2 weeks out

So its two weeks out from my first peak race of the year (Boise 70.3).  I seem to be right were I should be in my training and my body seems to be responding to the training well.  I had another tough week last week.  This week drops of a few hours with some key workouts in there, then looks like a 5 day taper for the race.  I am getting a little concerned about the race itself, the things I cannot control, like the water temp (currently 49 degrees) and the current flooding on the run course caused by massive melt off from the high unexpected temps over the last week.    I know I should not worry about things out of my control, but if I am using a race as a peak race I would like the course to be good.  Oh well I guess I should not have chose a first year race as an A race. 

On another note, it looks to be back to Oregon weather again, pooring rain.  Just when my trainer thought it was going to get some rest. 

Like I mentioned before last week was a good solid week, as I read my workout log I notice that almost every entry starts with Good tough workout.  On Saturday I went out to Hagg lake and got in the open  waterand followed that with my ride and run, all back to back.  I took that opportunity to simulate race day nutrition (infinit) and had no issues.  I will probably do it again this weekend just to make sure were all good, I do not want problems like I had in Cali!

Week Summary:

18 hours 25 minutes

13,750 yards swimming

175 miles on the bike

40.1 miles running

 

That hurt a bit

So that sprint race last week seemed to hurt a bit more than I thought it would.  It literally took me until Friday to feel somewhat recovered.   I guess going for an hour above threshold will do that to you…  Training wise my schedule gave me a little leniency early in the week but was down right hard again by Thursday.  Sunday after the race was the first training day I had off in I think 34 days, which was nice.  I skipped a ride on Monday and my swim felt like crap  I had a huge motivation issue.  Tuesday I pushed through  a 3 sport day and felt good about it after, but bitched and moaned through all 3.  I did the swim with the MAC masters thanks to Cav.  Dennis Baker was there to lend me some valuable stroke advice, and its always nice to swim in a long course pool.  Wednesday my legs were still dead so I double my bike workout and skipped an hour run.  Thursday I had a very tough tempo run, and skipped my swim.  Friday, which was a scheduled day off, I was feeling pretty good again, and was feeling guilty for missing a run and swim so I made them up.  Saturday I tortured myself with a brutal 60 mile ride with 3700 feet of climbing, the brutal part was I had 3x 30 min intervals with 10 minutes rest in between, but at the end of every interval there seem to be about a 10 minute climb!  Sunday I had a long run (15 miles)  started out blah worked into feeling great and ended feeling abused!  I did get in a nice light spin for an hour Sunday night and that felt good on my legs.

Today I woke up feeling good for my high cadence spin, and I have a pretty tough and important training week ahead, and I am actually lookig forward to it.  I hope to get some open water in at some point by the end of the weekend.

Last week summary:

16 hours 40 minutes

14,750 yards (4 swims)

145 miles (4 rides)

34.7 miles (4 runs)

 

Hawthorn Farms Race Report

One of those days that everything fell together!  This was really the first local race of the year here, and I knew a lot of the people that were racing, so I really wanted to make a statement in this race, more to myself than anything. I have put in a ton of hard work and have been feeling great, so I wanted to see just where I was at. I finished 8th here last year.

 

The swim is 500 yards in a pool, which sucks but it is what it is.  I had a good swim, I chose to swim with my tri top, which I kind of wish I didn’t now because I could really feel the drag, especially the last 200 yards.  I think I was 3rd out of the water in my wave, the last wave. Time 6:13 4th overall

 

Transition went quick and smooth, but could not get my rubber bands to break when pedaling so that was irritating and I had to reach down and break them.  I passed the two guys in front of me by the first mile, but my legs were burning and I was definitely worried about that. Then I was passed by a teammate of mine Garren shortly after that.  He is a very strong cyclist and I knew he would be coming, just not that soon.  I pushed to stay with him, I was sure that he would try and blow me up, but I was determined to hang on and see what happens.  When we came to the hills, I passed him on the up and he came right around me again on the decent.  At this point my legs were feeling good and I just decided to hang on and see if I could out run him.

 

We went into transition together, but my mind was so focused on staying with him that I forgot to slip out of my shoes, so that cost me about 10-15 seconds to him. He was running out while I was taking my bike shoes off.  I was pretty flustered and forgot to take my helmet off and had to stop and toss it back to my bike.  Bike time for 13 miles 32:26,  3rd overall; T2: 43 seconds.

 

I went out fast on the run to make up ground that I lost in T2 and was gaining on Garren pretty quickly and my legs were feeling good.  I caught him at about 3/4 miles and kept pushing.  My legs started to feel it in the last 3/4 miles of the run but I kept putting time on him and ran home with the win.  Run time 5k 18:38 3rd overall.

 

Total time 58:42 1st place overall and a course record by 1:20, which is the best part because regardless of who had a good day and who had a bad day, I am still the fastest to race that race, ever!

 

I do want to give props to Garren and Bill for also breaking an hour coming off IMAZ only 3 weeks ago.  And to Jake who has made HUGE progress this off season to finish 8^th.  All the Ironheads raced well!  I think we had 7 of the top 10 spots and 9 of the top 13.

 

Also I would like to say good by to Garren and wish him the best on his move to ___________ (you fill in the blank because I can’t even say it let alone spell it.  In UAE anyway).  I appreciate all the help you have given me over the last year!  Hopefully we will race again somewhere on an island!