Monday, March 7, 2011

A Breakthrough Weekend!

First! If you haven't seen or entered my "Unusual But VERY EXCITING Giveaway" yet, please do so! I am giving away a signed "Rio" poster, signed by the folks who made the movie, aka, ME :) You have 4 chances to win it!


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This past weekend was the weekend I had been waiting for all season: The weekend where every workout is an uber success.

Saturday was another 2.5 hour ride followed by a 4 mile brick run. Sunday was a 1:45:00 min run. Lots of volume. So what are the options? 1) Sandbag the ride and brick run to save the legs for the long run? 2) Kill the legs on the ride and brick run and sandbag the long run? OR! 3) Kill your legs on the ride and brick run then murder your legs on the long run?

I went with option #3 :)

I went farther and faster on a hillier and MUCH windier ride than the previous weekend's long ride, ran faster on the brick run, then almost PR'ed my half marathon run on the long run.

It was a good weekend :)

Saturday's ride came out as 50.67 miles in 2:37:10 for a 19.34 mph avg. The wind on the way back was brutal! I was getting blown all over the road and every time a gust would nail me I would scream as loud as I could. The wind was really killing my speed averages, especially on the flats and even on some downhills. Nothing more frustrating then riding downhill and feeling like you are riding through molasses.

So my power average came out as 185 watts with 199 watts normalized. This was vs the previous weekend's ride of 178 watts @ 18.68 mph, but 3+ miles shorter and on a flatter route. Already within a week my body is responding to the long rides and is improving. Not quite there yet on the bike, but getting closer!

By the time I finished the bike, I thought my legs were just toast and that this brick run was going to suuuuuuuuuuuck. So I just started running, keeping an easy-ish pace. My legs responded well! I finished with 4 miles in 30:45 for a 7:41 pace. Splits came out as:
Mile 1: 7:48
Mile 2: 7:42
Mile 3: 7:38
Mile 4: 7:35

Woke up Sunday morning to some fresh-ish feeling legs and ran around Central Park 2X. After ~2.5 miles that rain storm that socked the Northeast got me and it was rainy-city for the next 10.6 miles. I don't mind running in the rain! Some of my best runs have been in the rain because it keeps your body cooled down. I wound up with 13.1 miles in 1:45:45, so 26 secs slower than my half marathon PR. Coach wanted me to run with a heart rate between 150-160 bpm, and I did it with a 155 average. Good to know what that heart rate zone will yield.

My splits came out as (before my GPS distance crapped out on me):
Mile 1: 8:38
Mile 2: 8:06
Mile 3: 8:23
Mile 4: 8:09
Mile 5: 7:53
Mile 6: 7:50
Mile 7: 7:52
Mile 8: 7:48
Mile 9: 8:03
Mile 10: 7:48

Then mile 11 showed a 6:37 pace and I had slowed down by that point so I knew it wasn't tracking distance correctly anymore. Fortunately I know that each loop around the park is 6.05 miles, so once I hit loop #2 @ 12.1 miles, I estimated a 0.5 mile out and 0.5 mile back, which surprisingly was accurate when I checked it on mapmyride.com! I love running around Central Park :)

Last week was some nice, but faster volume, especially on the run:
Swim: 8300 yards
Bike: 90 miles
Run: 36.46 miles

Hope you had a great weekend!

15 comments:

  1. Congratulations on a great brick workout and then a 1/2 marathon. You totally rock and are going to kill your IM!

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  2. Great workout! Sounds like a fabulous training weekend :)

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  3. That's a great weekend of workouts! Well done. Saturday's wind was bad! I did 44 mikes and it was killer on the GWB!

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  4. Great workouts this weekend. I'd love to be able to hold those paces!

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  5. Sounds like an awesome weekend! I saw you running by engineers gate in central park when I showed up for my lung run at 9am. I was going to say hi but I could tell you were in the zone so I didn't want to mess with you!

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  6. Nice training, glad someone is getting in solid training

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  7. of course you went with option #3! and CRUSHED it. 19.34 mph WITH wind? you are an animal. and those run splits are bangin'!

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  8. solid man. You simply amaze me haha. You and Jeff are both crazy lately. The volume is seriously bringing some huge gains for you guys though.

    I was afraid of high volume, thought my body would get mad and break me. Hopefully I am wrong!

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  9. O-kay, you are doing so awesome!!! Your splits and times are impressive!! Woohoo!

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  10. Did you see a girl wearing a pink top and a Mooseman hat during your Central Park loops? 'Cause it was me braving the rain too! Nice work - you're killing it!!

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  11. Excellent negative splits - what a solid weekend!!

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  12. incredible training

    excellent effort and high volume
    loving it

    D

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  13. #3 was definitely the right option! Solid workouts all around.

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  14. Damn that is a great weekend. That is some excellent wattage, especially in crazy wind! You are gonna crush Galveston Jon!

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  15. Look at you! :) That run was awesome - gotta love when training runs are almost PRs!

    Great job last week Jon!

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