Pre Half-Iron Race training

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.

A Week in Review

This is supposed to be a peak week for the last race of the year, my Half-ironman.  Last week i felt good during recovery and didn't plan my training advance.  This week was pretty planned out with the goal of 14 hours of training.  As the week progressed i felt this was too much volume and i'm not sure if i needed more recovery from the race or if i was building up to catch a cold or what.  So aside from the indoor trainer ride on Tuesday, here is how the rest of the week panned out. On Wednesday i did only twenty minutes of TRX work and some abs followed by Hill repeats run.  This is the same series of hill repeats that i had done before the DC race.  Started with a nice 23 min warm up then went to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Completed 8x1 min repeats with 2 min rest inbetween.  My HR got up to about 178-181 for each repeat.  My best pac was 7:43 and worst was 8:13.  Didn't work these hills as hard as some of those from prior training.  Total mileage was 5.96.  Went out that night to a concert and didn't get as much sleep as usual.

On Thursday i did some moderate weight training.  Mostly 10 -15 reps focusing on Back (3 exercises) and shoulders (2 exercises).  This was followed by a run.  I did 10 miles averaging 8:38min mile.  Started with a 10 minute warm up the set out for 1hr and 15 min at half marathon race pace.  My HR was a bit higher than i feel I can manage for a race.  had to rest briefly a few times to drink and gel.  It was unseasonably hot, otherwise a good run.  Feeling that the hard work from the hills yesterday left me less than recovered for today though.  Average pace for the 1:15 was 8:23 and HR was 172.  This run was a good indicator for what i think i can run for the race.  I need to keep my HR for the race around 169.  Wait, the day isn't over, i still have to get in a swim.  Since the riverbank pool is closed for cleaning my o=nly option at the moment is to swim with my team.  Unfortunately that means swimming from 8-9:30pm in the city.  I've never had to do this before and i hate the idea of swimming so late in the day.  I went to Baruch for the team swim and much of the workout was freestyle.  I was in a lane with some swimmers who were a bit faster than usual for my lane so the coach set the intervals at a more challenging time than i was used to.  I kept up ok but was frustrated that i got behind as the workout progressed and the intervals became shorter.  Overall i swam about 1.25 miles and i hoped to swim at least 1.5 that day.  I liket the last 12 intervals which were 25 yards really hard (a breath every 4-6 strokes) followed by 25 yards at 50% effort.  It was later than my usual bedtime when i got home and took about an hour to unwind and get ready for bed.  Again i slept less than usual.

Friday is long run day.  Plan was for 2 hours in prospect park at an easy pace.  I started with a 21 min warm up to the park and everything was feeling good.  In the park i did 44 minutes at an easy 9:21 pace and hr at 150 (about 79%) but legs felt real heavy.  Although i was planning for 2 hours I decided to cut the run much shorter than planned.  I have off on Saturday and Sunday i want to get in a good long bike ride, so decided to add the extra time missed on the run onto the bike ride.  My not so long run was 1:25 at 9:28pace.  Note i rarn three days in a row, totally not the norm for me.  Thinking back i should have done the bike ride on thursday or Friday instead of waiting fot the weekend, but since we were headinig to the country for the weekend i wanted to enjoy ther ride there instead of the typical park rides that my body has gotten so accustomed to.

Saturday i woke up with a sore throat.  Somehow i wasn't surprised.  When i cut the run short on Friday i knew something was not right with my body.

Sunday i had head congestion, sore throat is gone, and a bit of a cough.  David and i are up in the Pocono's region of PA visiting my parents.  We drove Saturday and will return Monday.  We bought the bikes intending to ride on Sunday for a good 2 1/2 hours but not only was my body not cooperating, but we had rain all day on Sunday.

My intended peak weak was a bit of a disaster.  My ride on the trainer was awesome, the rarce pace run was valuable and the rest of it was pretty useless.  If i were to schedule the week again i would have done the following:  Monday- ride on the trainer.  Tuesday  race pace run.  Wed off.  Thursday  2-2.5 hour ride in prospect park and swim with team in the evening.  Friday easy 6 mile run if i felt like it (note sleep patterns).  Saturday off or 6 mile run if didn't do it on Friday.  Sunday long run 1.5-2 hours.

