Today was another good day of training, and you know what? The sun finally came out and warmed things up. We might as well have been in CA today. When I rode I only had to have a light Under Armor shirt under my cycling jersey and tights...but we'll get to that.
The day started as all Friday's start, with a swim. It was a good swim, I'm feeling a bit better in the water. 3200 meters on the day with a good mix of strokes and one good long swim thrown in there for good measure. Our training group totally kicks ass right now as we consistantly have 12 or more fast people in the pool all doing the same workout and having John coaching us has been great. He's really getting into it for a morning workout. Maybe that's because we could easily school the college team.
Lunch time was the standard lift. I added a few different upper body exercises and laid off on a few leg ones only doing three sets of leg press, calfes and extensions.
The evening ride was fun. I got out on my road bike for a quick 30. We took a slightly more rolling course where the pavement isn't as fast as our usual time trial type route and I was wearing my fantastic new Garmin watch. It was a good ride, felt great being out there and once again I did most of the work. We started off a little quick but we were each feeling pretty good. We didn't start hammering until mile 10 and then brought the average up quickly over the next few miles to a little over 20 and held it there for a while even with the climbs. I was working a little harder than I was letting on to Mike and once we hit mile 20 I wanted to work the next 4.8 miles to make sure we at least worked hard for a solid 40K effort. We ended up battling the next four miles and just tearing it up. After that we sat up and kept the rest of the ride pretty comfortable just over 20. I just plugged the watch into the computer and the feedback is amazing! Great maps of the ride, the speeds at every point, elevations, heart rate, all sorts of graphs. Very cool stuff. Unfortunately I didn't stop it after we pulled into the drive way and hung out before coming inside. It wasn't until I was in my basement so that killed the average on the last 7+ miles after the 24.8. In total we rode 32 miles, for the 24.8 including warm-up we were 1:13.11
Average Speed: 20.4
Max Speed 32.4
Average heart rate: 146
Max Heart Rate: 168
Tomorrow morning I'll be going out with Jason and we'll be riding on a nice flat course that's paved pretty well so we're going with race wheels. Should be interesting.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Wednesday/Thursday - April 18/19
Two more solid days of workouts.
Wednesday started with a swim. We did some drill work where I figured out how to roll again. That was nice. Something even better was we used paddles! Grand total was just over 3000 meters.
At lunch I hit the weights for 40 minutes and felt pretty good. After work I hoped on the trainer for my aero base builder once again and only worked up an average rate of 136 even though I was working pretty hard.
When all was said and done I jumped on the scale and it said 159.5! Yikes.
Thursday I got a run in. Nothing fast, nothing exciting...6.2 miles at 7.8 mph from start to finish, just wanted to try out the sneakers I was planning on racing in, then walked for 5 minutes. I think that totalled 51 or 52 minutes. The scale at the gym said 159.0 so I had an evening of Chinese food and soda. Yum.
Wednesday started with a swim. We did some drill work where I figured out how to roll again. That was nice. Something even better was we used paddles! Grand total was just over 3000 meters.
At lunch I hit the weights for 40 minutes and felt pretty good. After work I hoped on the trainer for my aero base builder once again and only worked up an average rate of 136 even though I was working pretty hard.
When all was said and done I jumped on the scale and it said 159.5! Yikes.
Thursday I got a run in. Nothing fast, nothing exciting...6.2 miles at 7.8 mph from start to finish, just wanted to try out the sneakers I was planning on racing in, then walked for 5 minutes. I think that totalled 51 or 52 minutes. The scale at the gym said 159.0 so I had an evening of Chinese food and soda. Yum.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Tuesday - April 17
Today I went for a run. 7.0 miles 50 minutes.
Started off at 7.8 for 10 minutes. Then 8.0 for two minutes, 8.6 for one minute, 8.2 for 3 minutes, 8.8 for 90 seconds. 8.5 for a while and jumped up to 8.8 and then into 9.3. So I did some speed work followed by some quicker pacing. I was just really bored while I was there tonight. I think I like running in the morning much better. There's less on my mind and I'm not starving the whole time I'm doing it. Either way I'm glad I went because I was about to leave while I was in the parking lot and saw how crowded it was. There's now 5000 members at my gym which is what the enrollment is capped at and it sure felt like 90% of them were there.
Tomorrow will be a swim, lift and bike. Next week I'll probably tone it down some and relax even though I haven't exactly done a lot to taper off. I'm really excited for the weather more than anything. I see it's supposed to be 87 the day we get down there! It's about time I'll see some sun and feel some warmth!
Started off at 7.8 for 10 minutes. Then 8.0 for two minutes, 8.6 for one minute, 8.2 for 3 minutes, 8.8 for 90 seconds. 8.5 for a while and jumped up to 8.8 and then into 9.3. So I did some speed work followed by some quicker pacing. I was just really bored while I was there tonight. I think I like running in the morning much better. There's less on my mind and I'm not starving the whole time I'm doing it. Either way I'm glad I went because I was about to leave while I was in the parking lot and saw how crowded it was. There's now 5000 members at my gym which is what the enrollment is capped at and it sure felt like 90% of them were there.
Tomorrow will be a swim, lift and bike. Next week I'll probably tone it down some and relax even though I haven't exactly done a lot to taper off. I'm really excited for the weather more than anything. I see it's supposed to be 87 the day we get down there! It's about time I'll see some sun and feel some warmth!
Monday - April 16
After a night with little sleep thanks to loads of wind, trees falling down and driving rain I dragged myself to the pool for my Monday workout. It was a good workout, we got to use paddles!
600 Swim
16x50 :55 Free/Stroke by 25
3x300 pull
2x150 breathe 3-5-7 by 50 2:20
6x75 easy/moderate/fast by 25 1:15
12x25 Easy/Fast :35
300 Easy
A good quick moving workout.
Lunch -
Got in a good lift at lunch for 35 minutes. Did a little more legs than I should have but I'll start cutting back on that.
