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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

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Ironman Lake Placid

The Friday Swim

I showed up at the pool a little early today and got in a few laps before the rest of the crew showed up. Not only was I early but it seemed like quite a few people were late. I ended up doing 800 warm up. Friday seems to be a lazy day in the pool. At least it was today as people drifted in and out of the workout and there seemed to be a lot more chatter in between sets. I can’t complain too much, after yesterdays CompuTrainer session I was plenty happy to just go with the flow today.

The workout:
800 warmup
400 pull
400 – 8×50 (The real swimmers do IM order, I just do free for everything)
600 – 12×50
750 – 3×100, 3×75, 3×50, 3×25
600 – 12×50
500 warmdown

Total: 4050

For some of the sets you are supposed to do other strokes, maybe someday I will start doing those, for now I just do free all the time.

Weight: 170

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Ironman Lake Placid

CompuTrainer Test Set

This morning was test day for the CompuTrainer P.I.G. program. The last time I did this test I had just setup the trainer and didn’t really understand what I was doing. I was probably paying a little too much attention to the mph value and the Metal Man I was racing and average 209 watts for the 30 minute test. This time I was a more focused and did 248.6 watts for the test with an average heart rate of 159.2. I’m not sure if this was a good thing or bad thing yet, because the next 4-5 weeks training is going to be based off of this new average watts number. I’m happy with the improvement and I don’t expect there to be such a dramatic jump for the next test. I’m definitely looking forward to the warmer weather to see how this all translates to actually riding on the road.

Before the 30 minute test you are supposed to ride progressively up to 90% of your current maximum wattage between the 20-25 minute mark, from there you just spin easy and start the test. Watching my numbers and seeing how my legs felt during the warmup I was thinking I might be able to average 230-235 watts. I was concerned about being able to keep up the effort for the entire 10 mile course or 30 minute ride. As it turned out I was comfortable keeping the pace around 240 and then on the uphills going up to around 270-285 for short periods of time. I did start to fade over the last 3 or 4 minutes though, proably averaged around 230, just couldn’t keep the RPMs up.

Ride stats:
Watts: 248
MPH: 21.5
HR: 159
Cadence: 87
Overall SpinScan: 57 – that needs some work

Weight: 169

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Ten Degrees

Ten Degrees makes a bigger difference than I thought when running outside. On Monday it was 32 degrees and I felt warm running, hands were warm, nothing felt cold. This morning it was 22 degrees at the start of the run. I wore practically the same clothes and felt much colder, wish I had brought my hand warmers. I finally warmed up around 3 miles into the run, but my hands never really warmed up.

Wednesday is generally the day that I do long runs, but since I’m doing the CompuTrainer test tomorrow morning I was trying to keep my legs fresh, so I kept it to 5 miles. My GPS watch had trouble picking up the satellites early so my first split says 9:27 and when I got back to the Y it said 4.75 miles. So I ran another quarter mile to make it an even 5. I think I will let the watch sync up with the satellites a little bit longer next time. Another odd thing about the data from the watch this morning is that it says I burned 200 calories less than I did on Monday for pretty much the same distance.

Here is the Garmin results http://connect.garmin.com/activity/62050802

Weight: 169 (Taken at Y, I generally weigh a little less on that scale than at home)

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Ironman Lake Placid

Active Recovery Ride

Up early and on the CompuTrainer this morning. Today was an Active Recovery ride, meaning about 60% effort for an hour. Usually tuesday is an interval based training day, but the scheduled called for the recovery ride because the week five re-test is coming up. On Thursday I’ll be doing the same test that I did at the start of the program to see if I’ve improved at all and to use that score for the basis of the next four weeks training.

Average power over the course of the ride was 170 watts and my average heart rate was 119 with a max of 128. Since I knew that I wasn’t going to be exerting a lot of effort for the ride today I tried to focus on my Spinscan numbers. Spinscan is a way to measure the efficiency of your pedal stroke. They say that the average road cyclist is between 70 and 80, mine is usually 60 and today it was 65.

Weight: 171