Totals for week: Swim 5100 yds, Bike 91m, Run 2m.
Began to rachet down the volume leading up to my race on April 13.
Took Mon, Tues, and Wed off again to recover from the previous week and weekend. I was feeling good again by Wed and could have done the Wed night workout, but skipped it instead.
Thurs, biked 30.4m in the wind tunnel, otherwise known as Highland Colony Parkway. Real Estate developers have nearly clear cut everything making a nice path for southwest winds to blow northeast, exactly the way this road is built. I had a nice workout, as motivated by my older teen. So my adrenaline helped me overcome the headwinds as I headed south. Normally, I can avg. about 17 mph or so on this stretch. So to avg. 16.1 mph today was pretty good for me. Afterward, I did a short 2m transistion run through the old hilly neighborhood. Ran a slow 10:24/m pace. I hurt my foot last Sunday on an 18m run, so I didn't want to risk reinjuring it. It came out fine though.
Fri, swam 4200 yards straight in 1:30:51, about a 2:10/100 pace. I have now swum this distance 4x and 2x in the current month. My time was about the same, but I was much stronger throughout. I swam real easy through about 2100-2500 yards and still felt good at 3000. At 3600, I inserted some intervals just to see if I could do it. It went fine and I finished strong. This was a real boost to my confidence for the swim part of the race.
Sat, I was supposed to ride 100m, but only went 60m. I rode alone on the North Trace. Did a lot of things right. Slept well Fri night. Fueled right before and during the ride. I increased my calories before the ride from 600 cal. to 1100 cal. This may have been a little high. Maybe I should have left off the Power Bar Triple Threat, about 230 calories. Upped my calories from 300 per hour to 400 per hour while on the bike. Maybe a little high, but I felt better than last time. Anyway, I purposed to ride slow today. Target pace was 15 mph, same as race pace. It was an easy ride for most of the way. In fact, north of River Bend, it got so easy that I literally propped up my chin on my right hand, as I did when riding my trainer during the winter. But when I reached the turnaround point, I realized why my ride had been fairly easy. There was a headwind coming back for the next 30m. I was at 15.2 mph at the turnaround point and at 14.9 mph when I got back to the Craft Center, where a cold Coke awaited me. It was time to turnaround and head back out for 40m more, but after thinking about it, I decided to stop and go home. I could have completed the ride or run a far way, but just felt like it was too close to race time to push so hard. Maybe this was the wrong thing to do. I don't know. But it's what I did anyway. Rested the balance of Sat.
Sun, I met a few guys at Hobie Cove to swim in the Rez. I just bought a new Orca wet suit and needed to try it out. The water was cool, but not too bad. The wet suit was great! Good thing I got the next size larger though. I don't think I could breathe in a smaller size. Although the water temp was doable, the chop was rough!!! There were a few boats out there really stirring things up. I had to stop a couple of times to stand to catch my breath. Of course, I drank some of that nasty Rez water too! Clay took off and left the other 3 of us. Matt and Matt were ahead of me, but not by too much. I just poked along doing my b/s. The return trip was much easier than heading out. Partially because the boats were gone and we were swimming with the current a little bit. My time for the half mile swim was good, about 18:45 or a 2:05/100 pace. I wasn't even trying to swim fast and this included standing up a couple of times going out. After one half mile loop, the other guys decided to call it quits, so I was done. It went well. I gained a newfound respect for the water and will DEFINITELY do some practice swims at Lake Tempe next week. After reviewing some IM videos, Lake Tempe looks pretty calm compared to the Rez today.
I'll be ok in the swim, but won't take it for granted. A 90 minute swim is still a long time in the cold water. So I must respect the water and be patient. My mantra throughout IMAZ is "Race my race and don't eat the paste!" The "don't eat the past" part comes from a blog article on Begginer Triathlete. Excellent read about NOT doing what the other guy is doing. I got caught up in keeping up with other bikers at Longhorn HIM and bonked badly on the run. So if I can manage a 1:30 swim, I will have accomplished my swim goal. I don't want to swim any faster, just swim 2.4m in 1:30 EASY. As for the bike, I plan to go slow, slow, and slow. I started out hoping to avg. 16 mph. But now that has dropped to 15 or even 14 mph on the bike. I should be able to do that. It's a 3 loop course. I should be ok on the first two loops (75m). But that 3rd loop will be a tough one. If it is as windy as it was last year, then it could be a long, long miserable day. As for the run, if I don't blow up on the bike, I think I will be ok. I now know to slow down on the run and pace myself. For the first 1-3 miles, I plan to go as slow as I can and not call it a walk, just to loosen up and get some miles down to shorten the run. At 4m I may pick it up a little. I hope to run a 5:00 marathon. Coupled with a 1:30 swim, even an 8:00 bike at 14 mph gives me a 14:30, which I would take in a heartbeat at this point! This included the T's and any stops along the way.
