Yep 5 weeks - getting both excited and scared. Love that feelin.
After my RR on Saturday, on Sunday I swam 2500 yds and then rode for 2 hours instead of resting. My legs felt fine at the start of the ride, it was finally a beautiful sunny day, so I said "what the heck". Can't say it was a bad idea, but by the end of the ride my legs were dead. No soreness or any acute pain, just no energy, no pop. So I took today completely off. Probably the right thing to do, but the other part of my mind is saying "just 5 more weeks, get off your butt". Hope I made the right choice.
Will be back at it tomorrow.Traveling to New Jersey for work and am going to crash at my brother JT's place. We're going to do a swim together and maybe a run Weds am. I got to be rested so I can keep up with the kid brother.
This weekend I'm going to Madison Wi with about 10 other midwest EN peeps to do a mini-rally. Saturday we'll ride the Horrible Hilly Hundreds (HHH) route and Sunday ride the IMWI route. Here is a link to the HHH. http://www.horriblyhilly.com/course.html
I'll probably do the 100k (67 miles) HHH route that has 5700 ft of climbing on Saturday and 2 loops of the IMWI course (80 miles) on Sunday. This will be my "Big Bike Hills Weekend"..
My plan doesn't have any testing this week. Guess I got lucky.
Hey Gang! Sounds like everyone had a great week last week. I am just coming back from ToC where we put up some monster numbers: 380+ miles, 28K ft of climbing, 1600+ TSS for the week. I am surprised that the legs don't actually hurt, but just feel like jelly.
I am trying to avoid the "only 5 weeks left" panic and crawl back into the training plan. Tried to go swimming this morning, but spent the majority of the time setting in the hot tub instead. I have a massage scheduled for this evening as well. My goal is to hit Thursday's run and then Sat/Sun bike.
After seeing what I could accomplish at ToC has made me much more confident that if I can execute properly that I should definitely be successful at CdA. This is the time were we all need to stay smart. trust RnP and follow the plans!
bruce: sounds good to me. i'm also going pretty hard these last couple of eeks...and dropping weight! then following the taper plan and staying lean until race day.
i am actually now inviting people to ride with me, since it gets me out of bed in the morning!!! usually i go solo, but the efforts are getting hard enough that i need that extra reason to get up in the morning!!
I'm here in the Colorado vacation home my sister and I share, thanks to our parents. It sits at 8400', in the midst of beautiful mountains, an extensive bike path network (40 riverside miles for starters), and a series of out and back creekside and mountain roads which gently rise to deadends. This all makes for awesome biking, and some opportunties for "live high, train low".
My first run was Monday, down @ 6300 feet. Even at that altitude, I lose about 10-15% off my TP speed, so my long run of 15 miles/2:10 is pretty steady at an 8:25 pace downhill (1-2% grade on the bike path), 8:55 back up. Since I do this training camp every year at the same time, I can compare performances. Last year, this run (shorter @ 13.2 mi/1:55) was @ 8:44; this year, a bit longer @ 8:42. Check one for progress!
My traditional first bike ride is 52.5 miles, 3600 feet of elevation gain/loss. TSS/IF/time last year 161/0.724/3:28; this year 155/0.67/3:20. The big differnece is my VI is much steadier now, so I can go faster with less overall work.
Tomorrow is my Big Pass day. The one road up out of the valley opens traditionally Thursday before Memorial day, and tomorrow (Wed) will be the first sunny day in a week, and the last chance to ride up to 12,000 feet with no cars in the way. Parts of the road are still as narrow as the days when it was an unapved wagon track in the silver mining era, so it's kind of like some of the Giro d"Italia roads, it's so narrow, twisty and steep.
My goals for this 19 day adventure are: to get full advantage in mys sytem of the altitude stress; to do a lot of biking up hill, without going over the edge (literally or figuratively); to swim 40 minutes +/- 6/7 days (swimming @ 8000 feet is a humbling experience); and to maintain my running strength with a focus on long runs and bricks. So, my workouts won't look like the EN plan, but, as I've said, I've done this before with some success.
If the weather ever clears and I can figure out how to post pix, I'll show the scenery.
@Al: Sounds incredible. Enjoy yourself and have fun!
