Workouts from the weekend and this week.

Hello Dear Readers!

It has been a busy holiday weekend but I did get my workouts in (well sort of). Here is the breakdown:

Saturday's Run Workout (5/23/09)

I ran 16 miles Saturday morning. I ran it in 2 hours 35 minutes. Kept my pace a little quicker than planned and of course ran the last mile faster than race pace. I was a little tired and my legs didn't feel super strong, but I was still happy with the workout. It was pretty hot that day so that is good heat training for me.

Sunday's Bike Workout 5/24/09

This was a planned 110 Mile Bike session with a 3 mile transition run afterwords. I had planned to get up early and meet Kevin (my coach) and some other triathletes for the first 70 miles or so. Believe me, these rides can be boring and sometimes it is nice to do it with other people.

As a lot of you know, I am NOT a morning person. But I still got up at 5:30 am. Grabbed some coffee and breakfast and got on the road by 6:45 AM to ride to our meeting point. Remember this is memorial day weekend and I must have still been sleepy. I was one block away from my house when my rear tire blew! Apparently some super responsible party person thought it was brilliant to break a bunch of beer bottles in the road in my neighborhood. Granted it was my fault for not looking more closely where I was going, but STILL!!!!

Anyway, rather than change my tire out just down my street, I duck walked it back to the house and changed my tire. Of course as luck would have it, I had a side puncture on my brand new tire! So whole tire off, replace with a new one (I always have a spare) and put a new tube in. Of course, by this time, the riding group had already left so I was left to ride alone.

The ride still went fairly well, until around mile 50 I continued to have the "chaffing" issues I wrote about previously. As the miles went by it got worse and worse. At mile sixty I decided that I had enough and went home. I finished the workout with my three mile transition run, which by the way I ran very quickly and very well.

I made a mental note to myself to call Kevin and schedule a bike fit session to see if my seat placement was correct (more on this later in the blog).

Monday's Swim Session 5/25/09

Despite my bad luck on Sunday, my swim session the next day was wonderful I had 3000 meters to do. Here's the breakdown:

Warm Up: 3 x 300 as 1 free/ 1 kick 1 choice on 20 sec. rest, 4 x 100 free or pull easy on 15 sec. rest.
Main Set: 14 x 100 as: 25 drill/50free/25drill on 10 sec. rest.
Cool Down: 6 x 50 as: 4 free/ 4 drill/ 4 kick easy on 10 sec. rest.

I finished it in a little over 1 hour. This was perfect because I lost about 10 minutes due to the kicking drills. My kick is terrible as it is and with the hard run and bike sessions over the weekend, my legs were trashed. But I was still very happy I did as well as I did.

Tuesday's Bike Trainer and Run Session 5/26/09

So now we are up to today. I had the following bike/run combination workout:

20 MIN WARM UP
12 min at Hr#4 low (I kept it around 147 BPM here)
Run 2 miles at Moderate pace (30-40 sec. under easy run pace, I ran it in 8:25 and 7:53 respectively)
8 min at Hr#4 middle (Kept my heart rate around 151 here)
Run 1 miles at Moderate pace (This was done in 8:07)
6 min at Hr#4 high (Maxed my heart rate out at about 160 here)
Run 1 miles at Moderate pace (This was done in 8:32)
15 min. cool down

Again my endurance and pain thresholds are getting better because these are very fast times for me.

As promised, I shall revisit my "chaffing" issue. As I said earlier in the blog, the pain after mile 60 was unbearable so I went to Kevin today to take a look at my seat position, riding angles, etc.) Boy was I right! Somehow over the last month or so, my seat had slid almost all the way back on the seat post. As a result, I was way too hunched over while riding in the aero position. Normally you want your elbows to rest at around a 85 degree angle from your shoulders. Mine was way over 100 degrees! So we readjusted the seat. After looking at the forward position we decided to raise the seat a little as well as bring the handlebars back a little to get my elbows as close to the optimum angle as possible.

Hopefully these changes will result in more comfort and riding economy during my training and racing. I rode about 20 miles during the bike/run session today and I seemed a lot better. But the real test will be during my long ride this weekend.

That's all for now!

Tri your best,

Bill

Running and Swimming workouts for Thursday and Friday 5/21 and 5/22

Hello dear readers!

