ows in the wetsuit today. 1 week till mt tremblant 70.3. I was really happy to see 28min for a little more than 1mi till I took a good look at the garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189449720 It seems that the happy satellites think that I swam out the side of the lake, over some trees and then most of the way up the boat ramp on the way back. Oh well. Still a good swim for me. The most important win was that I was able to get into a good rhythm on the way back. Ran 20mi natter but I still feel a bit sick. The data bears that out as my hr was about 10bpm higher than it should be for this pace.http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189449724 Done for the day! I will do today's brick tomorrow then I will be back on schedule.
Austin Powers ... Yeah, baby, yeah! Got my mojo back.
64 mile training ride in 2:56. This was out (into the wind) and back, flat, with relatively great weather for June. I was sweating small pails instead of buckets. Did 2x20 mins suffering then started the Z3 stuff. At my turnaround with the wind at my back I figured this day could be better than an RR. Came through 56 miles at 2:33:30.
5 mile brick run in 8:01 avg. Splits- 8:29, 7:57, 7:55, 7:55, 7:50
@ Paul, it reminds me of the "how to you set up to have a 'no chain day' thread"!
A decent ride for me today, although for schedule reasons I had to do a route close to home that required some pretty low-quality city riding. But hey, I got in a decent workout, and this is still a recovery week for me. In general it was a choppy "workout"
Junk miles home in the city, beginning with a 2' z5 on one good stretch of road - 2' @z5 – AP: 324, 24.9mph, max HR 166, cad 95 - 10' @z3/4 – NP: 239 (IF 0.940), VI 1.05, 144/156, cad 90, 21.2mph - 9.5' @z3 – NP: 225 (IF 0.887), VI 1.03, 139/153, cad 87, 19.3mph
Not officially in the HIM plan yet. (Starting week 11 on Monday) but thought I should start getting back into the formal training/posting groove as my 2 week transition from SC to HIM is ending...
Group ride last week- 27 miles. Today we did 30, but I rode to and from the ride as well for a total of 43 miles. Avg speed about 15mph, .85IF, 2,435ft gained, 2:55. The 6 miles home were rough. (Not enough fuel on the ride I suspect, plus some rough hills)
Doing a metric century next Sun. Hopefully I'll make it! Today was longest ride of the year.
@ Paul, wow, great workout there! Fast on the bike then negative split the run. and btw, i'm not too worried about yesterday's swim. I did an impromptu RR last saturday morning. I'll do yesterday's work tomorrow. @ Jimmy, impressive swim! @ Kim, nice ride there!
Good training day today! Last long-ish bike before next Sunday's race. I feel like a horse inside the starting gate chomping at the bit to let loose. Even though today wasn't a race rehearsal the bike ride was of a similar time frame so i practiced race day nutrition and for the 2nd week in a row I feel like I have it dialed in! I felt good coming off the bike although my IF was a little lower (.78) than I'm going to aim for on race day (.80). Bike details: Entire workout (222 watts): Duration: 2:34:13 (2:34:50) Work: 2048 kJ TSS: 157.4 (intensity factor 0.786) Norm Power: 229 VI: 1.03 Distance: 54.797 mi Min Max Avg Power: 0 452 222 watts Cadence: 30 209 83 rpm Speed: 0 41.1 21.3 mph Pace 1:28 0:00 2:49 min/mi
It was a little after noon when I hit the run and it was in the mid 80's, with a dose of humidity. I didn't lose any weight on the bike ride but I lost 3 lbs on the 20 minute run! Anyways, hit my paces but my heart rate was through the roof during the last 5 minutes (due to the heat). I'll have to tone it down on race day if it's gonna be like that. Details here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189528440
Have fun with your training this weekend everyone!
Sat p.m run – 97 degree heat index – needed 10’ at Z4 (7:35 target – Heat zones) 10’ of Z2 (8:05 target) NGPs were 6:54 and 7:21 respectively……..was fook’in hot !!