Back in the pool for earnest this morning. Plan was to attempt the entire 3500 meters from the plan. After 60' I was only at 2500 meters. I decided to stop there and not tear myself apart the first day back. All I have to say is that there is still work to do in the swim. Plan on hitting the track this afternoon to get in the first run in over a week and after ToC. Should be interesting.
Sneaking in some workouts amidst meetings in NYC this week. Can't really follow the EN plan, but getting work in. Ran the big loopp in Central Park monday and tuesday (6 miles). Don't have a watch, but RPE was probably a Z2 for first half and 73/4 for second half both days. Was good to run in 82 degree with some humidity yesterday. Found a 25y pool in the basement of the Equitable building and got. 3400 yards in this morning and will try and sneak in a stationary bike ride in later today.
@Al: very cool, looking forward to hearing (seeing?) More about your CO training...
@Peter - I'm with you on the swim. I took last week off from swimming due to a severe sunburn on my lower back from the CDA RR. Yesterday morning was my first swim back and I ran out of time after 2200 but was also feeling the difference from not swimming for over a week. Friday I'm planning to get the full 3300 in so I can get back in form for the full distance Friday next week for RR#2.
@Al - Sounds like a nice change of scenery. I did some training in Vail back when I played hockey and the altitude makes a huge difference. I remember being tired just from warming up and stretching. But coming back to low altitude after training in high altitude is definitely nice.
I'm hacking the training plan due to my knee issues. I'm taking Art's suggestion and increasing run frequency with a gradual increase in distance. So I'm thinking I will run 2-3 miles at T-Pace every weekday and slowly increase it until tapering starts. Since my knees don't hurt until about 6 miles at T-Pace, this should help to get my knees conditioned without pushing them to the pain point each time. I'll keep you posted on progress.
Also, I have a new Cobb saddle coming in the mail tomorrow so I'll get to try it out this weekend. After the numbness I experienced in the RR, I don't want to mess around with the possibility of the issues that could cause.
Sounds like everyone is having fun... Al, I am extremely jealous.
Have a technical/travel question for you all, too. I have no experience at all travelling with bike boxes. Luckily, I managed to secure my bike a ride up to the race so I don't have to fly with it. My friend that is meeting me up at the airport in Spokane, though, has a box and we're fighting a bit about how big of a rental car we need; I don't want to shell out the cash for an SUV as I'm poor.
Her box is 48x30x15 inches and I am thinking that should fit in a mid-size car in the backseat. am I wrong?
once in spokane take it out of the box and it should fit in trunk or back seat. if the empty box doesn't fit, then fold it flat and then re-tape it as needed.
if it's a hard case, then you might be screwed, but airports sometimes have a place where you can keep those things for a nominal fee.
i got a pika packworks case and it works great. worth it if you travel a lot with your bike. if they ask at the airport, i say it's an easel (not sure if i spelled that right), but they usually don't ask, since no one thinks it's a bike case. only if they are anal, they charge a basic oversize fee, but they usually don't. i carry it on my shoulder.
I flew down to Las Vegas last fall for Silverman and had my bike in a hard box. But we rented a mini van for that reason. When GH and his brother flew up for CDA RR1 they also rented a mini van. See a trend??
yeah, as steve points out, my bro has a hard case, so we rented a minivan.
you actually might be even more screwed......that weekend is not only ironman, but some sort of 3 on 3 basketball tournament, so all the minivans and SUVs are sold out!!! i ended up getting a crossover at hertz.
@Allen, are you saying you are planning on running 2-3 miles at Threshold every day? I don't think that is a good idea.
@Gil, you are really gonna crush this race. Your biking has been nuts. Wish we had epic rides like this on the East Coast. Oh, and the time to do it as well.
I booked a minivan yesterday on Hotwire. I really hope I get it or my wife is gonna be pissed.
On the workout front had a good swim today. My shoulders really like the longer, not as fast work in the pool. The fast stuff just kills. Probably too much baseball in my youth. No idea what to expect on the 5K run tomorrow. Should be fun. Gonna have to get all jacked up on 5hr Energy. Good luck all.
