Weekly Training Log – 01/30/2011

Week #3 is done and this was one of the best weeks of training I have had in a long long time.    I typically judge the week by reflecting on my long weekend workouts … so I am obviously happy with those, but more on that in a bit.  My workouts during the week were average at best.  I should have been on the bike for 3:40 during the week, but I was only able to get on for 1:50 – not quite enough but a long shot.  My swim sessions were as good as always – Olivier makes us do more yardage  than the plan ever says, so I am never short-changed in the water.   My time-trial swim session for the week had me finishing a mile in about 31 minutes – not fast by most people’s standards, but an improvement for me.

This week’s brick was supposed to be an hour on the bike followed by a 20-minute run.  I got the time on the bike, but only about 15 minute of running… had to run to a meeting for work.  Regardless, the run felt fine which is the point I guess.

Saturday was my long bike ride.  I was supposed to do 2:30 but ended up going 3 hours to make up for some of my shortened workouts earlier in the week.  I headed out through the hills north of Raleigh and ended up going 52 miles.  Not a super-fast pace, but with several steep hills and lots of rolling terrain, I was pretty happy with it.  Sunday was my long run – if you remember last week, I had thoroughly kicked Olivier’s butt and he wanted to “race” for real.  So Oliver, Ryan, Chris and I headed out on what’s known as “Z-Big Loop” in Umstead (9.5 miles… horse trails… lots of brutal hills).  We started out easy and stayed together for the first mile.  But then Olivier and Chris pressed forward, leaving Ryan and I behind.  That lasted for a few minutes before I split off from Ryan and caught up to Chris… and then set my sites on Olivier.  It took about a mile and a half to catch up to Olivier – turns out he struggles up the hills which I find surprising since he weighs about 20 lbs.  But he does struggle and by the second big hill, I was past him.  By the third big hill I had a few hundred yards on him and he was sufficiently demoralized.   Anyway – long story short, I ended up beating him by about 3 minutes and Ryan by 4.    Olivier is officially my bitch (on the run).     USA! USA!  USA!

My watch ran out of batteries, so I am not sure what my official pace was, but Ryan’s said 7:30 which means my pace was somewhere around 7:10.  I am VERY happy with that – especially when you look at the terrain we were dealing with.   But what I am even more happy about is that I had that strong of a run after having a solid long ride the day before.  To me that’s saying my body is dealing with the strain of the increased training very well and not getting too fatigued.  I realize it’s early to say that – I still have 21 weeks to go – but still… I am happy.

Tags: 20-minute run, 31 minutes, Anyway, big hill, bike ride, Bike Run Strength, bitch, brick, brutal hills, butt, Chris, Cycling, few minutes, fine, finishing, forward, Happy, hills, horse trails, Hospitality Recreation, judge, leaving Ryan and I behind, long bike ride, long long time, long run, long shot, long time, long weekend workouts, Mile, miles weekly training, mountain bike, official pace, olivier, pace, Physical exercise, Raleigh, rolling, Ryan, ryan chris, Ryan's, sessions, shortened workouts, solid long ride, Sports, standards, steep hills, struggle, super-fast pace, swim session, terrain, Time 3.0 hrs, time trial, time-trial swim session, trails, training log, United States, USA, weekend, workouts, Z-Big Loop
Category Featured, Weekly Training Logs |

Weekly Training Log – 12/05/2010

Strange week this week. I FEEL like I worked my butt off, but when I look at the hours and what I did, it doesn’t really seem that way.  I will start with the end of the week… on Saturday morning I met up with Olivier at Umstead park at 8am.  It was about 32 degrees (cold for NC) and we were doing a brick workout of sorts.  Basically, Olivier brought his cyclocross bike (a light mountain bike with thinner tires) and we headed off to the packed gravel horse trails.  For 10 miles, we alternated who would be riding on the bike.  One of us would ride until we were a few hundred yards ahead of the person running, then ditch the bike on the ground and start running as fast as possible.  The other person then catches up to the bike, jumps on it, and rides until they are a few hundred yards past the person now running.  We did this for 10 miles.  We did this in 60 minutes on the dot, meaning we averaged a running speed of 6-minute miles.  I am pretty sure my speed averaged about 6:30, so we were both hauling ass.  It was such a fun workout… and in theory, if you have a few groups doing this, it can be competitive and a heck of a lot of fun.  Anyway – it was awesome and I was exhausted the rest of Saturday.  Otherwise, not much to note for the week.  I am still struggling to get on the bike as much as I should.  Still only got in one spin session and then the brick workout with Olivier.  But I did get in 2 tough leg strength workouts at the gym, so that’s good (my butt is still sore).  As long as I am still building up strength in my legs, I feel good about what I am doing for the bike.

Tags: building, butt, packed gravel horse, Sports, training log
Category Weekly Training Logs |

Weekly Training Log – 07/12/2010

This week was tough.  The beginning wasn’t so bad, but then Wednesday came around and the 12 mile run kicked my butt.  The heat and humidity definitely took its toll on me.  Then on Thursday, the morning swim was fine, but then I tried keeping up with Ryan and John for the evening bike ride.  I am pretty sure I lasted about 1/2 mile before there was no chance of me catching them.  Ryan did his best to stay slow so he could pull me around, but it wasn’t happening – my legs were shot.  BUT, I still got a decent workout (for me) riding a very hilly course for 28 miles.  Saturday brought a mile swim in the 85 degree lake (at least – it was definitely hot – much hotter than outside) followed by a 62 mile bike ride.  Again, I was nowhere near as fast as Ryan and John, but I was able to keep an 18mph pace for the hilly 62 miles and I never really felt like I bonked like I had in the past.  I think the difference was I paid much more attention to my hydration and nutrition.  I didn’t stuff my face… but I ate a lot which carried me through. 

