My Sunday plan of riding the 100 mile Centurion in Wisconsin was canceled due to weather. Wasted weekend. The good news is that HIM training starts today instead of next week. The Monday run was done before the heat/humidity got too bad here in Chicago and I'll hit the pool for the first time since... Um... Longer than I want to admit... I'll probably skip the written workout in favor of lots of drills followed by 6x50 with 25 hard and 25 ez.
Right now I'm planning on going back up to Wisconsin in a couple weeks (Jimmy Buffet concert this weekend) and just riding the Centurion course. 6000ft of climbing in 100mi sounds like too much fun to wait for next years race!
Jeff, Rich, way to start moving the mojo meter north for us!
I got the run in early this a.m. (2 X 1.5 miles Z4) and did hit the targets. After this run and this weekend's volumes, I have felt like taking a nap all day.
Will try to hammer home the swim tonight if I can get out of work at a decent time.
Had a great ride and run Saturday. I followed the ride with 5.5 hours of yard work Saturday in the Louisiana heat and humidity. 7 lbs of weight loss later i knew Sunday would be bad. I slept in late and took off at 10:00 for the 2 hour ride. It was already 96 with 100% humidity at that time, combined with Saturdays work turned Sunday into a 30 minute suffer of a ride. I am ready for this record hot weather to break.
Nailed this weekend's workouts, for once! I talked my sister into doing Saturday's 3 hour ride with me, which worked out great. She pulled me for the warmup and the relaxed parts, and I pulled her for all of the work intervals. Sunday's 2 hour ride was also good. I got up early enough to do a "city ride", because going too late means way too much traffic. 2 hours straight out from the house and done. My schedule is little tweaked, so I have my long run and a swim tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the "big day" on Saturday and the rest day on Sunday.
You guys are doing a great job, crushing those workouts!
Jeff - I hear ya on the heat. My work takes me between San Fran and Austin every week. I'm able to maintain z4/5 runs much longer when in the Bay Area whereas the weekend workouts in Austin are grueling.
A couple of things I'm doing to handle the heat:
It's obvious, but drink plenty of water during the summer time. I have a Klean Kanteen and drink at least 3 fills a day (27oz)
Drink PureSport during the workout (mainly on the bike)
Light colored technical clothing. Hat (although I'm thinking about switching to a visor to let my head cool off more)
Slow down my pace ~30 seconds on the run
Plenty of sunscreen (but did just read an article that too much sunscreen can cause body temperature to rise)
Basically, I leave around 5:30 - 6:00 a.m. for both the long run and long bikes. That gives me some time before the sun pops up.
During the 3 hour bike I take in 100 ounces of half strength Infinit. I drink straight water on the 30 minute run. I never cramp nor have issues on this formual. It comes out to about 200-250 calories on the bike. If I run longer, I shoot for about 150 calories max on the run with the appropriate amount of water. Depending on how long I am out and how much I am sweating, I supplement with salt tablets. Same formula worked very well for me on the IM.
I drink all my calories and do not begin to add salt tabs until I go beyond the 3.5 hour total WO time. I usually finish the long bike/run around 9:30 a.m. or so but, believe me, it feels plenty hot on the run.......
Hi all. It's great to see everyone's posts and progress. I switched to the 12 week Intermediate plan a couple of weeks ago... is the 12 weeks what most everyone is doing? As for the past weekend workouts, I just (barely) survived them. Hit all the time and power metrics but had to reach deep, deep into the mental locker to get them done. I kept telling myself that it would payoff in mid October. Still it basically was hard as hell. Took the day off yesterday and will do the run and swim today. Hope everyone else is doing well.
We have had some heat here in Pennsylvania but I used to live in Austin and so know that will probably sound humorous to those of you in Texas. Still, I've avoided mid-day for the most part although will it occasionally in order to simulate the conditions I expect at Longhorn. I've been using double-strength Infinit with water separately (and lots of it as I'm a fairly big guy). Do that b/c it's what I do in the race too.
Good luck all... I'll try to be better about posting rather than just lurking.
What a day. Started SBR ~7am and didn't get on the bike until a little past 8am. By the time I got back home to start the run it was HOT! Good thing for the slight breeze during the bike to keep it cool. Hit the wall around 20 minutes into the run with the heat beating down on me... headed back to the neighborhood pool and stood under the outdoor shower to cool off.