So there you have it! My race plan/strategy, which I'm sure will change as soon as I hear the gun go off. But hopefully, I can 1) finish, 2) finish without injury, and 3) finish strong. The operative word here is FINISH! Then I can critique it to death, take off a couple of weeks, and start getting ready for IMAZ Nov so I can improve my time.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Balance and Impact...
One of my favorite Bible verses that I learned long ago is Luke 2:52. It goes something like this: "and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." This speaks to His development mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. It takes quite an effort to balance all of these disciplines in my life. It's a life long pursuit and and requires constant effort to improve. It's definitely a journey and not a destination. At 47 years old, I am frustrated that I have not made more progress in all of these areas of my life. But I never quit trying. So when you see or hear me say or do something negative, just remember that I'm still working on it.
There are a couple of other elements to include such as financial and emotional. I'll leave the financial out of this blog, but add the emotional. If you have experienced love, hate, joy, sorrow, exhileration, saddness, frustration, anxiety then you have experienced emotions, whether you are male or female.
Anyway, during the course of my triathlon training, I have learned that all 5 of these aspects come into play. Training helps me experience all 5 and work toward balancing them as well. Let's take a look at these one at a time:
1) Physical: this is the easiest one to see. If you are training for any sport, whether to win or just to compete, you have to train your muscles for that sport, whether football, basketball, baseball, marathon, triathlon, or whatever. This is self evident. After two years of struggling on my own, I hired a coach with much more success and experience in triathlon than I will ever have. In a few short months, I feel like I am in the best shape of my life, with more to come! I would be further along too, if only I had done all the workouts she gave me. I am constantly trying to manage my time so I can complete them all. Plus, she has managed the volume and intensity of my training better than I ever did. Accountability is a great thing!
2) Mental: Regarding triathlon, it is more mental than I ever imagined! I have to "unlearn" what I logically thought was best in order to "learn" what is the best way to go further and faster in the swim, bike, or run. You must also add strength training, flexibility, and nutrition. You can train with the best in the world, by the best coaches in the world, but if you don't fuel properly, all your training is one big waste of time. This shows up more dramatically in long course events such as the half Ironman or full Ironman events. I have bonked badly during my 3 HIM's, so bad I thought I was going to die! (At one point, I actually would have preferred it.) Since I got tired of my "trial and error" approach, I hired someone that knew more about nutrition than I did so I could learn (mental) from their wisdom and experience. Triathlon is such an individual sport that we all have unique individual needs. So I am constantly trying to learn more about the sport and how it pertains to my needs. I will ask anybody anything and listen to what anybody says, even if I don't use all of it. My needs are probably different from your needs. My goals are probably different from your goals. My reasons for doing this are different. And my ability or talent is probably different (and much less) than yours. Nevertheless, I can learn something from anybody.
3) Social: One of the reasons why I enjoy this sport is due to the many great people I have met along the way. It really gets old swimming, biking, and running by myself all the time. Currently, I spend about 12-15 hours per week training for my first IM. (Many train more, some train less. This is just where I am at the moment.) It helps a great deal to have someone or a group of people to train with or talk to about training. And I really enjoy going to the parties or traveling to a race with other people. It helps immensely to have a network of people to train with, talk with, and party with from time to time. I hope to expand my network of tri connections around the country.
4) Spiritual: One might ask, "How in the world does triathlon have anything to do with growing spiritually?" Good question. Hard to explain, but there are times when I am training or racing when a verse will come to mind that perfectly fits what I need at that moment in time. For example, when I was racing at the Disney Olympic Triathlon in Sept '06, I was having one of my best races ever! I was flying on the bike with relative ease. I was averaging 19+ mph, which is fast for this old boy. Instead of getting passed by everything on the road as usual, I was passing many, many people. All of a sudden, a verse came to mind from Isaiah 40, which goes something like this" "And they will mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow tired." Man, I literally felt like angels were lifting me off the ground and propelling me forward faster than ever! I just let my legs go, quit worrying about time and distance and felt the rush that came along with it! It was literally one of the highlights of my life! I finished the race in the top 50% of all participants, which was a first for me and my highest finish ever! At that time, I was ALWAYS in the bottom 25%, or bottom 10%. Another time, I started running when it was light, but then it grew dark quickly. For the most part, there were some street lights on my course. But there was one patch of trail where there was no light at all. I literally could not see my hand in front of my face, let alone the trail where I was running. I kept running, mainly on memory, hoping I would not twist an ankle or something. Right as the path began to turn, and I could not see where, a car drove by and cast just enough light on my trail so that I could see the turn and the incline approaching. I remembered the verse, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path." Perfect timing!
