Just one more week to go till I start my 4 week taper before the Beach to Battleship Iron length triathlon. Which will be my first race of that distance. I've often read in various blogs and internet forums that its the journey towards an ironman more than the race itself that will leave a lasting impact. Of course when you haevn't actually trained for one you don't really understand this. And now, as I am ever so close to the taper I can really begin to understand what people mean when they say that. Training for an Ironman is like nothing else I've ever done. Its HARD, and its ALWAYS there, and its ALWAYS on your mind. When you start to get to the point when your 8 or 9 weeks out from the race and the workouts start to get longer and longer it begins to completely dominate your life. Here's some snippets and random thoughts that have gone through my mind in the last few weeks which have been the hardest by far.
-for every workout session (and many days have 2 sessions a day) there is at least 20-30 minutes of prep required. Mixing nutrition, checking the weather, packing appropritate clothes, figuring out when in the day you can get the workout in, checking in with training partners to see if you can line your workouts up. Then of course there is another 30 minutes on the backside of the workout to rinse bottles, hang up sweaty clothes, take a shower, eat some recovery food, and maybe if you have time do some stretching. So thats almost an additional hour in every day for every single workout.
-I've consumed a horrifying amount of gatorade and hammer gel. I finally gave up and ordered six giant tubs of gatorade endurance drink powder and six giant jugs of hammer gel. I know I've gone through at least 4 jugs of gel and at least 4 or 5 tubs of gatorade powder this summer. I've also consumed easily 100 powerbars and another 100-200 balance bars. And its not that I love this stuff... but it works, and it fuels me, and so I drink it.
-I'm tired of being tired. The girl will often ask me how I'm doing... I seem to always respond "I'm tired". Its become a joke at this point... but I am often tired. Theres just a lot to do every single day between training, work, and life. And its tiring. And I wouldn't change it for the world. The girl has been on vacation with her girlfriends for a 2.5 week trip. What have I done with my time in the evenings with her away? I've slept. I've gone to bed by 8pm most nights and slept up to 10 hours a night when I can. And when I can't I still stay in bed for 10 hours and read and relax.
-Some other random things I seem to be going through a lot of are... ibuprofen, laundry detergent, simple green (to clean bikes), paper towels, tires (I finally switched to gatorskins for training in order to make them last the rest of the season), chain lube (oh how I wish it would stop raining so I didn't have to constantly clean and relube my bike), goggles, tubes (I need to start patching them), and gas to drive to workouts all over the place.This is just a small list... if you are thinking about training for an Ironman you should know that the cost of the training will far outweigh the hotel and race entry fees.
-I've had some of my highest highs and lowest lows going through this training and after a while your emotions become unseperable from your training. When I have a workout go to crap I feel awful for the entire day. I had a planned 100 mile ride that was made up of two 50 mile loops. After 30 miles of loop one I fell apart. I softpedalled the last 20 miles back to the car at an embarrasingly slow pace. Real life had caught up with me, I hadn't slept enough, I'd worked too much and I'd trained to much and my body had enough. So I had to call it a day and go home with my tail between my legs. This of course happens on the girls birthday. I had a really really hard time keeping my emotions to myself that day... coming home and sulking was not an option, but on the inside I was miserable. And of course I was also really really angry at myself for being mad about a workout on her birthday. But after a while you just can't control it. A new wattage high on a workout and you feel like a million bucks! A crappy swim workout and you want to curl up in a ball and feel sorry for yourself. Its been quite the emotional roller coaster. And I'm sorry... if you are reading this thinking you are some kind of tough guy who can seperate training and emotion and I'm some kind of pussy who can't... well.... You're a liar... you feel these things too... you're just in denial. At least for your first Ironman anyway.
-On Saturday of last week I swam 4,000 yards in the pool and then went and rode 120 miles 30 minutes later. I had company for the first sixty miles and then did the last sixty by myself. At hour 2 of that ride I realized I still had five hours to go. That was hard. At hour 5 I felt pretty good knowing I was almost done, just two hours to go. At six hours in I was literally going insane. My brain was YELLING at me to stop pedalling and go sit down somewhere. I was literally reduced to repeatedly counting to 100 over and over and over again to get through that last hour. I just pedalled, and counted and ignored my brain. Mentally I'm very strong, but I have to say the Ironman is a whole new animal, and I'm only just starting to learn how to control it. I still can't imagine what mile 20 of that marathon is going to feel like on race day. I just know I've got a large mental toolkit ready to fight whatever my brain puts up.
-Sometimes I start to panic that I haven't trained enough. But I have a fantastic progression of volume, and I've worked my longest efforts up to 2.4 mile swims, 120 mile rides, and 20 mile runs. On paper there is nothing to worry about... and yet I can't help but worry that I haven't trained enough. This thing just feels larger than life and its hard to feel confident about it.
-I'm starting to put together a race plan based solidly on training results. I'm optimistic for a strong day, but I'm not ready to say anything out loud yet.
-I think I might be the only person in the world who can train for an ironman and put in anywhere from 16-20 hours of training a week and still gain weight. Some of the weight I've gained is muscle. I can see it in my chest and legs and can see the improvements in my bike fitness as well. And some of it is not. I'm 10lbs heavier now than I was at the FIRM half ironman last year. I can't stop eating. All this training just leaves me feeling absolutely STARVED all the time no matter how much I put down. Sometimes I make great healthy choices... some days I fail epicly. But I'm doing the best I can. But it could be better.
-I'd write more.... but I'm tired. And its 8:30... which is past my bedtime, and I have a 2.4 mile swim and a 20 mile run to do tomorrow before coming home and working on my wedding invitations. Its going to be a busy day! Goodnight!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Good News On Many Fronts
Wow... what an incredible week this has been. So much has happened... So without further ado lets get to it....
The Big Announcement!:
Tuesday was the one year anniversary of my first date with the girl. At the end of an amazing night together and a bit of trickery and despite the pouring rain and awful weather, I proposed to the girl against the backdrop of Newport Harbour under the gazebo. She said yes! So happy happy days! There is certainly a lot more to our relationship than training related things, but the amazing support and encouragement I get everyday from the girl has been such an amazing motivator this past year. She's amazing, and fabulous, and every day I wake up thankfull she's come into my life. So I'm very excited about spending the rest of my life with her. Oh, and did I mention if all goes well and we can get in we'll be racing Ironman Florida together next year? Even without our common intrest in swim/bike/run I know we'd be just as happy together, but I really do love that we can share in such things. And yes... if you're wondering... some part of our wedding will involve a workout! I'm thinking either a morning swim (we're going to get married on a beach) or a morning run will be offered to all guests!
Best Support Group Ever!:
I don't know that I've talked much about just how supportive the girl is about things I care a lot about. She's amazing in that regard. She's only just recently divulged that she's working on brining quite the large group of spectators to come and watch me take on my first Ironman in seven weeks! As of right now my future in laws, and some fantastic friends in the Georgia/Florida area are hoping to be able to make it to cheer me and my fellow Tri-New England teammates on. As well as rallying the troops the girl has also already ordered posterboard to make signs with, and becuase she's even more amazing than that she's had custom T-shirts made up for everyone! She has gone ahead and designed and had made a bunch of different "Team Wisdom" tshirts with fun sayings on them to cheer me on! I'm truly lucky to have someone so supportive of my goals! I love it! and I love her!
The Big Announcement!:
Tuesday was the one year anniversary of my first date with the girl. At the end of an amazing night together and a bit of trickery and despite the pouring rain and awful weather, I proposed to the girl against the backdrop of Newport Harbour under the gazebo. She said yes! So happy happy days! There is certainly a lot more to our relationship than training related things, but the amazing support and encouragement I get everyday from the girl has been such an amazing motivator this past year. She's amazing, and fabulous, and every day I wake up thankfull she's come into my life. So I'm very excited about spending the rest of my life with her. Oh, and did I mention if all goes well and we can get in we'll be racing Ironman Florida together next year? Even without our common intrest in swim/bike/run I know we'd be just as happy together, but I really do love that we can share in such things. And yes... if you're wondering... some part of our wedding will involve a workout! I'm thinking either a morning swim (we're going to get married on a beach) or a morning run will be offered to all guests!
