I decided since these two weeks are by far the hardest physically with the most training hours in the plan, it might be a good idea to attempt blogging every day (or close to it). I think I've mentioned that this week is the largest volume week of the 20 week plan. Next week (#17), is very similiar but just slightly less in total hours. However, I am guessing it will most likely be a tougher week because it contains the largest volume DAY of the entire plan. Saturday, August 18th will be close to 9.5 hours of endurance work in one sitting (ouch).
Anyway, lets not dwell on the future and instead focus on more recent events right now. Yesterday early morning (before work) I ran 6.5 miles to start the day. Then after work I met up with the TriWisconsin team for some cycling at 6pm. I really like being part of TriWisconsin and really enjoy the Tuesday night Lannon Rides. It fits nicely into my schedule and it provides a tough, challenging, hilly 30 mile course which is exactly what I need. The other piece that I like about riding with this group is that there are some very good cyclists and that helps push me into riding harder and faster then I might do on my own. Although I can rarely keep up with the fastest group (averaging 20mph), I fit in nicely with the medium-fast group and usually average somewhere in the 18-19 mph range. I am happy with that kind of output on a hilly course.
Today will be an easier day where I will be doing an hour long spin to help loosen up the sticks a bit. It is also designed to be easy because tomorrow I will be taking a day of PTO/vacation. I might have been able to do this without PTO, but it would have involved a VERY early morning. This should make it easier on me with having the day off. Here is what the workout will look like tomorrow....
Morning - Run 14 miles
Afternoon - Swim 1 hour (3000 yards), follow that with a 4 mile run.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Enter week 16.....
Let us begin week 16. Officially the largest volume week in the entire plan (gulp).
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Last "Easy" week wrap-up
I think I failed to mention that last weeks cramping incident in the pool caused extreme tightness, soreness and a general dull pain most of this week. Biking was uncomfortable and running was difficult as well. Monday & Tuesday I was a bit concerned that maybe I could have strained or worse, torn something in the calf. I went to work on it by using my foam roller, massage & compression socks during the day. It didn't seem to get better, so after some persuasion from a Mr. DJDavey, it was decided I take a few days off to rest things up a bit. I took Tuesday, Wed & Thursday off and continued with my rehab.
I am happy to report that Friday was my first day back and I did an hour long run with some tightness in the calf, but nothing like earlier in the week. Even better was that my post run had no issues with pain or tightness and it felt fine the next day.
So that brings us to the weekend! Once again it should be a recovery/easy weekend, but over time these easy weekends have grown in volume and I officially declare them no longer easy. On Saturday I avoided the Tosa WAC pool becuase of their horrific morning schedule and I drove out to the North Shore WAC and did a 5,000 yard swim.
It was a solid swim for me in which I felt good and had zero calf issues! Following the swim I needed to do a 2 hour bike ride on flat terrain just to give the calf a bit more rest. I ended up doing this ride on the trainer and once again I had zero calf issues. After a nearly four hour endurance day and no noticeable leg issues, I would say I am 99.9% recovered and I am happy about that!
Sunday I was out the door at 7am for a nice 2 hour ride up to Lannon, Sussex and Menomonee Falls. Pretty nonventful ride that finished with a 1 hour 45 minute BRICK run. The run was a bit tougher with a couple 20 minute intervals in higher z2/low z3 which got the blood flowing pretty well. But what made the run better was that Colleen joined me for the first 3-4 miles making the climb up to the water tower! Running with someone even for just a few miles makes it a little less annoying IMO! The run ended up being a bit faster than I wanted, but with a nice low heart rate which is always a good sign.
As I type this I am sitting comfortably in my leather chair wearing my compression socks and feeling pretty good about my "EASY" weekend. Now I have to start worrying, stressing and thinking about the next two weeks which are going to be flat out NASTY mean on me. It's just starting to get very exciting because I feel like I could do an Ironman now with my fitness level, so as long as I don't do anything stupid in the next five weeks I should make it to the starting line of Ironman Wisconsin!
