Rained all weekend, a perfect time to not have any workouts scheduled! I have my race this weekend in Bismarck, ND, so I'm keeping this easy this week. Not completely off so I don't get stale, but definitely dialed back, using the same schedule.
Got in my OWS this morning. What a great way to start the week! Took 26 minutes instead of 25 for one mile. The water was up significantly from recent rains, and it was definitely a few degrees cooler, to the point it was cold. When I got done, my feet and ankles were numb, and my hands were stiff. Otherwise, good. And the sun broke out for about ten minutes, and it was BEAUTIFUL!
Ran five miles at lunch. This was an easy Level 3, putting forth effort but not pushing hard and keeping the pace uphill. I came in at 37:30, which is only 1:30 or so slower than my PR. So it was a great time for the effort put forth. It's amazing what some recovery time will do for the body.
Bike an easy 14 miles after work. Very windy.
Got an e-mail today that the race might become a duathlon. Bismarck received quite a bit of rain over the weekend, and the water temps dropped to 53.5, so they might make it a run-bike-run. The change in water temp is understandable, since my sister reported 3-4 inches of snow in parts of the state, which all runs into the Missouri River, which is where the marina for the race gets its water. I say we should swim no matter what. I'm not excited about a duathlon because I'm a relatively good swimmer, and that's where I make up for a slow bike and average run. Decision to be made on race day.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Lots of rain, but no workouts planned
Lots of rain here the past few days. I got in my workouts for the week in between the hard rain sets. I was thinking about a short and easy bike/run brick today, but bailed in the rain. That workout wasn't on the schedule anyway, it was just something I was thinking about.
My race is next week. An olympic distance triathlon in Bismarck, ND. The bike course profile looks quite similar to what I ride here for my 40k route. It's fairly hilly and there should be some wind, both of which I'm familiar with on weekly rides.
My race plan is done. Now it's a might of proper training in the race week to peak appropriately.
My race is next week. An olympic distance triathlon in Bismarck, ND. The bike course profile looks quite similar to what I ride here for my 40k route. It's fairly hilly and there should be some wind, both of which I'm familiar with on weekly rides.
My race plan is done. Now it's a might of proper training in the race week to peak appropriately.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Having a good week
This week is panning out as scheduled. Today I did a six mile run at lunch instead of the usual five. The time was slow (8:25 miles) for my effort level, but overall it was a good run.
I thought about not riding my bike tonight after work because my legs must be getting tired based on the run at lunch. But I went anyway, and it turned out great. I got close to my PR times, only a minute off for 25 miles, and I didn't put forth a great effort. There was some serious headwind on the way out, and I let it get to me mentally, even though I know the wind normally "averages out" on an out n back route, and it certainly did tonight. This was a tough workout mentally more than physically. I'm glad I did it.
I thought about not riding my bike tonight after work because my legs must be getting tired based on the run at lunch. But I went anyway, and it turned out great. I got close to my PR times, only a minute off for 25 miles, and I didn't put forth a great effort. There was some serious headwind on the way out, and I let it get to me mentally, even though I know the wind normally "averages out" on an out n back route, and it certainly did tonight. This was a tough workout mentally more than physically. I'm glad I did it.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A few photos (double post tonight)
I wanted to post a few pix for a while, so tonight is a double post.
Here's Paul on a cool morning at the South Fork of the Boise River last weekend while we were camping.
Here's Paul on a cool morning at the South Fork of the Boise River last weekend while we were camping.
Paul seems to be liking the camping. Sometimes he goes into the pack n play to give everyone a break from holding him.
Family photo. It got hot on the river! But the water was really cold...I'm guessing 50 or less.
Me and Steve after the Pocatello 50. He ran the first leg and had been done for about 8 hours by the time I got to the finish line. Our third team member wasn't there.
