With 5 weeks to go, my running is coming along nicely. I decided to back off on the biking and up the running. I've read that 30 miles per week is the minimum to start to really improve running, so that is my goal. I managed to hit it (well, almost I think it was 29.75) this week and while nothing magic happened, my 11 mile run Saturday felt better than any 10+ mile run ever. I'll also hit over 100 miles for the month of August, also a record for me. So with 5 weeks left and a decent base, I think I'll try to get a little faster. This will be my 3rd half marathon and I'm hoping to beat my April time of 1:58 and change. I don't have a goal time in mind yet.
Since I started triathlon training, I haven't ridden my mountain bike. Hopefully this weekend I'll clean it up and ride my 11 mile run route to take some pictures for the blog. It is a beautiful wooded route.
Still no Ipod. My hour and fifty minute run was without tunes. That is a long time to run without music. Plenty of time to think, maybe too much time, maybe not. I didn't really miss it and it was nice in a couple ways. One, I didn't jump when any bikers flew by me without announcing "passing on the left". Secondly I plan to race (well, if running in the 1:55 range counts as racing) without tunes.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
No Oly - started PT
Well I decided against doing the Oly in two weeks and feel pretty good about the decision. I also went to the doc about my sore shoulders and went to a physical therapist (PT) for the first time. I'm glad I did that too. My left shoulder hurts more than I was admitting.
Funny story at the PT. She did a bunch of range of motion tests and strength tests. During one of the strength tests, both shoulders popped VERY loudly. It didn't hurt but freaked her out. She was like "Whoa" and immediately let up pressure. I said you mean they aren't supposed to do that? She said not so spectacularly. You could hear that down the hall. I thought it was funny describing shoulder popping as spectacular. Anyway, after the range and strength tests she gave me some stretches to do. I didn't realize how sore they were until I saw the PT. I go back Monday and hopefully start working on strength.
It's been 5 weeks since I've been to the pool. Not really a big deal since my tri season is pretty much over. There is one more cool looking tri at Rend Lake October 3rd, but that is the date of a 1/2 marathon in St. Charles MO that I signed up for. I'm going to try to PR the 1/2 (it's my 3rd half). To do so, I'm going to build up to 30+ miles per week (mpw). A lot of people say that to get any real gains in running you need to run at least that much. I hit 25.3 miles this week. That is just over my peak week from the 1/2 I did in April.
The weather should be cooler and the course is flat for the 1/2, so if I can stick with my training and not get hurt, a PR should be within reach. I need to find someone to pace off of. Last 1/2, my friend had a garmin and ran about the pace I wanted to run. We'll see. Yesterday I ran for an hour and 20 minutes and lost 5 pounds even taking in 16 ounces of water. With this heat and humidity, the fluid loss calculator says I need to take in about a quart of water every thirty minutes to stay even. That is way to much to drink while running and you really don't need to stay even for a 1/2 marathon. I've read losing up to 2% of your body weight is fine.
The key for me will be to keep going to bed early so I can get the majority of my runs in before work.
Funny story at the PT. She did a bunch of range of motion tests and strength tests. During one of the strength tests, both shoulders popped VERY loudly. It didn't hurt but freaked her out. She was like "Whoa" and immediately let up pressure. I said you mean they aren't supposed to do that? She said not so spectacularly. You could hear that down the hall. I thought it was funny describing shoulder popping as spectacular. Anyway, after the range and strength tests she gave me some stretches to do. I didn't realize how sore they were until I saw the PT. I go back Monday and hopefully start working on strength.
It's been 5 weeks since I've been to the pool. Not really a big deal since my tri season is pretty much over. There is one more cool looking tri at Rend Lake October 3rd, but that is the date of a 1/2 marathon in St. Charles MO that I signed up for. I'm going to try to PR the 1/2 (it's my 3rd half). To do so, I'm going to build up to 30+ miles per week (mpw). A lot of people say that to get any real gains in running you need to run at least that much. I hit 25.3 miles this week. That is just over my peak week from the 1/2 I did in April.
