Track Intervals 7.31.12

The heat this week is supposed to be very high so most of my work will have to be done early.  I did not sleep well last night.  My stomach was giving me problems and I got up at 5:15am, actually on and off from 2am.  I didn't leave the house until 6:30am.  Instead of driving to the track, I decided to do my warm up and and cool down on the trail to the school.  It is about 1.5 miles to the Coppell North track from my house.  I saw Jeff on the trail when he was leaving the track and I was headed up.  Always good to see him.  The intervals today were to be a series of 8x400m with a 60-90 second rest between intervals.  I was to target 1:45-1:55 for each 400 which equates to a 7:00-7:40 pace per mile.  I took a full fuel belt of water and a Hammer gel with me today.  I picked up some Hammer gel at the bike store yesterday so this is experimental at this point.  I'm still out of Honey Stingers.  I took a Hammer gel before I left and a shark salt along with my regular arthritis medication.  I felt surprisingly good during the intervals.  I felt better for the last two or three intervals.  The fourth or fifth one was a little slow and I thought I might be tiring but it turned around.  I wouldn't say the last two were easy but I did take my Hammer gel after number 5.  Even the recovery 1.5 miles home were pretty good.  It's amazing how much faster I am on the way home after higher intensity intervals even though I feel like I'm barely moving.  Strange?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205060291

Warm Up Mile 1:  9:48
Warm Up Mile 2:  9:27 pace (.46 miles)
#1 400:  7:12
#2 400:  7:10
#3 400:  7:02
#4 400:  6:59
#5 400:  7:14
#6 400:  6:58
#7 400:  6:58
#8 400:  6:32
Cool Down Mile 1:  9:19
Cool Down Mile 2:  8:55 pace (.47 miles)

Rest Day 7.30.12 Why do this?

Today is a rest day.  Probably the last one for the next 3 months so I better enjoy it.  Couldn't break the habit of waking up early this morning.  I was awake at about 6:15am which is a little late.  Watched some Olympic volleyball as I couldn't go back to sleep.  I should get this week's plan from Jeff today and I sent him a status report this morning.  August should be a tough month of training but with Austin in the distance I have motivation to keep going.  I really never anticipated taking on a half ironman last year.  It was something so far out there I couldn't wrap my mind around it.  It still makes me a little nervous just thinking about it.  Kind of like a dentist appointment looming in the distance to have some work done.  You know in the end it won't be that bad but it constantly weighs on your mind and gives you those little butterflies in your stomach.  I'm sure finishing Austin will feel great, if I make it, but I know there will be some pain trying to get there.  I do ask myself sometimes why do I want to do this.  I am a competitive person by nature and I have to do something that pushes me on a regular basis.  It's part of the way I am built.  I think my ice hockey days may be coming to an end and that was my outlet for a long time.  This is different and is a more solo endeavor on a lot of levels.  Most days I train by myself.  The days where I get to work with others are great from a mental motivation perspective.  The science of how to make your body do this and the curiosity of how far I can push the envelope is out there.  The arthritis that I deal with daily tries to break me at times and the one motivation I have always had is the feeling that someone or some thing believes I can't do it.  Probably a self manufactured thought but there nonetheless.  No one is ever going to line up and hand out sponsorships for me or make a big deal out of what I am doing.  I won't finish with the fastest people in my age group (for now at least, I can always dream).  Triathlon is a weird sport where your measuring stick is yourself.  How much can you get out of what you have to work with.  I haven't answered those questions yet so I'll keep going for now. 

