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IMLP May 29 - June 4th
I figure I'd start up a thread for this week as I need some mojo after last week.
Monday - 2200M with 30' run - Cut the swim short as I could feel my shoulders and I was fighting the water for the whole hour.
Tuesday 40' run - Took today off from the pool
Need some accountability for the bike which I need to get done after work. I'm still tempering my efforts this week and looking at some .85 stuff over FTP.
Monday - 2200M with 30' run - Cut the swim short as I could feel my shoulders and I was fighting the water for the whole hour.
Tuesday 40' run - Took today off from the pool
Need some accountability for the bike which I need to get done after work. I'm still tempering my efforts this week and looking at some .85 stuff over FTP.
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Raleigh is this weekend. Usually I would have been checking the weather forecast and water temps a week ago, but one's perspective and priorities change rapidly when you get punched in the face. I just checked the forecast for the first time (conditions will mimic the face of the sun, as usual). I haven't assembled or packed anything. Heck, my race wheels are in a bag somewhere in the garage. I hope. And I leave tomorrow at noon. Shoot . . . add "charge Di2" to my list. I'll treat the race as I normally would, except I won't push the run (which I probably wouldn't have been able to anyways because of that sun-surface thing).
Long term, there's only one race that means anything to me this year and when the stage is huge, you want to perform. I'll aquabike Placid if I have to. But, again, I think I'll come through and will be able to race it, just with far lower run volume than I would need to really compete with the big boys. I still think a good rule of thumb is, if you're M30-49yo and want to put yourself in a position to KQ, the math is usually: swim :60 or less, bike 3.0 w/kg and then BQ. Sounds easy on paper. Getting in all the necessary training, staying healthy, getting the right body comp, etc. - all while managing work, family and life - presents a huge and usually insurmountable challenge for most AGers. Then, of course, you have to execute flawlessly on race day and have some luck shine down on you. Placid won't be that day for me, but I still plan on going well under 11 and trying like heck to run down Dinhofer. Plus, on the positive, the lower run volume will free up some time to work more on my swim and bike.
In 10 days or so, we'll finish what I call the true build phase and move into a focused four weeks of peaking - teaching the body to turn over faster and to told TP in the water for an hour, honing in on that key 5-hr power range, and constantly reminding your legs what race pace means on the run. If you haven't mastered your nutrition plan, the time to focus on that is now. The fact that 90% of the field will make pacing and/or nutritional mistakes on race day is an enormous opportunity for the 10%. And, of course, one of the reasons we're in the EN Haus is to learn how to enter/stay in that 10%.
Hope everyone is training smart, staying healthy, having fun.
MR
Will treat Sunday as my long run, but otherwise trying to run 2-6 miles a day. Did my Wednesday ride on TrainerRoad. It was surprisingly hard.
Did two swims earlier this week and then had a snafu at the Y this morning. Packed my work clothes and gym bag after my run then drove to the Y. Got out, closed the door and went to get my stuff out of the backseat and all of sudden my car doors locked. I have keyless entry and my fob was in my gym bag. The car wouldn't recognize my fingerprint nor my keypad entry. Thus, I had to cool my heels for 45 minutes and wait for AAA to arrive.
Took some long, slow breaths after the tow truck left, and decided to do a quick 1k swim (no time for the 3k on my schedule and I felt compelled to do something given that I was at the pool). Felt much better after the swim.
So, long story. Short swim.
@Mike Roberts - Good luck with the knee. I get MCL inflammation from time to time and it is one of those things that really tests my patience. Sounds like you are poised with the ice and ibuprofen. That's what I use as well.
@Gordon Cherwoniak good luck with the ride after work!
@Robert Sabo Look forward to meeting you at Quassy.
@Patrick Marsh Nice job getting some swimming in. I might have just bailed.
Yesterday after work I got in almost 50' on the bike with 20' of higher quality work. I even pushed in 10' of FTP work.
Today 60' 1st part of my split run in this morning. No zn3 push. 30' after work nothing flashy, although it is pretty hot today, suppose to push 90 (32C). We will see how I fare on a short run in the heat with limited acclimatization.
I might even get to ride outside this weekend as my aerobar elbow piece came in. I say maybe as I could be on the hook for looking after Brody, our 2 month old and he just sleeps while I'm on the trainer. Not exactly looking forward to another 4.5h on the trainer but my wife has some yard work and I'm not saying no. I can probably work it out to get 1/2 that time on the trainer, which will be good tire changing practice. The big challenge will be getting the bike ready to go for Saturday morning outside.
I have to say the changes that were made to the bike course for 2017 has made this ride a bear. 3,200' of climbing with a bunch of hills now at the end of the course - it's pretty relentless. We also did one loop of the run - That too has changed with the elimination of the big hill in the middle. So I guess it all balances out. Just have to focus on not blowing up on the bike! Syracuse 70.3 is in two weeks. It's going to get tricky balancing this race with the increase in training volume.