5) Emotional: This is a tough one. For a guy that for years did not care one twit about another's feelings, I find that my emotions run the gamut during training and races. Within the same race, I have gone from feeling the highest highs to feeling the lowest lows, all within a matter of a couple of hours. The highs are so high that I feel like I'm literally going to burst right there on my bike! The lows feel like I want to crawl under a bush and die. There is a quote from the late Gen. George Patton that says: "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." So true! The more fatigued I get, usually on a long bike or run, the more my thoughts can become so negative about stuff that I couldn't even repeat them here. Finally, I'm beginning to learn how to manage those negative thoughts and turn them into something more positive. If I can learn to do that when I am in a time of great fatigue, then that will help me during everyday life as well. When are we usually short or curt with someone? Do we do this when everything is going well? No. We usually do this when we have had a bad day or are real tired. Well, try biking 60-80 miles in the hot, humid MS weather. Then take a bad circumstance and purpose to have a positive response. That is a positive change!
In order to grow in these 5 areas, it seems that we have to stretch ourselves and experience something outside of our normal routines and comfort zones. Triathlon does that for me. It makes me do things I never thought possible. It has already helped me overcome so many mental hurdles that I could not list them all. It doesn't just "happen." We have to MAKE it happen.
Hopefully, it will help me grow, develop, and learn to balance the physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional sides of me in a manner that is pleasing and honoring to God and has a positive impact on the world around me.
At the end of our lives, we only leave one thing behind, which is the impact we had on other people. All our possessions will be spent or lost by our heirs. Our names will be shortly forgotten. (If don't believe me, then try to name all of your great grandparents. If you can, then name your great, great grandparents on both sides. Keep going until you can not name them all straight from your memory without calling someone or looking them up in a family tree.) So hopefully, I can begin to have a more positive impact or effect on those around me, whether family, friends, or even strangers.
There are a couple of other elements to include such as financial and emotional. I'll leave the financial out of this blog, but add the emotional. If you have experienced love, hate, joy, sorrow, exhileration, saddness, frustration, anxiety then you have experienced emotions, whether you are male or female.
Anyway, during the course of my triathlon training, I have learned that all 5 of these aspects come into play. Training helps me experience all 5 and work toward balancing them as well. Let's take a look at these one at a time:
1) Physical: this is the easiest one to see. If you are training for any sport, whether to win or just to compete, you have to train your muscles for that sport, whether football, basketball, baseball, marathon, triathlon, or whatever. This is self evident. After two years of struggling on my own, I hired a coach with much more success and experience in triathlon than I will ever have. In a few short months, I feel like I am in the best shape of my life, with more to come! I would be further along too, if only I had done all the workouts she gave me. I am constantly trying to manage my time so I can complete them all. Plus, she has managed the volume and intensity of my training better than I ever did. Accountability is a great thing!
2) Mental: Regarding triathlon, it is more mental than I ever imagined! I have to "unlearn" what I logically thought was best in order to "learn" what is the best way to go further and faster in the swim, bike, or run. You must also add strength training, flexibility, and nutrition. You can train with the best in the world, by the best coaches in the world, but if you don't fuel properly, all your training is one big waste of time. This shows up more dramatically in long course events such as the half Ironman or full Ironman events. I have bonked badly during my 3 HIM's, so bad I thought I was going to die! (At one point, I actually would have preferred it.) Since I got tired of my "trial and error" approach, I hired someone that knew more about nutrition than I did so I could learn (mental) from their wisdom and experience. Triathlon is such an individual sport that we all have unique individual needs. So I am constantly trying to learn more about the sport and how it pertains to my needs. I will ask anybody anything and listen to what anybody says, even if I don't use all of it. My needs are probably different from your needs. My goals are probably different from your goals. My reasons for doing this are different. And my ability or talent is probably different (and much less) than yours. Nevertheless, I can learn something from anybody.