Sunday 7.29.12

I woke up a little late this morning.  Too much late night Olympic watching yesterday.  My run didn't start this morning until about 8:20am.  It had to be mid to high 80s when I took off on the run.  I was supposed to do an easy 45-60 minute run today and ended up going about 67 minutes covering 7.13 miles.  I decided to incorporate some hills today so I took a new route.  I went south on MacArthur to Bethel School road.  There are several hills on the way down and a few fairly steep rolling hills on Bethel School.  I took Heartz back to Parkway and then home.  I had no idea how long this was since I have never used this route.  I have ridden it for shorter bike training.  I took a shark salt before leaving and a Powerbar Gel.  I am out of Honey Stinger gels so had to buy some of the Powerbar Gels last night until I can get to the bike shop.  I went ahead and loaded up my fuel belt with water and took another gel and shark salt with me for the run.  Felt good on the run at a steady pace.  Despite the hills, I maintained consistent pacing.  About 40 minutes in, I walked for about a minute to take another shark salt and get my gel in.  The splits will show a long mile but it was due to the short nutrition break while the clock was running.  The heat did start to get to me some in the last mile but I was able to maintain pace.  It was a nice route that I may use again.  I usually run with either Joe or Rich on Sunday.  They are both out of town.  I know Joe is out again next week and I'll have to see if Rich is back.  I have about 4 more weeks of heat to deal with before we usually get a break in the heat for the year in Dallas.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/204321203

Mile 1:  9:12
Mile 2:  9:08
Mile 3:  9:16
Mile 4:  9:23
Mile 5:  10:25
Mile 6:  9:24
Mile 7:  9:23 pace

Ironman Registration

I officially entered Ironman Austin 70.3 on October 28.  I have visited the registration page on a few occassions but have never gone through with the actual commitment.  Today, I decided it was time to get on board.  I felt a little nervous just registering.  The race is 91 days from today.  Should give me plenty of time to be ready.  At this point, the goal is nothing more than finish the race but we will have to see how the training progresses.  I'm sure the expectations will grow a little bit by race day.

Saturday 7.28.12

Woke up at 4:15am to get ready for my Saturday bike ride.  Justin and I were leaving at 5:15 and picking up Joel and his friend Shawn on the way out.  Watched a little bit of the Olympic road race until we left at 5:15 while I was getting ready.  My plan was to get two hours in this morning.  We rode a fairly high pace.  My garmin average was like 16.6mph overall including the stops and starts.  My legs weren't great after Waco but I was doing pretty well for just a two hour ride.  We took the route south of Lake Grapevine, around the north side of the airport and back to Coppell.  I forgot to start my garmin for the the first 3 miles but I picked up the time from Justin.  Arrived home in time to jump in the pool and watch the rest of the road race.  Breakfast will begin shortly.  I received notice yesterday that I am off the wait list for the River Cities triathlon in Shreveport next week, if I want to go.  I'm not sure if I want to travel out to Shreveport next weekend.  It's a solid three hour ride.  I'll have to think about it today.

Friday 7.27.12

The workout for today was a short 1200 yard swim.  The main set consisted of 100 yd freestyle, 100 yard backstroke, 50 yard breast stroke, and a 50 yard kick.  This was repeated three times.  Between the core work and light weight training, my upper body was a little more fatiqued than normal.  My 100s were still in the 1:45 range is my moderate effort speed.  It felt nice to get back in the water.  I usually have a workout on Friday evening but not tonight.  I get to watch the Olympic opening ceremony.  I'm not sure how I will mesh my training and the Olympics together.  So much to watch and so little time.  Thank god for the DVR.

Thursday 7.26.12

Today was my first run since the race.  The plan called for an easy 30 minute run today.  I have a nice little 3.3 mile loop through the park, over a bridge and back down the trail by Denton Creek elementary.  I felt pretty good and didn't really push the pace at all.  It was a short run so I didn't take any water or nutrition with me.  I did have a glass of water before leaving the house.  My legs did not feel heavy or sore.  I probably could have pushed it without issue but I was enjoying not having to move out of a comfortable zone.  It is that time of year when the heat begins to feel somewhat oppresive and you just want a break.  Even the mornings are warm.  It can break your spirit when it comes to training, if you let it get you down.  It does feel good to cool off in the pool when I'm done running.  Tomorrow I will get back in the pool at the Aquatic Center for training.  Splits this morning were:

Mile 1:  9:28
Mile 2:  9:17
Mile 3:  9:20
Mile 4 (.27mile):  8:55 pace

Wednesday 7.25.12

I am taking it easy this week to try and get refreshed for the next few months.  Today's workout consisted of an easy spin on the stationary bike at the CARC for 30 minutes followed by some light upper body weight training on the circuit machines.  Today is the first day I have felt pretty normal since the race.  I was a little stiff yesterday when I would sit for an extended period of time.  I don't really feel any stiffness today.  My body feels somewhat recovered as well.  Tomorrow is the first run since the race so I will see how that goes tomorrow as I work in more traditional triathlon training for the rest of the week.