Meant to post this in the past... was reminded during the ride today. The road is bad on part of the Longhorn bike course. Taylor road has a lot of large bumps in the road that are sometimes hard to see... just a note of caution to the EN team since you can be launched and get some good air. They've re-paved some roads which is nice... but still cracks on some sections due to heat.
Rich, thanks for the warning about the road surface on the Longhorn course! Sounds like your big day went pretty well. It sure was hot out there today, wasn't it?
I was really happy with my day today. My pool doesn't open until 8 on Saturdays, so I placed the swim last. I rode my "urban assault" course over the streets of Houston early, starting about 6:30. Rode 2.5 hours, got home, changed, grabbed the dog, and went out for the 1 hour run. I stuck to the shadiest course I could think of and just jogged along, not even trying to hit the zones the coaches wanted, although I did negative split it. After all that heat the swim felt great! Got that done, went home, ate lunch, and took a nice nap. I'm super excited about the day off tomorrow, because my house and yard need some major attention.
Rich, Kristen, way to make it happen out there today! I too am looking forward to tomorrow off, however that can only mean one thing, TESTING next week!
Hope all are waking up from a well deserved recovery nap as you read this update.
Hit the pool at 5:30 a.m. and swam 2,200 M, them immediately got out of the pool and mounted bike:
Entire workout (213 watts):
Duration: 2:47:31
TSS: 159.3 (intensity factor 0.756)
Norm Power: 222
Distance: 56.476 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 387 213 watts
Heart Rate: 102 152 140 bpm
Cadence: 34 182 75 rpm
Speed: 0 37.2 20.2 mph
Completed 56.5 miles at 20.2 mph average and stayed well disciplined and focused on maintaining .80 IF after WU (HIM target pace) per WO protocol. Drank 100 ounces on the bike then dismounted at 9:30 a.m. (was beginning to heat up.)
Drank 17 ounces of water in T2 and took off for a 6 mile run. I back loaded the run with hills and therefore, could not negative split. I drank 2, 10 ounce bottles of mix on the run. After about 30 minutes, it felt like the wheels might be starting to come off and the last 15 minutes were really damn tough. (6 miles in 56 minutes.) What did I learn? …..avoid running 12.2 miles the day before one of these basically……….(Had to do my long run yesterday.....)
Hi all! Hope everyone is doing well. Did most (or all) of you do an FTP today? I did... and was really pleased. I'm just starting my second week with my first actual tri bike (a 2009 Felt B16). Last week was having trouble holding the watts but today was able to test at NP of 252 (250 for first 20' and 259 for second 20') - same as before on my road bike! I'm very happy with that... now it's a matter of practicing handling and really getting used to it (and of course hitting those intervals going forward.. ;-) Kristen and Shaughn.. great to hear that your weekend workouts went so well! And it sounds like the Labor Day recon ride is coming together.. wish I could join you all but PA is just too far... Look forward to hearing updates from everyone. Paul
Man, you guys are really making me look/feel lazy! I did a mini-taper the other week in preparation for the Centurion 100mi bike race in WI but due to sever weather that distance was canceled and my weekend wasted. I got over that and started HIM training a week early but last weekend Jimmy Buffett was in town. In his own words it was a "well deserved, over due binge" and I didn't get any training done. Fortunetly, I only put on 3 or 4lbs and was only hungover for a day. I'd call it a success in terms of not sabotaging the training too much.
Did the test today and, despite a burning sensation that felt like more than just the normal muscle burn in my left quad, I managed to hold on to my existing FTP. Really, in previous training days I've had much more juice but today this was it. No worries though. For the training I'll use this of a baseline of sorts.
Wow! Everyone is putting up some impressive numbers... 270... 252... 232. I will just be getting into T2 when you guys are well into the run.
The test felt good, although not quite the numbers I was hoping for. All that time on a hotel stationary bike isn't quite doing it. It was nice to do a swim today... getting geared up for the run test tomorrow! Yeah... 5K!
LOL.. I don't know about that Rich... I have to push around 185+ pounds (not including the bike!) with those watts... let's just say it's not particularly fast or pretty
@Shaughn: congrats... looks pretty darn strong to me!
@Jeff: sounds like a blast with Buffett... but sorry to hear about the 100M. But still a long way to go...plus/minus a few pounds is no biggie. Watch and take care of the leg though
Congrats all on your strong testing and good luck on tomorrow's 5K!
Oh, you guys are so good! Way to test! I'm the slacker of the group - I totally bagged the testing this week. I just didn't feel very strong, and, rather than see a potential slide in my numbers, I have just done my own workouts. You guys are killing it, though!
