Hello Dear Readers!
Well the race day is coming up very quickly. I leave on Thursday to fly to California. I shipped my bike last Thursday and it should get to Santa Rosa on Tuesday. Hopefully it will be undamaged! I instructed the bike store to check everything out and make it race ready. Since it's been a while since I updated the blog, let's catch up on some items:
Training
My training for this race was a little up and down. Since my training has occurred during the hottest months of the year, I had a few setbacks due to heat overstress. Basically, sine I am not a morning person, I have been getting up later and doing my long runs and bike rides during the hottest times of the day. So every workout I get close to heat exhaustion. This is good if you do it sparingly and let your body adapt to the changes, but I was doing it nearly every time! So the problem starts to arise that the accumulation of heat stress causes your body to not recover from the training well and as a result you get slower and slower. My Coach (Kevin), saw this was happening and ordered me to back off for a while and that seemed to do the trick. I have done a lot of long distance stuff over the last few months with several 100+ mile rides and 20+ mile runs. My taper period has been going really well and I feel myself really itching to get out there and hammer the miles. I am definitely ready for the distance, but the speed is something that is yet an unknown until I actually get to race day.
Body Health
Overall, I feel really good. No knee pain that is of any consequence. I am still a little tight and am stretching nightly to try to stay loose. Also I am working on making sure I carbo load this week, try to get plenty of sleep and get very hydrated.
Race Day Items
Race day so far is looking pretty good. The weather over there says it is going to start in the 50's and then get into the low 80's. PERFECT racing weather. The elevations of the bike and run are no where near as difficult as Lake Placid's Ironman was so that is definitely a bonus. One thing that is really interesting about this race is that it is considered a "Green" triathlon. This means they do their best to minimize waste. How do they do that? Well for one thing they don't use paper cups during the run! They use this item called a HyrdaPouch. Kind of like a water bottle and you hit the jugs with it as you go through the water stop. I was concerned about this really slowing people down and I just heard the other day that the race director decided to add paper cups back and gave people the option of going cup-less until 7 PM then they have to use the HydraPouch system.
Another interesting race item is that this is one of those races where the start and finish are in different places. I HATE THAT! All well, so I have to ride the shuttle (boo hoo!).
Expectations
Besides just finishing this race, I am still attempting to win that elusive sub 13 hour Ironman time. The way I see it, I can do the swim in 1:20, take 10 minutes to go through transition and get the 112 in within 6:20, take another 10 minutes (will need much less) and have 5 hours to do the marathon. I figure I can do the bike with an average speed of 18 MPH and have plenty of time to make the 5 hour window. If everything goes according to plan I just might finish somewhere in between 12:30 and 13:00 hours. Wish me luck!
I'll try to blog again once I get to California and I will definitely try to take some pictures of the wine country I will be riding through. Until then....
Tri your best!
Bill
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
New Race Added to My Schedule!
Hello Dear Readers!
Wow it sure has been a while since I last posted. Apologies again for being a little lazy. Seems like triathlon training and life in general has been getting in the way of my blogging! Don't forget that you can come to my website at any time and click on the TRAINING tab to see my GPS data of the workouts I've been doing outside.
New Race Added to My Schedule
I am competing in the Tour De Braz 100 mile bike race this weekend. I am using it as a training ride in preparation for the Vineman Ironman at the end of July. I am going to try to average 20 MPH but with the terrible heat we are having in Houston right now, I probably will keep it closer to 17 or 18 MPH. It's a relatively flat course so we will see. It's been a long time since I rode that far, but I need the time in the saddle (even though my butt would disagree).
Vineman Ironman Training
Training for this race (July 31st) is going pretty well. I need to get off my butt and do the travel arrangements before air travel gets too high. The heat is really affecting my speeds. It doesn't help that I have gotten into the mode of sleeping in on the weekends and not getting out on the road until mid day (when the temps reach over 100 degree heat index).
That's all for now!
Tri Your Best!
Bill
Wow it sure has been a while since I last posted. Apologies again for being a little lazy. Seems like triathlon training and life in general has been getting in the way of my blogging! Don't forget that you can come to my website at any time and click on the TRAINING tab to see my GPS data of the workouts I've been doing outside.