3) Social: One of the reasons why I enjoy this sport is due to the many great people I have met along the way. It really gets old swimming, biking, and running by myself all the time. Currently, I spend about 12-15 hours per week training for my first IM. (Many train more, some train less. This is just where I am at the moment.) It helps a great deal to have someone or a group of people to train with or talk to about training. And I really enjoy going to the parties or traveling to a race with other people. It helps immensely to have a network of people to train with, talk with, and party with from time to time. I hope to expand my network of tri connections around the country.
4) Spiritual: One might ask, "How in the world does triathlon have anything to do with growing spiritually?" Good question. Hard to explain, but there are times when I am training or racing when a verse will come to mind that perfectly fits what I need at that moment in time. For example, when I was racing at the Disney Olympic Triathlon in Sept '06, I was having one of my best races ever! I was flying on the bike with relative ease. I was averaging 19+ mph, which is fast for this old boy. Instead of getting passed by everything on the road as usual, I was passing many, many people. All of a sudden, a verse came to mind from Isaiah 40, which goes something like this" "And they will mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow tired." Man, I literally felt like angels were lifting me off the ground and propelling me forward faster than ever! I just let my legs go, quit worrying about time and distance and felt the rush that came along with it! It was literally one of the highlights of my life! I finished the race in the top 50% of all participants, which was a first for me and my highest finish ever! At that time, I was ALWAYS in the bottom 25%, or bottom 10%. Another time, I started running when it was light, but then it grew dark quickly. For the most part, there were some street lights on my course. But there was one patch of trail where there was no light at all. I literally could not see my hand in front of my face, let alone the trail where I was running. I kept running, mainly on memory, hoping I would not twist an ankle or something. Right as the path began to turn, and I could not see where, a car drove by and cast just enough light on my trail so that I could see the turn and the incline approaching. I remembered the verse, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path." Perfect timing!
5) Emotional: This is a tough one. For a guy that for years did not care one twit about another's feelings, I find that my emotions run the gamut during training and races. Within the same race, I have gone from feeling the highest highs to feeling the lowest lows, all within a matter of a couple of hours. The highs are so high that I feel like I'm literally going to burst right there on my bike! The lows feel like I want to crawl under a bush and die. There is a quote from the late Gen. George Patton that says: "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." So true! The more fatigued I get, usually on a long bike or run, the more my thoughts can become so negative about stuff that I couldn't even repeat them here. Finally, I'm beginning to learn how to manage those negative thoughts and turn them into something more positive. If I can learn to do that when I am in a time of great fatigue, then that will help me during everyday life as well. When are we usually short or curt with someone? Do we do this when everything is going well? No. We usually do this when we have had a bad day or are real tired. Well, try biking 60-80 miles in the hot, humid MS weather. Then take a bad circumstance and purpose to have a positive response. That is a positive change!
In order to grow in these 5 areas, it seems that we have to stretch ourselves and experience something outside of our normal routines and comfort zones. Triathlon does that for me. It makes me do things I never thought possible. It has already helped me overcome so many mental hurdles that I could not list them all. It doesn't just "happen." We have to MAKE it happen.
Hopefully, it will help me grow, develop, and learn to balance the physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional sides of me in a manner that is pleasing and honoring to God and has a positive impact on the world around me.
At the end of our lives, we only leave one thing behind, which is the impact we had on other people. All our possessions will be spent or lost by our heirs. Our names will be shortly forgotten. (If don't believe me, then try to name all of your great grandparents. If you can, then name your great, great grandparents on both sides. Keep going until you can not name them all straight from your memory without calling someone or looking them up in a family tree.) So hopefully, I can begin to have a more positive impact or effect on those around me, whether family, friends, or even strangers.
IM - 3 weeks
Totals for week: Swim 4200 yards, Bike 70m, Run 24m.
Took off Mon, Tues, and Wed due to fatigue and needing some rest.
Thurs, had a good easy 6m run. Temps were great. Not too fast or slow. Fri, had a good swim. Did some long intervals (500 and 1000 yds.) Sat, biked 70m. Legs just didn't seem to have any push to them. I tried to stay slow, in the 15's, but seemed to fade after 3 hours or so. Am thinking I need to take in more calories before and during workouts and maybe something solid somewhere along the way. Will check with the coach this week about that. Sun, ran 18m. Ran well through 9m, then IT bands began to play in stereo. Stopped to drink water and stretch. Resumed running through 12m ok, then IT bands started to hurt again. Kept running and did not stop. Stopped at 15m for water and stretching. Resumed running ok. Last couple of miles were tough, mainly some hills.
I was pretty beat up Sunday night. My feet, knees, and back were hurting badly. Could barely walk. Took two bottles of recovery drink after run. Feeling better Mon am, but canceled the polar bear swim on Mon night. Too tired and too cold for that.
