This past week was Week 8 of Ironman Texas Training. This week included my new longest bike ride of 101.4 miles, beating out last week's 80.4 mile ride. This week was a recovery week, so my workouts were curtailed a bit to allow some extra rest time for my body. Even so, it was still a solid workout week, coming in at just under 13 hours.
Here is how this past week of training breaks down:
Swim - 5700 yards, 2:17:48
Bike - 101.4 miles on roads, 6:14:34
Run - 18.4 miles, 3:51:34
Other - stretching specific or other training workout, 0:35:00
Overall training time 12:58:56
You might be thinking that this seems like a lot for a "recovery week" and I would be inclined to agree with you. I did drop one bike workout to get some extra rest during the week. Also, my longest run workout was just over 7 miles this week. The highlight of my week was my first scheduled 100 mile bike ride. Starting out at the house of a training partner who lives just off of the Ironman Texas bike course around mile 8 of the course, we rode primarily on the course for about 40 miles and then we looped back to do a second 32 mile loop around the toughest part of the course (i.e. most of the Iron Star half iron bike course) before riding back to the start point. The weather was good, though the wind picked up in the last hour or two, and I held a better than expected pace through the ride at an average speed of 16.25 mph, not fast by most triathlon standards but good for me at this distance (a pace which would actually yield a PR for me on a 56 mile half-iron course!) Unfortunately, I really pushed too hard for a long training ride because I felt good, so as a result I took it easy on Sunday's training run due to some light muscle soreness.
This week completes 40% of my training program. Next week is the start of the next 3 week build/1 week recovery cycle. I think these next 4 weeks may be the toughest mental part of my training because they will include some increasingly difficult workouts--though not the toughest of the program, but my race is still too far out to be my sole focus. In addition, the next build cycle will also include my tune-up race at the Gateway to the Bay Olympic distance triathlon (technically now renamed to the Kemah Triathlon) which will help divert my attention during that period.
However, I do have one side event coming up next weekend. I will be running the Texas Independence Relay from some close family friends next weekend. The race website describes the race as "The course starts in Gonzales, TX, where the Texas Revolution began, and it finishes at the San Jacinto Monument, where Texas Independence was won!". Ironically, this may be the easiest weekend workout I have had for a while.
On a side note for my Ironman training, I am coming closer to working out the details of my final nutrition plan. Some experimentation over the last few weeks has led me to calculate that I will be better off to put all (or at least almost all) of my bike nutrition in bottles in liquid form. Specifically, I am looking at carrying 2 bottles with enough calories for 4 hours in each bottle--not that I plan to be on the bike for that long, but partly as a hedge against not wanting to lose my only bottle with any nutritional calories if one bottle should manage to fall or otherwise get lost.
83 days until Ironman Texas...
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
IMTX Training - Week 7
This past week was Week 7 of Ironman Texas Training. This week included my new longest bike ride of 80.4 miles, beating out last week's 79.4 mile ride, and also included my longest swim of 4100 yards, which is just short of the Ironman swim distance of a bit over 4200 yards. These growing workouts included getting in more than 16 hours of workouts for the second straight week (although just barely over 16 hours!). This week was the last build week of the current phase of training before I start a recovery week next week.
Here is how this past week of training breaks down:
Swim - 9500 yards, 3:45:38
Bike - 80.4 miles on roads plus time on spin bike or trainer, 6:32:58
Run - 25.2 miles, 5:26:38
Other - stretching specific or other training workout, 0:15:00
Overall training time 16:00:14
This finished out the current build phase of training. Although my scheduled workouts had me believing that my training time would increase over last week, I actually had a slight decrease in training time. I think this was due to increased speed in several long workouts.
I was feeling really good following my longest ever swim workout of 4100 yards this week. I put off the swim until the evening hours, which is not when I do my best swimming, and maintained a great (for me anyway) pace finishing in 1:31:44, including the rest interval breaks. In addition to my successful long swim workout I also had a great long bike workout. I rode almost the same route as last week with a teammate, covering an additional mile in 27 less minutes. The increased speed was partly due to better weather and partly due to holding a better level of effort throughout the workout. I also made a point not to push my knee too hard this week and it seems to be feeling fine.
