned downhill and then substantially downhill for a while. After flattening out at about .8 miles, it remained flat for a half mile. Around 1.3 was a monster hill. It wasn't long, but man was it steep. I just focused on the ground and pushed through it. After that it was flat for about a mile and then you got back to the hill, but it was a steep descent this time, which I flew through and tried to recover a bit knowing the long, but not steep ascent was coming. I made it through that climb pretty well, and was able to really push hard through the final half mile and finish very strong. I finished the run 7th in my group with a time of 25:38, which was a pace of 8:15 per mile. Not too bad, but I want to improve upon that next time.
Next up, Over the Mountain Olympic Triathlon.
*Side note, interesting training ride yesterday. This was the first time I chose not to bring a wallet or my phone. So this happened to be the first time since I've owned the bike that I got a flat tire on a ride. And of course it happened literally at the turn around of an out and back. The furthest point away from home. Fortunately I remembered Youngblood Bicycles was about 2 miles away. So I walked there and they were kind of enough to not only fill my tires, but lend me a couple CO2 cartridges in case I had another problem. The other lesson learned, learn to use your equipment before you need it. I had CO2 and another tube but didn't know how to use the CO2 and blew it out without filling the tube.
Good to learn the lesson a short ride in town though. Could've been much worse.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
196 Days to Ironman Arizona
So it's been a month since I've posted. More than a month actually. Well, I lost my job a while back, so I haven't been in front of the computer much. I've had a harder time keeping up with training since I lost my job. Kind of hard to believe, but I've been doing a lot of work for my parents, which hasn't been as rigidly scheduled as work, which has made it tougher to get my training. But, aside from last week, when we moved, I've hardly missed a day at all. I really got back to it this past week and made all my sessions...didn't get them in when I was supposed to, but I got them all in. Took some gerry mandering, but I got it done. After missing all but about 2-3 sessions the week before, I knew this was an important week to get them all done.
So, I don't remember everything about training from that month, but I'll talk about a few of the highlights. The Paris Mountain Olympic Tri was canceled due to weather. I tried to head out to Valdese to do that sprint, that race too wound up being cancelled due to weather. So, I didn't get to race last month. Bummer. Instead, on that day, my schedule called for a 7 mile run. I ran at the Biltmore Estate, and just felt so good that day, I wound up going for 10.5 miles. It was by far the best run I've had of the season.
Now for the low lights. Now this may have been induced by lack of training and being worn out from the work at my parents, but this week i had my three runs, tues/wed/thurs, with thursday being the longest of them. The tuesday and wednesday runs went very well. I ran around the area here, which includes some steep hills and some long, less steep hills. Then I was already feeling pretty worn down on thursday, but pushed myself to do the run. A half mile into the 6.3 mile run, I was definitely not feeling it, and knew it was going to be a very difficult run. However, those are the one's where you really show yourself what you're made of. It would've been very easy to chalk it up to a tough week and being tired already and thrown in the towel, but I knew I wasn't hurt, and I wasn't pushing myself through any kind of pain, so I kept at it. 1 hr and 15 minutes later I finished the 6.3 grueling miles, but I felt really good about myself for pushing through adverse conditions. I know there are going to be moments at the ironman where I don't know how I'm going to go on, but these are the days I will be able to draw from, and have the confidence to know I can keep going.
I had a similarly difficult bike ride, also that same thursday. That was a very difficult day. 6.3 miles of running, a 2 hour break, then 28 miles of cycling, which some seriously hard core hills. But in the end I made it through. I had a decent run today, nothing to write home about, nothing to scoff at. Very easy pace, I was definitely feeling it, but I did 8 miles in 1 hr 28 min. About a 11 min/mile pace. I just need to get through this week's 40 mile ride, and I'll be entering taper period for the Over the Mountain olympic.
Almost there....
So, I don't remember everything about training from that month, but I'll talk about a few of the highlights. The Paris Mountain Olympic Tri was canceled due to weather. I tried to head out to Valdese to do that sprint, that race too wound up being cancelled due to weather. So, I didn't get to race last month. Bummer. Instead, on that day, my schedule called for a 7 mile run. I ran at the Biltmore Estate, and just felt so good that day, I wound up going for 10.5 miles. It was by far the best run I've had of the season.