Best Support Group Ever!:
I don't know that I've talked much about just how supportive the girl is about things I care a lot about. She's amazing in that regard. She's only just recently divulged that she's working on brining quite the large group of spectators to come and watch me take on my first Ironman in seven weeks! As of right now my future in laws, and some fantastic friends in the Georgia/Florida area are hoping to be able to make it to cheer me and my fellow Tri-New England teammates on. As well as rallying the troops the girl has also already ordered posterboard to make signs with, and becuase she's even more amazing than that she's had custom T-shirts made up for everyone! She has gone ahead and designed and had made a bunch of different "Team Wisdom" tshirts with fun sayings on them to cheer me on! I'm truly lucky to have someone so supportive of my goals! I love it! and I love her!
Here's a pic of the front and back of one of the shirts for the support crew!
Yep... she's amazing! And I love her!
Ok... enough mushiness... and onto some other items...
Sneakers!:
I had an interesting conversation with some fellow triathletes yesterday at a local race. We were chatting about sneakers. I happened to be wearing a pair of my new favorite shoes. To which one friend said "I hate those sneakers!!", and another said "I love brand X shoes!", and I said "But I LOVE these sneakers!". Point is... we all have our preferences. There is no correct shoe for everyone. But this is hardly breaking news. The other bit we talked about was http://www.zappos.com/. Which is my new favorite running shoe source. They offer free shipping for purchases AND for returns. So lately I've been ordering large batches of sneakers to try out. I'll wait for a nice day outside and then go run in several different pairs for a little bit to see how they feel. I keep the ones I want (if any) and return those that I don't. I did this recently with a bunch of different Zoot sneakers until I found my perfect 70.3 distance racing flat. (Zoot Ultra Tempo 4.0). However as comfy as the Zoots are for shorter distance races, they just don't offer enough support for a marathon, and I wanted to find the right shoe for my Ironman. Something lightweight, but supportive. I've run plenty of marathons already mostly in Nike's and Asics. But all of those shoes were very heavy and at this point as my run form develops a bit too cushy and supportive with giant heel areas. So I've been looking for something new. I decided since K-Swiss does so much sponsoring of professional triathletes and seems to inject a lot of money into the sport it would be good of me to give their products a try. So I ordered up 3 different pairs to try out and here are my quick impressions of them.
First up on the testing block are the below pictured K-Swiss K-Ona. Initially when I ordered these I thought they had the potential to be either a mid to long distance race shoe, or a mid to long distance everyday training shoe. In the end they turned out to be neither for me. My impression of the K-Ona from the first step was that they are a very very stiff shoe. Its as if someone has screwed a 2x4 to the bottom of the shoe so they won't flex. They just felt very stiff, dead, and non responsive to me. I imagine though that despite the fact I can't stand this feature that theres a large group of runners somewhere that love it. So to each their own, and this shoe was definitely not for me. Had it been a bit cheaper I would have kept them for some everyday about town sneakers as they are quite snappy looking... but I have a wedding to pay for so back they go!
K-SWISS K-Ona
Nex up for a test are the K-Swiss Kwiky Blade Light. These are billed as a minimilist running shoe and they deliver just that. Putting these sneakers on feels like putting on slippers. Theres just not much to them. They are extremely lightweight and very flexible. Definitely what I would consider a racing flat. For me personally I wasn't a huge fan of the toe box as it felt quite narrow and somewhat constricting to my feet. On top of this they just didn't feel like the offered enough support for me. Theres a narrow line between too much and not enough, and for me these fell into the not enough category. So back they will go as well. I think I could survive a 5K in these but thats about it. Definitely NOT an ironman shoe.... and to be honest I didn't think they would be. I just wanted to try them out.
K-SWISS Kwiky Blade Light
Last but not least on the chopping block were the K-Swiss Blade Light Run. On paper the descriptions for these read as the ideal mid to long distance race/training shoe for me. About the right weight for the amount of support I like (10 oz), but not overly heavy or too cushy. I wouldn't call it a racing flat by any means but it fits nicely between one of those and a heavy distance trainer with extra cushioning like the Asics Gel Kayanos that I like to run it when my feet feel beat to hell and I need some extra cushion. These shoes felt great as soon as I put them on so I decided to give them a longer test right out of the box. So I went for my usual five mile from the house round trip. Right out of the gate I felt like no break in was needed. They flexed in all the right places and had just the right amount of support and cushion. They felt like sneakers should, which is to say that felt like they weren't there. If you are noticing your shoes then they are the wrong shoes for you. Then the really good bit happened... I ran downhill in them. Absolutely hands down the most comfortable and fastest downhill running shoe I've ever worn. I was FLYING down the gentle slope back towards the house at the end of the run. Lately thats been a source of discomfort with my leg issues and it was completely pain and discomfort free for me. Which was amazing! So at this point I knew I had a keeper and it was time to test a bit further to see what I could and couldn't use this shoe for. More on that in the next segment of this post. Needless to say if you are looking for a comfortable mid-weight racing shoe for longer distance efforts and triathlons this is definitely worth looking at.
K-SWISS Blade Light Run
Going Long!:
Perhaps related to my new favorite sneakers, or perhaps just positive gains from careful training I've had some serious running breakthroughs last week and my strongest week of running yet! It started with a shorter run early in the week. A simple 60 minute affair. I've been trying not to look at my garmin too much when I run and pace purely by feel. I will admit to checking my pace occasionally but nowhere near as much as I used to. After a couple of miles into my run I checked on my pace. I was holding an average pace of SUB 8!!! This isn't fast for me... but its fast for me since the injury. Its especially fast for me since the injury at the current level of exertion I was feeling which wasn't a lot. Sub 8 used to be effortless for me and this summer its been hard to come by for any length of time. So I just kept running at what felt like the same level of exertion. The short version of the story is that my average pace for the run kept increasting. Whats even better about this is that the return leg of my run is slightly uphill. In the end I averaged something like 7:50s for the run. I was pretty thrilled with this as its about 40 seconds per mile faster than what I've been running the same time and course for lately.
So with all this confidence and new found speed at my disposal I headed out for my long run of the week a couple of days later. This was to be a 2:45 minute run of approximately 18 miles. I headed out feeling good wearing the K-Swiss Blade Lights. I figured it was time to try them on a long run and see how they feel at mile 15. I'm happy to report at mile 15 they still feel like they aren't there. Just how I want them to feel. I started out this run feeling good and planned to hold a 9 minute per mile pace. My last long run that was my goal as well but RPE at that pace was high so I ended up averaging around 9:30 a mile in the end. It was a bit of a slog fest for me and had me wondering how the Ironman was going to feel. But this run was going great and I was off to a much better start. But there was a part of my brain wondering how things would feel towards the end. Fortunately things toward the end felt just as good as the beginning! I average 8:50/mile for the run and felt great and still had more in the tank when it was over. Just the way I'm supposed to feel! So once again I'd shaved 40 seconds per mile off my run without really trying anything new other than new sneakers. So was it the sneakers? improvements in fitness? I don't know... frankly I don't care. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and I'm feeling more and more confident that I'm actually IMPROVING upon my leg injury instead of doing harm to it. I'm feeling more and more confident about the Ironman run as it gets closer and closer which is perfect!
But wait theres more!!!
Firmman Half Iron Relay Team Race Report:
I did the bike leg of a half iron relay yesterday with some team mates from the club. My friend Brad did the swim, I did the bike and CJ did the run. None of us tapered for the event in any way or had done any special training for it. Brad is getting ready for Kona (his second Ironman of the year!), and CJ is always running and training for something. I think he's actually deep in the midst of marathon training currenlty. So our plan was just to leave it all out and the course and have a fun day.
Brad finished the swim in 24 minutes and change! Amazing! He's quite the swimmer! It was really choppy out there which I thought might slow him down. Apparently NOT! Despite having to slog his way through a huge pile of seaweed to get out of the ocean Brad came running into transition and the seaweed covered timing chip was moved onto my leg and I was off!