@Tucker - Nope, I was thinking T-Pace was short for Triathlon Pace but if it's Threshold Pace then that's not what I'm doing. I'm running my Z1 pace. I started with 2 miles and I'm going to add a 1/4 mile each day until taper starts. Hopefully this consistent running with a gradual increase in distance will get my knees in better shape by race day. Also, I like the longer, slower swims better too. It's easier to get into a breathing rhythm when my heart rate is low.
@ Peter, Al, I'm not sure who I'm more jelous of right now. Both the ToC and training in Colorado sound amazing.
@ Shannon, I have a hard bike case (47x30.5x10.5) and I can barely squeeze it into the trunk of my Honda Civic with the back seat folded down. If I were you, I wouldn't risk it. Just stick with the SUV. When I went to IMFL, I rented a small SUV and it had plenty of room.
I have been crazy busy at work this week, and will be working 1 or 2 days this weekend. That being said, I haven't been able to get my swims in so far. I am very glad that this is an easier week, otherwise I don't know what I'd do.
Also, it sounds like some people have bike/run tests scheduled this week. Is that true? My beginner training plan does not.
Great Stuff to hear what everyone is up to... Wow - really envious of Al - that's one of my goals - having a mountain house....So may have to pick your brain over dinner in CDA....Shannon - the box is generally big - afraid need a comparable car....
Training continues on this end as my brother Bruce and fellow CDA ENer was in town the last 2 nights. First night we hit the pool and did some speed work. Afraid the that the younger (better looking) brother (me) put the older one thru a tough speed workout, but he hung on, but I heard about it...
He ended up staying another night due to canceled flights, so we went out for our long run last night, and he got his revenge on his younger (still better looking) brother (me) coming back from injury.
We ended up doing about 12.6 miles in 1:55, so at least I know that I can handle 1/2 the run. Of course, feel today like Shannon's bus came east and hit me broadside, so taking the day off and tonight heading up to Lake Placid for a weekend of training on the courses up there.
Keep up the great work gang - we'll be seeing you soon.... J.T.
@Scott there is a run test this week for the intermediate folks. No bike for us.
Pretty hot and humid run/test for me. Real suffer/sweat fest. I really need to do these with someone else or in a race. Or a course somewhere. This track just doesn't work for me. Thinking of retesting this weekend at the beach. It's flat and fast.
I am doing an Olympic this sunday so I was planning on using the 10K run split as my run test. Not ideal, I know, but at least it will be an all out effort. I will put off my saturday bike until monday morning and 4+ hours in over at the race venue. Rolling farmland and miles of wheat fields.
First two runs after BBW were interesting. Wednesday was still feeling a bit wimpy in the legs so decide to hit the track for an easy few miles. Work in 6x100meter intervals @ "fast as you can" which was about 7:00 avg. Over all the legs felt better than I anticipate.
Woke up this morning, a bit late, and decided to work from home. So headed out for the long run around 7:30am. It took most of the 40' warmup @ LRP before the legs started feeling good. The remaining 2x20' (10') at MP were simply brutal. I have no idea how I managed to hold 7:30s for 90% of this this time. The quads and calves were screaming bloody murder. Cooled off with a walk with the DW and then took a nice long cold shower.
Tomorrow it is back to the pool for what I hope if 3300 meters. Then finally back on the bike Sat/Sun to see if I brought any extra fitness home with me.
It is safe to say that my fitness level is getting better...2 hours was a breeze after a few weeks at well over that on these long runs. I had to back off for the last 20 minute because my body wanted to hit some z4. But, my brain was telling me that this weekend will be hard enough without killing myself tonight!
Hope everyone else is feeling strong!
@Steve - using this weekend as a final test isn't bad at all. Have a great race!
tucker: the track can slow you down if you don't know how to run the turns. i like it cuz there's no interuprtions (and i can run the turns!);
very impressive how everyone is battling thru the workouts.
mine today was good, but i miss running on dirt. the road is monotonous...and there are cars, but must be done.
distance: 19.03; time: 2:25:07.90; Avg pace: 7:38; Climbing: 1095feet. schedule says 2hrs, but i need a bit more road time to acclimate to the unforgiving concrete.
saturday is the last climbing century on my schedule. will ride the road bike, but sunday will be back on the tri bike.
