What Was Your Work Out Today?
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I took a very short hike due to the hot humid conditions this morning. Just a chance to get the legs moving without causing any fatigue. This afternoon I finished reviewing my race plan, charged the bike, and began packing my swim, bike and run stuff.
The Finger Lakes region of NY is a beautiful area and the course is very well designed.
I will focus on staying very conservative on the swim and bike sections, knowing that I'll have to endure some suffering on the run.
TLDR VERSION OF BELOW: Triathlon race plan
@DiscusTank5 - I know you are considering longer triathlons, so this might be of some interest:
I have no delusions of setting a PR, since my conditioning is not quite where I'd like it to be. So I've set a basic goal that is simply to complete the entire race within the 08:30:00 time limit.
Swim: Focus on breath control while counting off one marker buoy at a time. Try to get in behind a swimmer whose feet I can draft behind to save energy. Goal is to come out of the water fairly fresh.
45-46 minute swim time estimated.
T1: No rush, but no wasted movements in the transition area. Strip off wetsuit during the jog from swim exit to bike transition. PUT HELMET ON FIRST then bike shoes, grab a gel and a quick swig of fluid as I trot to the bike start line. 3-4 minutes total.
Bike: DO NOT CHASE OTHER CYCLISTS! Ride the bike split that I SHOULD RIDE, NOT the bike split that I WANT to RIDE.
This is my favorite part of the race. The course is a big lollipop loop over rolling hills and along two lakes, with only 1656 of climbing. The long straightaways and lack of steep climbs make it very tempting to overbike. I need to keep my power from spiking by maintaining a steady cadence and trying to stay under 200W. Burning too many matches on the bike means a blowup on the run is almost guaranteed. 3:10:00-3:15:00 bike split estimated
T2: Once off the bike, grab numbered race bib and belt(required for the run) hat, shoes, and consume gel and small water bottle as I walk out of transition. Walking helps to get the glutes engaged and hip flexors back to normal after 3 hours on the bike. 2-3 minutes total.
Run: This is the unknown, but it will be slow. On my best days, I've produced runs that were just over 2 hrs after a hard bike effort. That's not realistic for this race. I think any run/walk under 3 hrs will be a win.
So, bottom line is that a 6:45:00-7:15:00 result wouldn't surprise me.
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TLDR VERSION OF BELOW: Triathlon race plan
@DiscusTank5 - I know you are considering longer triathlons, so this might be of some interest:
T2: Once off the bike, grab numbered race bib and belt(required for the run) hat, shoes, and consume gel and small water bottle as I walk out of transition. Walking helps to get the glutes engaged and hip flexors back to normal after 3 hours on the bike. 2-3 minutes total.
Run: This is the unknown, but it will be slow. On my best days, I've produced runs that were just over 2 hrs after a hard bike effort. That's not realistic for this race. I think any run/walk under 3 hrs will be a win.
So, bottom line is that a 6:45:00-7:15:00 result wouldn't surprise me.
Really helpful info here, @Djproulx. I haven't tried walking out of T2 but then haven't needed to when to bike part was only an hour and the run only 2 miles.
Best of luck with your race!!
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DiscusTank5 wrote: »Two plus hours in the river yesterday just messing around with my kids--some light swimming, treading water, etc.
I'm taking a few weeks' hiatus from running because I started developing shin splints. I tried to up my mileage too quickly, I think. I hate enforced rest, though.
I took myself back to the gym today for the first time in awhile (in summer my workouts move out of doors). Got in 35 min. on the elliptical and a couple of min. on the Helix trainer to stretch my leg muscles after.4 -
@Djproulx Good luck with your race! The plan sounds good. Steady but conservative through the swim and bike. There's always plenty of oppertunity on the run to burn off extra energy if you have the "matches" left.
I'm still getting a daily morning elliptical session and yesterday another morning core routine. I was swimming lanes yesterday afternoon for a half hour, second time this week. It's starting to come back but I'm not pushing at all yet. The plan is for another run today. Nothing fancy. I need to rebuild a running base and it will take time. Biking was always my strongest sport but I'll need to get back on that horse soon too.4 -
Lower body power day in the weight room this morning, with upcoming grocery shopping this afternoon pushing a fully laden cart.3
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Coached row in bow of the double, around 9.5k, mostly pause drills and timed pieces with rating (strokes per minute) targets.2
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Wow no exercise for the last three days for me.
Wednesday - very long day at work including 4 hours in the car leaving at 7am, just no opportunity for anything unfortunately.