Ok... here we go... a 56 mile time trial on not very fresh legs. This should be FUN! I had decided that my goal was to aim for a 180watt average. I figured that would get me just above a 21mph average for a 2:3X finish time. I really wanted to go sub 2:40. So off I went hammering away right from the get go. In the first few miles I was thinking about the year before when I used these first few to warm up and settle in after the swim. Today I hammered right from the start and was really going to go for it. Somewhere around mile ten with a 185watt average I wondering if I was going to explode as I'd gone out too hard initially. I wasn't worried about the next thirty minutes, I was worried about the last thirty minutes... Oh well. There's only one way to find out. I remembered reading this article from one of the pro's talking about sometimes you have to epicly fail to learn your limits. Well today was a good day to epicly fail! So off I went. It wasn't much later I was off of the long boring straight part of the course on route 1 and into whats known as the KFR loop which is a rolling technical section of the course. I like this section as it keeps your brain occupied and challenged. In and out of the saddle, in and out of the big ring, and I hammered as best I could through this section. With all the climbing I was concerned about my average speed, but I was on target for power and that was the most important thing. When I came out of KFR I checked my average speed for the first time. 21.3mph and 185 watt average at around 30 miles into the day. AWESOME! Right on target and if I got lucky and got a tailwind on the way in I was guarnteed to go 2:3X. As I rode towards the turnound it became uncertain that I would have a tailwind. I didn't feel like I had one now and my speed and power didn't indicate I had a tailwind, but I felt some strange gusts / crosswinds / and saw a few indicators such as flags that it didn't look good.
Just after the turnaround I hit the mile 40 marker and was still right on power/speed target and then it hit me. The headwinds... DAMN!!! By mile 45 I was suffering HARD. Wind right in my face, great big pain in my legs and a never ending supply of false flats and slight climbs right into the wind. My legs were burning. I started going through various mantras trying to get my head of the pain. "SHUT UP LEGS!" (said with my best Jens Voigt accent) and "I think I can" turned quickly into "I don't have to run, I don't have to run!" hoping that would push me to go even harder. I was spiking into the 200 watt range and still not hitting 21 mph. Crap! I spent the next 16 miles realizing two things...
1. Tapering is good, and my legs feel belt to holy ironman hell.
2. My power is holding but my average speed is dropping
So at this point I just made my best pain face, and grabbed the most comfortable chair I could find in the pain cave and did my best to hold on. Those slight climbs never stopped, the wind seemed to get stronger and it was an eternity before I finally hit the turn off the main road towards the finish area. A volunteer yelled "one mile to go!" and I almost stopped to hug him. With the finish area close it was feet out of the shoes, quick dismount and into transition for the timing chip handoff.
A few seconds later CJ was off and running and I was gasping for breath in transition with my part done for the day. In the end I did really well and I'm quite pleased despite just missing my 2:3X goal. I did average 180 Watts exactly (i'm getting really good at pacing with power!), had an average speed of 20.7mph, and rode a 2:42:xx which isn't bad. If I'd had fresher legs I know I could have gone 2:3X. I didn't feel like i would have run all that well of that power goal but had I tapered its certainly possible.
It wasn't much later that Brad and I spotted CJ running up the beach into the finish chute! CJ had a great run of 1:33 although he said he had a few issues in the closing miles and cramps but put together a great run as far as I'm concerned! Together as a team we went 4:41:55. We had a great day and a lot of fun too. Lots of other Tri-NE team mates around and racing made the day even more fun. I love the presence my club has at races where we race, support, and volunteer. Makes for a great day.
And as if that wasn't good enough I ended the day by buying ice cream for the girl and two local Navy students we sponsor while they are away from home who all came out to volunteer on the run course. Perfect end to the day, and a perfect end to an amazing week!!
Seven weeks to go till B2B!!!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
The Problem With Training 17 hours a week is....
....that you never have any time to update your blog! (among other things!) I am also absolutely EXHAUSTED! This last week has been a nonstop marathon of training/work/life/love. Its all been amazing, and inspiring, and fun, but I've had nonstop plans for every single day and night since I got home from Raleigh which was a busy week in itself. So here's the updates....
I last updated with my Timberman race report. I completed that race on Sunday, spent Monday at home recovering and resting and then headed off to Raleigh on tuesday morning. As usual it was a busy week with many 12+ hour days on concrete floors. Which on tired beat up legs after Timberman was not fun and left me with nothing in the tank to train with. So I only got in one training session that entire week in the end. Pretty sad. I rode a spin bike for an hour and then ran for 20 mintues. That was it. Fortunately my training plan called for a recovery week so thats what were going to call it. I wasn't planning on doing a lot of volume that week but I was hoping for 5-6 hours of easy work. Oh well... you can't win them all and you HAVE to listen to your body. And my body said it didn't want to do anything.
I got home to Rhode Island on Monday night exactly 2 hours after the power to my home was restored after it was out for almost 48 hours thanks to hurricane Irene. So Monday was spent working and travelling.
Tuesday morning I woke up and it was time to get back to business! I'm happy to say it was a great training week. In the end I logged 14 hours of training this week at the beginning of another large build block. Some highlights of the week were....
Swim:
-my local pool is closed for maintenance so I did nothing but swim in the ocean this week. Tuesday I did a swim with the local group here and then I tried to swim with the girl on friday morning. It was one of those rare flat calm beautifull days in the ocean... and wouldn't you know it my shoulder was very very angry and sore. I think I must have tweaked it at work a little throwing cable around or slep on it funny or something as I only made it a half mile before my shoulder insisted I get out of the water. I was mad as I hate to waste an opportunity to swim when the ocean is that lovely to be in and the girl has the day off!
-I'm happy to say however that I got in a 2.3 mile ocean swim in pretty damn difficult conditions today with the girl. It was pretty brutal and I was fighting to get anywhere in the chop and current we swam against. It was pretty gnarly out there today. But I did it! The girl and I are also slowly learning how to swim together which is hard as she is so much faster than I am.
Bike:
-great interval session on tuesday on the trainer in my driveway as there was just too much debris all over the roads from the hurricane to do a speed session out there.
-easy spin on thursday for an hour with a nice brick run afterwards.
-Fantastic 5 hour 85 or so mile ride on Saturday with some friends from Tri-NE. Epic nutrition failure (I tried Infinit for the first time and it just isn't for me) so I started to bonk at hour 3. Managed to get some gatorade at a store stop and ate a powerbar and eventually recovered. I was falling off the pace a bit in the third hour but by hour 4 I was back on form and keeping up with the boys. The last hour was by far the hardest as we fought through some nasty headwinds and then I did my best to keep up with the end of ride sprint fest battle. I did at least manage to hold the wheels of the faster guys even though theres no way I could have pulled around them.
-So all in all a great week on the bike.
Run:
-greatest amount of progress here!
-broke through my fear of running beyond two hours on my funky right leg and logged my first run of over 13 miles since January with a 17.5 miler in 2:45. Not fast, but thats not the point.
-tried out a variety of Kswiss shoes that showed up here thanks to Zappos and I'm pretty sure I've found my Ironman sneaker, and what is easily the best sneaker I've ever worn to run downhill in. By a LOT. More on that later this week with a bit of a mini review.
So... not a bad week. The journey continues. My biggest current issues are:
-I need to finish buttoning up my nutrition plan which is very close now
-continue to improve my long run
-continue to get stronger at ocean swimming while still logging the distances I need
Other random bits...
-switching to gatorskin tires for the rest of my training to try and cut down on recent flats.
-signed up to race the FIRM half iron length triathon next weekend as part of a relay team. I'll be racing the bike portion and planning on turning myself inside out and seeing what happens. I'm hoping for a fast time, or an epic explosion.
-got a fantastic present from the girl and great news is brewing about some additional support for raceday! more on that later this week too.
Ok... time for me to go tip over and get some rest. I'm beat! Off day tomorrow! Hooooray! I can't wait!
I last updated with my Timberman race report. I completed that race on Sunday, spent Monday at home recovering and resting and then headed off to Raleigh on tuesday morning. As usual it was a busy week with many 12+ hour days on concrete floors. Which on tired beat up legs after Timberman was not fun and left me with nothing in the tank to train with. So I only got in one training session that entire week in the end. Pretty sad. I rode a spin bike for an hour and then ran for 20 mintues. That was it. Fortunately my training plan called for a recovery week so thats what were going to call it. I wasn't planning on doing a lot of volume that week but I was hoping for 5-6 hours of easy work. Oh well... you can't win them all and you HAVE to listen to your body. And my body said it didn't want to do anything.
I got home to Rhode Island on Monday night exactly 2 hours after the power to my home was restored after it was out for almost 48 hours thanks to hurricane Irene. So Monday was spent working and travelling.
Tuesday morning I woke up and it was time to get back to business! I'm happy to say it was a great training week. In the end I logged 14 hours of training this week at the beginning of another large build block. Some highlights of the week were....
