Tuesday Later workout

Bike 37.7 miles 1:59:00 HR 129, rode with Jim W for 17 miles then solo for the rest of the way. I hooked up with Roman with about 7 miles to go, chatted for a while then finished up. Still a wonderful day outside.

Tuesday early workout

Bike run brick.



Bike 20.4 miles 1:05:40 HR 131, run 4 miles 33:10 HR 150.



I saw Sheila Taormina on Hines drive today near the end of my bike ride. I passed her a little bit earlier (I didn't recognize her then) and when I got to the next stoplight I noticed that she was close behine. I was actually surprised to see anyone behind me since I was rolling 22-23. When she stopped I said "What a great day for training" she agreed and then I figured out who she was. All I could say was "Uh, holy cow, you're Shelia!" I forgot all about telling her that she was my inspiration for improving my run and telling her how awesome she is, I was just dumbfounded. She was very nice, just like when I met her last Christmas and is still a class act.

Monday

Swim 3200yds in 1:05, fairly easy endurance swim, longer sets.



Bike 22.8, 1:11:20 HR 129, easy spin out and then a little faster on the way back, it was a beautiful day outside, it's supposed to last all week.

Big plans for the new week

I'm taking the week off of work to get in some more base miles in on the bike. My swim and run volume will be slightly reduced while I add miles to the bike and be able to get extra sleep to recover from the extra work load. My sleeping goal is 9hrs a night.



This week's schedule looks like this:



Mon - Swim 3000yds E1-E2, bike 1:00hr ~ 20 miles E1

Tue - Bike 2:30 ~ 50 miles E1-E2, run 4 miles

Wed - Bike 45 min (easy) E1, run 12 miles (base)

Thu - Swim 3000yds (pull sets), bike 2:00 (big gear/little gear)

Fri - Swim 2000yds, bike 2:00 ~ 40 miles, run 4 miles

Sat - Swim 3000yds (open water), bike 3:00, run 5 miles

Sun - Bike 2:30, run 5 miles



If I can get all of this in I'm looking at about 20 hrs of training.

Friday-Saturday-Sunday

Kind of got behind on the blog, in short here it goes.



Friday I had a lunch swim of 2000yds in 34:10, my swimmer buddy was there again. Ran after I got home from work 5.1 miles 42:48 HR 147, really felt bad. Legs hurt quite a bit (quads)



Saturday Swim 2000yds in about 38:00, felt tire so I cut it short. Run 5.1 miles in about 43:00 HR 149, I did 30 second pickups to work on foot speed and efficiency. Legs felt a little better.



Sunday Bike 74.8 miles in 3:56:00 HR 136. I rode out to Island Lake rec area and did my best to keep the pace down. My goal was a long slow distance ride to work on base endurance and keep the HR between 130 and 140 (basically under 140). Started into a 10-15mph headwind that seemed pretty steady at times. After a few hrs I Ran 5.1 miles in 40:48 HR 155, working on arm position, high cadence and reduced vertical movement. I kept getting faster as the run went on as I got more comfortable with the newer arm positioning.

Wednesday-Thursday

I didn't do anything else on tuesday cuz it started to rain, that's cool cuz I was tired anyway.



Wednesday I did my long run for this easy week. 10 miles 1:25:24 HR 154. HR seemed a bit high for the run but I felt good so I just went with it.



Thursday I didn't swim cuz of some family obligations but I got a great bike ride in. 44.5 miles in 2:12:00, I felt so good that I had to keep watching my pace so I wouldn't ride too fast. The HRM was a little screwy so I didn't get an average HR. When it was working I was trying to hold close to 140.

Monday-Tuesday

I took monday off from training and went to see Star Wars with my son (Justin)



Tuesday lunch swim.

Since I didn't swim yesterday like normal I decided to swim at lunch today, 2000yds easy 35:24, no pool racers today :)



I'll post the rest of the day's workouts later.