I like the feel of this new team beginning to come together here. Very much look forward to meeting you guys that can make it on Labor Day and racing with / supporting you guys on race day.
One note of candor from me, I swim like a brick with arms and legs. Any speed you might see on the bike is offset somewhat by the fiasco that takes place in water with me. My 2009 IM swim time was something like 1:39:00
I have mucho respect for everyone on this team trying manage work/home and, oh by the way, these daily workouts.
Key to this game is consistency over time.
Good luck for those of you performing the brown shorts run tomorrow.
Holy crap Jeff!! 34W??!? Were you sandbagging the last test? We're going to have to keep an eye on you... Seriously though, great job.
Looks like Shaughn is going to see his goal VDOT by race day. Keep up the great work guys!
Today I got up and hit the streets for the VDOT but was barely feeling motivated for the run let alone the VDOT. The goal was to knock out the test and finish by the gym where my friend teaches a yoga class to recover. Well, apparently I was less motivated and it was hotter out than I figured and ended up bagging the test half way through the second mile. Ended up doing a walk/run shuffle somewhere around recovery pace back in. That was almost 3 hours ago and I’m still feeling super dehydrated and can’t seem to drink enough water.
No big deal though. The paces that I’ve been training at are still challenging and for the race I’ll likely lower my VDOT 2 or 3 points for determining pacing.
Completed the run test yesterday... increased vDot by 3 points. Feeling a bit sluggish today, not looking forward to the swim test which I've put off until later this afternoon...
Well... my last run test didn't go well so probably less of a true gain. Wiped out today, did 4 hours on the bike. A LOT of training groups on the Longhorn course today.
What are the plans for an EN group ride? Are folks wanting to ride the Longhorn course? Keep me posted.
Hi team. Tough weekend. Made it through yesterday's hell brick and today's fling as well. Hope all are well.
I did the trainer thing for a couple of hours this morning since I am the only one here with my 4 kids. After 20 minutes of WU, I held a 76 minute Z3 (22+ mph) but considered both nausea and crapping my pants near the 50 minute mark and once again at the 65 mark. Took 4 minutes of Z1 time then hit another 14 minutes of Z3 to come up with the below 41+ miles. Then melted off the bike onto the floor......... (below baseline wattage adjusted for trainer.)
Quiet out there team! Is everyone just dug in and focused? How's the week going? I made it through the run and swim yesterday though felt a bit water logged when I got out of the pool at 8:30 last night.
We are about 7 weeks out and will be commencing taper before you know it.
Comments
My Sunday plan of riding the 100 mile Centurion in Wisconsin was canceled due to weather. Wasted weekend. The good news is that HIM training starts today instead of next week. The Monday run was done before the heat/humidity got too bad here in Chicago and I'll hit the pool for the first time since... Um... Longer than I want to admit... I'll probably skip the written workout in favor of lots of drills followed by 6x50 with 25 hard and 25 ez.
Right now I'm planning on going back up to Wisconsin in a couple weeks (Jimmy Buffet concert this weekend) and just riding the Centurion course. 6000ft of climbing in 100mi sounds like too much fun to wait for next years race!
Jeff, Rich, way to start moving the mojo meter north for us!
I got the run in early this a.m. (2 X 1.5 miles Z4) and did hit the targets. After this run and this weekend's volumes, I have felt like taking a nap all day
.
Will try to hammer home the swim tonight
if I can get out of work at a decent time.
How did everyone else's weekend pan out?
When do we start having fun?
Had a great ride and run Saturday. I followed the ride with 5.5 hours of yard work Saturday in the Louisiana heat and humidity. 7 lbs of weight loss later i knew Sunday would be bad. I slept in late and took off at 10:00 for the 2 hour ride. It was already 96 with 100% humidity at that time, combined with Saturdays work turned Sunday into a 30 minute suffer of a ride. I am ready for this record hot weather to break.
I am hoping tonights run is better.
Nailed this weekend's workouts, for once! I talked my sister into doing Saturday's 3 hour ride with me, which worked out great. She pulled me for the warmup and the relaxed parts, and I pulled her for all of the work intervals.
Sunday's 2 hour ride was also good. I got up early enough to do a "city ride", because going too late means way too much traffic. 2 hours straight out from the house and done. My schedule is little tweaked, so I have my long run and a swim tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the "big day" on Saturday and the rest day on Sunday. 
You guys are doing a great job, crushing those workouts!
Well gentlemen, there you have it! Kristen has pretty much set the pace for us. Way to knock'em down this weekend Kristen!
btw, great work Jeff!
