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IM Ville Mojo Thread- Week 15, 31 Aug - 6 Sept
Am I allowed to start this week's thread? If it is a faux pas, I'll apologize and blame it on being a rookie. I know our fearless leader is headed to Orlando this week and is hopefully getting some rest on the plane.
It's Camp Week! Good luck to everyone preparing for the big weekend. This will be my first.
I started this week with 2000 yds in the pool. Hoping to complete a "Brunelle" this week. That's 10,000 yds of swimming in a week.
Looking forward to hearing from Paul about his trip to Austria. Keep getting after it!
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Last weekend on my long ride thinking of all the work everyone is doing kept me going. Oh, and Coach Rich flew past me during that ride too. Fun to see someone covered in EN gear zoom past. Pretty sure it made me ride faster for a bit.
Last week was a good week for me. Got in just under a 5 hour ride on Saturday, and followed up with just over a 2 1/2 hour ride on Sunday, and ran both days. Was able to head out to the Pacific Coast Highway yesterday to escape the heat. My husband found us a new route, which made for a fun ride. I feel like I've been running a lot lately (my Sunday rides are shorter because I do the optional run on Sundays for lower vDOT peeps). I think I may have strained a muscle during my run while dodging a lamp post yesterday (funny how those things can just jump in front of you when you're zone out). Iced it a bit, and am just going to keep an eye on it.
I'm looking forward to Camp Week. A little nervous though. Last year I fell apart on my 6 hour ride because of the heat. I'm hoping to have a better go of it this time.
Have a great week everyone!
Not even Brunelle is sure he wants to do another 10,000 yd swimming week. Today will determine whether or not it happens when I stop or not on the YMCA on the way home from work. If we follow the plan, it will be over 12,000 yds, yikes. I'm really tired today, and am becoming nervous about the weekend. I have never ridden that many miles back to back. I'm feeling pretty strong on the bike after this past weekend. The temps have been nice though in the 70s. This big guy does better when it is not so hot. Hope it is cool October 11.
Thought about taking today off given the past 21 days of solid work until I saw the red exclamation mark of high importance the 90' ride had in front of it. Opted to ride outside instead of my typical Monday trainer ride...glad I did it turned into a great ABP ride.
Good luck this week everyone...this is a big one!!
Thanks for starting the weekly @Jay. Started the week with a day off, just could not get the swim in.
Last weekend I did the Hotter n Hell 100 which was less hot this year with temps in the low nineties and light winds, pretty much everyone I know had big fat PRs, me included. It was a much needed confidence booster for me, followed it up with the WichiTah trail half marathon. Happy with the weekend.
Camp week, I will likely do the optional workout instead,.
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Austria 70.3 results. Based on a screen shot my time was 6:14:56 although I am missing on athlete tracker at the moment. That is my second worst by about a minute when I blew up in the 105 degree heat in the 2012 Ironman 70.3 Worlds in Las Vegas. In other words, this was a true championship course. And I sucked royally. In fact, I tried to embrace the suck but there was just more suckage than I could wrap my arms around. My day started out well, constantly telling myself not to start the swim too fast. Naturally in all the excitement I started too fast, went totally anaerobic and felt like I would die by about 600m. I really had to slow down a good ways to recover and never got it back, swimming about 38 miserable mins despite a 35 min practice swim on the course just two days earlier. Then came a legit bike leg. My Swiss made BMC is right at home here and handled flawlessly but I can't say the same about me. I've been enjoying time with my son and never saw the bike course in advance. All I knew was there was.supposed to be a major climb. When we started cranking up I knew I was on it. After several miles my hammies were crying and I figured we must be near the top -- then I saw the sign '10K to summit.' OMG! So I am sucking salt pills and mustering everything I have to get to the top. Then 5k to summit and 2k to summit. And now the course is really pitching up. Another 1K and some folks are walking their bikes up the mountain...then 500m to go and you look up and see the balloon arch over the top. More walkers. Wanted to stop so bad! I burnt every match in my box to make it up. Then I blowtorched my matchbox. Then I incinerated the ashes to find anything and everything to make the crest. No time to rest because the see saw tilted right over immediately into a screaming, extended and technical descent. There were several hairpin turns and even a couple where they installed fencing with mats to catch folks from going over some ugly drops. My left leg was totally fried from the climb and never came back the rest of the race. Running was difficult because the left hammie just would not go forcing some frequent walk breaks to avoid it locking up. Then on the second loop my right calf wanted to go from over compensating. But I finally hobbled in to finish my 3rd IM70.3 World Championship. Finally we got to phase two of the days plan which was my oldest son's 35th birthday. We finally found an open outdoor table for beer and weinerschnitzel. I also had the apple strudel with ice cream. We ask the family next to us to take a picture and find out we are sitting next to new pro (and very young) athlete Holly Lawrence and her parents from Bristol, UK. She also had a bad day and only finished around 4:30. Yes, I had to wear the cone of shame sitting next to her! But I will be tracking her future races. All in all, a great day to race and spend time with my oldest. After a few days of recovery it's right back to training for Ironman Louisville...that bike may be twice as long but will be a cakewalk compared to this one.