Last week of a cycle

Finishing off another cycle and I still feel very healthy. I got about 95% of the

Three books that have helped me so much

Since I am coaching myself I have been reading just about everything that I can get my hands on that deals with swim, bike and run training. These three books are my latest addition to my library and even though I thought I knew quite a bit about cycling, I've learned a lot from that specific book.















http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931382573/ref=pd_sim_b_3/103-9188525-5678220?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931382506/ref=pd_sim_b_1/103-9188525-5678220?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931382603/qid=1116856190/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-9188525-5678220?v=glance&s=books

Dismount from Nankin Mills duathlon 

Nankin Mills Duathlon

This was my first duathlon and it went pretty well, my goals for the race were to run both 5K's under 23 minutes and bike 21mph.



Everything went well on the first run, I set my pace and stuck with it came in at 22:39 HR 171.



Bike started terrible, I could only ride about 19 untill I found my rear brake dragging on the wheel (about 1.5 miles down the road) then I was able to ride 22-23mph, probably lost a minute or two but after that I felt normal. Finished the bike with an average of 21.4 HR 164.



The second run I felt much better than I thought I would, I kept looking at my HRM to make sure I was running fast enough and keeping the HR high, sometimes it would drift down if I didn't pay attention. Finished the second run at 22:20 HR 170, actually faster than my first run.



Overall I was 1:39:38 HR 166, for 5K,30K,5K. 8th out of 24 in my age group. For a training day that I didn't taper for I am very happy with the result. I hit all of my goals and then some. I was most concerned with the runs but I felt strong on the second one right from the start.



After the race I rode 17.7 miles in about 1:00:00 HR 128 for some extra spinning miles

Saturday

I probably should have gone easier today but I had so much training to do to keep on schedule.



Swim 4000yds 1:25:00

I've done this one several times and it used to my favorite, I led the whole workout.



500 warm up

4X700 as follows

--250 pull

--250 moderate

--100 kick

--100 fast

8X50 on 1:00 odds non-free

300 cool down



Bike 22.6 miles in 1:15 easy, forgot HRM but it would probably be high 120's or low 130's



Run 3.1 miles easy 26:00 HR 147

shoes 

Friday bike and run

Made up the bike ride from yesterday, pretty windy outside 17.7 miles in 51:16 HR 148.



Run 6 miles in 49:13 HR 156, pretty close to top of zone 2 pushing into lower zone 3, kind of wanted to work on foot speed and pacing a little for this weekend. Neg split run by 1:27



I had moved my aero bars down 1/2 inch last tuesday and I like the newer position but I'm about to move them back up cuz I don't want to fool around with my seat right now. I'm going to race a duathlon this weekend, (oh yea, I signed up for that one I had mentioned earlier) and getting the seat right may take a few days. It seems to need to go forward a little bit and then probably up slightly.



I've finally moved to a new pair of every-day running shoes. 516 miles on my first pair of Asics Kayano X's and they have done their job really well. I am very happy with them and will probably still use them for trail running, they are still my favorite shoe. I've kind of gotten attached to them just like a lot my older pairs of shoes. I've still got every pair of trainers that I've seriously run in and they bring back memories of my first two years. My first pair or running shoes I still use as every day shoes, I don't think they will ever die.

Friday lunch swim

2000yds but I didn't have my watch with me. From the pace clock I think I was near 34:30



I swam fairly easily for the first half, probably near 9:00 per 500 then picked it up in the last half.



My pool racer buddy was there again and I totally smoked him in my last 500yds, he got out shortly after me but started when I was at 1000yds. I'm having lots of fun with this guy, probably is real nice guy.

Thursday's swim

I was still feeling the effects of wednesday's run so I went with my usual pull session for this swim.



4000yds 1:23:00

1000yd warm up, (200S,200K,200P,200K,200S)

2X300 Pull with paddles on 5:15-5:20

6X50 Fast :15 RI

2X300 Pull

4X50 Fast

3X300 Pull

2X50 Fast

300 cool down



Raining outside so I did some flexibility instead of biking, friday it's supposed to be real nice outside :)

Wednesday's long run

14 miles 1:57:00 HR 133 done a bit differently today, not just a straight run trying to neg split.



This workout I got from Gordo's site and modified slightly to fit in on miles instead of time.