Swim:
-my local pool is closed for maintenance so I did nothing but swim in the ocean this week. Tuesday I did a swim with the local group here and then I tried to swim with the girl on friday morning. It was one of those rare flat calm beautifull days in the ocean... and wouldn't you know it my shoulder was very very angry and sore. I think I must have tweaked it at work a little throwing cable around or slep on it funny or something as I only made it a half mile before my shoulder insisted I get out of the water. I was mad as I hate to waste an opportunity to swim when the ocean is that lovely to be in and the girl has the day off!
-I'm happy to say however that I got in a 2.3 mile ocean swim in pretty damn difficult conditions today with the girl. It was pretty brutal and I was fighting to get anywhere in the chop and current we swam against. It was pretty gnarly out there today. But I did it! The girl and I are also slowly learning how to swim together which is hard as she is so much faster than I am.
Bike:
-great interval session on tuesday on the trainer in my driveway as there was just too much debris all over the roads from the hurricane to do a speed session out there.
-easy spin on thursday for an hour with a nice brick run afterwards.
-Fantastic 5 hour 85 or so mile ride on Saturday with some friends from Tri-NE. Epic nutrition failure (I tried Infinit for the first time and it just isn't for me) so I started to bonk at hour 3. Managed to get some gatorade at a store stop and ate a powerbar and eventually recovered. I was falling off the pace a bit in the third hour but by hour 4 I was back on form and keeping up with the boys. The last hour was by far the hardest as we fought through some nasty headwinds and then I did my best to keep up with the end of ride sprint fest battle. I did at least manage to hold the wheels of the faster guys even though theres no way I could have pulled around them.
-So all in all a great week on the bike.
Run:
-greatest amount of progress here!
-broke through my fear of running beyond two hours on my funky right leg and logged my first run of over 13 miles since January with a 17.5 miler in 2:45. Not fast, but thats not the point.
-tried out a variety of Kswiss shoes that showed up here thanks to Zappos and I'm pretty sure I've found my Ironman sneaker, and what is easily the best sneaker I've ever worn to run downhill in. By a LOT. More on that later this week with a bit of a mini review.
So... not a bad week. The journey continues. My biggest current issues are:
-I need to finish buttoning up my nutrition plan which is very close now
-continue to improve my long run
-continue to get stronger at ocean swimming while still logging the distances I need
Other random bits...
-switching to gatorskin tires for the rest of my training to try and cut down on recent flats.
-signed up to race the FIRM half iron length triathon next weekend as part of a relay team. I'll be racing the bike portion and planning on turning myself inside out and seeing what happens. I'm hoping for a fast time, or an epic explosion.
-got a fantastic present from the girl and great news is brewing about some additional support for raceday! more on that later this week too.
Ok... time for me to go tip over and get some rest. I'm beat! Off day tomorrow! Hooooray! I can't wait!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Timberman 70.3 Half Ironman Triathlon Race Report
Getting There and Settling In:
On Friday the girl and I drove up to New Hamshire with Cannon loaded on the roof of the car, the car full of camping gear, and the dog asleep in the back. We were really looking forward to a fun weekend in NH. What should have been about a three hour drive up there took us about six hours due to AWFUL thunderstorms in the area, torrential downpours, and even a hailstorm. Ever sit in your car stuck in traffic helplessly listening to the sound of hail bouncing off the top of your carbon bike? Yeah.... its not very much fun! But we eventually made it up there, rushed through registration for the race to beat the saturday crowds and then made up our campsite and settled in with a quick dinner by the fire with some liquid carb loading.
Our campsite was pretty deluxe. I borrowed a huge tent from a friend of mine and we had a queen size air mattress and then a 3" pillowtop mattress cover I had on top of that as well. So our bed was SUPER comfy and I didn't regret camping one bit! And on the plus side just about everyone around our campsite was a triathlete in the race so it was super quiet at night and very easy to sleep. The facilities at the camground were quite good as well and it was a quick walk to clean showers, and bathrooms. I'd definitely go that route again over a hotel room.
Saturday morning the girl made a fantastic breakfast on the camping stove and I spent the time cleaning all the road grit and grime off of Cannon, cleaning the chain, and relubing everything and giving the bike a once over to make sure the hail had not done any damage which fortunately it had not. Then I got all my race numbers on the bike and everywhere else and we headed out for the day.
Cleaning up Cannon after the rain/hailstorm on the way up
I always cut up and stick my numbers to the frame. I don't get why people buy super aerodynamic bikes and then let their race number flap around the top tube the whole race.
The "turkey" guarding our campsite.
With the warmup swim out of the way I headed out for a quick check ride on Cannon before racking the bike in transition. That went without issue and then it was time to head back to camp for the day, get the rest of my gear ready for the race, eat some dinner and get to bed early.
Prepping Cannon for the check ride the day before the race/
Once back at camp the girl made one of my favorite and safe pre race meals. Mac N Cheese in a Box with chicken sausage. YUM! And all made on the campfire! After all that I was pretty tired so I went to bed at 8pm knowing that I had to be up at 3:30am in order to get a spot in the parking lot. At the pre race meeting the day before they informed up that the parking lot would be full by 5AM or so, so I planned to arrive there around 4am so off to bed I went.
Race Day!:
I am very happy to say that I fell asleep almost immediately at 8pm the day before and didn't wake up till my alarm went off at 3:30AM. Best pre race night of sleep I've ever had. I felt great when I woke up and was ready to get the day going. I got up, got right in the car and headed straight over to the parking area at Ellacoya. At 3:45am there was already a large line of cars being funnelled into the race site. I scored a fantastic parking spot right near transition and had the peace of mind that I had hours to get ready and didn't have to rush at all. Transition didn't open till 5am so I first headed over the Gilford Fired Dept's food stand for a fantastic cup of coffee and then slowly started to get dressed for the race, eat my tried and true breakfast of two balance bars, and get ready to head into transition at 5am. It was nice being able to take my time with all of that and I never felt rushed. At 5AM I headed into transition and got my tires pumped up, and all my gear ready to go. I was ready so early that I got to spend a lot of time wandering around transition chatting with friends of mine, checked out the pros bikes, and enjoyed watching them go about their routines just like we do. Eventually it was time to get the wetsuit on and head over to the swim start to get a warmup in. I found the girl and sat down at a picnic bench to relax for a bit as I had 40 minutes till my wave started.
Waiting for my wave to start and getting some friendly tips from a gentleman who had done the race last year. I can also highly recommend petting your dog as a way to reduce stress pre race!
My hi-tech system of knowing where to go in transition. It stands for... from the swim in run past 7 bike racks then turn left. And from the bike in run past three racks then turn left.
I was in the 7:50 Wave of 35-39ers in the lime green caps
Getting a quick warmup swim in.
Some of the Tri-NE gang racing. Sean, Me, Jon, and Kevan. Missing are Luis, Dean, and Jill. It was great to have so many of us out there on the course!
So with the warmups and everything else done and out of the way it was go time!
SWIM:
On thursday of this week I completed my first 2.4 mile open water swim as part of my prep for the Ironman. So part of me felt like 1.2 miles was going to feel really short and easy and part of me was worried my arms were still tired. Well I was definitely tired! When the swim started my heartrate spiked pretty quickly. So I spent the first part of the swim heading out to the first turn buoy just trying to relax and find a rhythm. I found some feet and just followed them for a while. After the turn the water got a bit more choppy and I wasn't swimming as straight as I would have liked, but I felt ok... tired but ok. I had originally hope to really push my pace at this point but I just felt like I didn't have that in me so I just settled into my pace. As I approached the last turn buoy the wave behind me of young guys caught me. They were all pretty agressive and I got pummelled at this point. Lots of leg grabbing and bumping. I pushed through it best as I could and rounded the last turn buoy nice and wide to avoid the mess. On the way in I brushed up against an orange cap dude who was an ass and very aggressive. Apparently nobody ever brushed up against him as he got pretty rough and pushed/punched me right in the left hip. Apparently I was crossing in front of him and he wasn't happy about it. Whatever... I just kept swimming. At this point I was ready for the swim to end. It hadn't felt short at all and my arms were tired. When I got out of the water and looked at my watch I was pretty surprised. I knew I wasn't fast today, but I was surprised to see how slow I was. 43 minutes?!?!?!?! WTF!!! I did my 2.4 mile swim the other day at a 2:00/100 pace in 1:25. I went slow that day as I had no idea how to pace an effort that long. I think I can realistically swim a 1:20 for my ironman if all goes well. So to see 43 minutes for 1.2 was pretty bad. I was expecting 36-40 minutes. But whatever... time to focus on the rest of the day.... In reality my swim time was the only real dissapointment of the day, and in the grand scheme it was pretty minor.