By the way, here is what I was doing Sunday afternoon. Would that be considered stupid??
I am happy to report that Friday was my first day back and I did an hour long run with some tightness in the calf, but nothing like earlier in the week. Even better was that my post run had no issues with pain or tightness and it felt fine the next day.
So that brings us to the weekend! Once again it should be a recovery/easy weekend, but over time these easy weekends have grown in volume and I officially declare them no longer easy. On Saturday I avoided the Tosa WAC pool becuase of their horrific morning schedule and I drove out to the North Shore WAC and did a 5,000 yard swim.
 |
| WAC Glendale at 6:30 with me and about 4 other cars (that you can't see in this pix) in the massive parking lot. |
Sunday I was out the door at 7am for a nice 2 hour ride up to Lannon, Sussex and Menomonee Falls. Pretty nonventful ride that finished with a 1 hour 45 minute BRICK run. The run was a bit tougher with a couple 20 minute intervals in higher z2/low z3 which got the blood flowing pretty well. But what made the run better was that Colleen joined me for the first 3-4 miles making the climb up to the water tower! Running with someone even for just a few miles makes it a little less annoying IMO! The run ended up being a bit faster than I wanted, but with a nice low heart rate which is always a good sign.
As I type this I am sitting comfortably in my leather chair wearing my compression socks and feeling pretty good about my "EASY" weekend. Now I have to start worrying, stressing and thinking about the next two weeks which are going to be flat out NASTY mean on me. It's just starting to get very exciting because I feel like I could do an Ironman now with my fitness level, so as long as I don't do anything stupid in the next five weeks I should make it to the starting line of Ironman Wisconsin!
By the way, here is what I was doing Sunday afternoon. Would that be considered stupid??
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Ironman BIB numbers announced
I got word that the Ironman athlete bib numbers have been assigned today and they can be found here. Looks like I am number 2154. That sounds like a peculiarily high number to me. Not sure if that is good or bad....hmmmmm? If nothing else, this makes the big day feel closer to reality and that always makes me both nervous and excited!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12's
Have officially arrived at my doorstep c/o Amazon. These are the bad-boys I will be wearing on September 9th that I am hoping will carry me to the finish line. Love these little buggers...
Creatures
Between Saturday and Sunday's workouts I had three separate incidents where I saw deer (twice on a 6.5 hour bike ride and once on my run on Sunday). Those episodes made me think back about all the creatures I've seen this summer while out on the open road. I'm sure I am forgetting some of them, but here are a handful of my favorites so far to date.....
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| Turkey |
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| Garter Snake |
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| Fox coming out of the woods with squirrel or some other varmit in his mouth. |
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| Peacock. The most amazingly long tail feathers (at least 6 feet) draped behind him as he crossed the road. |
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| Sand Cranes (very noisy) |
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| Deer - This picture actually taken by me on a run into work. |
Wicked & Wild Weekend
OMG....That was a hell of a weekend. Saturday was a real test of a training day. The plan called for 8.5 hours of endurance work and in a nutshell here was my plan on Saturday:
4:00am - Wake up Call.
4:05am - Breakfast (bagel with peanut butter, greek yogurt, bananna, endurolyte tablet, water, coffee). General streching & yoga.
5:45am - Arrive at pool
6:00am - In the water to swim 95 minutes (or 5,025 yards or about 3 miles).
8:00am - On the bike leaving the Tosa WAC to ride 103 miles out and around Holy Hill (6.5 hours on the bike).
2:30pm - Arrive back at WAC and immediately run for 30 minutes.
3:00pm - Finish, shower up and go home.
This was a good plan except for one broken link. Upon arrival at the WAC at 5:45, I discovered it did not open until 6:30. I was not going to sit around and waste 45 minutes on this very busy day, so I decided to start the cycling portion first and worry about the swim & run when I got back. So I began what was to be a fairly technical ride with a very hilly theme featuring at least 6 "major" climbs. The total elevation climb on this ride was 5,059 feet. The final route ended up looking like this and as expected, it was definitely challenging......
