3000 more yards and July #'s

I did my 2nd 3000 yarder of the week tonight. I hit 2000 yards and literally almost threw in the towel. So I did an easy 100 yarder to get my head back in gear. I can't fall back into my old habits of "this is good enough" in the pool. I have a 2 mile swim next weekend!

I did:
500
5 x 100 (ranged from 1:38 to 1:35)
500
200
200
100 (this is the one that got my head back in gear)
400
300
200
100
-----------------------------------------
So for July, I did:

Pool: 25950 yards
Bike: 286.22 miles
Run: 61.18 miles

These have been pretty consistent numbers for the past 3 months. I can always bike and run more, but I think the yardage in the pool is pretty good. I know I can do more, just don't have the will power or motivation to. It didn't feel like I ran 61 miles. Felt more like 40. I haven't had a really good long run since July 5th when I belted out an awesome 9 miles in 1:15:00 flat. I need to have another one of those!

SHW 1, Me 0

The Soupy Humid Weather (SHW) hands down knocked me on my ass during my attempt at a 10K run. The 10K surely didnt happen. I ended up with 4.32 in about 39 mins instead.

That run was ridiculous! I wish I had my heart rate monitor on cuz it would have shown my heart rate through the roof!

I learned my lesson on this kinda of weather. Stay indoors!

back on the bike for real

My legs are recovered! I did 26 miles tonight in some REALLY nice weather for once. They paved 3 new sections on this particular route so now I can stay in the time trial position for even longer on this ride.

I rode at a modest pace for the majority of the ride, but I dropped the hammer 4 times and really hauled ass. There are two sections where I was holding 25 mph for a few miles:) I love those sections!

During two of those sections, the road pitches up quite dramatically so this was a good test to transition from fast on the flats to climbing while sprinting up a good sized steep hill. I really surprised myself considering 5 days ago I had abused my body for 2.5 hours and I could barely walk 4 days ago.

Now the ultimate test of recovery is tomorrow morning with a 10K run.

dreadmill run, what!

It is so humid out, I think I could jump and flail my arms enough to start flying. Its this thick soupy mess out there. So instead of being absorbed into the air, I stayed inside and hit the dreadmill for the first time in months.

Ahhhhhh, it was like running on a soft bed. I didn't even tape my feet for blister control.

It was a good recovery run. Did about 3 miles in 30 mins. I didnt't really care as long as I was holding a sustained recovery pace for a 30 straight mins. I through a couple 30 second surges in there to kill the boredom.

Recovery is done!

recoveryville

I am totally on the downslide from NYC right now. Monday I hopped into the pool for 20 mins to knock out 1000 yards of easy swimming and kicking on my back. My legs felt a bit better after that.

Then yesterday I went up to Purchase to do 5 laps. I ended up with 2 before throwing in the towel. I just mentally couldnt do it. My legs felt better after that actually.

Then this morning I hopped into the pool for 3000 yards. I did 2 descending ladder sets:
500
400
300
200
100

It was merely good volume. I did it in an hour flat. I did some stroke counting on some of my better 25's and I got my stroke count down to 15!!! I'll take that!

EASY EASY run @ lunch today to finish off the recovery.

Tomorrow, hell begins again!

NYC Triathlon

Just completed my first NYC Triathlon this morning. Here are my results:

Swim: 20:31 1:14/100 pace
T1: 4:36
Bike: 1:12:19 20.6 mph avg
T2: 1:50
Run: 52:36 8:29 pace
Final time: 2:31:51

Prerace:
Up @ 4 AM. Had strange dreams all night about what time to get up and if I was going to be late to transition. I was staying 5 blocks away! Talk about prerace jitters!

I turned on the TV to the weather station and the firs thing that popped up was a large green, yellow, and red blob that was b-lining it for Manhattan. Great...

It came through, dumped a bunch of rain, then went away. It never rained again that day!

After setting up transition I started to make the long walk up to 96th street to the swim start where there was body marking and chip pickup. I was in the 4th to last wave, so I had TONS of time to get up there and do all of the necessary stuff along the way.