After work -
Spinnervals aero base builder. Average heart rate was 139 and I sweated something awful. I've been slacking by not doing those DVD's and I know I really should be doing some of the more time trial specific ones rather than always opting for the easy way out and going for aero base builder.
Total time 1:15
Followed that up by 20 minutes of core work and then some chicken parm.
600 Swim
16x50 :55 Free/Stroke by 25
3x300 pull
2x150 breathe 3-5-7 by 50 2:20
6x75 easy/moderate/fast by 25 1:15
12x25 Easy/Fast :35
300 Easy
A good quick moving workout.
Lunch -
Got in a good lift at lunch for 35 minutes. Did a little more legs than I should have but I'll start cutting back on that.
After work -
Spinnervals aero base builder. Average heart rate was 139 and I sweated something awful. I've been slacking by not doing those DVD's and I know I really should be doing some of the more time trial specific ones rather than always opting for the easy way out and going for aero base builder.
Total time 1:15
Followed that up by 20 minutes of core work and then some chicken parm.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Past few days
Been a few days since an update so here's what's going on.
Thursday I managed to squeeze in a run at lunch. Just 35 minutes and 4.5 miles. I think I just tried to keep it at 8.0 for the run until I warmed down.
Thursday night didn't do anything but coach.
Friday morning got in a swim. I actually got to throw on the paddles and forget about my legs for a while. At least I had some speed with the paddles. Now I have to find a way to have speed without them.
Headed to the gym at lunch and got in 40 minutes of weights and added some more leg work.
Saturday I went out for a run. Excited to have the new watch like the one Jason has, the Garmin Forerunner 305. I finally got to see my heart rate while I was running. Well, I had to hold the watch real close to my face to see the heart rate because that's so damn small but it's great to see the speed and distance during the run. Too bad I hit start/stop rather than lap at one point and didn't realize it until two miles later when I hit the button again. Oh well, now I know better. It was about mid-30's and very windy. On part of the run loop I felt great! I'd look down and see that I was running 6:52-6:45's. Oh yeah, that was down hill with the wind at my back. Then on the otherside of the loop while I was going up hill with the 30 mph winds in my face I was running at nearly 9:00. That sucked. I didn't feel real good and it made me rethink my goal of running 7:30's back to running 8:00's at St. Anthony's. It just hurt running. But there were lessons learned, like my dinner the night before was a brownie and a piece of bread. Not real good but I didn't get home until 10:00 so I wanted some empty calories and then wanted to get to bed.
After the run I sat around at practice because there were enough coaches. Then went for a ride with Mike. This time we actually saw some other cyclists. We had the opportunity to pass some people and we certainly surprised some people. Lesson number two for the day was when the wind is working with you don't work at 100% because you're eventually going to have to come back into it. So after warm-up as we went to turn on the 20 mile course that I like to hammer there was a guy all decked out riding a Trek TTX and he wanted to ride with us. I told him to grab Mike's wheel and hang on because we were about to go. I quickly set the pace at 25.2 (remember the wind was with me) and after about 30 seconds Mike was the only one hanging on. I got to learn how accurate my computer was because I had the watch also tracking my speed and they were pretty close. 7.4 miles into the ride we were AVERAGING 26.4mph then hit the turn onto 44 which is usually pretty fast. The wind started swirling and we were getting knocked around, when we turned around we started to really feel some resistance. Once we got back onto 118 it was like someone was standing infront of my bike with their hands pressing against my handle bars and their feet were firmly on the ground. I kept trying to press on as hard as I could but the lack of nutrition and the 7 mile morning run were catching up to me so I sat up and shut it down right at mile 15. Average through there was 21.8 according to the watch, 21.9 on my bike computer. Good thing I didn't have deep dish rims on that ride or I'd be updating the blog right now from a hospital bed because I was getting knocked around out there. We finished out the loop for a total of 25 miles on the day with just over a 20.5 average. I guess that's not bad but I was kind of discouraged. This week I need to make up for the lack of bike training the past few weeks since coaching started back up. I'll shoot for four hours this week and then two hours next week before heading to FL.
One thing I really have to do is hop back on the nutrition bandwagon and stop eating nothing but carbs for dinner. I really need to find some more energy foods and stick with that.
Tomorrow I'll pick back up with a swim/lift/bike and I'm looking forward to getting all that in and hopefully rallying through a solid week of training.
Thursday I managed to squeeze in a run at lunch. Just 35 minutes and 4.5 miles. I think I just tried to keep it at 8.0 for the run until I warmed down.
Thursday night didn't do anything but coach.
Friday morning got in a swim. I actually got to throw on the paddles and forget about my legs for a while. At least I had some speed with the paddles. Now I have to find a way to have speed without them.
Headed to the gym at lunch and got in 40 minutes of weights and added some more leg work.
Saturday I went out for a run. Excited to have the new watch like the one Jason has, the Garmin Forerunner 305. I finally got to see my heart rate while I was running. Well, I had to hold the watch real close to my face to see the heart rate because that's so damn small but it's great to see the speed and distance during the run. Too bad I hit start/stop rather than lap at one point and didn't realize it until two miles later when I hit the button again. Oh well, now I know better. It was about mid-30's and very windy. On part of the run loop I felt great! I'd look down and see that I was running 6:52-6:45's. Oh yeah, that was down hill with the wind at my back. Then on the otherside of the loop while I was going up hill with the 30 mph winds in my face I was running at nearly 9:00. That sucked. I didn't feel real good and it made me rethink my goal of running 7:30's back to running 8:00's at St. Anthony's. It just hurt running. But there were lessons learned, like my dinner the night before was a brownie and a piece of bread. Not real good but I didn't get home until 10:00 so I wanted some empty calories and then wanted to get to bed.