Jennifer - Hope the leg is healing well. Be smart about your training.
Ran on Monday afternoon. Planning to do 2x1 but legs were tired from weekend. Did 6 mile run on dreadmill with descending miles. Last one was 7:24 with 1% grade. Swam again on Tuesday and did 4500 yds. Up to 6500 for the week with the "Brunelle" in sight. Tuesday afternoon was supposed to be my 2x20 FTP, but after 5 minutes on trainer I knew it wasn't happening. Will try again on Thursday. Ran this morning with my running group. 9 miles. Now trying to figure out Camp Week. I'm working nights this weekend so I might have to hack and move a little. Rides may get split here and there but I hope to at least get in all the volume. We're getting closer!
Great job on your PR Anu! That's awesome!
Nice job on the workouts Jay! Looks like you'll make the "Brunelle".
Keep up the good work everyone!
@Anu, great job with the HnH...I've heard that's a tough one!
Keep up the great work! Lots of positive mojo needed for this upcoming weekend...if we can do this IMLou will be that much easier!! At least that's what I'm hoping for :-)!!!
OK, so, I'm like really pooped. I don't feel like I've hit a point of recovery for quite some time now. Sleep is not improving and I'm getting cranky. At the same time, I can hardly get myself to even think about skipping a workout. It was helpful to hear Jay say that the 2 x 20 wasn't happening. I think I may just get on the trainer and ride for an hour at a recovery pace and skip intensity altogether. Even that sounds like a pain, but.....this weekend is coming. I'm excited about seeing if i can hit two days in a row at 112 miles. My plan is to finish my Brunelle tomorrow morning (yesterday's swim was dreadfully slow and I cut out 1200 yards,), take Friday off with an hour massage in the morning. And then hit the three day weekend hard. Temps have risen from the 70s of last weekend to @90 with humidity.
Anyone else feeling cranky and tired?
Oh, and ICYMI and the athlete guide is now available.
@jennifer, thanks for being in solidarity with me and thanks for the reminder of what my body may do if i don't listen. I'm very stubborn.
I've made a crucial decision. Skipping the bike tonight. Tomorrow swimming in the morning, and joining the THursday night Triathlon club for a 15 mile time trial. I will ride that at the 2 x 20 FT if I can or want to, if not, I will just ride for fun with friends. Friday off, Saturday, here I come baby.
UPDATE: Skipped the swim this morning, still exhausted but feeling a little better. May try to get the swim in tomorrow morning.
Wed PM = 20 min jog to test legs
I'm ready to go. The silver lining about a bad race is that you don't run hard enough to put yourself in any kind of hole.
FYI - IM Louisville Athlete Guide was released today.
@ Jennifer - get some sleep!
Tomorrow morning I'm gonna swim 4200yds race pace in the pool as 20x200 on 2:40. Not exactly a straight swim but I'll get 5 secs rest at each 200 and it helps me keep count. Then head home and put in 3 hours on the drainer. (Doing the drainer because roads at that hour are iffy around here.) Steady state, watching HR and nutrition. Then I might do a 45 minute brick depending on how I feel.
Saturday I'll repeat the 3 hour ride and follow with a longer brick run. Can rest in the afternoon before I head back to work.
Sunday will be long run. 135 minutes I hope. Then rest and head back to work.
Monday is a local Century ride with support. This is the ride I'll use to really focus on nutrition. Might try short brick after the ride.
If nothing else it will be a good training weekend. Good luck to y'all this weekend. Let us know how it goes.
@Jay sounds like you have put together a doable and creative plan given your very unhelpful working schedule. Way to keep moving forward.
I skipped my swim this morning and am glad i did. This evening, was hot and humid here, but I went out anyway and did a local TT with the Bluff Buster tri team. I was able to hold 97 percent FTP for 34 straight minutes. Felt strong and good afterwards right now. The rest did me good.
Good luck everyone. I have no idea what two 112 mile rides in a row will be like. Never done it before. Oh yeah, and an hour brick run, followed by a long run on Monday (who thought of this?)
