Half IM Training Event

Untitled by bulletmultisport at Garmin Connect - Details

Humidity: A study of things that suck

I love summer. I love it. I love the longer days, the sun tans, the outdoor activities, trips to the beach. You name it, but what is really taking it out of me right now is this God-awful humidity. Temps in B'ham have been relatively mild, upper 80's and low 90's. Not bad, but with the humidity being what it is, fall and winter don't look that bad any more. For example, I went home last night and took my wife and daughter out for a walk. It was around 5:45 or so. Temp was 88, but the heat index was 99! There was no wind to speak of either. Not even a warm breeze.

Now the walk was tolerable, but let's now take that to triathlon. Being one that sweats easily anyway, the humidity is drawing fluid out of my system faster than I can replace it. I run with a fuel belt that allows me to carry two small bottles of fluid with me to help, but these last around 5 miles. Either I'm going to have to HTFU and start running with 4 bottles or I'm going to have to keep running into convenience stores to buy a drink during my run. I never mind the break, but the last I checked, they don't allow breaks during a race.

So far, majority of my training is done pre-work during the week so the temps aren't so bad and I'm able to rehydrate through out the day thanks to the work-sponsored bottles of Powerade Zero. Between that and green tea, I'm keeping our supplier busy.

This week is the 1/2 IM training race. As mentioned before, I'll be going in with tired legs per the plan. I'm interested to see how I will do especially with pacing and race planning. It's always a good idea to have a well developed race plan for nutrition and pacing. This weekend will help me determine what my limiters are and where I need to do some work. I'm going to bet that it's on the run, but hopefully a smart pace on the bike, will enable me to finish strong.

Getting Stronger and Sweating

If you haven't noticed, it's hot outside. Being in Alabama I'm reminded of that every time that I crack open a window or look at my power bill. Running the A/C is expensive, but oh so worth it. I was served with a hot steamy notice of Alabama heat and humidity this morning at 4:50 when I stepped outside and started sweating immediately. I hadn't even begun to strap on my Sidi cycling shoes or even push the first pedal.

Thursday morning is my day for being on the trainer. It's the best option for me in getting in a good steady ride before work without having to waste a lot of time getting out to open roads. My trainer is set up in my garage which is separate from the house and without any climate control unless you count the two windows and a stationary fan that blows in my general direction. I'm currently watching Season 4 of the 24 series. Jack Bauer is at it again and this time, not THIS time, all gloves are off. It seems that every season Jack goes rogue and does something that is supposed to shock us all, but it's only par for the course for Agent Bauer at this point. Any way, it's a great series to watch while on the trainer because something is always happening.

I'm really starting to see some gains in strength since the beginning of the year. I've got to tell you my body has really adapted well to the LSD verses the short fast and hard work that I started out with. This morning's workout involved 30 minutes of steady work, 2 X 12 minutes of out of the saddle climbing with 5 minutes of rest between, and then another 25 minutes or so of steady work. The floor was totally drenched with sweat, and I was done. Jack Bauer couldn't have come up with a more grueling act of torture.

No crazy news of speak of other than that. Life right now is good. I'm getting good mileage in on all three sports and each are coming along nicely. I have a race simulation coming up in a week and a half. Looking forward to putting all three together to see how I'm progressing. Lots of work to do before then as this week's schedule seems to be grueling. I won't have the freshest of legs for the simulation, but that's not the real point of it all.

Tailwinds to all...

Great Training Weekend

This weekend Dr. Nitrous and The Zoomer and I took off at the way too early hour of 5:30 am for a 3 hour ride. The route would be fairly easy for the first 30 miles, but then the climbing would commence and continue for the next ten. Since coming off of the chest cold and trying to recover for the last 3-4 weeks I was a little anxious to see how my energy would hold up. While we didn't go out and try to kill ourselves on any part of the ride, we did keep it brisk. Being in Alabama, we did have the luxury of a very muggy and sticky weather forecast, but there was enough cloud cover to keep most of the heat off. Once we made it through the final climbs of the day, I was overjoyed in the fact that I still had good legs and felt like I could have kept going. This is a first in a long time. Zoomer and I took off for an easy 3 mile run afterwards to stretch out the legs. It feels so good to be going long again.
Today, the legs were a little heavy, but I was able to put in 11 miles on the run. The big goal for me was to keep the HR in the 150 range. I ended up averaging 155 which I think might be the perfect zone for racing. Now, I've got to work on dropping my pace while keeping my HR in that zone.
Also key for me this weekend was being able to recover well after each training session. I took in good calories and took ice baths to help the legs recover.
I'm not sure how I can explain it. Maybe the LSD (long slow distance) just suits me over the balls to the wall hypoxic training I'd been doing. 14 weeks to go until Augusta. Can't wait, but I don't want it to get here too soon. I'm having too much fun preparing for it.
Tailwinds....

