3 Weeks to Lake Stevens

Swanie

Last week of build before going into taper for Lake Stevens. I am doing a run volume this week  to follow up my bike volume week last week. Today got in 8 miles of hills with  2 x 1 mile intervals at MP. The hills course I run has some ridiculous hills so ANY speed work within this run is tough. Tomorrow I will get in the swim from today and then another shorter but faster run.

Hope everyone is getting ready.  Allen, how are the knees holding up? Hope to see a few of you at Lake Stevens this weekend for the RR.

scottwstewart

My training hasn't quite been per the training plan. I've been busy at work and squeezing in whatever workout I can do each day. On Sunday I did the Seafair sprint distance triathlon here in Seattle and had a great race. I ended up finishing in 1:16:24, which is nearly an 8 minute PR over this race last year. I felt like my execution was really good and the 100 calories of Infinit that I took on the bike worked well. I'll probably use Infinit for the race rehearsal this Saturday to test it out for a longer workout. I'm looking forward to our group RR on Saturday.

thugbuster

I'm with Scott, not really doing the training plan, but have been busy. Did the Ragnar relay this weekend and ended up doing Ultra distance (supposed to do three legs, but I ended up doing 5). It was hard. Ended up with 30 miles of running with 2300 ft of climbing. My last leg was almost a half marathon. I felt worse at the end then I did at IM. It was hard, but a fun experience. Today I met up with Al T. and a few of the south sound tri members for a TT workout. Basic W/U then 12 miles of TT then a C/D. Avg. 23 mph for the 12 miles and felt pretty good. My legs are still feeling the weekend, so I'll swim tomorrow. Get back to running on Thursday. I'll be doing the Federal Escape Oly on Saturday. Fitness wise I feel pretty good, but not looking to do too much at Lk. Stevens. Try to beat last year's time by holding back on the bike and (finally) having with a good run. Can't wait to hear how it goes on Saturday on the race course.

Swanie

@Michael- I was wondering what happened to you. It was like you fell off the face of the earth. Glad you had a good time at Ragnar. Hope you do well at Federal Escape.

@Scott- looks like it might be just you and I at the RR this weekend. Are you planning on doing the run on the actual course or are you just going to run up the trail?

scottwstewart

@ Steve, I'm pretty sure Allen will be doing the RR with us as well. I was planning on just doing the run along the trail. I think we should stay clear of downtown Lake Stevens due to Aquafest and the 5k and 10k runs associated with it.

alleneskelin

I'm definitely in for the RR this Saturday. I've been doing an hour bike or half hour run every other day for the last week. My knees feel great so far. My plan is to use the RR bike as a test on whether my knees will hold up on race day. If I complete the 56 mile bike on the race course and my knees don't stab, I'm registering that night. If they do stab, I'm skipping the race but will attend to support the team.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can do the race as I want to take advantage of my fitness from IMCDA training. Now that I completed the bucket list item of becoming an Ironman, I'm thinking HIM distance triathlons are better for me going forward. So I'm hoping Lake Stevens will show me that I can race that distance without putting too much stress on my knees. Then starting next year I may try to do 2-3 HIMs per year as incentive to keep in shape. If the knees don't hold for the HIM distance, I'll try Olympic or Sprint distance. But either way, I've caught the triathlon bug and now just need to find the right distance for my 195 pounds so I can enjoy the sport and not injure myself.

So the RR will be a big indicator on what comes next for me and triathlons.