I am mentally preparing the Big Day on Saturday though not quite there yet.....still need that nap!
SS
Jeff - I hear ya on the heat. My work takes me between San Fran and Austin every week. I'm able to maintain z4/5 runs much longer when in the Bay Area whereas the weekend workouts in Austin are grueling.
A couple of things I'm doing to handle the heat:
What is everyone else doing to conquer the heat?
Basically, I leave around 5:30 - 6:00 a.m. for both the long run and long bikes. That gives me some time before the sun pops up.
During the 3 hour bike I take in 100 ounces of half strength Infinit. I drink straight water on the 30 minute run. I never cramp nor have issues on this formual. It comes out to about 200-250 calories on the bike. If I run longer, I shoot for about 150 calories max on the run with the appropriate amount of water. Depending on how long I am out and how much I am sweating, I supplement with salt tablets. Same formula worked very well for me on the IM.
I drink all my calories and do not begin to add salt tabs until I go beyond the 3.5 hour total WO time. I usually finish the long bike/run around 9:30 a.m. or so but, believe me, it feels plenty hot on the run.......
SS
We have had some heat here in Pennsylvania but I used to live in Austin and so know that will probably sound humorous to those of you in Texas. Still, I've avoided mid-day for the most part although will it occasionally in order to simulate the conditions I expect at Longhorn. I've been using double-strength Infinit with water separately (and lots of it as I'm a fairly big guy). Do that b/c it's what I do in the race too.
Good luck all... I'll try to be better about posting rather than just lurking.
What a day. Started SBR ~7am and didn't get on the bike until a little past 8am. By the time I got back home to start the run it was HOT! Good thing for the slight breeze during the bike to keep it cool. Hit the wall around 20 minutes into the run with the heat beating down on me... headed back to the neighborhood pool and stood under the outdoor shower to cool off.
Meant to post this in the past... was reminded during the ride today. The road is bad on part of the Longhorn bike course. Taylor road has a lot of large bumps in the road that are sometimes hard to see... just a note of caution to the EN team since you can be launched and get some good air. They've re-paved some roads which is nice... but still cracks on some sections due to heat.
How did everyone do today?
Rich, thanks for the warning about the road surface on the Longhorn course! Sounds like your big day went pretty well. It sure was hot out there today, wasn't it?
I was really happy with my day today. My pool doesn't open until 8 on Saturdays, so I placed the swim last. I rode my "urban assault" course over the streets of Houston early, starting about 6:30. Rode 2.5 hours, got home, changed, grabbed the dog, and went out for the 1 hour run. I stuck to the shadiest course I could think of and just jogged along, not even trying to hit the zones the coaches wanted, although I did negative split it. After all that heat the swim felt great! Got that done, went home, ate lunch, and took a nice nap.
I'm super excited about the day off tomorrow, because my house and yard need some major attention. 
How did everyone else do today?
Rich, Kristen, way to make it happen out there today! I too am looking forward to tomorrow off, however that can only mean one thing, TESTING next week!
Hope all are waking up from a well deserved recovery nap as you read this update.
Hit the pool at 5:30 a.m. and swam 2,200 M, them immediately got out of the pool and mounted bike:
Drank 17 ounces of water in T2 and took off for a 6 mile run. I back loaded the run with hills and therefore, could not negative split. I drank 2, 10 ounce bottles of mix on the run. After about 30 minutes, it felt like the wheels might be starting to come off and the last 15 minutes were really damn tough. (6 miles in 56 minutes.)
What did I learn? …..avoid running 12.2 miles the day before one of these basically……….(Had to do my long run yesterday.....)
Hope everyone is doing well. Did most (or all) of you do an FTP today? I did... and was really pleased. I'm just starting my second week with my first actual tri bike (a 2009 Felt B16). Last week was having trouble holding the watts but today was able to test at NP of 252 (250 for first 20' and 259 for second 20') - same as before on my road bike! I'm very happy with that... now it's a matter of practicing handling and really getting used to it (and of course hitting those intervals going forward.. ;-)
Kristen and Shaughn.. great to hear that your weekend workouts went so well! And it sounds like the Labor Day recon ride is coming together.. wish I could join you all but PA is just too far...
Look forward to hearing updates from everyone.
Paul
Paul, dude, way to drop the hammer and bring in the second half stong! I truly dread these tests but stand behind the need for them.
Did mine today as well: .....not a PR but acceptable considering the workload I have right now. How did everyone else do?