Will take off Mon and maybe Tues before resuming workouts. Have one more long ride this Sat. Supposed to do 100m. Will see how it goes. Run will be 10-12m on Sunday.
Wish I could do the Ironman over a 3 day period. Swim Fri. Bike Sat. Run Sun. I could handle that ok, but doing them all in one day is going to be tough! Plan to swim slow, bike slower, and run easy. Will try to swim in 1:30 and run marathon in 5:00. The bike is a big question mark. Depends on heat and headwinds. Temps now in Tempe are in 80's, so it will be toasty, more than my body is used to at this time of year. It could be a meltdown like Gulf Coast. Only, I will swim and bike MUCH slower than at Gulf Coast trying to conserve energy. Will fuel better too.
Nothing I can do about it now except get it done and get it over with! Then rest and start training for IMAZ Nov. At this point, breaking 14 hours seems like a longshot. I would take a sub 15:00 right now, learn from it, and try to better that in Nov. Although I am in much better shape now than 6 months ago, I should be in even much better shape by this Nov. I'll be able to bike outside all summer in the heat, build up my miles, endurance, stamina, etc... Same for the run too.
Took off Mon, Tues, and Wed due to fatigue and needing some rest.
Thurs, had a good easy 6m run. Temps were great. Not too fast or slow. Fri, had a good swim. Did some long intervals (500 and 1000 yds.) Sat, biked 70m. Legs just didn't seem to have any push to them. I tried to stay slow, in the 15's, but seemed to fade after 3 hours or so. Am thinking I need to take in more calories before and during workouts and maybe something solid somewhere along the way. Will check with the coach this week about that. Sun, ran 18m. Ran well through 9m, then IT bands began to play in stereo. Stopped to drink water and stretch. Resumed running through 12m ok, then IT bands started to hurt again. Kept running and did not stop. Stopped at 15m for water and stretching. Resumed running ok. Last couple of miles were tough, mainly some hills.
I was pretty beat up Sunday night. My feet, knees, and back were hurting badly. Could barely walk. Took two bottles of recovery drink after run. Feeling better Mon am, but canceled the polar bear swim on Mon night. Too tired and too cold for that.
Will take off Mon and maybe Tues before resuming workouts. Have one more long ride this Sat. Supposed to do 100m. Will see how it goes. Run will be 10-12m on Sunday.
Wish I could do the Ironman over a 3 day period. Swim Fri. Bike Sat. Run Sun. I could handle that ok, but doing them all in one day is going to be tough! Plan to swim slow, bike slower, and run easy. Will try to swim in 1:30 and run marathon in 5:00. The bike is a big question mark. Depends on heat and headwinds. Temps now in Tempe are in 80's, so it will be toasty, more than my body is used to at this time of year. It could be a meltdown like Gulf Coast. Only, I will swim and bike MUCH slower than at Gulf Coast trying to conserve energy. Will fuel better too.
Nothing I can do about it now except get it done and get it over with! Then rest and start training for IMAZ Nov. At this point, breaking 14 hours seems like a longshot. I would take a sub 15:00 right now, learn from it, and try to better that in Nov. Although I am in much better shape now than 6 months ago, I should be in even much better shape by this Nov. I'll be able to bike outside all summer in the heat, build up my miles, endurance, stamina, etc... Same for the run too.
Monday, March 17, 2008
IM - 4 weeks
Totals for week: Swim 6200 yards. Bike 85m. Run 21m.
Had some good and not so good workouts this week. Basically, I am tired. This is probably my last week of heavy training before I taper off. Am looking forward to taper. As a friend told me Sunday, "The main thing now is not to get hurt. You are in as good of shape as you will get between now and race day." Good advice from a 10th place overall finisher at Kona.
Mon, recovery swim. Swam 2000 yards. Felt good just to get in the pool and stretch out. Tues-Wed, off traveling. Thurs, bike 30m on trainer. Did ok, nothing special. Fri, ran 5m as tempo run. Ran real well. Ran 5m at 9:07/m pace. Have not done a tempo run in a while, so it felt good to let the dogs run so to speak. Ran 1m at 9:45. Ran 2m-5m at 8:58/m. Not bad!
Sat was a big day, maybe too big. Swam 4200 yards in am at 2:10/100 pace, or race pace. Did ok through first 3000 yards, then had to push to keep pace to finish. Finished strong though. Then biked 55m at 14.3 mph. Not good. Was supposed to bike 70. Started in hills for first 38m, finishing up Cavalier hill. Big hill! Then headed up the Trace for an "easy" 40m finish. Didn't happen. At 50m, decided to cut it short to 60m. At 55m, pulled off the Trace, called the wife to come get me. Only the second time I have ever called for bike rescue. Glad to reach her. I was only about 10-15 minutes from the house. Pretty tired afterward.