Core Work 7.24.12

After talking with Jeff after the race, I think he has come to the conclusion we are going scale back slightly for the next few weeks and let my body recover.  Today, the plan called for core work.  I did two sets of 5 minutes on the rowing machine at the gym.  After that, I did some 30 second planks from the prone and side positions.  Sit ups on the ball were next followed by 10 minutes of leg stretching using a foam roller.  I am to get the rest of my schedule sometime today.  I had the day off today so it was nice to sleep in and do the gym work this morning.

TriWaco Aftermath

The TriWaco race was successful but left some questions unanswered for me.  I was really looking forward to the race and thought I would be able to knock this out and put up a nice time.  I have only done one other Olympic distance.  The race was the US Open last October and I finished in 3 hours 15 minutes.  I knew the Waco race would be faster and I was hoping to cut about 25 minutes off of that time.  I got to Waco on Saturday afternoon.  We went to the Hilton and picked up my race packet.  I walked down to the Brazos river to check out the course.  The buoys were out and it didn't look as intimidating as the US Open did last year.  We drove the bike course.  It was slightly uphill on the way out and slightly downhill on the way back.  There were not any significant looking climbs so I was fairly confident about the ride.  I thought the run was a park trail run and did not preview the run.

Not a great picture.  I took it of myself at the finish line area the day before the race.  It was about 105 degrees on Saturday afternoon.

My race number.
After an up and down night of sleep, I woke up for good at about 4:30.  Prepared all of my nutrition for the day, took a shower, took my shark salt, got dressed and headed to transition.  When I walked outside the hotel, lightning was all around.  You couldn't hear thunder but you could see the flashes, especially to the west which was the direction of the bike course.  As the light came up, the race officials assured everyone the race would continue but they were monitoring conditions. 

My rack in the transition area at about 6am.

The first wave went off on time.  I was to enter the water and my wave was to start at 7:26.  There were almost 100 people in my wave.  I was one of the first to enter the water.  I tried to get a spot up front but on the edge.  The start line was about 15 yards wide and a line of people moved in ahead of me.  The kicking and punching started as we sat there treading water in our bright pink swim caps.  When the horn went off, it was hand to hand or foot to head combat.  People were crawling on me, grabbing my legs or punching me in the head.  Really not all that unusual for an open water start.  However, this continued for almost the entire mile in the water.  I had a break at about the 700 or 800 meter mark but I started to catch people in the wave ahead of me (green caps).  About a hundred meters later a few people in the wave behind me (orange caps) passed me.  The green caps littered the way until the finish.  There were a few people from my wave who pretty much stayed right with me the whole way.  When we reached the exit point, there were volunteers helping everyone out of the water.  Your equilibrium gets a little messed up when your in the water that long.  Two guys helped me out and then a third grabbed my arm.  He was trying to help but I lost my balance and hit the aggregate concrete path.  Got a pretty nasty cut on my left thumb and sprained my right thumb.  Not what I needed going into the bike.  My thumb was bleeding pretty bad and I kept sucking the blood off of it.  I don't know what the rules are about that and I didn't want to be stopped.  When I got to transition, I took a shark salt, put my socks and bike shoes on and took off.  The officials announced the Olympic bike portion of the race had been shortened to a 20km due to weather.  Bummer but I decided to put the hammer down since I only had to cover half the distance.  I made sure to get at least one of the two bottles of Accelerade in my system and took both of the Honey Stingers I taped to my bike.  There were about 5 people in my age group that passed me on the bike route.  They were really fast so I must have had a really good swim.  I wasn't going to catch them.  I felt fast but didn't know how fast.  I was trying to break 20mph.  I took my feet out of my bike shoes on bridge but that was a little too early and cost me some time.  I got back to my rack in transition, took another shark salt and put my running shoes on.  I felt the rain drops as I pulled off my helmet.  I took off out of transition as quick as possible.  I wanted to maintain a good steady pace on the run.  My first two miles were a 9:30 and then a 9:18.  A little slow but I usually get faster as I warm up.  The rain was coming down hard and I immediately regret the decision to wear socks and not put on my KSwiss shoes that drain.  Miserable feeling.  Then it happened.  There was a climb that lasted a little over a mile including about 250 feet of elevation gain.  The first hill was at least a half mile up the hill.  There was a water station there and you head downhill which is a relief until you realize you have to climb the hill on the way back.  I turned the corner and another very steep hill awaited.  Another downhill followed by one more steep uphill.  There were a bunch of people getting crushed and walking at this point.  I never walked but it was intense.  I mercifully reached the turn around and headed back.