@Robert Sabo + @Patrick Marsh - Good skill to you this weekend, have a great race!
everyone else - great work going on in here!!!
frustrating week. I've been taking monday as a swim only day. I had hoped to run a little and get a jump on mileage before heading to Snowmass for Al Camp, but alas that did not happen. I also missed a run on Wednesday as I had my daughter's senior science symposium presentation of her 3 year science research project..
My week thus far -
Monday - swim 4600 (short hard intervals - 100s/50s/25s)
Tuesday - Run 8
Wednesday swim 4100(long slow intervals), bike 2x20 @FTP
Thursday - Run 8 in the AM, legs felt tight, took kids to school, went to work. Afternoon 10 mile run, hot, dry, legs opened up nicely!
Friday - hell day, hung over from 2 rare beers at dinner with Jill's cousin's club in Manhattan, swim 5000 (long & strong intervals (300s/200s/150s) run 5.
on plane to Al Camp. Tomorrow is just me & Al on the bike, planning on going beyond the pavement of 2 roads, so it will be a somewhat easy break in, but I do have a lot of weekly run mileage to make up on Sat & Sun which is gonna suck at altitude! Promise some epic photos coming atcha!
I figured posting a whopping 2 hours of work last week would motivate me this week. I've hit time goals for all but a couple workouts, but haven't been able to hit a lot of the intensity targets.
It's finally raining regularly in FL, so trainer for today's ride (and likely tomorrow).
Good luck to everyone racing!
Will be getting in a 2nd swim tomorrow for the week which will require me to move the following week around as I won't be swimming 3 days in a row.
Moving week 15 to next week, then some taper for Syracuse
@GC- nice work... how is the weight coming? I'm down just a bit more bouncing around 124-125 , realistically thinking I can get down to 122-123 by race day... a couple above my optimum but it is what it is...
@RS - nice work on that OLY yesterday , cant wait to see how you did on the HIM today??? hope you give us a quick RR here...
@Danielle and Scott - Enjoy Al camp but dont leave your IMLP race splits in Colorado ok!
@SC- glad your feeling better and lighter LOL, enjoyed the personal ribbing this week... Keep up the good work... Expecting big things :-)
@PS - big week, good skill at Syracuse, gonna have to do that one of these years, noticed your from Victor NY, we have stopped in Victor for the night quite a few times traveling back and forth from AZ, enjoy the morning runs on some trails there, always a few deer sightings as well...
My first real IMLP week focus went well... managed 14.5hrs training, 926 TSS, 12k swimming, 140 miles bike, 30 miles run, extra credit or things I dont normally do were 1.5hrs of strength training and 2hrs of hiking...
Swim- was 6x , 1.1mile swims, all OWS in fridgid NH water with air temps 44-50 and water temps 58-60... this is the coldest I have ever seen the water in JUNE
Bike was 3x , 1 FTP w/34' , 1 Vo2 w/16', and 4hrs at .75
Run was 5x , 1 speed work session of 2.5miles of intervals , and 1 long steady 2hr , the rest very easy
T1: 4:19 - The only noteworthy thing here was that I struggled with the wet suit a bit.
Bike: 3:17:30 - I rode at 17 mph. This was slower than I had expected, as I rode 3-4% above my targeted average watts. I started out about 7% too high after the first 15 miles, so I was trying to ride below my wattage target the rest of the day. Despite the hills, I was able to keep my watts from spiking - my VI was at 1.04. Ultimately, I felt like I was doing a lot of climbing, but then couldn't make up for it going downhill due to curves in the road and congestion. I was happy with my nutrition discipline and hydration schedule. Overall, I thought this was a difficult course, as I my legs felt a bit fatigued when I finished (and the area where I ride near my house is pretty hilly).
Overall: This was an improvement over last year. In September'16, I ran Toughman HIM in 6:11. Quassy seemed much harder, but I picked up ~8 minutes. I felt like I rode at a reasonably disciplined pace, despite missing my wattage target, as evidenced by my negative run split. My swim is relatively slow, but improving. I chased down 21 people in my division on the bike and then another nine during the run. This was a great prep race for IMLP and I was pleased that I was able to hit nearly all of race plan pacing and nutrition targets.
For those who haven't done Quassy, I highly recommend it - the course was scenic, challenging and well supported. The swag was nice as well.
Looks like everyone is chugging along with their training.
Best of luck this week!
I heard that the water was cold?
Take care of those feet! Been down that road for both Plantars and Achilles
@Alicia Chase Yes, I've done Syracuse twice but have not raced the new course. I did a training ride this past Friday and it was pretty challenging with the extra climbing at the end - I will have to be disciplined on that ride. But the run - no more killer hill! Yay! The run is very manageable now and hopefully it will make up for the bike. The weedy swim doesn't bother me too much
reporting in from Al Camp, Day 1 on Saturday was 75 miles followed by a 7 mile run. I got heat exhaustion,was a mess..
