S: 10,000 yds
B: 123 mi
R: 35 mi
Time: 13.8 hrs
Another consistent week of swimming. Sometimes I wonder why I do triathlons; "Shouldn't it get boring and old at some point?" I say to myself. But every single time I stand on that pool deck looking into the murky waters of the Dowd YMCA and my soon to be lane partner that resembles a whale/drowning victim/middle-of-the-lane-swimmer I tell myself - with conviction - that "swimming is the greatest thing in the entire world." No, it isn't always glamorous and sexy. Well, for other people that may be the case I suppose but for me it is always glamorous. And sexy. My goggles manage to look trendy and fashionable while others seem to look goofy and awkward. I make walking around in jammers look like it was supposed to look: deadly. Did he say deadly? Maybe he meant deathly... No, I meant deadly because one look at my sweet Speedo jammers and you realize how close natural selection is to happening to everyone else in the pool area.
I had two hard efforts on the bike this week; one being the Lowe's 10 mile time trial and the other being the Saturday Shootout. I had pretty high expectations for the Lowe's TT as last year I managed a 21:28 for the 10 miles but felt like I left a lot on the table and I feel like I'm 100x better shape this year so needless to say, a fast time was expected. I was hoping to be around 20:40 (~29 mph) but with the horribly windy conditions (it honestly wasn't so much the pace of the wind itself but where - on the course - it was doing the damage) I only managed a 21:37 (27.75 mph). While my time wasn't that great, it looks as though my placing (top10) was decent enough. The Saturday shootout was also a lot of fun, albeit with only four people instead of the usual 20+. With so many racing this weekend it was down to just me, Scott, Watkins and Kerry to beat each other up a little bit.
A lot of consistency in my running this week; I actually ran 8 times (2 doubles) to get to 35 miles so that's a stellar average! I did three "workouts:" 6 miles @ 160 bpm (7:03 pace on a hilly route), 8x100 meter strides, and 8 miles @ 160 bpm (6:50 pace on a flat course). All in all, a solid week.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Cane Creek Triathlon
S: 10000 yds
B: 47 mi
R: 30 mi
Time: 9 hrs
Swimming running both went well this week; the same can't be said about biking. Didn't get in half the miles I wanted to mainly because I stayed out just a wee bit late on Saturday night and couldn't motivate myself to ride on Sunday as I was feeling a bit under the weather. Oh well, swimming and running are what's important to me right now.
Cane Creek Triathlon (750m swim, 14 mile bike, 5k run)
Swim - 11:51 (2nd)
I knew Michael Gross would probably be one of the faster swimmers at the race so I got behind him before the start as we were standing on the beach. My goal was to stick on his feet and not let go unless an alligator death-rolled me into his lair. This seemed to be a real possibility as the water in the "lake" was extremely murky and smelled of death. You never know what can pop out at you when you're in unknown territories and alligators are pretty much the scariest thing I can think of in terms of freshwater predators. At the start we all ran into the water and I immediately jumped on Michael's feet. He was kicking hard in the beginning, which was a double-edged sword as it was like biking behind a car but it was probably attracting some alligators with the amount of water he was moving. As far as I could tell the two of us were alone to the first buoy (as it turned out a young guy sat on my feet the whole swim before making a move in the last 200 meters) and that was troubling because a lone target is an easy target. Luckily Mike is way bigger than me so is probably more appealing to your average carnivore. As the young guy made a move to pass us at the end I stuck on my feet and we all exited the water at pretty much the same time. I looked at my watch because I'm a slave to my splits and saw 11:05 tick over and was very happy with that. We had about a 300-400 yard run to T1 so I'm assuming the swim itself was probably a little short and they account for the long run to T1 with the shorter swim. I passed Mike before crossing the mat so my swim time registered as the second fastest. Bonus!
T1 - 1:09
Ran to my bike, took off the speedsuit, put on my shoes and put on my helmet only to discover the straps were messed up so subsequently had to take the helmet off to readjust the straps and put it back on before heading out of transition. Lost a little time but still headed out in 2nd ahead of Michael.
