Short Course - May 13 - 19
Hit the bike this morning...supposed to test in the pool, but since I'm still avoiding water, I rode the bike instead. I'm traveling most of the week, so will be a run focussed week for me. Did a repeat of last week's VO2 w/o (FT = 230):
10' WU
10' @ 221
2:00 @ 275, 2:00 @ 166
2:30 @ 279, 2:30 @ 163
1:30 @ 281, 1:30 @ 167
1:30 @ 281, 1:30 @ 162
1:15 @ 282: 1:15 @ 167
1:15 @ 276, 1:15 @ 170
6:00 @ 213
Total = 50' @ 195
0
Comments
I went to a wedding on Friday and got back last night. Did absolutely no workouts, ate poorly, got no sleep and brought home a nasty cold. So, no swimming for me either today.
I will just cut the lawn, get my diet back under control, take alka seltzer cold plus, go to bed early and plan for the best. Everything has a cost! it is amazing how fine tuned we get in our lives when everything revolves around a fitness lifestyle. A weekend with others that are sedentary is just so totally eye-opening!
Later - Joe
2 hours with 65% in zone 4 or above. That big steak tasted great for dinner.
Swim in the AM then strides on a hill. What a plan for Tuesday!
Joe- Wedding doesn't sound like it was good for training, but maybe it was fun at least? Feel better soon!
Ralph- Hope U had a great vacation. Nice work on the ride!
Swim for me last night. 12 x 100 with 50 sprint, 50 easy then 8 x 50. Not too shabby, considering I was tired, forgot my garmin and the pool was packed. My sprints were actually fast vs. my usual of exerting 2x the energy and going slower! My goal for swimming in generally not to get slower (I have too much work to do on the bike & run to "focus" on swimming too"). I can still make improvements in racing by just going faster and feeling comfortable enough to do so. Once my race times get closer to pool times, I'll have to find minutes elsewhere...
Good morning. Here I am closing the SC Adv, Week 20, yesterday swim MS 6x150 +8x25, I went expended EN flavor and liked it:
WU
200 SKIPS (swim, kick, IM drill, pull, non FR)
MS
8x150@2:45, all race pace 100s in 1:29-1:28 SCM, 150s touching in 2:17
12x25@:45 odds fast, evens easy, fast 17, 17, 17, 16, 16, 16sec....SCM
CD
300 pull
2700 SCM in 50min.
Felt pretty decent did not push. I usually start feeling rested this time and start pushing over the race pace....Little smarter this time in this week, more to come today.
15' warmup the 2 X 20' (4') @ Z4 for 63' total time. Hit my AVHR and speed and even though it was on the trainer, I felt it was as good as any workout on the road I could have gotten.
Might skip the afternoon run and walk instead. But, I will at the very least get in my basic strength routine.
@Kim - agree. Too much to do on the bike and run to just focus on the swim. I keep on haring RnP talk in my head about ROI when I start thinking otherwise!
@Aleksander - since it is week #20, what is your race?
Joe- nice workout, 2x20 is always good.
Kansas City Triathlon, olympic is my first A race. Even though last several months, I never trained less, I feel in petty decent shape. bad weather has clearly reduced my time on the bike and affected the overall bike fitness. That will trickle down to run off the bike, even though my running is very strong at the moment, I have not run this fast in couple of years. Last year I went 2:16.xx, will see this time around. If the heat stays away for a bit, maybe ok as I have zero heat acclimation at the moment. I am very meticulous in my prep, my bag is almost ready, bike is full race set up, tuned up.....
Today, brick, 45min bike 3x6min(4min)@FTP+ run 40min run as 15min@MP+15min@HMP, it went down like this, 82F, SW@13G20mph:
bike intervals very nice and comfy: int 1 272W int 2 273W int 3 @race power 267W, all cad 90-92, total 60min IF .80
run reduced to: 3x5min(2min)@ race pace: 1 7:03 pace, uphill into the wind, 2 6:40 pace, 3 6:43 pace, HR pretty high and felt harder than usual, last interval HR 164avg 166max, I would be looking for that usually in the last mile......
Stretch+ roll and feeling good. Still some fatigue in running legs but I am listening to my body and adjusting workouts to lift fatigue for the race. I am also observing PMC chart more as an informative tool this time.
@Aleksandar - Hmn, followed all except for the PMC chart. What is that again? Must have missed that somewhere...
Everyone seems to be working very hard. Keep up the work.
Anyway - I did do a Oly on 5/4 - a C race on the schedule - and thank goodness for that. The race was the White Lake Oly in Elizabethtown, NC. I was doing it since I was heading to Columbia, SC to visit a friend and then to OBX on the NC shore for an annual golf outing.
Race:
It was unusually cold in NC - water was 66.4 degrees but that didn't bother me. What made it difficult was the large swells. Had to swim into the swells for the 1st triangular leg and then across the swells and then back with the swells. It was never easy. Time was a whopping 34:16 which is easily 5-7 minutes slower than my normal oly swim times. Oh well - everyone's times were slow and many pulled out of the swim all together. This is usually the best leg of the race - so they advertise.