@ Doug, SOLID BRICK RUN. Of course you know this, but since you're a fast runner I feel the need to warn...be really careful on race day about going out of the gate too fast. Lay down a few 6:12's on race day out of T2 and you might not last. Trust in the EN execution protocol, in particular since it's your first HIM. In my first HIM last July it was 96 degrees and 106 heat index. I had no clue what kind of time to expect since I'd never done an HIM before. But I had it in my head I wanted to go sub-5:00. Given the EN execution mantra I didn't (and still don't) show speed or time on my bike computer, so I didn't know how I was tracking time-wise until I saw the official race clock coming out of T2. At that point I found out I only had to run 1:50 to get sub-5. So I mentally went into a "don't blow it" mode and started my run really, really slow. I ended up running just over 1:38 with a decent negative split. About 3 weeks later in better conditions I ran ~1:36 at Steelhead with my last 2 miles under 14:00. I'm confident that I'm capable of doing an HIM run pretty close to 1:30 in the right conditions, but I'm okay undercooking it a bit as I learn, then experiment with more aggressiveness as I gain experience. Based on your workouts you're very likely to have a great first race at the HIM distance...we'll all be tracking you (so keep that in mind at mile 10 when it's time to drop the hammer and empty the tank!!). Oh, and I don't know your AG but Syracuse is one of the 3 races with an insane number of Vegas slots, so maybe you should ask yourself if you REALLY want to do IMWI after all...we've got a great team getting ready to race in the Nevada sunshine!!! Cheers, Matt.
@ Matt, Thanks for looking out. The run workout called for 10' @ Z3 (6:38 for me) but that segment was slightly downhill, so I pushed it a little to compensate for that. The 10' coming back was supposed to be @ Z2 (7:02) which I was a lot closer to, but still had to work really hard for because of the slight uphill and it was warm. There is no way on race day I'm going to even try to run a 6:12 split. I'm hoping I can run somewhere around 7:30's for the race. My training #'s suggest I could go around 5 hours but I think it would take a lot of things coming together to do that. My first problem is the swim. I can't swim in a straight line. The 2nd issue will be transitions, I'm still figuring a few things out there. Then the 3rd issue is due to complete inexperience at this race distance I'm not sure I know how to make myself suffer/push through the pain on the run. I will be following EN race protocol for sure. I'm in the 30-34 AG. I don't think I have a prayer at Vegas, so I'm trying not to think about it (kinda am though). If by some miracle it does happen I think I would sign up for it.
Yea. I am sick. Fever came on last night. At least it explains the elevated heart rate and lethargy over the past few days. Mt tremblant 70.3 is a week from today. A week is a ong time though.
3350 yards in the pool today. 150 WU, then 1000 yard set before my 2200 RR. Did the 1000 yards first just to prepare myself in the event I'm not feeling great during the swim on race day. Obviously it was a little slower than I would like but got it done with no issues.
@ Jimmy - Hang in there & get plenty of sleep. You'll be ok, and think of it as a forced taper. I got the flu 1 week before the 2010 Boston Marathon, and was coughing up green stuff 3 days before the race. I just got complete rest the last week and modiifed my race expectations. Started out slow, enjoyed the event and waited to see what I had left at mile 18. Kind of like EN IM pacing guidelines. Ended up running a negative split by over 3 minutes, and ran my fastest miles were from mile 22-25. Passed lots of people in last 5 miles. Suggest you start out ez on the swim, follow the EN bike pacing guidelines and then be very patient at the start of the run. My hunch is that your body will come around at the end of the race if you don't ask too much of it at the start. Good luck.
@ Jimmy...rest, that's it. Even once you are better it takes a day or two to get the strength back. So do not start trying to cram in last-minute "makeup" workouts or anything like that. Your fitness is "in the bank". Just rest up and get better. That's it!
Week 11/12, 2hr ABP Ride...Felt pretty good afer big day thursday and 3 weeks no riding, nice and early while it was cool, nailed the upper end of my z3 for the whole ride, but my VI was a little high....
@ Doug - you will have an outstanding race and although time goals are dangerous because they depend on so many race-day factors beyond your control, I'll go out on a limb and say that based on the bike and run training data you've posted a sub-5 result should be attainable (truthfully, by a comfortable margin if conditions are halfway good).
