This is my training log from BeginnerTriathlete called GillEN-ERGY! You can subscribe to this training feed with this link.
GillEN-ERGY
GillEN-ERGY - 7/3/2008
Lake swim
Swim: 32m
GillEN-ERGY - 7/2/2008
This was the first of 2 key race simulation bricks I have scheduled for the 1st week of the taper.
Overall I was pretty successfully at make each 1/3 faster than the previous (at least my HR/intensity was higher)
First 40 mins: 144 20.3
2nd 40 mins: 149 19.4
3rd 40 mins: 153 19.9
Just went over 3000 miles for the year! Cool!
30 min brick run
Tried to make each 1/3 faster than the previous but I faded at about 25 minutes. Not too concerned about it though.
Bike: 2h 00m 41s 40.01 miles 19.89 miles/hrAvg HR: 149
Run: 29m 11s 3.46 miles 8.43 miles/hrAvg HR: 158
GillEN-ERGY - 7/1/2008
Pool swim
1: 8:24 145 WU
2: 7:40 159
3: 7:40 163
4: 7:38 169
5: 7:35 174
6: 7:27 180
WOW! My first tempo run in a long time and I've very pleased that I ran negative splits the whole way.
Last mile or so was tough as 180 is a fairly high HR even for me!
Swim: 40m Run: 46m 42s 6.01 miles 7.77 miles/hr
GillEN-ERGY - 6/30/2008
OFFICIAL START OF THE TAPER!
Just a short run around the
neighborhood.
Run: 42m 4.65 miles 9.03 miles/hrAvg HR: 148
GillEN-ERGY - 6/29/2008
Pool swim.
Didn't think there'd be many kids at 10am on a Sunday, but I was wrong! :(
Swim: 1h 00m
GillEN-ERGY - 6/28/2008
171 lbs pre-ride, 168.5 post-ride and 167 post run. I'm pretty happy w/ my bike hydration as that 2.5 lbs is only about 1.5% of my weight. If I can do that for the full IM, I'd be happy!
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I'm not sure what to say exactly about today, other than "I've had better".
First of all, I originally planned to do this long brick tomorrow instead of today in order to give me one more day of recovery after my 4 hr day on Thursday. (I didn't get to sleep until about 11:30pm after Thursday's late workout and that's a good 2 hrs later than normal, and I didn't sleep all that great last night either)
Needless to say, I was dragging a little this AM, but the forecast called for 50% chance of rain tomorrow AM, and I have to take Sarah to the airport around 1pm, so I didn't want to risk missing my long brick so I did it today, although I wasn't really gung-ho about it like I normally am. I didn't even start riding until 9:30am and it turns out that was about 3 hrs later than I should have started.
All this is to say, I didn't quite have it all today mentally. I've had worse, but I've definitely had a lot better days too.
I really like the Z3 intervals in the middle of a long-ish ride like this as they do a good job requiring mental focus, but not so much to drain me. The 2nd round of intervals was significantly tougher than the first and the last 25 minutes of steady Z3 riding was really tough. However, I wanted to finish hard in order to simulate the "heavy leg" feeling I'll have at the start of the marathon at IMLP.
Ironically, my quads actually ended up feeling pretty good today on run. However, the heat from 2 - 3pm was killer! Between drinking and pouring on my head, I went through about 4 20oz bottles in an hour and I still lost pound and half in just that hour!
Long bricks like this in the Texas summer are incredibly difficult due the heat. Today brought back not so found memories of training for Redman in Sept of 06. I really like the timing of IMLP in late July though b/c you miss most of the cold days and I only had to do 1 or 2 of these long bricks in the heat. As most of you know, July and August are often much worse than May and June around here.
Overall it wasn't my best day, but I'm happy I got'er done. 80% of IM training is just showing up, and I did just that today.
1.5 hr of easy/normal riding.
30 mins of intervals:
4.5 mins of Z3, 1.5 mins rest
Did that 5 times for a total of 30 minutes to bring me to 2 hrs
2 to 2.5 normal
2.5 to 3 hrs intervals as above.
3 to 3.5 normal
3.5 to 3:53 - Zone 3 the whole time. I was tired though so Z3 wasn't actually that fast. :(
1st 20 mins : AvgHR = 150
2st 20 mins : AvgHR = 165
3st 20 mins : AvgHR = 172
Not sure of my paces, but I'm pretty sure I ran each third faster than the previous and that was the goal.
Wasn't even aware of this till just now, but I just went over 100 miles for the month!
Bike: 3h 53m 37s 72.53 miles 18.63 miles/hrAvg HR: 143
Run: 1h 00m 6.71 miles 8.94 miles/hrAvg HR: 162
GillEN-ERGY - 6/27/2008
A rare complete off day
GillEN-ERGY - 6/26/2008
4 hours on a weekday! Not bad if I do say so myself
Brief analysis:
I wonder why it's easier for me to push hard on hills rather than on the flats. It's probably a time thing. In other words, I was only pushing hard for 3-4 minutes at a time when I was climbing. I can probably maintain that same high intensity for 3-4 minutes on the flats too, but the time seems to go by quicker on the flats so it doesn't seem like I can hold the intensity as long. Time seems go by faster on the flats probably b/c the surrounds are "going by faster" too, i.e., you moving at a faster speed on the flats compared to ground.
Overall my mental strength was strong today and I was proud that I was able to raise my HR to the high 170s at 9pm of a long day!
OWS. Lake looked calm and it was fine in the small cove where I start, but once I got out into the middle, it's pretty much always quite rough if even there's the slightest wind.
