FL 70.3 week 18
Sorry for the late start to week 18. Last week before we begin to taper. This week we have our last long-ish run ( Thursdays run is shorter than the past 2 weeks) and RR2 on Saturday. Hopefully everyone has a race plan by now and can test it this weekend. Don't forget to post your race plans to get feedback from the team. That is one of the huge benefits from teamEN.
Also don't forget to submit your bio to Brenda before 4/3.
I started the week with 2600 yds in the pool. 20 x 100 was tough after yesterday's race but got it done. Hopefully I can hit all the workouts this week and do the RR on Sunday.
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AM - Swim 3700 SCY. Selected main set from coach.cox.uk
PM - 30 mins at the gym + 3 mile run
Gran Fondo Florida scheduled for Sunday...medio distance...I am going to hammer the timed sections.
Tue AM - Run 6 miles w 2 x 1 mile kinda-hard
Tue PM - Spinervals "Ascending Mountains in Leadville, CO." I didn't feel up to 3 x 15 mins as I need a new action movie for that so I settled for Coach Troy yelling at me. After the warm-up this DVD goes like this:
5 x 1 min short hills (Z4)
3 x 5 mins medium hills (Z4)
2 x 10 mins long hills (Z-4 to 6 due kickers)
Then 3 x 30 secs as 15 secs build and 15 secs hurt yourself. I hit 458, 506, 503 watts on those. Beats me how the TDF sprinters go 1500+ Watts.
Good work from everyone so far this week. Tom sorry to hear about your hip. Keep us posted on how its going with PT. I am struggling a bit this week with an "injury" of my own. I made the mistake of doing the race this weekend without socks (without practicing it at all in training). Well, lesson learned the hard way I guess. I have 2 giant blisters in the arches of both my feet. The right one isn't so bad because its closed, the left one is fully open and very uncomfortable. Attempted the swim yesterday but the Left one kept catching water in what was left of the skin (sorry, kind of gross I know) so I wasn't able to keep any kind of speed due to the pain. Had a hard time sleeping last night since the sheets kept brushing against the open blister, but I am going to try the bike this morning. I haven't been able to run all week. Im hoping one of my ATC buddies can give me enough supplies to doctor it up and try to run tomorrow. Not sure how that will go. Anyone with any tips to makes these things heal faster? I really don't want to miss out on training right now.
Today's workouts: (note, I am keeping an eye on my race in Sweden which starts with a 2.6 mile swim)
AM - 4300 yards swim + 8 mile easy run
PM - Back on the drainer with Spinervals #8, Recovery and Technique. Basically, lots of high spin work interspersed with one leg drills.
Good 8mi run in yesterday for me and a friendly ride on Tue after work, all be it at a very relaxed 14mph pace!
https://www.strava.com/activities/273981141
Heading out for the 80' run shortly so hope that goes well.
FINALLY posted my race plan in the Execution Forum - particularly interested in, 1) how best to estimate bike split for the course and in turn decide if my Watt target is in the right ballpark to achieve desired TSS. And 2) how to update the pacing for running based on heat. IM heat calculator gives pretty big pace impact, whereas rule of thumb on the blog is 3" per 5 degrees F above 65F.
Anyway, if you have a sec, take a look and let me know what you think please!
http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/18247/Default.aspx
Nothing too progressive about it but fairly steady if you go by GAP.
Still trying to find that extra PUSH for the end physically AND mentally.
https://www.strava.com/activities/274433145
AM - did the 'progressive' run with a goal of 10 miles. Blew up at 7.5 and jogged home for a poor 9 mile effort. I never looked at splits until I finished and everything was 30 secs slower per mile than I thought I was doing. Two possible factors: 1) it was really humid this morning. I wore Hokas that were soaked by 4 miles which turns them into a heavy sponge. 2) I didn't have enough to eat yesterday. Confession: I had Invisiline braces put in yesterday and you have to remove them to eat, brush your teeth before putting them back in. They are supposed to be in 22 hours per day. Good bye to snacking for the next year!!
PM - Swam 2800 yards with speed...thinking about that "quarter in the crack" from Mike Roberts post.