Had a great last few days of training. I think my new regimen from Kevin (my coach) has really started to pay off.

Thursday's Run

This was a 6 mile run with my pace alternating between 10 min/mile and 9 min/mile. I was feeling really good so I decided to run it faster but with the minute difference per mile still applying. This is what I ended up doing (all times are in min/mile):

Mile 1: 9:44
Mile 2: 8:42
Mile 3: 9:32
Mile 4: 8:25
Mile 5: 9:30
Mile 6: 8:14

Note that with each odd mile I kept accelerating. Very pleased with this!

Friday's Swim

Today was another 3000 meter swim (almost 2 miles). Felt really good and finished in about 59 minutes. That's almost race pace! This is the breakdown:

Warm Up: 5 x 50 as: 2 free/ 3drill / 2 free/ 3drill on 10 sec. rest
Main Set: easy, aerobic – 3 x 200 free on 20 sec. rest, 600 on 1 min rest, 4 x 150 free on 15 sec. rest, 350 on 1 min rest, 3 x 100 on 10 sec. rest, 400 on 1 min rest.
Cool Down: 4 x 50 drill on 15 sec. rest

Have a looong training weekend ahead of me, I'll blog about it over the weekend.

Everyone have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. If you know or see a serviceman or woman, please tell them how much you appreciate all they do for your country.

Tri your best!

Bill

Training 5/18 and 5/19

Hello Dear Readers!

Had some great workouts over the last few days. Here's a recap:

Monday's Swim Training

I swam 3000 meters with the following workout sets:

Warm Up: 10 x 100 as: 4 free/ 3drill/ 3 kick on 15 sec. rest, 1 x 100 fast on 20 sec. rest.
Main Set: 4 x 200 free on 15 sec. rest, 4 x 100 drills on 20 sec. rest, 2 x 200 free on 10 sec. rest
Cool Down: 300 choice easy

Since I had a really long day on Sunday, I used the pull buoy every other set to rest my legs some. Finished the entire workout (including rest time) in 1 Hour 5 Minutes.

Tuesday's Bike/Run Brick Training

I had another great workout this day. The bike portion was on my indoor trainer. It followed the following:

10 MIN WARM UP
6 X 5 MIN. AT HR#4 MID TO HIGH with first 2min in aerobars, 2min standing and 1min fast spin/ 3 MIN EASY BETWEEN
10 MIN COOL DOWN

This was pretty challenging. Heart rate did end up maxing out at 159 Beats Per Minute. I hadn't done a standing session before and it really hit my legs (but in a good way).

After the bike I threw on the running shoes and did my four miles. This was planned to be 9:35 minutes per mile pace, but a funny thing happened. I don't know if it was the standing on the bike or just being in good shape, but I felt really good and decided to see what I could do for the run and pushed. Guess what? I did each lap not only faster than the previous, but all faster than my planned pace. Here is the breakdown (minutes per mile):

Lap 1: 8:39
Lap 2: 8:31
Lap 3: 8:09
Lap 4: 7:49

I couldn't believe I was running sub 8 minute miles after such a hard bike session. I need to give my coach a bonus for getting my heart and legs into such great shape!

Well that's all for now.

Tri your best,

Bill

Lots of Training and Event Updates!

Hello Dear Readers!

Had a busy weekend! Early Saturday I ran 16 miles and went faster than my training plan. I felt really good and did some great accelerations. At one point I was running a 4:30 minute mile pace! One I was done with that I rested for a bit and then attended the CCFA's Take Steps fundraiser.

This was a great event. I had never done anything like this before. Basically I was in the Advocacy tent signing people up for our National Advocacy mailing list and explaining my story and giving people advice on how to manage your life living with Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis. I met some great people. One was a biologist researcher who was studying causes of the disease. She was from the Ukraine and had some interesting insights. I also met with some of the National CCFA people and I hope to work with them to get my fund-raising for the CCFA accelerated to the national level. I was a bit tired for standing up for several hours, but I am glad I did it. By the way, the event raised close to 100 thousand dollars!

On Sunday, I had a looooonnnng workout. Rode 100 miles and then ran 3 right after. I had a interesting time on the bike. Around mile 30 or I had a side puncture. For those who don't do much long distance riding, this can be a pickle. A side puncture is not really repairable and the tire is basically useless.