90 days until Ironman Texas...
Here is how this past week of training breaks down:
Swim - 9500 yards, 3:45:38
Bike - 80.4 miles on roads plus time on spin bike or trainer, 6:32:58
Run - 25.2 miles, 5:26:38
Other - stretching specific or other training workout, 0:15:00
Overall training time 16:00:14
This finished out the current build phase of training. Although my scheduled workouts had me believing that my training time would increase over last week, I actually had a slight decrease in training time. I think this was due to increased speed in several long workouts.
I was feeling really good following my longest ever swim workout of 4100 yards this week. I put off the swim until the evening hours, which is not when I do my best swimming, and maintained a great (for me anyway) pace finishing in 1:31:44, including the rest interval breaks. In addition to my successful long swim workout I also had a great long bike workout. I rode almost the same route as last week with a teammate, covering an additional mile in 27 less minutes. The increased speed was partly due to better weather and partly due to holding a better level of effort throughout the workout. I also made a point not to push my knee too hard this week and it seems to be feeling fine.
90 days until Ironman Texas...
Sunday, February 13, 2011
IMTX Training - Week 6
This past week was Week 6 of Ironman Texas Training. This week included my new longest bike ride of 79.4 miles, beating out last week's 70.0 mile ride and continuing a string of growing workouts. These growing workouts included getting in more than 16 hours of workouts for the first time. Next week will be the last build week of the current phase of training before I start a recovery week.
Here is how this past week of training breaks down:
Swim - 8100 yards, 3:23:04
Bike - 79.4 miles on roads plus time on spin bike or trainer, 7:17:49
Run - 24.0 miles, 4:55:25
Other - stretching or other training workout, 0:30:00
Overall training time 16:06:18
This week had me in the middle week of the current build phase of training as I increased slightly ahead of where I was last week in terms of total time trained. I learned a bit of a lesson this week as I pushed my pace during two of my training runs this past week, and while it was nice to run faster than I had in a long time...I also stressed my left knee a bit more than I intended and could feel that extra stress (although not so much that it feels injured). I will drop back a bit in pace and remind myself that my goal is a quality finish, not a fast finish.
Today's 79.4 mile bike ride was a bit of an adventure. Last night's low was supposed to be in the upper 30's with 40 degree temperatures expected 8 a.m. However the reality was temperatures in the upper 20's when the ride began at 7:30 and staying below freezing until at least an hour into the ride (brrr!!) To make matters worse there were about 10 mph winds during much of this time. Fortunately, the day warmed by about 40 degrees by the end of the ride, even though the wind picked up as well. The temperatures and wind made this ride more challenging than originally expected, however I also feel that this gives me a good baseline for lower-level expectations for race day as most of this ride was on the Ironman Texas course. One especially positive note was that a good part of this ride was also over most of the Iron Star 70.3 distance course that I did last November. I definitely felt much better today than I did last November over this more challenging part of the course.
Week 7 brings more of the same as the build phase continues, including another 80 mile bike ride, my longest planned swim ever of just under the Ironman swim distance and the longest run of my training plan to date (13 miles) planned for next week.
97 days until Ironman Texas......
Here is how this past week of training breaks down:
Swim - 8100 yards, 3:23:04
Bike - 79.4 miles on roads plus time on spin bike or trainer, 7:17:49
Run - 24.0 miles, 4:55:25
Other - stretching or other training workout, 0:30:00
Overall training time 16:06:18
This week had me in the middle week of the current build phase of training as I increased slightly ahead of where I was last week in terms of total time trained. I learned a bit of a lesson this week as I pushed my pace during two of my training runs this past week, and while it was nice to run faster than I had in a long time...I also stressed my left knee a bit more than I intended and could feel that extra stress (although not so much that it feels injured). I will drop back a bit in pace and remind myself that my goal is a quality finish, not a fast finish.
