Month: April 2011

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

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Easy Run

My legs have pretty much recovered from the half-marathon, but I still took it pretty easy today and did just over 7 miles for an hour run. Kind of chilly out this morning, hands were cold. After yesterday morning when it is practically 60 when I got up this was kind of disappointing. Warmer weather is on the way though!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/77529133

Weight: 165.75

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Back to Intervals

After a nice relaxing active recovery week last week it is back to killing my legs with short hard intervals. The next 4 weeks training has been set with the results of the CP30 test I did Saturday morning. This first session is supposed to be at 108% effort of the CP30 score, but because my legs are still sore from the half-marathon on Sunday so I setup the workout to 104%. There were 6 intervals of 6 minutes each with a 3 minute rest in between. The first one always seems so easy, after that they all seem to be the longest 6 minutes of my life. Definitely a killer workout.

Week 16 Session 1

Weight: 166

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Late, short and fast

Forgot to set the alarm for this morning, so I woke up and it was already 5:20. At that point I’m usually just getting ready to hit the water. Instead of showing up late and having to kill myself to keep up without a warmup I decided to go to the Danvers Y for a bit of an easier swim. My legs are feeling pretty sore this morning from the Half-Marathon yesterday. I felt fine yesterday after the race, but can definitely feel it this morning, must have been all those hills yesterdady.

I jumped in the pool and started out easy but quickly picked up speed because I felt pretty good in the water. I ended up doing 2000 yards in 30 minutes, pretty good pace. Not the normal distance or time spent in the pool, but better than nothing when you forget to set the alarm!

Weight: 165.5

Categories
Race

Great Bay Half-Marathon

Had a good run today at the Great Bay half-marathon. Wasn’t sure how it was going to go because I haven’t been running as much as I did last year to get ready for it. I’ve been on the bike a lot more and in the pool, but that doesn’t always translate to better running. So I was pretty happy to see that I was only 9 seconds off my time from last year.

The rest of the Ironman group came out today for the race today and had some pretty good times, especially when you consider they were on their bikes for 3 hours and 30 minutes the day before! I’d have to say the most impressive performance of the day was Brian for coming out just 6 days after crushing two fingers and having 6 pins put in his hand. That would have been excuse enough for me to stay home and watch tv!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/77009422

Weight: 165

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Small Gains

This morning was my CP30 test and was the 4th test I’ve taken. I was able to eek out another gain in watts, but a small one. I guess a gain is a gain and I shouldn’t complain. My last three tests have been 248,254 and 259, gaining about 5 watts per every 4 weeks of training. It doesn’t seem like much, but over the course of 10 miles it is about 30 seconds. Ok, so that really isn’t a whole lot, but it is something. I guess one way to look at it is that it is kind of like bench pressing your max. The gains start to come much slower the stronger you get.

Over the course of the next 4 weeks of training I’m going to try to incorporate more leg exercises in my weight routine to build some strength in my legs. The hard part will be figuring out which day or days to do that. The best option may be to to do it after my rides on Tuesday and Thursday. I’m going to have to put some more thought into that.

Weight: 166.6

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Swimming and race weight

This morning was a pretty easy swim, most showed up late so I had about 1500 yards in before we actually started the workout. Jan was in the pool today so there was no messing around once the workout actually started.

500 – warmup
500 – pull
500 – swim,pull
1000 – 2 x 200 (pull), 3 x 100, 4 x 75 (kick)
1000 – 2 x 200 (free,stroke), 3 x 100, 4 x 75
Total: 3500 yards

My weight has been slowly dropping, still have a ways to go before I’m where I want to be though. I saw a quote the other day that I thought was pretty funny, but seems true.

“The trick is to keep losing weight until your friends and family ask if you’ve been sick. Then you know you’re within 10 lbs. If they start whispering to each other, wondering if you’ve got cancer or aids, you’re within 5lbs. When they actually do an intervention, you’re at race weight.” – Slowman

I thought it was pretty funny, because usually at some point as a train people start asking me “You’re not going to lose any more weight are you?” I guess that means I have been within 10 lbs of race weight.

Weight: 166.5