TOTAL SWIM 1.2 mi. (43:40) 2:05/100y
T1: T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 1:59
T1 went pretty quick for me. There was a decent length run to get to my bike from the water and I did my best to really RUN that part. I took advantage of the wetsuit strippers and then headed to my bike. Quick transition there and I was off and ready to really have at the bike course.
BIKE!:
My plan for the bike was to aim for a 2:45. I wanted a SOLID bike that was well paced and on target power wise. I had to decided to pace by power and cadence alone as thats been working really well for me. The plan was to average 160 watts and an average cadence of 90. My FTP is currently 207 Watts so 160 is well within reach even on zero taper. I've also felt great on the bike lately so I was hoping for good things. This was the first race of any length that I've done without having riden or driven the bike course before. So despite having the guidance from friends that had seen it I was going to just have to take as it came. I knew the rough profile though and had a plan to spin the climbs nice and easy at a max of 200 steady watts and stay within myself and hammer everything else. And I stuck to plan I'm happy to say. The bike was pretty uneventfull with the exception of being bummed that most of the downhills were really crowded for me so it made bombing down them in aero near impossible as there were lots of nervous people drifting so far left you had to cross the centerline to pass them and with oncoming traffic that wasn't an option. I spent a LOT of time YELLING "ON YOUR LEFT!!!!" at 35-45 mph as loud as I could. Made for some scary descending a couple of times. I did hit 45 on the one big descent but I think I could have gone faster if there weren't people in the way.
Only other points of interest on the bike were that I totally blew an aid station and despite two attempts to grab water I failed (I was going too fast) so I spent ten miles with no water which I could have stopped to go get but decided to just press on and get the next stop. Fortunately that didn't come back to bite me.
All in all I really enjoyed the bike course. It was crowded and three wide quite often with people trying to pass each other. Starting in such a late wave meant I had people to pick off all day long on the course so that was good and bad. But for the most part good. At the turnaround I checked my average speed (first time I'd looked at it all day!) and PSYCHED to see it at close to 20! I really wanted an average of over 20 for the first time for this distance so I pushed as hard as I could on the way back. Here's how it all shook out...
BIKE SPLIT 1: 27.2 mi 27.2 mi (1:22:13) 19.85 mi/h BIKE SPLIT 2: 56 mi 28.8 mi (1:24:50) 20.37 mi/h
TOTAL BIKE 56 mi (2:47:03) 20.11 mi/h
I'm pretty damn happy with that! I hit my wattage target, and just barely missed my hope of 2:45 for the bike course. Considering I'd just ridden 80 miles on tuesday, and over 200 miles the week before I'm VERY VERY happy with that. Definitely the best part of my day!
Some other numbers of interest to look at...
Average Power: 154 Watts
Normalized Power: 167
Intensity Factor: .81 (EXACTLY what I wanted)
Elevation Gain: 2400 Ft.
Avg Speed 20.11mph
The above numbers are exactly what my race plan called for and I'm really excited to set a realistic goal based on trainign and testing, and then NAIL it in practice. And MOST importantly I then went on to feel good on the run. I experienced something on this bike course I haven't before, and that was the sensation that I'm approaching my peak bike fitness for the season and that all this time I've spent riding lately has really paid off. I'm really excited to see whats going to happen on the B2B bike course. This race was certainly a great sign of things to come.
Some other numbers of interest to look at...
Average Power: 154 Watts
Normalized Power: 167
Intensity Factor: .81 (EXACTLY what I wanted)
Elevation Gain: 2400 Ft.
Avg Speed 20.11mph
The above numbers are exactly what my race plan called for and I'm really excited to set a realistic goal based on trainign and testing, and then NAIL it in practice. And MOST importantly I then went on to feel good on the run. I experienced something on this bike course I haven't before, and that was the sensation that I'm approaching my peak bike fitness for the season and that all this time I've spent riding lately has really paid off. I'm really excited to see whats going to happen on the B2B bike course. This race was certainly a great sign of things to come.
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 1:45
T2 was nice and easy. Feet out of the shoes, nice dismount and off on the run course in no time. Time for the fun part!
Heading into T2
The Girl was an amazing cheering squad and put some great signs out on the bike course that were great for a laugh and a smile! One of her other signs that was a favorite was "Save a Bike, Ride a Triathlete!" I loved having her to share the race with! She was an amazing support group and put up with my freakshow pre race self!
The Run!:
The run was once again not what I wanted it to be. Which is not due to nutrition or bike pacing or anything else. I actually felt pretty good on the run. But my right leg issue is still there and just isn't going to go away. Its a frustrating limiter. It just doesn't want to let me run much faster than 8:30s for any length of time. The run course was also quite challenging. It rolls throughout with a pretty decent steep hill at around mile 4 of the two lap course. The first time up the hill it was a shocker... the second time it was BRUTAL! I felt pretty good on the first loop, and not as good, but decent on lap 2. For a while I thought I might hold a sub 8 minute pace, but that didn't last much past the first few miles. It was REALLY HOT out there. Which led me to make some odd choices! There were volunteers handing out ice which was to be used to cool youself with. I was so hot I decided I just didn't care and put it in my mouth. Hec, I've eaten worse I'm sure! But the Make A Wish foundation folks handing out giant ice cold towels are my absolute heroes! Those were amazing and I held onto mine for the whole race and kept it cool by putting ice and the "snowballs" they were handing out which were fantastic. I shoved ice in places I never though I'd put it before. Anything to keep cool. It was interesting comparing notes with my friends after the race... we all definitely hit some tough spots out there and were all suffering in the heat. You can see the suffering and some of the goofy things I did to keep cool in the pictures that follow...
Heading out on Lap 1 of the run feeling good!
Yeah! Finish Chute Sprint!
The highlight of my day... World Record Holder Chrissie Wellington putting the finishers medal around my neck! What a class act this woman is!
Here's the run splits that tell the rest of the story as my pace slowed....
RUN SPLIT 1: 3.275 mi 3.275 mi (26:26) 8:04/mi
RUN SPLIT 3: 9.825 mi 3.275 mi (29:56) 9:08/mi
RUN SPLIT 4: 13.1 mi 3.275 mi (27:49) 8:29/mi
TOTAL RUN 13.1 mi (1:51:58) 8:32/mi
Summary:
All in all though I can't complain. I managed a 5:26:xx on zero taper after the biggest build month of my life getting ready for the ironman. I've put in HUGE volume lately, 17 hour trianing weeks and then to have a race like I did yesterday with no taper makes me very happy. Just another step on the way to the Ironman. I have no complaints, had a great day on the course with my friends and a great weekend with the girl even if the severe weater in NH meant we packed up the campsite a day early and rushed home to escape it yesterday.
Me, The Girl, and Sunni after the race
Kevan, Sean and I cooling off in the lake post race. Felt Great!
As much as I wish I could get to the point of being able to think about going sub 5 for a half some day I know I just need to wait until maybe next season to aim for such a thing. I am just going to have to hope that some time off and dedicated strength training and rehab work over the winter will bring my right leg back to last year's running form. In reality its already starting to feel like its improving but its on the ragged edge of getting worse so I've been babying it quite a bit lately and being really smart about my run volume. When I look back at this race and think about what I could have done better (other than obviously tapering for it) I think I could get my swim time better by 3-5 minutes, and if my run form would come back then theres another 15 minutes back. So thats an improvement by up to 20 minutes which gets me back on the edge of thinking about sub 5 again. For now thats just a dream, but its a fun one to think about. Time to shift focus now to B2B. I probably won't race another half this year, although I'm considering using the FIRMMAN half iron as a full distance ironman pace excercise. Not sure about that one yet.
Next up this week is a much needed recovery week. I'm off ot Raleigh for the week with work so I'm going to plan on doing nothing for 2 days, then some yoga/stretching for a couple of days and then ease into some light spins on hotel bikes and short runs, and some easy swims in the pool and then start another big build period when I get back next week. Timberman definitely showed me that I'm on track for where I want to be this season and I'm very pleased overall. Good things are definitely on the horizon!
