Thursday Cycling Class

Really REALLY good cycling class last night. More strength work and big gear efforts. Everyone was feeling the effects from Monday night, but of course since I was MIA that night, I felt pretty good Thursday night. Although today my legs feel a bit heavy! So much for a recovery week :) Well at least it has been a "running" recovery week.

Also got in 2500m of swimming yesterday at lunch. Need to get more consistant with my swim workouts as the form feels a bit ragged right now.

The KMA workout...

• 5 min easy spinning
• Warm up: 3 x 30 sec, 30 sec rest, small 17, 100+ rpm
• Warm up cont.: 4 x 1 min, 30 sec rest, B23 100+ rpm, B21, B19, B15 standing
• 1 min easy
• 1 x 4 min, 20 sec sprint, 10 sec rest, B19
• 1 min easy
• 5 x 1 min Sprint, 30 sec rest, B12 standing
• 1 min easy
• Off Bike: 2 x 4 min, 30 sec rest, Iso split squats 2 min each leg w/flexbands - OUCH!!!
• 5 x 1 min Sprint, 1 min rest, B12 stand 15 sec, seated 30 sec, stand last 15 sec
• Off Bike: 4 x 1 min, 15 sec rest, 30 sec leg split squat, 30 sec iso split squat w/flexbands. 15 sec rest, switch legs
• 1 min easy
• 5 x 30 sec, 30 sec rest, B12 standing sprint
• 1 min easy
• Off Bike: 3 x 90 sec, 30 sec rest, 60 sec speed squat, 30 sec iso squat w/flexbands
• 5 x 30 sec Sprint, 30 sec rest, stand 15 sec, seated 15 sec
• 1 min easy
• Off Bike: 1 x 2 min, 1 min speed squat, 1 min iso squat (no flexband)
• 2 min easy spin
• Off Bike: 1 Leg Crank Series
• Cool down and stretch

Huh, doesn't look that bad on paper... Good hour and forty minutes of workout and only 18.5 miles on the trainer.

Recovery Week

Been trying to take it easy this week and let the body recover, legs specifically, from a good month of training. Considering it's only January I feel like I'm in pretty decent shape and ready to kick off the real training in the next couple weeks.

Only a couple running workouts this week so far what with the frigid temps and dealing with some auto issues. Skipped Monday's KMA workout and went to Kelsey's basketball game instead. Priorities...

Monday and Wednesday were both noon treadmill runs at 24 HR of 3 and 4 miles respectively. Plus some core work stuff. Noon swim and KMA tonight.

Weekend Round Up

Monday January 26, 2009

Decent weekend of training in spite of the really cold weather. I can now say I ran farther than the temperature! Golfer's will often say "some day I want to shoot my age". For a 70 year old to shoot 70 is pretty darn impressive. Well Saturday morning Christopher, Hugh, Eric, Brian and I met at 7:00am on the trail for our long run. It was a whopping 6 degrees when we started and only bumped up to 9 degrees when we finished our 11.5 miles. Still some snow on the ground from Friday nights little 1/2" or so dusting. Thankfully the sun was out and there wasn't much wind. So the run was actually not too bad.

So there you go, 11.5 miles in sub 10 degree temps.... Where is Spring?!?!

Sunday I was lazy and skipped my normal trainer ride. Still went to the afternoon yoga class with A at 4:30 though. Met Brian a bit early to check out his swim form and offer any pointers I could to help him get started. Looked much more comfortable in the water after 20 minutes or so of balance drills.

This week is a running recovery week. So cut back to 3 miles at noon on the treadmill at 24 Hour over lunch.

500 Squats and Big Gears

Friday January 23, 2009

Yeah so about 500 squats done Thursday night in cycling class. Single leg speed, single leg iso, with flex bands, without flex bands. A set of Leg Cranks and more squats. My legs were hurtin' for certin' after class!

Here's the workout:

• Usual warmup
• 12 x 0:45 sec, 15 sec rest, single leg drill
• 4 x 1 min, 30 sec one leg speed squat with flex band, iso squat 30 seconds. 15 sec rest then switch legs
• 5 min tempo ride Big12. Max cadence 75. 80% heart rate
• 3 x 90 sec, 60 sec speed squat, 30 sec iso squat, 30 sec rest
• 5 x 1 min, 1 min rest, Big 12 again. Stand 1st 15 sec of each rep
• 4 x 1 min, 30 sec one leg speed squat with flex band, iso squat 30 seconds. 15 sec rest then switch legs
• 5 x 30 sec, 1 min rest, B12 standing sprint (all out!)
• 1 x Leg Crank Series

Doesn't look that painful on paper... Good strength building workout though. 1 hour 40 minutes of workout. Only covered 20 miles in that time per the computer since most was off the bike.