Sprints and a good swim
Slept in, so no OWS this morning, but that led to a nice discovery in the pool at lunch. It turns out that OWS is helping my pool swim quite a bit. I did 2x750 in the same splits avg 11:10 that I did 2x700 in the last workout of that nature in the pool. That's interesting, and I'm quite sure I did all the laps. My first 100yd on each of the 750's was 1:21. My stroke is down to 10-11 on each 25yds, and it was 12-13. I focused on a good catch with hands pointed down and a high elbow on the pull. My effort level didn't feel high, but I was averaging 140 heart rate, which is high for me; but the key is that I didn't feel like it was high. This was a nice discovery, and it will be more motivation to get up in the morning to hit the OWS at Jensen's Grove.
Did sprints after work. This time I actually did two sets of 800, 400, 200, 100. I did 2x800, then 2x400, then 2x200, then 2x100. I'm not sure if that's the best way or if I should just do the 800, 400, 200, 100 ladder twice. In any case, my times on the first sets were faster than the last time I did the sprints, and the second sets were equal to last time I did sprints. I'll take that to mean that I've improved. On top of that, I had a relatively full stomach from a late and big lunch with some M&Ms, a Twix, and lots of water still in me; all adding up to the fact that I wasn't comfortable at all from the start. I'm glad to have gotten the first two-setter out of the way finally, which has been something I've wanted to do for a while but haven't. In fact, I haven't done sprints in a while. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
After the sprints, I did two sets of planks, each for 1:15. I've upped the time 15 seconds, and it makes a huge difference. My abs are still a bit sore from the planks on Monday.
Just over a week left til my tri in Bismarck. I'm starting to get nervous. I'll see if my efforts have paid off. I'll be comparing my time to that of the Bear Lake Brawl in Sept 08, which was at about 5,800 ft. The Biz Tri is at about 1500 feet, so I'm counting on that giving me a bit of advantage over the comparable times and relative to the other racers because I'm training at 4700ft and they're probably training at home at about 1,500 ft. It may not be a huge difference, but I remember feeling tired for the first three weeks we lived in Pocatello, so I'm counting on there being a difference of some sort. But also, I know how that North Dakota wind can blow, and that is going to hurt because I know the wind here, almost as bad but not quite, really slows me down.
Did sprints after work. This time I actually did two sets of 800, 400, 200, 100. I did 2x800, then 2x400, then 2x200, then 2x100. I'm not sure if that's the best way or if I should just do the 800, 400, 200, 100 ladder twice. In any case, my times on the first sets were faster than the last time I did the sprints, and the second sets were equal to last time I did sprints. I'll take that to mean that I've improved. On top of that, I had a relatively full stomach from a late and big lunch with some M&Ms, a Twix, and lots of water still in me; all adding up to the fact that I wasn't comfortable at all from the start. I'm glad to have gotten the first two-setter out of the way finally, which has been something I've wanted to do for a while but haven't. In fact, I haven't done sprints in a while. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
After the sprints, I did two sets of planks, each for 1:15. I've upped the time 15 seconds, and it makes a huge difference. My abs are still a bit sore from the planks on Monday.
Just over a week left til my tri in Bismarck. I'm starting to get nervous. I'll see if my efforts have paid off. I'll be comparing my time to that of the Bear Lake Brawl in Sept 08, which was at about 5,800 ft. The Biz Tri is at about 1500 feet, so I'm counting on that giving me a bit of advantage over the comparable times and relative to the other racers because I'm training at 4700ft and they're probably training at home at about 1,500 ft. It may not be a huge difference, but I remember feeling tired for the first three weeks we lived in Pocatello, so I'm counting on there being a difference of some sort. But also, I know how that North Dakota wind can blow, and that is going to hurt because I know the wind here, almost as bad but not quite, really slows me down.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Bike in the mist
Nice bike workout at lunch today. The rain shut down for long enough for me to get a bike workout in just a light mist. That's good for me because I need to ride on the wet roads because today was the first day I've ridden on a wet road. It scares the heck out of me for some reason.
Today's workout was the "Barton Hill," which is a 8-9 minute ride up and 2.5 minutes down. I do three sets, and then I have to go up a 5-minute hill to get back to work. The up is nice in a mist because it keeps things cool. The down is pretty scary. A 30mph corner becomes a 15-18mph corner for me, and I rarely get on the aero bars on the down because I'm now terrified of crashing because of wet roads. About two week ago I came to the conclusion that crashing on a bike into pavement would be significantly different than crashing on skis into powder. Pretty obvious, right? Well, it takes a genius to state the obvious, I once heard that somewhere.