I should have cut out the hill run and rode long on my bike during the week and I should not have run three days in a row.  I should have kept the long run, but saved it for the weekend instead of dragging the bikes out of town. And should have planned for only 9 hours for the week.

Killer Hill Session on Indoor Trainer

It's a great day for a short one hour trainer session and i've put together a workout that really required attention to cadence and heart rate. It's also a peak training week so i wanted to add in a hill session because next week is prep for race week.  I chose a program that would require me to monitor my Garmin closely partially to see if i have the screens set up in a way thats easy to view a interval workout.  In the end i did change the set up on my intercal screen to incluse av cadence, av hr, av speed, and time per interval.  Teh more i use the Garmin 310xt the more i like it.  The download file showed the av/max hr, speed and cadence for each interval. Started with a 10 minute warm up and then the plan is to follow a progression of intervals set at increasingly difficult cadences while maintaining a relatively high HR.  My heart rate goal for the intervals was 153-157bpm or 8-12 beats below lactate threshold.  This is a three part workout.

For the first part i started with a 5 min interval at 60-65cadence followed by a 10 min interval at 50-55reps, followed by an easy 5 minute recovery at about 80rpm and hr av of 139bpm.

The next set is 6x 2-3  minutes at 40-50rpm with a minute rest in-between.  For the rest period my HR dropped only to 145 or so as i retained a fairly low cadence and did not want to take too much time to regain the resistance and pace needed to bring my HR back up to sub lactate level.

The last set i threw in at the last minute.  There was no rest after the last 2 min interval and i reduced the resistance throughout the following progression while keeping my HR at sub lactate level.  2 min at 57rpm, 2 min at 66rpm, 2 min at 79 rpm followed by a 5 min cool down.

This workout kept me interested the whole time.  The next time i will take the second set and add a minute to each interval but keep the rest period at 1 minute.  Great 1 hour session for improving strength and climbing position.  I remained in the aero position thought the workout.

DC Nations Tri- Recovery Week

This week i just took everything as it came and didn't plan a thing.  Overall i trained  only 8hrs 45 minutes and every workout felt good. Monday, the day after the race, was a beautiful fall day.  I had a light client load and just couldn't help but go for a run.  I ran with no plan at all.  Ended up running along the promenade in Brooklyn Heights, into Borough Hall park and then about a third of the way up the bridge before i turned around.  Kept my pace slow at 9.25mm average and low HR throughout.  Don't know when the last time i went for a run less than 45 minutes.  Spent a good 15 minutes stretching after.

On Tuesday i had some time between clients and put in just 20 minutes of weights.  Focused on back and shoulders.  In the evening i rode my bike to prospect park for 3 laps.  I had to meet a client for a training run so went early to get in a short ride.  Total time was one hour.  During the ride i witnessed a cycling accident.  Another cyclist stopped first to assist and then i stopped.  The guy rode right into another cyclist who was intersecting the road and did not look before he crossed.  The injured rider landed on his shoulder and hit his head.  Wasn't wearing a helmet.  When I arrived the other cyclist was asking if he could call an ambulance for him.  He responded negatively.  I stuck around to make sure he was coherent and didn't need immediate First Aid.  After about 5  minutes he started to feel the pain and listened more to our suggestion to get help.  I asked how his shoulder felt as he was becoming aware that the multiple scrapes and slight head injury were not the problem, but that his shoulder was.  I asked if he would show me his shoulder.  He had a bump, just like mine after my accident but not as severe.  Looked to me like he had separated his shoulder.  At that point i really encouraged him to at least allow an ambulance to come and check him out.  That he didn't have to necessarily go to a hospital (i found out that he didn't have insurance) but if the medics suggested it he should not ignore this injury.  I told him a bit about my cycling accident and resulting separated shoulder.  Didn't want to freak him out but could see in his eyes he just didn't want to deal with what was happening.  I really felt for him and understood what was going on in his mind.  Once he agreed to an ambulance i left.  The police had arrived and i had done all i could plus i was late for meeting my client.  Wish i had thought to give him my business card because i know he's going to want someone to talk to once his diagnoses is made.

Wednesday i did a light workout in my gym.  Worked with the trx, cables and free weights.  Mostly back but some shoulders and chest as well.  Spent a good 15 min on abs and started with some shoulder PT work.