I ran into my freind Rudy and talking to him just melted away the nervousness. I was good from then on.

The pros and elites soon went by and boy can those folks swim! They were so high in the water!

I lined up and slowly worked my way down the line until it was our turn to jump in.

Swim:
We had the current! It was hard to feel it, by my swim time showed it! I was adventurous and hopped in and held onto the road. Some guy decided to sit on it and drag us all down with him. Not nice! We got going and it was VIOLENT. Not my best swim start ever. I think it would have been better to sit on the barge and wait.

When I was in the current, I was moving quickly. I tend to drift left, and when I did that, I lost the current. It was hard to site on this course for me because I couldn't see a good marker straight ahead of me to keep course.

The water was very salty and it felt like I was just swimming in the ocean. The Hudson didn't feel anymore nasty than swimming in Long Island Sound.

Towards the finish of the swim, the water turned deep black under the water because the silt was being stirred up. I made sure that I didnt put my feet down till the volunteer pulled me up and I was onto the metal ramp.

T1:
Long 300 yard run to transition. My legs felt good running though! Everyone had long transition runs.

Bike:
I had a good bike! I felt totally consistent and smooth during the entire bike. The only time I had to slow was when I hit pockets of traffic. I was passing EVERYONE! I must have passed at least 1000 people on the bike! haha! I hit a new average on the bike as well, 20.6 mph.



Wasnt my best ride with wattage though. I averaged 198 watts. I think this was due to this course being a bit flatter than Stamford. I did big ring the entire course though. There were a few pitches where I prolly should have gone to my small ring and spun, but those pitches weren't that long. Besides, I was passing EVERYONE.

The best part of the ride was when we passed 79th street and all of the skyscrapers were on the left side. THAT was cool!

I was really happy to finish the bike as strong as I had began it.

T2:
Another long tranistion due to traffic coming in and a long run through the most GINORMOUS transition area I have ever been in.

Run:
Immediately during the run you have to go from the river level up to street level, so that means going up this short but steep hill following by a longer slow climb to 72nd street. Once on 72nd, the crowds are there lining the running path and you feel like a rock star cuz everyone is there cheering you. The crowds get bigger and louder as you approach central park. Kinda surreal that you are running right along a major street of NYC with traffic completely blocked off for YOU!


My legs on the other hand, did NOT feel like rockstars. This turned out to be a not so good 10K for me. Oh well!

They just couldnt get out of 2nd gear. I accelerated a few times to get around people and I was able to take off, but there was no way I could hold that pace that I held so easily 4 weeks ago in Stamford. My 10K PR is 48:51 for a 7:53 min/mile pace and I did that in Stamford. Now granted that NYC's run was a lot more hilly, my legs just werent firing on all cyclinders, cuz I have held an even FASTER pace in central park before. I know the course!

Oh well, sometimes every race can't go perfectly.

The good news! I beat my previous Olympic distance PR by 6 seconds. So I still went faster. I guess I shouldn't expect 20% time decreases in every race :)


Now would I do this race again? I would like to, but I wanna give it a year's rest. The race was one of the best run, if not THE best run that I have done. I had no question that these people and the city NYC know what they are doing. This race was a good trial run and I want to harden myself for another year or two before I attempt this again and really beat my old time.

one last run

Did the same 5K again this morning. Did it 10 seconds slower. Whatever, I took it EASY like yesterday's bike.

Bring it on NYC!

short ride

only did about 11 miles. Kept it EASY. The time trial bike is smooth and changes gears flawlessly.

I feel super rested for this weekend in NYC. I am ready!

1500 yarder

Did my taper swim tonight:

2 x 250 WU
5 x 100 on 3:00 (LOTS of rest)
2 x 250 CD

On the 100's, I did 1:30, 1:30, 1:30, 1:29, 1:28.

Aaaaaaand, my arms were cooked after that last one.

