7 weeks to go and Trip to St George

Hey everyone, I had a great week. I was able to make a trip out to St George (SG) with a fellow athlete who is also doing the Ironman in May. I think it was more of a confidence booster of the training I have already done.  So let’s get started on the training this week.

Swim: This week I started with a longer work out on Monday doing 10x200 yd and 1x250yd with warm up and cool down. My times have significant decrease due to finally getting the mechanics of my swim stroke down going from 1:35-1:40 100s to 1:25-1:30 100s.  On Wednesday I did a shorter workout with 5 x 200 yd and 5 x100. Then on Saturday while out in SG I did 60 minute endurance swim which I covered 3900yd. This is the longest distance I have gone which was about 2.2 miles. We swam at a community center along the course in Washington City due to the water temp being 52 degrees in Sand Hollow so I opted for the 80 degree water. For the week I swam 5 miles. 

Sand Hollow IMSG Swim 

  Bike: This was the last week of my Progressive cycling class. We mostly did intervals of hard efforts. I am going to get a power test done on Friday this week to see where my power is at now just before the race.  The rest of my riding was out on the course. On Saturday we started from the Community Center (where we swam) out to Sand Hollow Reservoir where the swim for the race is (about 13 miles) also T1 (Transition from swim to bike) then we started the course. All year I have been hearing how tough this course is and all the climbing that is involved. One part of me thought, “I live in Colorado they don’t know what climbing is” and the other part thought “this course is going to kill me”.  So here I was riding the course all in my big ring (harder effort). The scenery was beautiful.

Some of the scenery on the course

 We rode in to town (about 21 miles) and began “the loop”. I could tell it was a long steady climb but I was still moving along well. The roads are rough which I ran lower tire pressure (105 -110 psi) vs (120-125 psi) and I was on my carbon Zipp 808 Fire Crest wheel to absorb the road vibrations. I pushed ahead a few times and really was enjoying the ride up to Veyo then I came the “The wall”. At first I didn’t know it was the wall until I climbed to the top and met another cyclist that just climbed it and asked him. It was hard towards the top where I switched to small ring but nothing I haven’t done before in my training. Then there was two longer steady (5-6% grade) climbs then it was 14 miles of downhill.  I rode back to my truck and totaled 5:15 hrs and 91 miles the first day. I was very pleased with the day.  The next day we rode from the hotel and did another loop. I climbed the wall twice just for good measure.  So I ended up with some high volume on the bike this week. Over 10 hours in the saddle and 175 miles.

Bottom of "The Wall"

Almost to the top

Run: Shorter week of running this week due to my trip, taking a day to pack and spend time with the family before I left. I had a track work out on Tuesday doing an 800 m warm up then 8x 400m hard efforts (averaged 1:20 laps) then a nice 800 cool down. I didn’t run again till I got out to SG.  We ran off the bike on Sunday from the hotel to T2 (Transition from the bike to the run) which was about 1.5 miles. Then we started the course. Which is almost shaped like a pitch fork with a handle; running out and backs down 3 streets to the south then one long out and back to the north.  For the Ironman I will run 3 laps with each lap being just over 8.5 miles. I was comfortable with the run course. I started out with my partner but he was having some IT band issues so he had to cut out early so I just tried to study the course and run it comfortably.  I ran just over 12 miles heading back to the hotel.  It was a great run my goal is to run a sub 4 hour marathon for the race and I think with the motivation of seeing my family a number of times on the course I should have enough gas in the tank to push it.

Over all, I had a great week of training and I am looking forward to the race. Couple more long bikes and runs coming up with some high volume weeks then it will be time to taper before I know it.

Thanks,

Nate

8 Weeks to Go (Recovery)

Oh yes the week I have been waiting for.... Recovery week. Even though I logged just about 10.5 hrs of training it was a good week. My brother-in-law and his wife moved back to North Dakota so I was able to take a day to help them load the truck up. And the pesky time change this week threw me off. So lets get started.

Swim this week was my favorite work out which was 10 x 200 yards, 1 x 250 and 1 x 100 cool down. Totaling 2850 yards with the 500 yd warm up. I was able to keep all my times with in +/- 5 seconds of each other on the 200s so I was happy. My endurance swim was 45 minutes this week due to recovery. After missing my swim Monday, just couldn't get out of bed in time, I totaled 5600 yards this week.

