Good week

Things are coming together nicely. I'm still not gaining much speed but my long workouts are really going well. Did a 3000 yard swim on Friday and then a 5K cross country run that evening. Followed that up with an 80 mile bike ride on Saturday and a 12 mile run this morning.

The 80 mile bike was a tri county affair, starting in Hillsborough, then Polk, Manatee and back into Hillsborough. Temps started out nicely but quickly hit 95+. Went through some roller coaster feelings on the bike as I felt horrible at points and then much better. In fact, the last 10 miles were some of the best miles I put in.

I took Sunday off after 8 tough days and spent the day at the pool with kids. It really seemed to help on this mornings run too. Again, not a fast run but I was able to run steady the whole way. I didn't finish feeling as strong as last week but it was 88 by the time I finished at 8:45 so that might have had something to do with it. I'm at 36 hours for the month so I need to get in 19 more in the last 10 days to get to the 55 mark. It will be close, but I think I'll get there.

Run went well

Going into last nights 12 mile run, I seriously was worried I might not be able to finish it. I've just felt exhausted lately from the heat and by mile 2 I was sure I would have a very tough run. But fortunately I never felt much worse. I didn't actually feel any better but at least didn't get worse. Overall it was encouraging being able to push through the run when I wasn't feeling at all strong.

Heading out in an hour for a 40 mile bike!!

Ramping up

Since I've signed up for B2B, I've kept thinking 'real training' wouldn't start until July. Now that July is here, it's a little daunting. Not only am I entering distances I've never seen before(except the run) on a consistent basis but I'm doing it in the dead heat of summer. I can run 20 miles or bike 100 in mild temps and lower humidity and bounce back just fine. But running even 5 miles in the sauna that is Florida in July/Aug/Sept, just drains me completely.

I r0de 70 miles on Saturday and felt great the first 35 miles. Then the sun really starting taking it's toll and I struggled the last 10 or so miles. Hit the road Sunday morning for a 7 mile run and again felt very good the first couple miles and then just died. The dew point was 80 degrees and temps in the mid 80s. I had extreme fatigue the rest of the day and really haven't recovered fully yet. I did get in a 2000 yard swim and 30 mile bike yesterday but am a little leery looking at a 12 mile run today. At least I know it's the heat since 2 weeks ago I did a 12 mile run followed by an 80 mile bike 2 days later and felt strong on both when we were back in Michigan City. I actually think I might hit the first 7 miles today on the treadmill at the Y and then run the 5 mile loop from there to finish up. Not only will it provide less heat/humidity the first hour but also give me extra fluids since I can store some in the car.

The good news is Wilmington has average temperatures for November 1st are 71/49 with record temps of 85, so I'm pretty confident if I get the work done, the temps won't be an issue on race day.

Speaking of race day, I need to give congratulations to my friend Rick whom I've spoke about on this blog before. Rick and I did my first 1/2 iron race in 2002 at the Muncie Edurathon. I went 6:39 and he went 6:19. He ended up in the medical tent afterwards and according to him, just about passed out for the entire drive back home to Chicago that afternoon/evening. Fast forward to 2008 and Rick was again going to take on Muncie. He trained hard including much more biking then he did for 2002. He was hoping for a 5:59 and confided in me a week before the race if everything broke just right, he might go 5:40, but was afraid to say it out loud.

So, I logged onto the website Saturday afternoon hoping they would have results up soon after the race and they did. It prompted me with name to search for and when it popped up 5:22, I was in shock. He crushed the course and his PR. Congrats Rick!!!

Update

It's been quite a while since I've updated. Here is a review of whats happened since then:

Came down with a sinus infection or something similar and missed a couple days and cut back on a few others in June. Still was able to get in 45 hours for the months and some good individual workouts. Got in a 3000 yard and 2750 yard swim, 3 70 mile rides and several 10 mile runs.

July has started off great. Back in Indiana at my parents I took full advantage of the cooler temps. First 6 days I put in 14 hours including an 80 mile ride and 10 and 12 mile runs. The schedule has July as the first of 3+ really big months. I fully intend to get in 55+ hours this month and continue to ramp up the distances of the long workouts in all 3 disciplines. I also hope to update a little more often.

June update

It's a been good but tough week. Started out with my first day off of the month last Friday, June 6 as I went to my daughters junior olympic rhythmic national meet. But in the next week, I was able to get in 2 10 mile runs, a 7 and 5 mile run, 3 swims for 5500 yards, and a 70, 40 and 30 mile ride. I'm at 21+ hours so far this month with another 70 mile ride scheduled for tomorrow.

The heat and humidity are at full summer levels and I'm having to compensate accordingly. I've had to add an extra bottle to my 30 mile rides as well as extra enduralytes to my long workouts. I ran into a problem on my 70 mile ride with the conveinence store I usually stop at to refill being closed on Sunday. Luckily I had taken some power that I mixed with a water faucet they had to get me through till the next store 20+ miles later. I felt terrible for a little while but after I got enough fluids back in me was able to find a little strength to finish up.