Now for the low lights. Now this may have been induced by lack of training and being worn out from the work at my parents, but this week i had my three runs, tues/wed/thurs, with thursday being the longest of them. The tuesday and wednesday runs went very well. I ran around the area here, which includes some steep hills and some long, less steep hills. Then I was already feeling pretty worn down on thursday, but pushed myself to do the run. A half mile into the 6.3 mile run, I was definitely not feeling it, and knew it was going to be a very difficult run. However, those are the one's where you really show yourself what you're made of. It would've been very easy to chalk it up to a tough week and being tired already and thrown in the towel, but I knew I wasn't hurt, and I wasn't pushing myself through any kind of pain, so I kept at it. 1 hr and 15 minutes later I finished the 6.3 grueling miles, but I felt really good about myself for pushing through adverse conditions. I know there are going to be moments at the ironman where I don't know how I'm going to go on, but these are the days I will be able to draw from, and have the confidence to know I can keep going.
I had a similarly difficult bike ride, also that same thursday. That was a very difficult day. 6.3 miles of running, a 2 hour break, then 28 miles of cycling, which some seriously hard core hills. But in the end I made it through. I had a decent run today, nothing to write home about, nothing to scoff at. Very easy pace, I was definitely feeling it, but I did 8 miles in 1 hr 28 min. About a 11 min/mile pace. I just need to get through this week's 40 mile ride, and I'll be entering taper period for the Over the Mountain olympic.
Almost there....
Monday, April 4, 2011
Still a lot of days till the Ironman
So it's monday April 4th. The beginning of what looks like our last week of work. Hopefully not though. I had a great weekend of training. I started with a monstrous(way too big in hindsight) breakfast on Saturday morning then did a 6.7 mile run. I think i paced around 11:30 miles, very slow, but was comfortable the whole time, which I believe is the important thing. Took the Willy monster with me and he was great for the most part. I started getting abdominal cramps around 3 miles or so. That was probably in part due to the huge breakfast, but I also should probably start bringing water on these long runs. I could be dehydrating as well.
Sunday was a brick workout. I did 35 miles on the bike in 2 hr, 15 min. Probably could've been a bit faster but I was with a slow group that I spent a lot of time waiting for. But at the same time, I should be going a bit slower on my long rides, so perhaps it was a good thing. I followed that immediately with a 2.9 mile run that took about 30 minutes. It was a tough run with rolling hills, but I felt really good for teh most part and kept my HR in the 160's through out most of it. Only towards the top of the hills did I start pushing into the mid 170's which is to be expected.
All in all, a solid training weekend and perfect weather. I got my 2000 yard swim done already and did it in 38 minutes. It was a solid endurance workout with no breaks. Just a straight long swim. This evening I'm doing 16 miles of easy spinning. Should be a nice easy smooth workout to recover a bit from this weekend.
Sunday was a brick workout. I did 35 miles on the bike in 2 hr, 15 min. Probably could've been a bit faster but I was with a slow group that I spent a lot of time waiting for. But at the same time, I should be going a bit slower on my long rides, so perhaps it was a good thing. I followed that immediately with a 2.9 mile run that took about 30 minutes. It was a tough run with rolling hills, but I felt really good for teh most part and kept my HR in the 160's through out most of it. Only towards the top of the hills did I start pushing into the mid 170's which is to be expected.
All in all, a solid training weekend and perfect weather. I got my 2000 yard swim done already and did it in 38 minutes. It was a solid endurance workout with no breaks. Just a straight long swim. This evening I'm doing 16 miles of easy spinning. Should be a nice easy smooth workout to recover a bit from this weekend.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Cool Breeze Triathlon Race Report-long read
Cool Breeze Triathlon, 3-27-2011
Huntersville, NC
Sunday morning, March 27th 2011, and what a day it is. I look out the window of the hotel and it’s dark. As to be expected, it’s 5:30 in the morning. But what I also saw and sadly expected was the nice pretty shine of rain water on asphalt. Unfortunately, the meteorologists got this one right. They also got the temperature right…a solid 38 degrees. And I’m thinking to myself, “yep, I’m going to get out of a pool, in nothing but shorts and a tank top and run into this weather, get on my bike, and then ride 20 mph. “ Nothing like a 20 mph breeze up against wet skin to wake you up in the morning. Fortunately I did bring one of my long sleeve cycling jerseys to the race with me. I didn’t know if I’d use it or not, I mean…who would want to give up valuable seconds in order to be somewhat comfortable for the next 40 minutes. This is serious stuff we’re talking about here! So, we both finally get up and get dressed and head to the lobby for the gourmet continental breakfast provided by the lovely Days Inn. Just the walk to the car gave me a brief idea of what this morning had in store for me. I was dressed in long pants, long sleeve shirt and a jacket and the cold breeze hit me and made me shiver, it also made me think of how that was going to feel in almost no clothes soaking wet. I couldn’t wait! So, let me get back to the outstanding breakfast. It consisted of stale white bagels, pretty nasty danishes (so I was told by Rachel), cereal, OJ, coffee and milk. Oh well, we knew we weren’t paying for luxury, and the bagel did the job for me.
