@Gil, didn't exactly keep her pace but we basically ran together. Here's how it went down. I tell wife of plan to run easy than a little harder. Negative split. Obviously a foreign concept to her, she of course has run 4 marathons to my zero, as she takes off at an 8' pace. My legs are a little tight from my ride in the morning so she gets a slight lead. I catch up to her and ask her what she is doing running so fast. Not much of a response as she is breathing too heavy. So we are heading to the end of the island into a nice headwind. I take the lead and slow the pace slightly. First 3 mile splits were 8:03, 8:12, 8:20. Not the negative split I wanted. Now I wanted to pick it up a big so dropped it down to HMP pace of 7:30. She wasn't having that so I ran ahead darted into side streets and out to allow her to catch up in hopes she would jump on my butt. Wasn't happening so I just slowed down to here pace. Next 2 splits were 8:03 and 8:23. We killed it at our street as she was having GI issues and then told me she hadn't run in over a week and doesn't usually run this fast. Been trying to get her to do more EN flavored workouts to emphasize speed/intensity. I think this may have worked as she saw how effortless I seemed to be running. Oh and I used a litte Macca psychology on the run to show who the alpha was. She occasionally would try to pull even and ahead of me. Always had to keep a half step ahead.
Ended up having to move my 5k time trial to Friday and changed up the course as well. I ended up bumping the VDOT up a few points as expected, based on my current training pace and weight loss. So that is good. Doubt I will get back in the 60s by CDA but I may pull that off by the end of the season (sitting at 56.8 right now).
Decided to include an outside FTP test as part of the 3 hour ride today to get my outside FTP and I guess I must be dogging it inside on the tests. Either that or the winds, conditions, etc. helped to knock out a better FTP. Ended up hitting a 265 (almost 20 higher then my inside test) for a 3.5 w/kg. The 2 x 25 at ABP pace was tiring after that, but managed to pull them in and close out just a bit over 3 hours.
Feeling pretty happy with that and the workout today. Hope everyone has great workouts this weekend.
You all are pretty incredible with your vDot and FTP gains. I need some of that testosterone....
Did my 3 hour/15 min BRICK yesterday in 30 mph winds. At one point, I was headed uphill straight into the wind (i.e. barely moving) and a crosswind gust just knocked me over! First crash of the season. I'm sure I looked like a total geek who had never ridden a bike before. I was completely unscathed, just some bruised pride. A tri-friend went over her handlebars yesterday and is in the hospital, so I am very grateful.
Snow and very cold this morning...3 hour ABP ride on the trainer with a few friends and the TV on. My legs are very tired now.
Great job all! Looks like my tough week just keeps on going. Started out on my ride and about 25' into warmup I hit a little bump in the road and my LYC resets. Ok no big deal. Start my first 15' interval and halfway through it does it again. Ok funny. Happened again through my second interval. I really couldn't help but laugh. I mean that's just great. So ok I can't download the data, no big deal. But I was using the computer to keep my time as well. Whatever. So I knew by now my data would suck but at least I had real time data. So not a total loss. 10' into an ABP interval blew out my read tire. Ok so I change it. Go to blow it up and realize my CO2 is not threaded and I need a threaded one. I'm 15 miles from the house and wife is getting a massage. So I'm stuck. Then I remembered that I had CO2 in my aero pack, I can't remember the name now. Pull it out and fire it up but it's empty! Haha. Just too funny. Luckily I went back into the bag and find another and it is full. Fill up tire and start riding back to house. Stop at a bike shop to pick up two more CO2 as a precaution. Ride an hour more ABP or so. Brick was great. 7:40 out 7:20 back. So now I think the decision has been made. Time for a new computer. Negotiations to ight at dinner after wife has a couple glasses of wine. Kind of kicking myself for not just getting the Joule when I got the Powertap, though I think maybe it wasn't actually out then. Who knows. Tomorrow is another day. I hope you all had more fun then me today.
@Tucker- Sometimes you just have to live to ride another day. Sounds like today is one to pretty much forget. Be ready to pull it all together next week for a good week of training.