Just finished the swim and felt great. Completed 3200 at RR pace without stopping in 1:10, which is right on pace with my race goal. I'm also still running 2-3 miles at my race pace ever weekday and so far my knees feel great. Hopefully the gradual increase will get my knees in shape for the pounding on race day.
Received and installed my new Cobb saddle yesterday and looking forward to testing it out on the 4.5 hour bike tomorrow. Hopefully it will get rid of the numbness caused by the old saddle.
Nice work everyone!!!! Been off the grid doing training (the academic variety). The training that wil help me out in 4 weeks has been minimal, but got a few runs in and did the 5k test today. Pretty much a mirror image of my last test. Very even mile splits at 7:02, 7:02, and 6:59. Will try and hit the pool later for my first swim of the week. I'm hoping the weather cooperates for some good quality road work this weekend.
@Allen- I love my Cobb saddle, but be prepared to have some tender "sit bones", but its better then the alternative as fas as I'm concerned.
I'm headed back over to CDA next weekend for RR #2. Can't wait to test out the new 12-27 and see how the HED 3's like the course. Will do some recon for the group.
Good job everyone. Strong work and staying healthy.
I'm heading out in 30 minutes with the Midwest group that is doing a mini-rally in Madison WI. we're riding the Horrible Hilly Hundreds today and the IMWI bike course tomorrow. Yikes - a challenge for a flatlander like me.
Been a crazy week. Board of Directors meeting Monday. Travel Tues & Weds. Got stuck in Newark NJ, 5 different flights cancelled due to weather. Silver lining: got to spend 2 nights w/ my brother JT (who claims to be better looking, but you'll have to decide for yourself) - we did a swim and a long run together. See his post. He had a great run coming of his lingering hamstring injury.
Great job all. Modifying the plan slightly to get in a psuedo "big du weekend". No swimming! Ocean is a balmy 55 or so. Yesterday did a hard 90' bike @ .88 then a 1.3mi brick. Hit the beach with the family then wife and I ran 4.7mi. Today, if my wife ever wakes up, will go for 3-4 hrs on bike followed by a brick. Hoping to get in another end of the island and back run later tonight. And maybe do it again tomorrow.
As for this who is the better looking Thompson brother, really? Let's shave 2 dog's asses and turn them around to see which one is better looking. Same result.
Tough day in Memphis...which figures, as it is the best weather of the year!
55 miles in, my chain got jammed in an un-fixable kind of way. Had to do a chain break and 'limp' my bike 15 miles into the bike shop. They loosened the link up and made it ride-able so I rode to the 3:30 mark. I DID get all the FTP stuff in though. Tomorrow, I am probably going to hit 4 hours to net the same time as the workouts call for, but, it is still frustrating. On top of that...when I had to deal with the chain issue, I noticed my phone had somehow fallen out of the bento box I use to store it on the rear of my bike...so, dropped $450 for a new iPhone today (is there another phone option? certainly not.). Now I have 4 hours on a semi-rideable bike staring at me tomorrow, and, to top it all off, I somehow ended up with some kind of terrible 'rawness' in my 'undercarriage' which is going to REALLY hurt after about 60 minutes tomorrow.
Woke up early and got the 4.5 hour bike in before heading out side to pull weeds for 3 hours. Averaged 16 mph, which is my race pace with an Average Moving Speed of 17.9 mph.
This was also my first long ride with the new Cobb V-Flow saddle. Definitely a better seat with minimal numbness but Michael was right that I was a little sore from the new shape. We'll see how it feels next week for RR#2.
The other thing I did was raise my seat. I video-taped myself riding in aero and realized my seat was way too low. Not only am I more aero now, I noticed my knees felt better after the long ride. Previously, I would have some soreness above the knee cap after long rides.
@ Allen - Sounds like you are doing some smart things to help your knees. The short, frequent runs will build up your ligaments and tendons w/out tearing them up. And good thing to check your seat height. You may even want to consider getting a bike fit from your LBS. I'm sure somebody in EN could recommend a good fitter in your area.
@ ;Stephen - some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. Sounds like you had one of those days. Just shake it off and look forward. You'll be hearing those "You are Ironman" words soon.
@ Tucker - Nice animation. Can't you tell us apart? We're not even twins. I'm the one on the right.
@ Michael - Nice work on your run test. Great pacing.