Tried to stay relaxed, but it was tough at times, especially after I inhaled a mouth full of water. I've done that probably 4 times ever and it's always really scary as you're really struggling to get air but at the same time you have to tread water to say afloat!
Overall decent swim though
Cedar Hill hill repeats.
- 15 min WU
- 4x0.5 mi repeats of Valley View hill (up to 9% grade)
- 15 mins back to car to refill
- 15 mins hard into strong headwinds
- 4 repeats again but pushing harder (last of which only took 3:19 when most of them were taking ~ 4 mins to climb)
- 15 min back to car w/ nice tail wind
Brick Run on Joe Pool Dam
Lap1 : 26:00 mins @ 9:01 151
Lap2 : 24:35 min @ 8:36 179
Wow, my HR was way high for only running 8:36 on the way back! I was definitely pushing hard though.
Swim: 1h 07m Bike: 2h 03m 33s 33.95 miles 16.49 miles/hrAvg HR: 144
Run: 50m 36s 5.75 miles 8.80 miles/hrAvg HR: 165
GillEN-ERGY - 6/25/2008
Had to do an errand in Dallas so I met Sarah after work on the WR trails and ran for about 45 minutes. It was nice to run on the trails but it was really hot.
Run: 44m 40s 4.89 miles 9.13 miles/hr
GillEN-ERGY - 6/24/2008
This was a pretty tough run, but I stayed strong mentally throughout.
My pace was a little slower than I would have liked, but my effort was there.
This was my last long run before IMLP! Yay! It was also my longest.
Pretty humid this morning, and I was sweating something fierce
Run: 2h 30m 16.83 miles 8.91 miles/hrAvg HR: 156
GillEN-ERGY - 6/23/2008
I joined Sarah for her first OWS of the year.
Just a short ride before the casual OWS w/ Sarah
Swim: 20m Bike: 55m 30s 18.03 miles 19.49 miles/hr
GillEN-ERGY - 6/22/2008
Super easy recovery swim. Who knew that swimming in a pool could actually be enjoyable? It's amazing how enjoyable this sport can be when you just do instead of train. Today, I just swam, and swam easy. I didn't care about splits, technique, drills, pace, or any of that crap. I just swam and loved it! WOW. You don't hear that from me very often!
Swim: 30m
GillEN-ERGY - 6/21/2008
This was my last long key workout before IMLP! I went to the the hills of Forestburg with about 8 other triathletes, most of which are doing IMLP too! I was a little disappointed that the hills weren't bigger and longer, but I guess not much compares to Talihina. Had I done this route before Talihina, I probably would have thought these hills were really tough. Now, however, they seemed rather moderate, just lots of rollers. Very pretty views though, and decent roads!
Good news first:19.1 mph for a solo 116 miles on a tough route is pretty respectable, I think. (Solo b/c I ended up dropping the group after about 30 mins)
Hills didn't seem tootoughI was mentally strong for the first 4 hrs
Nutrition worked well again. Gillenade, English muffins w/ PB & honey, some Cola shot bloks in the last 2 hrs. Brick run felt surprisingly good once I got started. Before I got started, I was almost wondering how I could even run 20 minutes. I definitely pushed the bike hard today, a lot harder than what I'll do on race day. But the fact, that I was able to run OK after a really hard bike is highly encouraging and testament to fact the short bricks I do after every long ride have really conditioned my legs to running off the bike! Yay!
Bad news second:I went out too fast on the first lap (It was 2 laps of 58 miles). I was supposed to do each 1/3 a little faster than the previous. I did this for the first 2/3. That is, I probably averaged a little bit faster for the hrs 2-4, than 0-2. However, I just couldn't pick up that pace after about 4-4.5 hrs. I tried for about 30 mins (from 4 to 4.5), but then I just couldn't hold it and had to slow back down. :( I was a little upset that about this, and I some negative thoughts for a few minutes, but thankfully I ended up just accepting that I went out too hard early and just finished the best I could. I still averaged about 19 mph over the last 3 hrs, b/c I averaged about 19.4 for the first 3 hrs! Not too bad overall, I guess, but still not negative splitting!
Lost 6 lbs (3.4% of my weight) on the bike. This isn't horrible, but it needs to be better for the race as I have to run 26.2 in the heat of the day and I at least need to start the run with minimal dehydration.
Lessons Learned:Pacing: For the 1st 2 hrs, if I feel good and am riding my "normal" pace, I'm riding too fast! I should really feel like I'm holding back the 1st 2 hrs. Almost guilty easy. Like Gordo says, slow enough to enjoy the scenery. I have the tendency to think that "today's the day" where I'm going to just have a phenomenal breakthrough performance and hold a killer pace all day and I'll be able to ride even harder than this normal pace at the end". Well, David, that's BS! The only way you're going to be strong at the end is if you pace appropriately at the start and middle which means going relatively easy!Drink, drink, and then drink some more. I absolutely must stay hydrated on the bike b/c I'm going to sweat like pig on the run in the heat of the day from 3-7pm!
Overall, this was a great and challenging workout for me. My legs are quite sore today, and I hope this session provided me one of the last opportunities to gain some much needed muscular endurance.
Bike: 6h 02m 47s 115.80 miles 19.15 miles/hrRun: 20m 01s 2.10 miles 9.53 miles/hr
GillEN-ERGY - 6/20/2008
Very pleasant OWS in Grapevine.
Water was fairly calm, and I felt much more relaxed and confident than last week.
Swim: 1h 00m
GillEN-ERGY - 6/19/2008
Rode w/ the Bikes+ group. The normal slow start seemed to last quite a bit longer than normal and I think that brought down my avg b/c we were flying after the warmup!
Bike: 1h 25m 28s 27.86 miles 19.56 miles/hr
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