20 Mile Run

Hit the trails for a long run. 2:49 (8:27 pace, ran witha friend and the footing wasn't the best for the overall and 20 degrees warmer then forecast the one day I wish it hadn't) was the time and there was some serious hillage with 2500 (manual from graph). Started to feel yesterday at abotu 15 miles so I was really happy about that. One 2.5 miler with 700 ft and a 10 percenter for a 1/2 mile before it. The good part is I pounded out a 6:13 mile on loose gravel at mile 18-19. Felt good until then and I sadi earlier I wanted to have some fun this weekend. Would have been sub six on harder gravel and definately on pavement. I wonder if I will feel it tomorrow or not. Don't have time for much until after 7pm and my day starts at 5 already so we will have to see. Should get at least 30 on the bike in.

John Denver Memorial Ride 71 miles

From Wild Montana:
He was born in the Bitterroot Valley in the early morning rain
Wild geese over the water headin' north and home again
Bringin' a warm wind from the south
Bringin' the first taste of the spring
His mother took him to her breast and softly she did sing
Oh Montana, give this child a home
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own
Give him a fire in his heart give him a fire in his eyes
Give him the wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies

I had this song in my head on my ride bc I was in the Bitteroot Valley. Oh how it has changed.

Made it 71 miles with a 58 mile effort at 21.2 mph (134 HR, 69 cad as I was working on musclular endurance), there were lots of turns and stops and stuff so I was really happy with this ride. Easily quite a bit faster without all this. A full 15:00 minutes were spent under 16 mph with all the start stops. 8 minutes in Zone 3 at the end bc I wanted to and weather was rolling in and I wanted my cooldown through town to be functional instead of just boring.

Rough times for workouts.

Been trying to deal with a new baby, loss of health insurance, no summer salary, and hating our jobs that my family needed a change. Should have a sweet weekend bc a weight has been lifted from our shoulders. Our time in Montana HAS an end in sight. We will not be here past May 2010. Possibly as soon as September of this year. I am curious to see how this effects my workouts this weekend. I am going to let it all hang out and just have fun. That may be pushing it or just going. Either way I am doing 4 hours on the bike and a 18-20 mile run. Should be sweet.

Bike with HIM effort

Did a out and back 19.7 mile TT at what I hope is HIM pace when I am fresh. Avg was 23.7 mph with HR at 148 and cadence at a low 74 rpm. These stats are all good but the return into the wind was rough even though my HR was prolly higher on the way back I clicked a lower cadence into the wind for training purposes. Begining to feel like the bike legs are really coming back now and I just need to keep on them. It was actually 76 and sunny as well and I had to drink plenty and will need a little adjustment time for those harder efforts.

Silly 5K Effort

Got up this morning and it was 40 and windy and then it dropped to 36 while eating breakfast so motivation was zero for a long run. Decided to go defend my only overall win ever in the Gasping for Air 5K (turned out to be 3.2 miles). Managed a 5:43 first mile and then realized I was just going to slowly slow down from the past two days efforts. Came across the real 5K mark at 18:25 which was 9 seconds slower then last year but I was running more last year but not as much the days before. Got my money back with a gift card and helped send 2 kids to Asthma camp which my wife would have liked when she was a kid so that was a pretty sweet cause.

Sweet Action Brick

Too nice today to do anything but both bike and run. My legs were feeling yesterday when I was warming up for my 9.45 mile TT (from my house I can get this distance, the route is super hard with elav loss and wind at back on the way out so I would need a full 30 min warmup to nail this course). Anway here is the data

9.45 miles @ 24.3mph, cad 83, HR 157 avg. 13 minutes was Zone 4 though, just needed more warm up to ramp higher.

2:40 transition included the apartment parking lot and locking garage door twice so I was thrilled about that.

Run 3 miles in 18:45 (6:13 pace) 6:10, 6:13, 6:17 but the last mile had a net elavation gain so I could have a cool down. Avg HR was 165 and I felt pretty good and could have held 6:20's for at least a 10k.