Thursday and Friday - spent those days visiting my parents, the most steps I did was 3500! They used to have a dog that I'd take for a couple of gentle walks but he passed in January and now unfortunately they spend most of the time watching TV, which meant that that's what I did too! I know 2 days of rest isn't the end of the world but it just left me feeling sluggish.
Today I did boxing class plus a 45 minute walk. Definitely back on the horse and feeling much better for it!2 -
Other activities later today and part of tomorrow so I got 20 minutes in running on the treadmill this morning, right after 15 minutes on the elliptical trainer to warm up. Peak HR on the treadmill has been trending steadily downwards over the last several workouts so this might actually be working. 4
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Made a new record for walking today: 1.54 miles.
I used to walk so much when I was younger. I was overweight (around 195lbs) but I could just walk for hours and hours for no reason other than I enjoyed it. Plus I didn't have a car so had to walk to school, work, shopping, laundry while carrying heavy loads of stuff. Once I met my husband who had a car, my weight just shot up then I had kids and walking with them was just exhausting.
I'm hoping to get back up to easily doing 2 miles a day. I already mapped out how I want to do it within my neighborhood by adding little segments once I get used to the length I did today. Once I can do 2 miles, it'll be time to add another half mile to the route. Hopefully before the end of summer.5 -
Today was our learn to row "graduation" BBQ/potluck.
Beforehand, I rowed my usual Saturday 7k-ish in 2 seat of the quad. We practiced some rating controlled pieces - like we've been doing with the coach - because we don't have good instrumentation for knowing when we're at a specific strokes per minute rating, so we don't have much intuitive feel for what number we're at. (We used my Garmin today, which is awkward to read while rowing.)
When we landed, folks were starting to arrive for the BBQ. Two of us went back out in the quad, me in stroke seat and another experienced rower in bow, and 2 of the new folks in the "engine room" between us, which is 2 & 3 seats. I rowed 2 rounds of that (very slowly/methodically), roughly 2k each outing, then checked out to get date bars or something while someone else experienced took my place.
Newbies are doing very well. On today's row, we taught them to do "river turns", which is simultaneously rowing on one side while backing on the other. Doing that, the boat pretty much spins around on its center point. A year or two ago I hit on a method of teaching it that works really well - the way I described it here, which is how it's usually taught, is quite cognitively/physically complicated.3 -
40 minute horse ride today, planned an hour but changed route last minute so that I could have a gallop, so did a shorter route overall but had more fun
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Woke up with a back pain flare up today, went to the gym for over an hour to really work through my strengthening exercises along with some upper body stuff. Walked for an hour to and from the shops and also did some yin yoga this afternoon.2
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Upper body power day in the weight room, lots of sets of 4-6. Took longer than usual, on account of extra wait time before the final set of bench presses when I wanted to test my max reps. Last time I tested at this weight I got 8 reps; today I banged out 10. Was quite pleased, though it likely means I need to increase the weight I use to keep it in the "power" range rather than "hypertrophy". Not normally a problem, in fact usually something to celebrate, but I've been resistant to the idea of going too heavy on bench presses after I narrowly avoided double rotator cuff surgery a few years back doing too heavy bench presses. Granted, back then I was chasing the almighty one-rep-max, where now I don't drop below 4 reps, so the chances of injury are quite a bit less. But there is a bit of a psychological barrier in place I need to decide what to do with, whether to smash through or changeup my routine to work around it.3
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lower body strength intervals (alternating strength moved with bursts of cardio), 25 min. then a one mile brisk walk.3
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Back to usual: Just under 7k rowing bow in the quad. We did some timed intervals with target strokes per minute ratings again.3
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Lower body power day in the weight room, took longer than normal as I had to wait multiple times for my needed equipment to become available. Busy day in the weight room, especially for 5am.2
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Went out to an annual Fair and festival for about six days to help run a temporary restaurant. I walked about 70 miles over that time; no wonder my feet are sore. An average of about a dozen miles a day. Today is rest. Tomorrow a hike in the forest, and Thursday paddling.5
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I started last week with a goal to walk at least a mile every day, but quickly pushed it up to a mile and a half. Today, I had to concede that I still don't have the stamina to do that just yet. Today I made it 1.33 miles and it was killing me. I was struggling the last half hour and am completely exhausted. Might have to cut that to just 1 miles tomorrow and for the rest of the week until I recover (am having a lot of pain in my hip, calves and shins).4
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I went climbing on Saturday. We did some very easy sport climbing in Portland. Dorset. It was fun. We got a decent morning in, and then the heavens opened so we ended and did a hike.