Test: 42:44
Did the test today and, despite a burning sensation that felt like more than just the normal muscle burn in my left quad, I managed to hold on to my existing FTP. Really, in previous training days I've had much more juice but today this was it. No worries though. For the training I'll use this of a baseline of sorts.
Keep it up guys!
Wow! Everyone is putting up some impressive numbers... 270... 252... 232. I will just be getting into T2 when you guys are well into the run.
LOL.. I don't know about that Rich... I have to push around 185+ pounds (not including the bike!) with those watts... let's just say it's not particularly fast or pretty
@Shaughn: congrats... looks pretty darn strong to me!
@Jeff: sounds like a blast with Buffett... but sorry to hear about the 100M. But still a long way to go...plus/minus a few pounds is no biggie. Watch and take care of the leg though
Congrats all on your strong testing and good luck on tomorrow's 5K!
Oh, you guys are so good! Way to test! I'm the slacker of the group - I totally bagged the testing this week. I just didn't feel very strong, and, rather than see a potential slide in my numbers, I have just done my own workouts. You guys are killing it, though!
I like the feel of this new team beginning to come together here. Very much look forward to meeting you guys that can make it on Labor Day and racing with / supporting you guys on race day.
One note of candor from me, I swim like a brick with arms and legs. Any speed you might see on the bike is offset somewhat by the fiasco that takes place in water with me. My 2009 IM swim time was something like 1:39:00
I have mucho respect for everyone on this team trying manage work/home and, oh by the way, these daily workouts.
Key to this game is consistency over time.
Good luck for those of you performing the brown shorts run tomorrow.
SS
Rich,
Stats look very good bro. 175 avg HR is amazing. My head would explode at that rate! You definitely worked it. Good luck on tomorrow mornings 5K.
SS
Time:42:06
NP: 242
TSS 94.9
Work 585
Dist: 15.817
Power 232
Cadence 87
Speed 22.5
My HRM died as I would have liked to have seen that. I am feeling much better after this!
Jeff, 34 pts is massive! You've been doing some work over the last 5 weeks. Super impressive bro! Get some rest.
SS
Not fun but it is done.................
Good luck today team.
Looks like Shaughn is going to see his goal VDOT by race day. Keep up the great work guys!
Today I got up and hit the streets for the VDOT but was barely feeling motivated for the run let alone the VDOT. The goal was to knock out the test and finish by the gym where my friend teaches a yoga class to recover. Well, apparently I was less motivated and it was hotter out than I figured and ended up bagging the test half way through the second mile. Ended up doing a walk/run shuffle somewhere around recovery pace back in. That was almost 3 hours ago and I’m still feeling super dehydrated and can’t seem to drink enough water.
No big deal though. The paces that I’ve been training at are still challenging and for the race I’ll likely lower my VDOT 2 or 3 points for determining pacing.
Hope the rest of you do better!
Completed the run test yesterday... increased vDot by 3 points. Feeling a bit sluggish today, not looking forward to the swim test which I've put off until later this afternoon...
Holy Crap Batman! 3 points is a huge gain! What brand of jet fuel are you mixing with your recovery drinks?
Seriously Rich, these are damn tough events and you knocked this one out of the park. Thanks for leading!
SS
Keep it going guys!
Well... my last run test didn't go well so probably less of a true gain. Wiped out today, did 4 hours on the bike. A LOT of training groups on the Longhorn course today.
What are the plans for an EN group ride? Are folks wanting to ride the Longhorn course? Keep me posted.
I was hoping we could meet at the lake early Saturday a.m. and ride the course.
If this works for all, who is up for it and how early would you guys like to start?
BTW, Monday there is an Olympic distance triathlon downtown Austin if anyone wants more...........
SS
Hi team. Tough weekend. Made it through yesterday's hell brick and today's fling as well. Hope all are well.
I did the trainer thing for a couple of hours this morning since I am the only one here with my 4 kids. After 20 minutes of WU, I held a 76 minute Z3 (22+ mph) but considered both nausea
and crapping my pants
near the 50 minute mark and once again at the 65 mark. Took 4 minutes of Z1 time then hit another 14 minutes of Z3 to come up with the below 41+ miles. Then melted off the bike onto the floor......... (below baseline wattage adjusted for trainer.)
Quiet out there team! Is everyone just dug in and focused? How's the week going? I made it through the run and swim yesterday though felt a bit water logged when I got out of the pool at 8:30 last night.
We are about 7 weeks out and will be commencing taper before you know it.
SS