Bike - 36:23 (1st)
Ran 50 yards past the mat out to the road, hopped on the bike and headed out on the course. I passed the younger guy almost immediately and then never had anyone within sight of me the rest of the bike ride. Not much to say about it, I pushed hard and actually felt pretty good but my time isn't really what I would have liked. I was hoping to ride 35 or under but it was not to be on this day. It was really windy out there and it was almost always a side/headwind except for one section. There were some intersections where I couldn't see any volunteers so I just trusted that the signs were right and hoped for the best. My garmin somehow has my moving average at over 31 mph, which obviously isn't correct, but I'm assuming that not including the two 50 yard runs from T1 and into T2 my average was well over 24 mph, which I'm happy with. I wish my bike would have been faster but you can't always have everything.
T2 - :32
Pretty efficient in T2, which is rare for me.
Run - 18:47 (2nd)
Headed out on the run with no one in sight and only a lead biker as I tried to run fast(ish). The run was a very simple out and back done twice with the out being a slight downhill with a tailwind and the back being a slight uphill with a headwind. I felt fairly strong the whole way and was a little perplexed when I saw my time but then upon reviewing my file in the watch I saw that the course registered as 3.23 miles and the pace I was holding would be a 18:0x actual 5k so I was a little happier about that. The guy that had the faster run than me is a 16:40ish open 5k'er so he's definitely about 30+ seconds faster than me on the run. I ran as hard as I could with no one around and finished feeling pretty good about my race.
This race is more focused on "developmental" triathletes as it's part of the "Trysports Development Series" so I can honestly say I expected to win but the race was still satisfying nonetheless. It was good to bounce back from Louisville and feel like a decent athlete again. Contrary to what some may think, I didn't sign up for this race to win. I don't care if I ever win a triathlon or not (although it would be nice). I signed up for this race to move on from how I felt about Ironman. I wanted to feel fast again as soon as possible after Louisville.
B: 47 mi
R: 30 mi
Time: 9 hrs
Swimming running both went well this week; the same can't be said about biking. Didn't get in half the miles I wanted to mainly because I stayed out just a wee bit late on Saturday night and couldn't motivate myself to ride on Sunday as I was feeling a bit under the weather. Oh well, swimming and running are what's important to me right now.
Cane Creek Triathlon (750m swim, 14 mile bike, 5k run)
Swim - 11:51 (2nd)
I knew Michael Gross would probably be one of the faster swimmers at the race so I got behind him before the start as we were standing on the beach. My goal was to stick on his feet and not let go unless an alligator death-rolled me into his lair. This seemed to be a real possibility as the water in the "lake" was extremely murky and smelled of death. You never know what can pop out at you when you're in unknown territories and alligators are pretty much the scariest thing I can think of in terms of freshwater predators. At the start we all ran into the water and I immediately jumped on Michael's feet. He was kicking hard in the beginning, which was a double-edged sword as it was like biking behind a car but it was probably attracting some alligators with the amount of water he was moving. As far as I could tell the two of us were alone to the first buoy (as it turned out a young guy sat on my feet the whole swim before making a move in the last 200 meters) and that was troubling because a lone target is an easy target. Luckily Mike is way bigger than me so is probably more appealing to your average carnivore. As the young guy made a move to pass us at the end I stuck on my feet and we all exited the water at pretty much the same time. I looked at my watch because I'm a slave to my splits and saw 11:05 tick over and was very happy with that. We had about a 300-400 yard run to T1 so I'm assuming the swim itself was probably a little short and they account for the long run to T1 with the shorter swim. I passed Mike before crossing the mat so my swim time registered as the second fastest. Bonus!
T1 - 1:09
Ran to my bike, took off the speedsuit, put on my shoes and put on my helmet only to discover the straps were messed up so subsequently had to take the helmet off to readjust the straps and put it back on before heading out of transition. Lost a little time but still headed out in 2nd ahead of Michael.
Bike - 36:23 (1st)
Ran 50 yards past the mat out to the road, hopped on the bike and headed out on the course. I passed the younger guy almost immediately and then never had anyone within sight of me the rest of the bike ride. Not much to say about it, I pushed hard and actually felt pretty good but my time isn't really what I would have liked. I was hoping to ride 35 or under but it was not to be on this day. It was really windy out there and it was almost always a side/headwind except for one section. There were some intersections where I couldn't see any volunteers so I just trusted that the signs were right and hoped for the best. My garmin somehow has my moving average at over 31 mph, which obviously isn't correct, but I'm assuming that not including the two 50 yard runs from T1 and into T2 my average was well over 24 mph, which I'm happy with. I wish my bike would have been faster but you can't always have everything.