The weather should be cooler and the course is flat for the 1/2, so if I can stick with my training and not get hurt, a PR should be within reach. I need to find someone to pace off of. Last 1/2, my friend had a garmin and ran about the pace I wanted to run. We'll see. Yesterday I ran for an hour and 20 minutes and lost 5 pounds even taking in 16 ounces of water. With this heat and humidity, the fluid loss calculator says I need to take in about a quart of water every thirty minutes to stay even. That is way to much to drink while running and you really don't need to stay even for a 1/2 marathon. I've read losing up to 2% of your body weight is fine.
The key for me will be to keep going to bed early so I can get the majority of my runs in before work.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Week 9 of Oly training - the dilemma
Before I get to the dilemma, I have a funny story. Now I know I can only do three things at once one the bike, not four. So I took Monday off and went for a 50 mile ride. About 15 miles in, a big bug flies down my shirt and starts biting me. I freak out and lock up the back wheel with my right hand, frantically try to get the bug out of my shirt with my left hand, unclick my left foot, and didn’t get the right one out before I stopped. I fell over, and was wriggling around on the ground trying to get the bug out. Finally got it out and unclicked my right foot. I must have looked really funny. Ended up with nothing more than a skinned knee and 7-8 bug bites. I haven’t had an unclicking issue for several years.
Now to the dilemma. I'm in my usual pre-race funk. I really enjoy training but not really the pre-stress of racing. I have a blast racing and once I'm done, I'm ready to sign up for another one though. This time, it might be a little different. Here are my excuses to not do an Oly September 4th.
1. I haven't swam in 4 weeks due to a sore shoulder.
2. We started a new budget and if I spend 94 bucks on the race, it's 94 bucks I can't spend on other tri stuff (and there is always a long list).
3. The tri is 2+ hours away, so throw another hundred in for a hotel room.
4. As long as I'm on the money theme, I broke my Blackberry and Ipod shuffle this month.
5. I would kind of like to PR my half marathon October 3rd and doing the tri will reduce my run volume that week. Some of my bike rides have affected my runs.
6. My fantasy football draft is the night before, so I won't get to the hotel until midnight or so.
Lessons learned this week. Don't do your longest ride ever and not expect consequences on the morning run. Also, don't schedule long races too close together.
So for week 9 still no swimming because of a sore shoulder, but I do think it is getting better. Going to the doc Wednesday. I did get 6.5 hours of biking and 3 hours of running in. Time to step the running up another notch or two.
Now to the dilemma. I'm in my usual pre-race funk. I really enjoy training but not really the pre-stress of racing. I have a blast racing and once I'm done, I'm ready to sign up for another one though. This time, it might be a little different. Here are my excuses to not do an Oly September 4th.
1. I haven't swam in 4 weeks due to a sore shoulder.
2. We started a new budget and if I spend 94 bucks on the race, it's 94 bucks I can't spend on other tri stuff (and there is always a long list).
3. The tri is 2+ hours away, so throw another hundred in for a hotel room.
4. As long as I'm on the money theme, I broke my Blackberry and Ipod shuffle this month.
5. I would kind of like to PR my half marathon October 3rd and doing the tri will reduce my run volume that week. Some of my bike rides have affected my runs.
6. My fantasy football draft is the night before, so I won't get to the hotel until midnight or so.
Lessons learned this week. Don't do your longest ride ever and not expect consequences on the morning run. Also, don't schedule long races too close together.
So for week 9 still no swimming because of a sore shoulder, but I do think it is getting better. Going to the doc Wednesday. I did get 6.5 hours of biking and 3 hours of running in. Time to step the running up another notch or two.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Week 8 of Oly training
Week 8 was spent at the beach in Navarre, FL. Beautiful beach and no oil in sight. It was very hot. So hot (100+ heat index, sometimes 110+), I had to cut most of my runs short. I brought a frozen bottle of water on every run and it was thawed and gone by 40 minutes in to each run and I came back before hurting myself. My workout Wednesday was 5 x 5' at RPE 8+ (HR over 180 for me). 
My route on Wednesday was on a cool road with the gulf on one side and the sound on the other. After 4 intervals I called it. The SAG wagon (wife in the minivan) driving by was too tempting. I also figure a mid fourties guy doing intervals in the heat needs to be careful, so I cut it short. I did manage six miles on Friday. A storm came through in the mroning and cooled things off.
I took the boys to the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola Friday. It was pretty cool.
