Fri Sat Sun

Friday
Swim 2500 yards at Livonia Rec center
Run 5.1 miles on Hines Drive. Just out and back on normal loop.

Sat
Swim 1500 meters open water in about 30 min at Island Lake Rec area.
Bike 13.7 miles in ~45 min. Easy around the park to get legs spinning and rest up for the race on Sunday
Club party afterwards

Sun
Ann Arbor Triathlon
Swim 800 meters 14:30
Bike 14.3 in about 38 min
Run 5.2 miles in 39:20

Swim went good, I started on the inside and had clear water to swim in. I stayed out of trouble, swam brisk for the first few hundred meters then settled into a comfortable pace. I went around both turns on the inside with no incident and then picked up the pace on the way back. I felt strong and swam 50 strokes hard/30 strokes moderate. I probably passed 3 or 4 people on the way back.

Came out of the water comfortable but the run up to transition had me a little winded. T1 was quicker than I expected at 2:00.

The bike went well too. I was cold to start but then warmed up nicely. Started smooth then picked it up to a comfortable fast pace. By the time I got to Doyle Rd I was riding pretty strong and had to pick my way through many people and even had to pass a van on the road cuz he was blocking me. I probably lost 20 or 30 seconds because of that incident. I came off the bike into a large crowd of people and had to maneuver between them. It slowed me down a little but I was fine with it.

T2 went pretty good, I had a little issue getting the twigs off of my feet but I got my socks and shoes on in a hurry and ran hard out of transition.

I planned on running hard in the beginning instead of pacing myself out from start to finish. I don’t have the run speed others have so I decided to take every bit of speed I had from the beginning and hold on the best I could. Crooked Hill was tough, I wish I could have gone quicker up it but that was all I had. I wore my foot pod for my RS400 so I knew how fast I was going all of the time. I was surprised to see that on much of the course I was running in the high 6’s and low 7’s. The real steep hills had me in the 10’s. On the little dirt road section I felt good and went with the speed, settled down on the hills but still was going as hard as I could. By the time I got to Hankard Rd I still felt good. Going up that hill was a little tough and slowed me down to 8:30’s for a min or so. At the top I got back down into the low 7’s high 6’s all the way to the finish. 39:20 is over a minute faster than last year while overall I was about 2 min faster than last year.
I felt pretty good about my effort and managed 6th place out of 50 in my Age Group. The top 5 guys ran over a min/mile faster than I did so I’ve still got some work to do with run speed. It was a good race and once again pointed out where my weaknesses are.

The rest of the week

Friday
Run during lunch 5.2 miles in ~43 min. Hilly route again, felt quick and tried to hold back.

Bike ~55 min on Hines. It was just starting to rain when I circled by near my home. Rather than ride in the rain I just cut the ride short. Ride was pretty quick and felt fairly good.

Saturday
Schoolcraft was closed so most of FAST split up and swam at different places. Some went to Lifetime, some went to Livonia rec center while others went home. I went to Livonia Rec center and swam 3100 yards. Less than I would normally have done but more than if I was alone L

Bike ~30 miles. Hines drive out to 7 and Beck road and then back to Middlebelt where it was flooded. I met some nice people on Hines that were rather chatty, wish they could have stayed with me for company but they couldn’t. Also saw Karen at the flooded part of Hines. After 30 miles I was tired and went home.

Sunday
Karen and I drove out to Island Lake to ride. I wanted to get some more miles on my race wheels and the roads there are fairly free of debris. It was a little bit chilly but after a few miles I felt pretty comfortable.
2 hours on the bike at a fairly steady pace then 1 hour on the run. I felt pretty good while on the bike and worked on nutrition. On the run I had to hold back for the first half staying just above 8 min/miles. On the way back I ran what felt comfortable, turned out to be ~ 7:45’s.

Sunday Run Bike Run - 2nd try

After bonking on my last attempt of Gordo's HIM sim I tried it again.

45 min run 5.3 miles HR 134

2:30 bike 47.4 miles HR 132 (30 min ~155 watts, 20 min ~175 watts, 30 min~155 watts, 20 min~175 watts, 30 min~155 watts, 10 min ~180 watts, 10 min cool down)

45 min run 5.6 miles HR 144

Felt pretty good for the whole thing but I wasn't sure what to expect for the second run. I ran 23 min out steady and did my best to come back in 22 min. I was able to and was quite comfortable doing so.