My 3 hour ride turned into a 4 hour 40 minute - 80 mile - 4700 ft of climbing ride with a buddy who's training for some ride in California next week (I think its up Mt. Baldy). Got to work on my hill transitions seeing how fast I could transition from 8 mph to 22 mph. Not a bad ride, but a little more riding than I wanted to do. Hopefully Allen will take it easy on me tomorrow
Good job everybody. Seems like many of your are overcoming difficulties (strong winds, flats, computer glitches, hills) that we might face in the race so this is good preparation, even if it isn't as much fun as a no problem ride.
I had a crazy week of travel but still got some workouts in as follows:
Wed - Swam 3000 yds in Phoenix
Thur - Ran 12.5 miles 1 hour 45 minutes in Portland, OR. Found a great path on the dike right between a river and the Portland airport. Got to watch planes take off and land looking one way and views of the river looking the other way.
Fri - Swam 3500 yds back in Chicago. That's the longest swim I've ever done. I skip the TT since I had just got off a flight. Planned on going EZ for about 2500 yds about 15 laps of EZ swimming I noticed that I was actually ahead of my prior TT pace. Finished the first 1000 yds in 19'15" about 30" faster than my first TT swim. I was like Wow... how did that happen. Then I did a 2nd 1000 also just going EZ and did it in 19'30", also faster than my first TT. I did a 3rd 1000 in 19'45" equal to my TT. So I guess I'm getting more endurance for sure, and the RPE was much lower than the TT. Finished with really EZ 500.
Sat - Rode 79 miles in 4 hours 20 minutes, avg speed 18, avg cadence 87. Not many hills in Chicago but I had a wicked head wind the last 20 miles. Almost got blown off the road too. Then ran 3 miles in 25' 45". Then went to watch my son's rowing regatta. He won both his heats. Yeah!!
Due to numerous upcoming conflicts I had the pleasure of riding the first RR this weekend. Planned out a 25 mile route that brought me by the house for supplies. The plan was to ride this loop 4 times or for 6 hours. If successful this would be the longest I have ever ridden in a single day since I have started riding. So I was a bit anxious, but excited to see where I stand.
Goal was to take what I learned from last weekends Big Day regarding nutrition/hydration and test out the EN execution plan. Nutrition was 1375 calories of Infinit for ~230/hour. I didn't have any salt supplements so was just going with what was in the Infinit. The weather called for high 60's to mid 70's and sunny. So the hydration plan was ~36-48/oz every 1:30 (the time I anticipated each loop to take).
Using the EN Power Racing Calculator with an FTP of 215 and goal of 69% my gears were: 141, 148, 156 and 163.
The day started off a bit cooler that I expected so my outfit for the day was EN Tri shorts with light weight base layer, EN Cycling jersey and arm warmers.
I have to say that the day was fairly uneventful and went really well. I ended up with 101 miles in 6:12 at an IF = .69, PNorm = 144, VI = 1.04 and 292 TSS (expected 286). I was definitely staying hydrated since I pee'd almost every 45 minutes. I bonked a little bit during the 3rd loop but grab a banana at the house and up'ed the frequency of Infinit and bounced back during the final loop. I think the fact that it was the final loop helped out.
There were quite a few stop lights on the route so which caused a bunch of spiking. In addition, there was some really rough sections which made it hard to stay aero and ride even. I feel that I spent 85-90% of the time in the aero position. My shoulders were definitely hurting by the end. I took a couple Advil after the second loop to help with this. Could this have contributed to the bonking on the 3rd loop?
Having stayed hydrated I was anxious to see how the run would go this time. Goal was to run 9:00/miles with 20 paces of walking every mile. The legs felt a bit stiff the first mile, but I had to force myself to slow down. The remaining miles I averaged between 8:50 and 9:10. A little bit more consistency will probably be beneficial. Regardless, at mile 6 I felt that if I had been drinking and taking in a few calories that my legs were finally starting to feel good. I am sure that I could have continued this run/walk strategy.