We went bouldering on Sunday. It was also fun. Our destination,(Portland Bill) was at high tide, which drastically cut down on available routes.
I went climbing on Monday, with a spot of indoor bouldering. I was terrible; maybe I've been climbing too much. My Fitbit reckons I got its target active minutes (150 minutes) in this session alone.4 -
Haven't been reporting since I've had a bit of a health setback. I had an old cyst on my back rupture and get really angry! Long story short, had to have it removed last week (went under, not local). Decent sized incision in my back (around six inches across). They glued it back together because it was only right below the skin, so not too deep or involved.
I'm under doc's orders to not "get too sweaty" but I'm walking and doing really, super easy cardio right now. Can't lift just yet. Hope to get back to that soon. Also, can't swim right now either. Hope to get back in the flow soon.
Also looking forward to hearing the triathlon report from @djproulx! You all are doing great!5 -
MikePfirrman wrote: »Haven't been reporting since I've had a bit of a health setback. I had an old cyst on my back rupture and get really angry! Long story short, had to have it removed last week (went under, not local). Decent sized incision in my back (around six inches across). They glued it back together because it was only right below the skin, so not too deep or involved.
I'm under doc's orders to not "get too sweaty" but I'm walking and doing really, super easy cardio right now. Can't lift just yet. Hope to get back to that soon. Also, can't swim right now either. Hope to get back in the flow soon.
Also looking forward to hearing the triathlon report from @djproulx! You all are doing great!
Good to see you back here, @MikePfirrman. That cyst sounds like it was quite a painful thing. Glad you're on the mend.1 -
Just drove home from Geneva, NY this afternoon after completing IM 70.3 Musselman event on Sunday.
Race report follows. Short version: I completed a 70.3 distance triathlon. It hurt. A lot. But I didn't die. Recovery now underway.
Pre Race Details: Weather called for rain chances all weekend, with heavy clouds and 70 temps forecast for Sunday. Downpours likely to start around 10am. This made athletes focus on gearing up for weather by packing a second set of socks, wind/rain vest, warming sleeves, separate run shorts/tops, etc. Several big concerns were cycling safety as well as mitigating the risk of severe chafing from riding and running in wet clothes and shoes. Aquaphor, plastic gear bags, etc were topics of conversation at 5am in transition as 1800 of us got ready to swim.
Pre Race & Swim: This was the 20th anniversary Musselman Race and both Ironman staff and the local volunteers had every detail covered perfectly. The only thing they couldn't control was the weather. The flat calm lake at 4:30am became a bouncy chop when the gun went off at 6:30am. The triangular 1.2mile course required a counterclock wise swim. I had lined up near the back of the pack (43-46 minute estimated swim group) to avoid the most crowded conditions. What I didn't consider was that the wind blown chop pushed the less experienced swimmers around, causing many to zigzag into each other. This made it hard to take a straight line. I didn't want to push during the swim, knowing I would be energy starved later in the race.
Given the very warm water temp of 76.0 degrees, I also chose NOT to wear a full wetsuit, opting for just SIM shorts for buoyancy. This was a mistake since I needed to work harder to stay on course in the chop and push my way around quite a few swimmers. End result was an hour swim, not 45-50 minutes, but at least I came out of the water feeling fresh. Given my limited swim volume, this result wasn't a catastrophe. I gave my swim performance a grade of "C-".
Bike: This was a highlight for me. One of my regular training friends who raced it before (and did again on Sunday) raved about the bike course for its easy elevation profile, good pavement and long strait away stretches. She advised that I'd have trouble holding back on the course given the opportunities for real speed. She was right. My plan was to finish around 3:05-3:15, or about 17.5-18.0 mph.
The rain held off and it was dry pavement and light winds to start. The first 15 miles of the bike course held most of the climbing, so I focused on not pushing too hard to get around the many slow cyclists. (I started and ended the swim near the back of a pack of 1800 people, lol, so I had a lot of folks in front of me)
As I hit a backstretch along neighboring Cayuga lake, the wind picked up and we had to work uphill against a stiff breeze. I decided to use that climb to really start moving through the pack. I didn't have to spike my power above 250w for very long, so it was a controlled effort.
Once up the hill around mile 25, it was ALL fun. The long straight roads through the dairy country were a terraced net downhill and I really bore down. Using gravity and staying locked in my best aero posture, I went by dozens of riders on each descent. These were not steep hills, but there were a few half mile stretches where I averaged between 27-32mph while not using a lot of energy. My best five mile split was done in 13:05, or around 22mph. This was a blast, since I wasn't pushing at my maximum, simply using conditions to get free speed. I backed off for the last 10minutes of the ride to spin out my legs and get in as much fuel as I dared before coming off the bike. Finished right around 3:05:30, about 18mph. I gave myself a grade of "A-" for my bike effort.