That will be the biggest challenge of training through the summer is recovery. Not from the physical exertion but from losing all the fluids. For instance, on my 70 mile ride last Sunday, I drank 7 liters of fluids during the ride, drank almost the entire time afterwards and still felt worn out the next morning. Where as if I had ridden 70 in cooler/less humid weather, I would have bounced back much quicker. But, having trained for several of my 1/2 iron races in the Florida summers, I know what to expect and have learned some things along the way to help.

20 weeks to go!!

OK, May is in the books and I was able to get in a little more time than I expected. I hit 46:30 for the month, which was great considering the amount of time I lost on some of the weekends.

June really kicks off the real training portion. Baseball games are done, school is out and after this weekend, gymnastics meets are done.

Goals for the month:

3000 yard swim and 20000+ yards swimming
70+ mile bike and 500+ miles biking
12 mile run and 110 miles running

All told, I'd like to get in 50+ hours this month. The only drawback is the heat/humidity have arrived and this causes a little more difficultly with recovery. But at least the wind has started to die down a bit so the biking has improved.

Sharks Classic Race Report

Got to Siesta Key at about 5:55 am for the 7:00 race and already I could tell it would be a bigger race than last year. The wind was already kicking up at about 10 mph which doesn't bode well as the high winds usually don't start until later in the day. I checked in and got my bike racked and everything laid out of the race. Out of transition at about 6:40 and went to the beach. The surf in the bay was a choppy from the wind but nothing too bad. It looked like we'd be fighting waves on the way out and getting the benefit on the way back.

I was supposed to go off with the over 40 group at 7:06 but the buoys were taking longer than they expected and the elites didn't take off until about 7:15. I was in the 3rd wave and took off about 7:19. The course had us swimming our about 100 yards, then turning right and swimming down to the turn around and coming back, keeping the buoys on our left the entire time. The first buoy was at a sand bar so most all the swimmers were running/wading to it before turning right and I did also. Seemed to be able to get there a little quicker than swimming able to get my heartrate going a little before swimming.

Once I turned right, I immediately felt pretty good, which isn't unusual for me in the swim but it usually becomes a struggle sooner rather than later. I found I was right and and waves were pushing into on the way out but they weren't too bad and I was able to get into a good rhythm and before I knew it I was at the turn around buoy and heading back. I was still feeling good at this point and the push back was nice. Pretty uneventful coming back but I was starting to struggle a little and didn't think I was going to do as well as last year(35:56) but as I exited the water I looked at my watch and saw 32:20 as I crossed the timing mat!! I was excited and all the swimming I've been doing the last month seemed to have paid off.

The transition run to T1 is in soft sand and about 1/4 mile so I knew I had to hustle to keep the time down. Last year I did 4:24 on T1 and this year I was able to shave a little time off with a 4:06. I was on my bike and on the course quickly and feeling good. The course is a 2 loop long oval and the wind was in our faces to start. It's about 4.5 miles to the turn around and I was able to hold a steady pace just trying to maintain decent speed before the turn. Once on the turn I tried to push it hard for the 7+ miles or so before the next turn around. There was a section just before the turn where you had to turn right and then left very quickly and all I heard was left so I turned left where I was supposed to turn right and quickly realized my mistake. I lost a few maybe 10 seconds but nothing major. The rest of the ride was uneventful and I was able to finish in 1:19:59 as opposed to 1:23:49 last year but last years course was about a mile long on my bike computer and this years was pretty close to exactly 24.8. I hit T2 was in and out quickly but gave back 40 seconds to last year with a 1:40.

I was off on the run which starts with the first mile or so cutting back and forth thru some woods before heading out onto an asphalt path. I was feeling pretty good and running steady if not fast. There are no mile markers on the run so I have no idea where I was at any one point or what any of my splits were. There was no shade after leaving the woods and it was already 85+ and high humidity and the sun/heat was taking it's toll. I still felt better than last year and figured without the beach section at the end, I would surely beat last years time. Except apparently after the beach section was removed early in the year, many participants complained they liked it and it was added back in. So, with 1.7 miles to go according to the race director, we cutover to the beach through very loose sand(probably 1/4 mile) until we hit the hard packed sand. Then it was swerving in and out of all the beach goers for the next 1.2 miles or so until we turned back up the beach(and the soft sand) to the finish. I was shocked when I looked at my watch and realized I gave back 2 full minutes to my less than impressive run from last year.

Though I was happy swim and bike my run leaves a lot to be desired. Only recently have I begun to run pain free and I've yet to get back on the track for speed work, so there is some hope of a little speed. But for someone that used to be a decent runner, having the run as my limited in the tri is very disappointing. I think my swim and bike will come along fine as the summer progresses but I've got to definitely start to attack the run a little more.