I changed my nutrition since the last time I did this. I have been using using Infinit's "Heat Mix" for the last 2 weeks with very good results. I had used that formula at a race a few years ago and I remembered that it was easy to drink and settled my stomach so I wanted to give it a try again.

The formula has a little over 200 calories per 20 oz of drink and I've found that I'm not using as much GU as before. Yesterday 1 drank 3 bottles and ate 1 GU in 3.5 hours on the bike. Today I drank 2 bottles on the bike with 1 GU in 2.5 hours, 1 GU after the first run and before the second run. I also drank about half a bottle before the second run and didn't have any sloshing around in my stomach.. I carried to GU's on the second run in case I bonked but I was well fueled and didn't need them.

That was a little confusing, I'll try again this way.

45 min run

1 GU

2.5 hr bike 2 bottle Infinit + 1 GU

1GU + 1/2 bottle Infinit

45 min run

finished the drink I had left over after the run

I also used my race wheels today to get some time on them. The same rear wheel as last year and a new Jet 60 front for this year. I got some aftermarket stickers that I think look cool.

Saturday - Long(er) bike day

Swim in the morning at the Rec center. The pool was shut down for 10 days for maint and cleaning, when it opened last thursday they claimed the temp as 62 deg. I waited a few days and swam with LALA again yesterday cuz I was worried about the temp. This morning the temp was 77 deg F, just perfect as far as I'm concerned.

1500 yards in about 30 min, I was tired and didn't feel like swimming.

Bike at Island Lake, 70 miles in 3:34.
I planned on going out a bit on the easy side and then build from there looking for about 3.5 hours, I figured it would be about 5 laps.

Started out conservative and built each lap and felt really strong on the last one. Lots of small hills, targeted 160-170 watts for most of the ride, tried not to go over 250 watts on the hills but occasionally did.

Good ride, I'm happy with the session.

Week ending 4/26/09

I fell a little behind on the blog, here is what happened this week. We had a lot of bad weather so workouts were light in the beginning of the week and heavy at the end

Mon
Swim with LALA 1:00 3200 yards

Tue
Run 30 min 3.6 miles

Wed
Bike 30 min on trainer
Swim with LALA 1:00 3000 yards

Thu - finally some good weather
Run during lunch 6.4 miles in about 54 minutes
Bike 45 miles in about 2:15

Fri
Bike 58 miles in 3:04, out to Whitmore lake and back
Swim with LALA 50 min 2500 yards - I was a little tired

Sat
Swim with FAST 1:25 3800 yards
Bike at Island Lake and Kensington and a few repeats up Tower hill - 37 miles in 2:04
Run for a few minutes at Island lake but the rain came and I had to bail
Run 5.2 miles in about 44 min on Hines when I got home

Sun
Run 14.3 miles in 2:03. Steady pace...It was a little warm and I was tired from stacking workouts over the last 4 days

The rest of the week ending 4/19/09

Thu
Run Bike Run on the normal tuesday brick course, Hines was not flooded where is was the day before.
Run 3.1 miles 25:15
Bike 22.0 miles 1:03
Run 6.2 miles 48:46, ran faster on the second 5K. I felt good

Fri
Swim at Livonia Rec center
2000 yards
10X200 on 3:30
Not really hard, came in 2:55 to 3:00 most of the time. Last 200 was a cool down

Bike on Hines, planned a moderately quick ride which turned into a warm up and 30 min TT with a friend in pursuit. I won the sprint points but couldn't hold off the finish points :)
22.2 miles 1:06:55

Sat
Swim with FAST
3300 yards in about 1:15
Hard sets of 100 mixed up with other stuff.

Run, Bike at Island Lake
Planned on doing a Gordo Brick but I was unable to do the second run. I was so thirsty and tired that I stopped earlier than planned.
Run 45 min 5.44 miles
Bike 45.5 miles 2:11
It was a good day, like usual I learned a bit about myself with this workout.

Sun
Run long
16.1 miles in 2:13:44
75 min easy/mod
20 min at 7:50
10 min easy/mod
20 min at 7:40
Finish easy/mod
Felt good for the whole run, I started conservative since I knew I would be running fast on the way back. 8 miles in 1:09 and the last 8.1 in 1:04:44.