New Race Added to My Schedule
I am competing in the Tour De Braz 100 mile bike race this weekend. I am using it as a training ride in preparation for the Vineman Ironman at the end of July. I am going to try to average 20 MPH but with the terrible heat we are having in Houston right now, I probably will keep it closer to 17 or 18 MPH. It's a relatively flat course so we will see. It's been a long time since I rode that far, but I need the time in the saddle (even though my butt would disagree).
Vineman Ironman Training
Training for this race (July 31st) is going pretty well. I need to get off my butt and do the travel arrangements before air travel gets too high. The heat is really affecting my speeds. It doesn't help that I have gotten into the mode of sleeping in on the weekends and not getting out on the road until mid day (when the temps reach over 100 degree heat index).
That's all for now!
Tri Your Best!
Bill
Monday, April 26, 2010
Ironman Lonestar 70.3 Race Report
Hello Dear Readers!
Wow this was a great race! Despite the bad weather from Friday night, and the resultant cancellation of the Sprint and Olympic distance swim, Sunday's race went on as scheduled.
Pre-Race Morning
I got up at 4 AM and did my best to get the sleep out of my eyes. Made some coffee, ate a skillet's hot breakfast. Gathered all my gear and headed down to Galveston. Along the way I ate a banana, muscle milk, and a nutri-grain bar. Got to the race site at about 5:10 AM and had plenty of time for the body marking and most importantly a few visits to the porta potty! At 6:30 AM we were told to go to the swim start staging area. Due to the large number of athletes at a smaller venue, we did a set of wave starts based on age group divisions. I was in the 40-44 group so we were wave 8. The pro's went off first and as usual Andy Potts was the first out of the water. After lots of waiting (or so it seemed) my group was called to the docks to get ready...
Swim (1.2 Miles)
The swim portion of this race was fairly hard. While the winds definitely died down during the night, we still had a stiff breeze blowing across the bay. This made the conditions a little crazy because we were swimming in a head wind for 2/3's of the swim course. The wind made the water really choppy with good sized waves. The first leg of the swim went great. I felt good and I felt like my pace was decent. When we hit the buoy for the left had turn to the long section of the swim, I knew it was going to be interesting. In order to get a good swim time, you need to get into a rhythm and stick with that sustainable rhythm. The problem was that it was hard to maintain a rhythm with waves constantly crashing onto your head every time you breathed. Normally this is not an issue if you can breath bi-laterally (on both sides). If a wave tends to hit you in the face on one side, you just switch to another. Problem is that the waves didn't come at you from a side but from straight ahead, so your goose was cooked no matter what you did. I made the best of it and chocked on water here and there, but it was tough to keep the pace consistent. I did notice that I was not the only one having issues, because I passed several swimmers from the previous swim waves. Once I got to the end, I made sure I waited until the last possible minute to get out on the exit platform, due to the oyster beds that would cut your feet if you got up too early. Once out of the water, some nice ladies stripped my wetsuit from me and I ran through the water fall to get the salt water out off me and ran into the first transition area. Total swim time for 1.2 miles was officially 44 Minutes and 39 seconds.
Here is the link to my Garmin swim data. Note that the GPS is not accurate due to the signal being lost in the water.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342526
Transition One
I ran into T1 at a good pace and got to my bike without any problems. Did my best to get my feet clear of the sand and get my socks, shoes, helmet and glasses on. It took me a little longer than usual, but I want to make sure I have no foot problems during the bike or run. My T1 time was: 4 Minutes and 34 Seconds.