Sun, was supposed to run 20m, but only made it 16m before calling it a day. Was doing well through 10m, at 10:30 pace. Everything was fine. Weather was gorgeous. Had my bat man fuel belt loaded with special gel/ecap/water blend. Began to struggle to 12m, but still at 10:35/m pace. Tried to focus on one mile at a time. Made it to 13m, then 14m. Walked to 14.5m, then ran to 15.5m. Legs were hurting badly. Considered gutting it out at all costs, run/walk home, or running to 16m and stopping. Chose #3. Finished 16m at 10:58/m pace. So you can see how slow I was getting.
Pretty tired thereafter. Not too worried about it, just need some rest and I'll be ok. Already planning on training harder for IMAZ Nov. Will increase bike and run miles, speed work, and most importantly, some strength training. Nutrition is doing well. Still working on week day nutrition, but improving.
Looking forward to race day!!!
Had some good and not so good workouts this week. Basically, I am tired. This is probably my last week of heavy training before I taper off. Am looking forward to taper. As a friend told me Sunday, "The main thing now is not to get hurt. You are in as good of shape as you will get between now and race day." Good advice from a 10th place overall finisher at Kona.
Mon, recovery swim. Swam 2000 yards. Felt good just to get in the pool and stretch out. Tues-Wed, off traveling. Thurs, bike 30m on trainer. Did ok, nothing special. Fri, ran 5m as tempo run. Ran real well. Ran 5m at 9:07/m pace. Have not done a tempo run in a while, so it felt good to let the dogs run so to speak. Ran 1m at 9:45. Ran 2m-5m at 8:58/m. Not bad!
Sat was a big day, maybe too big. Swam 4200 yards in am at 2:10/100 pace, or race pace. Did ok through first 3000 yards, then had to push to keep pace to finish. Finished strong though. Then biked 55m at 14.3 mph. Not good. Was supposed to bike 70. Started in hills for first 38m, finishing up Cavalier hill. Big hill! Then headed up the Trace for an "easy" 40m finish. Didn't happen. At 50m, decided to cut it short to 60m. At 55m, pulled off the Trace, called the wife to come get me. Only the second time I have ever called for bike rescue. Glad to reach her. I was only about 10-15 minutes from the house. Pretty tired afterward.
Sun, was supposed to run 20m, but only made it 16m before calling it a day. Was doing well through 10m, at 10:30 pace. Everything was fine. Weather was gorgeous. Had my bat man fuel belt loaded with special gel/ecap/water blend. Began to struggle to 12m, but still at 10:35/m pace. Tried to focus on one mile at a time. Made it to 13m, then 14m. Walked to 14.5m, then ran to 15.5m. Legs were hurting badly. Considered gutting it out at all costs, run/walk home, or running to 16m and stopping. Chose #3. Finished 16m at 10:58/m pace. So you can see how slow I was getting.
Pretty tired thereafter. Not too worried about it, just need some rest and I'll be ok. Already planning on training harder for IMAZ Nov. Will increase bike and run miles, speed work, and most importantly, some strength training. Nutrition is doing well. Still working on week day nutrition, but improving.
Looking forward to race day!!!
Monday, March 10, 2008
IMAZ - 5 weeks (I am ready!!!)
Totals for week: Swim 3000 yards. Bike 140m. Run 23m.
Good week of training. Started out slow, but finished strong. Needed some recovery time from hard workouts last weekend. Business travel took me out of pocket for a couple of days too.
Wed, biked 30m on my trainer, slow at 15.0 mph pace. Decided to make "easy" workouts real easy. I struggle with managing volume and intensity and tend to go too hard all the time, resulting in fatigue and junk miles. So I went easy enough to just get the blood going in my legs again after sitting on a plane for two days.
Thurs, easy 5m run through the neighborhood. No problems.
Sat, big day. Swam 3000 yards straight at 2:10/100 pace. Wanted to swim straight since I swam poorly the previous week. Swam ok, but struggled to keep pace. Biked 110m on the trainer in my den. Took 7 hours and 3 movies. Thank God for good ole classic movies! The first 4 hours were ok, but the last 3 hours were tough, both mentally and physically. Not my best ride, but ok nonetheless. Neither swim nor bike were my best, but the key is I finished, building mental confidence as well as strength and endurance.