It might be hard to make out how high that cliff is but it was the turn around point.

I was soaking wet and starting to feel the fatigue set in.  I wasn't drinking much at the water stations.  I think this was a mistake.  The heat and humidity was draining me slowly.  I managed like 9:50 miles in the hills.  It was good to get off that hill and back to the flats.  We had to zig zag about 50 feet up to the Herring Street bridge.  I think that was almost the last straw.  Once I ran across the bridge and hit the flat trail back to the suspension bridge my body started telling me to stop doing this.  I gave in once for about 15 seconds and told myself to stop being a wuss and run.  Mile 5 was my worst mile and I covered the distance in about 10:15.  Once I could see the Hilton in the distance and the suspension bridge, I started to feel like it was going to be ok and picked things up a little bit.  My last mile was about 9:50.  There was one last climb from the trail to the suspension bridge.  Lots of people were on the sides of the bridge cheering for everyone.  It was a really nice feeling.  I crossed the line and almost collapsed.  My legs were jello and I had a hard time standing up.  One of the volunteers stayed with me for a few minutes and brought me a bottle of water.  I stood by the fence where a misting fan was and just tried to get my senses back.  That was the most brutal run in any race I have run in the past two years.  I finshed 17 of 28 in my age group and 189 of 332 overall.    My times were:

Swim:  33:59
T1:  3:38 (long run from the river to transition)
Bike:  38:07 (19.5mph)
T2:  1:44
Run:  1:00:36 (9:46/mile)
Overall:  2:18:06

If I were to have done the second half of the bike and maintained the same pace, my time would have been about 2 hours 56 minutes.  My target going in was 2 hours 49 minutes.  The difference was the run.  I did PR an Olympic by an extrapolated time of 19 minutes.  Nice progress in 10 months.  Went back to the hotel and slept for about 4 hours.  I called Jeff to let him know how things went.  He is going to change up my training some.  I think we going to do more core work at the gym for the next few weeks.  Jeff always says running comes from your core.  I can't imagine how bad this would have been if I had not put in the trail work with Joe and Rich at Lake Grapevine.  The conditions were very difficult so I was pleased with the performance but definitely feel like I left some time out there.  My wife and I took the SeaDoos out on the Brazos this morning and I took the day off from training.  I don't think I want to do a race in August and will start looking for something in early September.

TriWaco Race Plan

After speaking with Jeff earlier in the week, this is the nutrition plan for the race:

1 Shark Salt early Sunday when I wake up
1 Shark Salt in T1
2 diluted bottle of Accelerade for the bike
Honey Stinger at the 20 minute and 60 minute mark on the bike
1 Shark Salt in T2
Honey Stinger every 20 minutes on the run

Race Goals:
Swim: 30 minutes-Distance is 1550 yards and I should do better than 2:00/100 splits
Bike:  1:20-I haven't had a race this year where I have been below 18mph average.  However every race is different and I don't know anything about the course.  An average of 18 would get me home in 1:20.
Run:  56 minutes-I know the run has a 250 foot climb between miles 2-4.  Conservatively, I am going to target a 9 minute pace per mile.
Transitions: 3 minutes-I don't have any idea how far it is from the Brazos river to transition so this could vary.
Overall:  Given the times above, the goal would be 2 hours, 49 minutes but I think anything under 2 hours, 45 would be pretty good.

Last year, I did my first Olympic distance at the US Open at Lake Ray Hubbard.  I finished in about 3 hours, 15 minutes so it shouldn't be hard to break a personal record.  I can't seem to post to my blog from my phone so if I decide to post a Glympse to follow my progress during the race, it will be posted to my facebook page.

