Sarah- Lots of rain here so I've been shuffling workouts around a lot this week. I have a trainer in my basement but really prefer to ride outside (and am too lazy too drag the bike in the basement and get her situated on the trainer. Ironic isn't it? I can ride for 6+ hours, but can't take 10 mins to get bike setup in the basement!) LOL
Hey guys, so this morning it felt like I was swimming in jello. I'm not sure whether it was because Patrick mentioned that the IMFL swim was so fast so many times during the Talk last night, but man, some of the 400m intervals felt like they were taking forever. Good news, I'm going to go for a 20 minute run tonight!! It will be my first actual run since the week of August 27 - so I'm not expecting it to be all sunshine and puppies, but at least I'll be able to find out where my foot is on the scale of healing. I'm back in my Asics and will be picking up a shiny new pair this weekend! One month until RACE DAY!
Nicole- Those 400 are rough, huh? Hope you had a good run! Shiny new sneakers are always fun too....
Rough bike tonight. More rain forced me into the basement. Z4 intervals as follows:
8' @ .944IF 10' @ .895IF 6' @ .82IF (This one was so bad, I had to break up the last 12' into 2 x 6') 6' @ .901IF
So ended up more like Z3.5 but got it done. Pushing the run til pre-swim tomorrow night since I'll have time to kill before I can get in the pool. Its aqua-robics night til 7. GRRR
Great news Nicole! How did the run go? I can't believe it's down to a month now... I'm so excited to hear that you are running!
Kim, I think z3.5 is pretty common at this stage of the game. I know I've had a pretty hard time with the FTP stuff.
I'm off to the pool shortly. I've gotten so lean for this race, I sink like a stone. Swimming feels like such a struggle lately. I like it, but boy I am not good at it.
Kim, your numbers are about right...I can hold z4 but its hard and I feel like it comes with a cost. For me holding Z3 feels better these days and its still hard but not so hard I'm crushing myself. Its hard enough that its well above race pace. This has been what I've noticed the past few weeks.
I agree Kim, the zone 4+ stuff is getting to be more of a challenge. You did a nice job pushing the pacing. At this point I don't think we can ask much more of ourselves. Last weekend I did a long weekend charity ride of 180 miles over 2 days and tried to push the pacing and I'm still feeling it this morning, but I had a lot of fun not being on the tri bike for a change.
Slept in this morning until 4:30. I'm using beginner IM plan so I didn't have a vDOT test listed just another 90 minute run. Very humid morning and warm with a nice rain storm that started once again about 35 minutes into the run. It was very refreshing. All these runs in total darkness are great as prep for race day for me. I've also been running with no music at all now for several weeks to get comfortable with my crazy thoughts in the dark ; ) I got 9.5 miles in 1:34. I'm still struggling with the pacing. I know I'm slow in general but my body seems to want to lock into a certain pace which for the whole marathon would be too fast. I have to nail that first 6 mile pace somehow, today was epic fail again. The upshot is the run felt pretty good after my long weekend ride.
"Slept in til 4:30" LOL @ Attila. Great job w/ the run considering the 180 miles! I hear ya on the pacing. I'm super slow so my pace for the first 6 miles is close to a fast walk!
Last night, I ran! For 20 minutes. I know it's not much, but it's my first since the week of August 27 and my stress fracture diagnosis. On with the show!
I actually pulled a bonehead moved and tripped on some uneven pavement with my good foot. I ended up hitting the deck in a falling push up kind of way. I thought I'd gotten away unscathed until I hit the shower and realized I'd scraped my ankle too.
Interval bike this morning, on the trainer, on my roadie. Um, yikes, that felt REALLY hard. My rig is in the shop getting some upgrades, I'm hoping to have it back in time for this weekend's sufferfest!
So I got in a whopping 1,600yd before the aqua class at the gym. Love my new Garmin even more now! Gives me avg pace for the set, which is pretty cool. It also breaks down the time for each length when I download. Very cool and interesting.
Anyway, did 4 x 400 at 1:54-1:56/100 so very close to t-pace although I read the WKO afterwards and it was supposed to be RR pace minus 2-3" so I guess since it was a short WKO it was good that it was faster.