Fortunately, I always carry a spare tire and TWO tubes. It's a good thing I did, because while I was pumping my tire back up, the darn nozzle broke off! So again I had to take the old tube out, put the second one I had in and then everything was rocking.

That is until I started noticing my gearing was slipping between the teeth of the bike. So I never really got my rhythm back because my darn chain wouldn't stay in my favorite gears.

Despite these setbacks, I still toughed out the rest of the ride and finished the one hundred miles in 5 hours, 27 minutes. A little slow, but given the circumstances, I can live with it.

Then I got home and slipped on the running shoes, drank a bottle of Gatorade (my seventh I think) and got out the door. Believe it or not, I ran really well and again ran faster than my planned pace. Maybe it was the cooler weather or maybe it was my pent up frustration with my bike, but all the miles were done in under 9 minute per mile pace. For me, that was really good!

Well, that's all for now. I'll post updates with my ongoing conversations with the CCFA team as I get them.

That's all for now!

Tri your best,

Bill

Run Training on 5/14

I had a great 6 mile run today. It was fun. My coach had me do what is called a "ladder":

1st Mile in 10:00 Pace
2nd Mile in 9:45 Pace
3rd Mile in 9:30 Pace
4th Mile in 9:10 Pace
5th Mile in 9:00 Pace
6th Mile in 10:00 Pace

Got it all done in 57 minutes.

Felt really good!

Tomorrow is a swim day, I'll post about that then.

Tri your best!

Bill

Training Updates for 5/12 - 5/13

Hello Dear Readers!

Brick Training on 5/12

Did some great training on this day. First we started with a bike session on my indoor trainer. This training was done as:

10 MIN WARM UP
4 x 30 sec. SLD on 1 min.
3 X (6 MIN. AT Zone4 w/88+cad, 3min Zone 5a+, 4 min easy recovery)
10 MIN COOL DOWN

Once this was done, I immediately went on a 4 mile run. This took me 37 minutes to perform at a 9:26 per mile pace. I felt pretty strong. Average heart rate was 141 beats per minute.

Bike and Swim Training on 5/13

I had two workouts to do at different times this day. First I did a swim session. It was for 1500 meters (about a mile). This was a stroke choice workout, meaning I can use whatever stroke I want. I chose the pull buoy and did two sets of 750 meters each. Completed it in 28 minutes. Not too bad!

The bike training session was done outside. Had to go 30 miles keeping my cadence between 88 and 95 and heart rate in zone 2. The stats for the ride were:

Distance: 30 Miles
Average Speed: 20.1 MPH
Max Speed: 30.3 MPH
Average Heart Rate: 124 BPM
Max Heart Rate: 142 BPM

I will post another entry from today's run workout once I have it completed.

Tri your best!

Bill

Swim Training 5/11 and CCFA Event Attendance!

Hello dear readers!

Have a few updates for you today as well as some training log entries.

Swim Training

The swim today was tough due to the long hours I put into the running and biking over the weekend. But I got through it! Here is the breakdown:

Warm Up: 8 x 50 easy free on 10 sec. rest, 400 choice
Main Set: 10 x 75 (25 back stroke/25drill/25free) with 15 sec. rest, 500 / 300 all free or pull buoy with 10-20 sec. rest easy
Cool Down: 16 x 25 free on 5 sec. rest

Tomorrow is a bike trainer and run brick session.

CCFA Take Steps Event

I was invited by the Houston chapter of the CCFA to attend the advocacy tent for their Take Steps event on Saturday, May 16th, 2009. Information about the event can be found here.

TAKE STEPS for Crohn's & Colitis is the nation's largest event dedicated to finding a cure for digestive diseases. Together we will raise money for important
research and raise awareness of two painful and unpredictable diseases that
afflict millions of people.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Tri your best,

Bill

Bike/Run Training 5/10

Hey dear readers!

I had a great training session today. Rode 75 miles averaging 20 MPH. It was very hot today and guess what? It was windy. AGAIN! I guess this is good training for the Lake Placid Ironman, but I am really sick of it. I swear I could go 25 MPH easily if it weren't for that darn wind.

I practiced my race day hydration and went through 7 bottles of Gatorade. Kept my cadence between 88 and 95 RPM's most of the way. When it got really windy I would kick into a easier gear and make the RPM's go even higher.