The key is execution, and based on what I have read about the Syracuse course there are a few places you'll need to be careful...in particular the big climb that dominates the first 10 miles of the bike. Let folks pass you, keep constant power and don't be silly, and then you should be in really good shape for the next 40 miles. On the run again there look like a couple of big hills, but with some smarts you should be ok. Targeting ~7:30 out of the gate seems about right for you, then after 3 miles you try to work your way down to your MP of ~7:00. If the only pain issue on the run is the general pain of trying to go fast then I'm sure you will figure it out. Muscle cramps, etc, that is a different story. But you will battle hard.
Transitions should not be your problem, and if they are then you need to spend 2 sessions of a half hour each practicing this week. Period. That is free speed, and no need for that to ruin your day.
As for Vegas, honestly you have a good shot at Syracuse given the expanded slot allocation. I think the WTC messed up big-time by allocating so many slots to 3 races. In the races that have only 30 slots even the big AGs get 3-4 slots and there are virtually no rolldowns. With 100 slots you have two things happen in the big AGs. First, because every AG gets at least 1 slot, the percentage of slots that are allocated to the tiny AGs (eg. M80+, etc) is much smaller. So the number of slots available for allocation based on percentage of starters is gigantic. For example at Kansas M3539 had 13 slots!! The second thing is a knock-on effect of the first, which is that with such a massive number of slots, the rolldowns go deep – it seems as you roll deeper, you get fewer takers…literally people who never expected to get a slot who don't show up, stuff like that. I'll be really interested to hear how it all works out at Syracuse, but in Kansas the AGs with only a few slots did not roll deep at all, but the three male AGs with tons of slots (30-44) apparently rolled quite deep. The point here is that in M3034 if you don't qualify outright (which you might do, btw), stick around for the rolldown and see what happens. Of course if you do qualify outright you need to register BEFORE the rolldown or else you lose your spot! So bring your checkbook or credit card!
The other tactical thing you should do to help your AG placing is know the bib number range of your AG. The bib numbers are in sequential order by alphabet (surname) within each AG. And the range itself is determined by the start wave. Since you can't always see folks' age markings (they rub off, compression gear, etc), you can know who you're chasing (or who just passed you) based on the bib number. One way to keep your motivation high on the run is to keep an eye on the bib numbers and try to pick people off.
Cheers, Matt
Btw, out of interest, what is your FTP expressed as watts/kg?
ok, fever gone today. started antibiotics. Feeling much better. I did nothing today and am planning more of the same for tomorrow. might pick the normal taper up on wednesday. might not. my usual process when I get sick is to wait till I am well enough to really really want to train and then wait one more day. Hope that everyone has a good week.
Comments
I was really happy to see 28min for a little more than 1mi till I took a good look at the garmin data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189449720
It seems that the happy satellites think that I swam out the side of the lake, over some trees and then most of the way up the boat ramp on the way back.
Oh well. Still a good swim for me. The most important win was that I was able to get into a good rhythm on the way back.
Ran 20mi natter but I still feel a bit sick. The data bears that out as my hr was about 10bpm higher than it should be for this pace.http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189449724
Done for the day! I will do today's brick tomorrow then I will be back on schedule.
64 mile training ride in 2:56. This was out (into the wind) and back, flat, with relatively great weather for June. I was sweating small pails instead of buckets. Did 2x20 mins suffering then started the Z3 stuff. At my turnaround with the wind at my back I figured this day could be better than an RR. Came through 56 miles at 2:33:30.
5 mile brick run in 8:01 avg. Splits- 8:29, 7:57, 7:55, 7:55, 7:50
Wish I could bottle this one!
A decent ride for me today, although for schedule reasons I had to do a route close to home that required some pretty low-quality city riding. But hey, I got in a decent workout, and this is still a recovery week for me. In general it was a choppy "workout"
Overall 2:13:03 @ 221 watts, IF 0.869, TSS 165.7. Distance 43.82 miles, avg 19.8mph.