Tomorrow morning I'm meeting up with EN teammate Juan Vergara from Brazil. He needs some hill work for St George so we are going to ride the hills around San Antonio, FL and my job is to make sure he doesn't get lost. Going to be very windy with perhaps some on and off rain. Whatever!
Great work everyone. Also did the run this morning. Got in 10.4 miles but my legs felt sluggish for a lot of it . The last 10 minutes I went 1' zn3, 1' zn4 to deal with the boredom of the treadmill. I also think I got in 10 miles because the TM made me move my legs. Dont think I would've gotten it done if I had done it outside.
Swim tomorrow and then probably RR on Sunday. If not, we will do RR next weekend. We did it last year as well ( was out first and only outdoor ride before FL 70.3) and it worked out fine.
This morning did a long swim with my new pool toys (metronome, snorkel, leg bands).
Nice brick Paul!
Sat AM - Run 5 miles w 5 x 3mins hard, 3mins easy. 48 miles hard bike with Juan. Nap-o-rama, then swim 2700 yards.
Sun AM - Back to San Antonio for the Florida Gran Fondo. 55 mile medio distance average pace, except for 2 x 3 mi timed sections at supra-max effort. 5 mile brick run in the hills. Thinking about swimming again, but not sure at the moment.
Dropped the bike off at the LBS for a tune-up this afternoon. Hope everyone else's race rehearsals went well!
Sorry but no new thread this week. Melissa and I moved this weekend and we don't have Internet yet and doing this on the iPhone app is a pain. So continue using this thread this week.
The build up to FL 70.3 is behind us. Tapering is here. Everyone put in great work and I have no doubt that team EN will once again take first place in the team competition.
Did my race rehearsal yesterday on the final setup. Need to reattach my torpedo mount more securely but other than that the setup worked well.
**Bike**
52.8mi & 3k ft climbing took 2:44 for 19.3mph/avg
NP ~257 (need to pull the final numbers off Garmin as I can't seem to see this in Strava).
AP 243
VI 1.06 (touch high but will chalk much of that up to stop lights and hills)
https://www.strava.com/activities/276101541/overview
**Brick Run**
6mi in 44:21 for 7:21/mi pace.
1st 3 at 7:27/mi
2nd 3 at 7:14/mi
https://www.strava.com/activities/276093394
Still quite unsure how this will translate into speed on the controlled course, but reminding myself to control the power output, fueling, and aero position... the rest will follow.
If I happen to go faster than 2:45 at these numbers, I've saved myself some TSS for the run.
**Nutrition**
Lost 4lbs from start to finish despite peeing 2x on the bike (middle and end).
Definitely drank less than in RR#1 so need to keep this dialed up to the high side during the race and back off the GU if run into GI issues.
As I've said elsewhere, this was my undoing in WI so will err a touch on the high side from fluids pov.
Looking forward to meeting up at Olive Garden the Saturday before!
I swam this morning per the schedule. Felt funny only doing 2600 yards so I added another 300 for good measure!
As for the weight, I have a few data points although mostly either from the basement trainer, or in cold weather.
On the trainer I've averaged 32 - 44oz sweat rate / hr (caveat scale is only accurate to 0.5lbs & rides limited to 90 min so perhaps less accurate than the RR's)
RR#1 (indoors) - 170.5 start, 169 end of bike, 168.5 end of run (always peeing before weighing in plus 1 extra time middle of bike)
Drank 120oz on bike = sweat rate of 52oz/hr (seems high)
RR#2 (outdoors) - 169.5 start, 167 end of bike, 165.5 end of run
Drank 85oz on bike = sweat rate of 45oz/hr
Conclusions ... looking at RR#2 and the run in particular ... I drank 16oz AND lost 2.5lbs over 45' ... that CANNOT be from sweat at 45 degrees. I suspect what's happening is I hydrated a lot in the morning and did not go out for rehearsal until noon to let is warm up a bit. So my starting weight is likely overstated and due to a full bladder, case in point, despite drinking much less, I had to go from pretty early in the ride. Suspect I need to do more to remain well hydrated over the next 2 weeks and particularly leading into race weekend. Then stick w/ as close to 2 bottles / hr (48oz) as I can, to keep the hydration up throughout the race.
Sorry if too much info about mother nature but let me know any other pov's!
