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Week 15/6: Camp Week, RR #1
So far, on plan: swam the 3800 in 78 minutes in the morning, then ran 45 minutes down, then up hill in the PM. TSS total of 123/123.
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So far, on plan: swam the 3800 in 78 minutes in the morning, then ran 45 minutes down, then up hill in the PM. TSS total of 123/123.
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Today I did the second long bike - the one scheduled on Saturday of Camp Week. The route is "only" 60 miles. But: 6200' of climbing, which even at a leisurely pace cost me 200 TSS points. It's all either going up or going down, including a non-stop 14 mile climb of about 4000', topping out @ 12,000'. No air, six feet of snow at the sides of the road, still a little slush here and there on the surface. The road crew is finishing up opening it for the summer, so no cars up or down to deal with here. The best part - I weighed the same at the finish as I did at the start, so my "force fluids" strategy is working. No sweating on the ride (temp @ top was under 50F), but the thin air just sucks the water out of you.
I'm feeling a bit of fatigue this week, yesterday's swim went well but the run was just average 5.5 miles in about 46 minutes. I suffered through this mornings bike session and opted to do a mid zone 3 instead of zone 4 effort. I moved last weekends Saturday's 5hr bike/run to Sunday which I think has something to do with the fatigue i'm feeling today. Time to rest up for the weekend ahead!
Yesterday I only did 40 minutes of swimming, then delayed the run until today. I was having trouble keeping my weight up took an hour's worth of naps, and generally felt wasted. I figured I needed a bit of rest, as I do NOT want to enter the weekend with a big cloud of fatigue impeding my training. In no way am I slacking off; this morning I did 75 minutes of cycling, hill intervals which here means repeats of about 2 miles, 700' of climbing @' 2750 meters elevation. 2300' feet of total elevation gain in 13.3 miles. 3 intervals/41 minutes of total work time @ an altitude adjusted IF of about 0.95. This afternoon, I'll do 4 x 0.5 miles @ TP, at a lower elevation, then long swim tomorrow, RR Sat, and long run Sunday.
just did my swim rehearsal...kinda disappointing with 1:28 time for the full distance but felt really great and my pacing was within 1 second from first half to the second half so pacing i think was fine its just frustrating that my swim cannot be faster as i feel im a better athlete than that... i guess its form for sure...
Any way RR tomorrow am and doing a concentrated infinite bottle of 900 calories per half washing it down with water so i get 28-30 oz fluid total per hour.... additionally a gel and 1 extra salt tab per hour which will give me around 1100 mg salt 400 or so calories per hour and a more than normal fluid intake of about 28-30 oz of fluid then a smooth transition to the run with a 70 cal infinite mixture per 24 oz bottle (2 per hour and a gel just in case...weather should be around 80 when i hit the run ...any thoughts
i may be a little light on fluid on the run i may rethink that
james
Hi Happy Campers!
Full report to follow but short update: Checking in from IMCDA. 112 RR + 6 yesterday and it was fabulous!
Turned in a PB on VI at 1.01 and I’m REALLY stoked about that. Strongest 60, 90 and 120 minutes were all in the last 2 hours. I do think this course for me is subjectively “easier” just because it’s so straightforward. Yes they are hills, but just stick to your watts and they will end eventually. The VI speaks to that as best I ever did on either IMC course was 1.04 with similar focus. Also, I put on a 56/32 crankset so I’m not spinning out as much as I did on a recon mission I did back in October. Run was no drama mama although I didn’t really feel like running another 20…
And more importantly: Weather is beautiful! It was 91 somewhere on the course at one point and at T2 it was 81. Lots of triathletes swimming and I’ll be giving it a go this afternoon or tomorrow.
Heading out for 112 #2. Didn't seem possible last night but it’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do so off I go to give it a shot.
Enjoying everyone’s reports and hoping to take Al’s lead and get in a big nap this afternoon.
Files below, welcome any feedback you may have! Keep calm and Ride On!
