Saturday Bike 7.7.12

Plan called for 2-3 hours on the bike today concentrating on regular fueling.  I left at 7am and the weather was a little overcast with very little wind.  The temperatures were very nice for July.  I loaded a bottle of water and a bottle of Accelerade.  I also took Triberry gels for every 30 minutes and a Stinger honey waffle.  Ride started out pretty well.  About an hour and a half in, the pain in my upper thigh kicked in again.  It wasn't as bad as last week but it did resurface again.  I maintained the 30 minute gel intake.  90 minutes in, I stopped and ate the waffle.  A family was on the side of the road in Argyle today with water and gatorade for anyone who wanted some.  I will need to put them on my regular route.  It was very nice of them to hand out water as I was almost empty.  I also took a shark salt before I started and at the 45 minute, 90 minute, and the 135 minute mark.  This has been a very tough week of training and I lost some energy at about the 2 hour mark.  I made it through ok, just not at the pace I would have liked.  I averaged about 16.3mph today.

Bike/Run Brick 7.6.12

Got up early today for the bike/run brick this morning.  Plan had me doing an easy 60 minute ride followed by an easy 15 minute run.  I had either get up early or do this later tonight.  I chose this morning to give my body some time to recover before the long Saturday ride.  Started the ride at around 5:50am.  Did not push it at all really.  Only averaged a little over 15mph.  Stayed mostly in Coppell and tried to avoid the busy commuter paths.  Ride lasted 1:02.  Pulled into the garage and changed into my running shoes.  Ran for 15 minutes at an easy 9:20 pace.  All of the running this week made the run a little tougher than it needed to be but I felt fine.  Sun was coming up and you could feel the temperature start to rise.  Now I have all day to do what I want and have almost made it through a very tough build week.  Nutrition for the workout:  1 bottle of water for ride, 1 shark salt before ride, 1 Triberry GU at 32 minutes in ride, Endurox R4 after run.

Tempo Run 7.5.12

Tough run tonight.  I was pretty tired from the work I put in yesterday and could feel it in my legs.  My run today was to be one warm up mile and 2x 10k mile followed by a recovery mile ending with a cool down mile.  My two 10k miles were 8:24 and 8:52.  I really struggled to get it going tonight but I got the work in and have to keep that in mind.  Tomorrow is not the usual swim but a bike/run brick.  I haven't decided whether to go in the morning or after work.  I'll see how I feel in the morning.

4th of July Training

We went to the family lakehouse at Lake Kiowa, close to Gainesville on the Texas/Oklahoma border, for the 4th of July.  I got up early and intended to have someone follow me in one of the SeaDoo's for my lake swim.  The batteries were toast so I ventured off on my own.  I planned on getting about 45 minutes in which is exactly how it worked out.  I tried to stay close to the shore line and put on my neon orange swim cap.  No problems and I felt good the whole way.  While I don't know the distance for sure, I would have to think it was at least half iron man length.  Went back up the house after the swim, made a trip to Gainesville to buy new batteries, and then ate some breakfast.  Since I had to wait for the batteries to charge, I went ahead with the scheduled bike/run brick.  The goal was 90 minutes on the bike followed by a brief 15 minute run to aclimate the legs to running off the bike.  I started around noon so it was really hot.  One loop around the lake took approximately 30 minutes.  Perfect, I made three loops and pulled in to put my running shoes on.  Consumed one bottle of water and one bottle of Accelerade on the bike.  Triberry gels every 30 minutes.  I took a plastic bottle of water with me for the 15 minute run.  Timed the run perfectly.  At 7:30 I turned around and hit the door of the house at exactly 15 minutes.  Fueling was good.  Never felt dehydrated.  I also took an Shark Salt for the bike ride as well and one before the run.  We went to eat lunch and then fired up the SeaDoo's.  I was really tired this morning.  I did not run my 6 mile planned run today.  I will see how I feel this evening.  Yesterday, took alot out of me.  It was basically a small triathlon.  I can't stand going off plan so I will probably do some kind of run tonight.

Track Ladder 7.3.12

Plan today called for a track ladder run.  Not particularly long but high intensity.  One mile warm up followed by 400, 800, 1200, 800, 400 at 5k pacing.  The 400s were to be slightly faster.  Workout ended with a one mile cool down.  Just missed the Dallas Athletes rush at the middle school this morning so the track was almost empty.  My legs still felt a little heavy today and I was worried about fatigue today.  I have been going pretty hard for at least 9-10 days straight. 

Warm Up Mile:  9:51
400:  7:53 pace  slower than expected (7:40 range expected)
800:  8:03 pace  slower than expected (7:50 range expected)
1200:  8:08 pace slower than expected (7:50 range expected, really started to fell tired on this one)
800:  8:12 pace slower than expected (7:50 range expected, fading fast)
400:  7:38 pace on target (7:40 range expected)
Cool down mile:  9:59

I did not hit target today but considering how far I have come in the past few months, I'm not going to be too upset.  I know the workouts have been tough for the past week.  Tomorrow is the 4th and we are going to the lake.  I am going to attempt to ride the bike there and swim in the lake, if possible.  It is pretty busy on the 4th so swimming may not happen tomorrow.

Lap Swim Workout 7.2.12

Monday is a day off for my legs.  I only swim on Mondays and typically swim in the morning.  Today was no different.  I got to the pool about 6:30am.  My swim workout was 2500 yards in length and lasted about 65 minutes.  A new drill was introduced today.  The catch up drill with a stick.  I couldn't find a stick so I used a tennis ball.  I don't think it matters as long as you have something to hand off from one hand to the next.  It felt really weird with the hand off.  I did 6 sets of 50 yards with the ball.  The rest of the workout was the usual combination of stuff.  There was alot of kickboard work early and my legs are feeling a little heavy after the workout.  The women in the lane next to me must have had a garlic laden meal last night.  You could smell it coming from her lane.  Definitely incentive to keep on moving along.  It's getting pretty busy at the pool these day.  Maybe it's the Olympics that are coming and people are seeing it on TV.  I don't know.  I don't want to resort to the 5am swim.  I really hate early mornings.

Trail Run 7.1.12

Today, I went for a trail run on the northshore trail with two friends, Joe and Rich.  The northshore trail is very technical with a lot of ups and downs to traverse.  I believe this has improved my running and fitness quite a bit over the past few months.  We usually leave from Joe's house which is about a mile from the trail head at the western edge of the trail.  I felt really good today.  No problems with the groin from the tweak I felt yesterday on the bike.  Probably should have had one more gel with me.  Had a bottle of my Endurox R4 when I finished and we jumped in Rich's pool.  Felt great.  We ran for about 1:27 which is about 17 minutes more than the plan for today but I think thats ok.  I will wait for my plan from Jeff for the week.  It is another build week coming so I hope the extra run time today doesn't come back to bite me later this week.