Month: January 2011

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Morning swim

Had a good swim workout at the pool this morning. The 500 hundred sets were tough, the first not too bad, but the next two were tough. The second and third were harder because I really pushed it on the 50 sprints. Even though we were doing the 50s on a minute I was getting them done right around 35 seconds. Unfortunately I’m not in good enough shape to recover from that and keep pace on the next 500. Oh well, it was fun doing the 50s hard.

500 warmup
500 pull
200 kick
500 5×100 on 1:30
200 4×50   on 1:00
500 5×100 on 1:45
200 4×50   on 1:00
500 5×100 on 1:30
200 4×50   on 1:00
500 cooldown
Total: 3800

Weight: 167.5

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Another Endurance Ride

Today was another Endurance ride on the CompuTrainer. This was the first ride with the new Heart Rate cable from CompuTrainer. I had been having problems with my HR disappearing during the ride or not even having one at all. After an e-mail to the folks at Racermate they sent me out one of the new cables that they just started getting in. This cable is a little bit thicker to help with interference from other wireless devices and also has an LED in line so you can see that it is working. Getting back to the ride, it was for two hours and my average HR was 155 and my average Watt output was 192. Since taking the Test a couple weeks ago the workouts have been much harder, I’m starting to wonder if I didn’t have the CompuTrainer calibrated right for the test. I’ll stick with the workouts through the next few weeks and we will find out at the next scheduled test.

On a nutritional note, I had a glass of milk mixed with Hammer Recoverite after my workout and felt much better. The strawberry flavor was pretty good. I’m thinking that I have been waiting too long to get some nutrients into my body. I had it right away today, didn’t wait until after the shower.

Weight: 168.2

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Back in the pool

Felt good to be back at the pool. Slow start on a Friday again, so I got a few extra yards in during the warmup as people slowly drifted in. The lane was packed though by the time we started the main set.

750 warmup
600 pull
250 kick
300
300 3×100
300 4×75
300 6×50
300 3×100
300 4×75
300 6×50
300 pull

Total : 4000

Weight: 168.75

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Vacations are bad

Yup, that’s right, vacations are bad. It doesn’t take much to lose any gains in fitness and vacations seem to accelerate those loses. Probably for two reasons, poor diet on vacation and less exercise. Sure, you will get physical activity in walking around Disney and you might even get out for a run, but most likely you will not put in the hours that you would have training if you were not on vacation. But hey, that is what vacations are for, being lazy.

I was on the CompuTrainer this morning for my Tempo ride. It was a much better ride than on Tuesday when I pretty much died on the thing. My heart rate was higher than it was two weeks ago when I did the same ride at pretty much the same power output. So, yeah, I’m still feeling the effects of vacation. It felt good to be able to sustain the effort for the entire workout today though and not have to back off. I can really feel it in my legs right now and since we had another 10 inches of snow drop last night I really felt it in my legs while snow blowing. After my rides now I’ve started taking a product from Hammer Nutrition called Recoverite. I will give it a try over the next month or two and see if I feel like it makes any difference in my recovery after my rides. During the rides I always use Perpetuem, another Hammer product, to keep hydrated and replace some of the calories being burned. I was going to use Gatorade but figured since I’m going to use Perpetuem on race day I might as well use it all through my training. Today I actually had two bottles of Perpetuem even though the ride was just over an hour, the second was after an hour of snow blowing. Maybe snow blowing will replace swimming as an event in Triathlon.

Weight: 168.8

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Can we get some more snow please?

This morning was a run day. I was seriously contemplating getting on the treadmill this morning when I looked at the temperature in my truck and it read 2 degrees. Thinking about how cold it was and how there isn’t much room to run because the sidewalks are not always cleared I was setting myself up to stay inside. I got to the Y though and figured it was only a 5 mile run, so I threw on my Yaktrax and went out. I’m pretty sure that at some point there was frost building up on my eye lashes and my face was pretty much frozen. I have to remember to bring a mask or something for a little more face protection when it is that cold, at least my ears were under my hat. Also had hand warmers to keep my fingers warm and they actually got kind of hot in my gloves. After the first mile I found a rythm and everything was fine, but that first mile in the cold really shocks the system! Here are the the results http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65214659.

