Training for St George
Thought we could use this forum to check in, motivate and be accountable for the training we'll put in for this upcoming great adventure.
Yesterday, did the Week 11 "Big Day". I swam an hour, rode 56 miles then ran for 40 minutes. Was a great test for my fitness, nutrition, and mental preparation necessary to take on St George. Also made it seem very real what I'm working towards.
Anybody else do the big day yesterday? How is your own training going?
Yesterday, did the Week 11 "Big Day". I swam an hour, rode 56 miles then ran for 40 minutes. Was a great test for my fitness, nutrition, and mental preparation necessary to take on St George. Also made it seem very real what I'm working towards.
Anybody else do the big day yesterday? How is your own training going?
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Race day is just about 2 months away. Will be here before you know it. This week is my last week in the Bike Focus plan before dropping into the HIM plan starting next monday. For me this is a bike test/recovery/transition week before things get serious. I'm looking forward to getting started on the HIM plan, but not loving the fact that most of long rides will need to be on the trainer for at least the next month because of the weather.
Good luck with the training this week. Is anyone sticking around St George after the race? I'm planning to hike in Zion on Sunday before flying home Monday morning.
I'm just dropping in to offer this advice:
If your wife is a flight attendant and comes home very sick from a 4 day trip and proceeds to cough and sneeze all over everything for days, (1) take her into the backyard and hose her down with hot bleach water, (2) give yourself a full on shower in hand sanitizer and (3) go to Costco and buy a pallet of those surgical masks for you to both wear.
Otherwise you risk getting sick yourself, dirtbiking 3 days in Death Valley while sneezing and snotting all over the inside of your helmet, Neti-potting yourself like a fiend for days, and missing out on a week + of cycling and nearly 2wks of running.
I did the FTP testing today. I have to say I am pleased with my results. I started the Nov OS with a FTP of 206w on my road bike and today I tested with a FTP of 230 w in the aero position on my tri-bike. Testing is brutal but when you get a good result it makes it much more palatable.
The good news is that I have a grizzly adams beard and hairy legs, I sat up for half the ride, and I still have lots more aero improvements to make yet I still set a PR for 56 miles with 2:39. I also ended up 10 watts shy of what I want to target for the race. I am excited for the race rehearsal next weekend!
Had my nephew in town all week so only ran ~8 miles but had a decent week of cycling (this weekend). Have been very inconsistent the last ~6wks so I'm now looking at SG as a training race, basically. My schedule is free of other commitments so it should be interesting to see what fitness I can generate with ~6wks of solid work...but I'm really more looking towards IMWI at this point.
Peter, I've been scheming a summer loop of Rio Hondo, SGRT, Arrow, Gladstone, Bonelli, Valley Center, halfway up GMR, blah, blah back to the start. I just can't do the bike paths for hours and hours anymore, I may end up strangling some random kid...
Sundays will likely be TT-esque up to Chrystal Lake. There's a Strava segment from the first bridge/entrance to the canyon to the CL turnoff. 1:52, 21mi, >4k today of very, very solid work.
I need to alter the course and be consistent these next six weeks as well. Not sure how it is going to happen. It has to happen enough for me not to get injured on race day, however!
Rode outside today for only the 2nd time all year. Today it was sunny and 75 in colorado. Rode 50 miles in about 2:38. Not bad, but really focused on increasing my effort level throughout. Had a 20-30 minute warm up at something like 50% IF and then started riding at 70% and let my effort level build throughout. I think my last 30 minutes was 85%+. After looking at my ride files from last year i realized i tend to start way to hard and then fade on the back half of rides. I know when it comes to doing intervals outside, this approach will not work, but for ABP rides i want to build from the start to finish where the last 30-60 minutes is my best 30-60 minutes.
Last week and this week were my first times using Gatorade Endurance. Perform is 210 calories per bottle, where Gatorade is 160. Last week I bonked hard, either not enough calories or not enough sodium. This week for the rehearsal I drank two bottles, and added in two gels for a net of 215 calories per hour which is back at my usual perform intake. Today was fine nutrition wise so I guess I will go with it. I like the option to skip the gels and drink more gatorade if it is hot.
The ride itself was 0.83 IF and comfortably hard. My VI was 1.01. Average watts 208, NP 211. I was able to run just fine after so I think next time around I will go for higher watts. Perhaps 0.85-0.86 IF. I stayed aero 98% of the ride and felt pretty good, neck just a bit sore.
Plan was to ride .80 of FTP or 219W. Is that NP or AVG power that I should be aiming for, I've always assumed it was NP. I rode 220W but AVG watt only of 206 leading to a VI of 1.06 which some of it can be explained by stop lights, a couple long descents which I spun out or didn't feel safe with the winds but I can definitely improve this VI. I'm still using up the last of my Perform but my jugs of Gatorade Endurance did arrive and will be switching to that in a week or two. Didn't drink as much as I will at St George given just how cold it was but I still managed 2 full bottles and 2 gels. I'll aim for 3 of each on the bike portion of St George. I'll probably stick to this same IF for race or possibly 81% but knowing we have a tough run ahead want to make sure I've left enough in the tank.
Switched to a compact crank about 3 weeks ago for racing St George and IMC and so has been good to get used to it but I'll be putting the 53 back on for IMAZ. I did 1700 ft of climbing in my ride today, far short of the 4000 that is stated on the bike profile map of the course.
My feet were pretty cold by the time I ended the bike and felt like bricks and some pain as sensation returned to them in the first 3 miles of the run. Run went well but hit more halfway between Z1 and Z2 vs a Z2 but given the conditions I felt good.
We are getting close! Hope your race rehearsals went great!
On the course I am using ave power, both actual and delayed. I understand the concept of NP, but not sure how to use that information on the day.
I did not brave the wet stuff yesterday, and was on call to boot, so I did a 3 hour trainer yesterday instead. I superimposed the ST George elevation map and tried to recreate the slopes. That last hill is going to be awesome. TSS 185, IF .78. Run felt great. the OS helped with that.
DS
IMSG is much hillier than the RR route you used. You'll be on the bike longer than your RR. I recommend you stick with .83-84 and then leverage your run and body comp on a very hard run course.
That is, at your power to weight ratio I think you can be tick conservative on the bike without really loosing much in the way of a bike split and then uncork a great run. And it sounds like your swim is coming along too.
Did RR#1 this past weekend and things went very well. I rode 60 miles on Saturday with 4k of climbing. Finished with IF of .835 and a VI of 1.047. Felt strong throughout and was able to push hard during the last 45 min. I was able to follow that up with a 6 mile run at a 6:41/mile pace. That's faster than my HIM pace, but with the drop in altitude that pace is pretty close to where i hope to be on race day(minus 2 tough uphills). So far things are lining up well for St. George. I hope to be down another 3-4 lbs by race day and then it should be all systems go. Sounds like everyone is doing well, so stay healthy and keep training hard!
Looking forward to final race rehearsal this weekend. Plan to try .81 IF on the bike as .80 worked well on the last one. Planning to do the race rehearsal in my EN kit (plus whatever cold weather gear I need) and put on my new tires/tubes and aerojacket wheel cover to test out all my race equipment. Will even start the day with my pre-race breakfast.
Really looking forward to St George. Doing this as a guys trip with 6 other guys though only 2 of us are doing the full race and the others are all doing relay and I'm the only one that is an EN member so I probably won't attend the EN meal on Friday. We're planning to hike the narrows on Sunday before heading to Vegas Sunday night.
Hope everyone has a great final race rehearsal this weekend.