Here is the Garmin T1 data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342527
Bike (56 Miles)
Once I got out of the Transition area, I mounted my bike and headed out on the course. This was a 56 mile out and back course with no hills. The wind was still going pretty strong (about 15 MPH) so it was tough going. It was more a cross wind that was north to south rather than a head or tail wind. It seemed the it was pushing against my going west on the course. I noticed my speed was between 19 and 20 MPH and that was fine by me. I stayed loose and in control and just targeted other racers and reeled them in. I suspect some of these folks were from out of town since they seemed to be surprised by the wind. I was feeling really good because I passed a whole bunch of people. Hydration and nutrition plan were executed fine. At mile 28 we had a turnaround and headed back. Here it felt like I got a little bit of an assist from the cross wind and my speed jumped up between 21 and 22 MPH. Again I just spent the time reeling people in and passing them. The last mile or so back to the transition area was especially tough since it was straight North into the headwind. My legs were definitely on fire! Overall, taking the conditions into account I was happy with the bike portion. My time for the bike ended up being 2 Hours 44 Minutes and 11 Seconds. My Garmin data for this portion is here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342529
Transition 2
After fighting that huge headwind I rolled into T2 feeling really good. I jumped off the bike at the dismount line and found my rack space easily. Threw off the shoes and slipped into the running gear and headed on out. My time through T2 was a fast (for me) time of 2 minutes and 49 seconds. The link for the Garmin data is here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342531
Run (13.1 Miles)
I got to say, my run can be summed up in three words: I CRUSHED IT!!!! This was the fasted 13.1 miles I have ever done after biking and swimming beforehand. Last year, my time on the run for this race was over 10 minutes per mile. This time it was a average of a 8 minutes and 37 seconds per mile! Felt great the whole time. I kept expecting to blow up at that pace (which is fast for me) but the blow up never came. The last mile I was a little tired but kept accelerating. The last 10th of a mile I was running a 5 minute per mile pace. Here is the Garmin data for the run portion:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342535
Summary
Overall, despite the windy conditions I was extremely pleased with my performance. My ranking was 60 out of 237 in my age group (top 25 percent). Overall my ranking was 292 out of 1586 total competitors (top 18 percent). Hopefully next year I will do even better!
That's all for now.
Tri your best,
Bill
Wow this was a great race! Despite the bad weather from Friday night, and the resultant cancellation of the Sprint and Olympic distance swim, Sunday's race went on as scheduled.
Pre-Race Morning
I got up at 4 AM and did my best to get the sleep out of my eyes. Made some coffee, ate a skillet's hot breakfast. Gathered all my gear and headed down to Galveston. Along the way I ate a banana, muscle milk, and a nutri-grain bar. Got to the race site at about 5:10 AM and had plenty of time for the body marking and most importantly a few visits to the porta potty! At 6:30 AM we were told to go to the swim start staging area. Due to the large number of athletes at a smaller venue, we did a set of wave starts based on age group divisions. I was in the 40-44 group so we were wave 8. The pro's went off first and as usual Andy Potts was the first out of the water. After lots of waiting (or so it seemed) my group was called to the docks to get ready...
Swim (1.2 Miles)
The swim portion of this race was fairly hard. While the winds definitely died down during the night, we still had a stiff breeze blowing across the bay. This made the conditions a little crazy because we were swimming in a head wind for 2/3's of the swim course. The wind made the water really choppy with good sized waves. The first leg of the swim went great. I felt good and I felt like my pace was decent. When we hit the buoy for the left had turn to the long section of the swim, I knew it was going to be interesting. In order to get a good swim time, you need to get into a rhythm and stick with that sustainable rhythm. The problem was that it was hard to maintain a rhythm with waves constantly crashing onto your head every time you breathed. Normally this is not an issue if you can breath bi-laterally (on both sides). If a wave tends to hit you in the face on one side, you just switch to another. Problem is that the waves didn't come at you from a side but from straight ahead, so your goose was cooked no matter what you did. I made the best of it and chocked on water here and there, but it was tough to keep the pace consistent. I did notice that I was not the only one having issues, because I passed several swimmers from the previous swim waves. Once I got to the end, I made sure I waited until the last possible minute to get out on the exit platform, due to the oyster beds that would cut your feet if you got up too early. Once out of the water, some nice ladies stripped my wetsuit from me and I ran through the water fall to get the salt water out off me and ran into the first transition area. Total swim time for 1.2 miles was officially 44 Minutes and 39 seconds.
Here is the link to my Garmin swim data. Note that the GPS is not accurate due to the signal being lost in the water.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342526
Transition One
I ran into T1 at a good pace and got to my bike without any problems. Did my best to get my feet clear of the sand and get my socks, shoes, helmet and glasses on. It took me a little longer than usual, but I want to make sure I have no foot problems during the bike or run. My T1 time was: 4 Minutes and 34 Seconds.