Today's 79.4 mile bike ride was a bit of an adventure. Last night's low was supposed to be in the upper 30's with 40 degree temperatures expected 8 a.m. However the reality was temperatures in the upper 20's when the ride began at 7:30 and staying below freezing until at least an hour into the ride (brrr!!) To make matters worse there were about 10 mph winds during much of this time. Fortunately, the day warmed by about 40 degrees by the end of the ride, even though the wind picked up as well. The temperatures and wind made this ride more challenging than originally expected, however I also feel that this gives me a good baseline for lower-level expectations for race day as most of this ride was on the Ironman Texas course. One especially positive note was that a good part of this ride was also over most of the Iron Star 70.3 distance course that I did last November. I definitely felt much better today than I did last November over this more challenging part of the course.
Week 7 brings more of the same as the build phase continues, including another 80 mile bike ride, my longest planned swim ever of just under the Ironman swim distance and the longest run of my training plan to date (13 miles) planned for next week.
97 days until Ironman Texas......
Thursday, February 10, 2011
100 Days
100 days from now is the start of the inaugural race of Ironman Texas.
Somehow it seems close and far away at the same time! While I have done a lot of training recently, the majority of my training plan still lies ahead of me. I have learned a few lessons in recent weeks about fitting in workouts and handling longer distances, and while it has been hard work I have also had good times with my coach and training group.
It seems my biggest issue right now, at least as far as things that I did not consider potential problems up front, has been the recent cold weather. Tonight's 12 miles might be run on the gym treadmill just to avoid weather in the mid-20's. However, before long we will be plenty warm enough for most people so I will continue to make the best of it--although I seem to have gotten less tolerant of the cold in the last year.
Given normal weather patterns for southern Texas in late May, I may just be wishing for cooler weather in 100 days!
Somehow it seems close and far away at the same time! While I have done a lot of training recently, the majority of my training plan still lies ahead of me. I have learned a few lessons in recent weeks about fitting in workouts and handling longer distances, and while it has been hard work I have also had good times with my coach and training group.
It seems my biggest issue right now, at least as far as things that I did not consider potential problems up front, has been the recent cold weather. Tonight's 12 miles might be run on the gym treadmill just to avoid weather in the mid-20's. However, before long we will be plenty warm enough for most people so I will continue to make the best of it--although I seem to have gotten less tolerant of the cold in the last year.
Given normal weather patterns for southern Texas in late May, I may just be wishing for cooler weather in 100 days!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
IMTX Training - Week 5
With the end of week 5 of Ironman Training I am 25% of the way through the training program. This week of training brought more firsts for my training. My most notable workouts this week included my two longest swim workouts ever (each over 2 miles long) and my longest bike ride ever (70 miles). Given the continuing nature of my training, I suppose that new personal highs will be the normal course of events for me over the near future since I am training for doing a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike ride (plus a 26.2 mile run) in the same day.
Here is how this past week of training breaks down:
Swim - 7100 yards, 2:59:08
Bike - 70.0 miles on roads plus time on spin bike or trainer, 7:00:08
Run - 27.0 miles, 5:42:16
Other - stretching or other training workout, 0:15:00
Overall training time 15:56:32
This week had me back into the build phase of training as I increased to about a half hour ahead of where I was 2 weeks ago in terms of total time trained. I am still surprised by my ability to keep up with this level of training, both from a physical point of view as well as being able to keep up with work and family obligations.
Week 6 brings more of the same as the build phase continues, including an 80 mile bike ride planned for next week with my training group.
104 days until Ironman Texas......
Here is how this past week of training breaks down:
Swim - 7100 yards, 2:59:08
Bike - 70.0 miles on roads plus time on spin bike or trainer, 7:00:08
Run - 27.0 miles, 5:42:16
Other - stretching or other training workout, 0:15:00
Overall training time 15:56:32
This week had me back into the build phase of training as I increased to about a half hour ahead of where I was 2 weeks ago in terms of total time trained. I am still surprised by my ability to keep up with this level of training, both from a physical point of view as well as being able to keep up with work and family obligations.
Week 6 brings more of the same as the build phase continues, including an 80 mile bike ride planned for next week with my training group.
104 days until Ironman Texas......
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