Miami
I realized that between Friday's workout and Saturday's half-marathon, I'd be basically doing a Half Ironman over two days a week before the big race. But it's over 2 days. So I think I'll be ok. I stayed up in Miramar Thursday night, and had to be up early as Klueber had to meet with his CIA rep or whatever it is he does, at like 7:30. So I drove down to Key Biscayne and parked my car at Bill Baggs park for the open water swim and bike brick. I thought this would be a good race simulation, even if it was a bit short.
Swim: 75 minutes - open water if possible.
Continuous swim. 1st 200m at RPE 9-10, then settle into race pace
2 Lipodrene
The training card actually only called for 45 minutes today. But the thing is, I don't wear a watch. So I looked at the clock on my car when I left to go to the water and it was 8:57, figuring I probably got in the water around 9. I got out in Biscayne Bay and just got into my stroke groove and was like "Shit, I can do this all night." I was actually swimming into the current, although the waves were still battering me from my right side. Because I breathe to the left, this was not such a big deal on the way out. So I get to a bend in the beach and see the first condo past the park isn't that far and decide to swim to it. Those condos look a lot closer from the water than they really are, let me tell you. I started swimming completely with the current, into shore, and it took a loooong time. But whatever. I got to the beach, stood up, pissed in the water, and headed back.
Now on the way back I had the current at my back, which I figured would make for a faster return trip. But what I didn't account for was the waves splashing into my face every other breath, as well as the waves knocking me around while I swam. There was some decent chop out Friday morning, even that early. Also, sighting became a problem. I kept looking up to sight myself to the lighthouse in the park (where I started my swim) and all I kept seeing was ocean. Like I kept swimming out into the bay instead of staying on the shoreline. Eventually I decided to hug the shoreline, and about 300 yards before the lighthouse all I could do was grab sand. Too fucking shallow. So I just got out and walked it. Got back to my car and it was 10:37. Accounting for time spent walking and getting my shit together, I figured the swim was around 75 minutes. Might have been longer, who knows, but it definitely made the bike a lot more rushed.
Bike - 3 Hours
2 Lipodrene
I had biked the Rickenbacker probably 25 or 30 times in the summer of 2008 when I was training for my first half-Ironman. So I felt like I knew the course well. It's very flat, and very windy, but I felt like since I knew it and I was stronger I'd do well. Well, I thought wrong. I'm not sure if it was me still feeling ill, or me being tired from lack of sleep, or the swim kicking my ass, but I got on the bike, did 19 for about 2 miles, then could not get much over 16 for a long time. Like I just wanted to put the energy into going faster but for some reason just couldn't. Didn't want to go fast. A couple of times I got up near 20 and just held back, and I don't know why. Maybe it was mental pacing myself, knowing I have the half-marathon Saturday morning. But that won't fly come Ironman day.
Basically, I did the first trip around the Rickenbacker and to Virginia Key in 1:19. That's distance of about 21 miles, BTW. Essentially, a shitty ride. A really shitty ride. Just could not get anything going at all, and a little distressing after the good Century ride and strong trainer session. Even when I hit the few sharp turns on this ride, which I usually navigated ok a year ago when I was a worse biker, I just stopped, unclipped, and turned because I didn't have the energy to try and navigate them. It was a very strange ride to say the least.
The second trip wasn't so bad. I got up to 18 heading out and kept that speed, going a little faster on the road out to Jimbo’s and obviously slowing at Mount Miami. But as I turned around to head back Tony, the guy who cuts my hair and the friend I was staying with that night (he's straight, don't get any fucking ideas) texted me to see when was the soonest I could come in. My appointment was at 4, but he really wanted to take the rest of the day off, and since he was letting me stay at his place before the half-marathon I figured I do him a favor. I got back to my car at 2:40, and decided to call it a day. Yes, I cheated myself out of 20 minutes of a really shitty bike ride (averaged about 16, a record low for anything, ever)and that time was instead taken up by increased time swimming in open salt water. Probably something I needed more practice in anyway.