After this week and my lack of biking I was pretty please with this workout considering all the fatigue. I really need to focus on the bike now bc ti is just sitting there waiting to get back to near where I was. I was also a low weight for the year and this is ussually a bad sign for a workout so another plus there.

Almost 4 hours on the Tri Bike

Went back out on the ride out towards the Swan Valley again a little easier and farther. WEnt 75 miles in 3:28:00 with a 19.8 avg minus just the cooldown and a HR avg of 125 which is 7 beats lower then last ride out this way. Right around 3000 feet of elevation gain which is mostly all done in the first 40 miles and then the rest of the way is into the wind. This is why harldy anyone trains here. It can be a mental and physical nightmare esp with the severly changing winds. I didn't bring enough food (left it sitting there) so had to pound a king sized Mounds bar and some fig newtons after the gas station halfway btu it took a while to catch up. My body hurt a little bit and my neck still sucks. Gonna concentrate on some intervals for the next two weeks now I think.

Quick Update

Yesterday I found out I was missing two chainring bolts while powering up a 1/2 mile 11% grade (actual) on the cross bike so I had to quit and come home and then it was late and was dressed all wrong for anything else. Oh well Mon and Wed have this problem for only 4 more days.

Today hit the hills. GPS said 9.35 but I am putting 10 in the log for fatigue reasons and time bc this is what I use the log for. At least what the fatigue should be. There was 1400 feet of elavation so that is why I do this. Mountains make training science a little more artistic. I think thats why triathlon is so intriguing bc of the creativity allowed in training and planning. Racing becomes more scientific but also tremendously emotional in one way or another.

Track again

Mile repeats tonight. Cooler again. Felt cold during the first one (5:50, 5:39, 5:40, then 5:35 but I went out in 73 (was wanting 2:30 for 800 but the 2 "rabbits" were to fast for me) just to simulate the hurt of a race and trying to pull back and then push again. This was planned after reading all the NO race reports from both amatuers and pros alike. Seemed like a good time to do this bc I still had the motivation to beat the guys I ran slightly ahead of in the other laps. Total mileage 11.5.

Tonight marks the night I start the work for KS. My friend from track (4:09 HIM PR) is also starting now for Boise the same weekend and we are gonna help each other (If I can on the bike that is) Should be a brutal 8 weeks. WooHoo. I have enough base to crank this race out so I am not going to hold back training and really kick up everything that I can.

8 weeks

I have 8 weeks of real training left before the taper for Kansas. I am starting to think of a checklist of things i need to complete.

1. 40mile/8mile brick at race pace.
2. Five rides over 75miles.
3. Swim twice per week until then.

General things I want to do. Keep my run mileage up over 40 from here on in with at least 3 weeks at 50. I need to focus on getting my biking back and taking advantage of the good days outside.

Gotta start to focus back on nutrition and at work it will only be about the banana mango smoothies and plain coffee f I need it.

Man today was rough. Just felt very exhausted all day and pretty much binge ate after getting off work until now. Think it is just life and the baby catching up. I need to be OK with that at least one day a week.

Mountain Run

Didn't feel like my 16 mile run today so I ran Mount Jumbo (1550 feet climb in about 2.2 miles) in 29:30 for the climb and a 1:15:00 run overall bc I know the hill would keep me honest and not just a turnaround at some point. Stayed at a medium pace instead of going all out.

70 mile Power Ride

Got outside today and killed it for 70 miles in Zone 2 with 22 minutes under. Kept a lower cadence and rocked a 21.9 avg before the cooldown. Felt awesome until about 2:35:00 in when I was just hungry and my neck was sore. That's something that just takes time. I tried to keep the gear a little too hard as to really stress my muscles as opposed to the muscle of the heart. This was the workout I was looking for. Almost 3000 ft elav change as well. a hill of 440 ft in 2.9 miles avg was 16.6 so even the slow wasnt too bad.

I think that I can get the bike back by the end of the month and really tweak it before KS so I can run afterwards. Gonna all be in the taper at this point and that feels good.

