Month: April 2011

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Friday Run and Saturday Ride

Yesterday afternoon the weather was so nice, I went out for a run, did just under 10 miles.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/79329108

The usual Sunday ride was moved up to this morning because we are expecting rain for tomorrow morning, may still go out tomorrow afternoon for another ride, depends on the weather. Very windy out there today, 16 mph gusts according to the weather channel and pretty chilly. Not exactly a nice day for a ride, I would have rather it been warm and been lost out there like last week over cold and windy and knowing where I was. Fell on the bike today, well, fell over in the driveway. This is the second time now, maybe I should go get some bicycling 101 lessons!

At least I remembered to calibrate the power meter this weekend before the ride. Averaged about 200 Watts for the ride with an average speed of 17.4 which feels about right because of the wind. I think normally that power output would have put me in the 18mph range.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/79604836

Weight: 165

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Conflicting water temp reports

You know it’s getting close to pond season when everyone shows up to the pool reporting the water temp. This morning there were reports of 45 degrees and 48 degrees. Still a little too chilly. It also seems like most of the pond swimmers are becoming more steady in the morning to get ready for pond season. Most of the year they were hardly ever showing up and now they are showing up on a consistent basis, guess no one wants to be left behind crossing the pond.

500 warmup
800 pull
600 4×25, 4×50, 1×200, 1×100
600 4×25, 4×50, 1×200, 1×100
600 4×25, 4×50, 1×200, 1×100
600 pull – cooldown
Total: 3700 yards

Weight: 163.75

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

More Long Intervals

Yep, just another Thursday morning on the CompuTrainer. Today was the same workout as last thursday. Two 20 minute intervals at 98% of FTP with 5 minutes of recovery. Heart rate ranged from 155-158 for the first one and from 157-163 for the second one. Each recovery my heart rate went back down to mid 130s.

It’s looking like a nice day to be outside on the bike! 60s and sunny, too bad it isn’t like that at 5am!!!!

Weight: 164.4

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Cold and miserable

Cold and miserable, pretty much describes my run this morning. Going out I didn’t think it was going to be too bad because it just seemed to be raining lightly on the drive to the gym. Once I got out on the road though, the wind was driving it right at me and along with the cold, it just sucked. On the way back someone driving a car decided that I wasn’t wet or cold enough so I got a wave of water thrown at me as the car went through a puddle on the street. I saw it coming and just couldn’t get far enough away. Up until that point my feet were feeling ok, but after that they were just soaked. That’s when I decided to cut the run short. I hate runnning when my feet squish.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78949102

Weight: 164

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Getting warm in the garage

Spent another Tuesday morning in the garage on the CompuTrainer. This session was another set of short intervals. I felt pretty good this morning, heart rate was going between 160-163 for the last few minutes of each interval and would quickly recover to 130s before the next interval. Intervals were 6 minutes long, so not too bad, but the last couple the legs were starting to really feel it.

Still kind of debating whether to keep training on the CompuTrainer during the week or to try to get outside. The CompuTrainer is nice because I can start early, if I go out, it is still dark of 5am. I don’t mind running in the dark, but riding in the dark doesn’t sound too appealing to me.

Weight: 163.8

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Getting closer to pond season!

Pretty good swim this morning, but more importantly we are getting closer to getting back in the pond. George stopped by with the official horse thermometer and took a reading of 48 degrees. I’m thinking maybe 6 or 7 more degrees and we’ll be good to go!

500 warmup
500 pull
300 drill
200 free
400 4×100 – free,back, breast, free
200 free
400 8×50 – free on 45
200 free
400 16×25 – free, stroke on 25

Total: 3100 yards

Weight: 164

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Finally outside for a long ride

Finally made it outside for a long ride and what a nice day to be out on the bike. Started out a little chilly at 40 degrees, but easily was in the 50s an hour later. Good thing it was a nice day as our group was all over the place today, some of us did part of the ride in one direction while others did it the other, quite the comedy out there. One good thing, no one had any breakdowns so we all made it back in one piece.

I felt pretty good through the first 50 miles and then started to feel it a little bit in the legs. Still had enough to power any hills at the end, but overall very happy and feel like the work on the trainer has paid off even though the overall speed was a little slower than I had hoped. The numbers from the Garmin on the link below.

Also had the opportunity to jump on a scale during the ride to check my rate of dehydration, will post the photo along once Melinda sends it to me. Turns out I lost 30lbs in the first 38 miles of the ride!

The Weight In

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78413831

Weight: 164.2

Categories
Gear Ironman Lake Placid

Test ride outside

Tomorrow is the first long ride outside and I needed to make sure that everything was in working order and it is quite nice out today. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as nice. Went for a short 10 mile ride and it was good to get out and actually ride on the road. The new Power Meter, Crank and Cassette all worked great. The deraileurs all seemed to be shifting right on the money as well. Hopefully if all goes well, tomorrow will be more of the same.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78080388

Weight: 164.4

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Another Friday Swim

Just another Friday morning swim at the Andover Y. Lots of talk about when the pond will  be warm enough to swim. I know I’m looking forward to it!

500 warmup
500 pull
500 4×125 – IMO
300 4×75 – free, back, breast
400 4×100 – free, back, breast, free
800 4×200 – pull
400 16×25 – free
300 cooldown

Total: 3700

Weight: 165

Categories
Gear

Quarq Power Meter and other toys

UPS and FedEx have been very busy the last couple of days in Boxford. On Tuesday they dropped off my new Power Meter, the Quarq Cinqo Saturn mounted on a SRAM 975 Crankset. Then on Wednesday they dropped off the X-Lab Wing Kit.

I went with the Power Meter on the crank because it seemed to me to be the most versatile. Power Meters that are mounted on the hub can only be used with that wheel so if I decided to change wheels I would have to have a new one built around my power meter or buy another power meter. The Quarq mounted on a quality SRAM Red Chainring seemed like the best option. I also purchased the SRAM Ceramic bottom bracket to go with the chainring. Everything went together without a problem. Connecting the power meter to my Garmin 705 was very simple. Just turn on the Garmin, tell it you have a power meter and it discovers it. Done! I set the bike back up on the CompuTrainer to see how the Watts compared and they were very close. I did my ride this morning recording the power on the Garmin and on the CompuTrainer, unfortunately my legs didn’t show up for the workout. Again I found the CompuTrainer and the Quarq to be feeding me the same data.

I also put the X-Lab Wing Kit on the bike last night. I had to change the bracket around that held the seat on so that I could mount the Wing, but other than that assembly was pretty straight forward. The Gorilla cages seem pretty good, but not sure how well they will really hold a full water bottle when hitting bumps in the road.

Weight: 164.4