Hit the treadmill but was derailed with stomach pain. Natures call ended the WKO. Long tomorrow for me anyway so its probably better anyway. Hoping my fairly lame week of training will give me a good RR on Sat.!
Actually had a good run today! I skipped the super slow 6 mile w/u as that would have been most of my run so I picked up the pace a bit from my usual LRP. Got in 8 miles in about 1:37.
Let's be safe people....I'm on the look out for the stray toy around my house waiting to trip me.. I think my 4 year old has it out for me sometimes....
@ Kim. Nice job on the run, way to get it done. @ Nate. Too funny. Just got my daughter Cinderella so she's good with me for now. I'll be safe this weekend by staying on the trainer. If you don't hear from me again then I didn't survive 4 hrs Sat and 3 Sunday on trainer plus the WU run on dreadmill.
RR #2 done a week early as I'm doing 1/2 Marathon in Hartford next weekend. Really good race-specific training for FL... Flat n windy. Some headwinds, some tailwinds and crosswinds. Really obvious at one point... Did about 21mph one way and 13 the other in the same spot.
Here are the stats (RR #1 vs. RR #2): Total Mileage & Moving Time- 90.83/6:20 vs. 88.35/5:52; Avg speed- 14.34 vs. 15.01; 1st half IF- .679 vs. .695; 2nd half IF- .666 vs. .665.
Nutrition: A bit chilly so I went with my colder weather fluid intake method. I had 1/2 bottle of Infinit/Gatorade cocktail or Perform each hour, plus a little water. (about 150 calories/hour) then I had 100-200 calories/hour on top of that in the form of GU Chomps, GU, Clif Bloks and Stinger Waffles so 250-350/hour. No caffeine til 2nd half of the bike.
I felt pretty good most of the ride, with occassional ups and downs. The last 20 miles were tough, the last 10 super-sucked. I purposely started out much closer to .70IF on the 1st half this time as I think I was a little too conservative last time. Interestingly enough, the second half IF from both RRs were almost identical. Don't think hydration was an issue as I peed 3x prior to mile 70-ish. (Although 1x was just cuz it was there)
1/2 Red Bull in "transition". Felt OK on the run, except I needed to find a porta-potty, 'cept there were none on the trail so I had to scope out a nice secluded tree. Anyway, got in 4.5mi in 60 mins. (avg pace 13:21- target 12:52 for first 6 miles)
1 12:22 2 13:56 (looking for tree) 3 12:56 4 13:29 5 0.50mi @ 14:40 pace
First RR I did 4mi in 51:17 w/ avg. pace of 12:45. (Much closer to target) I'm sure "nature's call" slowed me down, but I also recall walking more purposefully in RR#1 so that probably helped.
So some good learnings but I'm not quite sure what's causing me to crash and burn towards the end of my rides, even if I pace myself well in the first half. More calories per hour? More caffeine needed maybe? (Only 1 pack of GU Chomps had caffeine) I did do my long run on Fri. afternoon which may have been a factor, plus jsut overall fatigue? I'll feel great on race day, right? Any thoughts? I'm thinking of shooting for maybe .68IF for first half of the bike race day, but based on my past 2 RRs, not sure if that would change anything for the 2nd half...
Comments
Nothing exciting to report here, managing to get the workouts done and enjoying great weather. Hoping the drought doesn't end on my race rehearsal.
Great webinar last night, very helpful!
Good news, I'm going to go for a 20 minute run tonight!! It will be my first actual run since the week of August 27 - so I'm not expecting it to be all sunshine and puppies, but at least I'll be able to find out where my foot is on the scale of healing. I'm back in my Asics and will be picking up a shiny new pair this weekend! One month until RACE DAY!
Rough bike tonight. More rain forced me into the basement. Z4 intervals as follows:
8' @ .944IF
10' @ .895IF
6' @ .82IF (This one was so bad, I had to break up the last 12' into 2 x 6')
6' @ .901IF
So ended up more like Z3.5 but got it done. Pushing the run til pre-swim tomorrow night since I'll have time to kill before I can get in the pool. Its aqua-robics night til 7. GRRR
Kim, I think z3.5 is pretty common at this stage of the game. I know I've had a pretty hard time with the FTP stuff.
