My first Half-Iron, the NJ Bassman, is Sunday of this weekend. so this is my training plan leading up to that race. My week will consist of 6-7 hours of training. Since my peak week did not turn out as I had hoped and i now have a cold i have to take each day as it comes but this is my plan. Bike 4 hours, Run 2 hours, Swim 1 hour and an hour of light weight training and shoulder therapy which i am not counting. I don't know that i will be able to get in the swim. If the congestions doesn't go away by Friday i'm going to have to give that idea up. Monday I rode my bike in the Poconos while we were visiting my parents. David and i set out for an easy exploratory ride. We rarely ride together because my training pace is always faster than his, but my goal is just to get some exercise since I took off Saturday and Sunday. Where the roads were good they were hilly and I kept a pretty slow pace and high cadence. The areas that were flat were highly trafficked and the pavement was not as smooth, also lots of stop and go. Frankly was fine with an easy ride exploring a new area. If this were a real training ride i would have been annoyed. The ride did help with my energy level and broke up some of the mucus, so for today's purposes, a good ride. Rode 1 hr 20 min at 16mph and hr average was and easy 136bpm.
Tuesday was a nice easy run. The temperature was perfect for a run but there was a lot of wind. This will be a totally flat run with not stopping. I ran from John street, down to battery park and up the west side bike path. On the way out I ran about 9:20 pace and on the way back 9:10. My goal was to keep my HR below 160bpm and average of around 150 which worked well. Still very congested and some coughing. Later that day i went to the bike shop for my new wheels. Will discuss that in a separate post when i have something to report. But... i'm really excited about these wheels. Basically did a lot of research and found that the budget i had in mind was not going to be much of an upgrade from my current set if i bought new. I found someone who was happy to unload a new pair of Rolf Prima Vigor SL's with only 50 miles on them, plus a new 10 speed cassette and new continental 4000 race tires for a song.
Wednesday was my first ride on my new wheels. My congestion is a bit better today and energy is a bit better too after doing a partial cleanse day yesterday. I went out about 10:30 after having an IsaLean shake for breakfast. It was very windy and i'm not sure these conditions gave me the test of speed that I wanted for my first trial with the new wheels. I rode and easy 12 min to park then did 5 laps. First was easy, 2,3,4 were pretty hard but not time trial hard. Best of those was 17.3mph, lap of 11:38 and HR betw 150-159 av, cadence about 75. Compared to last set of moderate difficult laps which was on sept 18 (friday following DC race) where my best lap was 17.6mph and 11:21 per lap, hr 151 and cadence 75. A little disappointed, but it was really windy today. I did feel a much smoother ride which i think is in part the race tires. The ride was not bumpy at all and didn't feel the cross wind as much as i did with the other wheels. The gearing tune up was noticable. I didn't take the big hill very hard, but felt it was a fairly good effort and was surprised that i was a bit slower than that last ride. Will plan to do the same ride on Friday. Also need to keep in mind that I have a cold, but that didn't seem like a deterrent today except that my heart rate was more elevated than without congestion. Taking lots of vitamin C, about 3000mg a day, and drinking 3-4 cups of tea per day.
It's Thursday morning and I'm finished with morning clients and i'm disappointed that its too cold out for the short sleeve shirt i have on. It feels like the mornings of NYC marathon which is a month away. Dont like that it's october 1st and feel like i need to be wearing tights, not shorts. Physically i'm feeling about the same as yesterday with lots of nasal congestions. Prior to my run i put in a short 35 minute training session of supsesets. 2 back exercises, followed by two shoulder and 2 more back. All in the rep range of 15-20 and light to moderate effort and everythig feels good, even my left shoulder. Want to keep this run under 45 minutes as i still have one more bike before race day and maybe a swim. Body feels tired, not sore, just tired. Took the run easy, HR mostly 150 bpm or so until i approched the hill going up chambers street. On my way home from the gym I stopped by a health food store and bought eucalyptus essential oil to rub under my nose and inhale to clean up sinuses and an herbal tea to help with congestion. Going to take a nap later also. Have a client this evening at the track and will not be running with her today.
It's Friday afternoon and time for my last pre race training session. i'm really congested and didn't realize it until i got on the bike. Just going to do 4 laps of the park today. Stopped during the 2nd lap of PPark to get some tissue and then it was better. Took the first 2 laps easy and 3rd lap was a trial. On that lap did 11:06/ 18.1 mph at 73 cadence and HR av 161. That's what i was looking for! This was my best lap ever, compared to 17.6mph/11:21min. So i got what i wanted before my race. Big problem is that i am really sick and sniffeling through a 3hr bike ride followig a swim where i'm going to feel like im drowning in my own fluids wont' be fun. But at least i know what i'm capable of on the bike and can just focus on relaxing on the swim.