First Wetsuit Swim

Last swim before the race today, a little over 800 yards with the wetsuit on to make sure I at least swam with it once.  The fit is perfect.  I was a bit surprised at the difference and additional glide you get with the suit.  Stroke rate is typically around 18 per 25 meter length in the pool, and I was at 15 with the suit on.  It seems to be going on a bit easier than the first time I tried it on as well, so all looks good.

Leaving town tomorrow and hitting the pre-race briefing, expo, and have to rack the bike as well.  The forecast is a bit unpredictable as it looks like a slight chance of rain in the morning on Sunday with highs in the afternoon reaching into the mid 80’s.  That will mean humidity and I will need to make sure to take my Enduralytes.  Tomorrow I will put up some photos from the race site and transition area and the main focus of the day will be to get there safely, get checked in and setup, and get off my feet.

Ironman Augusta – 4 days to go

Taper week is flowing.  Still had to work around the floods in Atlanta this week so Tuesday only got 45 minutes on a stationary bike instead of 70 minutes as planned.  Wednesday had 1950 meters in the pool and a 38 minute run with 18 minutes at a high exertion rate.  The sun came back yesterday and the heat and humidity have skyrocketed, so the run was a good sweat.  My HR was a bit higher than normal, but finished well.  Today I was able to get in an easy 45 minutes on the bike outside, which is what I was scheduled to do.  Only a swim tomorrow and a short (20min) ride Saturday with a run of about 5 minutes to keep the blood flowing.  Then Sunday is race day.

My goals for the race are now set.  I will be ecstatic with anything under 5:45 for my first 70.3, and I have a set goal of 6 hours even.  I won’t be disappointed with any time, as long as I finish feeling well, but 6 hours is about what I expect to hit.  My goal times are:

SWIM: 1.2 miles, 30 minute goal.  I should be able to hit this swimming with a current, and in a wetsuit.   Main goal is to get strong about after about 5 minutes and never feel like I have too much exertion during the swim.  If my HR gets high enough to loose my breathing pattern I am going too hard.

T1: 3 minutes.  Not too sure what to expect with 3400 racers, but my time group is in the first 30 minutes of start waves, so I think 3 minutes should cover it here.

BIKE: Based on the course reviews I have read it, looks to be a fast course with the capability of causing you to hit it too hard and loose your legs for the run.  I am going to go conservative and shoot for a 3 hour 15 minute ride which would work out to 17.2 mph average over the 56 miles.  The bike is going to be the part where I may be able to shave off some time, so a secondary goal would be 3 hours even which would be 18.6 mph average.  If I can hit that mark I will be in a good spot.  My main goal on the bike is to take it easy for the first half, and keep the HR in my Zone 3 (of 5).  Somewhere close to the 2 hour mark I will let my HR get a bit higher as at that point the perceived exertion is not as hard in the higher Zone 3 and lower Zone 4 areas.  Look for some speed at this point, and since the last 7 miles are mostly downhill I can get my average up without burning out.

T2: 3 minutes

RUN: 2 hour 5 minutes for 13.1 miles.  That would be a 9:32 pace.  Based on my last official runs being in the mid 8 minute range for a 10K, if I take it easy (close to 10min/mile pace) for the first half then slowly pick it up over the second half I should be OK with this time.  If I can have negative mile splits from miles 7, 8, 9 and 10 and hold it there to the finish I will hit this time.  Last two miles I want to make sure that I have left nothing in reserve at the finish.

TOTAL TIME BASED ON GOALS: 5 hours 59 minutes

Bike Preview

Here is a great preview of the bike course that gets the appetite going.  Looks like it should be a steady, if not fast, course. http://all3sports.net/?p=235 .  I just need to keep my pacing right and go for it in certain spots.  I have two other co-workers doing the race and a few other acquaintances, and the advice I have received from the experienced guys is to pace for the run, and let it all hang there.  If you can accelerate across the finish you left too much on the course.

Right now my weight is in the 191-193 range, and I am hoping to be at 189.9 or under by race day.  I have a good idea of what I need during the race to eat and fuel, and just have to keep an eye on the forecast for the next few days.

This afternoon will be a 70 minute ride, tomorrow has a swim and run, and the week gets real light after that.  Only a 45 min ride Thursday and short swim on Friday.  I am finalizing my goals for the race and will put them up tomorrow so I can see how I feel going in versus how I actually perform.

Augusta Ironman 7 days to go

Last week of prep, more or less.  It has been awful weather here in Atlanta and was only able to get outside once this weekend for a 8 mile run.  Missed the ride scheduled, but at this point I don’t think there is anything left to do. I have a slow schedule this week and hit the road Saturday morning.  The final tally for the race will be 3400 competitors, so this will be the largest transition I have ever seen!

