Bike 75 miles
[4:43, road bike]
I did the Real Ale Ride in Blanco Texas this morning. I am loving the organized rides as a way to get through all these long miles. The ride officially started at 7:30 but I got there early and did 10 miles before the start in effort to get in the time but avoid the mid-day heat.
The ride was HILLY and WINDY. There were a lot of large roller coaster style hills where you could use the momentum from the down to get part of the way up the up. Then you hammer the rest of the way up, or grind it out. Wisconsin is a lot like this so it's the type of course I am relatively good at because I know how to maximize my momentum and gearing. I totally rocked this ride with a 16mph average and stayed with a very steady strong effort throughout.
Oh yeah, and it was a really pretty course too... I did look up a few times :)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
taco motivation
Bike 60 minutes with 15 x (30 sec max effort++/30 sec easy)
Great Northern/Shoal Creek on triathlon bike
Swim 4200yd
6x400@5:59,6:02,6:02, 6:03, 6:06, 6:06 (30 seconds rest between)
10x100 (50 hard/50 easy with 15 seconds rest)
[1:13 total time]
Deep Eddy Pool
Today was bike to work day. My morning ride conveniently went by one of the breakfast stations and I picked up a free Kerbey Lane egg and potato taco on the last lap of my intervals. If there are a lot of people like me who are highly motivated by free breakfast tacos, I'm thinking that it would be worth developing a program for tacos for bike commuters every morning. The Austin transportation department is working on strategies to reduce traffic congestion but have they thought of this? I'd definitely bike more often if I could get free food on the way to work.
Great Northern/Shoal Creek on triathlon bike
Swim 4200yd
6x400@5:59,6:02,6:02, 6:03, 6:06, 6:06 (30 seconds rest between)
10x100 (50 hard/50 easy with 15 seconds rest)
[1:13 total time]
Deep Eddy Pool
Today was bike to work day. My morning ride conveniently went by one of the breakfast stations and I picked up a free Kerbey Lane egg and potato taco on the last lap of my intervals. If there are a lot of people like me who are highly motivated by free breakfast tacos, I'm thinking that it would be worth developing a program for tacos for bike commuters every morning. The Austin transportation department is working on strategies to reduce traffic congestion but have they thought of this? I'd definitely bike more often if I could get free food on the way to work.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
joyful running
4 x 5 miles@43 min, 44 min, 39 min, 40 min
[2:50 total time => 8:30/mile pace]
This was a great run and a very solid performance. Why was it great? The joy of running. I filled my iPod with new songs, sang along (out loud on the trail), noticed nature, and made a point to smile. Yesterday I was in a complete funk about how grueling and hard this training is, but Teresa and Mo helped me turn it around and be positive. My mind gets in an Ironman performance rut and I forget to step back and realize how amazing it is that I am doing what I am doing. It turns out that my body is capable of awesome things.
The result: today I enjoyed every minute of my run and felt lucky to be able to spend 3 hours on the trail. At mile 14 I felt slightly sad that the run was going to be over soon. I smiled in mile 17 as the soreness was starting to set in. I sang Guns n' Roses to the people on the trail at mile 19 as I pushed myself to the very edge of a conversational effort. This was FUN, and that's what it's all about :)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
fresh yet tired
Run 7.3 miles
[2x1.5 miles@11:07,11:06 - 1:02 total time]
Early morning run around Town Lake. I had the odd sensation of feeling fresh, yet tired. Rested and not sore after my rest day yesterday, but tired like a deep sluggishness that didn't go away once I got warmed up. My interval pace was about 7:20/mile and even though that's pretty slow, it's all I could do today. I had a good attitude about pushing as hard as I could no matter what my pace turned out to be.
Swim 3650yd
[1:01]
MS: 5x200, 6x150, 6x100
Again it was that fresh, yet tired feeling. My muscles weren't sore and my upper body felt almost too rested. However, I couldn't lock down a good form and I had no strength. When I know early in the workout that I've got nothing left, do I stop or do I continue just to get through the miles? That usually goes on a case-by-case basis. With this swim, I decided to just get in the distance however I could. I added some pulling with paddles to mix things up. I didn't push the effort because it felt pointless to do that. Sometimes I think I have better swims when I am a little sore because it is easier to feel the muscles working.
Strength Session
For time:
50 pushups
50 situps
50 squats
50 lunges
50 pullups
50 kettlebell clean and jerk
[17:38]
I missed a week of strength training last week and have been easing off on it in general. It has come to the point where I am losing some of the strength I built from all the hard work I did on Crossfit earlier in this 20 weeks of training. This workout was harder than it used to be. I feel weak. It's really important that I stay consistent with this stuff so I continue to have a strong core foundation and prevent injury.