Noon treadmill run today at noon. Felt pretty good. Just did 4 miles at 8:27 pace. Some core work and called it good.

3 Runs and a Cold Swim

Wednesday January 21, 2009

A few good quality workouts in the last two days. Following the lead of a person who will remain nameless, I'm trying to ramp up the run miles by adding in a couple two a days in the last two weeks. And man are they taxing on the old legs. Add KMA cycling class into the mix and well can you say trashed legs?! Yeah. It's going well though. I'm up to 86 miles for the month already.

Started off Tuesday with a noon swim at 24HR. All fired up for a 2500m swim, but when I got to the gym I found the heater was on the blink and the water temp was about 75*F. Chilly at best. Decided to give it a go anyway figuring I'd warm up as got going. Wrong... Never felt any sort of form and my 500's were a good 20-30 seconds slower than normal. Just kept getting tighter and tighter so bailed at 1800 and headed for the steam room to try and warm up. Hot tub was closed too!

After work I needed to sneak in a quick run before Kelsey's basketball game. Got in a 6 miler and felt really good. Pace is getting better and heart rate getting lower. 7:50 pace and 153 avg heart rate and really felt like I was running easy. Gotta love that.

Dragged myself out of bed this morning and did the same 6 mile loop on tired legs. Not nearly as good a run as Tuesday night but not terrible. 8:13 pace at 153 avg heart rate. Compared to 3 weeks ago, it's the same pace but 5-6 bpm lower heart rate. Just felt a bit tough.

Here's where the added running I hope helps... Got to the gym at noon and did 4 miles on the treadmill at a "treadmill 8:27 pace". Just cruised. Added some core work after the run and felt great once it was all over.

So I'm done for the day. Going to kick back tonight and watch LOST and recover for KMA tomorrow night.

The Stats...

• Tuesday noon swim - 1800m 32:30
• Tuesday PM run - 6 miles, 47:11, 7:50/mi, 153 avg HR (73% of max)
• Wednesday AM run - 6 miles, 49:19, 8:13/mi, 153 avg HR
• Wednesday Noon run - 4 miles, 34:00, 8:30/mi, no HR

KMA 5

Monday January 19, 2009

Great workout Monday night. KMA (kick my anerobic) cycling class number 5. This is a twice a week indoor cycling class we've been doing for 4 years now at The Bike Stop. Wow has it been 4 years?! Last nights workout was your basic upper end aerobic, 80% of max heart rate, tempo ride.

After a good warm up and some single leg drills, the main set consisted of a 1 x 10 minute and a 1 x 30 minute tempo ride with some off the bike leg work added in. Main set looked like this:

• 10 min tempo ride. Hit 80% of max (157 for me) by 3 min mark. Cadence around 90-95
• Off the bike for 2 x 2 min: 30 sec speed squats, 30 sec iso squat with flex bands 30 sec airplane balance
• 30 min tempo ride. Hit 80% of max by 2 min mark. Cadence around 90-95. At 10 min find gear at 70-75 rpm holding 80% heart rate. At 15 min back to original gear. At 20 min big gear again holding 70-75 rpm at 80%. 25 min mark back to original gear.
• 5 min micro burst. 15 sec all out, 15 sec rest. Ouch!!
• 3 min recovery
• Off the bike for 1 set of Leg Crank series
• Lunge matrix; 20 front alternating legs, 20 back alternating legs, 20 lateral on each side.

Great workout. 1:33:00 total time on and off the bike spinning out 23 miles. Just dripping sweat during the tempo rides. Kind of a mix of upper end aerobic conditioning with some strength work added in with the bigger gear work, squats, lunges and leg cranks.

New Blog for 2009

Hi All,

Firing up a new blog for this season and the journey to Ironman #2 in Louisville, Kentucky. Content is a little weak at the moment as I tweak the settings and look of the new site and bring over some of the links from the old blog (http://tritimkc.trifuel.net).

Only two more weeks and the "official" start of IM Louisville training begins. I enter the 30 week plan to Ironman in what I feel like is excellent base fitness shape. Run wise I feel as good as I've ever felt. Mostly due to great running partners who motivate and inspire me to get my lazy a$$ out of bed at o'dark thirty on Saturday mornings for our long run.

I will be posting most if not all of my workouts on this blog in an effort to track how I felt before, during and after the training session. Am I getting enough recovery, training in the correct zone for the required time, nutrition, race results leading up to Ironman, etc...

Hopefully it will be informative and maybe even a little bit entertaining!