Here is the Garmin T1 data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342527
Bike (56 Miles)
Once I got out of the Transition area, I mounted my bike and headed out on the course. This was a 56 mile out and back course with no hills. The wind was still going pretty strong (about 15 MPH) so it was tough going. It was more a cross wind that was north to south rather than a head or tail wind. It seemed the it was pushing against my going west on the course. I noticed my speed was between 19 and 20 MPH and that was fine by me. I stayed loose and in control and just targeted other racers and reeled them in. I suspect some of these folks were from out of town since they seemed to be surprised by the wind. I was feeling really good because I passed a whole bunch of people. Hydration and nutrition plan were executed fine. At mile 28 we had a turnaround and headed back. Here it felt like I got a little bit of an assist from the cross wind and my speed jumped up between 21 and 22 MPH. Again I just spent the time reeling people in and passing them. The last mile or so back to the transition area was especially tough since it was straight North into the headwind. My legs were definitely on fire! Overall, taking the conditions into account I was happy with the bike portion. My time for the bike ended up being 2 Hours 44 Minutes and 11 Seconds. My Garmin data for this portion is here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342529
Transition 2
After fighting that huge headwind I rolled into T2 feeling really good. I jumped off the bike at the dismount line and found my rack space easily. Threw off the shoes and slipped into the running gear and headed on out. My time through T2 was a fast (for me) time of 2 minutes and 49 seconds. The link for the Garmin data is here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342531
Run (13.1 Miles)
I got to say, my run can be summed up in three words: I CRUSHED IT!!!! This was the fasted 13.1 miles I have ever done after biking and swimming beforehand. Last year, my time on the run for this race was over 10 minutes per mile. This time it was a average of a 8 minutes and 37 seconds per mile! Felt great the whole time. I kept expecting to blow up at that pace (which is fast for me) but the blow up never came. The last mile I was a little tired but kept accelerating. The last 10th of a mile I was running a 5 minute per mile pace. Here is the Garmin data for the run portion:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31342535
Summary
Overall, despite the windy conditions I was extremely pleased with my performance. My ranking was 60 out of 237 in my age group (top 25 percent). Overall my ranking was 292 out of 1586 total competitors (top 18 percent). Hopefully next year I will do even better!
That's all for now.
Tri your best,
Bill
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Tomorrow is GO TIME!
Hello Dear Readers! Just a quick update before I start shutting down and attempting to go to bed early.
Race Preparations
Well tomorrow is go time. That's right, first race of the year. It's been a busy last few days. Had to drive down to Galveston yesterday to get my race packet. Today I had to go again to put my bike in the transition area. I plan on getting up at 4 AM tomorrow to get to the race site by 5 AM.
Pre-Race Dinner
I took my wife to Denny's tonight for my ritual pre-race meal. French toast, eggs, wheat toast, English muffin, ham, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy and orange juice!
Race Goals
My goal this year is quite simple: Go Faster Than Last Year!
I think where I might see the most improvement is the run. I definitely feel that I can go faster. Of course, if I am not consistent on the bike and swim compared to last year, it might balance out to the same time. But if I can do the swim in less than 40 minutes, the bike in less than 3 hours and the run in under two hours, I should be able to beat my time previously.
I will post my performance after I have recovered from the race. That's all for now!
Tri your best!
Bill
Race Preparations
Well tomorrow is go time. That's right, first race of the year. It's been a busy last few days. Had to drive down to Galveston yesterday to get my race packet. Today I had to go again to put my bike in the transition area. I plan on getting up at 4 AM tomorrow to get to the race site by 5 AM.
Pre-Race Dinner
I took my wife to Denny's tonight for my ritual pre-race meal. French toast, eggs, wheat toast, English muffin, ham, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy and orange juice!
Race Goals
My goal this year is quite simple: Go Faster Than Last Year!
I think where I might see the most improvement is the run. I definitely feel that I can go faster. Of course, if I am not consistent on the bike and swim compared to last year, it might balance out to the same time. But if I can do the swim in less than 40 minutes, the bike in less than 3 hours and the run in under two hours, I should be able to beat my time previously.