About 40 miles in I stopped at a Exxon station and refueled. I am sure the guy at the counter appreciated this weird looking guy bringing his bike inside and standing there chugging and sweating on his floor (LOL).

I also have started using Theromlyte electrolyte pills. Took two every thirty minutes. I hit a low point around mile 55 or so and slowed down a bit, but I came back and the last 10 miles went really well. Of course the tail wind helped a lot too!

Once I got home, I threw on my running shoes and did 5 kilometers. I was very hot since the heat index was in the 90's at that point, but I was below my planned pace and finished in less than 30 minutes.

I want to give a shout out to a great product I started using: Chamois Butt'r
Note the emphasis on the word BUTT! Yeah that's right, it's a anti chafing cream. Believe me when I tell you that if you do not use a product like this, it isn't pretty. Just a little friction in "that sensitive area" will become a big problem going as far as we go during training and racing. I won't go into detail's, but let's just say that there are professional riders that have had to be taken out of a race due to this issue. That's how bad it can get.

Anyway, I took a look at my upcoming workouts this week and I don't even get a single day off! All well, I guess I'll get all the rest I need when I am in the ground so to speak.

That's all for now!

Tri your best,

Bill

Long Run 5/9

Good evening dear readers!

I did a 20 mile run today. Longest I have run since January's race in Bandera, Texas. I got a late start and as a result was running in over 90 degree heat. I kept at my planned pace and things went really well. I was a little worried, because my left knee was really stiff on Friday and I thought it would bother me. Fortunately, it didn't. The last two miles were really tough. I was really feeling the fatigue generated by the high humidity. But I made it through.

Stats:

Total time: 3 Hours, 22 minutes at an average pace of 10:06 minutes per mile.
Heart rate average: 149 BPM
Calories Burned: 2950

That's all for now.

Tri your best,

Bill

Swim Training 5/8

Hello dear readers!

Just a short entry today.

I had a great 2500 meter swim workout. This was done as:

Warm Up: 12 x 75 w/ 15 sec. rest as: 4 free / 4 stroke / 4 kick
Main Set: 4 x 200 free, 8 x 25(1stroke/1free), 8 x 25(1kick/1free), 5x 50free all w/10-20 set rest
Cool Down: 500 pull buoy swim

There were a few "bobbers" in the pool, but I still got a lane to myself. Speed and form were good. I had a little trouble with the kicking drill's. They take a HUGE amount of energy out of you, but are very good for the cardiovascular benefits.

Tomorrow I have a 20 mile run and Sunday I have a 75 mile bike ride followed by a 3 mile transition run. These are going to be really tough since it is starting to get really hot here in Houston.

I'll blog about these sessions over the weekend.

Tri your best!

Bill

Workouts for 4/2 through 4/5

Hey Dear Readers,

It's been a busy last few days. My laptop crashed on me and I spent the last few days backing up data and restoring it to a new hard drive. Yes, I am one of the technical nerds who knows how to do this stuff. But in between my tasks, I did some great training.

Saturday 4/2

I ran 14 miles in the morning at a nice slow endurance threshold pace. In the afternoon I then did a 2500 meter swim. This swim was a lot of fun because it had a mixture of sets and distances.

Warm Up: 12 x 50 as: alternating drill/kick on 15 sec. rest
Main Set: 2 x (300 free easy, 4 x 50 back on 20 sec. rest) 200 pull easy
Cool Down: 16 x 25 choice easy on 5 sec rest

Sunday 4/3

This was a easy 60 mile ride day. It's sad when 60 miles is considered easy. Kept my heart rate in low zone 3. I also experimented with my nutrition. Did three bottles over three hours. Drank 1/2 a bottle all at once every 30 minutes. That seemed to work pretty well.

Monday 4/4

I did another 2500 meter swim workout that day. Again a great mix of strokes and distances. I felt really strong that day:

Warm Up: 3 x 300 free w/ 10 sec. rest;
Main Set: easy, aerobic – 2 x 100 / 2 x 200 / 1x400 / 2 x 100 all easy free on 10-20 sec. rest
Cool Down: 12 x 50 (3free/2drill/1kick)

I skipped my weights workout since I worked pretty hard already and just rested up.

I'll post my bike workout from today after it is done.

That's all for now.

Tri your best,

Bill