Sun, ran 18m! My longest run ever, at least until next weekend when I run 20m! Ran pretty well actually. Slowing down my pace to run further really helps. Plus, better nutrition on the run is helping. Mixing in gels/ecaps in some flasks on my fuel belt makes the run better. Felt tired, but not dead after. Could have kept running. Finished strong. Targeted a 10:30/m pace and finished spot on!
Made two mistakes on the run though. One, I turned around at 5m to run with a friend. Bad idea. She was doing some speed work while I was doing long slow distance. The two don't mix. Thankfully, I quickly figured this out, turned around, waved good bye, and got back to my own program. It cost me a little gas in the tank, but not too much. Two, at 15m I turned it up a notch thinking I could push my way home for the last 3 miles. Bad idea. I can do this on a 6m, 8m, or 10m run, but not on an 18m run. Learned that I can only do this for about 1m or less at this distance. Again, it cost me some more gas in the tank, but I recovered well and finished strong anyway.
I am ready! Overall, I am feeling good physically and mentally. My confidence is high! Don't know what my finish time will be. There are no guarantees and so many things can go right or wrong on race day. It is my first full IM, so I'll just have to go slow, stay patient, disciplined, and most of all FOCUSED! Just focus on the swim first, then the bike, then the run. Bike and run are 3 loops each, so I can focus on one loop at a time on each one.
I still have a couple more long weekends left to go, then taper, then race day! In the words of the A-team commander, "I love it when a plan comes together!" Whatever my time is, I will be thankful, learn from it, and plan to do better in Nov when I return for round two of IMAZ Nov! My base will already be high, my confidence high. So all I need to do is keep working smarter and harder! More to come!
Good week of training. Started out slow, but finished strong. Needed some recovery time from hard workouts last weekend. Business travel took me out of pocket for a couple of days too.
Wed, biked 30m on my trainer, slow at 15.0 mph pace. Decided to make "easy" workouts real easy. I struggle with managing volume and intensity and tend to go too hard all the time, resulting in fatigue and junk miles. So I went easy enough to just get the blood going in my legs again after sitting on a plane for two days.
Thurs, easy 5m run through the neighborhood. No problems.
Sat, big day. Swam 3000 yards straight at 2:10/100 pace. Wanted to swim straight since I swam poorly the previous week. Swam ok, but struggled to keep pace. Biked 110m on the trainer in my den. Took 7 hours and 3 movies. Thank God for good ole classic movies! The first 4 hours were ok, but the last 3 hours were tough, both mentally and physically. Not my best ride, but ok nonetheless. Neither swim nor bike were my best, but the key is I finished, building mental confidence as well as strength and endurance.
Sun, ran 18m! My longest run ever, at least until next weekend when I run 20m! Ran pretty well actually. Slowing down my pace to run further really helps. Plus, better nutrition on the run is helping. Mixing in gels/ecaps in some flasks on my fuel belt makes the run better. Felt tired, but not dead after. Could have kept running. Finished strong. Targeted a 10:30/m pace and finished spot on!
Made two mistakes on the run though. One, I turned around at 5m to run with a friend. Bad idea. She was doing some speed work while I was doing long slow distance. The two don't mix. Thankfully, I quickly figured this out, turned around, waved good bye, and got back to my own program. It cost me a little gas in the tank, but not too much. Two, at 15m I turned it up a notch thinking I could push my way home for the last 3 miles. Bad idea. I can do this on a 6m, 8m, or 10m run, but not on an 18m run. Learned that I can only do this for about 1m or less at this distance. Again, it cost me some more gas in the tank, but I recovered well and finished strong anyway.
I am ready! Overall, I am feeling good physically and mentally. My confidence is high! Don't know what my finish time will be. There are no guarantees and so many things can go right or wrong on race day. It is my first full IM, so I'll just have to go slow, stay patient, disciplined, and most of all FOCUSED! Just focus on the swim first, then the bike, then the run. Bike and run are 3 loops each, so I can focus on one loop at a time on each one.
I still have a couple more long weekends left to go, then taper, then race day! In the words of the A-team commander, "I love it when a plan comes together!" Whatever my time is, I will be thankful, learn from it, and plan to do better in Nov when I return for round two of IMAZ Nov! My base will already be high, my confidence high. So all I need to do is keep working smarter and harder! More to come!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
IMAZ - 6 weeks
Totals for the week: Swim 3100 yards, Bike 104m, Run 20m. Not great, but bike and run miles are fairly consistent over last few weeks. Been biking over 100m and running over 20m per week for last 3-4 weeks, a good volume.