I will post my performance after I have recovered from the race. That's all for now!
Tri your best!
Bill
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Just a Few More Days Till the First Race of the Year!
Hello Dear Readers!
Ironman Lonestar 70.3
Well the first race of the year is on tap. I am entered in the Ironman 70.3 Lonestar race for this Sunday. It is going to include over 1500 racers and a whole bunch of pro's! The weather looks to be pretty good for Sunday and I feel like I might do better this year than last. My run has definitely improved. Swimming and Biking are about the same so hopefully I can keep those times relatively similar.
Training
Training has been coming along pretty good. Over the last few weeks I have felt a bit burned out and was a little lazy here and there. Especially when it comes to the Bike. I just don't feel like going on 3-4 hour rides lately. I've kept up with my indoor power cycling and that is keeping me in OK shape. Hopefully I still have a good enough bike aerobic base to go strong during the race this weekend.
Upcoming Races
I am still registered to do the Vineman Ironman distance race this July. However, I may have to rethink it, depending on a bunch of factors (money, schedule, time for training, etc.). For now I am going to continue to train assuming I am doing the race. I will have to make a decision by Mid-June.
My coach has stated that if I really want to do the 100 mile run, I may want to just focus on that the rest of the year and be more prepared. I may end up doing that.
I will definitely blog about the race itself afterwords and time permitting I may blog about the events leading up to the race this weekend. That's all for now!
Tri your best,
Bill
Ironman Lonestar 70.3
Well the first race of the year is on tap. I am entered in the Ironman 70.3 Lonestar race for this Sunday. It is going to include over 1500 racers and a whole bunch of pro's! The weather looks to be pretty good for Sunday and I feel like I might do better this year than last. My run has definitely improved. Swimming and Biking are about the same so hopefully I can keep those times relatively similar.
Training
Training has been coming along pretty good. Over the last few weeks I have felt a bit burned out and was a little lazy here and there. Especially when it comes to the Bike. I just don't feel like going on 3-4 hour rides lately. I've kept up with my indoor power cycling and that is keeping me in OK shape. Hopefully I still have a good enough bike aerobic base to go strong during the race this weekend.
Upcoming Races
I am still registered to do the Vineman Ironman distance race this July. However, I may have to rethink it, depending on a bunch of factors (money, schedule, time for training, etc.). For now I am going to continue to train assuming I am doing the race. I will have to make a decision by Mid-June.
My coach has stated that if I really want to do the 100 mile run, I may want to just focus on that the rest of the year and be more prepared. I may end up doing that.
I will definitely blog about the race itself afterwords and time permitting I may blog about the events leading up to the race this weekend. That's all for now!
Tri your best,
Bill
Monday, March 29, 2010
Training for the Week of 3/28/2010.
Hello Dear Readers!
Wow it sure has been a pretty tough training week. Upon reviewing my new calendar form my coach (Hi Kevin!) I see that we are training through the Galveston Ironman 70.3. What this means is that I will not have a three week taper (like usual), but a abbreviated one week taper.
Here are my training stats for this week (as usual go to my Garmin Training page to see the stats of my training while wearing the GPS watch):
Monday
Swim 2500 Yards as:
Warm Up: 8x50 drills w/ 10 sec. rest
Main Set: 100/250/500/500/250/100 all Zone 5 w/ 20 sec. rest
Cool Down: 400 easy w/ pull buoy
Tuesday
15 MIN WARM UP
6 x 1 min. fast spin (105+) / 1 min easy
2 x (4 x 2 min. at Zone low 4-5, #1,3 in Aerobars, #2,4 sitting up in one gear bigger / 2 min easy between all) – extra 3 min between sets.
10 min. cool down
Wednesday
Run AM
4 miles
8:50-9:05 pace
Bike PM
30 miles
Zone 2****
@ 90-95 cad
Thursday
Run
8 miles
8:50-9:05 pace
I ran this inside the gym on the treadmill.
Friday
Swim 2500 Yards as:
Warm Up: 300 easy free
Main Set: 2000 free in Zone 3
Cool Down: 200 cool down
Saturday
16 mile long run this day. I was very tired since I went to bed super late the day before. I did end up averaging a 9:35 min/mile pace.