The swim felt good, though it was mentally tough. But man, did that bike suck., I'm not sure why I had nothing for it, I've done swim/bike bricks before, and done races where that certainly did not happen. I'll chalk it up to a shitty day. And fortunately I have one more ride of significance before the race to get my confidence back up.
Showing posts with label swim/bike brick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swim/bike brick. Show all posts
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
T90 - Feelin' Sluggish - Swim/Bike, Run
Gainesville
Swim - 30 minutes continuous
2 Lipodrene
As this was a swim/bike brick day, I opted to head down to Campus Lodge and train with Justin. It always makes for good bike rides, and they have a nice outdoor pool there that;s perfect for training days like this. I woke up about 11, on maybe 8 hours sleep (not enough after my cross-country odyssey to Seattle)and was a little lethargic in getting over there.
I still made it early, and Justin didn't join me in the pool until I was about 5 minutes into the swim. Lacking a watch, I just went for 30 laps, figuring I do about a lap a minute. I'm not sure if the pool there is exactly 25 meters though. It's close, but it feels about one stroke short. Anyway, I was able to keep my regular, good pace, but my breathing felt labored. Like I had a weight in my chest. This may be ok for a 1500 meter swim, but is not promising for longer ones. I think this may be a remnant of the "flu," such as it was. But even though the swim went fine, I wasn't overly thrilled with how it felt.
Bike - 90 Minutes
I'm not a fan of drafting, but I thought today I'd let Justin ride out so I could go balls out the 45 minutes back. Well, Justin hadn't been cycling sine our last workout a month or so ago, and was understandably a little slow. I didn't mind, as I wasn't exactly dying to push it going out on 441 with all the fucking wind. But we averaged about 17 on the trip down to Cafe Risque and the Country store on 441. (Our usual turnaround). Granted, there was a serious headwind, and I definitely felt it when I took over the front at the road to Cafe Risque. Justin enjoyed the increased speed, and I led the rest of the way.
I took gels 15 minutes and one hour in, despite not having a lot of time left. I just do it to keep in practice, ya know?
We hit the Country Store at about 43 minutes, so I thought we'd end up making it back at about 1:24-ish. Short, but not horribly short. Well, as it was we had a nice tailwind, and despite my shoulders being insanely jammed and not being able to drop into aero for very long, we still made it back in about 1:17. So I cheated it by 13 minutes. I'm not going to get too upset over that, but not something I need to make a habit of. Justin also pointed out that doing 112 miles in 6 hours or less is going to require a lot of aero time. I just hope my shoulders get conditioned like the rest of my body over the next month.
Run - 45 minutes
1 Lipodrene
I took about 2 hours in between these workouts, as the training card suggested. This was another day where I was just realyl fitting this workout in between other things. Well, getting it all in before I went up to Jacksonville for the Silversun Pickups Concert. So I got on the road, and just felt heavy. I can tell I've gained a few pounds the past few weeks, since my workouts are less frequent. But sans iPod and in regular gym shorts I just felt sluggish and heavy. I kind of lumbered the run at my usual pace. Which always feels like it's good until I look at myself in a window or someone passes me and I realize I look like a heavy guy just kinds shuffling. Whatever. I wasn't laboring on the run, and made it through well. But there wasn't much of a spark.
My concerns here are two today: First, I think I may have some residual after effects from whatever sickness I had. Which I am going to just have to deal with and thank God it wasn't worse. But I've never been good at pushing it when I'm really not feeling it. And I think it's too late for that kind of attitude adjustment. Second, I really need to take advantage of days when I have nothing scheduled. Workouts where I have to fit it in around anything else just are never as good. Period. So aside from ym training trip to Panama City this week, I am staying home as much as possible on my off days. I need to have these workouts count.