I planned to go to the Y and swim a couple times, but decided to stay with the family and do a little swimming in the gulf. Nothing serious, mostly under water swimming looking for shells and catching hermit crabs. Very relaxing.
Total for the week: 0 biking, a little swimming, 4 hours of running. My shoulder still hurts. I think I'll call the doc tomorrow.
If you want a chance to win a Garmin 310XT, go here.
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/08/garmin-forerunner-310xt-giveaway.html
My route on Wednesday was on a cool road with the gulf on one side and the sound on the other. After 4 intervals I called it. The SAG wagon (wife in the minivan) driving by was too tempting. I also figure a mid fourties guy doing intervals in the heat needs to be careful, so I cut it short. I did manage six miles on Friday. A storm came through in the mroning and cooled things off.
I took the boys to the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola Friday. It was pretty cool.I planned to go to the Y and swim a couple times, but decided to stay with the family and do a little swimming in the gulf. Nothing serious, mostly under water swimming looking for shells and catching hermit crabs. Very relaxing.
Total for the week: 0 biking, a little swimming, 4 hours of running. My shoulder still hurts. I think I'll call the doc tomorrow.
If you want a chance to win a Garmin 310XT, go here.
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/08/garmin-forerunner-310xt-giveaway.html
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Week 7 of Oly Training
Well I knew week 7 and 8 would take a hit due to our summer vacation, but it's all good. This week took an even bigger hit because a sore shoulder sidelined me from swimming for a couple weeks. The vacation schedule is a great lesson that if I plan to do a HIM or IM, I shouldn't plan one in September unless I can work around vacation. When I called the local Y here and inquired about a swim coach, I was reminded that this is vacation. My explanation that I liked swimming and I should be able to swim on vacation didn't get real far. Maybe I'll swim in front of the condo. Here are a couple pics off the balcony of our condo. 
The beach in Navarre Florida is beautiful. Having three pairs of swimming goggles worked out well. My son, his friend and I wore them and went diving for hermit crabs. We had a lot of fun. The water here is very clear and very warm. The temperature is also very warm. I ran at 9 am this morning and the heat index was over 100. This afternoon, the heat index was 115. Life is really rough :-) 
Back to week 7. I took the week off swimming so zero hours there. We left Friday for Navarre so I skipped my ride Thursday night to get ready and my long ride this weekend (since I didn't bring my bike) so I only got one ride in, 1.1 hours there. The bright spot was my running. I'm ramping up for a half marathon the first weekend in October. I managed to run for 4 hours this week including 2 6 mile runs before work and a 6 mile run on a treadmill yesterday morning. My plan leading up to the half marathon is 4 runs per week of 6, 3, 6, then a long run building about a mile a week up to 12 miles. The 6 milers are feeling good, so barring injury, I should be in good shape. Of course, I have an Olympic distance tri in four weeks. Another good lesson learned this month. Watch the overlapping race training schedule.
I've been reading a lot of 70.3 race reports and thinking about doing one next year. If my cousin Len is right, I'll be doing a full IM in 2012. We'll see.
The beach in Navarre Florida is beautiful. Having three pairs of swimming goggles worked out well. My son, his friend and I wore them and went diving for hermit crabs. We had a lot of fun. The water here is very clear and very warm. The temperature is also very warm. I ran at 9 am this morning and the heat index was over 100. This afternoon, the heat index was 115. Life is really rough :-) 
Back to week 7. I took the week off swimming so zero hours there. We left Friday for Navarre so I skipped my ride Thursday night to get ready and my long ride this weekend (since I didn't bring my bike) so I only got one ride in, 1.1 hours there. The bright spot was my running. I'm ramping up for a half marathon the first weekend in October. I managed to run for 4 hours this week including 2 6 mile runs before work and a 6 mile run on a treadmill yesterday morning. My plan leading up to the half marathon is 4 runs per week of 6, 3, 6, then a long run building about a mile a week up to 12 miles. The 6 milers are feeling good, so barring injury, I should be in good shape. Of course, I have an Olympic distance tri in four weeks. Another good lesson learned this month. Watch the overlapping race training schedule. I've been reading a lot of 70.3 race reports and thinking about doing one next year. If my cousin Len is right, I'll be doing a full IM in 2012. We'll see.