Friday, August 19, 2011
Timberman 70.3 Race Plan
So I'm racing the Timberman 70.3 Half Ironman this weekend. However I've been very much focused on training for the B2B full length ironman so I haven't tapered at all. In fact I did an 80 mile ride on tuesday, have run 7 miles twice this week, and swam three times already including my first 2.4 mile open water swim yesterday. I'm taking today (friday) and saturday before the race off however. So I have an extremely abbreviated taper. I did however skip my long run last weekend to rest my legs a bit before this race. So the race will be more of a supported training day for me, but that doesn't mean I can't have some goals.
So here's the race plan....
Swim:
-NAVIGATE BETTER! after missing the first turn buoy and having to go back for it in the sun at the Amica 70.3 I'm determined not to make that very time costly mistake again.
-Have a faster non / wetsuit swim. I think its HIGHLY likely that the swim will not be wetsuit legal, and if thats the case I want to beat my Amica swim time by 5 minutes or so. I'd like to be as close to 40 minutes as possible without a wetsuit, and in the mid thirties with one.
-I want to swim at my usual pace for 1/2 the swim and really pick it up on the way in and push myself like I know that I can once I've settled into a rhythm. I pace too conservatively in the water and I know I can do a little bit better.
Bike:
-I have no idea whats left in my legs after the many many miles I've poured on in the last few weeks, but next week is a recover week so I want to go all out and see what happens. My goal bike split is a 2:45. Faster is better, sub 3 is a must, and faster than 2:45 is a dream. I kind of want to crush the bike and see what it does to my run. I suspect I don't have the ability to bike so fast that I hurt my run at this point. Unless I do really stupid things and stand up through all the climbs or mash in a cadence of sub 80. I'm going to use the power meter to focus and push myself. I'm just going to stare at cadence (goal of 90), power (goal of 160-170 avg), and keep a loose eye on heartrate as an indicator I'm not getting into the red.
Run:
-once again this is going to be a wait and see what happens in the race kind of thing. My running is still somewhat strained and I just don't have the ability to go fast still. I miss the days of thinking I'll average mid 7's on the run. But every race I try harder and my goal is to average 8s, however I think 8:30s is more likely. But I'm going to push and see what happens. If it starts to hurt then I need to remember B2B is my main goal and dial it down to high 8s, low 9s and enjoy the day.
Overall time goals.... Again this is going to be a big range as its all going to come down to whats left in my legs after all this training. Which may not be much! So I'll say 5:12-5:40. I'll be happy with 5:30, and very pleased with anything less than that. But no matter what I'm going to enjoy it! I'm really looking forward to a weekend with the girl, the dog, and all my tri friends. Its going to be great fun!
So here's the race plan....
Swim:
-NAVIGATE BETTER! after missing the first turn buoy and having to go back for it in the sun at the Amica 70.3 I'm determined not to make that very time costly mistake again.
-Have a faster non / wetsuit swim. I think its HIGHLY likely that the swim will not be wetsuit legal, and if thats the case I want to beat my Amica swim time by 5 minutes or so. I'd like to be as close to 40 minutes as possible without a wetsuit, and in the mid thirties with one.
-I want to swim at my usual pace for 1/2 the swim and really pick it up on the way in and push myself like I know that I can once I've settled into a rhythm. I pace too conservatively in the water and I know I can do a little bit better.
Bike:
-I have no idea whats left in my legs after the many many miles I've poured on in the last few weeks, but next week is a recover week so I want to go all out and see what happens. My goal bike split is a 2:45. Faster is better, sub 3 is a must, and faster than 2:45 is a dream. I kind of want to crush the bike and see what it does to my run. I suspect I don't have the ability to bike so fast that I hurt my run at this point. Unless I do really stupid things and stand up through all the climbs or mash in a cadence of sub 80. I'm going to use the power meter to focus and push myself. I'm just going to stare at cadence (goal of 90), power (goal of 160-170 avg), and keep a loose eye on heartrate as an indicator I'm not getting into the red.
Run:
-once again this is going to be a wait and see what happens in the race kind of thing. My running is still somewhat strained and I just don't have the ability to go fast still. I miss the days of thinking I'll average mid 7's on the run. But every race I try harder and my goal is to average 8s, however I think 8:30s is more likely. But I'm going to push and see what happens. If it starts to hurt then I need to remember B2B is my main goal and dial it down to high 8s, low 9s and enjoy the day.
Overall time goals.... Again this is going to be a big range as its all going to come down to whats left in my legs after all this training. Which may not be much! So I'll say 5:12-5:40. I'll be happy with 5:30, and very pleased with anything less than that. But no matter what I'm going to enjoy it! I'm really looking forward to a weekend with the girl, the dog, and all my tri friends. Its going to be great fun!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
1:50
Numbers as titles week continues....
I just got back from an awesome pool workout. So awesome I feel compelled to write about it...
I've been increasing my volume in all three sports as I get ready for the Ironman. My current longest distances in each discipline are...
Swim 2.2 Miles
Bike 101 Miles
Run 13 Miles.
The swim will increase to 3 miles before the IM, the bike to 120, and the run will likely stay parked at 13 unless my legs suddenly recover. I've decided the gains to be had from running further are going to be outweighed by the stress on my already not fabulous leg and that its going to hamper the rest of my training. I know I can run 26.2 miles... I've already done it twice this year. So the extra distance is going to come from my fitness and from my mind.
But I digress! This is about a pool workout...
According to my training plan this is a reduced volume swim training week or swim "recovery" week. So my pool sessions get 1200yds shorter from 3700yds to 2500yds which takes them from 90 minutes to closer to 50 minutes. So I was already pretty chipper heading to the pool this morning thinking that the workout would be over nice and quickly. Todays workout was as follows...
400 WU
Ladder at race intensity with 15 seconds rest between reps aiming for consistent effort.
50,100,150,200,250,300,250,200,150,100,50
300 CD
The other day in the pool I swam next to someone just a little bit faster than me and really turned myself inside out to keep up with them. I felt awesome after that workout and was psyched I had really pushed myself. So I decided I was going to do the same today. No swimming the ladder at super easy lazy pace. So I went for it.
My average pace lately has varied quite a bit. During the long 3700yd workouts with lots of 300s and 500s in them my pace has been closer to 2:10/100. Ugh! Slow! But a lot of that has been from the fatigue of these long workouts or fear of not getting through the workout if I push too hard. Its also because I just haven't been pushing myself as much as I'd like. Today however was going to be different.
Coming off a much needed day off I went into the workout with a great mindset. I went through my easy 400 warmup feeling the same way it always does. Its funny, but no matter how much pool work I put in that first 50 always feels awful. It always feels like I should give up and I can't swim. I always have to mentally push through it and finish the rest of the 400 to find my rhythm.
Ok... 60 seconds rest before the ladder starts. If the goal is an even pace through how fast do I swim the 50? Hmmm.... fast. Lets go for it.
The ladder went like this...
50-fast, but not too fast cause we need to try and match this pace for the whole set!
100-Uh Oh... have I set too fast a pace?
150-relax, but hold the same pace, relax but hold the pace
200-Crap... I'm gonna blow up... no way I can hold this pace.
250-was that really 15 seconds of rest... no way! Felt more like 2! Crap I'm tired.
300-longest set of the ladder... GO! PUSH! HARDER!!! 3 more laps to go? WTH! HARDER!!
250-downward slope! We got this!
200-getting tired..... had to sprint the last 50 out of fear I'd slowed down too much
150-3 laps... easy peasy
100-lets try and really go stupid hard
50-ALL OUT! LETS GO!!!!
At the end of it I was completely obliterated. Mission accomplished! Now by real swim standards my pace is pathetically slow... but considering I'd been doing these ladders at 2:10/100 pace lately I was pretty damn happy to hold 1:50/100 pace for almost the entire set. I think the 300 was a little bit slower at closer to 1:55/100 but still thats 15-20 seconds faster per 100 for the whole set. THAT is a small victory. And putting together small victories in training is what gives me confidence to go hard on race day. So here's to the small victories! Oh... FYI... my open water pace in a wetsuit lately has been 1:55/100 so to beat that in the pool on a set that was close to the same total distance as the 1.1 mile swim I did the other day at 1:55/100 is pretty damn good!
I just got back from an awesome pool workout. So awesome I feel compelled to write about it...
I've been increasing my volume in all three sports as I get ready for the Ironman. My current longest distances in each discipline are...
Swim 2.2 Miles
Bike 101 Miles
Run 13 Miles.
