6/29 Swim & Bike

Morning Swim: 300 warmup, 8×25 drill, 3×400 threshold intervals, 4x 50 sprint, 8x 25 kick, 350 cool down.  Swim was just ok, for some reason I feel like I am getting slower in the water. my 400’s went 5:29, 5:28, 5:25.  Maybe I was not puting what I hshould have been puting into them, but I thought I would be faster than that.

Sat in steam room for 5 and sauna for 10.

Bike: 2 hour flat moderate intensity ride.  43 miles.  At a piece of wheat bread w/peanut butter and honey right before ride, ate cliff bar at hour 1, and drank 42 oz of cyto max throughout hte ride, and 32 oz of water.

6/28 Brick

Rain Rain Go Away, don’t come back!

Well becuase I absolutely dread riding in the rain, I decided to pull out the indoor trainer.  Todays brick was 1 hour 15 minute brick at high aerobic (I forgot how much more work you have to do on a trainer), and 30 minute run at high aerobic.  I also am experimenting with race nutrition, so 10 minutes prior I took a hammer gel, and drank 24 ounces of water with 2 scoops of cytomax over the first hour of the ride.  I also ate a cliff bar at the hour mark.  I kept Hr at 145 which is not necessarily high aerobic but at least mid aerobic.  Off the bike I drank 6 ounces of water, at hit the run.    My run felt great off the bike.  I held a 6:58/ mile average over 30 minutes keeping my HR under 170.   The best part is that the run felt effortless, and I really felt like I was running with my core rather than my legs.  Energy level was good.

6/27 tempo run

I usually do my Wednesday runs at 5:00 am, but with less than four weeks to vineman, I think i need to start doing my harder workouts in the heat of the day.   It was not hot by any means, but close to 80.

The run: 10 minute warm up, 24 minute high tempo, 10 minute cool down.  I covered 4.1 miles during my tempo portion of the run averaging 5:51/ mile!!!!  Faster every week!  The total run was 6.3 miles in 44 minutes 6:59/mile average. 

I am very pleased that my speed is prgressing.  The run is the biggest problem area for me.  I have been consistantly about 10% slower on the run than the leaders of the races I have done.  So this needs to be a primary focus for me.

6/26: Morning swim/ Evening Ride

My last few Tuesday wokouts have been struggles, so I expected todays to be also due to Sundays race.  I had a sports massage on Monday evening, and was still  a bit tight and sore.

5:00 am swim: 350 slow warm up. My shoulders were very tight from Sundays race.  Drill set of 8×25 I took slow and focused on form. Base interval set 7×100 with 5 seconds rest, I kept all at 1:20 feeling pretty good, from my percieved effort I would have thought to be 1:25’s or slower.  Vo2 max set 6×150 w/ 1 min 15 sec rest.  First three did not feel good, 4th felt ok, 5th good, 6th felt bad but was fastest.  Went: 2:02, 2:00, 1:59, 1:56, 1:55, 1:52.  8x 25 kick, 425 cool down.  Cool down felt really good.  kept smooth proper stroke and felt like i was gliding through the water.  It is nice to end a set with a nice strong cool down.  I sat in the steam room for 5 and the sauna for 10 after swim.

Ride:

Went to marine drive for flat ride today.  Wokout was 1 hour 25 min ride with 30 minutes at threshod.  zit was nice and windy so I got plenty of resistance.  I did threshold portion into the wind.  First half hour HR 140, 25 min threshold 167, last half hour 143.  Covered 30.5 miles.  Good ride coming off of a race. 

Pacific Crest Olympic Distance Race Report

Very brisk morning in Central Oregon.  When we left the Hotel in Bend at 6:30 it was 40 degrees.  When we got to Sun River to set up t2 it was 38, and when we got to Wickiup Reservoir it was 37.  Water temp was 62.  The sun was out so it had definitely warmed up by 9:00.  I forgot my pump, so I had to find a pump to get my tire pressure right, and once I did that, I just took a deep breath and told myself to go out there and have fun.

I was first wave, and lined up in front.  Siren went off, and I burst out to get away from the field.  Again I think I went out too hard, and my arms started burning about half way.  I could only sight two swimmers ahead of me, and could not see anyone right behind, so I just put it in cruise control, and found a nice rhythm, only sighting about 75 strokes.  I settled in and finished strong after the last buoy. As I approached the arches I stood up, and my calf started to cramp, and I thought I might be in for some trouble, but it worked itself out.  T1 went pretty good considering the cold air.  I did have trouble getting my bike shoes on while standing, I bet it was funny to watch.  I got out of transition in I believe 3^rd place.  Swim time 22:46.  I thought I would be faster, but I am good with it.