We have some serious flooding here in Atlanta, and have taken almost 1 and 1/2 feet of water since last Tuesday.  Thankfully it looks like most of the rain has avoided Augusta, and the river levels are OK there.  About a mile from my house the Chattahoochee River is at a 100 year high.

10 days to go

The last week has been very productive and I am feeling a bit more confident because of it. I did finish last Wednesday (the 9th) with a 40 min run covering 4.58 miles, 22 minutes of it at high exertion rate. Most of that time was in the mid 7 min/mi range, and felt like good work for a short run. Since I had missed a few rides the weekend before on vacation, I went back to the Silver Comet Trail on Thursday and did my peak ride for this training period of 62 miles at 3h 30 min. I was doing my best to keep the pace easy as I had an Olympic distance race in two days, and that converted over to about 17.7 mph for the duration. Another thing I was working on with this ride was testing nutrition (gels specifically), and I think that my every 45 minute rate might be a bit light on the bike portion. I was able to burn 2500 calories on this ride, and with gels at the beginning and every 45 minutes I replaced 500 of those calories with Gels over the ride. I am going to shorten the gap to 35 minutes on the bike, and keep it at 45 minutes on the run. Last Friday I dropped my planned workouts and did a nice and easy 20 minute treadmill run to keep warm for the race on Saturday.

So instead of a 2h50min brick on Saturday and a 2700 swim and 40 minute run Sunday, I subbed those for a Olympic Distance Triathlon Saturday morning, The Tugaloo Triathlon. I did this race last year as my first Olympic, and had a pretty tough time of it. I wanted to get at least one race beyond a sprint distance prior to the 70.3. Saturday Morning got out the door at a respectable 4:30 and hit the road for a ride to the state line.

Got to the race, setup and was ready to go. I over seeded myself a bit in the swim, so I ended up with the 65th starting place (this is a staggered start, no waves). My goals for the race were 28 minute swim (1500 meters), 1h 25min bike (26 miles), and 60 minute run (10-k). This would get me in at 2:57:00 with 3min 30 seconds for transitions. Last year I was not in condition for the race and ended up with a time of 3:31:24 . This was pretty poor and got me 63 out of 70 in my age group, and 421 overall out of 470. My goal was to try and get under 3 hours, confirm racing nutrition, and replicate my Sandestin improvements from last month.

I met all of those goals. My time was even better than hoped for of 2:43:01, and was good for 25 of 56 in my age group and 144th overall. A 48 minute improvement over last year! Swim dropped from 31:16 to 26:41, Bike from 1:33:38 to 1:18:34 (16.7mph to 19.9mph), and the run from 1:21:24 to 53:44. That run was almost a 5 min per mile improvement (granted I was cramping and walked a lot last year). Felt great as well and was passing lots of people in the last mile when I picked up my pace. I thought the day was a total success and underscored the work I have been doing. By no means do I expect Augusta to be easy at all, but I know I can do it nonstop at a steady rate of work.

This week started the semi-taper, and combined with some awful weather all week I have cut back some of the work. Tuesday was a 40minute ride on the trainer (instead of scheduled 1h 20min), Wednesday got in the scheduled 2350m in the pool and a 44 min run (4.8m) with 24 minutes at threshold pace. Yesterdays bike was scrapped since it has been pouring rain (I still have a nice 2h 45min ride on Saturday scheduled). Today I got in a 30 min run (3.3 miles) with some sprints at the end, and also another 700 yards in the pool. I missed some of the volume this week, but you are not going to loose any fitness over the final two weeks, and I have enough work ahead tomorrow with the ride, and Sunday with the run (1h 20min) to keep active. I will update how those go soon.

This next week is the final work leading up. After Sunday I go to full taper mode with two short bikes, two short swims, and one short run leading up to a day off Saturday and the big day Sunday. This weekend will be working out a food plan for the week, stocking up on in-race supplies, and getting my mind ready for the challenge.

On a side note, my 7 year old was able to participate in her first triathlon this past weekend at IronKids Alpharetta. She did a great job, and showed some great perseverance when her tire went flat coming out of transition. The bike crew got her changed within a few minutes and instead of tears, she was able to suck up the disappointment and finish strong!

weekend catch-up

Hilton Head was a great trip and I didn’t totally crush the diet, only with the dinners!  I didn’t get the ride in I was looking for, as time with the family at the beach came first.  Not a big deal as I am moving my last long (>3h) ride to this Thursday.  That will give me a 3h 30 min and a 2h 45 min ride over the next 10 days before my taper week, and should keep the legs fresh.

I did manage to get in a sunrise 6 miler on the beach with some sprints at the end on Saturday.  Averaged 9:21 mi/min over the run, but definitely had some leg fatigue that I am not accustomed to.  Even with the wide Atlantic beaches being very firm, that sand still makes you use some extra muscles that asphalt does not call for, so I will attribute it to that.  Also walked 18 holes carrying my bag on Sunday for some good recovery work, carrying weights for about a 5 mile loop on the golf course.  I only had two fried seafood dinners over the four days, so that was an accomplishment.  My weight is still at 194lb, so if I can get down under 190 by race morning I will be happy.  Overall a great trip with some very valuable beach time with the family.