So after finishing breakfast we headed out to the race. Wow…crowded…fortunately I already grabbed my packet the night before, so I just had to set up my bike before 7:30. Fortunately the traffic line wasn’t nearly as long as I thought. We waited about 5 minutes then proceeded to the parking lot. After parking and unloading my gear, we had the long walk to the transition area. My hand holding the bike went numb. Awesome! I’m moving 3 miles an hour, dry, and my hands numb. Nope, didn’t plan to wear gloves on the bike…too much time to put them on. It had been about 7 months since my last race, so my preparation wasn’t quite as in tune as it is mid season. First I put my bike up on the rack…yep, on the correct side. Then I unloaded all my gear. Put the towel on the ground and then started laying everything out. First I set up my helmet on my aero bar along with my sunglasses. Clipped my bike shoes into the pedal (I’ve really got to practice this maneuver, more to come on that later) then laid out my running stuff. Seemed like so little gear. So I just sat and stared at everything, feeling absolutely positive that I was in fact forgetting something. And in a tri, forgetting something can be a minor inconvenience all the way through forcing a disqualification. So after about 5 minutes of staring at my gear, I felt satisfied and headed into the pool area.
Holy crap it’s crowded in here! Finally after weaving my way through everyone I get into the actual pool area and spot my wife in the bleachers. Finally I get to sit and relax for a bit before warming up. Oh yea, it’s still freezing outside, the warmth of the building was so nice! So about 15 minutes till start time I go for my quick warm up. I swam 300 meters, nice and easy. Well, I actually pushed a bit harder and warmed up at nearly my race pace. Didn’t feel like it though, it actually felt good. Back out of the pool now I’m waiting for my 8:27:20 start time.
So the race started…though no one seemed to realize it. Most years they’ve gotten on the bull horn, and I swear they played the national anthem, but I might just be making that part up. But yea, all of a sudden people were in the pool again and it was actually the start of the race. Very anticlimactic. Oh well. Now the time’s ticking down to my start, and it came pretty quickly. Around 8:20 I get up and get in line. Fortunately, I’m one guy away from the 2 minute break, an old guy who wasn’t going to be catching me. Unfortunately, there was also an older woman in front of me; she was actually 20 seconds ahead of me because the person between us was a no show. So I figured that was good, at least if I caught her it would take a while. For those who don’t know…in a pool race, you submit an estimated 100 yard time. This is the pace you expect to hold for 250 yards (the length of the swim), not the fastest you can do. More on that later. So, time to go….I got off to a very good solid start. The first lap I felt I had solid, powerful strokes and I was gliding effortlessly. I had been working on my flip turns all winter, and again during warm-ups. Well, as I approach the wall, my mind goes blank and I completely forgot what to do. DAMMIT!!! Once again, there will be no flip turns for me in this race. That probably costs me about 15 seconds over the course of the race. So, length number two, I catch the old woman. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! You should never catch someone that quickly with a 20 second head start. She clearly either lied or had no idea what she was doing when she submitted her swim time. I submitted a time of 1:35, and I paced around 1:32...so slightly faster. I looked her up, and based on her swim time she paced 2:20. I really think that should count as a penalty. But anyway, I passed one more person on the swim on my way. Oh yea, the old guy who was not going to be an issue….he was on my toes the entire race! But never was able to pass me. We get to the end and climb out as we exit the doors, a racer from the other pool and I leave together and hit the cold air and both let out a, “HOLY CRAP” it was like a punch in the face. 40 degree air and a wet body is a bad combination. I guess when you’re in race mode you get over it quick because it didn’t faze me as much as I expected. I just hustled to my bike to get ready for the next leg.