Sunday
I was supposed to do a 90 mile bike ride this day. I met the BAM club in Galveston to ride the race course. We had 20-30 MPH winds since we were right on the sea wall and after 60 miles I was totally wiped!
I have another tough week of training ahead, so I need to get right back to it! That's all for now!
Tri your best,
Bill
Wow it sure has been a pretty tough training week. Upon reviewing my new calendar form my coach (Hi Kevin!) I see that we are training through the Galveston Ironman 70.3. What this means is that I will not have a three week taper (like usual), but a abbreviated one week taper.
Here are my training stats for this week (as usual go to my Garmin Training page to see the stats of my training while wearing the GPS watch):
Monday
Swim 2500 Yards as:
Warm Up: 8x50 drills w/ 10 sec. rest
Main Set: 100/250/500/500/250/100 all Zone 5 w/ 20 sec. rest
Cool Down: 400 easy w/ pull buoy
Tuesday
15 MIN WARM UP
6 x 1 min. fast spin (105+) / 1 min easy
2 x (4 x 2 min. at Zone low 4-5, #1,3 in Aerobars, #2,4 sitting up in one gear bigger / 2 min easy between all) – extra 3 min between sets.
10 min. cool down
Followed this up immediately by a 4 mile transition run at a 8:12 min/mile pace.
Wednesday
Run AM
4 miles
8:50-9:05 pace
Bike PM
30 miles
Zone 2****
@ 90-95 cad
Thursday
Run
8 miles
8:50-9:05 pace
I ran this inside the gym on the treadmill.
Friday
Swim 2500 Yards as:
Warm Up: 300 easy free
Main Set: 2000 free in Zone 3
Cool Down: 200 cool down
Saturday
16 mile long run this day. I was very tired since I went to bed super late the day before. I did end up averaging a 9:35 min/mile pace.
Sunday
I was supposed to do a 90 mile bike ride this day. I met the BAM club in Galveston to ride the race course. We had 20-30 MPH winds since we were right on the sea wall and after 60 miles I was totally wiped!
I have another tough week of training ahead, so I need to get right back to it! That's all for now!
Tri your best,
Bill
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Training for the Week of March 21st
Hello Dear Readers!
Spring is finally here! Now we get longer days which translates to less excuses to do my workouts! No more, I can't go out now, work got in the way and it is getting dark soon. The last week has been wonderful weather, that is until yesterday. Storms came in with 20 mph winds and temperatures dropping into the 40s. Today is slightly better. Sun is out, but the wind is even worse (30 mph gusts) and the temperature got down to 38 last night! Let's hope this is the last really cold batch of weather we get until the fall.
American Liver Foundation
I have started building some contacts with the American Liver Foundation (http://www.liverfoundation.org/) to see if I can get a donation program started to help those who also suffer from Liver Disease. I got a voicemail on Thursday from their local Houston office and hopefully we will start our conversation this week. I'll keep you all posted as to how this goes.
Training
I had a great training week! Had a time trial on Thursday and had my fastest 2 mile split ever! More on this later (See Thursday section below). Here is the breakdown of my training:
Monday
Swim day this day. I did the following swim workout:
Warm Up: 12 x 50 as: alternating drill/kick on 15 sec. rest
Main Set: 2 x (300 free Zone 4, 4 x 50 back on 20 sec. rest, 250 pull Zone 3)
Cool Down: 16 x 25 choice Zone 1-2 on 5 sec rest
These are the swim zones we figured out from my 1000 meter time trial a few weeks ago:
02:28 Zone 1
02:19 Zone 2
02:10 Zone 3
02:01 Zone 4
01:52 Zone 5a
01:43 Zone 5b
All Zones are +/- 2 seconds and the times are per 100 meters.
Tuesday
This was a bike trainer day.
10 MIN WARM UP
6 min. at high Hr #3 / 3 min easy
8 min. at Hr #3-4 / 3 min easy
6 min. at Hr #4 / 3 min easy
8 min. at Hr #4 / 3 min easy
10 min. cool down
Wednesday
Run AM
4 miles
10:10-10:20 pace
Bike PM
30 miles
Zone 2****
@ 90-95 cad
Thursday
Time Trial Day!