I came into T2 feeling tired but recovered by walking the bike and taking a few minutes to put on dry socks, swig some electrolyte drink and down a waffle. After putting on hat, shoes, and my race belt with number, I walked out of transition doing some deep lunges to engage my glutes before running.
Run: The weather started to turn around 11am as I finished the bike. The clouds thickened and temps got warmer. Humidity was noticeable. I walked out of transition while consuming a gel and water bottle. After 200 yards, I began an easy paced 3:1 run walk. I knew right away that I was not fit enough to run the course, so I walked for a hundred yards into the first aid station at mile 1.5. It rained for about 30 minutes, then the clouds broke and the sun came out, creating a very hot humid afternoon. This was more than I was able to endure while running, so I walked most of miles 6-11. Over this stretch, I stopped at every aid station and drank a flat coke (for sodium, caffeine and sugar) and some ice water, dumping a second cup into my running hat. I also put handfuls of ice in my hat, but I could not stay cool for very long. The two hill climbs (two loop run course) were pretty brutal in the 85 degree heat, with more than half of the runners walking more often than not.
I also tried to keep up with nutrition via Maurten gels and pretzels(to stabilize my gut after all the liquid and simple sugars). Bottom line: this was a first order sufferfest and I thought hard about tapping out several times. I also become somewhat emotional, another sign that my resources were about used up. But I've been here before and realized that I could finish the race and I was not at the point of collapse or urgent medical need. It just hurt. I trudged across the line and didn't see my wife and friends standing there. I took the medal, a hat and water bottle and headed straight for the food tent to get shade and recover. Took about 20 minutes and I was "ok" again. I gave myself a grade of "D/D-" for the run.
Summary thoughts: While the 70.3 mile event is my favorite distance (I've done 8 of them) this race was a stiff reminder of the challenges in longer courses. The race is just too long to rely on luck or fitness in one discipline to carry you through feeling successful. While my bike fitness is good, the finishing time of 7:20:00 shows that I'll need to get about 10-12lbs leaner and train harder to approach my prior performance levels on the run. So I'll have to take time to decide whether I still have that fire, or if shorter course racing would be more satisfying going forward.
Overall the trip was a fun weekend with friends. We stayed right on the water at Cayuga Lake, and on Monday we toured a winery and also hiked through the impressive gorge running through Watkins Glen State Park. Here's a couple shots from the Park:
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@djproulx, that's both interesting and informative, speaking even as someone from a wildly different sport background. Congratulations on finishing! In any kind of competition, and a few things not truly competitive, I think an important success factor is that experiential self-knowledge to distinguish between hurting and actually being too hurt to continue safely. Thanks for sharing your honest race report!3
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@Djproulx, great job finishing and thinking your way through the difficult spots of the Half Iron race. Those photos were nice to see, also. Take some time to really rest up, mentally and physically. You know this already; I'm just spelling it out again. 1
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As someone who used to run 5k's for fun and competition, just reading your report made me exhausted! lol The only part I could really sympathize with from my own experience was the part where you started in the back of the pack and systematically passed a number of people as you went. That was me during almost every 5k I ever ran...start off with a slow jog to let the crush of people get ahead, then start to accelerate as the crush broke apart into individuals again, concentrating on ignoring my own aches and fatigue by focusing on passing "just that one person ahead of me" over and over again. Though admittedly I passed more people during any inclines we encountered rather than during the declines.2
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After that exhausting read about a 70 mile tri-discipline race, my own meager 6 miles during one hour of elliptical hills seems quite tame by comparison.3
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I was thinking about that triathlon while I did my walk and how I could never do that. I barely made it 1 mile today although I did my maximum speed for as long as I could so I finished my mile in 24.5 minutes which was apparently a record according to my app. I did 1.07 miles in 26 minutes with a short 30-second pause in the middle to pet a pretty cat. I've decided I need to take it a little easier this week and do only a mile each day (I was pushing for 1.5+ miles each day the last week) because my legs are so sore because I'm so out of shape. It's really hard, though, because my mind wants to go farther and take this turn here for a little detour but my legs are like, please, no more, we still have to hike back up this hill to get home.5
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Legs and arms in the gym today, getting a bit itchy to mix up my routine but need to give it a think as to what I want to change it to!
30 minute walk as well.4
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