@ GH - Awesome long run. You'll get use to the roads quickly, but do watch out for those cars.
I had a good 2 days in Madison, WI. Met a whole bunch of ENers (Michele Moreno, Matt Ancona, Jeff Linkus,Becky Hirselj, Beth Schwindt, Mary Larson + many of their non-En friends) and we shared 2 good rides, 2 nice dinners and lots of stories. Rode the Horrible Hilly Hundreds course west of Madison on Sat. 74 miles, 6300 ft of climbing. Glad I have an 11-28 cassette and a compact crank. That 28 really came in handy. Was able to spin up most of the hills and stay in HR Z1, but on a couple of really, really steep hills I had to grind away @ higher HR just so I didn't fall over. Anyway, it really helped my confidence to be able to handle the hills of CDA. Then ran a 3 mile brick in 25:10 with Jeff Linkus. Legs felt ok.
Today we road the IMWI course. It was actually easier than the Horrible Hilly Hundreds course we rode yesterday, and that was confirmed by locals like Michele M. Did one loop and about 20 miles in we got caught in a heavy rain. We finished the loop and that was enough for most everybody. I figured I was already wet, in Madison, so why not keep going. I rode another 20 miles until lighting forced me off the road. All in all, a wonderful 2 days of riding, even if today got cut a little short.
Comments
Yep 5 weeks - getting both excited and scared. Love that feelin.
After my RR on Saturday, on Sunday I swam 2500 yds and then rode for 2 hours instead of resting. My legs felt fine at the start of the ride, it was finally a beautiful sunny day, so I said "what the heck". Can't say it was a bad idea, but by the end of the ride my legs were dead. No soreness or any acute pain, just no energy, no pop. So I took today completely off. Probably the right thing to do, but the other part of my mind is saying "just 5 more weeks, get off your butt". Hope I made the right choice.
Will be back at it tomorrow.Traveling to New Jersey for work and am going to crash at my brother JT's place. We're going to do a swim together and maybe a run Weds am. I got to be rested so I can keep up with the kid brother.
This weekend I'm going to Madison Wi with about 10 other midwest EN peeps to do a mini-rally. Saturday we'll ride the Horrible Hilly Hundreds (HHH) route and Sunday ride the IMWI route. Here is a link to the HHH. http://www.horriblyhilly.com/course.html
I'll probably do the 100k (67 miles) HHH route that has 5700 ft of climbing on Saturday and 2 loops of the IMWI course (80 miles) on Sunday. This will be my "Big Bike Hills Weekend"..
My plan doesn't have any testing this week. Guess I got lucky.
Good luck to all this week. Stay healthy.
I am trying to avoid the "only 5 weeks left" panic and crawl back into the training plan. Tried to go swimming this morning, but spent the majority of the time setting in the hot tub instead. I have a massage scheduled for this evening as well. My goal is to hit Thursday's run and then Sat/Sun bike.
After seeing what I could accomplish at ToC has made me much more confident that if I can execute properly that I should definitely be successful at CdA. This is the time were we all need to stay smart. trust RnP and follow the plans!
welcome back, Peter.
bruce: sounds good to me. i'm also going pretty hard these last couple of eeks...and dropping weight! then following the taper plan and staying lean until race day.
i am actually now inviting people to ride with me, since it gets me out of bed in the morning!!! usually i go solo, but the efforts are getting hard enough that i need that extra reason to get up in the morning!!
safe training to all.
gh
OK, I hope I can check in regularly now.
I'm here in the Colorado vacation home my sister and I share, thanks to our parents. It sits at 8400', in the midst of beautiful mountains, an extensive bike path network (40 riverside miles for starters), and a series of out and back creekside and mountain roads which gently rise to deadends. This all makes for awesome biking, and some opportunties for "live high, train low".
My first run was Monday, down @ 6300 feet. Even at that altitude, I lose about 10-15% off my TP speed, so my long run of 15 miles/2:10 is pretty steady at an 8:25 pace downhill (1-2% grade on the bike path), 8:55 back up. Since I do this training camp every year at the same time, I can compare performances. Last year, this run (shorter @ 13.2 mi/1:55) was @ 8:44; this year, a bit longer @ 8:42. Check one for progress!