Thu PM = 92 mins on the drainer including 30 mins Z4. Tried for 2 x 20 mins but only got 20-7-3. I did all of this with big gear/low cadence (72-75 rpm) and just couldn't get in a second 20 mins Z4 that way. Weekend is almost here, but I'm going Sat-Sun-Mon.
@paul and others, how do you rig the next week when you do SSM, what do you skip next week, and when do you jump back in to the regular plan. I may end up skipping one of my swims this week, so getting my swimming back in will be a priority for me. Not going to be a brunelle for me this week.
Friday AM - 4000 yards SCY. So that makes 12,155 yards in 3 straight days.
Friday PM - 45 mins weights at Snap Fitness followed by a 5K run.
Motto for the weekend: "One day at a time!"
Anyway 3500 swim (ran out of time had to meet a group for the first half of the ride)
~92 mile ride(I am slow and the guidelines say 6 hours , its a little less than I thought I'd get but riding with people means you do adjust the pace some and I am too nervous to ride alone around here and towards the end well it was just freaking hot
6 mile run.
I will do a swim tomorrow since our local tri group is doing a supported OWS. I am debating on whether to do the LR tomorrow or Monday. I feel pretty good so I might give it a shot, unless I wake up tomorrow feel crummy.
Thought I would post about yesterday's workout as a way to postpone the inevitable of today's repeat. Good news, Don't have to do the brick.
So it was a hot and humid day for Wisconsin. The nice thing was that that there was some light cloud cover that kept the sun rays off of my body. I didn't feel too hot on the bike though. I made it a goal of drinking two bottles every hour. I took Perform for the first two bottles and then finished off with Gatorade EN as I plan to do with IM. I also added one Roctane GU each hour which gave me about 500 calories for the first 4 hours. The new thing I tried was the base salt. I really like the taste of salt in my mouth after all that sweet. Logistically it is a little more difficult than just popping a salt pill. The wind blows on the little canister. I wonder what would happen if I spilled it all. I think i will go with the base salt, but have some salt pills in my bag just in case. I wish I had discovered salt earlier in my IM races. I was always getting horrible leg cramps around mile 70-80. Now I haven't had them for some time and my legs didn't cramp up last night sitting in front of the tv either. I am a believer in downing the salt now. Nutirition plan worked, I drank another bottle of perform on the run plus more salt. My average hr on last hour of bike was 132, and I hit that on my run for 6 miles giving me an average of 9:45 pace which is very close to my zone 1 pace of EN. It was super hot, so I was happy. The last two miles were about 15 seconds slower than my first 4 miles at the same HR. I did see some friends on the trail at mile 3 and stopped for a couple minutes. I also had a work related phone call at about 90 miles into the bike which I had to stop for.
Very happy over all with my bike. I think that was my fastest century ever. I did pick a relatively flat course (which meant lots of loops). NP was around 204 and I averaged 20.1 miles and finished around 5:35 feeling strong. My best time IM Wisconsin has been 6:07. I hope to beat that this year and still finish strong on the run. If I can average 10 minute miles on the run, I will also beat my best run time of 4:26. Feeling optimistic!
Here are the links to my bike and run.
https://www.strava.com/activities/385708359/overviewWhat if I do Sat/Sun/Mon due to a holiday weekend?
If the stars align and you can make the most of a holiday weekend, then plan on Friday OFF, then Camp Weekend as Sat/Sun/Monday. Your Tuesday would be OFF, your Wednesday would be OFF or optional easy bike. Thursday is your long run for the week and then back at it.
Sat - I put in the work and rode the 112 miles in 5:31 net of many water stops. Heat index hit 118 while I was out and was still 115 when I finished. I was toast, and I wasn't going back out in the furnace to run right away. So I waited 3 hrs and it was still horribly humid. I only had the strength to go 5 miles in a crummy 10:13 avg. My legs were shaking and I pulled the plug.
Sun - Back in the saddle again! But this time as Joe Roadie. I put on my nicest Italian cycling bibs, matching jersey, cycling shoes, etc. and launched on my Trek Madone road bike. I should have gotten the Coach Rich seal of approval for legit roadie look. No way did I want to hit the same - ahem - pressure points as yesterday. I rarely looked at my power and just rode to feel. Ended up with 112 miles in 5:59...and only because I worked hard the last several miles to keep it under 6 hrs. Another freaking hot day.
@Stephan, you're doing fantastic! Yesterday's ride/run was really strong...watch out Louisville!
@Anu and Jennifer...great job ladies!!
