Friday 8.17.12

I sent an email to Jeff yesterday morning to tell him how I was doing.  I felt a little tired and sore all morning after the run.  I have a long ride ahead tomorrow and a long run on Sunday.  Jeff suggested holding off today if I didn't feel great this morning.  I didn't feel horrible and decided to swim but held off on the bike ride I was supposed to do tonight.  The swim was 2500 yards and the pool wasn't very busy for the first half hour.  I did start to feel some cramping in my foot with about 200 yards to go.  This is a recurring theme for the past few longer swims.  I was running short on honey stingers and just took a bottle of water with me.  I went by RunOn today and loaded up on honey stinger gels, waffles and a new tub of Endurox R4.  I should be good to go for the weekend.  We will see how the ride goes tomorrow.  I should knock out about 60 miles taking the Argyle route tomorrow.

Thursday 8.16.12

Thursday is my worst day of the week.  Jeff always gives me a longer tempo run after a fairly busy Tuesday and Wednesday.  I was worried about my legs after the work I put in yesterday.  Today was a difficult day on my feet.  My legs and hips were a little tired and I just couldn't get the 5k pace miles up to speed.  Overall, it was a fairly consistent pace.  I haven't had a 7 mile Thurday run in quite a while.  I did not take a shark salt this morning which may have been a mistake. It was still a little warm and humid from the rain yesterday.  The workout was to be a warm up mile, 2-5k pace miles, a recovery mile, 2-10k pace miles, and a cool down mile.  I wasn't slow but I wasn't fast either.  Did eat a honey stinger half way through and emptied my fuel belt with water.  I also had a delicious honey stinger waffle before I left.  They are really good.  Weighed 171 when I got home.  Can't seem to break into the 160s.

Warm Up:  9:34
5k mile: 9:14
5k mile: 9:03
Recovery mile: 10:23 (not really this slow, walked for a few feet while I ate the gel)
10k mile: 9:33
10k mile: 9:12
Cool Down: 9:36

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/211236749

Wednesday 8.15.12

Today was a little bit of everything day.  I had a long swim this morning, 2600 yards.  It stormed pretty bad all night and I didn't know if the Aquatic Center was going to be open or not.  I went anyway and it was open.  I took a bottle of water and a honey stinger.  Swim was pretty straight forward and I was able to knock it out in about 62 minutes which is pretty fast.  Still feeling pretty good in the water.  When I got home from work today I needed to ride about 75 minutes.  The plan was a 15 minute warm up and cool down.  In between were four sets of 1 minute easy, 2 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy, 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy, and 1 minute easy at a fast cadence.  Felt pretty good during the ride.  Took a bottle of water, a honey stinger and shark salt with me.  I had a shark salt before I left.  Took the honey stinger at around 40 minutes and had another shark salt when I finished with the bike.  It wasn't real hot, only about 94, but the humidity was up after the storms last night.  When I finished the bike, I immediately changed shoes and ran for 15 minutes.  Jeff has me do this every now and then to get my legs used to running after getting off the bike.  I was supposed to run easy and averaged about 9:05/mile pace.  I hope this doesn't cause problems for me tomorrow morning.  I have 7 miles to do early in the morning.  I am still feeling really good this week so we will see how it goes tomorrow and the rest of the week.

Track Run 8.14.12

Tuesday is speed work at the track.  I got my workouts for the week from Jeff yesterday afternoon and we are dialing up the intensity for a few weeks.  Jeff says we have a couple of intense build blocks with a recovery in between the builds and a taper before the race.  I felt really good this morning.  I was worried the Sunday trail run would have taken alot out of me.  I had no problems and felt very good again.  It's good to feel like I'm getting faster again.  The workout today was a mile warm up, actually 1.4 miles to the track from the house.  The intervals were 400 much faster than 5k pace, 800 at faster than 5k pace, 1200 at 5k pace, 2x800 at 5k pace and 2x400 faster than 5k pace.  I then used the run home as a cool down run.  Covered 6.21 miles total in 59:27.

Warm up pace:  10:00 pace
400:  6:45 pace
800:  7:15 pace
1200:  7:58 pace
800:  7:49 pace
800:  8:05 pace
400:  7:04 pace
400:  7:27 pace
Cool Down Mile:  9:55 pace

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/210430156

8.13.12 - 70 Days till Austin

Today marks the 70 day count down to Ironman Austin.  The swim this morning was 2300 yards.  I tried to concentrate on form and keeping my speed consistent and fast.  Most of the 200 intervals were in the 1:45 range.  I was a little slow getting going this morning.  Stayed up a little late watching the closing ceremony at the Olympics and was a little fatigued after the run yesterday.  Probably went faster than I should have yesterday but I recovered quickly after the first few hundred yards and finished pretty strong.  Should get Jeff's plan for next week today.  We'll see whats in store this week.  He was on the fence for moving ahead with more intensity or stay status quo.

Trail Run 8.12.12

Today was the Sunday trail run.  Trails have been a big part of my training for the last few months and I really think it helps alot.  Ran with the Matrix, Joe and the Hammer joined us today.  Nice to have a crew to run with.  Had a shark salt before I left.  Loaded the fuel belt with water, took one Honey Stinger and a few shark salts for the run.  Met Joe at his house at 7:30.  Weather was a little warmer than yesterday but still very comfortable for August.  I think it was about 78 when we started.  Rained a little bit on the first few miles so the humidity was up.  I felt really good today.  I was basically turning over 11 minute miles on the trail which is very fast for me.  I took another shark salt and the honey stinger gel at the 40 minute mark of the run.  I was a little tired towards the end of the run but I think that is to be expected considering the pace.  Today was so much better than last Sunday.  I think my strength is coming back.  Drank my Endurox after the run and we all jumped in the Matrix pool to cool off.  Felt great.  A very encouraging day and a pretty good week of training this week.

Saturday 8.11.12

8.10.12 Swim day yesterday.  2400 yards in the pool.  Mixed in some speed intervals and handled those really well.  My swimming has not fallen off as much as the run and bike in the past few weeks although my speed and strength is slowly coming back.  Took a bottle of water with me but forgot to take my gel before getting in the pool.  There was a small crowd at the pool yesterday.  Don't know why.  The swim took right at about one hour.

8.11.12  Bike workout today.  The weather was supposed to be really good so I did not wake up at 4:00am and slept in until about 7am.  Left the house at about 7:30 but that meant I was on my own this morning.  There was a slight cool in the air that was almost fall like today.  It must have been low 70s and I am pretty sure it was low 80s when I got home.  It was as nice as it can get for August.  I was supposed to do 2 hours this morning.  I took the Argyle route today.  I chopped off some mileage that I usually cover when I do 50-60 miles.  My route was about 43 miles and lasted about 2 hours and 30 minutes of ride time.  I took a honey stinger gel every 30 minutes.  I had a salt shark before I left and took one bottle of water and one bottle of Accelerade for the ride.  Refilled both bottles and had a banana at the Shell station on FM1171.  Nutrition wise, everything went great.  My legs felt pretty good all day.  Ran into Jeff with about 8 or 9 miles to go and rode home with him.  He is tapering for Ironman Louisville so I dont' think I bogged him down too badly.  It was good to have someone to talk to for the last few miles.  Overall, not bad today.  The weather was so good I really wish I was doing 60-70 miles today.