Food issues.... I am fighting weight gain in a serious way right now. Lots of cardio = lots of low-grade inflammation = cortisol = my body hanging onto fat. I am logging my food to control calories in versus calories out, aiming for about a 300 calorie deficit per day to lose 2-3 pounds. I slacked off for a while and some non-ideal foods crept in for the sake of convenience. I found out from my food log that I had been eating too much. It is so easy to do that when you are hungry all the time. Managing calories and getting back to gluten-free and dairy-free are my main strategies right now.
[2x1.5 miles@11:07,11:06 - 1:02 total time]
Early morning run around Town Lake. I had the odd sensation of feeling fresh, yet tired. Rested and not sore after my rest day yesterday, but tired like a deep sluggishness that didn't go away once I got warmed up. My interval pace was about 7:20/mile and even though that's pretty slow, it's all I could do today. I had a good attitude about pushing as hard as I could no matter what my pace turned out to be.
Swim 3650yd
[1:01]
MS: 5x200, 6x150, 6x100
Again it was that fresh, yet tired feeling. My muscles weren't sore and my upper body felt almost too rested. However, I couldn't lock down a good form and I had no strength. When I know early in the workout that I've got nothing left, do I stop or do I continue just to get through the miles? That usually goes on a case-by-case basis. With this swim, I decided to just get in the distance however I could. I added some pulling with paddles to mix things up. I didn't push the effort because it felt pointless to do that. Sometimes I think I have better swims when I am a little sore because it is easier to feel the muscles working.
Strength Session
For time:
50 pushups
50 situps
50 squats
50 lunges
50 pullups
50 kettlebell clean and jerk
[17:38]
I missed a week of strength training last week and have been easing off on it in general. It has come to the point where I am losing some of the strength I built from all the hard work I did on Crossfit earlier in this 20 weeks of training. This workout was harder than it used to be. I feel weak. It's really important that I stay consistent with this stuff so I continue to have a strong core foundation and prevent injury.
Food issues.... I am fighting weight gain in a serious way right now. Lots of cardio = lots of low-grade inflammation = cortisol = my body hanging onto fat. I am logging my food to control calories in versus calories out, aiming for about a 300 calorie deficit per day to lose 2-3 pounds. I slacked off for a while and some non-ideal foods crept in for the sake of convenience. I found out from my food log that I had been eating too much. It is so easy to do that when you are hungry all the time. Managing calories and getting back to gluten-free and dairy-free are my main strategies right now.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
10 x 12 minutes... think about that
Bike 3 hours with 10 x (12 minutes hard / 3 min recovery)
[52 miles, 2:52, Parmer Lane out and back]
Brick Run ~3 miles
[28 minutes (15 out/13 back neg split)]
It was a tough ride today with all those long intervals. It was a good way to make myself focus on steady effort for the entire ride. Riding this way, I was 8 minutes faster than when I did intervals on this same route a couple weeks ago. It's definitely something to think about as a race strategy too because I was close to my half ironman bike time even with the warmup, cooldown, and 3 minute recoveries. Running off the bike... yuck. After 5 minutes I wanted to stop because I was hardly moving and my legs felt terrible. I forced myself to keep going, and as usual my legs came around and I was able to run at a normal pace after about 12 minutes.
I was eager to get this done and still have some weekend left, so I got up at 6am and was on my bike at 6:45. It's still just noon and I am done, showered, stretched, eaten, car unpacked, and workout logged. I am looking forward to a whole half day of freedom.
Stick a fork in week 14 of training. It's done! On to week 15, aka 6 weeks left.
Volume this week:
Swim 10,4000yd (3:00)
Run 32.5 miles (4:30)
Bike 162 miles (9:30)
Total time: 17 hours
[52 miles, 2:52, Parmer Lane out and back]
Brick Run ~3 miles
[28 minutes (15 out/13 back neg split)]
It was a tough ride today with all those long intervals. It was a good way to make myself focus on steady effort for the entire ride. Riding this way, I was 8 minutes faster than when I did intervals on this same route a couple weeks ago. It's definitely something to think about as a race strategy too because I was close to my half ironman bike time even with the warmup, cooldown, and 3 minute recoveries. Running off the bike... yuck. After 5 minutes I wanted to stop because I was hardly moving and my legs felt terrible. I forced myself to keep going, and as usual my legs came around and I was able to run at a normal pace after about 12 minutes.
I was eager to get this done and still have some weekend left, so I got up at 6am and was on my bike at 6:45. It's still just noon and I am done, showered, stretched, eaten, car unpacked, and workout logged. I am looking forward to a whole half day of freedom.
Stick a fork in week 14 of training. It's done! On to week 15, aka 6 weeks left.
Volume this week:
Swim 10,4000yd (3:00)
Run 32.5 miles (4:30)
Bike 162 miles (9:30)
Total time: 17 hours
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