After my Bike crash last week, I had to immediately go on Business travel. This would normally, not be that big a deal for me to train while away, but I had ZERO time! I returned on Wednesday evening and started back to training on Thursday.
Thursday's Run Session 6/11/09
It has been so hot here in Houston, that I decided to do my run indoors on the treadmill. It was 6 miles as (Minutes/Mile):
Mile 1: 10:00
Mile 2: 9:30
Mile 3: 9:20
Mile 4: 9:00
Mile 5: 9:00
Mile 6: 10:00
I was really rested from my time off during the travel and did the last mile in 8:30 pace. I then went and did a little weight lifting.
Friday's 3500 Meter Swim Session 6/12/09
This was a tough workout, my legs were a little tired from the run on Thursday, but I still did pretty well. This workout was done as:
Warm Up: 10 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, 400 on 1 min rest, 3 x 100 on 10 sec. rest, 400 on 1 min rest.
Cool Down: 6 x 50 drill on 15 sec. rest
Saturday's Run Session 6/13/09
I got started a little late on this one and suffered in the heat (this is Houston you know). This run was 16 miles at 10:10 to 10:25 per mile pace. I did the whole run in 2 hours and 45 minutes. That was a average pace of 10:22 per mile. I started really well, but ended running very slow just to get through it. I am not a great runner when the heat index is over 100 degrees!
Tour De Braz 6/14/09
I had a 120 mile bike ride on my schedule for this week. Sine I crashed the week before, I wanted to do this ride with someone else. After checking my local triathlon club message board, I found out that there was a 100 mile race in Alvin on the same day as my scheduled ride!
I got up this morning at 4:45 AM and had a little breakfast and fed the dogs. I was out the door at 6:10 AM and was freaking out because the race started at 7 AM and I still had to drive 30 minutes to get there. I drove fast and got there just after 6:30 AM. There was a pretty good turnout, over 300 riders. There was a mix of distances so not all the riders were doing the full 100 miles.
The weather started out beautiful in the seventies with a light wind. We got started during the sunrise and it was truly a wondrous start to a long day. I met some nice folks and started the race at a great clip due to the tail wind. I think we were averaging 23 MPH with little effort. About two hours in we went into a headwind of 20 MPH. This caused me to slow WAAAY down. I kept it at around 18 MPH or so. This was fine by me, I was not really racing this event, just taking advantage of the SAG support and water stations ever 12 miles or so. This also gave me a chance to practice my hydration and food strategy.
About 40 miles in I was making a right hand turn and I almost crashed again JUST LIKE LAST WEEK! But I saved myself and checked my tire. Guess what, it was flat again! Now this really made me mad, since I had that tire replaced while I was gone. It was a slow leak again so I used a CO2 cartridge and made it to the next water stop that had mechanical support. They replaced my tube and I was good to go.
I hooked up with a young kid from Houston and a guy from Norway and we rode together most of the way for the last 40 miles or so. There was one bad crash that I know of. Someone's tire blew in a group and they all went down. One guy may have broken his shoulder. That's why I don't usually do these events, because everyone drafts and that means if the guy ahead of you goes down, you don't have much time to get out of the way. Of course, in Ironman, you cannot draft so that doesn't typically happen.
After mile 50 it started getting REALLY HOT! The Norwegian guy had all these gadgets on his bike and one of them measured temperature. He said it got as high as 106 degrees! I felt like I was riding in an oven!
The last 20 miles we had a tail wind and it was wonderful. I had a last burst of energy and kept it above 20 MPH the rest of the way in.
Post race I indulged in the great BBQ they had for racers and lots of liquids. Overall I was pretty happy with my performance. Of course, during the Ironman I won't actually be stopping at the water stops, but you had no choice here since you had to refill your water bottles from a jug.
Below are a few interesting graphs. The first is the analysis of my speed zones. Note I kept it pretty much around 20 MPH.
The next picture is the map of the course. Lot's of loops!
That's all for now!
Tri your best,
Bill
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