These longer rides continue to include various experimentations with nutrition and proper fueling in order to find the ideal mix for me. I confirmed a couple more important pieces to my puzzle that helped me eliminated Perpetuem and gels (in the bottle) from my nutrition plan. Both of those seem to make me ill on the bike. I've also eliminated Cliff bars from the menu as those did not sit well with me either (probably too much protein & fiber). However, I did discover that my newest and most effective munchable are a type of granola bar with about 90 calories and no fat. I ate 4 of them on the bike with no issues. In fact I was craving more of them and could definitely have used a few more for additional calories. In addition, I have also had success with gel blasts, pretzels and jelly beans. If I can combine all of those, I believe I might have my personal key to a good nutrition plan. I will continue to experiment with this mix, but at the moment, I am happy to report that I have found something effective!
So I finished the bike portion in 6 hours and 30 minutes which was perfect. I made it back to my car in the WAC parking lot, loaded up the bike and made the sweaty transition to the run. I also kept this run easy because I knew I had a very long, hard swim afterward. I had a decent amount of energy left in my legs and the run went fairly well, so I considered that another win for me (don't worry, the loss is coming up on the swim)!
Here's where the fun really begins. After 103 miles on the bike and a 30 minute brick run, I did not feel like doing the swim at all (can't imagine why?)! After 7 hours of endurance work, I was quite ready for some food, drink and rest. There is a reason today's workout had the swim planned first and I quickly understood why. Unfortunately the WAC not being open early on a Saturday morning, messed me up a bit. Yes, I like to blame others (ie the WAC), when my workouts go sour. Anyway, I began the swim very slow and lethargic and knew I would never be able to complete the 8x400's at TH pace that were planned. So I went along and just did everything the best I could. I was hopeful I could just get in the full 95 minutes.
After about 40 minutes of swimming I felt some general calf cramping, but nothing too serious. I did have to stop once, but the calf loosened up very quickly and I continued on without issue. Unfortunately at about 53' my right calf cramped up completely and I was in tremendous pain. The thing was locked in that position for several minutes and was not loosening up. I rarely have cramping and when I do it is never this bad. Even after it finally "un-cramped" it was very sore, stiff and irritable. I knew I could/should not continue on and had to pull the plug on this workout at 53 minutes instead of the full 95. I decided I would make up the time on Sunday when I had another swim on the schedule.
So what can be learned from this crazy day? Actually quite a bit and most of it was very valuable to me. The sole negative was that I didn't quite finish the workout due to the cramping issues. However, these types of things will happen when you engage in 8.5 hours of endurance work and the good news is that I will never have to finish an actual Ironman race with the swim being the last leg! Some of the big positives include being very happy that I finished a 7 hour and 53 minute workout or 92% of the total time of 8:30. That is not an easy thing to do. In addition, I completed a very difficult century ride through the hills and I continue to make great discoveries and progress in formulating my nutrition plan for race day! This is all very, very good and encouraging as I continue to move forward in my training!
Oh, as a side note, the weekend wasn't all about workouts. Saturday definitely was, but on Sunday I was able to remove five of our exterior light fixtures on our house and replace them with new ones that Colleen had purchased. And I did that in between a 12 mile morning run and a 2700 yard afternoon swim. It felt nice to finally do something valuable around the house!
Totals for week 14 looked like this:
Swim - 10,172 yards (5.78 miles)
Bike - 146.38 miles
Run - 32.1 miles
4:00am - Wake up Call.
4:05am - Breakfast (bagel with peanut butter, greek yogurt, bananna, endurolyte tablet, water, coffee). General streching & yoga.
5:45am - Arrive at pool
6:00am - In the water to swim 95 minutes (or 5,025 yards or about 3 miles).
8:00am - On the bike leaving the Tosa WAC to ride 103 miles out and around Holy Hill (6.5 hours on the bike).