This is week 18 of 20 in the plan, and yesterday (Tuesday) started with a 1h 20min bike ride with 28 minutes at threshold pace. I had two significant climbs in the ride so that threw a bit more legwork in the ride.  Today at lunch I fit in 2300 yards in the pool with a main set of 600 meters + 5 x 150m at slightly below max effort.  No problem at all on the 150’s, other than some fatigue at the end, but that is to be expected.  Hard to believe that 5 x 75’s were difficult to get thru not 5 weeks ago.  Tonight I need to squeeze in a 42 min run and hit the road for a long ride tomorrow.

Workout Jigsaw Puzzle

Yesterday was a busy day because I am wrapping up work before my day off tomorrow and packing for the weekend in Hilton Head.  Lunch was 2400 meters in the pool with some drills etc, but the main work consisting of 4 x 400’s at threshold and 5 x 50 sprints. This is supposed to be a bike day only, but had to cram in the swim since I am on the road tomorrow without a pool. 

After work did a hybrid of my Tuesday and Thursday scheduled rides.  I got in a 90 minute ride with about 14 minutes at lactate threshold, and the rest just at long ride pace.  Now I need to go load the car and hit the road.  Let’s hope the diet holds up over the weekend.  Have two long workouts scheduled.

September 2

Due to family scheduling I had to watch the kids last night so my 1h 15min threshold ride had to be scrapped.  Since I have Thursday and Saturday long rides ahead no big deal.

This morning (Wednesday) I hit the road at 5am for a threshold run over 40 minutes.  10 minutes of warm-up, 20 minutes at threshold (highest effort without straining), and 10 minutes to cool down.  Covered 4.3miles over the 39 minutes, so the average pace was 9:03. During the 20 minutes at threshold I was in the 7-8min/mile pace, which for me is moving.  Felt good until the last 5 minutes but pushed thru.  Since the painful part is where you get better, it was a solid workout.

Late lunch at the pool for a 2350 meter swim with warm-ups/drills for the first 500m, 600m at medium intensity, 5 150 meter hard intervals, and a 500 meter cool down.  Took 49m 51 sec for the entire workout, including the 1m 15sec rests between the 5 intervals.  Swim feels strong.

Weekend Wrap-up

OK.  So a nice solid long weekend passed, even with dealing with some weather as well.  I decided to go long on Saturday with the ride and Sunday with the run, even though this was supposed to be a recovery week.  Was able to sleep in and hit the road at 8:30am and did 53 miles over 3 hours.  Felt good, had a nice combo of flats early and some hills late, and never got the HR into the 90% range.  Sunday was going to be a 1h/2h brick since I needed a long run, but it rained all day long.  About 6pm the rain stopped, the clouds stayed, and I hit the road at 7:30 for a 2h 06m run.  I only covered 11.75 miles so ran at a 10:46 clip, but the goal was a low exertion long run.  My heart rate only was out of zone 3 once on a nice 500ft climb over .75 miles.  That is a killer hill at mile 8.  Good news was I felt very strong at the end and could have put another few miles on with little exertion.

Goal for the weekend was to make up the long ride & run missed last weekend, but not kill myself heading into two tough weeks.  Mission accomplished.

Rest is good?

This is my last recovery week before the last four week push, and also marks the first time I have had weather issues all summer.  No ride Tuesday or Thursday due to rain, and had to to two lunch combo swim/run workouts to keep it indoors.  Today’s workout (Friday) I felt much fresher than Wednesday and had a solid mile swim/5 mile run combo at lunch over a 90 minute workout.

These recovery weeks have been a tough concept for me to accept, other than the fact that my body tells me they work.  The 3 week hard, 1 week recovery cycle has made a difference as I can tell.  Mentally you are debating all week that laying off so much for so long is going to set you back, but somehow you come back with that much more for the next phase.  I never noticed this much in my shorter distance training plans in previous years, but obviously when you step up the volume for a half-ironman rest becomes a key component (as backwards as that seems).  Since I skipped two short (1h) rides this week I am going to stretch Saturdays ride to from 90 minutes to 3 hours.  Also have a brick planned for Sunday that by the plan should be 1h 30min ride + 50 min run, but I am going to do 1hr + 2 hour run.  I missed a 1h 50min run last Sunday travelling, so I need a long run since it has been a few weeks since the last run over 90 minutes.  Oh yes, also have to get another 2000 meters in the pool Sunday as well.

Hopefully the weather holds off and we log some nice mileage this weekend.  Next week should be back to the plan as written with four weeks to go from this Sunday.