I'm off to the pool shortly. I've gotten so lean for this race, I sink like a stone. Swimming feels like such a struggle lately. I like it, but boy I am not good at it.
Last weekend I did a long weekend charity ride of 180 miles over 2 days and tried to push the pacing and I'm still feeling it this morning, but I had a lot of fun not being on the tri bike for a change.
I got 9.5 miles in 1:34. I'm still struggling with the pacing. I know I'm slow in general but my body seems to want to lock into a certain pace which for the whole marathon would be too fast. I have to nail that first 6 mile pace somehow, today was epic fail again. The upshot is the run felt pretty good after my long weekend ride.
I actually pulled a bonehead moved and tripped on some uneven pavement with my good foot. I ended up hitting the deck in a falling push up kind of way. I thought I'd gotten away unscathed until I hit the shower and realized I'd scraped my ankle too.
Interval bike this morning, on the trainer, on my roadie. Um, yikes, that felt REALLY hard. My rig is in the shop getting some upgrades, I'm hoping to have it back in time for this weekend's sufferfest!
Nicole- Be careful!!
So I got in a whopping 1,600yd before the aqua class at the gym. Love my new Garmin even more now! Gives me avg pace for the set, which is pretty cool. It also breaks down the time for each length when I download. Very cool and interesting.
Anyway, did 4 x 400 at 1:54-1:56/100 so very close to t-pace although I read the WKO afterwards and it was supposed to be RR pace minus 2-3" so I guess since it was a short WKO it was good that it was faster.
Hit the treadmill but was derailed with stomach pain. Natures call ended the WKO. Long tomorrow for me anyway so its probably better anyway. Hoping my fairly lame week of training will give me a good RR on Sat.!
1 12:36
2 11:43
3 12:18
4 11:35
48:12 First 4 miles
1 12:01.6 1.00 12:02
2 11:51.2 1.00 11:51
3 12:09.4 1.00 12:10
4 11:47.0 1.00 11:48
47:49 2nd 4 miles
@ Nate. Too funny. Just got my daughter Cinderella so she's good with me for now. I'll be safe this weekend by staying on the trainer. If you don't hear from me again then I didn't survive 4 hrs Sat and 3 Sunday on trainer plus the WU run on dreadmill.
Here are the stats (RR #1 vs. RR #2): Total Mileage & Moving Time- 90.83/6:20 vs. 88.35/5:52; Avg speed- 14.34 vs. 15.01; 1st half IF- .679 vs. .695; 2nd half IF- .666 vs. .665.
Nutrition: A bit chilly so I went with my colder weather fluid intake method. I had 1/2 bottle of Infinit/Gatorade cocktail or Perform each hour, plus a little water. (about 150 calories/hour) then I had 100-200 calories/hour on top of that in the form of GU Chomps, GU, Clif Bloks and Stinger Waffles so 250-350/hour. No caffeine til 2nd half of the bike.
I felt pretty good most of the ride, with occassional ups and downs. The last 20 miles were tough, the last 10 super-sucked. I purposely started out much closer to .70IF on the 1st half this time as I think I was a little too conservative last time. Interestingly enough, the second half IF from both RRs were almost identical. Don't think hydration was an issue as I peed 3x prior to mile 70-ish. (Although 1x was just cuz it was there)
1/2 Red Bull in "transition". Felt OK on the run, except I needed to find a porta-potty, 'cept there were none on the trail so I had to scope out a nice secluded tree. Anyway, got in 4.5mi in 60 mins. (avg pace 13:21- target 12:52 for first 6 miles)
1 12:22
2 13:56 (looking for tree)
3 12:56
4 13:29
5 0.50mi @ 14:40 pace
First RR I did 4mi in 51:17 w/ avg. pace of 12:45. (Much closer to target) I'm sure "nature's call" slowed me down, but I also recall walking more purposefully in RR#1 so that probably helped.
So some good learnings but I'm not quite sure what's causing me to crash and burn towards the end of my rides, even if I pace myself well in the first half. More calories per hour? More caffeine needed maybe? (Only 1 pack of GU Chomps had caffeine) I did do my long run on Fri. afternoon which may have been a factor, plus jsut overall fatigue? I'll feel great on race day, right?