The transition went smooth. Getting my shirt on was a bit difficult, for one I’ve never put more clothes on in the TA, but getting that thing over wet skin was a little difficult. But I got it on, put on the helmet and sunglasses and took off. Again, the shoes were already clipped to the pedals, so it was just a simple matter of hopping on the bike and putting my feet in on the fly. Simple. HA. For some reason it wasn’t so simple this time. First off, I haven’t done that move in 7 months. Probably should’ve practiced. Second, my feet were wet, which made it a lot harder to slip in. It took me probably a quarter mile to finally get my feet in the shoes and get them tightened up properly. But it was a good lesson that that’s something I really need to work on, aside from race day. Once I got going though I felt pretty strong on the bike. I was hitting the hills strong, passing a lot of racers and moving pretty fast. What I remember most about the bike though was the one long hill where the wind was pretty strong at our face. Even on the steeper hills I was pushing about 14-15 mph, yet this one, which wasn’t all that steep I was struggling to go 12. The wind was defeating, and the hill seemed to extend forever. Fortunately I only remember being passed by a handful of riders, which I guess means I was just that much faster of a swimmer that I had such a huge head start, cause overall, I still didn’t do all that well on the bike. We finally came around to the final stretch; I lowered my gears, increasing my cadence to get my legs ready for the 5k. My dismount was flawless; it went a lot smoother than the mount. As I approached about 500 feet out, I undid my shoes and get my feet out of them, pedaling from the top of them. As I approached the line, I slowed a bit, and hit the line, popped off the bike and took off running perfectly in stride, didn’t even waste a second on the dismount. For some reason I have that part down, it’s the first part that still eludes me, anyway, I digress.
Entering the second transition I wasn’t really sure if I still had feet. I looked down and did still see 10 toes which made me happy, because the sense of feeling had vacated me long ago. Having no feeling in my feet made it surprisingly difficult to get my shoes on. I guess I use my toes a bit to pull the shoe on, and that was not possible on this morning. But I did manage to get my shoes on pretty quickly, grabbed my number and took off. I attached my belt as I ran to the TA exit area and proceeded on to the run.
Due to the rain the night before they had to change the run course, much to my chagrin. Instead of it being an out and back, with just a short mild hill to start off with then flat changing to downhill for the final push. But not on this day. Part of the original course is on the side of the road on a dirt path. We were told that due to the rain that stretch would be unrunnable, so the course was changed to go up and down the same road twice then over to the finish. This changed the terrain to starting with a steep downhill, then back up the steep uphill, then a long less steep uphill, another turn around, then a long LOVELY downhill, turn around again, to the long steep uphill, followed by the long less steep uphill, but then, we still got to finish with the long downhill to the finish. So, I did ok. Close to my goal, probably could’ve hit my goal if I had just pushed a bit harder. So I started out easing myself into the race, letting gravity do its thing on the first descent, saving myself for the climb. I took it easy on the climb and felt fine, then pushed a bit harder for the remainder of the first mile which was mostly uphill. I remembered passing Rachel at what was about the half way point of the road. This really helped break the run into shorter sections. Get to the turn around, get to Rachel and say hi, get to the next turn around, repeat. The second mile we started out on the downhill, so I again let gravity work said hi to Rachel and Bandit, but kept my speed up all the way to the bottom of the steep hill, the second time up the steep hill was a bit tougher…and I was breathing pretty heavily on the way up it. Again thinking, just another minute to Rachel. I got to her and said hi again, mentioned the fact that despite all the work, it didn’t get me warm, then proceeded to hit the next turn around. Also knowing the next time I saw her would be after the race. It was also about this point that a girl, whose name I’ll never know, passed me. I’m used to getting passed on the run, but I found myself still just a few feet behind her after a while, then I made myself catch her. I made a comment about her pushing me, so we agreed to push each other for the rest. We both started picking up our pace, with the other following suit. When we got to the 3 mile mark she started slipping back…I loudly, but playfully, told her to catch up, which she did…we both then got to the final chute and turned into an all out sprint to the finish line. It was the first time I finished a race with a smile on my face! It was an awesome race, and thank you to the unknown racer who helped push me along! That was a really fun finish.
The final results were a 3:58 swim, 2nd in my division, which was about what I was hoping to do, 42:14 on the bike, 7th in my division, much slower than I wanted, and 25:26 on the run, also 7th in my division, which was an 8 min 12 second per mile pace. Not bad, but I want to improve. My goal is to get to the 7:30 mark for a sprint.
I finished 4th in the Clydesdale division out of 20. I was very pleased with this time, it should be mentioned that I beat the 5th place guy by 2 seconds. Clearly if it were not for the unknown racer, I would not have beaten him. She probably helped me finish a good 30 seconds faster than I would have. I finished 169th out of 565 total racers. All in all I was very happy with my performance, but it would’ve been nice to snag that 3rd place spot. Oh well, there are more races to be had.