So overall a super great day! I am shagged though. Looking forward to sleeping late tomorrow. Plan on hitting the pool for some drill work. Other than that I will be enjoying watching my son's soccer game and packing my bike for ToC!!
@ Peter, nice job on the RR. It looks like you executed very well. Your IF was right where you wanted it and you had a pretty low VI. You mentioned that you bonked a little on the third loop. Did you get a little behind on your calorie intake?
@ Tucker, sounds like some bad luck today. We all have those days once in a while. Sometimes it's best just to call it a day and look forward to the next day.
@ Stephen, I am thinking I am going start going to one of the Seattle public pools for as many of my swim workouts as possible. It definitely felt good to do a swim in a 25 yd pool, after being couped up in what I estimate to be a 16-17 yd pool.
This morning I decided to throw my FTP test into my bike ride, since I really wanted to do an outdoor test. It went pretty well, except there was more people then I would have liked on the bike trail that I was riding (Sammamish River Trail for those of you local to the Puget Sound). I was hoping that I started my ride early enough to beat the rush, but no such luck. Despite that, I still ended up with a new FTP of 219, up from my last test of 216 and up from 186 at the beginning of the OS. Next time I want to find a better route with less people to deal with. Any suggestions?
The rest of my ride was pretty uneventful. I cut it a little short to 3 hours, since I needed to get it done so that I could get some work done today. Because of the shorter ride, I decided to push myself harder then the prescribed workout.
Got the 2 week-end rides done Friday & Saturday. Just starting to feel a hint of biking mojo returning, but still feeling a bit of a mental battle and neither getting all of the time done (sorta close) nor hitting the zones (not real close... yet). As a perspective enhancer, I went back and looked at my last season's Ironman build rides. I did 3500 more KJs in April this year. My best 30min power (no 42 min FTP rides last year) around this time last year was 245 and this year it is 283. Best 4 hour ride was 191, so far this year it is 211 (which is below what I should be doing vis-a-vis my current FTP and the prescribed workorts, but hey, still progress). Just writing this down as a means of pulling myself up by my own mental bootstraps. Some of my mental funk is the weather. I think yesterday was the warmest I have been out and it was ~52 degrees. It is also been a particularly raining season here in Seattle. Last year I had already had 36 outdoor rides. This year? 9 out of 30 rides (same time period) have been outside.
@ Art - Sounds like you have made good pogress vs. last year on the bike. Well done. You'll get the mental mojo back as soon as you have a sunny day and some warmer weather.
@ Scott - If you have to swim in the shorter pool due to time constraints, I suggest that don't push off the wall. Just touch, turn and start swimming without a push off. My gym has both a 25 yd lap pool and 18 yd "baby" pool that has a 2 lanes in it. When the lap pool is full, I'll swim in the shorter pool without pushing off and just work on technique and not worry about the lap times. Eventually a spot will open up in the 25 yd pool and I'll move over to it.
@ Peter - sounds like the RR went well. Good job staying hydrated.
I rode 60 miles this am, about half with a local bike club and half on my own. I wanted to put more time in aero and didn't want the roadies mad at me for riding in the aero bars so I split off. 3 hours 20 minutes with avg speed of 18.4 mph and avg cadence of 87. Was able to ride In HR Z2-3 for most of the time. Weather was beautiful (sorry Art) - 60*F, sunny but a strong west wind. So for the weekend I rode 140 miles - that's the most I've ever done in 2 days.
Logged a few hours on the bike this morning with Michael. The weather was nice: 55 and sunny. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable in aero now and my neck isn't sore at all after today's ride. Next week my Infinit order will arrive so I can start fine-tuning my hydration and nutrition. I'm looking forward to the 5/14 RR in CDA to really dial it in over a long day. Now I'm off to enjoy this weather while it lasts.
@GH - Nice ride with some fantastic climbing. Really worked it hard for that Tss..
