The Countdown: 11 Weeks to CDA
11 weeks to go all!
Had a fairly good morning/afternoon. Was feeling great surprisingly on the swim. And then I heard over the loudspeaker, "Will Tucker McKeever please come to the child center." I was on my last 200 of the first main set so I finished it out then went ot go check on my little one. She was crying because she missed me. Oh well, to home we went to get her lunch and some cake.
Then I loaded her into the jogging stroller and off we went. I had loaded her up with nutrition, juice and pretzel sticks, soshe would be good and fueled for our run. Ok, and to keep her happy and quiet. Initially my legs felt like crap. Just wow. The fatigue of 2 days, 7 hours on the bike, was really evident. My first quarter mile of the warm up was like 11' pace! Then I started to get into the groove. First mile @ TP was 7:40. Not really my pace but I was into a headwind and slightly uphill. They don't make those jog stroller very aero I must say. RPE was in zone 4 so I was happy. Second mile was much better. 7:18 pace. Still not there but I really can't run as fast on this thing. We both had a great time and it was a beautiful day out. We'll be doing this a few times a week so she best like it! 
Can I just say someone has a sick mind putting some threshold miles the Monday after back to back days on the bike.
How did everyone else do?
Comments
Swim is in a hour or so, so I will have to let you know how it feels after that. Although I have been there on being called out of the pool, my son had the same problem, and I had several pool sessions cut short to go get him out of the day care area.
hang in there guys, if you don't feel it, then go slower and make it a technique session. this is all normal.
man, i have to have a kid! it would be sooo great to be missed like that!
i finally got in the water...
the first set of 200's was at 1:36/100yrds, but then it dropped the rest of the swim workout to 1:45/100yrds. no way i could sprint and hold form, so i just went at abp pace for the rest of the workout and tried to hold form. then straight to the run...
same as last monday, but faster this time, since i was already warmed up from the swim: 6.59miles @6:49/mile pace. last week was 7:02/mile avg pace.
stay positive, recover and safe training!
gh
As for the workouts, swim went well. Except for that last 200m "sprint". I wouldn't exactly call it a sprint but was feeling good in the water again. That's big for me as I am not a good swimmer. Run was ok. Done on treadmill. Probably 25' with some strides thrown in there. Had my 4 yr old watching me so I was a bit distracted which I guess is a good thing.
@ Tucker - Have fun pushing your kids in the baby jogger. I recall those days with fondness. I felt ok this am but the truck hit me this afternoon. All the workouts are finally catching up to me. I actually fell asleep in a meeting at work that I was supposed to be leading - not a good example. I took some good shots from my colleagues for that.
I swam 2800 yds yesterday and felt ok and was able to maintain form, except for the last set of 200s. Then I just swam at pace to maintain form. Then jumped out ot the pool to run 4.5 miles, including 2 x 1 mile at 6:30 pace. Felt good.
Swam again this am. Finally felt strong and fast in the water. I added some extra laps @ the end for a total of 3200 yds. Guess it was too much given I crashed at work. I'm skipping the pm workout tonight to get some extra rest. Back in action with the brick workout tomorrow.
Good luck to all. Stay injury free.
i woke up with nuchal rigidity this morning from that swim yesterday and sore upper body. i take it as a good sign, since i followed al's advice and didn't hold back in regards to using my upper body muscles.
couldn't get to the pool today, but did get a lot of good work done at my day job. i'll make up the swim on thursday.
ran today, my own adaptation of the assigned workout: 10.86miles; 7:13/mile avg pace; half road/half trail.
Bruce: at least you weren't falling asleep at the wheel! that's almost happened to me twice this week! dangerous, so tonight i plan to sleep.
Shannon: can cun! lucky. don't sweat the run funk. it'll come around. just enjoy the 'conference'.
oh and i better be careful what i wish for(!)...i mentioned that it would be nice to have a kid in the last post and today during my run a kid in a stroller coming the other way yells out, "daddy!!!", as i ran by!
GH
I only had an hour to swim before work yesterday morning and was only able to complete 1600m. Monday and Tuesday swims sucked for me this week just like last week so I'm hoping my Friday swim is as good as last Friday and I'm able to complete the whole workout.
@Shannon - Enjoy your time in Cancun
@Tucker - I'm with you. I think the combination of the two 3+ hour bikes this weekend and not getting enough sleep has me wiped out.
@Bruce - I feel the same way. Could barely stay awake this evening. Heading to bed now and no swim tomorrow so it will feel like sleeping in.
@Gilberto - Great job on the run!
I am really happy with my body's response to the sudden increase in cycling hours after the OS. Gains in speed have stayed steady on both the long run and long bike. I was feeling alot of fatigue so I took a break from the early morning Master's swims (5:40Am, means up at 4:45) and just that little boost in sleep 2 days a week seemed to really help.
I also subscribe to trainingpeaks.com that charts the TSS and TSB, and it mathematically confirmed We're on a heavy training load!
I also need to get to sleep earlier, but man its nice to just put the feet up and see what's waiting for me on the DVR.
@Gilberto- You're crazy fast! You're gonna kill us at the race rehearsal!!!
nice work guys.
my week is all jumbled up as well.
tonight i do my speed work on the track, tomorrow a bike session and swim, friday 'long' run (but steep vertical to 2200ft) plus swim. the weekend is looking more according to plan, but will run after the sunday bike not the saturday bike.
michael: i do well with running, but the other parts still need a lot of work!
i hope everyone has a strong end of the week.
gh
Continue to do what I can coming out of rehab. Finished tonight's bike session on the trainer, but skipped the brick since I ran about 40 minutes on the drainer last night. Just not ready to go back to back nights running yet. Tomorrow is a long run (at least by my come back standards) and a swim. Feels great to be doing some work, but still have a long way to go before June 26th - but we'll get'er done!