The first 100 yards of the 3rd 250 was a bit like flinging spaghetti through the water. Fortunately I recovered by the end of it.

I need to get a short swim in on Friday.

updates

Saturday, the 18th I went for a 3 hour ride for 3 hilly loops around Harriman. My climbing legs are definately looking good!

Sunday, the 19th, did a 7.61 mile run with a few good sized hills.

Monday, did an ok 2000 yarder in the pool. Did 5 x 100's on 2 mins and averaged 1:35's again. I think on one my stroke count dropped down to 16....which means I was swimming a bit more efficiently.

Took Tuesday off due to some REALLY bad weather.

Did a quick 5K this morning in 25:30.

Its taper week so short stuff this week.

terrible 1000

Other than some bad running, I have had a good week so far of training.

Except for this morning when I put in a terrible 1000 yards. I was firing on 1 cylinder this morning. My 300 WU felt good, and then the 2nd and 3rd 300's I felt totally cashed.So I threw in the towel. Even my 100 warm down was terrible labor.

Geez, I cant even write right, write?

playing chicken with...

deer! there were 3 deer throughout my early AM ride that just decided to do the deer in the headlights thing and scare the crap out of me as I rode by. I wasn't sure if they were gonna bolt @ the last second in front of me. That would be a season ender!

Then I rode through snowstorms of these little bugs by a resevoir. It was distgusting!

Otherwise I did 19.2 miles in 1:11:00. Slow ride cuz my legs freaking hurt but I did 2 good sized hills. My legs felt the best towards the end.

Was hoping to ride tonight instead, but we are getting some severe weather tonight. Weather was great this morning!

breakthrough 3000

Wow. Just wow. Those 3000 yards that I just swam were some of the toughest, yet most rewarding.

I swam 3200 yards on Monday, so I wasn't sure how tonight would play out.

I did a 2 x 250 warm up and felt great.

Then it was into the main set:
10 x 100, first 5 on 1:55, 2nd 5 on 1:50.

So not only was this on less rest than usual, but the 2nd half were on even LESS rest.
I was averaging 1:35's!!! I think my slowest was 1:36, and my fastest was 1:30. Thats incredible!!! I wanted to give up on so many 100's and just come in easy, take the less rest and go easy again. But I kept at it and tried to stay @ or improve my time each 100. Man that hurt!

Then I got a 200 yard easy reprieve.

Then it was onto punishment #2: 3 x 400, stay consistent.

3 x 400 sounds easy. But I just punished myself with 10 fast 100's. So I was already in the hurt locker. Basically the point of the 3 x 400 was to see if I can change gears from fast to aerobic and maintain my times.

I did:
6:45
6:50
6:50

So I added 5 seconds to the 2nd and 3rd, but I was HURTING on those 2.

Finally, a 100 yard warm down that felt oh so sweet.

Im gonna sleep well tonight!

5 miler

I felt like crud on the run, but i still managed an 8:38 avg. The running just hasnt been doing it for me lately. Who knows!

fast ride

got out onto the road for a fast time trial bike ride. There are two REALLY good sections of this route that has some flat and well paved, not very heavily congested, roads that allow you to hammer it out. I was pushing 25 mpg avg on the 2nd section and I was just hauling ass!

Ended up with about 26 miles, so this is a great ride to practice an all out Olympic distance bike. There was a few good rollers thrown in that route as well to keep it legit.

3200 yarder

Hopped into the pool directly after work and put in a solid 3200 yards.

Nothing hard, just consistant pacing:

2X {
2 x 250
5 x 100
1 x 500
100 CD
}

I was holding anywhere between 1:36 and 1:38 on the 100's. Which means that that pool in Minnesota was a sloooooooooooow pool. And the pools here in NY are faster pools. I wonder what it would be like to swim in a "fast" pool.

easy 4 miler

getting back into this week with an easy pace 4 miler around the neighborhood. What the heck happened with the weather?!?!? its finally......dare I say.....

SUMMER?!?!?!?!?

I think it IS!

freedom ride!