After the run I sat around at practice because there were enough coaches. Then went for a ride with Mike. This time we actually saw some other cyclists. We had the opportunity to pass some people and we certainly surprised some people. Lesson number two for the day was when the wind is working with you don't work at 100% because you're eventually going to have to come back into it. So after warm-up as we went to turn on the 20 mile course that I like to hammer there was a guy all decked out riding a Trek TTX and he wanted to ride with us. I told him to grab Mike's wheel and hang on because we were about to go. I quickly set the pace at 25.2 (remember the wind was with me) and after about 30 seconds Mike was the only one hanging on. I got to learn how accurate my computer was because I had the watch also tracking my speed and they were pretty close. 7.4 miles into the ride we were AVERAGING 26.4mph then hit the turn onto 44 which is usually pretty fast. The wind started swirling and we were getting knocked around, when we turned around we started to really feel some resistance. Once we got back onto 118 it was like someone was standing infront of my bike with their hands pressing against my handle bars and their feet were firmly on the ground. I kept trying to press on as hard as I could but the lack of nutrition and the 7 mile morning run were catching up to me so I sat up and shut it down right at mile 15. Average through there was 21.8 according to the watch, 21.9 on my bike computer. Good thing I didn't have deep dish rims on that ride or I'd be updating the blog right now from a hospital bed because I was getting knocked around out there. We finished out the loop for a total of 25 miles on the day with just over a 20.5 average. I guess that's not bad but I was kind of discouraged. This week I need to make up for the lack of bike training the past few weeks since coaching started back up. I'll shoot for four hours this week and then two hours next week before heading to FL.
One thing I really have to do is hop back on the nutrition bandwagon and stop eating nothing but carbs for dinner. I really need to find some more energy foods and stick with that.
Tomorrow I'll pick back up with a swim/lift/bike and I'm looking forward to getting all that in and hopefully rallying through a solid week of training.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Wednesday - April 11
Today was a solid day for workouts but not so good on the food. I started off with a swim this morning and felt okay, just slow.
Short Course Meters
500 75Free-25Breast
2x(2x150 build by 50 2:20 6x50 :45 3 and 6 fast)
6x25 Odds Free Evens Breast :35
4x25 Odds Free Evens Back :30
2x25 Odds Free Evens Fly :25
300 Kick
Some other stuff to take us to 3000 I can't remember what it was.
At lunch I got in a decent weight workout for 40 minutes but after I had loads of bad snacks from the pot luck lunch that we had at work.
Tonight was just a drag coaching since I only had three kids and the other coaches didn't show up. What the hell? I'm supposed to be getting away from this stuff right now and handing it off. I still think we need to close down Bryant and just move those kids to PC. Then I could have got more training in tonight!
Short Course Meters
500 75Free-25Breast
2x(2x150 build by 50 2:20 6x50 :45 3 and 6 fast)
6x25 Odds Free Evens Breast :35
4x25 Odds Free Evens Back :30
2x25 Odds Free Evens Fly :25
300 Kick
Some other stuff to take us to 3000 I can't remember what it was.
At lunch I got in a decent weight workout for 40 minutes but after I had loads of bad snacks from the pot luck lunch that we had at work.
Tonight was just a drag coaching since I only had three kids and the other coaches didn't show up. What the hell? I'm supposed to be getting away from this stuff right now and handing it off. I still think we need to close down Bryant and just move those kids to PC. Then I could have got more training in tonight!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Tuesday - April 10
Today was a run day and I feel like I actually made the most of it despite being all tired and lazy. The gym is a lot more crowded now at 6:00AM than it was in the winter. I guess now that people know the summer is coming they're all trying to lose weight. So of course that means there was no where to stretch because all the mats were occupied by some big girls who looked like they were taking naps or something so I just headed right to the treadmills.
I couldn't decide if I should just run for 50 minutes at a relaxing 7.5 mph like last week just to get some base miles again or if I should have done some speed which I haven't done much of.
I ended up varying speeds for most of the run keeping the treadmill at a 1% incline.
Warm up:
5min @ 8.0
5min @ 7.6
Main Set:
1min @ 7.7
1min @ 7.8
And that continued up to 9.0 then came back down to 7.7
Went for a few more minutes at 7.7 then 8.0. and then worked my way down to 7.0 dropping each minute. Totalled 55 minutes for 7.4 miles. At 6.2 I was 45:15. I'm hoping I'll have the legs to be about a minute faster than that at St. Anthony's after the bike.
Even though I was feeling a little sluggish on my bike last night there's a voice in my head telling me I might be able to get under 2:10 at this race but everything has to be perfect. I don't know why I'm thinking that, it would be nearly impossible for me and it'll really depend on the cycling.
19:30 swim
1:04:30 bike (23.1 mph) Not sure if that's possible for me
44:15 run (8.4 mph) Might be possible, I know I can do this fresh
2:09:15 without transitions.
That's like a 2:13 with transitions. I think I'll need to be under 2:10 to get top 10 in the age group which is my goal right now. I know my goal should be to have fun completing my first Olympic distance race, but hell with that, I want to show up and be competitive.
I couldn't decide if I should just run for 50 minutes at a relaxing 7.5 mph like last week just to get some base miles again or if I should have done some speed which I haven't done much of.
I ended up varying speeds for most of the run keeping the treadmill at a 1% incline.
Warm up:
5min @ 8.0
5min @ 7.6
Main Set:
1min @ 7.7
1min @ 7.8
And that continued up to 9.0 then came back down to 7.7
Went for a few more minutes at 7.7 then 8.0. and then worked my way down to 7.0 dropping each minute. Totalled 55 minutes for 7.4 miles. At 6.2 I was 45:15. I'm hoping I'll have the legs to be about a minute faster than that at St. Anthony's after the bike.
Even though I was feeling a little sluggish on my bike last night there's a voice in my head telling me I might be able to get under 2:10 at this race but everything has to be perfect. I don't know why I'm thinking that, it would be nearly impossible for me and it'll really depend on the cycling.