Looks like you have a pretty high sweat rate. The more data points you can use with all the trainer rides the better. And the trainer rides I assume are at warmer temps. I assume you are weighing yourself naked right after peeing each time. When I was training for IM Texas last year I really paid attention to my sweat rate on every trainer ride (many of them inside where I could get higher temps). If you need 52 oz per hour on the bike then figure out how your are going to get those in accurately. I went as far as to figure out how much fluid was in each sip from my torpedo (about an ounce) and then dividing those sips up over the hour. I then set the timer on my Garmin to go off every 5 minutes when I would take 3 sips. That got my 36 ounces in each hour. Five minutes might be too frequent for some people but I find frequent small sips are better on the stomach and absorption than huge gulps every 15. Also, that much fluid per hour may get you most of your calories as well (I forget what you calculated your calorie needs to be).
For the run IMO if you start off reasonably hydrated and then take in a cup or two of gatorade each mile you should be good. Assuming you get through 7 aid stations in an hour, one cup probably gets you 3-5 ounces. That's 21-35 ounces in the hour. If you can grab 2 cups then you are closer to your needs. Just remember, the heat will slow you down, but it's slowing everybody down!
One other thing, if you have access to a sauna over the next 2 weeks go sit in it every other day for 20-40 minutes to try and get acclimated to the heat. Us northern latitude folks need to do our best to hang with the Floridians.
"The swim start is located on a white sand beach next to the Lake Eva Park. It will be an age group wave start."
@Paul: In the past al athletes have gathered on the beack by Lake Eva but the swim start has been in the water, so no running start.
Training week update:
Monday: Since I missed the RR over the weekend, I attempted to do a long ride on the trainer. Goal was to do 2:30 at IF 0.81-0.82( not 56 miles). Did 2:22 @ IF 0.85. Not great pacing. Mentally I couldnt do another 8 minutes. TSS 171, goal on race day is 175-180. Obviously was not a great RR, but I got a long ride in and felt much harder than actually doing 56 outside. https://www.strava.com/activities/276960768
Tuesday: 30' treadmill run including 2 x 1 mile @ 6:44 pace. Followed this with a swim . I didn't do the prescribed 4 x 600. I did 600, followed by 1800 to get some endurance swimming in. I have not done a RR swim so planning on doing that tomorrow. Swim felt good.
Wednesday: 55' on the trainer. 3 x 6' at FTP, then 13' zn2 and zn3. Followed this with a 22' run. 15' zn4, 7' zn 2. Legs felt good in this short brick workout.
Thursday: 60; run outside in St. Pete. 50' zn2/zn3, 10' zn 4. Total distance was 8.6 miles. Good news is that my knee didnt bother me at all. https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/735163591
Remainder of the week: Planning on doing the swim RR tomorrow and then bike and run RR on Sunday with Melissa.
I am working on my race plan, will post it later today or tomorrow when its finished.
Keep up the hard work everyone. We're just over a week away!!!
Just got back from my 8mi thursday run and damnnnnn close call.
Have heard and read 1000 times, don't do anything stupid now, be safe, etc but what do I go and do ?
Running along the shoulder and looking back to wait for traffic to clear before crossing ... big rock comes out of no where and stops my foot in its track but body keeps going of course. Landed on the road on my right hand but fortunately water bottle took the road rash instead of me and also cushioned the fall when it burst open.
So phew ... 8 mi and and unscathed ... lets have that be the last close call before the race!
https://www.strava.com/activities/278060488
Mon AM - run 3 miles
Mon PM - swim 3000 yards
Tue AM - 90 min drainer ride at high Z2. Did enough threshold and VO2 max over the weekend
Part day at work then fly to Washington D.C. which I am all too familiar with.
Tue PM - run 6 miles
Wed AM - run 4 miles
Wed PM - run 9 miles
Thu AM - run 4.3 miles
Thu PM - run 6.25 miles
Plan for tomorrow is to run 4 miles in the morning, fly back to Tampa, swing by the office for a few hours, hit the pool on the way home, then jump on the drainer and do Spinervals Suffer-o-rama. That would be a Good Friday!
BTW, I posted a photo on the dashboard of the Exorcist stairs I ran up this morning. If you've ever seen the movie you will know why I didn't go down them. Next year will make 40 years since I've seen it and it still creeps me out.