Flew in from Minnesota today, then scarfed down some food and went for a wicked awesome ride tonight. Talk about perfect weather to ride in (mid 70's and clear skies with the sun going down)!

I did 21.22 in 1:12:32 for a 17.5 mph average, but this is one of my favorite hillier rides which finishes up a nice steep pitch before a flying downhill

So before I hit the first hill, this roadie all decked out in his racing garb flies up from behind me, says "Hello" and I figure would just continue onwards. Instead he slowed to my pace, then started chatting with me. He has only been in the area for a few months and since he used to race in Chicago I figured he wouldn't mind going up a nice hill. So he went with me @ the same pace up this hill sitting down while I was standing a bit. By the time we hit the final pitch of this hill I figured he would simply blow by me. I stood up and my legs were feeling great and I was able to add 2 harder gears and I just cranked it to the top. At the top, I looked back and he wasn't there! I got up to the top of the hill, turned around because it was a dead end, then as I was going down, he pops out at the bottom of the final pitch out of a driveway and goes back down ahead of me. Then at the bottom of the hill he must have gone straight cuz I had to turn left and I never saw him again.

Did I scare him off!?!? He looked strong! Why didn't he finish up the hill? Who knows...

I mean, it was a steep hill, but not like Ventoux or anything.

I guess some things just go unanswered in life...

But after that hill I was warmed up and continued to pound away on the rest of the hills.

By the time I hit the last and final hill I went up that sucker feeling GREAT!

Then when I got to the parking lot I went to stop my watch while slowing and almost ate it. It woulda been bad and I wish I was wearing my HRM, cuz I am sure it jumped 3o BPM. I even accepted the fact that I was going down! Fortunately for my fragile skin and my ego, I somehow managed to stay upright. Man it woulda been embarrasing!

5K

Did just a 5K this morning to see how my foot would react. It hurt for the first half mile or so then it went away. And right now as I am typing this it feels even better.

Now lets see what happens when I start to tighten up. But I am quite relieved that this doesnt look like a super serious injury. Phew! (of course I shouldnt count my chickens before they hatch)

I did the 5K in 26:24 for an 8:31 pace. My splits were:
8:41
8:30
8:28
7:28(for the last .1) :)

foot feels better!

I can still feel some soreness, but it feels MUCH better.

I think I am going to try for a 5K tomorrow AM.

86 degree water = molasses

Im up in Minneapolis, MN for a wedding this weekend. I need to get in a pool since over the past two weeks I have eaked out barely 10,000 yards. YIKES!

The hotel I am staying at has a pool, that is ~10 yards, so that wasn't going to work. Luckily there is a REALLY REALLY REALLY nice YMCA 3.5 miles away and with a free hotel shuttle that will take you anywhere, I went with that swimming option instead.

I mean, this pool is NICE......except it was 86 degrees. There was no cold shock getting into the water, but immediately it felt like I was swimming through molasses. My 100 pace times were in the 1:50+ range......ummmmmmm......1:50?!?!?!?

Yeahhh......thats pretty slow for me. Now, mythbusters did a thing where they made sugar water 1,500 times more viscous than water and they found that the more viscous syrup did not effect swim times.

Or maybe I was fatigued? I felt fine and was working @ the same intensity level.

Was it the heat?

Could the clock have been slow?

Who knows.....I still got in 2500 yards in about an hour, so I got the yardage in and that is all that matters. Now when I get into my much colder pool back home, I hope I see 100 pace times in the 1:40's or lower.

I did:
2 x 250 WU
3 x 300
4 x 200
3 x 100

a dark 32 miler

Our 23 miler turned into 32 miles and 2.5 hours....yeah it was a bit hairy towards the end, especially when my rear wheel started to go flat again. This was a hilly ride!

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ny/-armonk/717124710383769874

But it was a scenic ride @ that. We rode past the Rockefeller estate and past Donald Trump's golf course. There is a really cool European style switchback right along the entrace to the golf course.