Run at the local high school track 6 miles as:
2 mile very easy
2 miles TT 100%
2 mile very easy
Are you ready for this? I did my two mile 100% effort time trial in 13 minutes and 42 seconds! I finally broke through the 14 minute barrier!
Friday
I took the day off today. My legs were fried from the time trial.
Saturday
Bad weather came in so I did a 16 mile run at the gym on the treadmill.
Sunday
Today I am supposed to do a 80 mile ride. But it is cold and very windy and I just am not feeling it! Instead I went to the gym and rode the bike there and did some weights.
Well there you have it folks! Remember to always do something everyday even if it's not too much! That's all for now.
Tri your best!
Bill
Spring is finally here! Now we get longer days which translates to less excuses to do my workouts! No more, I can't go out now, work got in the way and it is getting dark soon. The last week has been wonderful weather, that is until yesterday. Storms came in with 20 mph winds and temperatures dropping into the 40s. Today is slightly better. Sun is out, but the wind is even worse (30 mph gusts) and the temperature got down to 38 last night! Let's hope this is the last really cold batch of weather we get until the fall.
American Liver Foundation
I have started building some contacts with the American Liver Foundation (http://www.liverfoundation.org/) to see if I can get a donation program started to help those who also suffer from Liver Disease. I got a voicemail on Thursday from their local Houston office and hopefully we will start our conversation this week. I'll keep you all posted as to how this goes.
Training
I had a great training week! Had a time trial on Thursday and had my fastest 2 mile split ever! More on this later (See Thursday section below). Here is the breakdown of my training:
Monday
Swim day this day. I did the following swim workout:
Warm Up: 12 x 50 as: alternating drill/kick on 15 sec. rest
Main Set: 2 x (300 free Zone 4, 4 x 50 back on 20 sec. rest, 250 pull Zone 3)
Cool Down: 16 x 25 choice Zone 1-2 on 5 sec rest
These are the swim zones we figured out from my 1000 meter time trial a few weeks ago:
02:28 Zone 1
02:19 Zone 2
02:10 Zone 3
02:01 Zone 4
01:52 Zone 5a
01:43 Zone 5b
All Zones are +/- 2 seconds and the times are per 100 meters.
Tuesday
This was a bike trainer day.
10 MIN WARM UP
6 min. at high Hr #3 / 3 min easy
8 min. at Hr #3-4 / 3 min easy
6 min. at Hr #4 / 3 min easy
8 min. at Hr #4 / 3 min easy
10 min. cool down
Wednesday
Run AM
4 miles
10:10-10:20 pace
Bike PM
30 miles
Zone 2****
@ 90-95 cad
Thursday
Time Trial Day!
Run at the local high school track 6 miles as:
2 mile very easy
2 miles TT 100%
2 mile very easy
Are you ready for this? I did my two mile 100% effort time trial in 13 minutes and 42 seconds! I finally broke through the 14 minute barrier!
Friday
I took the day off today. My legs were fried from the time trial.
Saturday
Bad weather came in so I did a 16 mile run at the gym on the treadmill.
Sunday
Today I am supposed to do a 80 mile ride. But it is cold and very windy and I just am not feeling it! Instead I went to the gym and rode the bike there and did some weights.
Well there you have it folks! Remember to always do something everyday even if it's not too much! That's all for now.
Tri your best!
Bill
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Training for the week of March 14th 2010
Hello Dear Readers!
This week I definitely feel my triathlon fitness coming back. I had to take Thursday and Friday off due to death in the family. Thanks to all for your very kind condolences. Here is the breakdown for this week:
Monday
Swim
2500 yards
See e-mail
Weights (Upper)
Tuesday
Bike
20 miles
@ 90-95 cad.
Run TR
4 miles
10:00-10:10 pace
Wednesday
Bike
20 miles
Zone 2****
@ 90-95 cad
Thursday
Off
Friday
Off
Saturday
Run
12 miles
10:20-10:30 pace
w/ 2 x 2 miles in 18:00 w/ .5m jog in between
Sunday
Bike
60 miles
Zone 2- low3
@ 90-95 cad
Go to my Training Page to see my Garmin data results.