My traditional first bike ride is 52.5 miles, 3600 feet of elevation gain/loss. TSS/IF/time last year 161/0.724/3:28; this year 155/0.67/3:20. The big differnece is my VI is much steadier now, so I can go faster with less overall work.
Tomorrow is my Big Pass day. The one road up out of the valley opens traditionally Thursday before Memorial day, and tomorrow (Wed) will be the first sunny day in a week, and the last chance to ride up to 12,000 feet with no cars in the way. Parts of the road are still as narrow as the days when it was an unapved wagon track in the silver mining era, so it's kind of like some of the Giro d"Italia roads, it's so narrow, twisty and steep.
My goals for this 19 day adventure are: to get full advantage in mys sytem of the altitude stress; to do a lot of biking up hill, without going over the edge (literally or figuratively); to swim 40 minutes +/- 6/7 days (swimming @ 8000 feet is a humbling experience); and to maintain my running strength with a focus on long runs and bricks. So, my workouts won't look like the EN plan, but, as I've said, I've done this before with some success.
If the weather ever clears and I can figure out how to post pix, I'll show the scenery.
sounds like heaven, Al!
gh
Back in the pool for earnest this morning. Plan was to attempt the entire 3500 meters from the plan. After 60' I was only at 2500 meters. I decided to stop there and not tear myself apart the first day back. All I have to say is that there is still work to do in the swim. Plan on hitting the track this afternoon to get in the first run in over a week and after ToC. Should be interesting.
Pete
@Al: very cool, looking forward to hearing (seeing?) More about your CO training...
@Al - Sounds like a nice change of scenery. I did some training in Vail back when I played hockey and the altitude makes a huge difference. I remember being tired just from warming up and stretching. But coming back to low altitude after training in high altitude is definitely nice.
I'm hacking the training plan due to my knee issues. I'm taking Art's suggestion and increasing run frequency with a gradual increase in distance. So I'm thinking I will run 2-3 miles at T-Pace every weekday and slowly increase it until tapering starts. Since my knees don't hurt until about 6 miles at T-Pace, this should help to get my knees conditioned without pushing them to the pain point each time. I'll keep you posted on progress.
Also, I have a new Cobb saddle coming in the mail tomorrow so I'll get to try it out this weekend. After the numbness I experienced in the RR, I don't want to mess around with the possibility of the issues that could cause.
Have a technical/travel question for you all, too. I have no experience at all travelling with bike boxes. Luckily, I managed to secure my bike a ride up to the race so I don't have to fly with it. My friend that is meeting me up at the airport in Spokane, though, has a box and we're fighting a bit about how big of a rental car we need; I don't want to shell out the cash for an SUV as I'm poor.
Her box is 48x30x15 inches and I am thinking that should fit in a mid-size car in the backseat. am I wrong?
Shannon
shannon: what about the following...
once in spokane take it out of the box and it should fit in trunk or back seat. if the empty box doesn't fit, then fold it flat and then re-tape it as needed.
if it's a hard case, then you might be screwed, but airports sometimes have a place where you can keep those things for a nominal fee.
i got a pika packworks case and it works great. worth it if you travel a lot with your bike. if they ask at the airport, i say it's an easel (not sure if i spelled that right), but they usually don't ask, since no one thinks it's a bike case. only if they are anal, they charge a basic oversize fee, but they usually don't. i carry it on my shoulder.
gh
Anyone else have the experience with the hard cases?
Thanks,
Shannon
I flew down to Las Vegas last fall for Silverman and had my bike in a hard box. But we rented a mini van for that reason. When GH and his brother flew up for CDA RR1 they also rented a mini van. See a trend??
yeah, as steve points out, my bro has a hard case, so we rented a minivan.
you actually might be even more screwed......that weekend is not only ironman, but some sort of 3 on 3 basketball tournament, so all the minivans and SUVs are sold out!!! i ended up getting a crossover at hertz.
gh
@Bruce, you didn't stop in and say hi?
@Shannon, I say you ride from Spokane to CDA!
@Allen, are you saying you are planning on running 2-3 miles at Threshold every day? I don't think that is a good idea.
@Gil, you are really gonna crush this race. Your biking has been nuts. Wish we had epic rides like this on the East Coast. Oh, and the time to do it as well.
