week of 8/1; 6 weeks to go
Great to see so many of you in Madison this past weekend! I'm glad I got 4 more loops done and feel pretty good about the course. I wish I could say my expected finish time will be better but now that I've done it in RR mode (albeit it with tired legs, on a borrowed and heavier bike), I'm expecting a 14-14.5 hour day. Ugh...
I survived 102 miles Sat (with a 30 min run) and another 84 Sun (with a 35 min run)... because of my foot and my flight schedule I nixed a workout on Sunday.
My quads were shot so I took Mon off as well. Luckily it was a telework day so I hung around my house in my compression recovery tights and spent some time stretching my foot.
I'd planned to try to jog yesterday after work but saw Coach P's note (and saw R's today) about getting ourselves set for theTh run... so I skipped it. I'm kinda worried about my foot. I had PF in my left foot this winter and now it's creeping up in my R. Bad timing!
Sleep has been my priority... so when the alarm went off at 6 I reset it and went back to bed. I'll try to do the hour ride on the drainer tonight. 3x5x30/30... if that's too hard, it'll turn into a Z2 ride. No big deal. Will probably skip the brick and shoot to do the 2.5 hour run tomorrow (hopefully I can do the intervals, if not, oh well... will take R's advice and just get the volume in). I plan to tape my foot and hope that helps. If all goes well I'll get in the pool tomorrow after work and again Friday. Odds are good I can get the 3rd swim in over the weekend.
I hope everyone else is recovering well and getting it done. 9/11 will be here in no time!
Comments
Thanks for keeping the count of the weeks! I suck at keeping track of where we are
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Monday: 3km swim at the Rose Bowl. Solo, mix of fast and long stuff. No running.
Tues:
Wed:
Thurs:
Friday: want to repeat the 3.8k swim, but swim it vs pull this time, so see how I do. Then 5-6 mile run and 2.5-3hr flat aerobar ride, to see how the neck and back do after the swim.
Saturday: 112/6 with a couple EN guys/training plan athletes training for IMCA and Lou. Will give them a head start and ride near my goal watts for IMWI of ~220-225w Pnorm. 6 mile run as 3mi @ E+30" then dial in my goal pace of 8:15-20.
Sunday: AM 6 mile run, then likely ~3-3.5hrs climbing ride.
...and the wheels on the bus go...
Lesson's relearned:
- I must pay attention to how warm it gets on the bike and adjust my power targets and nutrition, otherwise I'll be in trouble before the run even starts
- Don't forget the salt pills at home
- Don't listen to the weather man
- Forget about holding my best case scenario pace on the run if it is over 90 out
- I still hate G and 92, but at least I know that I'm only on G for about 12 minutes and 92 for about 14 minutes, so I can start counting down once I get on them.
I should furthermore learn never to post on forums on workouts right after Rich has posted... :-)
Mon: Swim only, good session, something like 4500 yds
Tues: Swim about 3500 in speed work mostly (having flipped the Mon/Tues swim workouts cuz I was tired from the camp). Threshold miles weren't going to happen. Easy run with some strides thrown in was good, though, about 45 min.
Wed: Quads at the beginning of the ride felt a-fire, and I don't mean that in a good way. But seemed to warm up to a reasonable degree pretty well. Got the 30/30 sets done, clamped down in the bars, all at or above proscribed power, and that was very encouraging. 4 mi brick run that went from EP to HMP also felt very good.
Thu: I probably paid some for having had a good Wednesday. Long run started fine. Understandably slow warmup. I decided to do the 30 min of "speed" as 4 x 1 mi, rather than 3 x 10 min, and all those were between MP and HMP (sub 7:00). But after that, I was pretty spent and had to (to use Rich's phrase) mail in the rest of it. I made a stupid math error and ended up going about 20 mi in about 2:45 overall. I did NOT negative split the run, so that was a little discouraging, but I'll live with it.
Fri: My intention is to do a good hard swim and skip the run in order to have the best day possible on Saturday. My run is in better shape than my bike, and under the circumstances the Sat ride has to have higher priority than a "frequency run", which is what I think the 40 min run with Strides on Friday is.
WJ, I'm in that lovely place where I can't get comfortable sitting because hips ache, knees ache a bit, etc. But feet don't hurt, a first. Everything just...buzzes...but I can feel the diesel engine building so I'm just rolling with it. 112 on the LA bike paths followed by a 6mi run will suck. I very well may push a rec cyclist or cholo walking a pitbull on a fence chain into the ditch...I hates the paths that much.
IOW, at this point I'm on the razors edge but seem to be adapting and continue to plug along. On a mid afternoon coffee drip right now...
Heading into weekend w/ Long run; swims; possible local sprint tri to support local boys/girls club.
Camp weekend was wonderful - it was so great to meet everyone (and see familiar faces from our informal camp over Memorial weekend) - makes me really feel like part of the team now!! V. cool.
Ahhh - Monday completely off - slept in - life was good!