19:30 swim
1:04:30 bike (23.1 mph) Not sure if that's possible for me
44:15 run (8.4 mph) Might be possible, I know I can do this fresh
2:09:15 without transitions.
That's like a 2:13 with transitions. I think I'll need to be under 2:10 to get top 10 in the age group which is my goal right now. I know my goal should be to have fun completing my first Olympic distance race, but hell with that, I want to show up and be competitive.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Monday - April 9 (Steve)
Good stuff from Matt. I especially like the map with elevation on his ride. He finished 6 feet lower than he started. I guess CA really is sinking into the ocean. I hope there's some left in July so I can race the Vineman.
Yesterday I took a rest day. Just spent an hour or so walking around at Wrentham were it was cold but sunny. Lots of good deals on workout gear so I stocked the heck up!
Today was a better day in the water finally, still not nearly as fast as Mike or Stuart but fast enough to make me feel good about it. The big story about my swimming was my backstroke. I don't know where it's coming from but I think I'm figuring it out.
400 Swim
9x50 :60 2 drill - 1 back
6x125 free 1:50 evens faster than odds
6x75 1:15 odds free evens stroke or IM
6x25 2 on :35, 2 on :30, 2 on :25 Free/Stroke
300 kick
100 10Kick-roll
8x12.5 fast
9x50 :55 2 drill - 1 back
At lunch I got a good quick 35 minutes of lifting once again. This time I added some extra leg work just trying to do squats with some 50lb dumb bells in each hand since there's no squat rack.
After work I took the night off from coaching so I got on my bike for 30 minutes and then did 30 minutes of ab work. I managed to figure out what was wrong with my bike when I was riding Saturday and I couldn't get all my gears working. Looks like I've got a busted chain! Guess I've got to drop some more money to replace that. Think I'm going to go with SRAM rather than Shimano this time.
Tomorrow should just be a run as long as I can wake up in the morning.
Yesterday I took a rest day. Just spent an hour or so walking around at Wrentham were it was cold but sunny. Lots of good deals on workout gear so I stocked the heck up!
Today was a better day in the water finally, still not nearly as fast as Mike or Stuart but fast enough to make me feel good about it. The big story about my swimming was my backstroke. I don't know where it's coming from but I think I'm figuring it out.
400 Swim
9x50 :60 2 drill - 1 back
6x125 free 1:50 evens faster than odds
6x75 1:15 odds free evens stroke or IM
6x25 2 on :35, 2 on :30, 2 on :25 Free/Stroke
300 kick
100 10Kick-roll
8x12.5 fast
9x50 :55 2 drill - 1 back
At lunch I got a good quick 35 minutes of lifting once again. This time I added some extra leg work just trying to do squats with some 50lb dumb bells in each hand since there's no squat rack.
After work I took the night off from coaching so I got on my bike for 30 minutes and then did 30 minutes of ab work. I managed to figure out what was wrong with my bike when I was riding Saturday and I couldn't get all my gears working. Looks like I've got a busted chain! Guess I've got to drop some more money to replace that. Think I'm going to go with SRAM rather than Shimano this time.
Tomorrow should just be a run as long as I can wake up in the morning.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
long overdue recap pt 2 (Matt)
OK, more as I remember it...
Thursday, March 15
I think I did a brick. In the schedule, it was supposed to be a 35/10 brick, but of course that is an awfully short amount time. So, I rode to the Rose Bowl, warmed up, and did 4 loops at kind of a race pace, trying to hit 8:45 or so on each one. 4x8:45=35:00! See how scientifically I determine race pace? It's actually pretty close to what I hope to actually hit. The Rose Bowl is about 3.05 miles around, so doing that in 8:45 would yield 20.9 mph, which would give me about a 2:40 for 56 miles. I'd be happy with that.
Someday I'll find the actual times written down somewhere, but it was something like 8:40-8:44-8:49-8:44, which was good, but the HR was in the upper 150s, which I certainly hope I'm not at during the race.
I biked back home, quickly changed (like 2 minutes!), and ran out of my house at a decidedly un-70.3 pace, about 6:40/mile for 1.5 miles. That was my 10 minutes right there, so I backed off a lot, and shuffled home. I will NOT be doing that pace on July 22.
Friday, March 16
I don't see anything written down, so maybe I swam, or not. I have not terribly good at remembering to record swim workouts. But I also remember that my feet were hurting me, and not in a good way. I thought I was developing stress fractures, but 5 days off just told me I had done a perfectly bad combination of too-steep hills, too fast speed on concrete, and too many miles on 18 month old shoes. Live and learn, hopefully.
Saturday, March 17
Biked after a long day (6 or 7 hours) at the pool. 25.2 miles, 17.3avg, descent amount of hills. Using this tool, http://www.sanoodi.com/route/matt-connery/unnamed/2007-03-31/14-20-00/
It only shows 22 miles, but it also shows the elevation gained and lost, and a profile map, all TdF style.
Sunday, March 18
no run in the AM, as my feet still needed a break. I swam in the afternoon, and while I can't remember the warmup, the main set was simply 1x900, moderate pace, but timed. The first timed swim I did for the this training was awful, averaging something like 1:22 or 1:23 per 100, and felt worse. I had run in the morning before that swim, and I think it had an effect. This time I was expecting better, and I got it-12:03, 1:20+/100. This I can accept. it may not seem fast to you speedsters, but while training for those IMs a few years ago (Ironmans, not Individual Medleys!), my goal was simply to hold 1:20s as easily as possible for an hour. In training my pace got faster than that, but come race day, with no walls, and an intense desire to save my eneergy, I took it relatively easy, and got exactly that pace, whhich got me out of the water around 60th OAL! Steve, when you were saying your pace would make you faster than 90% of the people racing you were off by a bit-it's gonna be more like 99%. In other words, don't sweat the swim, literally or figuratively. And especially don't be doing swim workouts so hard that they affect your other more important disciplines. Just make sure you do some 2000-2500 straight swims, and as much open water stuff that you can fit it.