The swim will increase to 3 miles before the IM, the bike to 120, and the run will likely stay parked at 13 unless my legs suddenly recover. I've decided the gains to be had from running further are going to be outweighed by the stress on my already not fabulous leg and that its going to hamper the rest of my training. I know I can run 26.2 miles... I've already done it twice this year. So the extra distance is going to come from my fitness and from my mind.
But I digress! This is about a pool workout...
According to my training plan this is a reduced volume swim training week or swim "recovery" week. So my pool sessions get 1200yds shorter from 3700yds to 2500yds which takes them from 90 minutes to closer to 50 minutes. So I was already pretty chipper heading to the pool this morning thinking that the workout would be over nice and quickly. Todays workout was as follows...
400 WU
Ladder at race intensity with 15 seconds rest between reps aiming for consistent effort.
50,100,150,200,250,300,250,200,150,100,50
300 CD
The other day in the pool I swam next to someone just a little bit faster than me and really turned myself inside out to keep up with them. I felt awesome after that workout and was psyched I had really pushed myself. So I decided I was going to do the same today. No swimming the ladder at super easy lazy pace. So I went for it.
My average pace lately has varied quite a bit. During the long 3700yd workouts with lots of 300s and 500s in them my pace has been closer to 2:10/100. Ugh! Slow! But a lot of that has been from the fatigue of these long workouts or fear of not getting through the workout if I push too hard. Its also because I just haven't been pushing myself as much as I'd like. Today however was going to be different.
Coming off a much needed day off I went into the workout with a great mindset. I went through my easy 400 warmup feeling the same way it always does. Its funny, but no matter how much pool work I put in that first 50 always feels awful. It always feels like I should give up and I can't swim. I always have to mentally push through it and finish the rest of the 400 to find my rhythm.
Ok... 60 seconds rest before the ladder starts. If the goal is an even pace through how fast do I swim the 50? Hmmm.... fast. Lets go for it.
The ladder went like this...
50-fast, but not too fast cause we need to try and match this pace for the whole set!
100-Uh Oh... have I set too fast a pace?
150-relax, but hold the same pace, relax but hold the pace
200-Crap... I'm gonna blow up... no way I can hold this pace.
250-was that really 15 seconds of rest... no way! Felt more like 2! Crap I'm tired.
300-longest set of the ladder... GO! PUSH! HARDER!!! 3 more laps to go? WTH! HARDER!!
250-downward slope! We got this!
200-getting tired..... had to sprint the last 50 out of fear I'd slowed down too much
150-3 laps... easy peasy
100-lets try and really go stupid hard
50-ALL OUT! LETS GO!!!!
At the end of it I was completely obliterated. Mission accomplished! Now by real swim standards my pace is pathetically slow... but considering I'd been doing these ladders at 2:10/100 pace lately I was pretty damn happy to hold 1:50/100 pace for almost the entire set. I think the 300 was a little bit slower at closer to 1:55/100 but still thats 15-20 seconds faster per 100 for the whole set. THAT is a small victory. And putting together small victories in training is what gives me confidence to go hard on race day. So here's to the small victories! Oh... FYI... my open water pace in a wetsuit lately has been 1:55/100 so to beat that in the pool on a set that was close to the same total distance as the 1.1 mile swim I did the other day at 1:55/100 is pretty damn good!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
101
Apparently the theme for this week is that every post has to be titled with a number. So today's title is 101. Which is the number of miles I rode my bike for yesterday. This was in fact my first century ride...
Here's how it went...
The plan: I was only supposed to ride somewhere around 90 miles in zones 1-2 according to my training plan. However I have this irrational fear of distances. And 90 seemed awfully close to 100. And whats an extra ten miles right? Why not get the confidence of getting that first 100 mile ride behind me. So 100 miles became the goal. I created a 50.8 mile route on map my ride and downloaded it to my Garmin Edge 800 so I could follow the course with that and not have to worry about directions. I decided to base the route of a recent ride I did with a friend of mine in Little Compton / Westport / Dartmouth area and ride two loops.
So with that done it was time to get ready. I often find it amazing how much extra time it takes to get ready for big workouts. Checking the weather, prepping your bike, getting your clothes ready, and mixing up all your nutrition takes a significant amount of time. But with all that done it was time to go to bed and await the uncertainly of my first century ride. I went to bed thinking about how to pace it... never having ridden for just under six hours before I had no idea and really did NOT want to blow up in the middle of the ride.
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Tuesday morning I got up, ate breakfast, drank some coffee, read some slowtwitch and when I'd finally run out of excuses and coffee I loaded up the car and headed out to go ride. I had brillianty decided to start my ride from Gray's Ice Cream in Little Compton, RI so that I'd have a lovely post ride reward! I'm smart like that sometimes.
I loaded up the bike with a bottle of water, and my one calorie bottle loaded with 1500 calories worth of a mix of Hammer Perpetuem, Hammer Gel, Gatorade, and water that makes a delicious fruity paste full of energy. I then stuffed two extra water bottles in my bike jersey to get me through the first 50 mile loop and off I went.
I'd forgotten how hilly the last ten miles of the ride I had just done that I based this route off of. Apparently I'd put that part of the route in my first ten miles. So I had to contend with ten miles of rollers right out of the gate. I kept a VERY close eye on my wattage at this point as I really didn't want to run out of gas on my ride. So I kept a wattage ceiling of 240 watts and tried to climb at 200 watts whenever possible. Nice and easy. My plan was not to set any speed or power records today. The goal was just to cover the distance feeling comfy, try and stay aero as much as possible and get it done. So my power goal was to average 140 watts and look for an average speed between 17-18mph. Just a bit below goal race pace for the ironman.
Five miles into my day I hear the nasty sound of my rear tire going flat.... so ten minutes later I'm up and going again without issue. Fortunately the five miles of riding and the sun had the rear tire nice and loose so it wasn't bad getting it on and off. Psychologically a flat at 5 miles into a century wasn't fabulous. But what can you do but change it and get going again.
After the first ten miles the next 30 or so miles are fantastic. Fairly flat, or lots of false flats, super gentle descents. So I made up a lot of time and for the slow speeds on the climbs here. There are some great roads in that area with decent conditions and not a lot of traffic. I was enjoying staying aero, focusing on drinking lots of fluids and making sure I was taking in enough of my calorie bottle. At around the 30 mile mark I began to wonder if I could survive 100 miles on my saddle. I was starting to get quite sore, but fortuantely for me by mile 40 that seemed to have worked itself out and I was comfy again.
Somewhere around mile 40 is where I had changed the route from what I had ridden before. I did it blindly knowing nothing about the roads I'd chosen other than that roads in the area are generally pretty great. Well I sadly chose some rougher roads that slowed me down and shook me a lot, but I got through them ok. The last ten miles also had a couple of nasty climbs in it and some more rollers. But at least I knew the car and the end of my first lap was almost there.
Once at the car I got ride of my empty bottles, blown tube and other trash, restocked on fluids and got going again. I hit the lap button on my bike computer so I could try and negative split the ride which was my goal. Or at the very least even split the ride and not fall apart at the end. I caught a nice second wind and almost but not quite enjoyed the ten miles of rollers. Once onto the flat roads again I felt pretty good till around mile 70 or so. 30 Miles to go... little less than 2 hours and my stomach was starting to feel weird and I was getting a headache. Not sure what that was all about... but I suspect nutrition. I started to really crave gatorade. Maybe for the sodium, or maybe the sugar? I passed a gas station not long after that and stopped in to get some. The cold gatorade tasted AMAZING considering it was close to 80 degrees out and sunny for most of my route. I immediately perked up which makes me think I need to change up my nutrition as I don't have it quite right yet.
I downed the first 20oz bottle of gatorade very very quickly and loaded up the second one to get through the rest of the ride with. Once I hit about 3/4 of the way there the rest of the miles really started to drag. I just kept an eye on the power and cadence numbers and tried to keep up my effort level. There was some construction I'd hit around mile 40 on the first lap that had a policman directing traffic I'd chatted with as I went by. He looked pretty surprised to see me again three hours later. It was pretty funny. Other than that the rest wasn't too eventfull. I enjoyed watching the miles tick by as I got closer and had a huge smile when I watched the 99 tick over into a 100! I'd done it! One more mile of easy pedalling back to the car and I could get an ice cream!
Of course turns out after that effort my stomach wasn't sure what it wanted... and I wasn't sure it wanted ice cream. Then I get to the window and they have 1,000 choices and I cant decide so I paniced and just got some lime sorbet. Which was great... but not perfect.
