Home Ironman Canada 2010

Week 3

Well week 2 is in the books (had a *great* week), here we go with week 3.

Got the run workout in today at lunch. 3x1 mile at T pace.  They felt great, although it was really hot out.  However, you will not hear me complaining because I think it was only 3 weeks ago that a triathlon in town was changed to an aquathlon because of snow the night before...

Group swim tonight.

Comments

  • Craig thanks for getting this going for week three.  I have been slacking on reporting here.

    Monday a swim that was cut short and no run due to work.  I was still feeling pretty tired from the weekend long bikes and took Tuesday off. 

    My 60' bike 30' run today felt good.  I seem to have a much better time with the 60-75' FTP rides than the 3-4 hour stuff.  I guess my body is still adapting my speed (relatively speaking as I not fast) to getting longer.

    Gordon

  • -Did the Monday group swim.  The instructor is somewhat puzzled with me I think.  And I quote "Your fitness is impeccable."  The unspoken implied part: "but your technique is really crappy and I'm not entirely sure how we're going to fix that".

    -Tuesday run felt good.  Could have been the coffee (which I only rarely have) - got me thinking I should investigate using caffeine before/during races.

    -Today I hammered my bike back from taking the van in for service this morning.  Tonight is first open water swim of the season at the lake where my 1/2 IM is in a couple weekends.  There are very few good open water swim locations close to us, and the beach where the race is held is in receivership, so it's a cluster-f to arrange to swim there - only available 2 days a week for a couple hours.

     

    I hear you - I am definitely feeling it after the weekends - those back to back rides kick the crap out of your legs eh?  I still prefer the short harder stuff to the long moderate-hard stuff, but I feel that slowly shifting.

     

    Also dialing in a new saddle - a subtle adjustment here and there left and hopefully I'm there.
  • Hi everyone. At first I was not into the forums and chats but am coming around. This is a really good idea.

    I did 1/2iron on sunday so my week 3 is modified a bit. In fact I never know what week I am on as I cut/pasted 13 weeks into my schedule format and then in advance of each week, add in the routes, time of days for the workouts, meeting places etc.

    That said, rested Monday, got massage. Felt pretty good after a solid 1/2. Did one 3 weekends ago and recovery was off, but tis one not so bad.

    Tue- skipped morning swim at pool, maybe make it up at the lake after dinner, i cut the mile repeats down to 2 and went into run knowing that if the legs felt to heavy from sunday's race I would back off. However, had 2 really solid miles. Did not swim at the end of the day, needed more rest.

    Wed- I do my rides at night right now, i expect a little fatigue from sunday's race but not too much as the run was my focus and held back a bit on the bike leg.
  • @ Craig - That sucks it's so difficult to swim at Hubbles (sp) lake.  Not to mention the receivership part of the equation.  GWN is a great race. I did it in 2005 and hope to get back there next year.  Wade puts on a great race and I love the 800M lap of shame for drafting.

    Wednesday I got in 60' bike and 30' run and followed that up with a 2 hour run today.  I need to read that annual belief in the system "coming to Jesus thread"  I am getting a little nervous about some of my distances and times.  Today's run was just over 11 miles in the 2 hours.

    Gordon

  • It is indeed a great race and Wade is as top-notch a race director as they come.  And yes, he does hate drafting.  So much that it is now a TWO KILOMETRE run lap of shame!  I think if he ran all the IM races, there would be a lot less complaints about drafting. image

    To add insult to injury, on the drive out to the swim last night, I saw lightning.  When I got there it looked ok, so I hammered a quick lap, but by the time I finished the lap (which, admittedly, can take a while when you swim like I do) Wade suggested pulling the plug, which I reluctantly/happily agreed to.

    In addition to it being short, I felt pretty bad on the swim (what's sighting?!? felt slow/nervous/etc.) so I headed back into town and swam at the pool.  When I got home I checked my Garmin (did the swim cap thing) and the OWS time actually wasn't quite as bad as I had thought.

