IMAZ Week 11 - Where is the MOJO?
All - I would like to hear how others are doing in the run up to Arizona. The IMAZ group is too quiet! I was traveling to Colorado Springs last Thur through Sunday. I couldn't swim or bike, but got in 4 runs at altitude (about 6300-6500 ft) on the Sante Fe trail totalling 31 miles. The first hill on the first run is always quite a shock, but at least the weather was dry. I started on the long run this morning in Tampa but had to pull the plug at 10 miles. It was 80 degrees and 96% humidity (rained the night before) and despite all I drank, I started to fall apart after the 2x12 mins @ Z3. I can tolerate high heat very well but the very high humidity kills me. So, how is everyone doing?? Let's get some dialogue going because the dam rebuilding is on track and we are going to be there before you know it!
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This Sunday I am racing in an olympic, a local race and a lot of my friends are doing it so good for the soul.....
Woke up Tuesday to frost.......but really enjoyed running in the cool weather, woo hoo.
Can tell the suffering in Z3 on the runs is helping and I am getting faster, great feeling!
Knees, hips, and shoulders feel good so this is also a great place for me to be after a long summer of training and racing!
Thanks Paul for the rally, rally , rally......
nice long run this morning, I was able to get in almost 11 miles before work. This mornings run was even a "no hat" AND "no gloves" day. It hadn't been that warm in weeks here, BUT they are calling for snow tonight. So, I might have to move back to the cave for my Friday morning make up run.
this was on Tuesday morning here at 7000ft,
@Chuck: cool pic, where do you live at 7,000 feet? I am at 6,000 Western Colorado
@ Stacy - I had to look up New Castle on google maps. Appears to be a small town. I once drove across I-70 moving from L.A. to D.C. -- beautiful country.
Doing my long ride on Saturday with a short brick following by an AquaBike entry in a nearby half-ironman on Sunday. That will give me some more open water practice and I'll treat the bike portion as my ABP ride.
First, i hope we're on week 10 not 11, have no idea where i'd make up that lost week..
Things are good up in northern colorado, just hope the snow holds off for another month. I'm quite a bit behind on therunning though, fighting some achilles problems so we'll see..
Stacy, where are you racing? i'll be out at harvest moon half, didn't know there was another race in the area?
Boulder Res was 70 degrees last weekend, where I did the 2.4 mile swim, and it scares me that when the air temp was 45 that seemed cold....oh well, swam it in a sleeveless so hopefully AZ with a fullsuit will be balmy, yeah right.
Did well in my local tri yesterday, 9th overall chick and second in my age group (35-39). Really want my run to get faster for these shorter course distances, hard to be competitive running about 8 minute mile guess that means I should stop typing and go for a run.......happy Monday!
@Paul: yep, New Castle is small, about 10 miles west of Glenwood Springs, Aspen is abut 45 minutes to the South and Vail about an hour East, everyone seems to know those spots.....
I did a 4 hour ride Saturday. I had family commitments so I had to start riding at 5am. I was in the dark for about an hour and 30 minutes and then the sun finally came out, AND then the thaw began. I stopped feeling my feet some where between hours 1 and 2. My lovely wife too pitty on me and bought me new shoe covers at REI after her hair appointment, she's awesome!. I finished off with a 30 minutes treadmill run. It's the first time, since spring, that I have been forced to the pain cave for a treadmill run. I hate the treadmill! It was a small sight of what is to come in the OS, oh it's gonna hurt.
In other words, the more mojo from you all, the more we will bring to our Sherpa support, cheerleading, etc for the team. Let's go AZ folks.....focus and nail those workouts!!!!!
two weeks down and except for a few miscues with workouts, i have been mostly on target. most of my out season this year was dedicated to technique across all events, so in a sense I am just now, in race prep, starting to do legit intense EN workouts. hopefully, it's not too late to arrive in tempe armed and ready for a significant PR.
swim: finally coming together after many years. in the rich strauss "good" range now from the swim ebook and feeling like I can definitely improve more before race day.
bike: did three 40KM TT's since July, with my new aero position. NP 184, 187, 188. the 188 was at 22.12mph avg and i felt pretty fresh. the course is rolling, so requires good leg speed and power to get over the humps. this last test (i.e. 188NP) was informative, since i had no power to get over the humps, but did have good leg speed, with cadence in mid 90's. so, i am adding some hill intervals into my FT workouts for the next few weeks to build my power to complement the leg speed. i realize 'fresh' is not how you are supposed to feel after a TT, but about midway through the race, i realized i had no hill power and decided to ease over the climbs and try to make up lost time on the descents.
run: i have been shortening the long run to 1hr only so far. i am very confident in my run, so i think this is ok for now. instead i have been focusing on speed still. hill intervals on the monday run and hard core track sessions with pure runners who are mostly all faster than me on wednesday. hopefully this will push my Vdot up to as high as possible before the endurance training starts to dominate.
recovery: i've needed to really make time for stretching at night, to manage the intense efforts. when i skip a stretch session i really feel it the next day...
oops, just realized this is quick reply and this message was not so quick! i hope it doesn't crash the forums!!!
anyway, best of training to everyone.
GH
i have been good in the swim, great on the bike and spent most of the season nursing a running related calf strain.
I did a half IM distance race last week, had a good swim, great bike and did the run according to plan (which is to say i walked 60% of it intermittently) i still worked out a 70 percentile in age group. The good news is that coach Rich has outlined a run plan for me to build the volume and get IMAZ done!
did a good slow Z1/Z2 1:10 run the other night for the first post half IM run and felt fine, so feeling good that i will get there.
I have run 3 marathons previously, so i have the experience and know how on this. as my first IM, this wont set any records, but i feel confident that i will turn in a good experience. have biked a few 90 milers and a 125 thus far.
Looking forward to hooking up with the team. I won't be out until Friday morning, so i won't be at the team dinner which i assume will be Thursday, but if anyone is around the night before or still alive post race, it would be great to connect.