Week 3
Just for accountability, here is what I did during week 2/12. This was a tough week for me at work, with a total of 64 hours worked, quite unusual for me, but better now than a month from now. Remember, this was to be my second of 3 weeks as a mini OS between recovering from IM CDA and 9 weeks of IM training for Kona
Two bike commutes, Mon and Fri, each about 22 miles, 1:30
Two swims, one of 2200 meters that I pulled from the OS, and the other an Olympic Race, 1750 meters, Tues & Sat
No weight sessions
Long Run of 1:49/13.1 miles on Thurs
Two Computrainer sessions, one FTP work, the other 30/30s on Tues and Thurs, 2 hrs total
One track interval session on Wed AM, doing 200s>>800>>200 @ faster than 5K pace - 1 hour
No long bike
One Olympic Race, 1750m/23.5mi/6miles in 29:54/1:08/42:54 >> 2:25 - Saturday
No workout on Sunday, as I was working for 24 hours.
Comments
Thanks for starting this Al, I had another roller coaster week of IM training.
Here is how my week 2 came out:
Monday - I ran at 5:30 AM before work. It was the first time I have ran in a temp under 70 in almost a month and was great as I was actually able to easily exceed my pace targets. 3 x 1 mi @ TP done at 5:43, 5:35, 5:17.
Tuesday - I ran at lunch and the heat was back and in the upper 80s again. Did an hour with about 12 strides that felt great. Tried out a new masters swim program and it wasn't the right group for me. I lapped a few people in the "fast" lane. It was nice though as I swam 4000 yards in an hour thanks to a 1000 WU and CD on my own.
Wednesday - Long Run at 5 AM, temp was 78 and 90% humidity. Considering the conidtions I think I did ok but could have done better. The 2 x 2mi @ HMP were closer to MP (about 15 seconds slow) and the last 20' @ MP were about 20 seconds slow. I did drink 96 oz of water during the run though, but still lost weight. I was pretty bummed as I usually nail my long runs and enjoy them, but not this time.
Thursday - Bike 4 x 10' at FTP and came at 0.99, 1.00, 1.02, 1.03... total ride 1 hour at .94. Followed it with a very comfortable feeling brick, 4 miles in 26'.
Friday - Swam on my own and did my normal drill work with a few 200s mixed in. Lunch run with strides in the heat felt ok, not great.
Saturday - I was determined to have a good ride after my blow up on the computrainer last week. However I woke up to T-storms again, this time I decided to wait it out and get out at about 10 instead of my normal 7 start time. I did the 4 x 10 at around .98 and then held onto .83 for 80' before starting to fade. Total ride was 4 hours @ .811. Brick after felt great. I did about a 1:30 transition and ran 4.7 miles in 30'.
Sunday - I tired another (3rd) masters program. This time I found the right group as there were about 9 people there and I was the only triathlete, the others were swimmers :-) . I ws in the seconded slowest lane of 5, but I got a great workout and plan to go back. Plus the coach took time to understand my background and goals and we agreed I would not be swimming with fins. After swimming and the ride yesterday I was ready for a nap and sitting aronud all day, but Jim Hansen came out to ride with me so I had to suck it up. We did a very easy warm up for 30', then I proceeded to try and crush myself for the next hour. I ended up holding .89. We turned around and started heading back and Jim decided to push it a little which got me fired up. I ended up with 2.5 hours at .867 and the full 3 hours at .84
All in all, a great week. I'm still pissed I didn't hit the long run targets but I nailed everything else.
How did the race go? Did you meet your goals?
1. The swim was long, confirmed by a couple of college guys there, used to swimming an open mile in less than 20 minutes; they did 22.XX. My times are usually 26.XX, so my times seemed OK compared to theirs. The water was BLACK - actually, dark red, due to high Iron content - could taste it also. Could NOT see other swimmers underwater, just bubbles where feet were.
2. It was a 4 loop bike course, with a lot of rollers, and FOURTEEN 90 degree turns per lap, total of 56 turns (that's like one a minute!), making it very hard to maintain a constant power output. But I was able to keep generally to my goal of 0.9 IF overall, and
3. My run was a bit faster than I expected, i.e., faster than my open HM pace - I'm going to credit the Newton Racers I tried for the first time.
I was 32nd/154, which is within my usual range of the upper 15-20% in races. I have to measure things that way, as I no longer have any local competition my speed in my AG.
I use the Newton Gravities, and unfortunately I have some foot issues that force me to use some fairly heavy orthotics in them. Seems to me the weight difference between them and the racers is so small that I haven't bothered with the racers. Am I wrong on that? How is it you chose to use the racers?
I'm going to be testing 6 different shoes that I have as potential racers for Hawaii: Saucony Kinvara (7.6 oz) and Fastwitch (8oz), both Newtons (8 and 9 oz), Asics Piranha (4.1 oz), and Mizuno Wave (3.8 oz). Mayb e as a "control" I'll try the old pair of Asics 21XX I have somewhere (12+ oz). I'll do about 5 miles on the same course, trying for the same air temp/sun and rest status. I've been using the Piranhas for years, but since I've got all these shoes now, I'll find out which one is REALLY the fastest. The main reason, is Asics doesn't seem to make a super-light weight racer anymore, and I've got to find a new one. Pity, as those shoes were in the $50-60 range, and all the others are more expensive - in the case of the Newtons, WAY more expensive as you know.
Hmm - seven test runs, and I've got 3.5 weeks to do it - better get started!
Yes, they are heavier than most of the shoes you listed at about 8.1 oz. However, they have a few really good features that keep them from absurbing water and therefore they don't gain much weight as you sweat and spill water. So they feel like much lighter shoes than they actually are. The drain holes of course work well, but they also have no foam in them that can absurb water. Most shoes (including racing flats) have a foam layer between the sole and insole that absurbs water, but all of the Zoot tri shoes do not have this. I can't remember the exact names of the different types of foam, but I will say I have noticed that while running in heavy rain my Zoots do not get much heavier.
Shoe Test Report
I'm doing these tests as a 5 mile brick after a CT bike session. My idea is I'm trying to find the best shoe to race in, so I should simulate to some degree race conditions: running after biking. The course will be the same, a mile uphill of warm up, then a mile down, a mile rolling (turn around half way), and a mile up, with a cool down until I get to 40 minutes. The course is all in the shade, and I hope to keep the temps within the 60s - not that I have any control over it. I'll monitor HR as kind of a control of effort level, but I'm doing this at an RPE of an open marathon. I'm weighing the left shoe on a digital postal scale, just before I run (so it's dry!)
I haven't run in these shoes in several years, but they used to be my routine training shoe. They feel like boats on my feet now, and I immediately noticed pain under my knee caps and along my left post. tibial tendon, which was an injury I got 6 months into my running career with these shoes. They're going to Goodwill now. The HRs aren't what I would hit for a brick MP, rather they are my usual EP HRs.
Next up, Newtons, trainers and racers, followed by two different Sauconys and two pairs of racing flats.
Future Shoe Test reports will appear in the Challenge Forum