Day 2 was 44 miles and 8 miles of running in the morning.
day 3 was an 85 mile affair
tomorrow is the big dance
here's a pic from today's ride.
Last week I had some nice riding up in NH...did 101mile "three notches" route with about 5600 ft of climbing on Thursday and backed that up with a cut short 50miler up Pinkham Notch with 2600 ft of climbing...I only went half way down the back side because the weather started to turn...I did get the chance to bomb the down hill at 42mph which was a PR for me...yippee... did some running on Saturday and took Sunday off...this week back to the regular schedule..
Just catching up after a busy weekend and Monday. Glad to see so much great work going on. The good news on my end is that my knee held up fine at Raleigh. A brief recap: Raleigh is one of my favorite courses, anywhere, any distance. It's tough across the board, but fair. It separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls. Even in the pro ranks, the separation is huge. It's always hot and humid. Swim is choppy and against current. Bike has plenty of draft-killing hills. And run is hot, exposed and always up or down. This year, with 75 WC slots, it attracted a large pro and elite AG crowd (Every Man Jack had to have had 25-30 guys out there, and most of them are near-pro).
The swim, as usual, was terrible. In 83-degree murky and choppy lake water, I suck. I am one of the boys, and I got exposed as such. I never found a rhythm, my "normal" breathing pattern only caused water ingestion, so it's just a slog. Like last year, I spent much of my time weaving over/around folks from previous waves, fighting the current until the final turn. I was :37 last year, so was counting on something similarly awful. :36. Which was indeed awful. But a slight improvement. I think the 165-pound Me who used to lift weights and could bench press 235 would be able to muscle through conditions like that better than the current 145-pound Me who would likely struggle to bench the bar. That's the current excuse to which I cling.
T1: Both transitions are long, and with an AWA bib number, I was at the far end. So, I got to run most of the TA without my bike. I had no excuse not to have the fastest T1, and I did. The benefit? I exited the water in 19th in my AG, exited T1 in 13th.
The bike is awesome. Point-to-point. Little wind. After the 6-7 miles of climbing out of the park, you get 23 miles of scenic, rolling fun on perfect roads. At 30, the real climbing starts, roads aren't as nice, just a lot of fun up and down until the pretty steep climb to the finish. There were a few hills I didn't gear that well over the top, and I should have moved to my small on the way down to the third AS, which is on a pretty steep up. Otherwise, I just tried to hold 200w. Because I spun out quite a bit in my 12 (lesson learned), my NP only ended up being 197, VI of 1.03. But my 2:33 time was a minute better than last year and exactly what BBS said it would be. Got off the bike in 17th AG.
T2 is the same, so I had to run virtually the entire thing, uphill, with my bike. I knew I wouldn't be the fastest here, but I ended up 5th and only 10 seconds out of the lead. Passed two, exited T2 in 15th AG.
Last year I didn't crack 5 hours for the first time in a long time, and that became a goal on this notoriously "slow" course. But with a suspect knee, the first priority was to test the knee and, if OK and feasible, then try to crack 5 hours by a second or two (to me there's no difference between 4:59 and 4:51 when the goal is sub-5). My race started at 7:25 am, so I checked the time of day on Garmin as I started to run, saw 10:39 am, figured a 1:45 would bring me home around 12:24. Straight-up 8-min miles. Totally doable. On the way out on the double out-back, I was pretty much by myself. Very quiet. It was sunny, humid and into the 80s, but manageable. The first signal of difficulty was around Mile 1 when I passed a guy who was bent over, hurling. I then see Matt Russell (#1 bib) running downhill on the other side around his Mile 12. He quickly stops, cramps up, starts to walk. Looked understandably frustrated (he finished 6th). So I just focused on pace, hydration, salt, and filling my Race Saver at every AS. Instead of my usual 155 HIM HR, I was humming along at 150. Actually enjoyed the run because of the modest effort, got to thank a lot of spectators/volunteers, gave out a dozen high-fives to the kids. At Mile 10 near the final turn-around, I check Screen 2 for avg pace, saw "7:59," got a bit peeved that I hadn't given myself any cushion, and decided to push the effort just a bit to make sure my mental clockwork was accurate and secure the sub-5. Ran 7:30's and 7:40's, left quad cramped up during Mile 12 on the downhill (right where Russell had), fought through it, then cramped up again on the run-in without about 300 yards to go. No one in front or behind, so I slowed a bit, cruised across in 4:57 and change. Finished 9th. With 75 slots, I got another 70.3 WC invite and turned it down (I figure my 3 turn-downs prior to last year got me some great Karma last fall, now I'm hoping the 2 turn-downs this year will result in something similar). Walked the run course for 30 minutes to loosen up, showered and iced, then walked another couple of miles.
All in all, a fun weekend on a great course in a great venue. Satisfied with a decent performance. Have a lot of work to do before Placid, but that can wait until tonight. Or tomorrow.
MR