Best on the Training!! J.T.
This morning at 5am, for the first time in many months, I headed out for the long run. I anticipated another lackluster day and just wanted to get it done. It was a beautiful morning in NJ, with clear skies and temps in the high 40's. After a 30' warm-up I jumped into the work sections. Much to my surprise the legs felt really good at the 7:15 HMP pace, so much so that I had to hold back a bit. Continuing through the 30' at LRP+ still feeling good.
I was know 75' into the 110' run and was still feeling really great. Extremely happy with my run so far, I decided to try and hold HMP for as much of the rest of the run as I could. Cruised along at 7:15-7:20 for the next 30 minutes feeling absolutely great. Ended up with 15-miles in 1:54 minutes.
I have to say I think my run is there. I know just need to pick up the swim and bike. I talked (out-loud) to myself the whole run about how I needed to transfer this great run into motivation for the rest of my training. I am still nervous as hell about all of this, but after days like today I think to myself, "You just might make it after all!"
Hope everyone else enjoys their long run as much as I did today. Now off to work and then soccer practice (I have become an asst. coach for my daughters team) later this evening. Tomorrow the pool!!
My week has been pretty good too, definently seeing improvements on the bike and run. I think I almost have my bike back to where it was when I dropped out of the outseason due to time and family constraints in the winter. The run I still need to do some work on, but the legs are coming back.
Today's long run started out a bit slow, but legs started to wake up around the 30 minute point. From there I hit the HIM pace and M pace workouts at the right marks and closed it out with a nice cool down. All in all, 15.5 miles in 1:50 so no real complaints. Now I just need to make it throught he day so I can swim tonight to cover Tuesday's swim that I had to move.
Question for everyone, what do you guys do for the rest intervals during the MS? I walk for a minute, minute and a half then start jogging real slow.
It's going to be a cold rainy run for me when I get to it later today, but hey that's the exact way the 2009 IMCDA run was, so this could be race conditions...
tucker:
not sure what the official EN advice is, but usually the MS is highest priority and the rest phase is more or less what feels natural for you. in other words, whatever gets you to the next SOLID MS interval.
however, i have found that my 5km vdot pace gets me through the short workouts fine, but not the long runs. probably best to have a 13.1 established vdot to pace off of for the long runs. by doing so, you'll see that the urge to walk is less, since you'll be going a bit slower than what the 5km vdot says.
i personally do not walk, unless it's a super steep trail climb. however, i always keep my technique. the main reason i do not walk on the long runs, is simply because I like to nurture the ability to run tough. mostly psychological in other words. if my technique ever did break down, then i would walk until i could run with good form again.
gh
Good work on the long run everybody.
@ Tucker & Michael - I will walk for 30", maybe 45" on the Z4 and Z5 intervals. It is usually just enough to get my HR to drop quickly, then I start jogging @ z1 pace. No walking on any Z3 or Z2 intervals or pick ups.
@ Peter - Great run for you. Don't you love it when you feel like you could cruise forever?
I just finished 13.5 miles in 1hour, 50 minutes. Was 38* with a stiff north wind, but at least no rain. I felt pretty good. After 30' WU, I did 1 x12' @ 7:00 pace, 30' @ 8:30, 1 x 15' @ 7:20, then the rest @ 8:30 pace.
For all workouts I have been walking approx 30 steps every mile since I heard the coaches say the drink stations are every mile in their race execution talks.
Feeling relatively good after yesterday's run. Actually felt great last night. This morning a little stiff and sore. Hoping my ride goes well now. Happy Friday all!
I wasn't looking forward to getting in the pool at 5:30 am, only 9 hours after finishing the long run last night. But the water wasn't too cold and my legs weren't as tight as I expected . Did the swim wo per the plan. Getting faster on the 50 sprints, doing them in 46" - 48". Finally being to feel like a swimmer.
nice work guys.
sore knees after an hour will eventually subside with more practice. focus on running light and smooth before the hour mark and maybe you can delay the soreness.
running with music!
uugghh. in that case, definitely no walking allowed if you are running with music!!! 
sorry, but some of you have pet peeves with compression wear or spandex at expos...mine is listening to stuff while running, especially long runs. 
safe training to all.
GH
I don't know, reading through everyone's punishing workouts just may make me feel anxious. But I'm going to stick with my plan to train thru the OS until May 15, run an HM then, and then go for 3 weeks to "cram" for this race with a lot of volume at altitude.
So this week, I was down in San Diego over the weekend, and got in 130 miles of biking in three days, including the San Diego Gran Fondo @ 100K (put on by a bunch of Italians) through the Olympic Training Center, and otherwise along the coast for 60 K the other two days. I also did two runs of 55 and 81 minutes, the latter my longest yet. And I got back to swim 68 minutes/3200 yds yesterday, along with an hour of FTP work on the trainer. That will be repeated on Sunday with a brick, along with an hour run of TP intervals tomorrow. Oh, and the weight room is seeing me twice a week for 45+ minutes.
For those who are doing their first IM, or their first with EN training: the plan works, it will get you there. Take your needs for recovery very seriously, as you want to be able to complete the long run and the long bikes each week above all else. Hydrate during and after those, and be a couch potato afterwards if you can. The fatigue crescendos through week 4-3, then you'll get some rest!
Did the long run tonight and instituted a no walking rule during the long run. It went well! 13.4 miles in 1:52 (negative split). Now I have to get to bed early tonight as Allen is going to unleash his new tri bike on me tomorrow morning when we meet up for a ride