Swim and a Run

Got in my typical noon swim on Tuesday of 6 x 500 and felt pretty decent. The pool at 24Hr has been a bit more quiet recently then it has been which is nice. Less of a hassle to get in the workout without having to ask to share a lane, which side you want? blah blah blah. To this point I'm just content with getting in the required distance for the day. Eventually I'm going to have to throw in some faster stuff though to build some strength and maybe a bit of speed.

Jared gave me a workout to try so I may give it a shot this Thursday. Which reminds me, I need to ask the folks at 24HR wherer the swim clock is???

Adding a bit of intensity to the running workouts now as well. Tuesday's run plan was 45 minutes. After 10 minute warmup, insert 3 x 3 minutes in zone 5 (85%+) with 1 minute jog recovery's. These were tough, but because I have been doing mile repeats getting ready for the Trolley run, these 3 minute efforts didn't seem too bad.

• 10 minutes easy warming up, 1.29 mi, 7:45 pace
• 3 minutes hard, 6:31 pace, 164 avg hr, 172 max
• 1 minute jog
• 3 minutes hard, 6:30 pace, 172 avg hr, 176 max
• 1 minute jog
• 3 minutes hard, 6:29 pace, 172 avg hr, 177 max
• 1 minute jog
• 3 miles easy to finish, 7:51 pace

Total run 6 miles, 7:34 pace, 158 avg HR

Still Building

Broke out the hammer and nails for this weekends training sessions... Started off with a pretty hard 54.5 mile ride Saturday with the Bike Stop guys. Those dudes can ride and really push the pace so there is no excuse not to be getting better by riding with them. Nice SW winds at about 20 mph so the trip south was brutal, but coming back the boys swung the hammer down hard and cooked along at a cool 36 mph. I just tried to hang on the last wheel totally enjoying the speed! I pealed off once we got close to home and the rest continued on... Jared and another Tim who is training for Ironman CDA put in a total of 103! Uh, Jared we have the Trolley Run on Sunday... Once I got back home it was a quick change of shoes and off for a short 15 minute transition run. Legs felt like stone the first 1/4 mile but came around after that. Really felt pretty decent.

• Bike: 54.5 miles, 3:05:20, 17.6 avg mph, 140 avg hr
• Run: 2.1 miles, 17:04, 8:08 avg pace, 153 avg hr

That was the hammer, now for the nails!

Sunday I met Jared (with 103 miles in his legs from Saturday) and Troy down at the start of the Trolley Run. 6,666 folks finished the race which is awesome considering it's only a 4 mile run. We did a short easy 2 mile warmup then got into our wave for the start. This race always reminds me of a mini Chicago marathon. It's so packed at the start and you're just shoulder to shoulder waiting for the gun. It was just crazy weaving through people the first half mile! But I made it through pretty well and was pretty please I was at 6:08 pace when I made the first turn... What?! 6:08?! Oh man too fast... Oh well, felt good so just tried to hold what I could and man did I feel myself fading from about 2.5 in to the finish!

Still finished with a PR of 25:43 and a 6:26 pace. Good for 15th in my age group out of 334 (192 out of 6,666) . I have to say I never thought I'd ever finish that high in this race. There are just a bunch of really fast runners that come do this race.

Jared finished just behind me at 26:39 and Troy just behind Jared at 27:20. Great race for us all considering we've been really only doing long slow stuff and only a couple speed workouts. Not to mention the long rides from Saturday.

We grabbed a quick snack at the finish then jogged easy back to the start and added another couple miles to get in 12 total. (actually 12.25) Great day and weekend of training.

• 2 mile warmup, 17:02
• 4 mile race, 25:43, 6:26 avg pace, 175 avg hr, OUCH!
• 6.25 miles, 57:03, 9:08 avg pace, 150 avg hr, that's more like it!
• 12.25 total miles

Day off tomorrow. Maybe a short run.....

Longer Brick

Wednesday night is brick night. Probably my favorite workout of the week. This week called for a little longer run going from 15 minutes to 30. Quads a bit stiff and sore from the track workout Tuesday night and I really felt it during the run. Other then that, I felt pretty good.