Monday, March 19th-off
Tuesday, March 20th
Swim
400 (75fr-25k)
2x150 free k-d-s
200IM k/d
4x50 1:00 (12.5fast-12.5ez-25drill) my version of strides in the water
4x25 :35 (called for in schedule)
4x100 1:45 hold 1:15s (called for by Danny Lowe)
total: 1500/30 minutes
Wednesday, March 21
Run 35:01 HR 145avg/162max
relatively flat loop at Y
Thursday, March 22
Bike at noon ~80 degrees
1:32:28/136avg/18.3mph/28.2 miles
Surface streets to Rio Hondo Bike Trail and back
Swim
900 straight=(25flyK-50fr-25basw-50fr-25brK-50fr)x4
6x150 free k-d-s (3-2-1 (75/50/25), 3-1-2, 2-3-1, 2-1-3, 1-3-2, 1-2-3)
18x50 free=(6@:50, 5@:48, 4@:45, 3@40) see, they all add up to even numbers of minutes, so you always start the next set of intervals on the 60!
100 easy
total 2800/45:00
twas a good swim week for me!
Friday, March 23
Run 37:58/143avg/159max/5.0miles/7:35 per mile
rolling hills, 72 degrees
Phew, more later...
Thursday, March 15
I think I did a brick. In the schedule, it was supposed to be a 35/10 brick, but of course that is an awfully short amount time. So, I rode to the Rose Bowl, warmed up, and did 4 loops at kind of a race pace, trying to hit 8:45 or so on each one. 4x8:45=35:00! See how scientifically I determine race pace? It's actually pretty close to what I hope to actually hit. The Rose Bowl is about 3.05 miles around, so doing that in 8:45 would yield 20.9 mph, which would give me about a 2:40 for 56 miles. I'd be happy with that.
Someday I'll find the actual times written down somewhere, but it was something like 8:40-8:44-8:49-8:44, which was good, but the HR was in the upper 150s, which I certainly hope I'm not at during the race.
I biked back home, quickly changed (like 2 minutes!), and ran out of my house at a decidedly un-70.3 pace, about 6:40/mile for 1.5 miles. That was my 10 minutes right there, so I backed off a lot, and shuffled home. I will NOT be doing that pace on July 22.
Friday, March 16
I don't see anything written down, so maybe I swam, or not. I have not terribly good at remembering to record swim workouts. But I also remember that my feet were hurting me, and not in a good way. I thought I was developing stress fractures, but 5 days off just told me I had done a perfectly bad combination of too-steep hills, too fast speed on concrete, and too many miles on 18 month old shoes. Live and learn, hopefully.
Saturday, March 17
Biked after a long day (6 or 7 hours) at the pool. 25.2 miles, 17.3avg, descent amount of hills. Using this tool, http://www.sanoodi.com/route/matt-connery/unnamed/2007-03-31/14-20-00/
It only shows 22 miles, but it also shows the elevation gained and lost, and a profile map, all TdF style.
Sunday, March 18
no run in the AM, as my feet still needed a break. I swam in the afternoon, and while I can't remember the warmup, the main set was simply 1x900, moderate pace, but timed. The first timed swim I did for the this training was awful, averaging something like 1:22 or 1:23 per 100, and felt worse. I had run in the morning before that swim, and I think it had an effect. This time I was expecting better, and I got it-12:03, 1:20+/100. This I can accept. it may not seem fast to you speedsters, but while training for those IMs a few years ago (Ironmans, not Individual Medleys!), my goal was simply to hold 1:20s as easily as possible for an hour. In training my pace got faster than that, but come race day, with no walls, and an intense desire to save my eneergy, I took it relatively easy, and got exactly that pace, whhich got me out of the water around 60th OAL! Steve, when you were saying your pace would make you faster than 90% of the people racing you were off by a bit-it's gonna be more like 99%. In other words, don't sweat the swim, literally or figuratively. And especially don't be doing swim workouts so hard that they affect your other more important disciplines. Just make sure you do some 2000-2500 straight swims, and as much open water stuff that you can fit it.
Monday, March 19th-off
Tuesday, March 20th
Swim
400 (75fr-25k)
2x150 free k-d-s
200IM k/d
4x50 1:00 (12.5fast-12.5ez-25drill) my version of strides in the water
4x25 :35 (called for in schedule)
4x100 1:45 hold 1:15s (called for by Danny Lowe)
total: 1500/30 minutes
Wednesday, March 21
Run 35:01 HR 145avg/162max
relatively flat loop at Y
Thursday, March 22
Bike at noon ~80 degrees
1:32:28/136avg/18.3mph/28.2 miles
Surface streets to Rio Hondo Bike Trail and back
Swim
900 straight=(25flyK-50fr-25basw-50fr-25brK-50fr)x4
6x150 free k-d-s (3-2-1 (75/50/25), 3-1-2, 2-3-1, 2-1-3, 1-3-2, 1-2-3)
18x50 free=(6@:50, 5@:48, 4@:45, 3@40) see, they all add up to even numbers of minutes, so you always start the next set of intervals on the 60!
100 easy
total 2800/45:00
twas a good swim week for me!
Friday, March 23
Run 37:58/143avg/159max/5.0miles/7:35 per mile
rolling hills, 72 degrees
Phew, more later...