Thursday i had time between clients again so did a circuit of back and shoulder work.  5 exercises and 3 sets.  Felt easy which was my plan for the week.  After my clients i went for a run downtown because i wanted to do a flat run.  Included some fartlek work but really felt easy although my average pace was a bit faster than i would have expected for such an easy run.  Pace was 8:52mm and my av hr was only 152.  Usually a flat run at 152bpm is more like a 9:10mm.  Based upon how my legs are feeling and resulting HR my body is recovering really well from the race.  Nice to see.

Friday i took my bike out to prospect park for some laps.  I wanted to use a Garmin feature called mark and lap.  At a given point at the top of the park i set this feature and the GPS is supposed to mark that spot so that each lap starts and finishes at that point and you don't have to manually pres a lap button.  Found that only half of the laps got marked.  Not sure what's up with that but will try this setting again.  I completed 7 laps.  Average HR was 145bpm, speed about 17, cadence about 72.  Cadence was actually faster.  Noticed that when i'm on a steep downhill and don't pedal that the 0 cadence gets averaged in for the ride.  Dont' really like that, but don't think there is a way to adjust that.  The last two laps i took significantly slower than the first 5 (was feeling fatigued).  Took the big hill at a 50-60rpm pace.  Took it easy going home.  Overall rode 1:46min over 27.84 miles.  spent a lot of time looking at the 4 screens i have set up on the garmin to see if i like the way i've programmed the data to appear.  Think it shows everything i want in a good pattern.  Easy to read as long as it's bright.

Saturday was my first run designed to test out a pace for my next race.  The half iron in two weeks ends with a 1/2 marathon.  I have not run a half marathon race in two years so don't have a good  history to judge a pace for this race.  My thought has been that i should be able to manage a pace similar to my last marathon after finishing a 56 mile bike ride.  This of course is dependant on HR as well, but the course is going to be really flat.  So i set out over the Brooklyn bridge to the flat terrain of the west side.  Set my garmin for a new program with a warm up and then two 30 min intervals.  Once i got to the west side and could run without traffic i set the first interval working a little slower 8:25pace  and planned to pick up the pace about 10 sec for the turn around.  After the 30 minutes i took a 30sec break, had a gel and turned around.  The second 30 minute was at 8:19 mm average.  My average HR was 162bpm for both directions (the first half was against the wind).   This was a good test.  For the half iron run i should be able to manage 13plus miles at around 168bpm no problem, so i'm thinking if i start a bit slower (maybe 8:30 pace) and can add a little speed after 3 miles or so and actually exceed my last marathon pace of 8:25.  The real question is how to stay motivated during all that without an Ipod.  I never run without it.  Something i guess i should practice next week.

Sunday i finally fit in a swim.  Since the Riverbank pool is closed for maintenance for the whole month my only training options is with TNYA, my masters swim team.  Often not a real productive workout but today was pretty good.  Trains were messed up.  It took me an hour and a half to get to the pool and changed so i missed the 15 min warm up.  Most of the workout was freestyle intervals.  My stroke was strong and long.  Felt real relaxed until about the last 10 minutes of the 1:05 workout.  Skipped the last set of butterfly intervals.  I don't do butterfly, plus i was freezing.  It's going to be impossible to get in any swims on my own before the half iron so will just focus on getting in a team swim one time each week.  Just can't pull off two swims a week because i won't get home before 10:30pm from the workouts on week days and i have to get up between 5 and 5:30 am to meet clients.  Would like to get in another weekend open water swim but will be out of town next weekend so can't swim with the Brighton swim club.  Today's strong swim made me feel confident that if i do stick to just two more quality swims before the race i'll be in good shape for the 1.2 mile swim.

DC Nations Triathlon- My Race Day

Today is my 8th triathlon of all time (third season) and I’m feeling like I’m getting much more comfortable with being prepared on race day. Had one cup of coffee and brought a large bottle of water to drink throughout the morning.  I had my usual pre race meal.  Overnight I soaked ½ cup rolled oats in water and added that in the morning to a mixture of vanilla yogurt, plus one scoop of isalean vanilla shake and ½ cup of granola.  It’s super satisfying and should hold me over for the race.  I ate at 5:30 and my race start is 8:30. I used the shuttle service at the Hilton where the expo was to get me to the race.  The shuttle pick up was right across the street from the Churchill where we were staying.  No waiting, and got to transition by 5:50.