• Bike: 15 miles, 46:45, avg HR 136, 19.4 avg mph
• Run: 4 miles, 30:49, avg HR 152, 7:39 pace

Swim and Track

Man why is it that some days you just feel aweful in the pool? Felt really weak during the noon swim Tuesday and the split times showed it! Had a difficult time keeping what I'd call any sort of decent form. Normally I'd have called it a workout after 1500, but I was determined to finish the 3000 on the plan. So I just sloshed through the last three 500's. Just one of those days I suppose...

• Total Distance 3000m in 54:22
• Lap Times: 8:24, 8:34, 8:37, 8:43, 8:43, 9:02

As bad as I felt in the pool, I felt exactly the opposite on the track for my mile repeats. Felt great warming up and was able to really push it on the reps and then felt good on the cool down. No pain or tightness in the right calf this time.

• 2 mile warm up at 8 min pace
• 2 x 1 mile repeats with one lap jog (6:24, 6:17)
• 2 mile cool down at 8 min pace
• 6.5 miles total

EZ Stuff

The EZ stuff is now over. Base phase of training is behind me and week 11 of 30 begins tomorrow. Build phase... 10 weeks... Weeks 11 thu 20...

Adding a third swim to the mix and increasing the distance of each to 3000 meters. Adding some intensity to the running and the riding as well. Time to get fast!

Finished up the base phase with a long late afternoon ride Saturday out past Raintree Lake and back. Nice east wind kicked up so preferred to ride north to south and back to avoid as much wind as possible. Got enough of that on Thursday evening riding in 20+ mph winds for an hour+.

Sunday met Eric and Christopher at 6am for a run from Eric's house. Both were on a recovery week of sorts so we cut it back to 8 miles. Felt great the whole time at 7:45 pace.

Back to the Track

First track workout of the year last night. Going to ease into these and try not to fry my achilles and or soleous like I did last year. Beautiful night for a run too. Sunny light NE wind and mid 60's. Perfect. This first time out kept it to one single mile repeat and build to maybe 3 or 4 max in the next couple weeks.

Wednesday's workout:

• 2 mile warm-up at 8:04 pace
• 1 x 1 mile at 6:23 pace - 173 max hr, 167 avg
• 2 mile cool down at 7:50 pace
• Done

Playing Catch Up

Not with training mind you, but with posting to the blog. Funny how hot and cold I am with this thing...

At any rate the training continues as time marches on towards Ironman Louisville. Cycling class is now behind us and while I missed several workouts to attend Kelsey's basketball games, I still feel as strong as ever after the class. Perhaps because I missed a few classes and I'm not as shelled as I usually am once it's over.

Plus all the running I've been doing on my own and with the weekend crew, has really put me in great base fitness. Logged 110 miles in January, 111 in February and 113 in March. And the best part is the pace has improved each month at the same if not lower heart rates.

About time to start some faster running as I get into the build phase of training. Weeks 11 - 20. It's already week 10!

Today I ramped up my normal swim workout from 2500m to 3000m to get a feel for what next week will be like when my two 2500m swim workouts a week grow to three 3000m workouts. Felt pretty good throughout the swim and held an 8:30 average over the six 500m sets. Although I do feel a bit tired at the moment an hour later.

Going to meet some of the cycling class for a 6 mile time trial tonight and see exactly where I am as far as TT conditioning is concerned. Probably not great but still be fun to crank it up for a short time... more to follow...

Met several of the Bike Stop guys at a Casey's store and rode out to Buckner for the time trial. Good easy ride out with some short pick ups to warm up. Coach Greg was at the start but not many other riders were there yet. So we quickly lined up and hammered out our TT's and headed back to Casey's. The time trial felt pretty good. My Garmin was getting a lot of interference for some reason so I wasn't able to gauge my effort by anything other than the pain in my legs. Had a decent time of 15:12 for the 6 mile course at 23.6 mph. So I was pretty happy with that.

Riding back with Jared and another Bike Stop guy (man I'm terrible with names...) was great. We got lined out and took turns pulling. I couldn't wait to get to the front so I could slow it down!! About halfway back they pulled away a bit and I thought alone in the wind I'd be way off the back in no time. Thankfully they noticed and slowed up so I could catch back on.

Finished with 33 miles of riding. Not bad for a Tuesday night.