Miles 1,2 easy 8:45 pace

Miles 3,4,5,6 8:20 pace for .9 miles 8:45 pace for .1 miles

Miles 7,8 8:20 pace

Miles 9,10 7:50 pace for .5 miles, 8:45 pace for .5 miles

Miles 11,12 7:50 pace for .5 miles, 8:20 pace for .5 miles

Miles 13,14 cool down 8:45 to 9:00 pace



This wasn't easy, I had trouble with the first two 7:50's, after that they were easier.



8:45's were about 145-150bpm (zone 1)

8:20's were about 155bpm (zone 2)

7:50's were about 165bpm (top of zone 3) they were really closer to 7:30's cuz the whole miles were near 7:50 on 11 and 12 and I was doing my best to hold 165



I held the 10 bpm differential but feel the 165's were pretty hard instead of mod-hard. Of course I didn't get into them untill the 9th mile :)

Tire problems

I've had some problems with tires lately, not from bad tires but from road conditions.



The first tire (the closer one) was my front tire that I damaged last week. The last mile of my rides has a lot of broken concrete on the shoulder, I've had some pinch flats from the holes before but this time I actually tore the sidewall of the tire.



The second tire is my rear tire. I rolled over a big piece of glass last night and put a 1/2 inch cut in the tread. The glass was under a bridge where it was dark so I couldn't see it. I had to put a dollar bill in the tire (actually a five) to hold the tube in so I could get home. That's why I rode 32 miles last night instead of 40. I also had to baby the bike home so it wouldn't rip any further.



I really like those tires and got a good deal on them from ebay. Think I paid $36 for the pair and I only had about 1000 miles on them. I've used them exclusively for 2 years now. I replaced the front with a used tire that I allready had and bought a Gatorskin for the rear. I've heard some good things about the Gatorskins so I figured I'd give it a try. $35 wasn't too hard to swallow for that tire.

two tires in a week bite the dust 

Tuesday

I traded some run time for bike time today



32.3 miles 1:35 (20.4mph) HR 135. I wanted some more tempo time today so I took an extra 30 minutes for the bike.



It seems to me that I have the same strength as last year on the hills but am much stronger on the flat sections than I've ever been, it's not unusual to ride 22-23 on most flat sections and not notice it. I feel some of this is from the new aero bars but my HR is still much lower than it has historically been. I've been guaging my effort based on HR more this year and normally try to hold 140 for most of the ride, the exceptions for this is climbing where it will get up into the 160's. Since most of my higher priority races are flat, this is probably a good thing but the Pineman route is a bit more hilly and I'll need more strength for that. I have some time trials comming up that I can to for the HR testing.



Next year I've got plans for the DeSoto Triple T which is really hilly so I will be in the weight room this winter.

Monday

I pretty much took today off. I got through my warm up in the pool, swam part of the first set and then just got out of the pool, went home and relaxed. I really needed a rest day, the weekend was pretty tough. Total swimming was 1500yds.



I got another wetsuit yesterday, it is used but has probably only been worn 2 or 3 times. I've been looking for a full suit and this model was high on my list. The story of the suit goes like this:



A friend of mine had his suit taken from his transition area and the person that took it left this one. This guy is over 6 foot tall and could not wear a small Aquaman. He wound up buying another one and had this one for sale for quite some time. I found his listing on the club website and went over to try it on. I liked the way it fit, I can even get my arms over my head without any restriction. It was quite a deal at $125 for basically a brand new suit.



I'll be able to swim with it in a few weeks when the water warms up some more, most of the local lakes are still about 55 degrees F.

New full sleave suit that actually fits 

Sunday

Much easier day, mainly cuz I was still tired, but still productive. 1 loop of Ann Arbor bike and run courses.



Bike 14 miles about 50 minutes.



Run 5 miles trails about 45 minutes.

Long training day

It's a good thing I don't have a significant other, I was just over 4 hours of training today. I split it up with a few hours between all of them.



Sat morning swim with FAST. Same as 2 weeks ago. I led the entire workout except for 3 of the IM's which I was second. Everyone was more than happy to let me lead the 100's. In fact, as they progressed the 100's went from 1:35's to 1:30's.



3700 yds

600 warm up 200S,200K,200S

1X100 Free Fist

1X200 Kick

2X100 IM

1X300 Pull

15X100 Free on 1:50

1X300 Pull easy

2X100 IM

1X200 kick

100 cool down



Bike 39 miles 1:58:38 HR 133. Kind of tired from yesterday plus I got caught in the rain. Went out to 7 mile and Angle and back.