Tuesday - went to do a swim at the Y ... hmmm, it sure seems like there is lots of chlorine in the pool (they redid the pool vents 2 years ago which required draining the pool ... would have been a good time to go salt water) ... ask the life guard (yup, his eyes are burning) ... bag the swim just as I was getting into it ... didn't want to suck chlorine fumes into my lungs for an hour.
Turns out there was an "accident" on Saturday and they had to shock the pool - could smell chlorine even outside of the building. Must have been a sign that I needed the day off but the admin time sucked.
Wednesday - bike on the drainer - love the 30/30s, good brick run, core work.
Thursday - long run went well - a little hard to warm-up but settled in and got all of the intervals done - although was ready for it to be over at 2 hours. Started out with temps of 62 degrees (yes, 62 degrees!) but still really high humidity.
Friday - TRX class this morning - it's been almost two weeks since I've been and can tell! LOVE this class - its given me so much core strength that my back no longer bothers me on the bike. Going to check out the pool again today and get the run in afterwards!
Saturday/Sunday - looking forward to some strong bike rides - not on the IM course - but West of the course on Saturday - preparing for Dairyland Dare 200k next Saturday.
Have a great weekend!
I stretched, rolled my feet and calves, iced my feet... and slept in my calf socks. Feeling better today but the feet are achy.
At this point I am worried beyond belief about a DNF. We shall see. I'll continue to do the PF stretches I know and the stuff Michelle showed me, continue seeing the ART/Graston guy... and hope. Argh. I don't want to be a midnight finisher after having such a great 1st time race in FL... but it will be what it will be. Rather finish than DNF.
Yep...later in the day, when you're at mile 90-95 of 112 and the temps rise ~1degree every mile in the 35 miles from the beach back to you're car, the paths and full of rec cyclists, kids on BMX bikes, shady doodes walking big ass pitbulls, etc. Yeehaw
Becky-
Not sure the entire issue but my neighbor is a Podiatrist and speaking with him he said if it is your Plantar Fascia band then to get it injected at a minimum two weeks prior to our race. He said cause the injection will stir things up in there for a day or two and then it starts to work its magic
Also if the treadmill is easier on your feet then do all your long runs on it. You are still getting your mileage in and much less pain.
Just some food for thought. We will get you through this
Looks like we have testing next week.
I'm not sure how seriously to take the results of the bike test. I'm pretty confident of my current FTP. If I don't manage to ride quite that high on Tuesday, I don't think it's going to tell me anything other than that I am fatigued or maybe just not quite trained up for that particular exercise (the 2 x 20) right now. On the other hand, if I (or anyone) tests up from where we thought we were, I guess that's meaningful for the same reason...managing to test up DESPITE current fatigue and not having focused on that kind of interval much.
Saturday: Local Sprint tri: Swim 800meters:17.5m rollers; 5K (16:10; 53:11:24:40) These are slow times for me but given the training these past 2 weeks my legs feel like logs. Swim: Focused on my box, counting strokes, staying smooth: Bike FTP 183 avg speed 19.6; FTP usually is closer to 200 but legs seemed shot: Run: Red-lined it on the gas; 85-90 cadence 8:01 pace again slow. On the bike: Focused on cresting hills, peddling down hills, going hard on turns keeping my speed (that's uncomfortable for me)
Sunday: My plan was an 18m run. . However that was not how the day turned out. Left early due to heat. 2.5hrs 13 miles later (95%humidity; 90 degree) all water fountains turned off in parks (I don't know why); no place to purchase water (hence the running thru parks part which will be amended); dehydrated-seriously considered knocking on random persons door to get water. I carry water and had refilled partly at church via mile 4 just to play it safe. Turned up snake eyes when I passed the house for 2nd lap and headed inside, legs cramping. Took gels as well. Man vs Wild had a show on how to drink your own sweat. . . but I missed that episode. Ready for the heat advisory crap to end.
I'm finding it difficult to gain confidence in my training with experiences like what happened today. Factors like the heat over the past 5 weeks (record setting here of 93-107 every day) that impact my ability to train hard or the output vs effort. Believing in the training and effort when the training numbers are down ie FTP or pace on the run (I'm thinking of the data about heat and how it effects performance regardless of fitness).
No run testing for me this week. I will probably skip the brick today (riding after work). I may try to jog Th in lieu of test but we'll see how it goes. I'm going to do the long ride Sat and doing my annual OLY Sun - for fun... if I have to walk the 10k, I'll walk the 10k. Wish the race didn't fall here in my calendar but it was my first OLY and I've done it every year since - with the friend who did it with me that first time (this weekend will be his GF's first tri, too)... so it will be a pretty fun time. Just another training day for me.
Good tip, Carl (thanks for talking to your friend). I had 3 injections in my other foot and man oh man did they hurt - but to be honest, I didn't think they helped - the ART/Graston is what finally did the trick. But, if, in 3 weeks I'm still having trouble it might not be a bad idea to try.