Warmup in the city (took it super easy talking to some buddies)
- 39' – NP: 117 (IF 0.461), VI 1.21, HR 92/113, cad 74, 15.3mph
Intervals
- 3.5'(3') @z3/4 – NP: 234 (IF 0.934), VI 1.02, 137/146, cad 89, 24.7mph
- 9'(0.5') @z4 – NP: 247 (IF 0.973), VI 1.00, 150/158, cad 93, 23.3mph
- 15' @ z4 – NP: 257 (IF 1.013), VI 1.00, 155/165, cad 91, 23.4mph
[20 minute coffee break]
- 11' @ z3 – NP: 204 (IF 0.805), VI 1.07, 123/141, cad 82, 18.4mph (included some "re-warmup")
- 22.5'(4.5') @ z4 – NP: 248 (IF 1.02), VI 1.02, 148/157, cad 90, 23.5mph
- 9'(1') @ z3 – NP: 224 (IF 0.880), VI 1.07, 133/150, cad 88, 20.0mph
- 15' @ z4 – NP: 257 (IF 1.013), VI 1.00, 155/165, cad 91, 23.4mph
Junk miles home in the city, beginning with a 2' z5 on one good stretch of road
- 2' @z5 – AP: 324, 24.9mph, max HR 166, cad 95
- 10' @z3/4 – NP: 239 (IF 0.940), VI 1.05, 144/156, cad 90, 21.2mph
- 9.5' @z3 – NP: 225 (IF 0.887), VI 1.03, 139/153, cad 87, 19.3mph
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189475674
Group ride last week- 27 miles. Today we did 30, but I rode to and from the ride as well for a total of 43 miles. Avg speed about 15mph, .85IF, 2,435ft gained, 2:55. The 6 miles home were rough. (Not enough fuel on the ride I suspect, plus some rough hills)
Doing a metric century next Sun. Hopefully I'll make it! Today was longest ride of the year.
@ Jimmy, impressive swim!
@ Kim, nice ride there!
Good training day today! Last long-ish bike before next Sunday's race. I feel like a horse inside the starting gate chomping at the bit to let loose. Even though today wasn't a race rehearsal the bike ride was of a similar time frame so i practiced race day nutrition and for the 2nd week in a row I feel like I have it dialed in! I felt good coming off the bike although my IF was a little lower (.78) than I'm going to aim for on race day (.80). Bike details:
Entire workout (222 watts):
Duration: 2:34:13 (2:34:50)
Work: 2048 kJ
TSS: 157.4 (intensity factor 0.786)
Norm Power: 229
VI: 1.03
Distance: 54.797 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 452 222 watts
Cadence: 30 209 83 rpm
Speed: 0 41.1 21.3 mph
Pace 1:28 0:00 2:49 min/mi
It was a little after noon when I hit the run and it was in the mid 80's, with a dose of humidity. I didn't lose any weight on the bike ride but I lost 3 lbs on the 20 minute run! Anyways, hit my paces but my heart rate was through the roof during the last 5 minutes (due to the heat). I'll have to tone it down on race day if it's gonna be like that. Details here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/189528440
Have fun with your training this weekend everyone!
@ Matt, Thanks for looking out. The run workout called for 10' @ Z3 (6:38 for me) but that segment was slightly downhill, so I pushed it a little to compensate for that. The 10' coming back was supposed to be @ Z2 (7:02) which I was a lot closer to, but still had to work really hard for because of the slight uphill and it was warm. There is no way on race day I'm going to even try to run a 6:12 split. I'm hoping I can run somewhere around 7:30's for the race. My training #'s suggest I could go around 5 hours but I think it would take a lot of things coming together to do that. My first problem is the swim. I can't swim in a straight line. The 2nd issue will be transitions, I'm still figuring a few things out there. Then the 3rd issue is due to complete inexperience at this race distance I'm not sure I know how to make myself suffer/push through the pain on the run. I will be following EN race protocol for sure. I'm in the 30-34 AG. I don't think I have a prayer at Vegas, so I'm trying not to think about it (kinda am though). If by some miracle it does happen I think I would sign up for it.
Mt tremblant 70.3 is a week from today. A week is a ong time though.