As for my foot....its in bad shape. It didn't feel any better today and actually feels worse right now.

I am getting scared :(

ruff run

Did a ruff 4.87 miles this morning. Could not have asked for better weather, but this was a hilly route and I got destroyed by them. I think I hurt my left foot along the bottom. I hope its not PF. THAT would suck!

My feet are a mess. Its like a snowstorm of blisters. Greaaaattt......

back in the pool

And this might be it for the week. Yikes! I hope I don't lose my swim form!

Tonight I did 2000 yards in 42 mins. I did:

2 x 250 WU
6 x 200 on 4 mins, descending on 3
3 x 100 CD

For the 200's main set I did:
3:21
3:15
3:12
3:30
3:17
3:09.5 (new 200 PR!!!!)

So I haven't lost it, not yet that is. I am hoping to get in another short swim like this Thurs morning before I leave town for a few days.

another hot sticky run

A storm blew through the area @ 12:55, but was quickly gone in time for my 1PM run. It turned into a sauna out there quickly with the steam rising 10 feet off of the asphalt. I think this past weekend's fun caught up with me because I ended up with 10 min miles for a 3.73 mile run.

It was actually hotter last week, but this was another short tuff one.

recovery bike turned AWESOME

I have no idea what "restraint" means. I meant to go out easy and spin my legs, but they wouldn't go slow, so what the heck! I'll just ride as I feel. I felt GOOD!

I did ~16 miles in I don't know how long, but I was cranking away on my time trial bike in the aero position without even thinking about it.

So this is good! 56 mile bike on Friday. Day off on Saturday. Fastest ever 9 mile run on Sunday. Awesome short ride today.

9 mile run, best EVER

Did 9 miles in 1:15:27 for an 8:23 pace.

I love the auto lap button on my Garmin.

Mile 1: 8:44

Mile 2: 8:27

Mile 3: 8:26

Mile 4: 8:19

Mile 5: 8:25

Mile 6: 8:26

Mile 7: 8:15

Mile 8: 8:06

Mile 9: 8:18

Talk about perfect running weather! My feet hurt the most and my right calf was really sore and tight during most of the run and especially after. I think I pissed it off during the Stamford Olympic last Sunday. Wow, a week flies right by!

timberman bike course preview #2

Up in NH for the long weekend and I rode the Timberman bike course for the 2nd time. They repaved a huge section of it so it is even nicer now. Riding the hills was a heck of a lot easier too. Helped also that there was no head wind on the return trip.

I got a flat though on the return trip. I hit something sharp that slightly punctured the tube. I learned that if you can't feel the air coming out of a punctured hole and squirting water on it doesn't yield bubbles, stick the hole to your tongue and you will for sure feel the escaping air.

Then I ran about a mile and the legs felt great. I know this course pretty well now and I know that the last 2 long steady climbs on the return trip are going to be my achilles heal.

Day off today.

terrible 2000

Did 2100 yards in the pool this morning and man my body was so shot. It wasnt wanting to swim @ all!

I did 5 x 400 and finished it off with a 100 cool down.

You know you are tired when you hit the 200 yard mark and you dread the 2nd 200 since your arms and body are already screaming at you. I wasn't even going that fast! I bet I was averaging 1:50's/100.

That was a brutal swim despite how easy we took it.

hot nasty sticky run

Ran the 4.29 mile loop @ work @ 1PM on a hot, humid, sticky and just plain old nasty day. Not so bad @ first, but I felt the effects later on in the run. @ the final half mile hill, it just started to murder me.

Finished in 37 mins and change for an 8:51 pace. Man that was a gross run!

Stamford Olympic Official results are FINALLY in

The timing company's computers crashed, so the results were deyaled....blah blah blah blah blah.....BUT! they are finally available. I did:

Swim: 26:20 / 1:36/100 yard avg
T1: 1:45
Bike: 1:14:06 / 19.98 mph
T2: 0:57
Run: 48:51 / 7:53 min/mile

Total: 2:31:57