Just finished up bike #2 and let me tell you I am so glad I didn't have to run today. My legs are toast! Friday started the camp with a 4000m swim in 1:13, Saturday, I opted to stop the ride at 6 hrs (102 miles) so I could get in a good 1hr run (6.8miles). Today I woke up very tired and couldn't believe I had to ride another 100+ miles. So I rolled out at 7:15am with the goal of hitting 112 today. 6:45hrs later I finished the 112. Riding in Virginia can be good and bad. Had I opted to ride the bike path (90 total miles round trip, smooth and flat) I would have knocked the 112 out in less than 6hrs, but I chose to ride the roads, as the path gets very congested on the weekends with the leisure cyclists and runners. The bad part about riding in Virginia is the condition of the roads. There are a few good ones, but overall most of the roads are just beat up. Bumpy, potholes, cracks, you name it. The good part: abundant rolling hills. In my 2 rides I climbed just under 12k feet total. If the road conditions are good in Louisville, I'm confident (after this weekend) I will have a solid bike split. Tomorrow the run, then Tuesday a day off and massage (AHHH)!!
My modified plan continues into tomorrow. I was able to complete the "Brunelle" on Friday with my 4200 yd swim. (10,700yds total). Followed that with a 3 hour trainer ride and 4.5 mile run. Worked Friday night and then hit the trainer Saturday morning for another 3 hours followed by a 6 mile run. Legs starting to get tired. Work again Saturday night and then hit the road for a 16 mile run. Was able to follow the plan for the long run and finished faster than I started. Now I'm headed back to work. Tomorrow is a local century ride so that will complete camp week. Can't wait for Tuesday!
Camp week is done for me. Hurray! I had to modify because I'm in run jail until Tuesday. On Thursday I kind of kicked it off with a 3200y swim. I was going to swim longer but ran out of time. On Friday I did a 92 mile bike. Then on Saturday I did 63ish. The beg. plan says that beginners should do at least 56, so I did my best to do a little more than that. Then I did a short swim on Saturday night, knowing that if I logged a few more yards I could complete the "Brunelle" on Sunday (Coach P said to swim long on Sunday instead of the long run). Woke up this morning for a 4200yd swim and with that I logged 10,700 yards for the week (though my watch cheated me out of 25 so my files say 10,675 -grrr). That is the most I've ever done in a week. While I wasn't told to bike today, I felt like I was missing out because I missed the long run. I also saw that I was close to completing 200 miles for the week, so I went on a 30 mile ride to push my week's cycling milage just over 200 -- also a record for me. Overall I feel good. I'm super tired now, and will thoroughly enjoy the day of rest. Will try a short run on Tuesday to see how it feels.
Keep up the awesome work everyone!
@Jay Because I want to use exactly what I am going to have at IM, I have had to plan it so I go by my car at least three times. I basically have a 40 mile loop, a 45 mile loop and a 27 mile loop. I carry 5 bottles with me with perform and gatorade EN. One between the arms, two behind seat, and two on the frame. I am shooting for 2 bottles per hour. I then have coolers ready to refill.
I carry 6 roctanes on the bike, 1 per hour and base salt, along with some salt stick tablets. I take at least one tablet per hour, and lick the base salt every 15 minutes or so. I want to start off with perform at the race, I will likely have three bottles of that on the bike (will eliminate two holders on frame), and then I will move to the course fluid, gatorade EN.
That said, this past week is DONE!!! I only ended up doing a run and swim on Tuesday before going into the weekend, but no complaints. Friday I got into the pool and knocked out 4,400 yards (longest swim I've done to date) in 1:35, followed by a 104 mile ride in 5:54, followed by a 60 minute run. And after all that, I needed to run a bunch of errands post training. I didn't get in bed until after 11pm!
The next morning I didn't feel too bad, but I only had time for a 60 mile ride. Honestly, I could have done more, but there are only so many hours in a day and I needed to make some house repairs, move furniture and still make the dinner plans I had. C'est la vie!
Yesterday, I only got a 2 hour run in for just over 12 miles. The first hour was at a 10:24 pace and I picked it up the second hour to end up with an overall average pace of 9:54. Not bad. I had to cut those 15 mins short because I was preparing a bunch of BBQ for a party I was going to after the run and I needed to do some additional cooking before I got there. It was kinda funny... I have this 3 mile loop I was running, so every time I'd run past the house, I'd stop to check on the smoker or throw some additional items in. The ribs, sausages and wings came out great... I overcook the pork tenderloin :-(
Anyway... All in all, I'm pretty pleased. I'm a bit sore today, but I'm sure all the beer I had last night did not help AT ALL!!! This coming week is pretty light, except for the damn 2.5 hour run on Thursday. I'm really not looking forward to the 3 hour run coming up next week. Ugh! Never did I think that I would be doing half marathons, or close to half marathons on the regular!!!!!
Great job to everyone else who made it through this past week. Louisville is close!!!