The bike started out into the wind but on good flat roads. I slowly stepped up the watts and just pulled in one rider at a time. After 10 miles we turned right and got some small rollers. 5 miles later we turned right again and after a short incline started the fastest part of the course. At this point only 1 guy had passed me. I was doing about 31 mph and at the 22 mile mark (its a 28 mile bike leg) shifted into my hardest gear and WHAM - can't pedal anymore. Chain is stuck between last cog and frame. Jump off to try to fix - no go. Moved chain to small ring - no go. Nothing seemed to work. My day was done. Took shoes off and starting walking w/bike - watching the world cycle by me. About 40 minutes later the SAC guy arrived and we took my wheel cover off - still couldn't see the problem. Then finally he notices the very small screw that sits in the rear drop out (to set the distance for your wheel) had come loose. Apparently it was pushing my wheel cover outwards, which in turn was pushing against the cassette and chain causing the problem. He screwed it back in and I was riding again.
I arrive at T2 and just go thru the motions deciding whether or not to run. Then finally said - well I paid for it - lets get the workout in - your not the last guy out here yet. So I walked to the chip mat and took off. Tried to keep pushing myself mentally. Passed a lot of runners and I guess that kept me motivated. I ran a 48:53 10k which is about a 7:53 pace. The best I could have hoped for going into the race was a 7:40 pace - so all-in-all I'll take the run effort.
I did some bike projections and figured I would've had the 3rd or 4th best time in 45-49AG and would've likely finished 4th or 5th in AG out of 28. Oh well.
My bike #s prior to the mechanical showed an IF of .822 which is much lower than my usual .88 - .92 for an Oly. This didn't totally surprise me as I haven't got many solid FTP workouts in since I last tested. I'm sure my FTP is likely closer to 280 than 290 right now.
And of course I come up with another cold (#2 of the cool spring season) following my golf vacation last week. I did get in one 34 mile hard bike and a 7 mile easy run a few days after the race.
But there is plenty of racing to come this summer. I learned another thing about my bike.
Saw fellow EN'r Dave Campbell at the race and he won his AG!! He was off to the Blue Ridge Parkway Camp which I did last year.
I am off to a foam roller class - yes - a local tri group got some doctors to hold a class just on the many ways to use a foam roller. Since the roller is my buddy, I figure it may be worth going.
Hopefully, I will back to real training tomorrow if my new cold breaks!
Another attempt at outdoor 2 x 20. A little better than Sun. as I picked a flatter route but kinda windy and prob still tired from Sun. Plus I'm really starting to think I had someone else's legs when I did my bike test 2 weeks ago cuz I haven't hit FTP WKOs much lately (No prob w/ VO2 however) Had to cut it a bit short due to it getting dark.
12' @ .88IF
11' @ .86IF
7' @ .89IF
Overall 60mins @ .77IF, 14.5 mi. Then one mile around the hilly block in about 10:49. (Felt good but toes were frozen from ride!) Probably a new brick-block record! I'm usually closer to 12:00 pace.
@ Jamie - now that is some hard biking. Any running after that with less than 24hrs is a monumental feat!
I am still knocking down this cold. Did a modified brick this morning in-lieu of the SC wk #10 run (3 X 1 @Z4) workout. I did do the scheduled swim workout and was only 3" off my T-time per 100m, so I am on the mend. Key is getting enough sleep and not trying to make up for lost time!
@Pete - that's a tough break. You were really hammering and then just like that, you're done. Probably worse than getting a flat - at least you know what to do there. Good job finishing!
@Aleksandar - Good luck this weekend - the KC Tri has to be flat and fast - for real - right? Also, that Tri is unique because they award an overall age-graded champion. Which is very cool!
I'm in SC week 17 and this morning I rocked the run wko MS of 3x1200 @ Z5 added on 4mi at Z3, which was actually tough! All in all, feeling pretty good and ready to race - too bad its still a few weeks away.
Joe- PMC= CTL, ATL, TSB.....graph
Kim- I know what you mean by fail, failed many times on those back to back brutal workouts, usually grossly failed when overachieved in the week prior
.......
Jamie- it is really rolling, 1200+ft of climbing on the bike, packed fine gravel trail......hey no idea what that age graded thing is, saw it but have no idea, can you sum it up, thx
Yesterday AM, OWS, 2x750m@1:32/100m pace, did not pull up wetsuit all the way and it was tiring my shoulders, what a difference proper putting on suit makes...
PM, 82F and 53% humidity, oh boy, this was my second run in some heat, per plan 4x90sec@TP, legs just ok, turning but paces have to be adjusted, from 6:35 TP to about 6:50ish.....5mi in 39min, shut it down.
We seem to be a pretty active crowd on the forum. Great thing. After this, coaches have planned for me GF Adv for the next 8 weeks, I can keep posting it here if you all are ok with that. I will be recovering in the first week after this race. Suspect it will take all 7 days after olympic race.
The race forecast is calling for a very humid morning with wind, typical Kansas. Will have to tune down power and pace goals and use HR quite a bit.......more on the race in a day or two.