Bike: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/3DF...BK3IUP6TIQ
Run: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/2XI...RHDJ6Q7CH4
Just finished my RR#1 180 km ride + 1 hour run. The plan was to take in 500 calories /hour and drink 40 oz /hour. The reality was not so close! Today was a cold start at 4 degrees Celsius warming up to a lovely 10 - so maybe this was the main cause of my lack of liquid intake. I drank 3 bottles of my mix of Perform with an extra scoop of CarbPro (310 cal. each) and a gel on the hour in the first 90 km. All felt good and I hit my target heart rates, but man, did I have to pee! Not to get too personal with the details, but I had to pee 4 times by the end of the bike and I only had 5 bottles in total! I started taking the gels on the 30 min. mark, knowing I had to get more calories in. I ended up with about 350 calories/hour on the bike and 200 on the run with gels and no fluids - someone hid my Fuel Belt at home. The bike felt good and the run felt like I could have kept going strong for a while. I am not a camel and I have a teacher's bladder - should I be worried about the lack of fluids and try to force more down in subsequent rides? Thanks for any ideas!
Bike went really well. I started a dialog in a different thread about nutrition and it turns out I was wayyy overshooting calories in the past. I switched to liquid only and did 220 calories per hour. I also did caffeinated salt tabs. I felt really good coming off the bike.
I did 0.72 IF with a VI of 1.01! I also averaged 85 cadence. Coach P did a crucible of my Oceanside ride and the biggest red flag was a low average cadence so I am really happy I was able to bump it up! I ended up averaging 20.4 mph for a moving time of 5:31
The run also went well. I was able to hold myself back for the first 3 miles and I ended up with a total average of 7:55 which is just above my target pace of 7:48.
Woohoo! Now how on earth am I going to do this again tomorrow...
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/505526586
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/505526600
@ Jenn & Peter - I'm blown away by your VIs. I've hit 1.025. Ionmly see 1.01 on the trainer. Challenge is down, my RR is "flat", so I'll give it a go.
Judson - in the Great White North, I guess those are balmy temps? I''ve got a similar issue, when I start tomorrow (Sat), temp will probably be 6C, cloudy all day, maybe some rain.
Yesterday, I did bike intervals and tried run intervals in the PM, but they weren't happening, so I just went 45 minutes on the track. Today, I did 4150 yds in the pool (lost track of laps early on, it turns out according to my new Garmin Fenix2). Adding the extra 50, I took 1:16:30, which is just about race pace for me. I actually did it as 2 x 900, 2 x 700, 2 x 400, 200, with 20 sec rest between each. Otherwise I give up in boredom. My paces dropped from 1:51 >> 1:46 as I went along; my fastest 400 was the last one I did, and my fastest 100 was the last one I did, so I guess the fitness is there.
Tomorrow will be RR, staged @ 6400'.Three out 'n backs. First loop goes down to 5800' in 18.7 mi/back up on a bike path. Last two are a mixture of bike path and country roads. #2 goes up to 7300' on a river road/back down. #3 up to 7800'/back down. Total of about 3000' of climbing - the flattest route I can find around here, almost all @ 1-2% grade up or down. I'm ready for 24 oz/hour Infinit/260 cal, with add'l calories available as needed from gel and Hammer Perpetuem tabs. The run is on dirt road or bike path, I'll do 2 loops, starting with 32 oz bottle of infinite. I've done this route for most of my RRs the past 5 years, so I'll have a lot of data to compare to. I'm usually right around 6 hours/112 miles, then 54-5 minutes for six miles.
Since I already did another 5:15 bike earlier this week, I'll do the long run on Sunday, but split it up 1:30 AM/:45 PM. Looking forward, there's no way I'll do 150 or 180 minute of non-stop running next two weeks, I'll split both of those also.
I'd really hoped to get to 100 miles - more for a mental boost, but it wasn't to be today.
On your saddle - is this the same one you had for Austin & Cali?
@Peter - Logged into Garmin Connect and this is the first thing I see on the dashboard. I promise I'm not laughing at your pain...but that made me laugh!!
"There's no success like failure … " - Bob Dylan
Yesterday's RR#1 ended for me with no run. About 5 hours into the bike, I lost my mojo, and finished up with 106 miles in 5:57. When I got off, all I felt like doing was sleeping (that started about 45 minutes before the end), and was also a little dizzy. It just didn't feel right to force a run. In the past, I would have just muscled through and done the run, but as I get older, I feel a little more fragile, and don't feel the need to stress excessively just to prove I can. I've already demonstrated that many times over to myself. I drove the 25 minutes to home, and napped for 2 x 20 minutes, then tried to figure out what went wrong.