Out of T2 when I got settled on my bike I looked down to check my cadence, and my computer was gone.  I don’t know when I lost it, probably running out.  So I had no idea how fast I was going.  I also forgot to turn my watch over so I really did not know time or HR either.  I just went with it and tried to push the whole ride.  I was passed once, and passed one triathlete, and a ton of duathletes.  This is where I will complain about the race set up.  The bike course was open to traffic, and coming into the Sun River area there was an intersection which we had to turn left on.  The officials stopped traffic for the bikers, but it was backed up about a half mile, forcing the bikers to ride single file, no passing.  I came up on a group of duahtletes that were riding at about 13 mph and I could not get around.  Frustrating!  This happened again at transition; they had the bikers in single file about a half mile before 2t and I got stuck behind a duathlete seriously going 10mph.  IRRITATING!!  Anyway I made it in and had a smooth transition. My bike time was 1:01:57, and race results splits have me at a 27.12 mph average, but I am pretty sure that it was a 25.5 mile course so that average is probably not right.  So I felt very good about the bike and felt strong going into the run.

The run, the first half mile felt too good to be true, I was cruising.  I quickly came down to earth and slowed a bit so I would not run out of gas.  About mile three, I bonked, as I had taken in no nutrition on the ride other than water.  I got passed about this time for the first time on the run. At mile 3.5 I grabbed a gel, and by mile 4 I felt better, and was able to kick it up a notch again.  At mile 6 I could see the crowd and I bore down and pushed as hard as I could.  Run Time 43:01 (6:55/ mile average) maybe could have been a bit faster had I nourished my body properly.  But I am happy with it.

Final time: 2:11:44, 6^th overall, 2^nd in age group (30-34).  I actually received the AG 1^st place award because the overall winner was in my AG.  I am not sure what the final participant number was but the June 21 confirmation list said 500.

I come away from this race feeling extremely good both physically and mentally.  My goal for the race was 2:15.  My body felt good after the race I was really not even that fatigued.  I think my training and nutrition has been spot on.  I do need to work on race nutrition.  But I think I am on pace to have a solid showing at Vineman 70.3.

6/22 Swim & Ride

Last set of workouts before Pac Crest.  I did a mile pool swim, 200 moderate, 200 hard, 200 moderate, 200 hard etc. 1675 yards in  23 minutes.  Perfect time, I figure that puts me just under 21 for oly distance swim.  I did not feel outstanding but felt good, not as strong as I would have hoped to feel, but hopefully that will be there on Sunday.  Then I ran a 10k at moderate pace, HR about 160.  Did not look at the watch once until the end and was pleasently surprised to see 42:12 flashing at me!  I do believe that is the fastest 10k I have run, and I did it at moderate pace with every thing to spare!  Great set up for Pac Crest.

I really am trying not to set any goals or expectations for this race, at least not publicly, I know what time I think I should be at, but I am just going out there to have fun this weekend. 

Side note:  I am getting more and more anxious and nervous for my races.  Today I was a basket case trying to get all I needed to do done, and get my workouts in.  I waited until 8:00 pm to check out my bike, and found I had a problem with my front valve extender, not letting air pass to the tire.  I had a slight panic attack, thinking I was going to have to rip the tire off to fix it, which would not leave me enough time to glue a new one on.  But Luckily Good Old Garren answered his phone while on vacation and gave me some ideas to try.  It worked.  Anyway I digress, the bottom line is I need to learn to just relax and not get worked up, and remember that I am doing this for fun. Right?

6/21 ride

I rode the bike course for my race this weekend. (Pac Crest Oly)  The road is crap for 18 miles.  This is a temperary course as there is road construction.  Since I was doing an out and back because I had no other way of getting back to my truck, and only 1 hour 45 to do it, I only went the first 18.2 miles, and then headed back.  took me an hour and 40 minutes, and I averaged 21.8 mph for the ride, which is good considering I did not push at all, the road was crappy, and I had a serious head wind on the return.

6/20 tempo run

5:30 am:  42 minute run (10 warm up, 22 tempo, 10 cool)  total run 5.8 miles (7:05 pace)  The tempo part was another  6 minute mile performance.  This I am quite happy about, as now I know last week was not a fluke.  It is nice to see that my speed is coming around to meet the endurace. 

6/19 bike

Threshold ride 2 x 14min with 10 minutes active recovery in between.  total ride 1 hour 15 minutes.  Windy!  Ride did not feel alot better than the swim, but I never feel good in the wind.  Felt good about my averages considering the wind  averaged 20.8 for 26 miles.  Got HR where it needed to be, so all in all a succesful workout. 

Side note:  I plan to stretch every night this week for 15-20 minutes, and drink a ton of water. 

6/19 swim

5:00 am:  I felt like this was my my first swim workout in a month.  350 warm up felt out of rythem and sloppy.  10x 25 drill felt OK, 5 x 100 repeats with 5 sec rest felt awkward, and I could not settle in.  Wnr 1:17 on every one.  6 x 100 vo2 max with 1 minute rest felt much like the repeat set, could not get a nice flow in my swim that I normally can get.  I would have like to been able to watch my swim from the deck to see what my stroke looked like.  Went only 1:12-1:14’s on all.  PATHETIC.  Kick and cool down were a welcome part of the work out today.   I did start to feel a good rythem at the end of my cool down. 

This is a recovery week, hence the short swim yardage.  My body seems to object to good workouts on Tuesdays, especially after a hard training weekend.  Hopefully the Bike tonight will feel better.