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Saturday - April 7 (Steve) In the Zone
With all this morning stuff this week I knew it was going to catch up to me. I didn't realize the thing that was going to catch up was my sleep cycle. Wide awake at 5:30. So I tried to figure out if I should stay in bed or start my day. 15 minutes later I decided it would be best to start my day. So I grabbed my gym stuff and headed off to the gym hoping to run for an hour before I had to be at PC to coach at 8:30. I rolled into the gym about 6:15 all fired up and ready to go. I was a little concerned when I only saw two cars. Turns out my gym opens at 7:00. I tried to find their hours on-line but they weren't there. Doh! So I sat there trying to figure out how long I'd have to run if I waited until 7:00. Not long enough because I wanted an hour. So back home I went to dig up my cold weather running gear. (It was only 26 degrees at that time). After finally finding all my gear I headed to PC. I figured I'd just park there and run before workout. Unfortunately since all my watches died at the same time I had to pull off my cycling computer and throw it in my pocket so I'd know what time it was. I got to PC and started running at 7:30 so I figured I'd get 50 minutes in. I basically just did 3 loops around campus:
http://splitr.com/maps/viewroute.php?id=18
I felt awesome when I was starting off. Turns out I just held a nice steady 7:30 mile pace through six miles and then warmed down nice and easy to take it to just under 6.5 miles in 50 minutes. Maybe I was a little faster but I definitely had a lot more in the tank. I was just enjoying being out there breaking in my new sneakers which are now blood stained from ripping apart my ankles. Guess I should invest in higher socks. Oh well, now my sneakers just look meaner.
Did some stretching at the pool and showered and changed up and figured I was done with working out for the day because it was too cold to get out on my bike since the clothes I would normally wear on the bike were now drenched in sweat from my run. But Mike kept pushing the issue so we hit a bike shop with a clearance on winter gear and I picked up a warmer top. The big debate was how hard to work since I just ran and Mike was a little sore. It was much colder than we expected once we got on the bikes but I don't have many opportunities to get out there before St. Anthony's so I just blocked out the cold and after warm-up just decided to get down to business. After the warm-up we went through a hard 15 mile stretch and delt with the wind. I was totally in the zone through the first part of the ride. Just down in the bars everything was clicking and I felt worlds better than last week. The pavement is great, the road is pretty flat and the first light comes at mile 6 on the hard stretch. All I could see with my head down was about 10 yards of road ahead of me so I was just focusing on those 10 yards and cranking the pedals and keeping my speed up. I'm so use to Mike being right on my wheel I almost never do a head check. At one point I eased up a little at mile 5 to have some conversation with Mike as we cruised up towards the light but he wasn't there. I've never put distance into Mike on a ride before so I figured he must have been hurting. At that point I was averaging 23.84 so I toned it down for the rest of the ride and we came bumping in at 22.1 through 15 and 21.8 when we turned into warm down a few miles later. With warm-up we only went 25 miles but I felt good after. Didn't hurt at all. I'm hoping for warmer weather next week or the following week so I can get out there and give another good effort. The bummer about the ride was after mile 10 I was having gearing issues and was stuck with only my easy two gears or my hardest two. The middle six were jumping around. I guess I need to go over it and tighten everything up because the bike is just breaking in. So I know I could have gone faster but I couldn't ride the gears I normally would so I just threw in the towel and did some super spins and then tried to turn some big gears.
Tonight I'm looking forward to refueling because right now I'm 160.5 but I feel like a champ. None of me feels sore or tired in the least. I just hope I feel this good on the 29th!
http://splitr.com/maps/viewroute.php?id=18
I felt awesome when I was starting off. Turns out I just held a nice steady 7:30 mile pace through six miles and then warmed down nice and easy to take it to just under 6.5 miles in 50 minutes. Maybe I was a little faster but I definitely had a lot more in the tank. I was just enjoying being out there breaking in my new sneakers which are now blood stained from ripping apart my ankles. Guess I should invest in higher socks. Oh well, now my sneakers just look meaner.
Did some stretching at the pool and showered and changed up and figured I was done with working out for the day because it was too cold to get out on my bike since the clothes I would normally wear on the bike were now drenched in sweat from my run. But Mike kept pushing the issue so we hit a bike shop with a clearance on winter gear and I picked up a warmer top. The big debate was how hard to work since I just ran and Mike was a little sore. It was much colder than we expected once we got on the bikes but I don't have many opportunities to get out there before St. Anthony's so I just blocked out the cold and after warm-up just decided to get down to business. After the warm-up we went through a hard 15 mile stretch and delt with the wind. I was totally in the zone through the first part of the ride. Just down in the bars everything was clicking and I felt worlds better than last week. The pavement is great, the road is pretty flat and the first light comes at mile 6 on the hard stretch. All I could see with my head down was about 10 yards of road ahead of me so I was just focusing on those 10 yards and cranking the pedals and keeping my speed up. I'm so use to Mike being right on my wheel I almost never do a head check. At one point I eased up a little at mile 5 to have some conversation with Mike as we cruised up towards the light but he wasn't there. I've never put distance into Mike on a ride before so I figured he must have been hurting. At that point I was averaging 23.84 so I toned it down for the rest of the ride and we came bumping in at 22.1 through 15 and 21.8 when we turned into warm down a few miles later. With warm-up we only went 25 miles but I felt good after. Didn't hurt at all. I'm hoping for warmer weather next week or the following week so I can get out there and give another good effort. The bummer about the ride was after mile 10 I was having gearing issues and was stuck with only my easy two gears or my hardest two. The middle six were jumping around. I guess I need to go over it and tighten everything up because the bike is just breaking in. So I know I could have gone faster but I couldn't ride the gears I normally would so I just threw in the towel and did some super spins and then tried to turn some big gears.
Tonight I'm looking forward to refueling because right now I'm 160.5 but I feel like a champ. None of me feels sore or tired in the least. I just hope I feel this good on the 29th!
Friday - April 6 (Steve) Swim/Lift/Bike
Thank God it's Friday, and Good Friday nonetheless. That means since I work for a cool boss he let me go early.
The day started off with a morning swim. I think I need to hang up the goggles because things just aren't working out in the water. Unfortunately I got stuck in a lane in between Mike and Stuart while neither would switch lanes with me saying they were going to back off because they were sore etc etc etc. Of course that wasn't the case and I got my doors blown off on both sides, but that's okay because swimming isn't the focus right? Even my bad swimming is going to be better than 90% of all the triathletes. So on to the next workout.