Run 5.1 miles in 43:55 HR 143. Still kind of blasted from earlier so I took it easy.

Run/Bike/Run

Not as far as I wanted to go but still a good quality session and a confidence builder.



Run 5.1 miles 42:26 (8:19pace) HR 151 shoes Kayano X

Bike 17.7 miles 50:10 (21.1pace) HR 147

Run 4 miles 31:14 (7:48pace) HR 158 shoes DS Trainers



Like I said, I wish I could have gone longer but I had some time constraints. First run was just a little brisk, bike started into the wind (maybe 15mph) rode 19-20mph, turned around and rode a lot of 25's. Second run I wore the racing shoes and my feet felt fast but I still kept it under control, finished with a lot in the tank.



Don't know what I'll be able to do this weekend, if it is dry I'll be on the bike a lot (3-4 hrs)

Friday lunch swim aka "Race day at Ballys"

2000yds straight 34:19

500 splits 8:46,8:31,8:29,8:33



I had a pool racer in the lane next to me today so I had to swim a little bit faster. He started off after I had done 500 yds, zoomed past me and then started to fade after 6 or 7 laps. We swam side by side for the next 10 laps and I would gain about half a second on every turn, then he would swim hard to get in front of me again to be passed on the next turn. Finally he died off and I finished my last 500 near the same pace. I thought it was pretty funny cuz while I was swimming in zone 3, he looked to be swimming quite hard.



Looks like some unfriendly weather this weekend again so if the weather is nice when I get off of work, I'm going to try to do the run/bike/run today. I feel plenty rested right now. Next week I'm still thinking of doing a duathlon so that will be the BT for that weekend.

Thursday

Had to cut swim short, I had a lot of stuff to do later in the day.



2000yds

1000yds warm up

2X300 pull

6X50 fast

100 cool down

Long run

Still having problems getting the HR up for the long runs. It's taking me 5 miles to warm up, after that I feel much better.



12 miles 1:41:21 HR 148 neg split by 2:25 (51:52,49:27) cloudy and 65 degrees, a couple of sprinkles here and there but a nice day for a run.



I used GU20 for fluids on the run (28oz fuel belt) and 2 gels (mile 2 and mile 8). I don't really feel any difference from the Gatorade performance wise, just a weaker taste. I'll use up the jug that I have and probably go back to Gatorade and Accelerade.

Tuesday

Ran during lunch on Hines Drive but in a different location. It was near work and I went over the hill at Cass Benton. About 4.5 miles in 36:20 HR 145. Really nice weather 70 deg and sunny



Bike with club but they wanted to start at 5pm and I didn't think I could get there in time. I was a few minutes late and guessed the route correctly, I caught them in a few miles. I worked on drills with Mark, Jim and Valaria. Spin over the top, 12-4 push and scrap the mud drills. I had them do a few spin-ups too for them to get used to spinning fast and smooth. They rode 20 miles and I finished the length of hines, rode 38.5 miles in 2:03:00. While riding solo I held the HR near 140 as I normally do but had an average for the complete ride of 133.

Monday's swim

4200yds Gordo's workout again. I like this one, before you know it you have some big yards in and it doesn't drag on and on. Most of the 100's I came in at 1:35, I was pretty gassed at the end.



1000 warm up (500S,200K,300S)

500 (8:56) :30 RI

5X100 fast :20 RI

400 (7:00)

4X100 fast

300 (5:07)

3X100 fast

200 (3:25)

2X100 fast

100 (1:41)

100 fast

200 cool down

Sunday's brick

Drove out to Pinckney again to ride with friends on the Ann Arbor courses. Just one loop of the bike and run courses done fairly easily.



Bike 16 miles in about 55:00, and run 5 miles on the trails in about 45:00.



This has been a pretty fun week as well as an easy one. 5 bike rides, 3 swims and 3 runs. Next two weeks are hard weeks again and maybe a duathlon in two weeks, not sure yet.

Saturday

Swim for the first time in lane 5 today. Started up as a warm-up and then since we had a lot of free intervals, some people moved up to lane 4 for their workout so I had to stay in 5 since there was only 4 people there and 7 people in lane 4.