So how did I do? Lets look at the numbers....
Lap Distance 50.8 Miles per Lap.
Lap 1: 2:56:46 135 Watt Avg 17.3 mph avg
Lap 2: 2:56:40 140 Watt Avg 17.3 mph avg
So I managed to negative split the laps by six seconds and keep a dead even average for the entire 100 miles. Wattage wise there was a nasty headwind that kicked up for Lap 2 which is why the same speed cost me five more watts. Overall I'm quite pleased. I rode within myself and didn't go crazy so I didn't fall apart. I've put in a TON of hours training lately so 140 watts isn't much, but its a decent effort for the amount of strength left in my legs currently after a very busy week of training and riding 70 miles only a few days before. I also learned some great lessons from this ride.
1. That my goal to average between 18-19mph for the B2B is realistic and will leave me with some energy for the run.
2. That my nutrition isn't 100% dialed in, but I did do great with water consumption and timing of finishing the calorie bottle.
3. Pacing by wattage and cadence is definitely the answer. I'll also keep a loose eye on heart rate as well. I spent the whole ride trying to be at 140 Watts at a cadence of 90. Worked great.
4. That I can currently spend about 5 out of 6 hours in aero. More will come with time.
5. That I still can't for the life me wrap my head around having to run a marathon after riding 112 miles. I need to work on that one.
All in all a great ride and I'm glad I have that first long one behind me. Today is a much needed day off before the rest of the week's training. I'm definitely still feeling a little tired from yesterday, but otherwise feel pretty good.
Oh and speaking of loosely looking at heart rate. I often pay closer attention to it post ride to make sure I'm staying in the zones I should be. My goal for this ride was to spend most of it in Zone 2. Which for me is about 150 Watts or so of power and 130 bpm heart rate. Heres the chart from training peaks showing my nice and even heart rate stuck solidly in zone 2 for six hours. : )
Here's how it went...
The plan: I was only supposed to ride somewhere around 90 miles in zones 1-2 according to my training plan. However I have this irrational fear of distances. And 90 seemed awfully close to 100. And whats an extra ten miles right? Why not get the confidence of getting that first 100 mile ride behind me. So 100 miles became the goal. I created a 50.8 mile route on map my ride and downloaded it to my Garmin Edge 800 so I could follow the course with that and not have to worry about directions. I decided to base the route of a recent ride I did with a friend of mine in Little Compton / Westport / Dartmouth area and ride two loops.
-----------------------------------------------
Tuesday morning I got up, ate breakfast, drank some coffee, read some slowtwitch and when I'd finally run out of excuses and coffee I loaded up the car and headed out to go ride. I had brillianty decided to start my ride from Gray's Ice Cream in Little Compton, RI so that I'd have a lovely post ride reward! I'm smart like that sometimes.
I loaded up the bike with a bottle of water, and my one calorie bottle loaded with 1500 calories worth of a mix of Hammer Perpetuem, Hammer Gel, Gatorade, and water that makes a delicious fruity paste full of energy. I then stuffed two extra water bottles in my bike jersey to get me through the first 50 mile loop and off I went.
I'd forgotten how hilly the last ten miles of the ride I had just done that I based this route off of. Apparently I'd put that part of the route in my first ten miles. So I had to contend with ten miles of rollers right out of the gate. I kept a VERY close eye on my wattage at this point as I really didn't want to run out of gas on my ride. So I kept a wattage ceiling of 240 watts and tried to climb at 200 watts whenever possible. Nice and easy. My plan was not to set any speed or power records today. The goal was just to cover the distance feeling comfy, try and stay aero as much as possible and get it done. So my power goal was to average 140 watts and look for an average speed between 17-18mph. Just a bit below goal race pace for the ironman.
Five miles into my day I hear the nasty sound of my rear tire going flat.... so ten minutes later I'm up and going again without issue. Fortunately the five miles of riding and the sun had the rear tire nice and loose so it wasn't bad getting it on and off. Psychologically a flat at 5 miles into a century wasn't fabulous. But what can you do but change it and get going again.
After the first ten miles the next 30 or so miles are fantastic. Fairly flat, or lots of false flats, super gentle descents. So I made up a lot of time and for the slow speeds on the climbs here. There are some great roads in that area with decent conditions and not a lot of traffic. I was enjoying staying aero, focusing on drinking lots of fluids and making sure I was taking in enough of my calorie bottle. At around the 30 mile mark I began to wonder if I could survive 100 miles on my saddle. I was starting to get quite sore, but fortuantely for me by mile 40 that seemed to have worked itself out and I was comfy again.
Somewhere around mile 40 is where I had changed the route from what I had ridden before. I did it blindly knowing nothing about the roads I'd chosen other than that roads in the area are generally pretty great. Well I sadly chose some rougher roads that slowed me down and shook me a lot, but I got through them ok. The last ten miles also had a couple of nasty climbs in it and some more rollers. But at least I knew the car and the end of my first lap was almost there.
Once at the car I got ride of my empty bottles, blown tube and other trash, restocked on fluids and got going again. I hit the lap button on my bike computer so I could try and negative split the ride which was my goal. Or at the very least even split the ride and not fall apart at the end. I caught a nice second wind and almost but not quite enjoyed the ten miles of rollers. Once onto the flat roads again I felt pretty good till around mile 70 or so. 30 Miles to go... little less than 2 hours and my stomach was starting to feel weird and I was getting a headache. Not sure what that was all about... but I suspect nutrition. I started to really crave gatorade. Maybe for the sodium, or maybe the sugar? I passed a gas station not long after that and stopped in to get some. The cold gatorade tasted AMAZING considering it was close to 80 degrees out and sunny for most of my route. I immediately perked up which makes me think I need to change up my nutrition as I don't have it quite right yet.
I downed the first 20oz bottle of gatorade very very quickly and loaded up the second one to get through the rest of the ride with. Once I hit about 3/4 of the way there the rest of the miles really started to drag. I just kept an eye on the power and cadence numbers and tried to keep up my effort level. There was some construction I'd hit around mile 40 on the first lap that had a policman directing traffic I'd chatted with as I went by. He looked pretty surprised to see me again three hours later. It was pretty funny. Other than that the rest wasn't too eventfull. I enjoyed watching the miles tick by as I got closer and had a huge smile when I watched the 99 tick over into a 100! I'd done it! One more mile of easy pedalling back to the car and I could get an ice cream!
Of course turns out after that effort my stomach wasn't sure what it wanted... and I wasn't sure it wanted ice cream. Then I get to the window and they have 1,000 choices and I cant decide so I paniced and just got some lime sorbet. Which was great... but not perfect.
So how did I do? Lets look at the numbers....
Lap Distance 50.8 Miles per Lap.
Lap 1: 2:56:46 135 Watt Avg 17.3 mph avg
Lap 2: 2:56:40 140 Watt Avg 17.3 mph avg
So I managed to negative split the laps by six seconds and keep a dead even average for the entire 100 miles. Wattage wise there was a nasty headwind that kicked up for Lap 2 which is why the same speed cost me five more watts. Overall I'm quite pleased. I rode within myself and didn't go crazy so I didn't fall apart. I've put in a TON of hours training lately so 140 watts isn't much, but its a decent effort for the amount of strength left in my legs currently after a very busy week of training and riding 70 miles only a few days before. I also learned some great lessons from this ride.
1. That my goal to average between 18-19mph for the B2B is realistic and will leave me with some energy for the run.
2. That my nutrition isn't 100% dialed in, but I did do great with water consumption and timing of finishing the calorie bottle.
3. Pacing by wattage and cadence is definitely the answer. I'll also keep a loose eye on heart rate as well. I spent the whole ride trying to be at 140 Watts at a cadence of 90. Worked great.
4. That I can currently spend about 5 out of 6 hours in aero. More will come with time.
5. That I still can't for the life me wrap my head around having to run a marathon after riding 112 miles. I need to work on that one.
All in all a great ride and I'm glad I have that first long one behind me. Today is a much needed day off before the rest of the week's training. I'm definitely still feeling a little tired from yesterday, but otherwise feel pretty good.
Oh and speaking of loosely looking at heart rate. I often pay closer attention to it post ride to make sure I'm staying in the zones I should be. My goal for this ride was to spend most of it in Zone 2. Which for me is about 150 Watts or so of power and 130 bpm heart rate. Heres the chart from training peaks showing my nice and even heart rate stuck solidly in zone 2 for six hours. : )
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