With the day being quiet at work and finishing up a lot of stuff around 11 I found time to hit the gym at lunch for some weights. I got a solid 35 minutes bouncing from one exercise to the next and then did some old medicine ball stuff for my core.
My boss cut me loose a little after 3:30 so I went and gave some tech support to a friend on the way home and then got home and got on the bike for an easy spin for 40 minutes followed by 25 minutes of my Hard Core Conditioning DVD. Guess my abs are getting pretty strong because it felt pretty easy. Then headed out for a nice Armenian dinner. This was a very good day.
The day started off with a morning swim. I think I need to hang up the goggles because things just aren't working out in the water. Unfortunately I got stuck in a lane in between Mike and Stuart while neither would switch lanes with me saying they were going to back off because they were sore etc etc etc. Of course that wasn't the case and I got my doors blown off on both sides, but that's okay because swimming isn't the focus right? Even my bad swimming is going to be better than 90% of all the triathletes. So on to the next workout.
With the day being quiet at work and finishing up a lot of stuff around 11 I found time to hit the gym at lunch for some weights. I got a solid 35 minutes bouncing from one exercise to the next and then did some old medicine ball stuff for my core.
My boss cut me loose a little after 3:30 so I went and gave some tech support to a friend on the way home and then got home and got on the bike for an easy spin for 40 minutes followed by 25 minutes of my Hard Core Conditioning DVD. Guess my abs are getting pretty strong because it felt pretty easy. Then headed out for a nice Armenian dinner. This was a very good day.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Wednesday/Thursday - April 4/5 (Steve)
It was great to read Matt's update and see what he's been doing. I'm glad I could provide some motivation at some point in time!
With coaching back on I'm trying to settle back into a routine and figure out how to work everything in. I know I'm going to get the swims in Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. I'm thinking running will come Tuesday and Thursday mornings and a Saturday or Sunday. I'll have to work the bikes in at night and on weekends.
Wednesday I got my swim in. It felt pretty good but I still couldn't come close to matching Stuart (who obviously missed his taper for New England's) or Mike (who clearly sold his soul for the fountain of youth).
SCM:
400 Swim
300 IM Drill
300 Kick 50 moderate 25 Fast
3x(2x75 Free 1:15, 6x25 :30 2 of each)
15x50 :45 2@80% 1 all out.
300 easy
At lunch I hit the weights here at work and tried to figure out that crazy weight machine they have where you have to adjust every little bit to do another exercise and it seems like more trouble than it's worth. But my arms were shaking by the time I finished lifting which was pretty much a non-stop 35 minute workout.
This morning I slept in until 5:30 and went to the gym for a run. Today's goal was get back in a rhythm and feel good again so I didn't want to adjust any speeds. I actually stuck to that! 50 minutes at 7.5 then went a five minute cool down decreasing speed each minute. I held up okay but mentally I was beating myself up for not sticking with the treadmill through the middle of March and around New England's because my running was feeling real good. Now I've got to get it back to that point before St. Anthony's. I'll aim for two treadmill runs of at least 45 minutes a week and a run of at least an hour on the weekends.
Gotta thank Matt for reminding me to rest once again. I had a long stretch there without rest but I took one this week on Tuesday. Last rest day was March 22, the day before New England's. I also picked up a book on eating for athletes 'Food for Fitness'. It's a Chris Carmichael book and I started reading it last night rather than wasting time on-line looking at Cervelo's on Ebay. If I come across anything enlightening I'll be sure to share it. I'm anxious to see where Chips-a-hoy fall in his recommendations.
With coaching back on I'm trying to settle back into a routine and figure out how to work everything in. I know I'm going to get the swims in Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. I'm thinking running will come Tuesday and Thursday mornings and a Saturday or Sunday. I'll have to work the bikes in at night and on weekends.
Wednesday I got my swim in. It felt pretty good but I still couldn't come close to matching Stuart (who obviously missed his taper for New England's) or Mike (who clearly sold his soul for the fountain of youth).
SCM:
400 Swim
300 IM Drill
300 Kick 50 moderate 25 Fast
3x(2x75 Free 1:15, 6x25 :30 2 of each)
15x50 :45 2@80% 1 all out.
300 easy
At lunch I hit the weights here at work and tried to figure out that crazy weight machine they have where you have to adjust every little bit to do another exercise and it seems like more trouble than it's worth. But my arms were shaking by the time I finished lifting which was pretty much a non-stop 35 minute workout.
This morning I slept in until 5:30 and went to the gym for a run. Today's goal was get back in a rhythm and feel good again so I didn't want to adjust any speeds. I actually stuck to that! 50 minutes at 7.5 then went a five minute cool down decreasing speed each minute. I held up okay but mentally I was beating myself up for not sticking with the treadmill through the middle of March and around New England's because my running was feeling real good. Now I've got to get it back to that point before St. Anthony's. I'll aim for two treadmill runs of at least 45 minutes a week and a run of at least an hour on the weekends.
Gotta thank Matt for reminding me to rest once again. I had a long stretch there without rest but I took one this week on Tuesday. Last rest day was March 22, the day before New England's. I also picked up a book on eating for athletes 'Food for Fitness'. It's a Chris Carmichael book and I started reading it last night rather than wasting time on-line looking at Cervelo's on Ebay. If I come across anything enlightening I'll be sure to share it. I'm anxious to see where Chips-a-hoy fall in his recommendations.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
long overdue update, pt1 (from Matt)
Err, umm, no excuses, let's just try to catch up! These may be incomplete, or missing details, of completely omitting workouts, but I'm trying to put this all together from various scraps of paper on my desk...