I booked a minivan yesterday on Hotwire. I really hope I get it or my wife is gonna be pissed.
On the workout front had a good swim today. My shoulders really like the longer, not as fast work in the pool. The fast stuff just kills. Probably too much baseball in my youth. No idea what to expect on the 5K run tomorrow. Should be fun. Gonna have to get all jacked up on 5hr Energy. Good luck all.
@ Shannon, I have a hard bike case (47x30.5x10.5) and I can barely squeeze it into the trunk of my Honda Civic with the back seat folded down. If I were you, I wouldn't risk it. Just stick with the SUV. When I went to IMFL, I rented a small SUV and it had plenty of room.
I have been crazy busy at work this week, and will be working 1 or 2 days this weekend. That being said, I haven't been able to get my swims in so far. I am very glad that this is an easier week, otherwise I don't know what I'd do.
Also, it sounds like some people have bike/run tests scheduled this week. Is that true? My beginner training plan does not.
Great Stuff to hear what everyone is up to... Wow - really envious of Al - that's one of my goals - having a mountain house....So may have to pick your brain over dinner in CDA....Shannon - the box is generally big - afraid need a comparable car....
Training continues on this end as my brother Bruce and fellow CDA ENer was in town the last 2 nights. First night we hit the pool and did some speed work. Afraid the that the younger (better looking) brother (me) put the older one thru a tough speed workout, but he hung on, but I heard about it...
He ended up staying another night due to canceled flights, so we went out for our long run last night, and he got his revenge on his younger (still better looking) brother (me) coming back from injury.
We ended up doing about 12.6 miles in 1:55, so at least I know that I can handle 1/2 the run. Of course, feel today like Shannon's bus came east and hit me broadside, so taking the day off and tonight heading up to Lake Placid for a weekend of training on the courses up there.
Keep up the great work gang - we'll be seeing you soon.... J.T.
Pretty hot and humid run/test for me. Real suffer/sweat fest. I really need to do these with someone else or in a race. Or a course somewhere. This track just doesn't work for me. Thinking of retesting this weekend at the beach. It's flat and fast.
I am doing an Olympic this sunday so I was planning on using the 10K run split as my run test. Not ideal, I know, but at least it will be an all out effort. I will put off my saturday bike until monday morning and 4+ hours in over at the race venue. Rolling farmland and miles of wheat fields.
Woke up this morning, a bit late, and decided to work from home. So headed out for the long run around 7:30am. It took most of the 40' warmup @ LRP before the legs started feeling good. The remaining 2x20' (10') at MP were simply brutal. I have no idea how I managed to hold 7:30s for 90% of this this time. The quads and calves were screaming bloody murder. Cooled off with a walk with the DW and then took a nice long cold shower.
Tomorrow it is back to the pool for what I hope if 3300 meters. Then finally back on the bike Sat/Sun to see if I brought any extra fitness home with me.
Hope everyone else is feeling strong!
@Steve - using this weekend as a final test isn't bad at all. Have a great race!
nice work, everyone.
tucker: the track can slow you down if you don't know how to run the turns. i like it cuz there's no interuprtions (and i can run the turns!
);
very impressive how everyone is battling thru the workouts.
mine today was good, but i miss running on dirt. the road is monotonous...and there are cars, but must be done.
distance: 19.03; time: 2:25:07.90; Avg pace: 7:38; Climbing: 1095feet. schedule says 2hrs, but i need a bit more road time to acclimate to the unforgiving concrete.
saturday is the last climbing century on my schedule. will ride the road bike, but sunday will be back on the tri bike.
swim tomorrow!
stay safe and motivated!
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Received and installed my new Cobb saddle yesterday and looking forward to testing it out on the 4.5 hour bike tomorrow. Hopefully it will get rid of the numbness caused by the old saddle.
@Allen- I love my Cobb saddle, but be prepared to have some tender "sit bones", but its better then the alternative as fas as I'm concerned.
I'm headed back over to CDA next weekend for RR #2. Can't wait to test out the new 12-27 and see how the HED 3's like the course. Will do some recon for the group.
Good job everyone. Strong work and staying healthy.
I'm heading out in 30 minutes with the Midwest group that is doing a mini-rally in Madison WI. we're riding the Horrible Hilly Hundreds today and the IMWI bike course tomorrow. Yikes - a challenge for a flatlander like me.