T2 - :32
Pretty efficient in T2, which is rare for me.
Run - 18:47 (2nd)
Headed out on the run with no one in sight and only a lead biker as I tried to run fast(ish). The run was a very simple out and back done twice with the out being a slight downhill with a tailwind and the back being a slight uphill with a headwind. I felt fairly strong the whole way and was a little perplexed when I saw my time but then upon reviewing my file in the watch I saw that the course registered as 3.23 miles and the pace I was holding would be a 18:0x actual 5k so I was a little happier about that. The guy that had the faster run than me is a 16:40ish open 5k'er so he's definitely about 30+ seconds faster than me on the run. I ran as hard as I could with no one around and finished feeling pretty good about my race.
This race is more focused on "developmental" triathletes as it's part of the "Trysports Development Series" so I can honestly say I expected to win but the race was still satisfying nonetheless. It was good to bounce back from Louisville and feel like a decent athlete again. Contrary to what some may think, I didn't sign up for this race to win. I don't care if I ever win a triathlon or not (although it would be nice). I signed up for this race to move on from how I felt about Ironman. I wanted to feel fast again as soon as possible after Louisville.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Two weeks at once!!
Aug 30 - Sept 5
S: 2100 yds
B: 119 mi
R: 14 mi
Time: 8.5
Not much to report from this week; I was just trying to get over feeling sorry for myself and for Andrew and how our respective races went in Louisville. The nice thing about DNF'ing an Ironman is that there is way less recovery time than if I had gone the full 140.6 so consequently I was able to start running (although I didn't run until Friday). I also started HR training this week after a 2 year absence at the recommendation of Nick and with my strong support. I need to become more efficient and consistent with runs that are actually "easy" (<160bpm) and drop those paces down as opposed to running in the gray zone of 7:10/mi pace but it would actually be more difficult.
Sept 6 - Sept 12
S: 10,000 yds
B: 123 mi
R: 25 mi
Time: 12.5 hrs
Some super sweet consistency in the swimming department this week. I've committed myself to swimming 5 days a week but I've also told myself that I only have to get in 2000 each time. So that makes me more consistent. Consistency is good.
I've also switched to only doing 2 bike rides a week (with the possibility of a bonus third if time and weather permits...) with this week including the IOS ride on Tuesday and the Shootout on Saturday. I felt pretty bad on Tuesday and almost puked on myself and felt slightly better but almost equally puke-tastic on Saturday.
Running was also very good by the end of the week. I'm going to try and consistently run at least 5-6 times per week. Right now that my mileage is low that means only 3-4 miles average per run but as the mileage gets back up to respectable numbers it will be much more normal. Normal is good.
S: 2100 yds
B: 119 mi
R: 14 mi
Time: 8.5
Not much to report from this week; I was just trying to get over feeling sorry for myself and for Andrew and how our respective races went in Louisville. The nice thing about DNF'ing an Ironman is that there is way less recovery time than if I had gone the full 140.6 so consequently I was able to start running (although I didn't run until Friday). I also started HR training this week after a 2 year absence at the recommendation of Nick and with my strong support. I need to become more efficient and consistent with runs that are actually "easy" (<160bpm) and drop those paces down as opposed to running in the gray zone of 7:10/mi pace but it would actually be more difficult.
Sept 6 - Sept 12
S: 10,000 yds
B: 123 mi
R: 25 mi
Time: 12.5 hrs
Some super sweet consistency in the swimming department this week. I've committed myself to swimming 5 days a week but I've also told myself that I only have to get in 2000 each time. So that makes me more consistent. Consistency is good.
I've also switched to only doing 2 bike rides a week (with the possibility of a bonus third if time and weather permits...) with this week including the IOS ride on Tuesday and the Shootout on Saturday. I felt pretty bad on Tuesday and almost puked on myself and felt slightly better but almost equally puke-tastic on Saturday.
Running was also very good by the end of the week. I'm going to try and consistently run at least 5-6 times per week. Right now that my mileage is low that means only 3-4 miles average per run but as the mileage gets back up to respectable numbers it will be much more normal. Normal is good.
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