Anyway, the first two ups were average, and the third up was slow. I think there is still some fatigue deep down in my quads leftover from the trail race.
Overall, a good day.
Today's workout was the "Barton Hill," which is a 8-9 minute ride up and 2.5 minutes down. I do three sets, and then I have to go up a 5-minute hill to get back to work. The up is nice in a mist because it keeps things cool. The down is pretty scary. A 30mph corner becomes a 15-18mph corner for me, and I rarely get on the aero bars on the down because I'm now terrified of crashing because of wet roads. About two week ago I came to the conclusion that crashing on a bike into pavement would be significantly different than crashing on skis into powder. Pretty obvious, right? Well, it takes a genius to state the obvious, I once heard that somewhere.
Anyway, the first two ups were average, and the third up was slow. I think there is still some fatigue deep down in my quads leftover from the trail race.
Overall, a good day.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Recovered and rocking it!
My body has recovered after a weekend of camping and fishing (lots of bug bites but no fish bites or fish to speak of). I took my MTB with us camping, but I slept so well each night and well into the morning that I didn't ride it.
And today I had great workouts.
Started in the morning w/ 1 mile OWS in 25:51. Time was slower than previous, but I think I swam pretty crooked lines. I actually smacked into a guy this morning. I haven't seen anyone else out there in my other swims. Then today, I'm swimming along, thinking I finally feel 100% comfortable in open water and watching the rocks go by and then completely zoning when WHAM! I run into something. I popped up and it was another swimmer. It was completely my fault, and he was nice about it. Dang that scared me! Gotta pay attention in the water. At least I haven't run off the road on the bike recently cuz I'm constantly telling myself I gotta pay attention after I ran off the road a few times last year.
Great 5 mile run at lunch. PR'd my usual 5 mile lunch course, beating previous time by 1:32 and it wasn't a race effort, just a hard effort. Beautiful weather, too.
After work did my Portland tri simulation route. Got my best times going up the big Terry hill to start, and then my best split going up the other side on the way home. I only did two hill intervals, the first an average time and the second about a minute off average time (not sure what I was doing but it did feel slow). My downhill times both beat previous bests for those splits, too. It started to sprinkle at the beginning of the second hill interval, so I got to practice riding in the rain for the first time. I'm definitely much slower and very careful with wet roads, so maybe that was it.
A great day! And then I got Paul to sleep without rocking him at all. Just put him in the crib with "Harry the Horse," a little doll thing, turned on the mobile three different times, and he was eventually asleep. First time for that!
A good day all around!
And today I had great workouts.
Started in the morning w/ 1 mile OWS in 25:51. Time was slower than previous, but I think I swam pretty crooked lines. I actually smacked into a guy this morning. I haven't seen anyone else out there in my other swims. Then today, I'm swimming along, thinking I finally feel 100% comfortable in open water and watching the rocks go by and then completely zoning when WHAM! I run into something. I popped up and it was another swimmer. It was completely my fault, and he was nice about it. Dang that scared me! Gotta pay attention in the water. At least I haven't run off the road on the bike recently cuz I'm constantly telling myself I gotta pay attention after I ran off the road a few times last year.
Great 5 mile run at lunch. PR'd my usual 5 mile lunch course, beating previous time by 1:32 and it wasn't a race effort, just a hard effort. Beautiful weather, too.
After work did my Portland tri simulation route. Got my best times going up the big Terry hill to start, and then my best split going up the other side on the way home. I only did two hill intervals, the first an average time and the second about a minute off average time (not sure what I was doing but it did feel slow). My downhill times both beat previous bests for those splits, too. It started to sprinkle at the beginning of the second hill interval, so I got to practice riding in the rain for the first time. I'm definitely much slower and very careful with wet roads, so maybe that was it.
A great day! And then I got Paul to sleep without rocking him at all. Just put him in the crib with "Harry the Horse," a little doll thing, turned on the mobile three different times, and he was eventually asleep. First time for that!
A good day all around!
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