Found Richard and Jimmy and made sure they were organized and didn’t need anything from me then I went to my rack to set up.  I don’t like my placement at all and think my transition time is going to be at least a minute longer than I had planned for.  I was really organized this time and had very little to do in the morning to set up.  Some new things for me are that I’m using the never reach water system and I filled it half way with water the day before.  I have one extra bottle of water filled with want more energy sports drink.  I’m using my bento box to hold gels and a bar.  I opened up three gels and opened up the bar so it would be faster for the ride.  I’m also using my new Garmin 310xt and will talk more about that later.

We had to leave transition at 7am, at the time of the first swim wave.  Jimmy goes in at 7:36, I’m in at 8:21 and Richard starts at 8:27.  They had us move just outside transition to a holding area where you could see people after the swim entering the bike transition and the beginning of the bike leg, but you could not see the swim start or course itself at all.  I had an idea of the course but wish that I could have seen the swim entry and full course before arriving at the start.  I couldn’t find Jimmy or Richard.  Spent a bit of time stretching and making sure I was comfortable in my wetsuit.  As well I went through 2 different trial sessions with my Garmin because I had not used the Auto multi sport mode before.  This mode is designed for races.  Once you hit start it will log your swim data, you press lap to finish that sport and it moves on to T1 and records you transition time and so forth.   Everything was working just fine.  I’m relaxed except I decide to go to the bathroom one more time.  The line for my wave starts as I’m wiggling back into my wetsuit and I jockey for a position in the middle of the corral.

As we approach the swim start we have only 3 minutes to jump in and find a position.  I wanted to be on the inside toward the front but there was no room and found myself more to the middle and a couple of rows back.  At the start I started my Garmen, or so I thought and found a comfortable race pace quite quickly.  Problem during the first ¼ was that I got stuck behind a wall of people who were spending too much time sighting and not enough time swimming and that slowed me down.  At the turn around the current was a bit heavier and then when we headed back we were swimming with the current and had the sun coming up in front of us.  There were no buoys to help keep us straight and I feel I swam too far to the outside.  Found a good clearing at this point and was in a grove but with no people around and the sun in my face it was hard to tell if I was swimming in a straight line.  I was getting a little flustered because I felt my swim time was going to be way behind my goal.  A couple of people in the wave after us started to pass about ¾ of the way through and I didn’t like that at all.  Finished the last ¼ strong and exited the water using the railing on the ramp.  As I crossed the first timing mat I hit lap on my Garmin and noticed that the swim didn’t get recorded at all and I had no idea what my swim time was.

T1 went OK.  Got my wetsuit off better than ever.  Sat down to do this and stayed seated to put on my shoes.  Now I spent about 2 minutes resetting the Garmin and getting it to the T1 menu.  I didn’t really know what to look for and messed this up as well but as I mounted my bike I thought all was figured out.

The start of the bike is flat and fast.  I look at my Garmin and it’s not showing my speed.  What’s up?  It’s now in T2 mode and I fuss with it again while riding quite slowly and start the timer all over again.  So once again I wasted some time getting this device to work for me.  Unlike most races the first ¼ was pretty open so was easy to get into a comfortable pace.  I was not able to drive the course before the race but was told it was pretty flat and it met my expectations.  There were only about 3 parts in the race where I was blocked from passing but didn’t let it bother me.  I did well in taking advantage of speed on the down hill portions and keeping a steady fast pace following with the little bit of climbing that was involved.  I monitored my Garmin focusing mostly on one screen that indicated my average speed, average cadence and average HR.  Due to the slow start I was a little behind on my speed goal.  The last 3 miles were a breeze and I picked up my cadence to make for an easier transition to the run.  During the bike I had one gel about 10 minutes in and another about 40 min later.  I drank a lot of water, which was one of my goals, to not go into the run thirsty, but didn’t drink any of the want more energy.

