Short Course 5-11 August 13
Moving on to the second half of the summer brings some challenges with weather extremes and injuries! Here, we have five of the next seven days with highs over 100 degrees and other areas like Kansas and Missouri are getting hammered with flash floods. So, I'm checking my www.weather.com and http://cms.weatherbug.com apps before heading out! 
Also, it has been a long season already if you count the OS. So, using a little discretion like Kim when the ankle just doesn't feel right is good preventative maintenance at this part of the triathlon season. 
This is taper week for Jim as he gets ready for Nationals! Hope your taper is going well! 
0
Comments
Tomorrow is an off day - except I might swim, depending how I feel.
Joe is making a great point. After many weeks of OS style training+ SC plan for over 20 weeks when totaled, combine miserable humidity, I am looking for more variety to break up the monotony. My whole week is scheduled with some of my own production training, just to change things up so I would not burn up. Yes, they are easier than SC plan, man that is some tough stuff for over and over and over....
For fun, I got 3 different combined workouts scheduled, some long biking and running. Combined workouts are: 1 bike trainer/track brick, 1 swim to bike combined workout and 1 bike to run with race specific work. Hope to change things up a bit. 4 swims that inculde 1 open water......Let you know how it goes.
Jim- Great work on the hills! (Def. my weakest)
Aleksander- I'm a big fan of combining WKOs. I have 1/2 day Fri. so I try to do some of that on Fri., but it doesn't always work well for Sat. workouts....
Rough group ride tonight... Lost the group on a hill, then there was a turn and since I didn't know the route I went the wrong way. (Lesson learned... will always take a cue sheet!) 2 other people were dropped too so we rode a bit, then found the group heading downhill so I pulled a u and tried to catch them. I learned later that the group had broken up into B+ and B groups and that was the B+ group so obviously I couldn't keep up. I did eventually run across the B's thank goodness but I think I climbed and extra hill or 2, even though I ended up with about 2 miles less than them. SOOOOO much climbing. Garmin says 2,400 ft. gain but I know its not that much... A lot of mental energy expended getting lost too. No power on my road bike anymore but 24.66mi in about 1:38. Garmin training effect 4.5. Nice! Legs may rebel tomorrow for the run... we'll see.
To continue my epic fail in the heat scenarios:
Sunday I was scheduled to do 70 min at easy Z1 pace. it was about 88 out but "feels like" temp was over 100 with humidity and all.
So I start out at my Z1 pace but my heart rate kept creeping up to Z3 and even z4 at the same Z1 pace. At about mile 4 I had to back off just to get my HR out of Z4. Finished the time but only got about 6.5 miles in 70 min which is Z1 pace but it certainly seemed harder that day.
Busy work week has cut into training. Swim and run tomorrow. Get faster plan is like real work...
Have a great week everyone!
So I did my swim this Am and couldnt figure out why my distance was different from what the plan said even though I did the workout as written...
Looked at the Wed swim and the MS2 was 3x100, 3x100, 3x100 for a total of 1000. Hmmmm...
Anyways I didn't die yet but there is always the run later today...
Sunday should be interesting. I have a long ride on Sat and am supposed to do my last sprint on Sunday. I think I am just gonna stick to my training schedule and see how it goes. it is a "C" race on my schedule so it will be an experiment.
So, although this week should be GF #2, I am actually doing a taper week for an Olympic Distance "B" race this Saturday. Since I did this race last year and did the same taper week, I can see where I am and compare and make a realistic assessment of what I can expect:
Swim - about a min slower/mile.
Bike - about a min faster/40K
Run - probably 30"/mile slower in this heat and humidity
That comes to a drop from 2:23:59 to about 2:27. I'll take it. Especially since I found a crack in the rear hub of my deep dish areo wheel after last Saturday's TT. So, HED is shipping out a new one with a discounted price of $650 that arrives next Monday. So, I'll be using a tubular Rolf deep dish loaner. Now, I'll have a clincher deep HED front and a Rolf tubular deep dish back. I'm going to carry a Victoria quick repair inflator and hope it is a good enough insurance for both tires.
Glad this is a B Race!
