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Ironman Lake Placid

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

Today was the long endurance ride and it seemed to take forever! I realized early on that it wasn’t going to be a good ride, you can just feel it in your legs. I really need to drink more water after yesterdays 10 mile run, it makes a huge difference. Once you get dehydrated it is very difficult to recover, I drank 3 water bottles during the ride but still ended up weighing 4lbs less than yesterday. I’m trying to lose weight, but not all in one day!!!! I’ll be sure to drink more next saturday after my run to be better prepared for the long ride. I was supposed to do 3 hours 15 minutes but ended up just doing 3 hours followed by a 2 mile run. I actually felt ok during the run, even though it was pretty short. 

Weight: 163.4

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Long run outside

Along with training for the Ironman I have a half-marathon coming up in a couple of weeks. Since I have only been running once a week, I thought it about time to start upping the mileage. So this afternoon I went out for a 10 mile run, well, almost 10 miles. The first couple of miles were a little rough, but then I kind of got in a groove. From mile 4 on I was able to keep the pace under 8 min miles and I was pretty happy about that for as little running as I have been doing. If I can get out for 10 the next couple of weekends with a long run on wednesday I should be in good shape for the half-marathon. Once the warmer weather comes and I can get out in the morning to swim I will be able to run after the swim and up the running time even more.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72589901

Weight: 167.4

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Easy swim

Some days you just need to take it easy. After two hard rides on the CompuTrainer on tuesday and thursday my body was feeling beat up, not to mention running outside again. The road definitely beats your legs up more than a treadmill does. The overall yardage of the swim was still pretty good at 3500 yards, but I paced myself a little different. Usually I swim hard and have longer rest periods but today I decided to swim at an easier pace and just rest less in between sets.

600 warmup
400 pull
300 kick
600 200×1, 100×2, 50×4  1:30 pace
600 200×1, 200×2, 50×4 1:40 pace
600 200×1, 200×2, 50×4 1:45 pace
400 cooldown
Total: 3500 yards

Weight: 167.5

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Long Intervals shorter break

This morning long Intervals were similar to the ones I did last thursday, with the exception that the break in between the two long intervals was only 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes. Session 2 is definitely easier than Session 1 each week, but not by much. My heart rate for the second interval seemed to be above 160 for the entire time and closer to 165.  Definitely a good hard workout.

Week 12 Session 2 Results
Week 12 Session 2

Weight: 165.6

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

On the road again

Finally made it back outside for a run this morning. At 25 degrees it was a little bit chilly, but not too bad.  It was nice that it was actually light out while I was running, but I think the time is going to change again this weekend, so it will be back to the dark again. As long as the snow and ice stay away so I can stay outside.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72096443

Weight: 166

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Intervals are getting better

Getting better, but not quite there yet. Last week when I did this workout I was only able to get through 3 of the intervals before falling apart. This week I managed to make it halfway into the 5th interval before my legs just gave out. I rested for 30 seconds and then finished out the interval. The last interval I had to rest twice as you can seee in the chart. My legs just didn’t have the strength to keep going, of course my heart was up to 166 so maybe that had something to do with it too! Each of the interals was 6 minutes long with a 3 minute rest.

I definitely enjoy doing these even though they hurt. I have to believe that all this will pay off when I finally get outside. I may keep doing these workouts even after the weather gets nice just because they force me to work hard, harder than I can probably push myself outside on the bike. When I get outside I find it far to easy to just coast down a hill 🙂

Coaching Software Chart
Week 12 Session 1 Results

Weight: 166.6

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Monday morning swim

Another good workout in the pool this morning. The over all workout was a little bit shorter than usual in total yardage but we were definitely pushing harder. I was leading in my lane so I didn’t get to draft and that made it a little tougher, but I would rather lead if I am fast enough.

600 warmup
400 pull
200 kick
800 – 4 x 125 free 75 stroke
200 kick
200 pull
400 – 4 x 75 stroke 25 free
400 – 8 x 25 easy 25 fast
Total: 3200 yards

Weight: 168

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

The Longest Ride

Another long Sunday ride, up to 3 hours now. It’s a long time to be riding on the CompuTrainer, but at least I have the TV to entertain me, and my riding friend Julie. I’m not sure who is more entertaining. There was also my 4 year old son who made an appearance for about 45 minutes of the ride. He road laps around the garage on his bike, made us look slow. I was just shy of 53 miles in my 3 hours today. My legs felt pretty good, but I will have to start eating some real food as the hours start to build. Gels and Perpetuem can only do so much or maybe I will experiment with upping the amount of Perpetuem per bottle.

Weight: 167.2

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Friday motivation

The good thing about swimming with a group is that they push you. This morning I was ready to just mail in a few thousand yards and call it a day. I woke up feeling tired and sore, yesterday taking a lot out of me for those intervals I could still feel it in my legs. Heading into the pool there wasn’t many people there to start and I was thinking this could be good, nice relaxing swim. That all ended quickly as I saw a blur go by in the water, great, the fast swimmers were here. I used to consider myself a pretty good swimmer until I started swimming with this group. This morning I had trouble keeping up with a guy doing the backstroke, pretty sad. But hey, it motivated me to swim hard and if they weren’t there I would have just relaxed and swam easy.

700 warmup
300 pull
200 kick
800 1×200, 2×100, 4×50, 8×25 free
800 1×200, 2×100, 4×50, 8×25 stroke
800 1×200, 2×100, 4×50, 8×25 free
300 cooldown
Total: 3900 yards

Weight: 166.75

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Long Interval Session

This morning I did some long intervals on the CompuTrainer. Well, really just two intervals but they were twenty mintues long and at 90% of my CP30 score. It was definitely a tough workout and you can see from the chart below that my heart rate was really up there for the last half of the second interval. Overall my heart average was 151 but it maxed out at 168.  The last five minutes were just really hard, started playing mind games with the numbers to get through it. Glad it is over, looking forward to the leisurely three hour ride on Sunday.
CompuTrainer Coaching Software
CompuTrainer Results

Weight: 166.6