4th of July Weekend

Great weekend so far. Friday morning was one of the most fun workouts I've ever done. Hugh put it together for us and several of us who had the day off got together for the fun. Andrea even came out and provided support for us and get in a couple miles running herself!

Here was the plan...
At 5:45 am, Hugh, Jared, Brian and I loaded our running stuff into our car and then we took off on our bikes for Lee’s Summit West high school. It’s about 11 miles to the school from my house. We met Eric, Scott, David and Clark who came out from Eric’s house to meet us at West. Andrea was already there with our running shoes etc.

The plan for this track was 2 x 1 mile repeats. Planned to run 8:00 then 7:50 but you get several triathletes together and the pace will always be faster. We ended up running them both back to back at 7:17.

So done there, put our running stuff back in the car, and headed to Lee’s Summit high school. Here we ran 4 x 800’s with a 200 recovery. Ran these pretty hard and each one faster than the last, but still felt pretty good.

Okay, running shoes back in the car, us back on the bikes. Now a short ride over to Lee’s Summit North. Here we ran 4 x 400 with 200 recoveries. These got a bit painful as the legs were getting toasty from this TRIPLE BRICK workout!

It was looking like rain and pretty dark in the west so we grabbed a couple cookies Andrea had made for us and got back on the bikes to head for home. We made it almost all the way back when the rain started.

Rounding a sharp turn, Hugh went down hard bending his rear derailer and came away with a good bit of road rash on his arm and a bruised hip. Jared narrowly missed him and did a 180 in the road skidding around him. Brian and I were lucky enough to slow and stay upright.

We all limped back home in a pretty steady rain. Aside from Hugh crashing, it was a great morning and a really fun workout. We’ll be doing that one again soon I hope.

Logged about 25 miles of riding and 6.6 miles of running for the workout.

Saturday I’d planned to meet Jared, Brian and some other Bike Stop guys at 6am for a ride to Lexington and back then get in a 45 minute transition run. However it was pouring down rain when I got up and so we decided to wait until 7:30 to meet up. The roads were still very wet when I got moving at 6:30 so I decided to just wait a bit longer for the roads to dry out and ride local.

By 8:30 it was drying up so I headed out about 9am and road 12 loops around Lakewood with one of the loops going down behind the golf course. Got in my 4 hours (76 miles) then transitioned to the run. What a difference a week and 25 degrees makes. Last week I barely made it a mile on the run. Today I was able to get the full 45 minutes in. Felt good the entire time. It was still a bit warm, so when I got back to my street, I walked on down and jumped in the lake to cool off. Wow did that feel awesome!

Sunday, I met Jared, Troy and Eric on the little blue trace for the weekends long run. I'd set out water and gatorade on the south end and Jared set water at the 78 hwy shelter to the north so we wouldn't have to carry fluid on the run. We ran rather easy again this week for the first 12 miles then Jared started to pick it up. Once I figured out he wasn't going to slow down I picked up my pace to catch up to him and we really pushed it the last 2.5 to 3 miles.

Considering we both had long rides and trans runs the day before it was good to see we could push the pace at the end.

Run Stats: 15.1 miles, 2:04:03 (8:13/mi), 134 avg HR/ 172 max

Solid Month

June turned out to be a solid month of training with 2 races, and a long group ride along with the Tour de Lakes getting ready for Louisville. Add in some down time in Hermann, MO and it sets me up well for the final 9 peak weeks of Ironman training.

Total numbers look good and I actually feel pretty good without any major injuries. Other than the normal sore knee or hamstring here and there. But that's to be expected with all the meters and miles right?

• Swim: 28181 meters - 08:22:52
• Bike: 371.47 miles - 19:19:04
• Run: 117.9 miles - 16:01:28

Race number 1 wasn't really a race as much as a long training run with aid stations. Eric, Jared, Brian and I signed up for the Hospital Hill Run, a half marathon with lots of hills just because... We ran semi easy but still managed 7:59 pace which probably was a bit too hard of a run the week before Ironman Kansas 70.3. Finish time of 1:44:49 was not near a PR but still a solid long run.

The very next week had me at race number 2, Ironman Kansas 70.3 in Lawrence, KS. Now this would be a good gauge of my fitness and where I was training wise. Turned out to be a great day as the predicted storms really never hit and we had nice weather throughout the day. Plus I broke the 5 hour mark and finished with a half distance PR of 4:53:50, good enough for 28th in my age group.

Finished off the month this past Sunday with a brutally hot, hilly and hard Tour de Lakes ride in Lee's Summit, MO with the training group. It was very good and humid and I really had to push to keep up with this strong group of riders. I was totally shelled by the time I got home and canned the transition run after a miserable 1 mile!

Felt much better for our last long run of the month Sunday as Jared, Troy and I got in a 2 hour run at an easy 8:30 pace. Even had enough energy left to play 18 holes with Andrea and Kelsey later in the day.

Took yesterday off as I usually do on Mondays to recover and then got out early today for a 6 mile run. Felt a bit sluggish but did a few short pickups to shake out the legs and felt good by the time I was done. Finished off the month today with a good noon swim of intervals.

June is now in the books and now I'm ready to finish off the next 7 weeks of peak training and head into the taper for August 30!

Thursday / Friday

Thursday NOON: Tough swim workout Thursday at noon. I've finally come to the conclusion, with the help of Jared, that the only way to get stronger and thus faster in the water is doing these tough interval workouts. I guess it's no different than getting faster at running by doing short fast intervals. The Be Iron Fit book has 17 different swim workouts and this one was #16...