Quick update on this end. Been traveling as well this week but on Thursday put in my longest run since Eagleman 70.3 last year. 1:15hr and 8.7 miles. Slowly making progress on the run and am hopefully on track to get up to 2.5hrs before CDA.
Flight got back home somewhat late last night, so only made the pool and toughed out 3300m. Today, did an 80mile ride with some good hills and the form is starting to come back some, so also making some progress. Hammy's ached after this ride, so may need a few days off, but feeling more confident about making it to the finish...
A couple of great rides to end the week!!! Met up with Allen and even though I told him my legs were toast from yesterday, had a bit of a drag race after someone who ended up being a cat1/2 pro pulled up along side my bike, looked at my bike and then passed me. Hmmmm. So I tucked in behind him and then pulled up beside him and asked if he "wanted to go fast?" He said, "Yes!" and we were off. Hit some massive speeds and at one point he was able to get me on a downhill, but I got back up to him and passed him. Eventually he cracked. Ended up riding with him for a while and exchanged info to do some rides in the future. He's a sprinter/track guy and once he knew I go "long" he knew he didn't have a chance. It was fun!!! Thanks to Allen for understanding that when a guys gives your bike the stare down and passes you, you gotta respond.
Comments
I tell wife of plan to run easy than a little harder. Negative split. Obviously a foreign concept to her, she of course has run 4 marathons to my zero, as she takes off at an 8' pace. My legs are a little tight from my ride in the morning so she gets a slight lead. I catch up to her and ask her what she is doing running so fast. Not much of a response as she is breathing too heavy. So we are heading to the end of the island into a nice headwind. I take the lead and slow the pace slightly. First 3 mile splits were 8:03, 8:12, 8:20. Not the negative split I wanted. Now I wanted to pick it up a big so dropped it down to HMP pace of 7:30. She wasn't having that so I ran ahead darted into side streets and out to allow her to catch up in hopes she would jump on my butt. Wasn't happening so I just slowed down to here pace. Next 2 splits were 8:03 and 8:23. We killed it at our street as she was having GI issues and then told me she hadn't run in over a week and doesn't usually run this fast. Been trying to get her to do more EN flavored workouts to emphasize speed/intensity. I think this may have worked as she saw how effortless I seemed to be running.
Oh and I used a litte Macca psychology on the run to show who the alpha was. She occasionally would try to pull even and ahead of me. Always had to keep a half step ahead.
Decided to include an outside FTP test as part of the 3 hour ride today to get my outside FTP and I guess I must be dogging it inside on the tests. Either that or the winds, conditions, etc. helped to knock out a better FTP. Ended up hitting a 265 (almost 20 higher then my inside test) for a 3.5 w/kg. The 2 x 25 at ABP pace was tiring after that, but managed to pull them in and close out just a bit over 3 hours.
Feeling pretty happy with that and the workout today. Hope everyone has great workouts this weekend.
Did my 3 hour/15 min BRICK yesterday in 30 mph winds. At one point, I was headed uphill straight into the wind (i.e. barely moving) and a crosswind gust just knocked me over! First crash of the season. I'm sure I looked like a total geek who had never ridden a bike before. I was completely unscathed, just some bruised pride. A tri-friend went over her handlebars yesterday and is in the hospital, so I am very grateful.
Snow and very cold this morning...3 hour ABP ride on the trainer with a few friends and the TV on. My legs are very tired now.
Everyone have a great weekend!!
Started out on my ride and about 25' into warmup I hit a little bump in the road and my LYC resets. Ok no big deal. Start my first 15' interval and halfway through it does it again. Ok funny. Happened again through my second interval. I really couldn't help but laugh. I mean that's just great. So ok I can't download the data, no big deal. But I was using the computer to keep my time as well. Whatever. So I knew by now my data would suck but at least I had real time data. So not a total loss. 10' into an ABP interval blew out my read tire. Ok so I change it. Go to blow it up and realize my CO2 is not threaded and I need a threaded one. I'm 15 miles from the house and wife is getting a massage. So I'm stuck. Then I remembered that I had CO2 in my aero pack, I can't remember the name now. Pull it out and fire it up but it's empty! Haha. Just too funny. Luckily I went back into the bag and find another and it is full. Fill up tire and start riding back to house. Stop at a bike shop to pick up two more CO2 as a precaution. Ride an hour more ABP or so.
