Weekly Training Log – 05/15/2011

It has been a very long two weeks – so much so that I just didn’t have time to post an update last weekend.  To summarize that week in a sentence, it ended with a 100-mile ride in the NC mountains where we climbed a total 7,000 feet and I actually felt pretty good in the end… even better when followed by a night at the Biltmore!

This week was a recovery week which really acted as a taper leading up to the White Lake Half Ironman.  I will go ahead and post a race report later, but I summarize it by saying that I set a PR (5:16), but I was fairly disappointed with my performance.  Some my fault – some not.  More on that later.

Monday – I had taken Sunday off following the mountain climbs on Saturday, so I started the day with a 30-minute run before strength training with Olivier.  I felt pretty mediocre, so the run was really more of a warm-up for my strength workout.  I finished the day with a 45-minute run that just really felt awful.  I made it, but my pace was slow and not real fun.  My body was obviously still tired and then I just really don’t do very well at night after a day sitting around at work all day.

Tuesday – Morning swim with the group.  I got in about 2,500 and it felt pretty good.   Tuesday night was an hour on the trainer doing a spinerval workout.  I was going to ride outside with Ryan, but work has been kicking my ass, so I just didn’t have time.

Wednesday – Morning run in Umstead.  45-minute run with 20 of that being at a tempo pace.  The run felt pretty good, but 45-minutes is really not that long, so I was feeling just fine at the end.  No evening workout that night.

Thursday – VERY short morning swim.  We got in about 600m before the power went out at the aquatic center, so we had to leave.

Friday – I did a morning swim of a mile to make up for Thursday’s short workout.

Saturday – White Lake Half Ironman – finished in 61st place overall / 11th in age group – 5:16.  I was disappointed – really wanted to break 5 hours and still think it should have been possible.

Sunday – Off

So how do I feel after the half I did yesterday?  If it’s hot in Nice, I will be in some serious pain.  The run yesterday absolutely killed me – I started the first several miles at around 7:00 pace which is right where I should be, but the sun quickly beat me down and I slowed down to a 1:48 half marathon time.  I also discovered that I really dislike flat bike courses – never in a million years did I think I’d say that.  The flatness makes it so you never HAVE to change positions, so everything gets so stiff from being locked in position and you have to force yourself to stand, situp, or whatever it takes to mix things up and stay loose.  On hills, you are constantly changes positions which I believe keeps the body much more loose.  Also, any wind on flat courses can seriously screw you.  On hills, you are going to slower going uphill regardless and then you can fly on the downhill.  I am convinced I would have been much faster on the course yesterday if there were hills.

I do feel good about my nutrition strategy.  The ONLY mistake I made was with a homemade energy shake I have been taking before these long workouts and races.  The one I took this week had too much protein in it, so my stomach was pretty unsettled the entire time.  But that’s easily fixed.  The rest of my nutrition strategy went as planned and it worked great.

This week is back to heavy workouts with some long workouts next weekend.  I think this there is only one more seriously long weekend before Nice, so it’s getting to be crunch time!

Tags: 100-mile ride, 30-minute run, 45-minute run, age group, Aquatic Center, Bike Run Strength, biltmore, changes positions, crunch time, downhill, entire time, evening workout, Felt, flat bike courses, flat courses, half ironman, Half Marathon, half marathon time, heavy workouts, hills, homemade energy shake, hrs .5 hr, kicking, Lake Half Ironman, long weekend, long workouts, mediocre, Mile, morning swim, nc mountains, nutrition strategy, olivier, ONLY mistake, pace, Physical exercise, pretty good, Public relations, race report, real fun, Ryan, screw, short morning swim, short workout, Spinerval workout, strength training, strength workout, swim bike run, tempo, tempo pace, The run, Time 1.5 hrs, total 7, Total Distance, training log, triathlon, tuesday morning, Tuesday night, unsettled, update, uphill, warm-up, Wednesday morning, weekend, Weekly Training Log, White Lake Half, workouts, yesterday
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Weekly Training Log – 02/27/2011

Week #7 is done and this is the first week where I am sitting here feeling beat up.  The weekend was tough for me not just because of the increased distance, but  it’s allergy season and I am getting killed. But more on that in a bit…

This was another logistically-challenged week.  I traveled up to Boston on Thursday which really put a wrench into my standard routine, but I was able to make it work (more or less).  Monday was my normal workout with Olivier where he took my frustration with the bike ride last weekend to heart and blasted my legs.   Tuesday was a long swim followed by a tough Spinerval workout that night.  Wednesday was 45-minute run with a bunch of 30 second sprints thrown in… then I did a bunch of squats and lunges that I was feeling until Friday. Wednesday night was another Spinerval workout followed by some time on the Total Gym.  Thursday was a day off from workouts, but I was up at 3:30 and didn’t get home until 11 or so, so it was a very long day.  Then trying to get up for a 6am spin class (and 30-minute run) the next morning made me very tired.

So Saturday comes along we were supposed to go 3:30 on the bike.  But I started from my house and it take about 15 minutes to get to Ryan’s, so I ended up doing 4 hours (duration… take out our random stops and it ended up being a little over 3:30).  Anyway, the ride was fine.  I felt a little stronger this week, but I still got my ass kicked.  Maybe not quite so bad this time, but it was pretty bad.  The only good part (I think) was that Matt joined up with us about 30 minutes into the ride and there were a few points that I was able to beat him pretty easily.  That said, he was able to hang with Ryan for much of the ride where I couldn’t.  Anyway – Matt did Ironman Arizona recently, so I was pretty happy to do better than him on some of the hills.   By the end of the ride, I was spent.  And after the ride was over, I could really feel my allergies kicking in… maybe that was my problem.  Probably not. I am just not that strong on the bike.  Maybe my blog should really be called SuckyCyclistEvenThoughIHaveAnExpensiveBike.com.

Sunday called for a 1:40 run.  Ryan, Olivier and I ended up going about 1:50 and went just under 14-miles through the horse trails in Umstead.  I had an awful sleep the night before because allergies were just killing me. So congested and my throat scratchy… and the Zyrtec and Benadryl didn’t do squat.  But the run ended up being better than I expected given how terrible I felt going into it… and I was again spent by the end and just ready for bed.

And so here I am. Tired and generally feeling awful. But not because of the training… that’s the good news.

Tags: 15 minutes, 30-minute run, 45-minute run, allergies, Allergy, allergy season, Anyway, awful sleep, Benadryl, bike ride, Bike Run Strength, blasted, Boston, bunch, Cycling, fine, good news, Happy, Hospitality Recreation, hr 13.5 hrs, Ironman Arizona, kicking, long day, long swim, Matt, Mile, miles week, normal workout, Physical exercise, random stops, Ryan, spin class, Spinerval workout, Sports, standard routine, throat scratchy, Total Gym, Total Time, tough spinerval workout, trails, training, training log, United States, Wednesday night, weekend, Weekly Training Log, workouts, wrench, Zyrtec
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