3700yds

600 warm up (200S,200K,200S)

16X50 IM order (I mostly swam free)

16X100 free on 1:40

100 free easy

8X50 kick

200 cooldown



Bike 37.25 miles today in 1:52:16, 19.8mph, HR 133. Out to Angle and 7 mile. A little breezy in the beginning and then comming back with the wind was nice. Didn't ride anything near as hard as I did yesterday and felt really good. Planned to ride 2.5 to 3 hours but I started counting up training time this week and I'll be way over what is planned allready so I cut back to 2 hrs. I still have a short run to do tonight.



Started to experiment with GU20 for the last couple of days and still have mixed feelings about it. It doesn't have a very strong taste and I think I'm drinking just water. It seems to work better with GU than Gatorade in a sense that my stomach feels better when combining them, and I think that's because the calories are comming from maltodextrin. I'll try it on the longer runs to see how I feel with it but since it isn't available at the races I won't rely on it.

Friday

Swam during lunch, just brisk, 1500yds 27:00, Helped a friend a bit. Just taking it easy.



Bike 38.4 miles in 1:50:00, HR 147. Rode moderate to start with and then pretty fast for the last 10 miles. I brought the average speed from 19.1 to 20.9 in that stretch, rode mostly 24's to 25's, just was having some fun and wanted to see what I could do this early in the season, had the HR in the high 150's to low 160's most of that time. Picked up a drafter that I couldn't shake off and it turned out he is a local bike racer taking it easy, nice guy, he gave me a compliment on my riding style, said I was a pretty smooth rider.



Made a choice today to bike instead of run. This is an easy week and I feel that I'm ahead on running and behind on biking so I opted for the bike ride. Great day outside again, it was 68 when I left home. Looks like the nice weather is going to continue over the weekend. :)

Thursday

Skipped the swim cuz I think it's going to rain on sunday and would rather get a bike ride in, plus being an easy week I'm a little more flexable. Rode out to Cheryl's house in Dearborn to meet a couple of club members for the ride. Cheryl, Vince, Jason, Shawn and Francine were there. An easy ride for me but they haven't been training too much so I took it easy.



20 miles in 1:05:00, HR 131, nice day about 60 degrees so I kept my knees covered. I cleaned up the bike before the ride, it sure did need it. I got a new front chainring (the solid FSA ring) and it looks pretty cool. I ordered a new disc wheel two days ago, (Renn 575) Frank said it would be about 2 weeks, I don't know if I'll paint it red though, maybe some cool red stripes or something. I'll get a picture up soon.

Wednesday long run

10 miles on Hines, 1:24:25, neg split by 1:10 HR 152. Nice outside 55 degrees. Ran according to plan but still having trouble in the beginning of the run getting started, after 5 miles I felt better. 14oz of Gatorade and 1 gel at 3 miles.

Easy tuesday

Run 4 miles at Ballys during lunch, 33:00 HR 151, While running, I was looking outside and it was actually snowing again. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 60's finally and nice for the rest of the week.



Bike 23 miles on Hines Drive, easy HR 133. Rode with Mark Copper.

Easy monday swim

Swam fairly easy today, 3300 yds in 1:05:00



1000 warm up (300S,200K,500S)

2X200 :20 RI

100 moderate :20 RI(1:40)

2X300 :30 RI

100 moderate :20 RI (1:40)

2X400 :40 RI

100 moderate (1:33)

200 cool down



Don't really know why but the farther I went the faster I swam. 200's were at a 1:45 pace, 300's were at a 1:43 pace and the 400's were at a 1:42 pace. Go figure!?!?

Sunday

Training didn't go as well today as I had planned, first the weather didn't want to cooperate and second, my legs were blown out so even if it was nice weather, I wouldn't have been able to do the quality of training I had planned today.



The weather has been so screwy this week that when it was nice enough to ride, I rode fairly hard fearing that I wouldn't get another chance again for a week. Yesterday and friday were two of those opportunities and I used them for bricks which left me tired for today.



Anywho, ran 5.1 miles today 45:06, HR 141, blew off the bike and other run cuz of the reasons stated above.