On the bike this week I did an outdoor ride Monday and Tuesday, Spin class on Wednesday and long bike on Saturday which was part of my brick. Monday and Tuesday just tried to work on my speed on the flats (if you can call smaller hills flats..). I still climbed about 1300 ft on Monday riding for an hour and covered 20 miles. Tuesday was a ride on post only had a 45 minutes. Spin class was a warm up then 8 x 4 min hard effort time trials. Saturday was my brick,  I had 180 min ride on the schedule. But I am also taking part in a March Madness work out with my Tri club. I drew 2 teams that were knocked out in the first round so I have a 64 mile bike for each team thanks to Davidson and Notre Dame!! So I planned to just ride 64 miles today to get one of them done. The ride went well, got a little windy but ended up with 113 miles on the bike this week.

Another good week of running with (1) 45 min speed work run and (2) 60 min runs with one of those being my brick on Saturday. All of them went well still keeping my pace between 7:01 and 7:31/miles during the week. Ran for a total of 22.6 miles this week.

Now to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Next week I start back up and will be traveling to St George to spend Saturday and Sunday riding/running the course. I hear the water temp is still below 50 degrees so not sure if I will swim or not guess we will see when I get out  there. Looking forward to see if all the hill training prepared me for this bike course. I will post my St George Trip separate from my training in Colorado next week.

Cheers
Nate    

10 and 9 Weeks to Go

Hey everyone, better late than never it has been a busy couple of weeks with work, family and training.  Both of these weeks were about 14 + hours of training each week.  I am feeling really good knowing my race is just around the corner.

27 Feb- 4 Mar

Swim: Pretty good week of swimming: (2) of my work outs were 500 yd warm up, 4x250s, 5x100s, 1x500 with 100 cool down.  Then Friday was my long swim 60 minute endurance swim covering 3500 yards, totaling 8700 yards (Just under 5 miles) for the week. 

Bike:  Spin class was focused on hard Time Trial efforts this week. Monday we did (3) 4 min hard effort then Wednesday we did (4) 4min hard effort. I also was able to get out and ride on Monday. It was a little chilly (30’s) but rode about 29 miles. My long ride was with a group, which I will never do again. If it is for social and just getting out riding it is fun but when you are riding for time and trying to cover as many miles as you can it just doesn’t work with different abilities. I still managed to bike 71 miles in 4.5 hrs with about 6150 ft of climbing. Total for the week I was in the saddle for 8:15 riding 132 miles.

Run: Rough week for running this week. Tuesday I ran 800s at the track. Had about a 25 mph wind so half of the lap was easy but the other half was brutal. I ran one 800 as a warm up then 8x800 as the work out times between 2:59-3:11, then ran a cool down 800. I was hoping to keep them closer to 3:00 but wind just got the best of me. I had a long run which I had to split due to some scheduling conflicts but got in 1hr 50 min run total. Saturday I was suppose to run an hour after my bike but due to the many stops and time wasted I was only about to run for 30 mins but I felt good coming off the bike and ran 7:40/miles during this run. I was able to run 24.4 miles this week.

5-11 Mar

Swim: Great week of swimming: (2) work out were 500 yd warm up, 10x 100s, 5 x 200, 5x 50 and 100 Cool down. Times are getting faster as I am working on the efficiency of my stroke (i.e. using fewer strokes per lap yet keeping speed or increasing speed). This is going to conserve energy for the bike and run.  During my endurance swim for 60 minutes I was able to swim 3600 yds this week, totaling 9300 yards (just over 5.25 miles).

Bike: Again another week of max effort time trials, you would think they would get easier but they still suck, increased the number of sets. Weather was perfect this week to ride so I took a lunch to get out for an hour and got in 20 miles. My long bike we mixed up some hills and flats riding 81.5 miles in 4:36. Had about 4100 feet of elevation gain and kept 17.7 mph average.

Run: Much better week of running then last. I had a 75 minute, 60 minute tempo and a 2 hr run. For my 75 min run I was able to keep 7:23/mile pace, 60 minute tempo was 7:07/mile (on the tempo runs I run 5 mins normal pace and one min all out effort) and my 2 hr run I was super comfortable running 7:35/mile pace. So I ran 34.4 miles this week and feel like I should be able to maintain my running until the race spending extra effort on the bike over the next few weeks.

Currently in my recovery week, getting ready for my trip out to St George Utah to ride and run on the course 23-26 March. This is going to let me ride the whole course so I know where I need to conserve energy and where I need to put foot to pedal. Also going to let me visualize the run course and how set my short goals for each of the 3 laps for the marathon.

I will update this weekend on my recovery week.

Cheers

Nate