Swim - 30 minutes continuous
2 Lipodrene
As this was a swim/bike brick day, I opted to head down to Campus Lodge and train with Justin. It always makes for good bike rides, and they have a nice outdoor pool there that;s perfect for training days like this. I woke up about 11, on maybe 8 hours sleep (not enough after my cross-country odyssey to Seattle)and was a little lethargic in getting over there.
I still made it early, and Justin didn't join me in the pool until I was about 5 minutes into the swim. Lacking a watch, I just went for 30 laps, figuring I do about a lap a minute. I'm not sure if the pool there is exactly 25 meters though. It's close, but it feels about one stroke short. Anyway, I was able to keep my regular, good pace, but my breathing felt labored. Like I had a weight in my chest. This may be ok for a 1500 meter swim, but is not promising for longer ones. I think this may be a remnant of the "flu," such as it was. But even though the swim went fine, I wasn't overly thrilled with how it felt.
Bike - 90 Minutes
I'm not a fan of drafting, but I thought today I'd let Justin ride out so I could go balls out the 45 minutes back. Well, Justin hadn't been cycling sine our last workout a month or so ago, and was understandably a little slow. I didn't mind, as I wasn't exactly dying to push it going out on 441 with all the fucking wind. But we averaged about 17 on the trip down to Cafe Risque and the Country store on 441. (Our usual turnaround). Granted, there was a serious headwind, and I definitely felt it when I took over the front at the road to Cafe Risque. Justin enjoyed the increased speed, and I led the rest of the way.
I took gels 15 minutes and one hour in, despite not having a lot of time left. I just do it to keep in practice, ya know?
We hit the Country Store at about 43 minutes, so I thought we'd end up making it back at about 1:24-ish. Short, but not horribly short. Well, as it was we had a nice tailwind, and despite my shoulders being insanely jammed and not being able to drop into aero for very long, we still made it back in about 1:17. So I cheated it by 13 minutes. I'm not going to get too upset over that, but not something I need to make a habit of. Justin also pointed out that doing 112 miles in 6 hours or less is going to require a lot of aero time. I just hope my shoulders get conditioned like the rest of my body over the next month.
Run - 45 minutes
1 Lipodrene
I took about 2 hours in between these workouts, as the training card suggested. This was another day where I was just realyl fitting this workout in between other things. Well, getting it all in before I went up to Jacksonville for the Silversun Pickups Concert. So I got on the road, and just felt heavy. I can tell I've gained a few pounds the past few weeks, since my workouts are less frequent. But sans iPod and in regular gym shorts I just felt sluggish and heavy. I kind of lumbered the run at my usual pace. Which always feels like it's good until I look at myself in a window or someone passes me and I realize I look like a heavy guy just kinds shuffling. Whatever. I wasn't laboring on the run, and made it through well. But there wasn't much of a spark.
My concerns here are two today: First, I think I may have some residual after effects from whatever sickness I had. Which I am going to just have to deal with and thank God it wasn't worse. But I've never been good at pushing it when I'm really not feeling it. And I think it's too late for that kind of attitude adjustment. Second, I really need to take advantage of days when I have nothing scheduled. Workouts where I have to fit it in around anything else just are never as good. Period. So aside from ym training trip to Panama City this week, I am staying home as much as possible on my off days. I need to have these workouts count.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
T77 - Wind is Like Privilege - Swim/Bike Brick, Run
Gainesville
Strange title, I know, but I'll get to it. Today was a run-bike session together which mandated that the run be done several hours later. So as it was I called Justin to see if he wanted to train, since I can do a swim/bike brick from Campus Lodge and he only wants to do short workouts in preparation for his Sprint Tri this weekend. So I met him a little after 5 and we got started.
Swim - 30 minutes, 1500 meters
2 Lipodrene
They have a nice outdoor pool at Campus Lodge, and today it happened to have some music going for the after-work tanning crowd. Justin was doing some sprints, but I kept a solid pace and got in the full 30 laps I'd aimed to do in the allotted half hour. Or so Justin told me. He also told me that I was bringing my right arm out way too far on my strokes, something I am consciously doing. So I'm going to have to try and modify this a little during my short swim in New York. Maybe bringing the arm forward and bending the elbow as I come back to eliminate the drafting effect while still keeping the arm in.