Race Planning - Going Long Again

I've had a change of heart. After a few months of training specifically for the shorter distance races, I discovered that my heart just isn't in it. There just doesn't seem to be a big drive for me to compete in the hour plus races. So, I decided this past week to scrap the season and pick up Augusta 70.3. It's my first sanctioned HIM since 2007. Last year was all about the IM with one training HIM thrown in for giggles, but it was completed at IM pace. I have 15 weeks to get my legs and lungs into shape. It shouldn't take too long, but I'm starting with a bit of a disadvantage. Three weeks ago I took on a massive chest cold that has seemed to zap my ability to maintain a high HR. I'm still dealing with some of those issues, so until I can right the ship in that area I'll be completing a lot of slow long distance workouts. I'm actually looking forward to that.

So I officially started 70.3 training yesterday with a 10 mile mid morning run. The plan was to incorporate the IM Talk/John Newsom plan which is the 9 minutes on and 1 minute off. The 9 minutes on are run at a faster pace than you normally would run your 1/2 Mary. The 1 minute rest is there to give your HR a chance to recover. Their studies have shown that you will actually run faster and have better legs toward the end than if you had set out at one consistent pace. The hardest thing about it for me was getting into a rhythm. I seemed to be too concerned with when my 9 minutes were going to be up. It did take a little of the enjoyment out of the run. I'll keep giving it a try and see if it improves.

This morning was my first 1.2 mile swim in several months. I was very pleased with the results and time. I was spot on for where I want to be come September. I was very encouraged by that. Going forward any extra fitness earned in the pool is just icing on the cake.

That's all for now. Tailwinds to all.

Intervals, Intervals, Intervals

Yeah, I don't have any stories about an epic ride or X number of laps in the pool. The past few weeks have all been about intervals aimed at increasing speed. Nearly all of my races are sprint distance races that last just around an hour. I really miss the 4-5 hour rides and 3 hour runs that came with training for an Ironman distance race, but the sprint distance is a whole different monster and requires different training.

Here's what yesterday looked like:

Run:

1 mile warm up

800 m in 2:56

400 jog

800 m in 2:54

400 jog

800 m in 2:55

400 jog

800 m in 3:00

400 jog

2 miles at 6:51 pace

1 mile jog.

Not a long workout at all, maybe 6.5 miles? But it was a great workout and definitely stretched my limits.

Today we did time trial intervals on a semi-flat course that was just under 1 mile long. I didn't have my garmin with me so I didn't get any splits. The goal here was to make it hurt. Dr. Nitrous and I swapped off acting as rabbits for one another giving us someone to try and catch. There's a little pride that's lost in being caught so there was some extra motivation keep the speed up. We conducted 6 TT sessions that have left my quads still burning 3 hours later. It's either a sign that I'm just not in peak form right now, or that this was just a good workout.

Tomorrow is a 5K run at 100% effort. I'm going to try and break my previous PR of 19:46 on this course. I'm not sure if I'm there yet, but we'll find out. More on that later.

This weekend is the 1st Annual LibertyMan Duathlon. It's a practice race created by the good Dr. Nitrous. It consists of a 5K run, 14 mile bike, 5k run. This is going to be a real challenge for me, especially in trying to keep the pace hot. Looking forward to throwing down and earning my stripes.

Check That One Off of the To-do List!

This morning's planned session consisted of speed work. My good buddy JWest told me about an exercise his coach has him doing that he really "enjoys". Since JWest is crazy fast, I thought I'd give it a try.

1 mile warm up

24 X 400 with 45 sec break between

1 mile cool down

Now JWest is able to throw down 1:15 reps, but I'm not quite there. The Zoomer, Dr. Nitrous, and I set out to tackle the task this morning. I gotta tell you, after the first few there's no way that I would have ever guessed that we would complete all 24. All in all it was a difficult session that totally made us work and stretch our limits.

Staying with the workout and not quitting early was a huge boost in training mentality. All this adds up to being able to SwimBikeRun faster come race day.