• 500 warm up
• 400 drills (mostly paddles and pul buoy)
• 3 x 150, 20 sec rest
• 4 x 250, 30 sec rest
• 3 x 150, 20 sec rest
• 400 drills
• 300 cool down
• 3500m total in 1:04:40

Thursday 5:45 PM: Nice hot evening for a hour and a half ride. 90*F with the heat index at 99*! No wind at all so it was like riding in a blast furnace. Felt pretty decent again and was able to maintain a pretty solid pace. Chose to stay close to home and ride 5 laps around the Lakewood 6 mile loop.

• 30 miles, 1:29:37 (20.1 mph), 136 avg HR

Friday 5:15 AM: Didn't sleep all that well Thursday night and was half awake when the alarm went off so pretty easy to just get up and get going today. Temperature was better, I think, although really humid. Legs a bit heavy from last nights ride so decided to take it easy and back off the pace a bit. Still surprised the heart rate stayed as low as it did. Shoes squishy with sweat by the time I finished... might be time for a new pair! :)

• 8 miles, 1:05:56 (8:13/mi), avg HR 148

100 Degree Brick

Hot and steamy night for a brick workout. But no choice, gotta get it done. Heat index at 100*F when I left work at 5pm but somehow didn't seem as bad as it's been. Of course it was 107 Tuesday so 100 was an improvement!

Pretty good night actually with a bit of wind to keep the air moving and it was starting to cloud up as I left the house for the ride. Dark clouds in the northwest looked pretty ominous and I hoped I could get the entire 1:15:00 workout in before the apparent thunderstorm hit.

Felt great on the bike, better than I have in a couple weeks. Should be mostly recovered from the last few weekends of racing I think. Finished up the ride, and still no rain, so made a quick transition to the run. Felt okay in the legs, but the heart rate shot up right away. Has to be due to the heat. Even though it was cloudy, thankfully, it was still very hot. Decided to not worry about pace and concentrate more on form and turnover.

As I came across the dam with about a mile to go in the run I could see some lightening now in the clouds. Perfect timing as I was going to be able to get this thing done before the storm. Took it easy up the last hill again just thinking of good form. Stopped to toss a big rock in the bike lane into the sewer so myself or another rider wouldn't hit it... and found a golf ball too!

Finished up the brick and stretched out the legs. Just dripping sweat... Ah feels so good!

Brick Stats:

• Ride: 16.10 miles, 48:18 (20.0 mph), 136 avg HR
• Run: 4.14 miles, 33:02 (7:58 pace), 161 avg HR! (oooh)

*chicken caesar salad, couple slices of pizza and a Fat Tire beer for dinner ;-)

Muggy AM Run... Noon Swim

Very humid this morning and already mid 80's at 5:45! Got it done and was drenched by the end with squishy shoes...

The run:

• 10 minute warm up
• 3 x 6:00 hard, 85%+ HR, with 2:00 recovery - difficult getting the legs to turn over
• Balance of run at steady pace

9.10 miles, 1:12:14, avg HR 160 (78%), 7:56 avg pace

Once I got the heart rate up for the intervals, it never would drop back to aerobic levels. Probably due to the hot and humid conditions.

Got to 24HR for a noon swim... Not too many people this time in the two lanes so I had one lane all to myself except for about 10 minutes when a guy shared my lane for a few laps. Been since last Tuesday since my last swim so my form felt a bit off. Overall not a bad workout though.

The swim:

• 900 warm up
• 5 x 200 with 30 seconds rest
• 5 x 100 with 20 seconds rest
• 5 x 50 with 10 seconds rest
• 6 x 25 with 5 secons rest
• 700 cool down

3500m total in 59:04

Crunch Time

Okay time to kick the training into high gear... It's been a good season so far with decent results at the last 2 races... Kansas City Triathlon olympic race and Ironman Kansas 70.3... Took most of last week easy just recovering from 3 weeks of hard training and racing.

Andrea and I spent a great weekend in Hermann, MO relaxing and enjoying some time together without the hassles of work and training. Well okay we did carve out a couple hours to ride/run the Katy Trail... But wow was it hot and humid. Suffered through 8 miles at midday and just melted. (note to self-avoid running in 90* heat after a wine tasting) Yeah!

Ok so refreshed and recharged from the weekend, I'm ready to finish off the build phase of the training and start into the peak phase.

Ironman Louisville is not far off now!!

Good Start

Getting May off to a good start with an excellent weekend of training. Plan called for a 3 hour ride on Saturday with a 30 minute transition run. The rain held off and we were able to get a good group ride in. Road a bit with the Bike Stop guys but Jared and Randy and I pealed off and headed back before the rest. Both those guys were racing on Sunday so they didn't ride their usual blistering pace. Lucky for me too as I could actually hang on and ride with them rather than see them disappear over the next hill.

Once back to Lakewood, Jared continued on home and I finished my 3 hours by doing two more loops around the lake. Back home made a quit pit stop and changed into some running gear and hit the road. Thought I'd just do what the plan called for and head out around the lake and run 30 minutes and be done. Walk whatever was left. I felt so good though that by the time 30 minutes was up I was almost back so figured I'd run this far so just finish the loop. Good sign that training is going well because I felt strong the whole time.

Back home again for a quick shower, some food and then headed for an hour massage!

• Bike: 55.57 mi, 2:58:26, 18.7 mph, 139 avg HR
• Run: 4.02 mi, 31:45, 7:54 pace, 157 avg HR

Sunday I met Hugh, Yows and Eric to run the Lake Jacomo hills. Our usual first of the month 12 mile run on a tough but fun course. Again I felt really strong and coming back through the last 3 brutal hills we really pushed the pace. Always fun running with those guys as the conversation and trash talking is hilarious.

• Run: 12.12 mi, 1:39:05, 8:10 pace, 151 avg HR