Thursday March 8
Bike 1:45:19
128avg/162max
17.0mph avg
Saturday March 10
Bike 7am
1:46:58
31.9@17.9
125 HR avg
Run 5:30pm
31:01
HR: 140avg/153 max
Fairly flat, early ride (for me). I had to nurse flats on the way home, owing to not bringing enough spares. Lesson learned!
Sunday March 11
Run 1:00:57
7.3 miles=8:21/mile
HR 152avg/169max
This was a while ago, but I remember that I wanted to beat the avg pace that SJ had done the previous day. So, thanks for the motivation!
Monday March 12
Day off? I can't remember. Normally I will try and take Mondays off, or if anything do some kind of strength workout. I know some of you out there don't like your days off, but the are essential. It is only when you rest that you're body recovers, and actually gets stronger. And I firmly believe that if you don't take regular days off, you're body will eventually "claim" it's own day off, but it will probably be associated with sickness and injury, and it could be more than a day.
"Eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty, and rest before you're totally worthless."
Tuesday, March 13
Bike 1:25:41 HR 129avg/161max
16.7mph avg, 23.8 miles total
24:00 warmup easy
5x3:00 drills
8 x (:30 out of saddle hill+2:00 recovery)
ride back home
I can't remember if this was the first hill session I did, but it was tough. I'm not used to climbing out of the saddle, but I have been assured by Brandon Heflin, friend/former roommate/triathlon coach, that it will help me to recruit more muscles for climbing. I chose a gear right in the middle of the block, a 39x17 I think. This is a 5-6% grade, judging from past readings from a Specialized computer, and from info gathered from http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/. That site is a fun tool to use to judge distance and elevation.
Wednesday March 14
Run 45:13
avgHR 142, max 169
Very steep hill, and I could only do 5 of 8 planned 30sec climbs before my knee really started to hurt, and not in a good way. It was on the side, kind of ITB, but not really. Anyway, I stretched, it still hurt, so I started to wobble home. On the way back, however, the pain melting away, so I did the remaining 3 intervals on gentler inclines. I think, in retrospect, that the discomfort was due to the extreme crowning of the road due to the extreme grade. Lesson? Either do hills on sidewalks or natural surfaces, or in the middle of the road!
Much more later...
Thursday March 8
Bike 1:45:19
128avg/162max
17.0mph avg
Saturday March 10
Bike 7am
1:46:58
31.9@17.9
125 HR avg
Run 5:30pm
31:01
HR: 140avg/153 max
Fairly flat, early ride (for me). I had to nurse flats on the way home, owing to not bringing enough spares. Lesson learned!
Sunday March 11
Run 1:00:57
7.3 miles=8:21/mile
HR 152avg/169max
This was a while ago, but I remember that I wanted to beat the avg pace that SJ had done the previous day. So, thanks for the motivation!
Monday March 12
Day off? I can't remember. Normally I will try and take Mondays off, or if anything do some kind of strength workout. I know some of you out there don't like your days off, but the are essential. It is only when you rest that you're body recovers, and actually gets stronger. And I firmly believe that if you don't take regular days off, you're body will eventually "claim" it's own day off, but it will probably be associated with sickness and injury, and it could be more than a day.
"Eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty, and rest before you're totally worthless."
Tuesday, March 13
Bike 1:25:41 HR 129avg/161max
16.7mph avg, 23.8 miles total
24:00 warmup easy
5x3:00 drills
8 x (:30 out of saddle hill+2:00 recovery)
ride back home
I can't remember if this was the first hill session I did, but it was tough. I'm not used to climbing out of the saddle, but I have been assured by Brandon Heflin, friend/former roommate/triathlon coach, that it will help me to recruit more muscles for climbing. I chose a gear right in the middle of the block, a 39x17 I think. This is a 5-6% grade, judging from past readings from a Specialized computer, and from info gathered from http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/. That site is a fun tool to use to judge distance and elevation.
Wednesday March 14
Run 45:13
avgHR 142, max 169
Very steep hill, and I could only do 5 of 8 planned 30sec climbs before my knee really started to hurt, and not in a good way. It was on the side, kind of ITB, but not really. Anyway, I stretched, it still hurt, so I started to wobble home. On the way back, however, the pain melting away, so I did the remaining 3 intervals on gentler inclines. I think, in retrospect, that the discomfort was due to the extreme crowning of the road due to the extreme grade. Lesson? Either do hills on sidewalks or natural surfaces, or in the middle of the road!
Much more later...
Monday, April 2, 2007
Monday - April 2 (Steve)
I know it's supposed to be a recovery day, and my body is telling me it should be a recovery day. But today was the first day of Little Rhody Masters so I had to be there. I'll be back in the swim of things M, W, F mornings 6:15-7:30AM. I felt like I looked like a rec swimmer there and damn was it rough. Guess a week out of the water isn't a good thing. We had a nice group of 8 motivated people which was nice. Good thing workout wasn't a killer.
Meters:
4x200 Odds Free, Evens Free/Back
12x50 2 Free/1Stroke :65
5 minute kick
3x100 50 10K Roll/50 Swim
6x150 2:15 3 and 6 fast
300 easy
Meters:
4x200 Odds Free, Evens Free/Back
12x50 2 Free/1Stroke :65
5 minute kick
3x100 50 10K Roll/50 Swim
6x150 2:15 3 and 6 fast
300 easy
Sunday - April 1 (Steve)
Sunday was a good day to get on the bike so I had to take advantage of it. Mike and I got out for 24.5 miles and averaged just over 21 (21.03) with warm-up and warm-down. A few miles into the ride I got aero and just started turning the pedals. We were moving along pretty good and there were a few points where I really felt like I had to recover but we pressed on. Mike did one short pull on the ride but I was going 29.5 in his draft. It was definitely pretty hard and we had to coast for about a half mile to get our legs back after that. All-in-all it was a good ride and the roads were paved so much better than the 40 miles of rough road the day before. I think my neck and shoulders still hurt from that today!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)