Been a crazy week. Board of Directors meeting Monday. Travel Tues & Weds. Got stuck in Newark NJ, 5 different flights cancelled due to weather. Silver lining: got to spend 2 nights w/ my brother JT (who claims to be better looking, but you'll have to decide for yourself) - we did a swim and a long run together. See his post. He had a great run coming of his lingering hamstring injury.
I swam both Thurs & Friday. 6500 yds total.
Have a great day!!!
Great job all. Modifying the plan slightly to get in a psuedo "big du weekend". No swimming! Ocean is a balmy 55 or so. Yesterday did a hard 90' bike @ .88 then a 1.3mi brick. Hit the beach with the family then wife and I ran 4.7mi. Today, if my wife ever wakes up, will go for 3-4 hrs on bike followed by a brick. Hoping to get in another end of the island and back run later tonight. And maybe do it again tomorrow.
As for this who is the better looking Thompson brother, really? Let's shave 2 dog's asses and turn them around to see which one is better looking. Same result.
55 miles in, my chain got jammed in an un-fixable kind of way. Had to do a chain break and 'limp' my bike 15 miles into the bike shop. They loosened the link up and made it ride-able so I rode to the 3:30 mark. I DID get all the FTP stuff in though. Tomorrow, I am probably going to hit 4 hours to net the same time as the workouts call for, but, it is still frustrating. On top of that...when I had to deal with the chain issue, I noticed my phone had somehow fallen out of the bento box I use to store it on the rear of my bike...so, dropped $450 for a new iPhone today (is there another phone option? certainly not.). Now I have 4 hours on a semi-rideable bike staring at me tomorrow, and, to top it all off, I somehow ended up with some kind of terrible 'rawness' in my 'undercarriage' which is going to REALLY hurt after about 60 minutes tomorrow.
I am just ready to hear, "You are an Ironman!".
This was also my first long ride with the new Cobb V-Flow saddle. Definitely a better seat with minimal numbness but Michael was right that I was a little sore from the new shape. We'll see how it feels next week for RR#2.
The other thing I did was raise my seat. I video-taped myself riding in aero and realized my seat was way too low. Not only am I more aero now, I noticed my knees felt better after the long ride. Previously, I would have some soreness above the knee cap after long rides.
@ Allen - Sounds like you are doing some smart things to help your knees. The short, frequent runs will build up your ligaments and tendons w/out tearing them up. And good thing to check your seat height. You may even want to consider getting a bike fit from your LBS. I'm sure somebody in EN could recommend a good fitter in your area.
@ ;Stephen - some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. Sounds like you had one of those days. Just shake it off and look forward. You'll be hearing those "You are Ironman" words soon.
@ Tucker - Nice animation. Can't you tell us apart? We're not even twins. I'm the one on the right.
@ Michael - Nice work on your run test. Great pacing.
@ GH - Awesome long run. You'll get use to the roads quickly, but do watch out for those cars.
I had a good 2 days in Madison, WI. Met a whole bunch of ENers (Michele Moreno, Matt Ancona, Jeff Linkus,Becky Hirselj, Beth Schwindt, Mary Larson + many of their non-En friends) and we shared 2 good rides, 2 nice dinners and lots of stories. Rode the Horrible Hilly Hundreds course west of Madison on Sat. 74 miles, 6300 ft of climbing. Glad I have an 11-28 cassette and a compact crank. That 28 really came in handy. Was able to spin up most of the hills and stay in HR Z1, but on a couple of really, really steep hills I had to grind away @ higher HR just so I didn't fall over. Anyway, it really helped my confidence to be able to handle the hills of CDA. Then ran a 3 mile brick in 25:10 with Jeff Linkus. Legs felt ok.
Today we road the IMWI course. It was actually easier than the Horrible Hilly Hundreds course we rode yesterday, and that was confirmed by locals like Michele M. Did one loop and about 20 miles in we got caught in a heavy rain. We finished the loop and that was enough for most everybody. I figured I was already wet, in Madison, so why not keep going. I rode another 20 miles until lighting forced me off the road. All in all, a wonderful 2 days of riding, even if today got cut a little short.
Have a great Memorial Day!!