I hate Montana

Get up to ride and it is 12 degrees colder today at this time then the past 3 days, but the wind looks fine and the radar is clear and I am getting to go on my ride. Then I get ready and the temp drops a bit bc it is cloudy to the east so it will not warm up for a while. No problem I have my new cycling jacket that I am SUPER excited about. The zipper jams so unbelievably bad I break the pull tab part before I rip out a couple of the zippers and nothing moves. Jacket ruined. Too cold to continue bc my only other jacket cannot be taken off. Pissed. I better get to ride later today. Back home it is already 50 out so I wouldnt need that damn jacket.

Brick Again and a swim

Swam yesterday. Got in 1300 yards with a 1:16 hundred which takes 5 seconds off my PR and for some reason this has been a good indicator of my swimming since I know I can always pounds out a hundred as fast as I can on demand. Don't know how fast it will be but mentally I can hit it the same each time. Did a hard 50 in about 36 right before is what gave me the idea to try it again. Think I will be reading in time for KS

Today I spent an hour on the trainer with 3 one minute intervals and some steady riding outside of that. The intervals where 29.0@141cad84, 30.9@142cad85, 30.8@144cad90. I needed the four minute rest after the second and third ones. These are where you can feel if you have the legs under you. Hopped off the bike for a 6.7 mile hilly run with one mid Zone Four, 5 minute hill in the middle. Had some steady running in there as well. Felt surprisingly well after 1:45:00 of work. Need to get a long ride in tomorrow to really make it count.

Tuesday Track

Nice weather for once. Still had gas problems so I need to start taking that simethecone. Anyway,did (800, 600, 400 with 60 seconds rest) times 3, with 4 minutes rest in between the three sets. Times 2:41, 2:00, 70 and 2:40, 1:59, 67 and 2:40, 2:00, 69. Those 800's are getting better and just about where I need them before I start upping biking and swimming mileage and I stop improving in speed.

Also got in a 1:30:00 trainer ride today for 27 miles with a lot of 60-65 cadence work. Starting to feel the legs again. Really need to remember to warm up when riding outside.

In other news I am sitting at 166.8 which is my low for a long time and it actually doesn't seem to be affecting me too much so I will just keep with what I am doing until June.

Still Easy

Just the rides to and from work today. Gonna get back on it tomorrow. I think the key workout that I am going to do is 40/8 in Zone 3 and see what kinds of speeds I can hold. I should be able to knock these out in a race and will be a god way to get a long hard but not too hard that will still be working towards something. Will hopefully be able to get one of these out this week. Need to get the bike and swim going.

Resting Thoughts

Taking it easy for 2-3 days and then going to start to knock out the biking and swimming while just maintaining the run and trying to hold around 35-40 miles of quality work. I feel like the run will be possible if I can have a solid bike like I know I am capable of.

Brick with Run Emphasis

After yesterday's easy but hilly 8 mile run I wanted to try and get some endurance work in. I hit the trainer for 17.6 miles in 1:00:00 and then got off for a 16.5 mile run in 2:12:00. Avg was 7:59 for the 16 with a HR of 144. I feel like this workout let me know where my run endurance stands without over stressing the body as I loose weight and build the mileage back up to at least 40 a week. The workout was actually fairly easy until about a little before the 3 hour mark where I just got hungry. This is a mental workout for me to test fatigue and a perfect endurance workout where you try and figure out when it starts to get hard so you can adjust your subsequent workouts.

In other news I was at about 172 pounds for my last 1/2 marathon and I am down 4 pounds since then and I am starting to feel a little more like a runner again.

Trainer and Run

Yesterday manages 2:35:00 on the trainer and it was good and it feels like 3.5 hours on the road. Did some varying stuff but tried not to go too hard. Hit a hilly 8.1 mile run with 800 ft gain at 7:37 pace and did most of it at a really relaxed pace. HR was only 145 for the whole thing and I hit one hill hard and another medium for a good warm up since it was snowing. This is the run I have been looking for where I can go easy for that long and feel good at the end and have the pace still be good. Makes running enjoyable and I know this run is important even though the pace is relaxed. Can't wait to get on the road again as well. I also have a commute to work now and I am putting that in at 6 miles in 25 minutes in the log bc the route is difficult and takes that long.