Training 15 Weeks to Go

Hey Everyone,

Training this week went really well, ended up with 13 hours 20 mins.

Swim: This week, 2 of my work out consisted of my normal 500 yd warm up (completing the drills I mentioned earlier). The main set was 4x250s, 5x100s and 1x500 with a 100 yd cool down. Totaled 2600 yds for each work outs. I defiantly worked on speed for the 250s and 100s but more of a steady pace for the 500. My last swim was part of Saturday's workout. For my 45 min endurance swim I was able to get 2850 yds. It helped to have another swimmer in my lane with me, seemed to push it alittle harder. Ended up with 8050 yds for the week or  just over 4.5 miles.

Bike: I ended up on my bike 5 times this week. I had my normal progressive cycling class on Monday and Wednesday at Bicycle Village. Part of the class is a power test which I did on Tuesday. The power test was a 10 minute warm up and 20 minutes steady effort. For my power test I averaged 221 watts which is almost 15 watts more then I was pushing 3 weeks ago. They figure I would average 199 watts for an hour and I am putting out 2.89watts/kg. Excited to see how I progress and improve my power output on the bike.  I did one of my cycling videos from Sufferfest (http://www.thesufferfest.com) on the trainer in my garage on Thursday night. Saturday was my long ride immediately following my swim. For my ride, ended up with 58.9 miles climbing 3858 ft and finished in 3:30:28. It was a little cool out mid-upper thirties with some wind but overall it was a good ride. For the week rode 117.6 miles. Sunday I decided to do some bike maintenance, giving both the Roo (TT bike) and the Red Dragon (Roadie) a bath and relube.

Bikes cleaned up, washed and lubed ;-)

Run: My workouts this week were (2) 60 minute runs (Tuesday/Thursday) and a 110 minute run (Friday). The 2- 60 minute runs went well other then having to run in the dark on Tuesday, still maintained under 8:00/miles. My run on Thursday I tried to take easy since I was going long the next day. Friday's long run started out with some guys from my shop at work. We took off from the parking lot at Garden of the Gods with headlamps and reflective belts since it was pitch black out. Decided to run the trail network for some added difficultly and improve my running. It started out a little cool but there wasn't much wind, yet..Ran the first 7 miles with a guy from work. The sun decided to come up about 45 mins after we started so had to stop to take some pictures.

If only it was cold and windy ;-)

Sun coming up at Garden of the Gods

 We originally ran a few lops around the park on the pavement just to keep from tripping over anything along the trails. After the sun was up we hit the trails. There was quite a bit of climbing and elevation change but I enjoy the change of scenery. Saw a few Mule deer and rabbits along the way. Trooper enjoyed it as well. Ended up running 12.5 miles in 1:49:56 with 1154 ft of climbing. Had 28.15 miles of running this week.

Great week... next week I will be racing in the Inaugural Super Half Marathon put on by the Pikes Peak Road Runners. Hoping to beat my half marathon PR of 1:37:07. 14 weeks to IMSG!!!

Cheers
Nate