T2 went really well.  I found my spot easily and there were a lot of bikes in my division still on the course so I felt really good about that.  Sat down again to switch shoes, much more efficient than standing which was a new realization for me.  I pulled off a piece of the Pure bar still on my bike and ate that as I ran out of T2.  I still have 2 gels on me for the run if I need them but don’t think it will be needed.

I started the run maybe too fast.  At 7:00 m/mile I was way above my goal but my HR was good so I only slowed down a little.  There were aid stations at every mile and I took advantage of all of them.  I grabbed two cups at each, drank a little from one and poured the excess on my head.  The run was feeling fantastic.  My face was a little hot though as the sun was bright and I wished that I had a visor.  I was passing a lot of people, but all in age groups other than mine.  Most were age groups that started before me so I felt like I was doing quite well.  Again if my Garmin had worked from the beginning I would have had a better idea.  I had taken a piece of masking tape and written the goal times for each leg on it.  I affixed this to one of the gels in my shirt pocket.  That way during the run I could see if I was on target.  All I knew at this point was that the run was faster than planned and the bike a little slower.  During the last two miles of the run I visualized the last two miles of my favorite training run.  I imagined it as all downhill, from the top of the Brooklyn bridge all the way to my front door, which is all either downhill or flat.  I finished fast and completely under control unlike the guy who decided to go from a 10mm to a 6mm for the last 400 meters and fell down and almost caused a chain reaction.  Idiot!

I didn’t take any time to enjoy the finish moment.  There really wasn’t a big after party.  They offered us water, sports drink and a medal.  No food.  There were lines forming to pick up check in bags and to get back into transition so I got my ass in gear and headed back to my bike.  Once there I called David from my cell and he met me at transition so we could walk everything back to the car.  I spoke to Jimmy and he did great for his first tri and Richard was still on the course when I left.  I wanted to make a quick departure because check out for my hotel was in just over an hour and I wanted desperately to get in a shower before eating a meal and driving 4 ½ hours back to NYC.  I deducted from the finish time on the clock minus my planned start time that I finished in about 2:50, which was about 15 minutes behind my goal.

I did get in that much needed shower and had a nice lunch, not too much food, at a French restaurant.  I had been eying this ice cream shop all weekend so we stopped there after lunch to enjoy some creamy comfort food.  On the drive home I received the email that the results were in.  I was surprised.  Often they are not posted until the next day.  So here are the results.

There were 3933 finishers and 176 women in my age group division.  I finished in 2:43:27 (goal was 2:33-2:43), which placed me at 20 out of the 176.  My swim was 35:12  65 out of 176 (goal was 33:00).  My T1 was 4:25 and should have been about 2:25 without Garmin troubles.  My bike was 1:15 at 19.7mph finishing 24 out of 176 (my goal was 1:13 or 20mph which I would have definitely hit had I not had equipment problems).  My T2 was 2:41 about 30 sec slower than I planned but my rack position sucked.  My run was 45:43 at a 7:23 pace finishing 4 out of 176 (on target with my goal).  Overall was really happy with my race aside from the problems with my Garmin.  I’m unsure of my HR and cadence data as that got erased on accident when I synched it at home but I think for the bike I was at an average of 160bpm and cadence of 76.  On the run I’m pretty sure my HR was at 180 average.

Looks to me like I should compete in more duathlons if I want to place.  But really, the swim has always been the hardest for me.   In my first triathlon, which was a sprint, I came in second to last place on the swim, so I really have come a long way.  I know that there is no off-season for me and swimming.  I need to continue swimming one day a week in the off-season even if I am training for a marathon.  I have one more race left this year and I now know I will have to pick up the pace in the bike in order to make up for the swim.  I went into this run feeling really strong so feel I could have pushed the bike harder.  The next race is much smaller and I hope I will have less competitor traffic to deal with and will be able to maintain a higher speed on yet another flat course.  I would do this race again if I had a place to stay in DC and could avoid the hotel expenses.  I liked that it is a fairly flat course, well organized, and nice temperatures.  Now that I am familiar with the swim I know I could train better for an out and back.  Brighton Beach would be perfect for it.