Apparently there is more snow on the way later today into tomorrow. This really is not helping with the outdoor running! Back indoors on the CompuTrainer tomorrow 🙂

Weight: 170

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Too Much Ice Cream

Well, today was the first day back working out since the trip to Florida. I really paid the price this morning for not having been on the CompuTrainer in 12 days. I had already decided before I left that I would repeat the week 6 workout for the PIG program. It was a good thing I did because next weeks interval session is harder than this weeks. Two weeks ago when I did this session I made it to the third interval of the main set before I started to fade. This time around I made it halfway through the second interval and just had nothing. I ended up doing 30 seconds hard and resting for the rest of the second interval and then made it 5 minutes into the third before I had to do the same there. Obviously I had too much ice cream on vacation and I’m now fat and out of shape. The good thing is there are no more vacations between now and Ironman.

I did change one thing with the CompuTrainer, instead of using my old bike on the trainer I put the bike I will be riding in the Ironman, my Specialized Transition Expert, on the trainer. The geometry of the bikes is different, even though I have tried to set them up the same, one is a road bike and the other a Tri bike. It felt good to be on the Specialized, the shifting is smoother and I’m able to stay in the aero position longer. The bad thing about changing the bikes is I did not have a water bottle cage on this one so I set my water bottle on the car. Well, after the workout I forgot to bring the water bottle upstairs with me and now it is out on Route 133. So, if you see a nice insulated water bottle on 133, that would be mine.

Weight: 170.2 (Too much ice cream!!! Back to salad 🙁 )

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Old School Training

This morning I got up and out for a bike ride down here in Englewood. I threw my Garmin on my Dad’s Peugeot. In it’s day it was a really nice bike, it is in rough shape now though. It has been through a couple of floods and in need of some work. I did a loop up to Manasota Beach and back, it was actually not that bad of a ride. I had a little head wind on the way up, but it was nice coming back. The bike held up over the 25 miles ok, no flats!!! The shifters are on the down tube, but since there are few hills I did little shifting. The pedals are just plain vanilla pedals, not even baskets. The handlebars need to be taped again, as of right now they have some foam cushion that is wearing off and got all over. The tires seemed to have water in them or are in serious need of truing. Oh yeah, no water bottle cage!! Here is the loop http://connect.garmin.com/activity/64548684.

I also did some swimming this afternoon, at the outdoor pool. I just did a straight 3000 yard swim in about 45 minutes, nothing fancy. It was pretty cold out but the water was 83 so it was nice in the water, but fridge getting out! There were only a couple of us in the pool and it ended up just being me at the end.

Weight: No Scale Available

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Last day of Orlando Training

This morning is the last day of Orlando training. I got up early again and did a 6 mile run before everyone else got up. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/64260035. Changing climates is a tough thing, it is so much more humid down here than at home during this time of the year. Lucky for me that Lake Placid is relatively similar to the climate near Boston where I will do most of my training. From here training now moves south of Tampa to Englewood, FL 🙂 Hoping to get in a bike ride and a swim.

Weight: No Scale Available

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Florida Training continued…

Got up early again this morning and got out for a run. Just short of 7 miles. I’m not used to the warmer, more humid weather. Here is what the Garmin recorded http://connect.garmin.com/activity/63954832.

Yesterday I did some training in bad weather. Rain! Poured at the Magic Kingdom, but we managed to make it to quite of few of the rides that were indoors. Whoever thinks that going to Disney is not good training is crazy. I mean how often do you stand all day long!!! The weather cleared and the fireworks were great! More serious training to come 🙂

Weight: Scale Not Available

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Training in Orlando

Training has moved to Orlando for the next few days. The weather in New England was just not condusive to running outside after the 20 inches of snow and 20 degree temps. What do you do when that happens? Go to a warmer climate!!! Ok, so we had a family trip to Disney planned anyway. I got before everyone else and went out for a 6 mile run this morning. The temp was 51 degrees, really perfect running weather. I thought it was going to be a little brighter when I went out just before 6 but it was pretty dark and it was still pretty dark when I got back. This was my first run in a little over a week. Here is the GPS results http://connect.garmin.com/activity/63648222.

Weight: No Scale Available.