Friday Swim 7.20.12

Plan called for a 1250 yard swim.  It was quick and only took about 30 minutes to complete.  Two of the intervals were 5x100 on 2:10 and 5x50 on 1:05.  I was clicking off the 100s consistently at 1:45 so I was getting :25 rest between reps.  I was finishing the 50s consistently at :50 so I had about :15 rest between reps.  Pretty good and I didn't feel tired or really winded between reps.  I am at the point where I can judge speed based on drag through the water.  When I dial up the speed you can feel the turbulance of the water around you and it feels like you are getting sucked through a tube.  Kind of cool.  Have a short bike ride tonight and another in the morning before leaving for Waco.  I am going to try and get a very good night of sleep tonight and start drinking water all day long.

Thursday Tempo Run 7.19.11

Today was the dreaded Thursday Tempo Run.  I was to run an easy 4 miles.  Not bad at all today.  I knocked it out quickly and didn't have any problems.  I was able to easily pick up the pace on each mile as time went by.  I think it takes me some time to get loose due to my arthritis in the morning.  Since all of my workouts are done early, it may explain some of the slow starts I have on the runs.  Ate a Honey Stinger before I left and had a glass of water with my daily arthritis medication.  I also did a 60 minute bike ride last night.  Left at around 7:40pm and heat wasn't bad at all.  I needed to put in three moderate one minute effort with a 5 minute rest between.  I know the routes pretty well and try to time the harder efforts on flats or uphill avoiding traffic lights.  Had a Honey Stinger and a bottle of water.  Went to Richardson Bike Mart and bought a new triathlon top for the race yesterday at lunch.  My old one is looking rough.  Splits for the run today were:

Mile 1:  9:33
Mile 2:  9:21
Mile 3:  9:13
Mile 4:  9:14

Wednesday 7.18.12

Today calls for a 1600 yard swim and a 60 minute bike ride.  I was going to go the pool around 5am and go to work after the swim.  However, work called at 5am and I waited for about an hour or so before going to the pool.  Since it's a taper week, the 1600 swim workout took about 40 minutes.  Easy in and easy out.  My chest and arms were really sore today from the Monday 25 yard/push up set.  After the first few hundred yards, everything loosened up and I felt fine.  Since the swim was short, I didn't take anything with me for nutrition.  I had a blueberry muffin and water when I got home.  I will have to do my bike workout when I get home later tonight.  I am to put in moderate effort for one minute with 5 minute spacing.  The rest of the ride is to be easy effort.  The bike tonight should be the last somewhat strenuous effort.  Tomorrow is the last run before the race on Sunday.  I am toying with the idea of setting my GPS on my phone during the Waco race using an application called Glympse.  It allow real time tracking and provides a URL for following along.  I wouldn't have it in the water but it would track the bike and run.  Something to think about.

Tuesday Track Run 7.17.12

Taper week for TriWaco has officially begun.  Jeff sent me the plan for this week last night.  Today was a short mileage day but fairly fast on the speed work.  Jeff called me last night and we talked about nutrition race strategy.  It's nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of.  He has been there and knows how to do this.  I'm really looking forward to the race.  I feel like it should go well.  I will post a separate posting on race strategy.  Today's nutrition consisted of a Honey Stinger gel and a bottle of water.  I took the Honey Stinger after the second 800.  I felt really good.  The first speed interval always seems to give me some issues but after that I was off and going.  Today's times per the plan were:

Warm Up Mile:  9:44
#1 800:  7:43 pace (target 7:30)
#2 800:  7:28 pace (target 7:30)
Mile:  7:49 (target 8:00)
Cool Down Mile:  9:27

Monday Swim 7.16.12

Monday is a swim day.  I rest my legs from the previous week and let me recover.  The swim plan Jeff gave me this morning is probably the toughest swim workout to date.  The warm up was 400 yards followed by some progressively longer intervals mixed with speed work.  4x (50, 75, 100, and 150 yards).  That was not out of the ordinary.  However, the ass kicker was the next set.  25 yards, get out of the pool and do a push up.  This repeated adding an extra push up until I reached 10 push ups.  The last 100 cool down was really slow.  My arms were dead.  I feel tired just trying to write.  Took a bottle of water with me but no nutrition.  Probably a mistake but we'll see how I feel later today.  Should get this weeks plan from Jeff today.  It is a taper week so the workouts are usually about half of normal going into race day.