DC Nations Triathlon Pre-Race Day

The Nations Triathlon will be held Sunday the 13^th and we drove to DC on Friday the 11^th so we would have all day Saturday to do pre race activities and some time on Friday to explore DC.  David and I drove to the transition area early Saturday morning and figured out a parking strategy for race day.  We also went for a short 4.5 mile run that included parts of the run course but also enjoyed some of the monuments and other attractions of downtown. I met up with my clients Jimmy and Richard on Saturday afternoon and went to the expo for packet pickup.  My hotel is right across from the Expo and central to the downtown area.  They stopped by my hotel first to load my bike and gear.  We knew there was an organized open water swim in the Potomac so we planned our day so we would have time to set up our bikes and gear and still have time for a pre race swim.

This is Jimmy’s first triathlon so we spent this day discussing a lot of pre race strategies and got him and his gear set up and ready for race day.  We left all our gear overnight so would not have to address that issue in the morning.  The swim was not extended to the full course but got an idea of what navigation was going to be like for Sunday as well as get a feel for the current.  The swim is set up to be against the current for the first half, turn around and swim back to a platform that has a metal ramp to assist in exiting the water.  The start will be an “in water” start.

We finished all that by 4:30 and then went to a family style Italian restaurant.  Shared a little pasta, a chicken dish and Italian sausages.  A little heavy on the protein, but it’s an early dinner and feel it wont be a problem.  Around 7:30 I met up with David for a glass of wine and a super yummy cupcake for dessert.  I was in Bed by 9:30pm for a 5am wake up call.

Nice Hill Workout

Since i'm done with clients early on Friday's I like to enjoy my late mornings with training.  These next few day's just are not exciting me though.  Rain and storms are coming through and i planned three pool sessions and one open water swim for the week.  I figured one of them would get cancelled due to weather, but this week it looks like i may actually only get in one good swim.  It's about 65 degrees out and raining and i just cant force myself to go to the outdoor pool which is my only option due to time.  Tomorrow AM we are expecting thunderstorms so my open water swim is out.  Going to set my head straight and at least get in a great run today. Two weeks ago i did a hill session on the steep side of the Brooklyn Bridge and today i'll take the easier side.  The temperature is fantastic and it's drizzeling out.  After a 15 farily flat warm up I left my bottle at the bottom of the hill so could run with proper balance and avoid any undue stress on my shoulders.  I did 8-60 second sprints up, jogged down and rested a few more seconds for a 2 minute rest total.  The first 4 felt easy, strangely easy, so i picked up the pace for the last 8.  I was able to reach an appropriate interval HR between 172 and 179bpm.    Best pace was 7:50mm and none were below 8.2mm.

I did not eat before the run so had an Isalean shake with a few chunks of frozen banana immediately following.  I'm still contemplating the pool but just can't do it.  Instead i head to the gym in the basement and work on the TRX sustem.  Focusing on rear delts and external rotators.  Had put a new program together for a client and went over some of the movements that were new to me.  Did this for 40 minutes then spent a good 15 on TRX abs exercises that were new to me as well.  Watched a TRX abs video last night and wanted to try some that i was unfamiliar with.  Really effective, short session.  Lots of helpful exercises for swimming in particular.

Today was supposed to be a moderate day and it felt way too easy.  Tomorrow will be easy,  i'll probably get up at 5am and drive to Riverbank for the 6:30-8:30am open lap swim.  Have no idea how crowded it will be but hoping the lanes will be set at 50 meters.  If for some reason i can't rally to get up i will use the bike trainer indoors for a light ride.  Sunday will be hard because i'll ride the 1/2 iron bike course and looks like weather may be ok for that.

Long run combined with lactate threshold run

Since i'm approaching my next race i need to cut down on the running volume and focus a bit more on some longer bike rides.  Today i'm running 12 miles, really flat but 8 of them at anaerobic threshold.  This is the HR that i should be able to maintain for the run portion of the half iron and will be a good indicator of the pace i should plan to race at for the 13.2 miles.  Going to go out to the park where the race will be held this weekend and that will help me decide what i should be planning to for the next few weeks of biking and running. Between clients i put in 30 minutes of weight training.  Decided to go heavy again today.  Started with push ups, which i want to keep focusing on for chest strength until my shoulder stops showing signs of strain when I bench press.  I did three exercises in a row for back.  Seated NG row, WG asst pull up and cable reverse fly.  All at 3x8.  Followed this with SA DB military press and SA DB lateral raises again 3x8-10.  Did an extra set of each with my left shoulder.  Still lacking in strenth by about 15% and it's been 10 months since i started PT on it.  That's a bit discouraging.  Had my chocolate isalean pudding with added flax meal and a bananna after the workout.  Had two more clients then headed out for my run.