    Long run will have to wait until tonight methinks.

    Good work out there Gordon - try ignore the nervous - I hear you!

  • @ Craig Wow, it's now a 2k lap of shame.  That's great.

     I did not do Friday's 40' run.  I just don't want to push the achillies with 4 days of running.  I did my first big day and... it was a big day bust on the bike.  1 hour swim was great, for me 2700M in the hour. I felt good and could have kept going for another 2700. 

    On the bike I had some trouble with my equipment and have do call in support.  I only managed 1:45 of the 4 hours.  Got back to my vehicle and did the 1 hour run, which felt pretty good. 

    Gordon

  • Well week 3 was my first actual complete EN week as I did 1/2iron may 30 and another jun 20. No problems recovering from last sunday's race. I found my legs OK for wed bike/run though I kept the bike to flats as opposed to hills. I did trim the run on thur to 1.5hrs due to the 1/2 I ran on sunday. overall not too bad. Got thru my first EN back-2-back bike weekend. Great 4 hrs on sat. did my z4-5 sessions climbing 12k hill went well. flats for the z3 sessions. Problem got to climb that beast on the way back tough to keep it under z3.5. Sun 3 hr ride, found legs ok for the first 2.25hrs but was challenged getting the last 3/4hr in. Be interesting to see how my mile repeats go this aft.

    Have a great week 4.
  • Playing catch up from last week:

    -Thursday evening I got the long run done - felt good.

    -Friday was a short run instead of a swim which didn't work out due to logistics.

    -Saturday was meant to be big day, but it worked out better to do it Sunday, so I took Saturday completely off.

    -Sunday - big day!

     

    Wife drove me to the lake 30 minutes out of town so I could ride back.

     

    Started off by helping a group of ~20 who showed up early for beach thistle/reed cleanup in preparation for next weekend's race.  30 minutes of shovel work was enough to remind me it was going to be a hot day.

     

    Time to get down to business:

     

    -1.25 hour swim (3 loops of the 1k 1/2 IM course).  Had a great time out there - beautiful day, largely effortless, felt like I sort of understood sighting, best open water swim ever no question.  Of course I've only ever done about 5 of them in my life and can't swim worth a damn, so it's all relative.  Turned out it was a little on the slow side time wise.  Funny, because on Wednesday (first OWS in 2 years) I felt like crap and that I was sighting like I was in the dark, but ended up swimming about the same speed.  I suppose that's sort of progress?

    -4.25 hour ride @ IM watts (rode the 1/2 IM course in its entirety, then rode home).  There were about another 20 people out on recon rides as well.  Had a bit of a hard time keeping the power steady and consistent - definitely need work there as outdoor group rides for me lately have been trying to squeeze TSS in so I hammer whenever I get a chance - but felt like I had some left at the end.

    -1 hour run.  30 min LRP, 30 min at HM pace fighting off slow inexorable declining pace...

     

    Good news?  Feel pretty good about GWN.  Bad news?  Definitely had time out there today for a few moments of "what the flying frick have I gotten myself into with IMC?"  That was a LONG day and still only 1/2 of an IM.

     

    My simple nutrition plan worked well - good old reliable Clif bloks chased with water and Power/Gator/Whateverade.  Have some infinit coming this week to begin trying but know I can go back to Plan A if need B.

     

    I'm off tomorrow for 5 days of carb loading at the beach, so I'll run a few times and hop in the lake a few times, but nothing too too serious.  Returning Saturday for last minute prep for the 1/2 on Sunday.

     

    Have a good week folks!

     

    @Gordon - Yup, 2km penalty lap for first infraction, second infraction is instant DQ.  Wade does NOT like drafters - in fact he just emailed out his very lengthy/comprehensive "Draft guidelines email" the other day to all competitors.

     

    @Tim - methinks one of us is in the wrong week of the plan (or perhaps you're tweaking it because of that recent race?
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