Training Wk May 18th - May 24th
After being in IRONMAN Texas this weekend and just spectating in the heat and humidity my only advice- MAKE SURE YOU NAIL DOWN YOUR NUTRITION! Read Coaches blogs on heat and humidity, know how much sodium you're taking in- FUEL!
Ok- The team lunch info is on the excel doc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...it#gid=167
Saturday May 30 at Noon at Tobacco Road on Glenwood Ave! From there we can go to the expo if you haven't already
Love seeing the chatter and the race plans coming up- keep at it team- almost to the finishers shoot!
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And you are right about the heat. I'm actually really thankful it has finally gotten warm here so I have some time to acclimate a bit more. Where did I put those arm coolers???
Today was a hot one, pushing 90 in Charlotte. I took two 8 oz Gatorade Endurance, each with a open salt stick capsule. Gu at beginning and again around 45 min mark. 12 oz of fluids were not enough (even with the 24 oz I had before leaving) and thankfully McDonalds let me fill up with cold H20 at mile 7.
Just filled in my details on the spreadsheet. Enjoy the last bit of work this week! See y'all soon EB
My plan over the next 2 weeks is to try to schedule my ride/runs for the warmest parts of the day if possible to help with acclimation. Yesterday I ran at 3pm at 82 degrees and while the heat felt tough I just kept thinking "bring it on baby!"
I have been notably absent from these discussions as of late. There are reasons for that as I am sure there are for all of you...
I have not done a real "bike Race Rehearsal", I have not posted my Race plan, I have not got my stuff ready or packed.... but I feel pretty good about things anyway.
My swim is my swim. I have read the recent swim threads and have taken aggressive measures to improve including getting a coach, joining the masters swim team, and investing in some new training equipment. That said, it isn't likely to change my 2 min/100 yd time in 2 weeks so that will be what that will be.
My bike leg is much much better than last year (same bike but motor is better). In the OS I increased my FTP by almost 20%. I have been riding long more frequently and for longer duration than in the past. I have gotten much better at riding steady and feel pretty confident in my execution in that regard. The Blue Ridge camp gave me much more confidence in my climbing ability and overall ease on the bike. Oh, and I shaved my legs so I've got that going for me.
Blue Ridge camp pretty much wiped me out for about a week. I did a run race rehearsal the Sunday afterwards and it was HARD! I was 10 minutes slower than my last HIM run. I am OK with this given the fact that I pulled a hamstring on Thanksgiving and am still getting over it. It was a bit sore afterwards but not limiting. I have been working on Run durability with coach P and that is progressing. If I can hit last year's run number with all that has gone on since, I will be OK with that. If I can get the negative split, I will be very happy.
Transitions have been pretty good in the past. My IM transitions were in the top 10% or so and I have been working on that some as well.
Nutrition plan can use some tune up. I usually err on the side of too much but given the expected heat, I think I will be right in the ballpark. I am going to run the numbers through the nutrition spreadsheet again and listen to the core diet podcast again anyway, just to make sure.
On the life front, New job has been busy, kids are home from college for 3 weeks before they go off for summer jobs/school, and we are looking for a house. You know, same old stuff
Oh, and did I mention that I am having a stress test tomorrow to see if we can actually get an EKG of this funny heart rate spike that happens every now and then that puts my rate over 220? 2 years in and we have never been able to get it on paper but it has happened a couple of times in races, once on the swim and it kind of sucks. Probably SVT since I'm not dead yet but if we can get a tracing to see for sure, I can have it fixed.
In the big picture, I think that I should be able to improve my race time in Raleigh with some planning, execution, and a bit of luck. The actual racing part seems like the lowest stress part of this whole deal so I am looking forward to seeing all of you there, some friends that I have already met and some new EN friends.
Amazing work on your race plans. I have read a bunch of them (Nemo, Mariah and Emily) and will try to read the other ones I think I saw and will try to make some comments during the long weekend coming up. I have picked up a bunch of stuff to help me out race weekend and race day so thank you for that! Keep up the good work everyone. I am really looking forward to meeting and racing with everyone!
Things keep looking up for me this week. Again, because I'm behind on my actual training, I am having to change some things from the already set HIM plan. Yesterday I did a bit of FTP work... and wow. Not sure if my PM is reading correctly, but it had me NP at 191. If anything, it was a great confidence boost regardless if it was wonky. I'm planning a shake out run today at some point, and then final RR +6 mile brick tomorrow.
Hope everyone's week is going well. I'll check in again tomorrow post RR. Wish me luck! EB
Doug- looking forward to meeting you in Raleigh. Bummer on RAAM/RAW, that really would have been pretty cool!
Have fun with that RR Emily!
If you have never done a cardiac stress test as an "athlete" versus joe bacon-eater with heart disease, it is interesting. They put you on a treadmill and every 3 minutes, they increase the speed and the incline. I made it to 16 minutes and never made the funny heart thing. I actually got to my max heart rate and held it for the last minute before I had to stop.
So, that means that after Raleigh, I get to have an implantable heart rate monitor placed to make sure that we catch that sucker the next time it gets crazy. What that means for my Raleigh Race : not much, I have raced with this thing for 2 years including B2B full with no problems as long as I watch my HR. So I will concentrate on my execution and See if I can't pull out a PR in spite of the excitement. Thanks for all of the good mojo team.
Race rehearsal numero dos in the book: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/781784589
I rode a tad more aggressive than my first one for a couple of reasons. 1: When you throw in start/stop stoplights, stop signs, etc., I never really get a true race pace rehearsal to practice my nutrition. This is the first time I will be eating/drinking off the course since 2012, so I really wanted to give my gut a test. 2: I noticed with the FTP I had set in my garmin, my HR was in Z1. This led me to believe my FTP is WAY off... Seeing that I have not been able to properly test bc of my wonky injury, back from injury, BRC schedule, I'm playing the guessing game. I tried to hit my IM HR zones (130's) and ended up avg 129... still a bit low, but came out with a NP of 159 which is about 2.8 w/kg. This was with an up'd FTP (back to 193, where is was last year) and I still plan on riding at .78 IF for the race. Any insight on this is appreciated...
My run off the bike was about 30 min after I finished due to driving back to my house. Felt great. Negative split. Should have done 6, but I ran (literally) out of time and it was time to pick up the kiddos. I chose a 3 mile loop with an incline at mile 3 and mile 5 (& 6 if I kept going). Kept HR in check, and ended up happy with results. https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/781788054
Race week is upon us!
Although my race (Syracuse) isn't for another few weeks I spent yesterday doing something I never imagined I would...climbed just under 10k feet over 100 miles on my bike at a well known race here in VA called Mountains of Misery. Learned a lot. #1 thought I was a decent cyclist, this humbled me. #2 doing these races not only builds physical strength, but most importantly mental strength. #3 7-8hrs in the saddle is a long time #4 I will come back in 2016 and do it all again
Enjoy the taper Raleigh racers!!!
What kind of cassette did you use? I had a 12/32 and hands down think it is what got me through the blue ridge camp. Come to NC and climb with me any time!! Planning another climb in July if you're interested...
try again if not i will email it to you -
p.s. "the dash" is the dashboard
Ride in July is possible. Which IM are you racing? I'm doing Lou, so my official IM training doesn't really kick in until end of July/beg Aug.