Brick was great. 7:40 out 7:20 back.
So now I think the decision has been made. Time for a new computer. Negotiations to ight at dinner after wife has a couple glasses of wine. Kind of kicking myself for not just getting the Joule when I got the Powertap, though I think maybe it wasn't actually out then. Who knows. Tomorrow is another day.
I hope you all had more fun then me today.
My 3 hour ride turned into a 4 hour 40 minute - 80 mile - 4700 ft of climbing ride with a buddy who's training for some ride in California next week (I think its up Mt. Baldy). Got to work on my hill transitions seeing how fast I could transition from 8 mph to 22 mph. Not a bad ride, but a little more riding than I wanted to do. Hopefully Allen will take it easy on me tomorrow
Good job everybody. Seems like many of your are overcoming difficulties (strong winds, flats, computer glitches, hills) that we might face in the race so this is good preparation, even if it isn't as much fun as a no problem ride.
I had a crazy week of travel but still got some workouts in as follows:
Wed - Swam 3000 yds in Phoenix
Thur - Ran 12.5 miles 1 hour 45 minutes in Portland, OR. Found a great path on the dike right between a river and the Portland airport. Got to watch planes take off and land looking one way and views of the river looking the other way.
Fri - Swam 3500 yds back in Chicago. That's the longest swim I've ever done. I skip the TT since I had just got off a flight. Planned on going EZ for about 2500 yds about 15 laps of EZ swimming I noticed that I was actually ahead of my prior TT pace. Finished the first 1000 yds in 19'15" about 30" faster than my first TT swim. I was like Wow... how did that happen. Then I did a 2nd 1000 also just going EZ and did it in 19'30", also faster than my first TT. I did a 3rd 1000 in 19'45" equal to my TT. So I guess I'm getting more endurance for sure, and the RPE was much lower than the TT. Finished with really EZ 500.
Sat - Rode 79 miles in 4 hours 20 minutes, avg speed 18, avg cadence 87. Not many hills in Chicago but I had a wicked head wind the last 20 miles. Almost got blown off the road too. Then ran 3 miles in 25' 45". Then went to watch my son's rowing regatta. He won both his heats. Yeah!!
Good luck everyone and stay health.
Due to numerous upcoming conflicts I had the pleasure of riding the first RR this weekend. Planned out a 25 mile route that brought me by the house for supplies. The plan was to ride this loop 4 times or for 6 hours. If successful this would be the longest I have ever ridden in a single day since I have started riding. So I was a bit anxious, but excited to see where I stand.
Goal was to take what I learned from last weekends Big Day regarding nutrition/hydration and test out the EN execution plan. Nutrition was 1375 calories of Infinit for ~230/hour. I didn't have any salt supplements so was just going with what was in the Infinit. The weather called for high 60's to mid 70's and sunny. So the hydration plan was ~36-48/oz every 1:30 (the time I anticipated each loop to take).
Using the EN Power Racing Calculator with an FTP of 215 and goal of 69% my gears were: 141, 148, 156 and 163.
The day started off a bit cooler that I expected so my outfit for the day was EN Tri shorts with light weight base layer, EN Cycling jersey and arm warmers.
I have to say that the day was fairly uneventful and went really well. I ended up with 101 miles in 6:12 at an IF = .69, PNorm = 144, VI = 1.04 and 292 TSS (expected 286). I was definitely staying hydrated since I pee'd almost every 45 minutes. I bonked a little bit during the 3rd loop but grab a banana at the house and up'ed the frequency of Infinit and bounced back during the final loop. I think the fact that it was the final loop helped out.