Sunday Trail Run 7.15.12

The plan calls for a steady 60 minute run today.  I have been going to Lake Grapevine and running the Northshore trail with Joe and the Matrix for the past few months.  The Matrix is in Australia so Joe and I ran today.  He met me at the trail head so he could get a few extra miles in from his house.  The trail runs have been a big help in the past few weeks.  I can tell it helps when I run my normal road or track runs and my times have been getting better.  We ran 30 minutes in and then 30 minutes back out.  The miles were very consistent.  We covered 4.62 miles.  Doesn't sound fast but the terrain is very difficult on that end of the trail.  I had a Honey Stinger (Chocolate) gel and a Shark Salt at the half way point.  Went through 3 of the 4 water bottles in my fuel belt.  My knees were a little fatigued at the start but I felt really good by the time we finished.  The taper week next week will help with some of my recovery.  The past two build weeks have been tough.  I drank a water bottle full of Endurox after the run and we crashed the pool at the Matrix casa since he is out of town.  The weather was really nice for July this morning.  A little humid but the temps were mid 70s.  I need to be more cognizant of my water intake each day and make sure I am getting enough hydration.  Especially this week with the race coming on Sunday.

Saturday Bike 7.14.12

Woke up this morning at about 5:15am.  Headed out with my neighbor Justin at about 5:50.  We picked his friend Joel on the way out.  I was to do no more than 2 hours and go hard when I was feeling it.  We went out to Lake Grapevine and rode over the dam to the south side of the lake.  I am feeling pretty good right now.  I'm not sure why after the past few weeks of heavy work but slowly I am starting to feel very strong.  I really wasn't tired at all on the ride.  I used new gels today.  I went to REI and picked up some Honey Stinger gels.  They are not quite as sweet as the GU gels and taste great.  My stomach is tolerating them well so far.  Drank one bottle of water and one bottle of Accelerade this morning.  I forgot my Shark salt this morning.  It was cool enough and I don't think they were required.  I probably need to get my body used to taking the supplements in.  I did drink a cup of Endurox when I got back home.  It was great to ride with a few people today.  It always passes the time and is just more fun to have someone with you.  Tomorrow I am running with Joe on the Northshore trail.  Our other Sunday running partner, Rich (aka Matrix) is running through the streets of Sydney, Australia this week.  I am really looking forward to TriWaco next weekend.  I think it's going to go pretty well.

Friday Workout 7.13.12

It's my brother's birthday today, so happy birthday Russ.  Today, my plan calls for an hour swim workout and an easy 45 minute bike ride.  I will do the bike later but I don't anticipate anything special to report on a ride to just get the legs moving.  The swim today had alot of speed intervals.  I actually started to get cramps in my calf and the side of my ankle in the last 500-600 yards.  It started when pushing off the wall.  Very weird.  I have never had a cramp there before.  I'm not sure if I was down on my nutrition or not.  I typically do not eat before going.  I was out of gel so I only took a bottle of water.  The swim was 2650 yards in length and I finished in pretty close to one hour.  Back in December, I wrote down some training goals.  I started doing the triathlon training in early February of 2011.  In 2011, I swam 85,111 yards and I set a goal in 2012 of 144,00 yards (82 miles).  Today, I went over the 144,000 yard mark on July 13.  I am going to reset the objective to 262,500 yards (150 miles) for the year.  I will probably slow some on the swimming at the end of the year.  Who knows?  I am fairly close to eclipsing the running goal for 2012 as well.  More on that as the mileage gets closer.  This should be the last build week before TriWaco on July 22.  My taper will probably start on Tuesday.

