Category: Triathlon

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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 🙁 )

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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Ironman Lake Placid

At the Pool

The swim workout was a good solid workout today. Dave was in my lane today, he doesn’t do flip turns, but he is pretty fast, especially his free. On the 300 he pulled away by almost 25 yards, luckily when I looked back the rest of the group in my lane was further back than me so I wasn’t holding anyone up. I can usually keep up for the first 100 yards but then start to fall back. I was still making it back to the wall with time to rest, but just not as fast as I would like to be.

500 warmup
400 pull
100 kick
200 4×50
—- Main Set 2X —-
300 1×300
300 2×150
300 4×75
———————-
200 4×50
500 cooldown
Total: 3700

Weight: 168

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Ironman Lake Placid

The Big Snow

Yesterday we had a big snow storm come through and drop 20 inches of snow. That put a little kink in my workout plans. I had planned on running, but when I woke up there was already a foot of snow on the ground and none of the plows had gone by. My workout ended up being blowing snow and shoveling. I probably spent over 3 hours cleaning up the driveway between the three or four times I was out there. Never did get out for that run.

This morning I had no excuse though as the CompuTrainer sits down in the garage, so I was down there at 4:45 this morning for my Tempo ride. I was able to hold 215 watts for an hour and felt good the entire time. That was followed up by a 15 minute cooldown.

Weight: 168.6

Snow Storm
Snow Storm
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Ironman Lake Placid

CompuTrainer – Intervals

I was back on the CompuTrainer this morning. This is the first Session since the Test Set that I did last thursday that recalibrated my wattage for the coming weeks. I knew I should have slacked off on that Test!!! On the Interval training day I use the coaching software for my workout. Using a text editor on the computer you simply enter in the load/resistance that you want the trainer to be at and the duration. The first ten minutes is usually building up to about 70% of your test wattage or what they refer to as CP30. Then for 5 minutes you go 30 seconds at 100% 30 seconds at 50%. Once that is done the main set starts and today it was 3 10 minute intervals of 105% with 5 minutes of rest in between at 50% followed by a cool down of 15 minutes at 50%.

I started off pretty well but I knew by the time I got to that third 10 minutes I was going to be hurting. Looking back at the workout now in the coaching software I can see that I was able to keep my cadence steady for the first and second 10 minute intervals. The heart rate would shoot up to around 165-169 and come back to around 140 in between. The last 10 minute interval was when I fell apart, at about 7 minutes into it. On the chart I can see my cadence dropping off and picking up and finally just drops and I had to grind out the last 2 minutes standing up. I can see I will be working much harder after that last Test upped the wattage. Hopefully this will all pay off this summer.

Weight: 169.5

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Ironman Lake Placid

The Mental Swim

This morning was feeling kind of tired and thinking that it would be a good day for an easy workout in the pool. I got there when the door opened to the pool at 5:25 and started my warmup. Unlike Friday though, quite a few other people were there on time this morning so a few hundred into the swim I had someone right behind me pushing me. That’s the great thing about swimming with a group, someone always there pushing you. After the normal warmup,pull, kick we started our sets.

I don’t really like to lead because I feel like I have to keep up with the guy leading in the next lane over, and he is usually either fast or really fast. Erin forced me to lead though, her thinking was I do free for everything so I wouldn’t have to work as hard when they did stroke. Well, that would have been nice, except for the fact that out of the 1000 yards in the first set they only did 100 stroke! I’m glad she had me lead though, it really forced me to work hard. The second set through was easier though as they did more stroke for the first 500.

500 warmup
400 pull
100 kick
500 4×125 1:50
300 4×75   1:20
200 4×50   :50
500 4×125 2:05
300 4×75    1:10
200 4×50   :50
600 3×200 pull
Total: 3600

Weight: 167.5

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Ironman Lake Placid

The Endurance Ride

Sunday is the long ride, this week the plan called for only an hour and a half ride. I think it was because of the Test Set on Thursday. The other reason is because the program has you build up over 4-5 weeks and then drop back and build again. Today I loaded up a course from my Garmin into the CompuTrainer. It is a ride that we had done a couple times at the end of the year and I was curious to see how it felt on the Trainer. My average speed was a little faster than when we were riding, but I think that is understandable since the last time we were riding the course it was between 30-40 degrees outside.

The ride goes from Boxford up to Newburyport and back down through West Newbury and Georgetown. While the 3D course is interesting to watch, it was more interesting to watch the course profile and see where I was along the course and remember what it was like being on the section of the ride outdoors. The hills certainly felt pretty realistic! In the time I had I did a little over 28 miles of the 40 mile ride. My average Watts were 195, HR 147, MPH 19, Cadence 87. Julie came and rode her bike on the Cyclops Fluid Trainer that I have following along the Lake Placid video.

Weight: 168.8