The Sand Stairs await us

We made it here

Monday update

Travel plans are getting closer, and we are trying to work out the food options courtesy of a few of my coworkers who live in the Bay Area.  Looks like a lot of good choices, but we will be hitting up some Vietnamese, Chinese Dim Sum, and a few local seafood places as well.

Today was my last long swim effort, and everything from here on out will be easy.  Took 2700 meters at lunch a little under 50 minutes, so at that pace I will be looking around a 45 minute swim for 1.5 miles, which is what I am shooting for.  We shall see.

Packed Up

bike is ready for travel

1 week to Season Opening

We leave in one week for our trip to San Fran and my first foray into west cost racing at the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon.  Since the last post we took an 8 day vacation and had the chance to swim with dolphins at Marineland in Florida, as well as a week with our friends in Cedar Key Florida.  We treated the week in a training camp style when we weren't our at the beach with the kids, and got some good solid run and bike work in.

After returning to Atlanta I have stayed on the training plan with the highlights being a 2600 meter time trial in 47:39, which should get me arond a 45 min swim time for the mile and a half at Alcatraz.  With the current maybe a bit better.  Also had a nice long brick last Saturday of 90/90 and covered 27 miles of riding (with lots of hills) as well as a hilly 10 miler.  My fitness is there this early in the season to setup some good racing later in the year.

We packed up the bike in yesterday to ship our and will be dropping off at FedEx tomorrow.  I will start tomorrow to put some goals out and then send updates from the ground when we arrive in SF.

Back on it

Last week was not the greatest training, but you have these fall offs from time to time.  After the 13.1 I knew I would suffer just needing to recover from the run, but I also came down with a nasty sinus infection that has taken almost a full week to run its course.

I only made two of my fully planned workouts (Tue ride and Fri Swim) and shortened one of my runs and rides as well.  So I made it to four, but missed four as well.  Mostly it was the illness, but I was still feeling tired from the race on the Sunday prior.

On my scheduled off day yesterday I managed to get in the Swim I skipped on Sunday of 2500 meters, then went out in the afternoon and did a 1:30/30 Brick for 25 miles on the bike and 3.5 on the run.  So I did get three of the four missed workouts back, and had a nice run off the ride in the Brick.

This week is another recovery week then we hit the final stretch.  We have spring break next week and will be going training camp style down in Cedar Key, FL with a few other friends and lots of kiddos.

Race Report

My second installment of the ING Georgia Half Marathon is done, and overall it was a good morning.  Since ING is no longer sponsoring the race after this year, 1: after they build enough brand for it to be called “The ING”  2: after the race jumped from 12,000 to 16,000 total runners this year, and 3: after they finally got a decent race director to fix some problems that have plagued the event since its inception,  I will refer to it as the Georgia Marathon and Half Marathon (although I did tell the Mizuno guys they would make a great title sponsor, so if that happens I take the credit)

Before the recap lets take a look back at my 2008 running.  First racing ever beyond 10K’s and Olympic distance triathlons.  I wanted to improve my running for triathlons and get a base for Augusta. For the Georgia Half Marathon my training was good until the last weeks and I had some falloff, which showed in my finish time of 2:20.18.  Out of 9,716 half marathon finishers I placed 5,989, so in the 60th percentile.  At the 70.3 race in Augusta my half marathon pace was 2:19.21, 61st percentile.  So basically I had conquered the distance, but needed better pacing.  After the Augusta 70.3 race I did a local 5 miler in 39:47 (7:57 min/mile pace) then this year followed up with two 10K times of 50:24 (8:06 pace), then a few weeks later of 48:16 (7:47 pace).  So two weeks ago I was feeling good after that 10K and set a goal for a sub 2 hour half marathon.

This year the half marathon had 10,481 finishers.  I went in with a little more course knowledge than last year, and was better prepared for the rolling hills, especially in the last 4 miles. 

The morning started early meeting some other friends running at 5:30am then heading downtown.  We had a group of 6 running across all abilities.  Weather was mid 50’s and overcast so great conditions.  I took off easy and settled into a comfortable pace.  One thing I tried this time was running without my GPS, and going on feel.  I was going to run based on my perception and not worry about time until at least an hour into the race.  I ended up on my 8 mile split at 1:11.58, so I knew then if I could finish with 9 mile pacing I would have a few minutes to spare and break 2 hours.  My pace over the 8 mile split was 8:59, and I ended up pacing 9:00 flat over the last 5.1 miles for the total time of 1:58.16.  Felt some leg fatigue on the last few hills but never a doubt that I would make it once I hit the 12 mile mark and had 12 minutes to spare.