Thursday Tempo Run 7.12.12

Thursday is always the day for my Tempo run.  I am usually running a fairly consistent pace, although sometimes it varies.  Today, the plan called for a consistent 5 mile run.  With the speed work on Tuesday's, my Thursday runs are usually a little painful.  Today, the run was easy and I felt very strong.  On the last few miles, I had to hold back some as my pace was in the high 8s.  I don't know why things went well today.  One of the mysteries of Triathlon training, some days you have it and others you don't.  Took my fuel belt and a GU gel with me.  I am out of GU and need to make a run to the store today.  No training until tomorrow so I can do it later today.  Miles broke down as follows:
Mile 1:  9:45
Mile 2:  9:24
Mile 3:  9:26
Mile 4:  9:18
Mile 5:  9:27

Wednesday Workout 7.11.12

Today, the plan calls for a swim in the morning and a 60 minute bike ride.  The bike ride was to be an easy ride with (2) 30 second hard efforts during the ride.  I got up this morning and went the the aquatic center.  I arrived at about 6:30am and the lanes were pretty full.  I shared a lane most of the morning.  No problem at all today sharing the lane.  The swim was a little longer than usual.  I covered 2,650 yards in about 63 minutes.  Felt really good today.  Took a bottle of water and a GU gel that I ate halfway through the swim.  I did the ride this evening around 7pm.  Covered 16.43 miles in 62 minutes.  Drank a bottle of water and had some Powerbar blasts.  No problem on the ride.  Didn't feel the pain I have had some in my upper quad today.  The weather was only 98 today.  Pretty good for mid July.  The dreaded Thursday run is tomorrow morning.  I am working my way towards the taper week for Waco.

Tuesday Track Run 7.10.12

Got my plan from Jeff yesterday afternoon.  He is going to shorten some of the distances but raise the intensity and speed work this week based on how I felt over the weekend.  Tuesday is always a track workout day.  I take a bottle of water and a GU gel with me to the track.  I try to drink some water and take the gel halfway through.  Today's workout consisted of 3x800 at 5k pace with a 90 second recovery walk, 2x600 5 seconds faster than 5k pace with 200 recovery jog, and a 400 faster than the 600s but not all out.  5k pace for me is under 8 minute mile pace so I try to stay in the high 7 minute range.  It broke down like this today:

Warm Up Mile: 9:41 pace
#1 800:  7:55 pace
#2 800:  7:56 pace
#3 800:  7:46 pace
#1 600:  7:41 pace
#2 600:  7:55 pace
#1 400:  7:37 pace
Cool Down Mile:  9:39 pace

Monday Swim 7.9.12

Today is a rest day for the legs.  I usually only do a swim on Monday's.  I got up this morning, grabbed a bottle of water and headed to the Aquatic Center.  Workout was 2200 yards.  A new drill was in the works today.  The 6/3/6 drill.  I forgot to ask Jeff what this was but I did find a one minute instructional on youtube.  Basically, its 6 kicks on your side/3 stroke/6 kicks on the other side and repeat.  Very strange feeling at first but I got the hang of it after awhile.  Still feeling a little tired from the last week but easily managed the workout and times were good.  Drank the bottle poolside during rest periods.  Forgot to take a gel with me but it wasn't a problem.  Sent Jeff my workout notes and I should get this weeks plan this afternoon.  He said we are changing things up slightly based on last week.  We'll see what he comes up with.  This is the last build week before the Waco Olympic on 7/22.  I should move to taper mode after the weekend.  Haven't pulled the triger on the actual Austin 70.3 registration, but I am close to making the commitment.

Sunday Run 7.8.12

Plan calls for a steady 75 minute run.  Speed is not important as most of that work was done during the week.  My legs were really dead after a long week of intense training.  I have put in almost 30 miles this week in running.  I do about 88 miles in a heavy run month so this is a little more than usual.  One of my Sunday run partners is on vacation and the other couldn't make it this morning so I was on my own.  I ran through the park to 121 and up the service road a little bit before turning around and heading home.  I covered 7.54 miles and maintained a pretty good pace until the last half mile.  It was brutal working through the end of the run and I was glad it was over.  I was a little out of sorts this morning.  I took a shark salt before I left and filled my fuel belt with water.  However, I forgot to take gels or extra shark salt with me.  This may account for my late fade.  I also had some stomach issues last night.  I don't know if I ate something that didn't agree with me or what.  Had a glass of Endurox when I got home and cooled off in the pool.  Love the pool in the summer.  Looking forward to 48 hours off the legs to be sure. 

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.