Saturday, April 30, 2011

no rain in the forecast

It was supposed to be sunny today without a chance of rain. I headed out for a 3 hour ride. Just before I stopped 1 hour into the ride for refueling, I noticed the roads were a little wet. No big deal, right? I started riding toward Johnson Creek and it was raining. Where did that come from? To make matters worse, I was struggling with my workout. I could not generate power to save my life today. I made the first interval and half of the second. There was absolutely nothing in the legs for number 3. I decided to call the workout and ride easy for the last hour. I ended up with 62 miles. I had a short 2 mile run after the ride. The sun was finally breaking through the clouds. My body warmed up a little.

Friday, April 29, 2011

love them hills

Yesterday I decided my body needed hill work. I decided to ride up and down the hill until I couldn't. You gotta love them hills. You can't fake your way up the hill. There were a few people running. It was a nice distraction to see people suffering as well. After 48 minutes of fun, I had just enough left in the tank to ride home. I even managed to sneak the ride in without getting soaked.

This morning I swam 4.2k. My body is adapting to the training load. The main set was 9x200 on 3:05 descending every 3. I swam faster than last week and felt much better. It only took 67.5 minutes to complete the workout.

After a nap, I took Kona for a quick 45 minute run. It was an easy run except for 15 minutes of tempo. Kona did not like averaging 1 minute per mile faster than warm-up. I kept giving her words of encouragement. She survived.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

love-hate

I have a love-hate relationship with the trainer. Yesterday was a hate. My quads were still sore from the weekend of training. I rode for 90 minutes. I had several hard efforts of 10 minutes with short rest. I was consistent for 75% of the workout. I fell apart and missed my last one by 3 watts. GRR!!!

This morning I swam 2.8k. It was super fast 50s with 25s easy between. I average 31s for the set. After work I headed to the track. Normally I go home and take a nap, but someone with great wisdom told me it was supposed to pour in the afternoon. I felt okay during the warm-up. The winds were very strong today. I love running easy-fast and hard-slow. The workout was 1000s at 5k pace. I looked at my 200&400 splits and just tried to keep the speed. I ran much better than last week. I averaged 3+ seconds faster than last week.

Today was an awesome day of workouts!!!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Snuck in a run...

I snuck in a run just before the rain yesterday. It was a good overall run. I had a few mile repeats with short rest. Kona acted weird in the first few minutes of the run. Once we hit the trails, she was fine. After a nap I went to the pool for an easy 2k swim. It was super slow. My legs were definitely tired from the weekend training.

This morning I swam another easy 2k. I felt better than yesterday. I don't think it was any faster. Back to the grind tomorrow. 6 weeks til Hawaii 70.3.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Almost 70 in April

When a day like this shows up, you have to get outside.

Yesterday I swam 4.2k in the morning. I actually felt pretty good considering my legs were sore from the hills on Thursday. After work I took the dogs for a 45 minute run in the sun.

I was out this morning just before 8:30AM and met up with Scott. He is training for Ironman Coeur D'Alene. Scott has to get up early to train, so he can spend time with his kids. I have great respect for athletes with families. They make many sacrifices usually in the form of sleep or lack of it. Scott usually starts his ride before the sun rises. We headed south then east to Ranier. I had a few intervals during the ride, so we set up meeting points. We had one stop for the ride to refuel. After that is was more intervals. We also had to avoid being cut off by a car turning left right in front of us. Crazy drivers. Never rely on drivers to see you. Since I could not add today we had to add on 35+ minutes. We rode down to Solo Point hill then finished up. I ended up with 63+ miles. I got rid of all the warm weather riding gear and headed out for a short 15 minute run with the dogs.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

20 hill repeats

Another good weather day. I decided to do hill repeats today. I wasn't sure how the workout would turn out since my legs were sore from the last couple of days. I ended up with almost 1900 feet of elevation gained. It was a good workout.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A few days of sun in April

Yea, sun!!! It's nice to get outside for a few workouts without worrying about moisture.

Monday was a nice chill day. I had a 2k easy swim in the morning and 30 minute easy run in the afternoon.

Yesterday I went outside for 33 miles. The main set was 4x (10'@ 40k effort + 4 minutes between).

This morning I didn't feel great in the pool. The main set was 3x (3x100 fast on 5 seconds rest) I did ok. I finished up with 3.2k.

After work and a nap, I headed to the track for a tough workout, 4x (1000 fast with a 400 easy between). I descended the set. I ended up with 12.4k.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Recovery complete

I took the first few days off. My body was craving food. I felt like I just came back from "Survivor". Have you ever finished a box of cereal in one sitting? I did last week.

I eased back into workouts on Thursday with an easy bike.

Friday - I swam 3.5k and ran easy for 30 minutes.

Saturday - 2.25 hours on the trainer with a short set to get the legs firing again.

Sunday - I swam an easy 1.5k in the morning and ran for an hour in the afternoon.

7 weeks til Hawaii 70.3

Monday, April 11, 2011

What a week!!!

WORKOUTS
#1 - 2000 yard easy pool swim.
#2 - 30 minute easy run
#3 - 3:53 bike 2x(2x (10'@ Olympic Pace + 2' cruise) 2500+ ft elevation gained
#4 - 1500 yard easy pool swim
#5 - 45 minute run (easy first half and progressive build on the way back)
#6 - 1:07 bike 1600+ feet gained. This was supposed to an easy spin. The hill seemed to go on forever.
#7 - 3700 yard swim with main set of 15x100 on 1:20 (averaged 1:13)
#8 - 4:37 bike with 4600+ feet elevation gained. This was the longest hill I have climbed to date. 9.5 miles up.
#9 - 15 minute off the bike run. I felt like crap.
#10 - 1000 yard swim
#11 - 2400 meter swim
#12 - 6:07 bike with 5000+ feet elevation gained. I paced this day well. My power numbers increased as the ride progressed.
#13 - 1:20 cruise run
#14 - 2400 meter swim

TOTALS
SWIM - 8200 yards & 4800 meters
BIKE - 15:41 (287 miles with 13,800+ feet elevation gained)
RUN - 2:50 (22 miles with 650+ feet elevation gained)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Upcoming training camp

Yesterday I had a workout on the bike focusing on pacing for the half ironman with a short run off the bike. Today I had an easy 1k swim and 6k run. Next week, I will put a lot of miles on the bike and in the pool.

Only 9 weeks til the first major race of the year.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Another swimming double Friday

I had a tough bike ride on Thursday. I did not hit any of my target numbers. There is some residual fatigue from the race.

Friday morning I swam 3.8k. The main set was 12x50 on 50 followed by 16x100 on 1:35. Lots of descending. I thought the workout was going to be long because I was dragging during the warm-up. I felt better after the 50s.

After work, I decided to nap first then head out for a wet, wet run. The dogs were happy.