3350 yards in the pool today. 150 WU, then 1000 yard set before my 2200 RR. Did the 1000 yards first just to prepare myself in the event I'm not feeling great during the swim on race day. Obviously it was a little slower than I would like but got it done with no issues.
@ Jimmy - Hang in there & get plenty of sleep. You'll be ok, and think of it as a forced taper. I got the flu 1 week before the 2010 Boston Marathon, and was coughing up green stuff 3 days before the race. I just got complete rest the last week and modiifed my race expectations. Started out slow, enjoyed the event and waited to see what I had left at mile 18. Kind of like EN IM pacing guidelines. Ended up running a negative split by over 3 minutes, and ran my fastest miles were from mile 22-25. Passed lots of people in last 5 miles. Suggest you start out ez on the swim, follow the EN bike pacing guidelines and then be very patient at the start of the run. My hunch is that your body will come around at the end of the race if you don't ask too much of it at the start. Good luck.
Doug ... You are going to kick butt!
Sat PM ... Swam 1500 yards.
Sun AM ... 15 mins core then 6.07 mile run. Lunch ... 2000 yards in the pool. PM ... 47 miles ABP.
Week 11/12, 2hr ABP Ride...Felt pretty good afer big day thursday and 3 weeks no riding, nice and early while it was cool, nailed the upper end of my z3 for the whole ride, but my VI was a little high....
Time: 2:02:48, Distance: 41.73, Avg: 20.4, Gain: 2770
NP: 206 IF .84 VI: 1.08
The key is execution, and based on what I have read about the Syracuse course there are a few places you'll need to be careful...in particular the big climb that dominates the first 10 miles of the bike. Let folks pass you, keep constant power and don't be silly, and then you should be in really good shape for the next 40 miles. On the run again there look like a couple of big hills, but with some smarts you should be ok. Targeting ~7:30 out of the gate seems about right for you, then after 3 miles you try to work your way down to your MP of ~7:00. If the only pain issue on the run is the general pain of trying to go fast then I'm sure you will figure it out. Muscle cramps, etc, that is a different story. But you will battle hard.
Transitions should not be your problem, and if they are then you need to spend 2 sessions of a half hour each practicing this week. Period. That is free speed, and no need for that to ruin your day.
As for Vegas, honestly you have a good shot at Syracuse given the expanded slot allocation. I think the WTC messed up big-time by allocating so many slots to 3 races. In the races that have only 30 slots even the big AGs get 3-4 slots and there are virtually no rolldowns. With 100 slots you have two things happen in the big AGs. First, because every AG gets at least 1 slot, the percentage of slots that are allocated to the tiny AGs (eg. M80+, etc) is much smaller. So the number of slots available for allocation based on percentage of starters is gigantic. For example at Kansas M3539 had 13 slots!! The second thing is a knock-on effect of the first, which is that with such a massive number of slots, the rolldowns go deep – it seems as you roll deeper, you get fewer takers…literally people who never expected to get a slot who don't show up, stuff like that. I'll be really interested to hear how it all works out at Syracuse, but in Kansas the AGs with only a few slots did not roll deep at all, but the three male AGs with tons of slots (30-44) apparently rolled quite deep. The point here is that in M3034 if you don't qualify outright (which you might do, btw), stick around for the rolldown and see what happens. Of course if you do qualify outright you need to register BEFORE the rolldown or else you lose your spot! So bring your checkbook or credit card!
The other tactical thing you should do to help your AG placing is know the bib number range of your AG. The bib numbers are in sequential order by alphabet (surname) within each AG. And the range itself is determined by the start wave. Since you can't always see folks' age markings (they rub off, compression gear, etc), you can know who you're chasing (or who just passed you) based on the bib number. One way to keep your motivation high on the run is to keep an eye on the bib numbers and try to pick people off.
Cheers,
Matt
Btw, out of interest, what is your FTP expressed as watts/kg?
I did nothing today and am planning more of the same for tomorrow. might pick the normal taper up on wednesday. might not.
my usual process when I get sick is to wait till I am well enough to really really want to train and then wait one more day.
Hope that everyone has a good week.