On a personal note, while attending funeral services, I really thought a lot about life and how we take things for granted. Just a reminder to you all to live every day to the fullest and care for those around you. You never know when their time, or YOUR time will end.
Tri your best!
Bill
This week I definitely feel my triathlon fitness coming back. I had to take Thursday and Friday off due to death in the family. Thanks to all for your very kind condolences. Here is the breakdown for this week:
Monday
Swim
2500 yards
See e-mail
Weights (Upper)
Tuesday
Bike
20 miles
@ 90-95 cad.
Run TR
4 miles
10:00-10:10 pace
Wednesday
Bike
20 miles
Zone 2****
@ 90-95 cad
Thursday
Off
Friday
Off
Saturday
Run
12 miles
10:20-10:30 pace
w/ 2 x 2 miles in 18:00 w/ .5m jog in between
Sunday
Bike
60 miles
Zone 2- low3
@ 90-95 cad
Go to my Training Page to see my Garmin data results.
On a personal note, while attending funeral services, I really thought a lot about life and how we take things for granted. Just a reminder to you all to live every day to the fullest and care for those around you. You never know when their time, or YOUR time will end.
Tri your best!
Bill
This blog has moved
This blog is now located at http://williamchoppa.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.
For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://williamchoppa.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.
Monday, March 1, 2010
2010 Triathlon Season Training is Now in Full Swing!
Hello Dear Readers!
I hope every one's training is going well. I had to go on business travel for two weeks in the UK and my training definitely suffered. While I did bring enough clothes and gear to get my training in, I had so many things going against me on this trip. Bad weather, hotels that did not have gyms. Not staying in one city for more than a day so by the time I would get to the hotel it would be late and I would have no motivation. I did however have a few good workouts the first weekend I was there. The Brits have some good gyms available. Virgin Active was my favorite. Mr. Branson sure knows how to treat his customers! One way of viewing the situation is that I got myself plenty of rest, so when I did finally get back the states my "fire" was burning hot and I couldn't wait to get right back at it.
I had some great training sessions this weekend:
Saturday's 10 Mile Long Run
Here is the link to my Garmin data for Saturday's run:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/25661716
Took it easy so that I would have plenty of energy for Sunday's long bike and run session.
Sunday's 60 Mile Bike with a 3 Mile Transition Run
This was the highlight of my week. Even though there were 20 MPH winds on the roads, I still averaged 19.1 miles per hour. I immediately transitioned to a 3 mile run and this also went really well. I ran the last mile in 7:22! For me that is phenomenal!
Here is the link to Sunday's bike session:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/25791223
And the 3 mile transition run right afterword:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/25791238
Now that I am back into the swing of things, I will attempt to post more often. Of course, if anyone has questions please feel free to contact me and I will do my best! That's all for now.
Tri your best!
Bill
I hope every one's training is going well. I had to go on business travel for two weeks in the UK and my training definitely suffered. While I did bring enough clothes and gear to get my training in, I had so many things going against me on this trip. Bad weather, hotels that did not have gyms. Not staying in one city for more than a day so by the time I would get to the hotel it would be late and I would have no motivation. I did however have a few good workouts the first weekend I was there. The Brits have some good gyms available. Virgin Active was my favorite. Mr. Branson sure knows how to treat his customers! One way of viewing the situation is that I got myself plenty of rest, so when I did finally get back the states my "fire" was burning hot and I couldn't wait to get right back at it.
I had some great training sessions this weekend:
Saturday's 10 Mile Long Run
Here is the link to my Garmin data for Saturday's run:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/25661716
Took it easy so that I would have plenty of energy for Sunday's long bike and run session.
Sunday's 60 Mile Bike with a 3 Mile Transition Run
This was the highlight of my week. Even though there were 20 MPH winds on the roads, I still averaged 19.1 miles per hour. I immediately transitioned to a 3 mile run and this also went really well. I ran the last mile in 7:22! For me that is phenomenal!
Here is the link to Sunday's bike session:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/25791223
And the 3 mile transition run right afterword:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/25791238
Now that I am back into the swing of things, I will attempt to post more often. Of course, if anyone has questions please feel free to contact me and I will do my best! That's all for now.
Tri your best!
Bill
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)