There were quite a few stop lights on the route so which caused a bunch of spiking. In addition, there was some really rough sections which made it hard to stay aero and ride even. I feel that I spent 85-90% of the time in the aero position. My shoulders were definitely hurting by the end. I took a couple Advil after the second loop to help with this. Could this have contributed to the bonking on the 3rd loop?
Having stayed hydrated I was anxious to see how the run would go this time. Goal was to run 9:00/miles with 20 paces of walking every mile. The legs felt a bit stiff the first mile, but I had to force myself to slow down. The remaining miles I averaged between 8:50 and 9:10. A little bit more consistency will probably be beneficial. Regardless, at mile 6 I felt that if I had been drinking and taking in a few calories that my legs were finally starting to feel good. I am sure that I could have continued this run/walk strategy.
So overall a super great day! I am shagged though. Looking forward to sleeping late tomorrow. Plan on hitting the pool for some drill work. Other than that I will be enjoying watching my son's soccer game and packing my bike for ToC!!
Have a good night!!
@ Tucker, sounds like some bad luck today. We all have those days once in a while. Sometimes it's best just to call it a day and look forward to the next day.
@ Stephen, I am thinking I am going start going to one of the Seattle public pools for as many of my swim workouts as possible. It definitely felt good to do a swim in a 25 yd pool, after being couped up in what I estimate to be a 16-17 yd pool.
This morning I decided to throw my FTP test into my bike ride, since I really wanted to do an outdoor test. It went pretty well, except there was more people then I would have liked on the bike trail that I was riding (Sammamish River Trail for those of you local to the Puget Sound). I was hoping that I started my ride early enough to beat the rush, but no such luck. Despite that, I still ended up with a new FTP of 219, up from my last test of 216 and up from 186 at the beginning of the OS. Next time I want to find a better route with less people to deal with. Any suggestions?
The rest of my ride was pretty uneventful. I cut it a little short to 3 hours, since I needed to get it done so that I could get some work done today. Because of the shorter ride, I decided to push myself harder then the prescribed workout.
@ Art - Sounds like you have made good pogress vs. last year on the bike. Well done. You'll get the mental mojo back as soon as you have a sunny day and some warmer weather.
@ Scott - If you have to swim in the shorter pool due to time constraints, I suggest that don't push off the wall. Just touch, turn and start swimming without a push off. My gym has both a 25 yd lap pool and 18 yd "baby" pool that has a 2 lanes in it. When the lap pool is full, I'll swim in the shorter pool without pushing off and just work on technique and not worry about the lap times. Eventually a spot will open up in the 25 yd pool and I'll move over to it.
@ Peter - sounds like the RR went well. Good job staying hydrated.
I rode 60 miles this am, about half with a local bike club and half on my own. I wanted to put more time in aero and didn't want the roadies mad at me for riding in the aero bars so I split off. 3 hours 20 minutes with avg speed of 18.4 mph and avg cadence of 87. Was able to ride In HR Z2-3 for most of the time. Weather was beautiful (sorry Art) - 60*F, sunny but a strong west wind. So for the weekend I rode 140 miles - that's the most I've ever done in 2 days.
Hope everyone had a good day. On to week 8.
110miles, 9297feet climb;
Tss: 413.6; IF: 0.75;
Avg speed: 15.0;
Goal preride was 75% and solid nutrition and went perfect. I finished strong and feel solid right now...waiting for friend to finish.
Sending this from iPhone, so can't really read all the posts, but looks like lots of activity!!
Gh
@GH - Nice ride with some fantastic climbing. Really worked it hard for that Tss..
Quick update on this end. Been traveling as well this week but on Thursday put in my longest run since Eagleman 70.3 last year. 1:15hr and 8.7 miles. Slowly making progress on the run and am hopefully on track to get up to 2.5hrs before CDA.
Flight got back home somewhat late last night, so only made the pool and toughed out 3300m. Today, did an 80mile ride with some good hills and the form is starting to come back some, so also making some progress. Hammy's ached after this ride, so may need a few days off, but feeling more confident about making it to the finish...
Keep up the great work... J.T.
8 weeks to go!