Joe- yes, luckily it is a B race. $650 is discounted? Youch
So interesting accidental experiment tonight. Left my Garmin on last night so it was dead when I headed out for my run. I used Map my Run instead so no constant pace. I just turned it on, stuck it in my Fuel belt and went. My goal pace for the 3 x 1 mi was 9:47. Miles were 9:30, 9:26 and 9:00. So apparently, my Garmin is slowing me down! For the first mile, I felt like I was running in caramel (like that Twix commercial) so I was surprised at the pace! I may do a sprint next thurs, and since it would be a C race, I'm gonna try it with no technology. Just go!
@Ralph, I have failed so many times in this humidity and almost been brought to tears and throwing up a few times as well. I did not put that in my reports to you, I should have. I do not recall struggling this much before, paces are slower, but bike power, holy cow, I loose a lot. Running, yeah, 30sec/mi easy across the board, have to walk after IP intervals.....have nothing in tank to run HMP.....Bike power from 275-290W down to 250-260W.......sucks majorly, messes with my brain and confidence.
@Joe, I bet you are going better than 2:27.
@Kim, funny, I am suspecting the same and have signed up for sprint under friends pressure to race with no gadgets as he believes that in my case, screens are holding me back.
So, when you know you have an addiction to something, you stay away. This is like throwing kerosine on a wood fire. I like numbers. So, I maybe getting power this fall for my bike...
9' at IF ranging from 1.18-1.23IF, plus the last one at 1.35IF just for kicks. That worked out much better than trying to do the 2'-2:30 hill on the next street over. Only able to hold about 1.15 for that one so this is better.
Feeling much spunkier now but ready to chill!!
Great group ride today. Same time/distance (29.5mi in 1:35) but IF went from .87 last week to .90IF this week. Musta been my new EN wheel graphics on the new bike...
Quick recap of my race.
Swim - third wave with the over 40 crew and quickly was swimming by mself and worked through the women's wave and came uout in the back of the first wave. Easy pace mostly by myself - la-ti-da kinda swimming. Time - 24:05
Bike - went out moderate and although I go by perceived effort, I thought it was Z3/4 @23mph. I had a powertap for my loaner back tire and the bike shop straped a garmin on. My power numbers are ave power 265, Pnorm (whatever that is) 282 and I got a max of 568 watts going up our big hill. They said I am at 3.4w/kg I think. They showed me the new garmin power system that goes into the pedals only while I was there - $1800 for the full kit. I must admit, I liked the graphs he downloaded while I was there.
Run - about half on trail and it was about .7mi short. So, although I did a 48:02 for a 10K, it was more like a 5.3 or so and I did 9:00/mi. Not bad for another hot day here in Texas. My run test for my 4mi course last week was at 8:09/mi. So, this about right.
I placed 13th out of maybe 150 or so and won my age group. My time was 2:17:02 and with the race pace and added distance had it been a true 10K, I would've done about a 2:25, which is about a minute off from last year on the same course. So, although I'll get the official results soon and can analyze this better, I've got mostly what I need.
Lesson learned - the introduction to power was nice and running tubular tires was very cool. I need to spend some time in the off season and get smart on both! With new new garmin pedal system, the hub powertap goes for under $800 now. Of course, one for training and another for racing is $1600....
Nice run today! Hip flexor still a little tight/sore but stretched every now and then and I can actually walk now unlike after last week's run!
My 3 x 1 mi Z4 was a little off the pace (9:47 target) at 9:53, 10:29 and 10:09 but please with the rest of the run, the last being the 2nd fastest!
4- 10:15
5- 11:14
6- 11:15
7- 10:19
8- 10:07
I did a little digging and looks like last year around this time I was doing shorter runs than this at closer to a 11:30 pace. Granted I was in HIM/IM training mode but I'm happy to see that even though my 5k pace hasn't gone down tremendously, my tri run times and my longer runs have gotten much better.
Ice and relaxing time!
@Kim, love that wheel.
@Joe, congrats, huge, you are fast!!! I read your test report from last week or so, knew your a speed demon on that bike!!!! Sub 2:27 was a sure thing even when corrected to 10k, nice work.