So, what did I take home from this race? Well, first, my swimming is excellent. Out of 565 racers I had the 77th fastest swim, and I wasn’t pushing as hard as I could. Swimming continues to be my strongest sport. Which I really don’t understand. I’ve been swimming for 3 years now off and on, but have ran and cycled for a LOT longer. Biking and even more so, running, continue to be weak points for me and I will continue to work on them. My run to bike transition needs improvement, specifically when mounting the bike. It’s nothing I can’t accomplish, but just something that needs to be practiced more often. I don’t feel like I made any mistakes on the run, aside from the fact that I probably could’ve pushed a little bit harder on the down hills than I did, instead of only letting gravity do the work. I will improve my running, as I know I can do better. I may try a couple 5k and 10k’s around here to work on my race running. I’ve always run better in practice than the real deal, so that could be another avenue to try. Well if you made it this far I really appreciate you taking the time. This was my first race report so I probably wrote way too much and way more than you really care about! But I did try to make it somewhat interesting and I hope you enjoyed!
Monday, March 21, 2011
245 days till Ironman Arizona
Today is monday, and I had two great long distance workouts this weekend. Saturday I ran 6 miles, at a 10:45 minute pace. My HR averaged on 156. I love seeing such huge improvement on that account.
Yesterday I did my longest bike ride to date(this season). I rode for 40 miles, did it in 2 hrs and 34 minutes, with a pace of 16 mph. Much faster than I've been riding, but there were also far less hills than I'm accustomed too. Even still, I was very happy with it, as there were still plenty of steep hills out there. My HR was a very comfortably low 141 for the ride. Far lower than I've experienced before.
All in all, it was a great weekend of training to head in to my recovery(or taper) week, leading into my first race of the season on Sunday. I'm excited, confident, and ready to kick butt! See ya soon Huntersville!
Yesterday I did my longest bike ride to date(this season). I rode for 40 miles, did it in 2 hrs and 34 minutes, with a pace of 16 mph. Much faster than I've been riding, but there were also far less hills than I'm accustomed too. Even still, I was very happy with it, as there were still plenty of steep hills out there. My HR was a very comfortably low 141 for the ride. Far lower than I've experienced before.
All in all, it was a great weekend of training to head in to my recovery(or taper) week, leading into my first race of the season on Sunday. I'm excited, confident, and ready to kick butt! See ya soon Huntersville!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
249 days to go
Been a very long time since my last post. Maybe one of these days I'll get back to daily posts. The training so far is going excellent. Yesterday I did my first real brick of the season. I saw "real" because I technically did one a few weeks ago after a 27 mile ride, but only ran for a mile. And man it was a difficult mile.
Yesterday I did a 20 mile ride, averaged about 14.5 mph, and there was a 4.6 mile climb, with an elevation gain of 1500 ft. And a good portion of the climb was on a dirt/gravel road. That didn't make it much easier. Oh yea, I saw a bear and a wild turkey along the way. Anyway, I digress, so the ride took about 1.5 hours, then I proceeded immediately into a 3 mile run. Well, 3.1. I completed that in about 30 minutes, give or take. And not only that, it was easy. My HR was a comfortable 165-170 during the run(higher than it would be for that pace normally). It gave me a lot of confidence going into my race next weekend. Not to mention the Paris Island Olympic next month. That bike route is very similar to yesterday's route.
Today I had another great run. I ran a 4.7 mile route, lots of ups and downs, which I'm getting very good at now, and I ran it in 44:15. For a pace of about 9.5 min miles and averaged an HR of 156. A few months ago I was running 11-12 min miles to keep my HR around that level, so I'm quite happy about my accomplishments to this point. Race season is just around the corner, finally!
Had some fairly painful testicular issues today. Hopefully it was just a one time thing and not a recurrence. Not gonna be able to deal with that on race day.
Yesterday I did a 20 mile ride, averaged about 14.5 mph, and there was a 4.6 mile climb, with an elevation gain of 1500 ft. And a good portion of the climb was on a dirt/gravel road. That didn't make it much easier. Oh yea, I saw a bear and a wild turkey along the way. Anyway, I digress, so the ride took about 1.5 hours, then I proceeded immediately into a 3 mile run. Well, 3.1. I completed that in about 30 minutes, give or take. And not only that, it was easy. My HR was a comfortable 165-170 during the run(higher than it would be for that pace normally). It gave me a lot of confidence going into my race next weekend. Not to mention the Paris Island Olympic next month. That bike route is very similar to yesterday's route.
Today I had another great run. I ran a 4.7 mile route, lots of ups and downs, which I'm getting very good at now, and I ran it in 44:15. For a pace of about 9.5 min miles and averaged an HR of 156. A few months ago I was running 11-12 min miles to keep my HR around that level, so I'm quite happy about my accomplishments to this point. Race season is just around the corner, finally!
Had some fairly painful testicular issues today. Hopefully it was just a one time thing and not a recurrence. Not gonna be able to deal with that on race day.
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