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Ironman Lake Placid

Whatever happened to easy Friday?

I was looking forward to a nice swim at the pond and a slow jog afterward. What I got was Jan kicking my ass across the pond for two crossings. One of these days I will remember to wear my watch, I’m pretty sure we are making a one way crossing in 15 minutes. I had hoped that Mike was going to jog with me after the swim this morning but he had already run yesterday so I went off on my own and decided to push hard since I had already pushed hard in the swim, might as well finish off the workout the same way. The run was hard, but I was glad I did it afterward. Managed to do negative splits for the 5 miles starting out under 8 min/mile and finishing under 7 min/mile.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89802351

Weight: 165

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Ironman Lake Placid

Great sunrise today

Well, the plan was to swim at the pond and then go for an easy bike ride. Only part of the plan worked out. George never showed up to swim and there was no one else there until almost 5:45 and that was a little too late for me to get in a crossing and bike. Mark M. showed up on time at 6:00 and we did the Tour De Boxford pretty much riding all over town. It was a good recovery ride for almost an hour and a half. I think it is the perfect ride to let my legs recover after the long run and the hard bike the day before. In the past I would have pushed it again on a day like today and probably would have ended up getting injured or be so sore that I wouldn’t be able to workout effeciently tomorrow. It is a tough balance trying to figure out when to let my body recover and when to push it.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89597991

Weight: 164

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Ironman Lake Placid

Missed the sunrise by minutes!!

Did my long run from the pond this morning. Brought my camera along to take a few photos of the sunrise. Didn’t end up getting one because it seemed cloudy and didn’t look like the sun was going to show. Headed out on the run and just as I crest the first hill, there is the big ball of fire in the sky. Guess I will have to try again on Friday morning.

The run itself was good, not very fast, but this course has a few more rollers than the flats of Danvers.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89402886

Weight: 163

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Ironman Lake Placid

Tuesday Time Trial

Outside on the roads this morning. The weather is finally starting to cooperate a little bit. I think only two cars passed me over the course of an hour ride. One of the nice things about riding through Boxford. Had an ok ride this morning, I was hoping to go a little faster than I did, but just didn’t have the legs. Maybe the long ride on sunday finally caught up to me. Most likely it was just the large waffle cone of Cherry Vanilla Chip that did me in.

I’ve done this ride plenty of times in the past and used to be able to do it in under an hour, of course that was almost 10 years ago, so being off by a minute or two isn’t too bad. Hopefully I will get there by the end of the summer.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89186691

Weight: 166

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Ironman Lake Placid

Pond is heating up

Water temp at the pond was 75 degrees this morning. Double crossing with no wetsuit today. A little slower without the wetsuit but definitely a better workout. Did a 5 mile run afterward with Mike. Good to loosen up the legs. Overall felt pretty good after the long ride yesterday, I had expected to be a little sore today, but feel fine.

Weight: 163

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Ironman Lake Placid

Sunday Ride

Another long Sunday ride down, and lots more to go! Felt good the entire ride today. Trying to stay at a steady pace, even when up in the front. Sometimes when I’m in the front I tend to start pushing too hard so I’ve been paying closer attention to the power meter to make sure I don’t get out of my zone.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/88783703

Nutrtion:
96 oz. EFS Drink
EFS Liquid Shot
Honey Stinger

Per Hour Totals:
Calories: 277
Sodium: 621
Potassium: 365
Chloride: 886
Magnesium: 281
Calcium: 200
Elecrtolyes: 2633

Weight: 163

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Ironman Lake Placid

Back in the pond!

Finally back in the pond, and I hope for the rest of the summer. So nice not have to turn every 25 yards. I wore my wetsuit this morning but it really wasn’t needed. Water temp at the beach was 70 degrees, although there were some reports of colder water by the dam, but who swims at the dam any way? 🙂 Hit the water at 4:45am and did a double, about 4400 yards or 2.5 miles. I swam with Jan on the first crossing and she really pushed me, I thought I was going to take it easy, no such luck. After the swim I ran with Mike back to his house and back for a little over 4.5 miles.

It was a good start to the open water swim season, looking forward to going back on Monday and doing it again 🙂

Weight: 163.4

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Ironman Lake Placid

Two days of sun in a row!!!

Set the alarm a little bit later this morning and did a medium effort ride on the CompuTrainer. Tried to keep my heart rate between 145-155 and my cadence above 90 for the entire ride. It was a good ride to loosen up the legs again after the long run on Wednesday. I may switch my days up a little and bike on Friday and swim and run easy on Thursday. It’s good to be on the bike, but my legs are too beat up to go all out after going all out on Tuesday and following it with a long run on Wednesday. Maybe my long runs will get better and I will be able to push myself more on Thursday, will have to wait and see.

Looking forward to my first swim and run from the pond in the morning. It’s seems like this day was never going to come!

Weight: 162.4

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Ironman Lake Placid

The Sun – it finally came out!!!

Did my long run this morning in Danvers. It was not much fun, last night my sinuses were just killing me and I couldn’t fall asleep. Finally at about 2am I fall asleep for a couple of hours. Made it to the Y by 5:10 and off we went. Ran with Heidi this morning and Julie dropped back to run at her own pace. I think Heidi would have liked to run that first 7 miles at a faster pace, but I just didn’t have it today. Last week after the first 7 I was able to pick up the pace but not today, struggled to just maintain 8:10 for the rest of the way. Glad that is over!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87911104

Weight: 161

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

60 Days….

As I’m writing this the little count down clock in the corner of my computer screen tells me that there is 60 days and 20 hours to go before the start of Ironman Lake Placid. I feel like my training so far has gone pretty well for the time that I have. Looking at the training plan that our Tri group is working from it has us training up to 13 and 14 hours at this point and going to as much as 20. Unfortunately I just don’t have that kind of time so I will have to get by with the time that I do have. Last week we were supposed to hit 16 hours, I managed a solid 11 hours.

Looking at the individual sports and breaking down the time, I usually fall far short when it comes to the swimming portion of the training program, should be at 3 hours and I’m closer to 1.5 hours. I’m not really concerned about the swim though.

Next up is the bike, currently I’m riding 3 days a week, two days on the trainer and the long weekend ride. It would be nice to get 1 of those training rides outside, but the weather is just not cooperating and I’m not riding in the rain for the fun of it. Last weekend I managed 81 miles in 4.5 hours on the long ride and felt like I could keep going so that was good. This weekend depending on the time I may try to push it to 90 miles in 5 hours. My Tuesday morning CompuTrainer ride, yup the one I did this morning, I feel like is my most important ride. It is the ride where I really push and keep the tempo high for an hour long session followed by a cooldown. This ride makes the long weekend ride feel easier or at least I feel like my heart isn’t working as hard to maintain our endurance ride pace.

Running is probably my weakest point right now. I do manage to get in my long run on Wednesday mornings, doing 12 miles. I only run 5 or 7 miles on Monday or Friday with my swimming so at most I’m only getting in 26 miles a week. With the weather getting warmer I’m hoping to be able to get to the pond early and have enough time to run afterward that I can get in maybe 8 miles on monday and friday. Maybe the weather will cooperate and this friday will be the first!

I’ve been asked quite a few times what my goals are for the Ironman and I’ve avoided answering them specifically because I didn’t have an idea of what was realistic. As we get closer though I’m starting to get a good feeling for what I will be capable of and I believe it will be under 12 hours. After Patriot and the training weekend at Lake Placid I will definitely know if that is realistic, but at this point I think it is. We will see a month from now if I revise that number up or down 🙂

Weight: 163