@Aleksanda - My bad ... somehow I always thought of Kansas as flat but 1200 ft of climbing on the bike is tough. Good luck.
Not sure how the Age-graded champion is awarded in Triathlons but the basic idea behind the Age-graded scoring is to allow all individuals within a race to be "scored" against each other. Your Age-Graded Score or "performance percentage" is judged against the standard for your current age within your gender. You divide your finish time by that standard to get your finishing percentage – everyone gets a finish % and everyone is ranked from top to bottom. The closest to 100% is the overall Age-graded winner.
Swam 1900 this AM. Warmup then 400 timed then 800 at a faster pace. Then drills.
Biked this PM with 1 min zone 5 sprints with 1 min recovery in between x 10.
Here is my question: when I do the sprints, my heart rate gets up above zone 5 and in the one min recovery, it doesn't come down lower than zone 5. I am doing OK with that but is that how it is supposed to be? I set my zones using the calculator on the EN site
Got in a solid bike workout this morning: 3 X 1'(1') @Z4 plus 3 X 10'(3') @ Z4 with warm-up and cool down, 60' total. Cold is almost gone and my sprint tri this Sunday is looking better (400m swim, 13mi bike, 3.4mi run).
@Ralph - interesting. As a HR guy, I don't get the AVHR in Z5 using that same workout. But, I calculate it in 5 X 1'(1') @Z5 using the speed on my backwheel to measure the Z5 (>22mph) effort and I watch my HR go up each repetition. I then hit the interval on my watch at the 10" mark to get the AVHR. Then I take a 1" rest and do it again to get the full workout of 10' @Z5. What I see is my speed stays constant and my HR creeps up on each repetition till for the last couple I am Z5 the entire repetition. Hope this helps.
@Aleksandar - it gets pretty thin in this forum as the summer wears on. After my week #20, (in week #10 now) I will go also to the Get Faster program. Last year the bounding drills gave me a calf injury - so I will be extra soft starting on those this year!
Jim- thx, got it. Reminds me of NASTAR if you ever ski raced.......Yeah, Eastern KS is deceptive, no worries.
Joe- I am lightly scared at looking this GF ADV. thing on my computer. I am sure I will be very cautious, I have a history of 2 achilles injuries. The first week, next week, I will likely spend on the bike while recovering from this upcoming race. I will try to balance recovery with some longer rides in 160-190W, about Coggan Z2 for me, swim daily and easy run here and there.....than will hit Week 2 and start cranking while in Europe.
Yesterday final ride, easy jog after, 3x4min@FTP on the race course, today easy swim 1600SCM in 30min, stretching and rolling, feeling really good. It was really easy for me hitting 280W+ yesterday.....
The race: shaping up to be a very humid and moderately warm morning with winds 15-25mph. It is going to be very deceptive. Historically, being a smaller body type, I have done very well in hot and humid, do suffer like everybody else but somehow keep going....2012 Vegas was only exception, I crumbled.
Will see how this turns out. No heat/ humidity acclimation and have deep seeded hatred for humidity and wind, did I say I live in the land of OZ. Yep, will be moving to California one day.
Good swim today! My RR swim for Quassy Oly in 2 weeks. Exactly what I expected: 1600yds in 32mins. My t-pace is about 1:55 so 2:00 for 100 is about what I'd expect. Felt really good though, so in terms of feeling good for race day.... Swim: check! Now its just for that pesky (hilly) bike and (hilly) run! My duathlon Sunday will give me a feel for that.
Then did 8 x 1' hill repeats around the hood for my VO2 bike. All in the 1.16-1.21IF range except for first one @ 1.12IF.
@pete: that is what I was hoping you guys would say. It feels OK but I am new to tracking heartrate zones and am still surprised by the difference in the HR compared to how it feels. Sometimes it feels harder than others at the same HR.
@joe : I am using a new heart monitor program with my ANT+ heart monitor and iPhone. It gives me verbal feedback when I change heartrate zones. It is the first time I have been able to actually get real-time HR info so I was not sure what to expect.
Great race today for me. 2nd year doing the "Shamrock Duathlon" (5k run, 25k bike, 5k run) Beat last year's time by 11+ minutes. Full report here: http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/11819/Default.aspx
Next couple of weeks (SC Int) 19 & 20 will be lighter as I get ready for Quassy Oly. Feeling pretty good about it after Friday's RR swim and today's Du.
I re-learned a lesson about race execution again today. There is no such thing as a great bike followed by a poor run. I over-cooked the bike and paid for it on the run today at a local sprint triathlon. Ended up okay and took 15th overall out of 185 and 2nd in my age group. In retospect, I should've backed off a little on the bike because of the heat and would've had a better run.
Hoping Aleksander did not make the same mistake and had a great Kansas 70.3!
Thanks to all of you. The race was canceled for lightning. It was a bummer. Oh, well, here I go onto GF Adv plan. I hope to stay with you and post here. I enjoyed your company very much and would like to continue to hang here with all of you. Thank you very kindly for all of your support. Looking forward to cheering for you all when your races come. I still have several short course races this summer, including HyVee triathlon.