Everyone in our group did great, and we had a fun time.  I was able to take 22 minutes, 2 seconds off last years time and jump from the 60th percentile of run time up to the 25th percentile. (also jumped up from 5,989 overall to 2,667 overall) I am very pleased yet I think I can get that time down even more in the future.  At least I know where I can improve my 70.3 time by 20 minutes, so now if I can find 20 minutes on the bike I will be close to the 5 hour mark at Augusta.  Always something to work on.

Training gets specific for Alcatraz now as my runs get a bit shorter.  Should be fully recovered by tomorrow for this weeks work.  I did miss a scheduled brick this weekend of 90mim/30min, but I think running the half marathon was enough leg work to sustain.  I have a 2h15min ride scheduled for this Saturday so I may just add a little run in to make up for that.

13.1 week

Finished last weeks work and only missed one run.  I had to leave town over the weekend so I missed Saturdays workouts, but did a double on Sunday for a ride and run.  Ran 13.5 on Sunday for my last long run gearing up for the Georgia Half Marathon next Sunday.  We have a big group running together so should be a good day.  My goal for the race will be to break 2 hours on a half marathon.  That will cut about 20min off my time from last year.  I have had a lot more work leading up to the race this year and the hills will not surprise me, so I should be close.  Either way my run base is in great shape for the rest of the year.

Last weeks swims all were in the low 2,000 meter range, and the swimming is coming along well.  It looks like we might get some decent weather this week, and combined with the time change I should be able to get out on the bike outdoors some.  I am still trying to figure out what to do over the weekend as I have a 90min/30min Brick scheduled for Saturday, the day before the half marathon.  After this week I need to start hammering on the bike a bit.

Not Quite Recovery Week

Although last week was supposed to be a recovery week I blew it out a bit over the weekend with my running.  ING is two weeks out so I had to get a long run yesterday, plus I had a Peachtree Road Race qualifier on Saturday, and a Brick scheduled for that day as well, so I am totally wiped out today.

Tuesday had a 1h ride, Wednesday got both the 1750m swim and a 6 miler in with some intervals, and Thursday got another 50 min ride in at lunch.  That was all according to the recovery week plan.  Friday I was scheduled for a swim/run, but only did the prescribed 1700m swim with a 10K race the next morning.  Since I was scheduled for 6 miles I just added it to Saturday.(more on the race in a moment)  Saturday got up early, ran the 10K in a PR time of 48:16, worked in the yard a bit then got onto the bike for a Brick of 1:15 ride/20 min run.  I was supposed to run for 30min, but needed to save some gas for Sundays long run.  On Sunday I did a nice slow 10 miler with some serious hills in the second half, and skipped the 1600m swim that was scheduled.  My wife was due to get in her long run as well, so it was my turn to watch the kiddos.  Even if that wasn’t the case, I had no gas in the tank for any more workouts.  On my normal triathlon plan I would only be running around 40 minutes anyway, so I went way over the necessary mileage.  I ended up on the weekend running about 18 miles and biking 22ish.  Only 2 weeks to go to the ING Half Marathon then my running volume will come back down some.  Good thing is that I will have a nice base for the 8 mile run at Alcatraz, and can limit my long runs to stretching the Sunday runs only.

I ran the Chattahoochee Road Runners 10K this weekend trying to get my time lower.  As mentioned earlier I have been trying to get down below 50 minutes on my 10K time for some time and came within 25 seconds a few weeks ago.  This time I had a good dinner the night before, and got to bed early.  My neighbor and I got there early and the weather was nice and sunny with temps in the mid 30’s,  This race is a popular qualifier for the Peachtree RR so there was a healthy field of 844 in the 10K.  The course was rolling out and back with the final half mile taking a turn and pretty much downhill all the way.  I came across the line in 48:16 (7:47 min/mile) which is good for me.  This was also good for 244th place so about 28th% in a pretty competitive local field.  All that running since last year seems to be paying off, and I am enjoying these races.

March is here

So we are now three full seeks from ING and  9 weeks out to Alcatraz.  The weather has made outdoor training, or at least riding on the bike a bit of a chore.  Normally we are in the upper 50’s or 60’s a few days a week by this time of year, but we are still trapped in the 40’s for highs.  Not much global warming here in Atlanta for 2010.

Last week was a nice solid week with about 9 hours of training.  From Sunday to Sunday I logged 32 miles over four runs, 6,350 meters over three swims (about 4 miles), and close to four hours on the bike trainer which would normally equal about 72 miles on the road.  No outside riding this weekend, and melted my tire on my indoor trainer on Saturday.  I did hit every workout last week as this was the first week of the build phase (week 7 overall), and also the third week in my second four week periodic cycle.  This week the volume is a bit lighter with a recovery week, then we step it up for March.

Got my new wetsuit on order so that should be coming in the next week or so, just need to figure out the bike shipping thing and we will be all locked down for San Fran.