1. Dehydration - nope. The ride started at 45F, going up to low 60s, with cloud cover when it got warmer. I took in 120 oz fluid, more than I ever have before on a ride like this. I pee'd twice on the ride, and then 3 x in the space of an hour (clear) after I got home. I weighed the same at the end as at the start, and my BF% was lower, indicating good hydration status.
2. Insufficient calories - nope. I took in 1740 from Infinit and EFS, both of which include a small amount of protein, evenly spaced thru out the ride. Again, more than I ever have before. I was specifically trying to increase my fluid and calorie intake on this ride.
3. Uneven to excessive effort at any point in the ride - Possibly? For some reason, my Joule did not download the last third of the ride (I think it was a "Memory Full" situation, but I was keeping a close eye on the on-going data thru out, and if anything, the last hour was at a much lower power. The following #s are adjusted for the altitude, meaning I dropped by FTP by 6% for purposes of the calculation as I was riding @ an avg altitude of 7000'. IF/VI/elev gain: First 35 min: 0.67/1.04/+462',-351''; 52 min: 0.701/1.01/+842; 42 min: 0.684/1.05/-957', 50 min: 0.715/1.01/+855'; a couple of admin miles thru town @ 0.69/1.1; 25 min/0.745/1.03/+617; 14 min/0.4/1.37/-646'; 14 min/0.624/1.07/-333'. The last 50 min of the ride was the same sort of terrain as the last segment, which I did at the same power levels. My peak 30 sec pwr was 0.99, peak 1 min was 0.85, peak 2 min was 0.0.815, peak 5 min was 0.785, peak 10 min 0.76, peak 20 min 0.0.745… all of these segments started at the same time, 3:20 into the ride, when I was going up the steepest section of the whole route. Meaning, I was riding steady for about 20 minutes @ 0.7 of sea level IF/0.75 of my alt adjusted IF, with a VI of 1.03. This is the only segment I can find where I might have benefited from backing off a touch. I certainly had some room for that, as my avg cadence up this hill was 78.
4. Trying something new - Yes. All my rides over 3.5 hours for the past 10 years, I have used Hammer Perpetuem as part of my nutrition. About an hour into this ride, I thought, "Hmm, I seem to be getting all the calories I'd intended, let's see if I can just go with two sources instead of three, and not use any of the Perpetuem." Not a plan I made in advance, as I had the stuff with me. But it takes up space, and I'm now using it in solid form, which is chalky and sticks to my teeth for a while, a little bit of a hassle. So when I got back, I looked up what's in it. Besides the maltodextrin and soy protein as the major calorie sources (it would only account for 150 cal during the whole ride if I used it), it also has Sodium phosphate, L-Carnosine, L-Carnitine, Choline Bitartate, Chromium Polynictotinate, and Magnesium Stearate.
I know what the sodium phosphate does; I use a loading protocol with it in the days before an A race to aid with lactate clearance; the other stuff I had to look up. Like most supplements, I'm skeptical of claims about these things, but I'm willing to believe there may be something to them in a high stress activity like an IM. The Carnosine may have the most direct impact, as it's a dipeptide (which the body can make) which ends up highly concentrated in neurological (including brain) and skeletal muscle tissues. The Carnitine seems to help insulin bring sugar into cells, another potential factor in how alert I was.
Bottom line learnings from this failure, to aid future success: 1. on those long hills in CDA, stay @ 0.7-0.72 IF at all times. 2. Don't drop the Perpetuem; keep using the solid tabs on long rides of 3 or more hrs. in the next 3 weeks.
Also, because today is cool, cloudy, and rainy, and my TSB is -39, rest today (go to the gym), do the long run tomorrow, and rest the day after that, splitting up the two rest days in the plan at the start of next week.
Just finished the long run and at the 3/4 mark I could not help thinking that I really did not deserve to feel this damn good! The run started off in a gross kind of slog, but after 1/2 hour my cadence picked up and my body started to respond better to the trail. The second half of the run at Z2 just flew by and the final 15 min. I felt like I still had good leg strength to finish hard with 23 km of trail running in the bag. I was not expecting this and am overall pretty happy with my first "Camp Week"!