A belated update due to business travel.
A strange week of sorts. I went hard the previous weekend and took a while to recover. Mon, took off. Tues, took off again. Was supposed to start back, but legs still dead. Wed, biked on trainer in house. Got a late start. Only went 25m instead of 40m on plan. Thurs, tried to swim, but struggled terribly. Very frustrated. Cut swim short, did not run, and went home. I haven't struggled this badly since I started swimming! Fri, took off again. Third night this week that I took off. Trying to rest up for big weekend.
Sat: Biked 50m, then ran 10m. Went hard on bike for first 2 hours, avg'd 17 mph. Went with group through Rankin County on the "infamous" dog route. Be prepared for random, sporadic interval runs on this route due to dogs! Thanks Beckly! Went strong for 2 hours, then faded for 3rd hour. Went home, regrouped, and ran 10m. Ran pretty well. Did not expect to run well. Was expecting the bonk monster to jump out from behind any tree and get me, but it didn't happen. This was the first day to use new fueling plan on run due to Coach S. It seemed to help a great deal!
Sun: Biked 28m, then ran 10m. Was supposed to bike 50m and run 12m, but it didn't happen. Road Poco route with Jim and Scott. A few weeks ago, I led this ride and pushed them hard. This time, I could not keep up and did not even try. Was trying to do a recovery ride and then run 12m after. The wind was so bad, it nearly blew me off the road a few times. The cross winds were terrible! So after 28m, I decided to go home and start the run. I ran well through 9m, then my right IT band started to hurt, which was new. It wasn't bad, but enough to concern me. So I decided to stop at 10m and "fast walk" home. Figured I was going to walk some at IMAZ anyway, so this was a good place to practice. Felt good and walked fast at 13:15/m pace, or so. I was happy with that.
So while I started the week down and fatigued, I ended the week on a good note. My swim was terrible, but my pace was good, a 2:10/100 pace. Part of my bike was good, part was poor. But that was because I did not pace well. My runs were good. I paced well. The new nutrition plan seems to be helping a ton! I have never run 10m on back to back days, much less after some hard biking. So I was pleased with that.
Next week, will recover during week and go long on weekend. Just a few more big weekends left before taper! Got to get it in so I can do my best at IMAZ!
A belated update due to business travel.
A strange week of sorts. I went hard the previous weekend and took a while to recover. Mon, took off. Tues, took off again. Was supposed to start back, but legs still dead. Wed, biked on trainer in house. Got a late start. Only went 25m instead of 40m on plan. Thurs, tried to swim, but struggled terribly. Very frustrated. Cut swim short, did not run, and went home. I haven't struggled this badly since I started swimming! Fri, took off again. Third night this week that I took off. Trying to rest up for big weekend.
Sat: Biked 50m, then ran 10m. Went hard on bike for first 2 hours, avg'd 17 mph. Went with group through Rankin County on the "infamous" dog route. Be prepared for random, sporadic interval runs on this route due to dogs! Thanks Beckly! Went strong for 2 hours, then faded for 3rd hour. Went home, regrouped, and ran 10m. Ran pretty well. Did not expect to run well. Was expecting the bonk monster to jump out from behind any tree and get me, but it didn't happen. This was the first day to use new fueling plan on run due to Coach S. It seemed to help a great deal!
Sun: Biked 28m, then ran 10m. Was supposed to bike 50m and run 12m, but it didn't happen. Road Poco route with Jim and Scott. A few weeks ago, I led this ride and pushed them hard. This time, I could not keep up and did not even try. Was trying to do a recovery ride and then run 12m after. The wind was so bad, it nearly blew me off the road a few times. The cross winds were terrible! So after 28m, I decided to go home and start the run. I ran well through 9m, then my right IT band started to hurt, which was new. It wasn't bad, but enough to concern me. So I decided to stop at 10m and "fast walk" home. Figured I was going to walk some at IMAZ anyway, so this was a good place to practice. Felt good and walked fast at 13:15/m pace, or so. I was happy with that.
So while I started the week down and fatigued, I ended the week on a good note. My swim was terrible, but my pace was good, a 2:10/100 pace. Part of my bike was good, part was poor. But that was because I did not pace well. My runs were good. I paced well. The new nutrition plan seems to be helping a ton! I have never run 10m on back to back days, much less after some hard biking. So I was pleased with that.
Next week, will recover during week and go long on weekend. Just a few more big weekends left before taper! Got to get it in so I can do my best at IMAZ!
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