Tag: Ironman

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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

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 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

Sunday Ride – Real Course Video Lake Placid

Before I get to the bike training part of the blog today I’ve decided that I’m going to post my weight to the blog daily as part of motivation to lose weight and get ready for the Ironman. Today my weight was 169. My goal is to be in the low 150s for race day. The lower weight will definitely help on the bike course with all the hills.

Now on to the Sunday ride. Sunday is long ride day. At least that is the way that I worked out the days for my Ironman training program. Unfortunately this time of year it means riding indoors on the trainer. I have a CompuTrainer and one of the really cool things about it is that it simulates riding outside and, even better, there are real course videos for some of the most popular Ironman events. Today I road for 2 hours and 45 minutes on the Lake Placid course. I made it 48 miles into the course averaging a little over 17.5 mph. The other great feature of training with a CompuTrainer is that your training is based on Watts. This really allows you to focus on how much work you are doing on uphills, flats, downhills. Knowing how hard you are working is important so that you don’t burn your legs out and really allows you to keep your heart rate in a nice tight range that allows you to ride longer distances comfortably. Today my average Watts for the ride was 192, actually a little more than I was supposed to be doing according the the CompuTrainer Performance Improvement Program (PIG). This week the PIG program has me testing again to setup the bike training for the next 5 weeks. Last time I average 210 Watts for the 30 minute test, hopefully I will be better this time!

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Ironman Lake Placid

My first blog post

This is my first blog post. I’ve been thinking about having a blog for a while, but was never really quite sure what I would blog about. I mean what do I have to say that anyone would ever care to read about? Well, this past summer I signed up for an Ironman and I’ve decided to use this blog as running diary of my training. The Ironman I’ve signed up for is Lake Placid. Ironman Lake Placid is going to be held on July 24, 2011. This is my first attempt at an Ironman distance event. Having completed a couple of half-ironman distance races it seems like the next logical step right?

Monday was supposed to be the first official day of training. Really I have been training since September, attempting to build up a base level of fitness to start from. So Monday came, and we had a Blizzard, so no workout. Guess that isn’t such a great way to kick off the start of training!! Monday was supposed to be a swim workout, so I’m not too upset about missing it as the swim is my strongest event at the moment.

Today was another swim day and I met the rest of the Tri Group at the Beverly Y. I got there about 45 minutes before the rest of them and did 3000 yards. The Beverly Y has a great pool, it is so large that there were actually two swim practices going on and there were still lanes open for lap swimming. Once Melinda (swim coach) showed up we did another 1400 or so yards. I learned some new drills today that I hadn’t done before, it was a good workout.