Yesterday, I was also expecting the second 180 km bike to be ugly, so when a couple buddies asked to come along, I told them to bring it on, thinking that I would probably need a pull to finish the day. The legs felt surprisingly good, so much that I felt guilty getting a draft part of the time. I ended up pulling as much as I could and after a couple guys dropped out part way through, I pulled my last friend through the headwind for the last 50 km. We only covered 165 km in total, but it was a real treat to have better legs than my partner who was having his first ride of the weekend.
All in all, I have more confidence in my fitness than I ever have before. I need to adjust my fluid consumption on the bike and possibly add more sodium. Calorie intake needs to increase in the second half of the bike and the entire run. Lots to improve, but I feel like I am on the way to a good day at IMCDA!
Thanks for the good reports to read and happy rest day to you all tomorrow!
I got up this morning around 5 a.m.to get my long run done so I could be ready for a 9 a.m. church service. When I put my legs to the floor I wondered how in the world I was going to run for 2:15....but after about 3 miles it started feeling like just another run. I ended up with about 15.5 miles....though I was never able to get into zone 2 - which didn't stress me out b/c I not "pushed" in a while due to calf/hamstring issues. I was able to negative split the run...not by a ton, but a negative split nonetheless. Overall average was about 15 seconds faster than my zone 1 pace. Feel pretty good about that.
Oh,and this was the first run where I feel like I was really on top of my fluids. I loaded up five 25 ounce Camelbacks with 50 water/50 Perform and ran my trusty 5k loop around my neighborhood. Each turn I'd grab a new bottle out of the back of my truck and each mile I walked 30-40 steps putting down about 8 ounces. All in I drank about 125 ounces and still lost 1 pound of water weight. It was early but crazy humid here in Dallas - so I was dripping wet when I was all done. Had I stuck to my 4 ounce per mile plan I'd have been killed. Great thing to learn a month out!!
I remember reading about "camp week" 4 months ago and as I read the details to my wife I think I actually laughed out loud at the volume...totally overwhelmed by how in the world was I going to get all that done. But....I gotta be honest, I'm greatly encouraged by the week and by how many miles I was able to cover over the course of 7 days. I'm tired for sure, but no where near as cooked as I anticipated being when the week started. Definitely looking forward to a day off tomorrow.
I'm actually starting to believe I'll have the fitness to finish this monster!!
Hey Campers!
Just checking in. Still haven’t had time for a full report but here’s the overview of what I got done so far.
Thursday: 112 Bike, 6 Run – All as planned in distance and effort as noted previously.
Friday: 112 Bike – As planned in distance and effort, but major crotch drama due to mistake in shorts on Thursday and serious mental six-pack day to get it done. This included a stop at the Fightin’ Creek gas station for some Bactine to numb the pain. I think I was on the course 1.5 hours over ride time just bargaining with myself and checking in with my Sherpa. Bagged a planned swim. Cried in the shower when I got home.
Saturday: 59 Bike – Revised the plan of 112 (note I have had the coaches help with the 3 x 112 plan – trust me I didn’t make that up) and shot for 56. Had Tegaderm on the sore spots to reduce friction and the “right” pair of shorts after assessing the drama from Friday. Legs felt good to go the 112 but crotch and hubby did not. So, got it done at the planned intensity with hubby sucking my wheel. ;-)
Sunday: 4,000 Swim and 14.1 Run - All as planned. As you know the course is beautiful. Really enjoyed it but one lap was enough. The CDA marathon was on and a lot of the volunteers thought I was a racer. Made for some fun exchanges and festive atmosphere.
Monday: TBD – Hoping for a 4-5K pool swim and maybe a little splashy-splashy in the lake just to get my head around it.
Thanks for all your reports – really helps the collective mojo!
Fri up at cracked of dawn 900 Cal infinite in 2 feed bottels
Gu per hour and 500 mg salt per hour
4 pee stops and a mid stop refill and got distance in 6hrs
Started cramping 4hrs in but pressed on adding extra salt
Hit the run at prescribed pace but cramping still a problem temps were upper 90's shhheett
Day 2 upped the fluid 16oz per hour more and another 500mg salt and switched to 3 750 calorie feed bottles no cramping at all but day 2 jacked back up and did nothing sun except rest and stretched I will try to get run in after work today if not a 4400 ya swim for sure