Only 5 weeks until the Timberman.  I am feeling prettty good about things.  Should be a good race!

Tags: bike ride, Bike Run Strength, butt, butt.  the heat, decent workout, degree lake, evening bike ride. , Events, fine, good race, half ironman training log, hilly 62 miles, hilly course, Hospitality Recreation, humidity, hydration, ironman training log, John, legs, Mile, mile bike, mile bike ride. , Mile run world record progression, mile swim. , miles weekly training, morning swim, nutrition, pace, Running, Ryan, Sports, swim bike run, Timberman, time 3, Time 3.4 hrs, Trail Running, training log, triathlon, triathlon training log, United States
Category Weekly Training Logs |

Pants on the Ground – Part I

A few weeks ago I published a story about my experience with explosive diarrhea during my first triathlon back in 2001.  The story was titled “Pants on the Ground – Part III” - the following is where it all began.

Not sure of the year, but I suspect I was in the 4th grade or so (so, maybe 1983).  My mom and I signed up for the Fritzbee’s 10k in Rockville, MD.  This was a summer race and was run at night when the temperatures had cooled a bit.  Fritzbee’s used to be a popular restaurant on Rockville Pike…. it was the TGI Friday’s of my childhood.

Anyway, the running at night part is key as I had been eating all day.  It was summer, so I am sure I was hanging out at the pool, eating junk food until I was ready to puke.  Well, it came time for the run and I believe it went fine.  I finished and promptly fell into a sea of people eating donuts, pizza, beer… whatever the local sponsors had provided after the finish line.

I was a little boy, so my priorities were different.  I wanted to find my parents.  Soon after I had crossed the finish line, I felt my stomach start to gurgle and quickly knew I was in trouble.  So with my cheeks clenched tight enough to turn coal into diamonds, I started shuffling around to the various storefronts in whatever strip mall we were gathered in.  Not one would let me use their bathroom!  What kind of restaurant manager denies a little boy that is clearly suffering from fecal urgency?  My next course of action was to search for the port-a-potties strategically hidden from the race participants.  Couldn’t find them.  Now in panic mode, I seriously thought I would go in my shorts. Then, out of nowhere, my parents are standing in front of me and I feel complete relief.  The pain the was gone.  It was as if seeing my parents made my problems disappear and nothing bad could happen.  I had found my parents and I just started crying and screaming, “I’m explooooding!!” and promptly dropped the most vile load of poo into my pants.

I don’t remember much after that.  I do remember my mom rushing me through the crowd to get to the bathroom and hearing people behind us saying “OH MY GOD, THAT’S DISGUSTING”.   I remember throwing my underwear into the port-a-pottie.  I remember the three of us driving home with our respective heads out of the window.

Tags: 10k, bowels, butt, diarrhea, explosive, Fritzbees, funny, running injury
Category My Ironman Training Stories |

Where’d My Butt Go?!

I am starting to get a complex.  First, my wife says my butt has disappeared. Then, our neighbor tells my wife that my ass is gone.  Now, my pants keep falling off because I don’t have any “hump” to hold them up.  It never occurred to me that getting in better shape and losing weight could possibly be a bad thing.  But I am here to say that there are definite negatives.

The worst part is that it brings back old memories (read: not fond memories) from high school.  There was a group of girls that used to make fun of me because I had no butt.  I weighed 125lbs at the time – of course I didn’t have a butt!  But still, I have spent many of my years after high school focused on building up certain body parts that were  sources for many a joke.  My legs, my arms, my butt…  one down, two to go.

What I don’t understand, however, is how? Why?  I mean, I am doing exercises that work the glutes. I still do squats.  How in the world did I lose every inch of mine?   Being the eternal optimist, I am viewing this as a good thing – it’s a wake-up call to the fact that my glutes are too weak. I need to build up more muscle back there.

Regardless, I do have a new theory.  I now believe that there is a direct correlation between a fat ass and a low golf handicap.  Why?  I was a 7-handicap coming into this summer.  Now – I am happy to break 90.  I have played every week for the last month, so it’s not for lack of playing.  I am just plain old bad.  This explains why John Daly, The Walrus, and Phil Mickelson are so darn good!

Tags: bad thing. , Beavis and Butt-head, body parts, butt, certain body parts, Daly, definite negatives, direct correlation, eternal optimist, exercises, fat ass, fond memories, funny, girls, glutes, Gluteus maximus muscle, Golf, golf handicap, Good thing, group, Handicap (golf), Happy, High school, Human Interest, john daly, joke, joke.  my legs, legs, losing weight, low golf handicap. , month, muscle, neighbor, new theory. , old memories, pants, Phil Mickelson, Shape, squats, Tiger Woods, wake up call, walrus, weight loss, worst
Category My Ironman Training Stories |