2:30pm - Arrive back at WAC and immediately run for 30 minutes.
3:00pm - Finish, shower up and go home.
This was a good plan except for one broken link. Upon arrival at the WAC at 5:45, I discovered it did not open until 6:30. I was not going to sit around and waste 45 minutes on this very busy day, so I decided to start the cycling portion first and worry about the swim & run when I got back. So I began what was to be a fairly technical ride with a very hilly theme featuring at least 6 "major" climbs. The total elevation climb on this ride was 5,059 feet. The final route ended up looking like this and as expected, it was definitely challenging......
These longer rides continue to include various experimentations with nutrition and proper fueling in order to find the ideal mix for me. I confirmed a couple more important pieces to my puzzle that helped me eliminated Perpetuem and gels (in the bottle) from my nutrition plan. Both of those seem to make me ill on the bike. I've also eliminated Cliff bars from the menu as those did not sit well with me either (probably too much protein & fiber). However, I did discover that my newest and most effective munchable are a type of granola bar with about 90 calories and no fat. I ate 4 of them on the bike with no issues. In fact I was craving more of them and could definitely have used a few more for additional calories. In addition, I have also had success with gel blasts, pretzels and jelly beans. If I can combine all of those, I believe I might have my personal key to a good nutrition plan. I will continue to experiment with this mix, but at the moment, I am happy to report that I have found something effective!
So I finished the bike portion in 6 hours and 30 minutes which was perfect. I made it back to my car in the WAC parking lot, loaded up the bike and made the sweaty transition to the run. I also kept this run easy because I knew I had a very long, hard swim afterward. I had a decent amount of energy left in my legs and the run went fairly well, so I considered that another win for me (don't worry, the loss is coming up on the swim)!
Here's where the fun really begins. After 103 miles on the bike and a 30 minute brick run, I did not feel like doing the swim at all (can't imagine why?)! After 7 hours of endurance work, I was quite ready for some food, drink and rest. There is a reason today's workout had the swim planned first and I quickly understood why. Unfortunately the WAC not being open early on a Saturday morning, messed me up a bit. Yes, I like to blame others (ie the WAC), when my workouts go sour. Anyway, I began the swim very slow and lethargic and knew I would never be able to complete the 8x400's at TH pace that were planned. So I went along and just did everything the best I could. I was hopeful I could just get in the full 95 minutes.
After about 40 minutes of swimming I felt some general calf cramping, but nothing too serious. I did have to stop once, but the calf loosened up very quickly and I continued on without issue. Unfortunately at about 53' my right calf cramped up completely and I was in tremendous pain. The thing was locked in that position for several minutes and was not loosening up. I rarely have cramping and when I do it is never this bad. Even after it finally "un-cramped" it was very sore, stiff and irritable. I knew I could/should not continue on and had to pull the plug on this workout at 53 minutes instead of the full 95. I decided I would make up the time on Sunday when I had another swim on the schedule.
So what can be learned from this crazy day? Actually quite a bit and most of it was very valuable to me. The sole negative was that I didn't quite finish the workout due to the cramping issues. However, these types of things will happen when you engage in 8.5 hours of endurance work and the good news is that I will never have to finish an actual Ironman race with the swim being the last leg! Some of the big positives include being very happy that I finished a 7 hour and 53 minute workout or 92% of the total time of 8:30. That is not an easy thing to do. In addition, I completed a very difficult century ride through the hills and I continue to make great discoveries and progress in formulating my nutrition plan for race day! This is all very, very good and encouraging as I continue to move forward in my training!
Oh, as a side note, the weekend wasn't all about workouts. Saturday definitely was, but on Sunday I was able to remove five of our exterior light fixtures on our house and replace them with new ones that Colleen had purchased. And I did that in between a 12 mile morning run and a 2700 yard afternoon swim. It felt nice to finally do something valuable around the house!
Totals for week 14 looked like this:
Swim - 10,172 yards (5.78 miles)
Bike - 146.38 miles
Run - 32.1 miles
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