This run is going to be flat.  Ran from John street, into battery park city and up the west side just past the Intrepid museum.  Started with an easy 2 mile warm up then gradually picked up the pace for the next mile.  I'e planned to run 8 miles of the 12 mile long run at anearobic threshold HR because this is the HR i plan to race at for the half iron 13.2 mile run.  The wind was against me for the first part and my pace was a bit slower than i had expected.  At my turn around  I had a gel and refilled my camel back with water and continued with the wind.  Feeling great today.  The temperature is in the mid 70's and it's partly cloudy.  Was able to pick up the pace by about 30s on the return.  After 8 miles at about 90% max HR and 8:20mm average pace i slowed for the last 2 miles and cooled down with a little walking too.

Really pleased with this run.  I am hoping to run the half iron at 8:30mm pace but have to see what the terrain looks like this weekend.

Feels like an off day

I slept only 5 hours last night, not my usual 7.  Celebrated David's birthday at a show and sweated my ass off.  Today i'm wanting to take a nap, and not train, but it's pool day.  That's all i have to do.  Feeling fine from the long bike ride just not interested in training or anything really. I have only another week of the outdoor pool then will have to got to a less convenient option so i'm taking action.  I ran to the pool which made me feel better.  Got in a good warm up and was feeling pretty good.  Pool isn't too busy.

Planned for a set of 7x5 laps at 1sec stroke rate with a 1:20 rest between sets.  During the fist set we were all forced out of the pool.  Public pools are bullshit.  I don't know how people actually train in these environments.  Some child shit in the pool.  They have serious restrictions on cell phones, additional clothig, any personal property on the pool deck yet some under aged shit head is allowed to ruin my swim.  They always want me to shake my towel out, like what are you looking for?  Thanks Red Hook.

Can you say 17 laps?

I've never ventured out for a really long ride in prospect park.  My little 3.35 mile loop that i'm so familiar with is going to have to keep me occupied for 3 plus hours.  I ate really well this morning.  Shake with bananna, clients, a weight training session of back and shoulders for 45 minutes.  Did a warm up set for each then 3 exercises each 4x8 reps.  Felt strong as i should since i have not lifted a thing in 5 days. Drank another isalean shake right before my ride with some frozen fruit. Although the thought of a 4 hour ride in my neighboorhood is not pleasant it is a beautiful day and i have an active evening ahead of me so i'm ready for this new venture.  I'm well suited with my new never reach water appartus, have some gels and bars on me and the luxury of a toilet just about any time i want. Since i'm training for a 1/2 iron decided to wear my less padded  hind shorts to see how they felt on a long ride.  Not sure how to dress for the event so experimenting with a few nutrition and clothing things today.  Althouth a bit raw at the end, fairly comfortable on the ride.

I decided to break the ride into two parts.  First was to work the loop at varing cadences keeping my heart rate below 150 except on the big hill.  Park is pretty quiet and was easy to get through the first 10 laps.  Stopped about 15 miles in for the bathroom and a gel.  Wondering how i'm going to deal with needing the bathroom during a 6 hour race....  Each lap was between 12 and 12:30 minutes.

Still feeling fresh so pushed the last 6 laps.  A lower cadence and higher Hr averaging about 150bpm.  Wanted to do 17 laps total but ran out of time.  The last 6 laps were between 11:40 and 12 min.  Nutrition wise i had the gel about 1 hour in, half a pure bare 30 later, another gel about 45 min later and within last 20 min had last of the bar.  Should have had the gel earlier and kept eating every 30 min or so.  Second to last lap was my fastest so felt good at the end.  Loved having access to water without reaching although did also consume the one extra bottle of water with WME and was almost out of water when i got home.

Finals including warm up and cool down,- 58 miles, 3 hr 40 min, 15.9mph, 144 av hr and 166 max.  last 3 laps were mentally draining, otherwise fantastic.  In some ways better than the country rides on 9W.