Bike - 1 Hour
Did a nice transition at my car and headed down Williston on the bike. I hadn't done this road in a while and I remember why, it's just all trucks and a very narrow bike lane. Not exactly prime biking conditions. I also have some bad, bad associations with terrible rides on that road as well. But after I crossed I-75 I settled into Aero and was doing a solid 22-25, even after yesterday's grueling bike effort. I mean, I know I have to show off a little when I train with Justin, since he destroys me in the run and is a slightly better swimmer too, but I was just straight flying. He kept up, but I was thinking "Damn, I"m just crushing this today." I looked at the plants for any sign of wind and saw none, thus assuming I was just that good.
Then I turned around. Justin had bailed at the 20 minute mark as he'd wanted to do a shorter ride, but at 30 minutes I turned around, having averaged about 22 on the way down. Crushing a short ride, I thought. Well, notsomuch. Despite my thinking there wasn't much wind, I couldn't manage to muster much over 18 at the beginning of the way back. I even slowed to around 16 before I said "Fuck this, I'm averaging 20 on this bitch" and pushed it all the way to the end. Made it just over 20 miles in just over 1 hour, averaging exactly 20. The gel I took at the 15 minute mark helped, but during the ride I sarted to think, ya know, wind is a lot like societal privilege. Could be racial, gender, socioeconomic, whatever. But here's my thoughts...
Like wind, when you have privilege working for you, you don't even notice. You breeze through not realizing that you have a great force working behind you. You usually just think you're doing awesome all on your own. Or, for some, you realize you have it and decide to take full advantage, pushing as hard as you can to get the best possible result. But really, you never notice it until it is working against you. When wind, or privilege, is not in your favor everything becomes twice as hard as it usually is. You spend a lot of time saying "This isn't fucking fair. This looks so easy but for some reason I just can't do as well as I want to." Then you either decide to let the force against you win and perform poorly (as I did most of last cycle), or say fuck it, work a lot harder, and get the result you want. Like I did on my ride today. Last cycle I was a nigger sitting in jail. This cycle I'm Barack Obama. You see what I mean?
Deeper than usual? Sure. But it can't all be gels and Cliff Bars.
Run - 45 minutes (treadmill)
In continuing with my theme of improving my speed with treadmill work, I opted to do today's short run on the treadmill at 6.4. Which was too fast to maintain, so I dropped it to 6.2 and did ok. My stomach started feeling a little weird, which I found odd since I hadn't had any more Lipodrene and had only a Cliff bar and PB&J. I felt a little strained going at that speed for 45 minutes, which some might call sad, but I think its an improvement that needs to be made. Yeah, this run was kinda pathetic, but I need to keep doing treadmill work on shorter runs until my speed improves. I did get to watch the end of the Mets-Marlins game. But for some reason the bullpen only seems to like to close out games quickly when I'm tryingto watch them during a workout.
Strange title, I know, but I'll get to it. Today was a run-bike session together which mandated that the run be done several hours later. So as it was I called Justin to see if he wanted to train, since I can do a swim/bike brick from Campus Lodge and he only wants to do short workouts in preparation for his Sprint Tri this weekend. So I met him a little after 5 and we got started.
Swim - 30 minutes, 1500 meters
2 Lipodrene
They have a nice outdoor pool at Campus Lodge, and today it happened to have some music going for the after-work tanning crowd. Justin was doing some sprints, but I kept a solid pace and got in the full 30 laps I'd aimed to do in the allotted half hour. Or so Justin told me. He also told me that I was bringing my right arm out way too far on my strokes, something I am consciously doing. So I'm going to have to try and modify this a little during my short swim in New York. Maybe bringing the arm forward and bending the elbow as I come back to eliminate the drafting effect while still keeping the arm in.
Bike - 1 Hour
Did a nice transition at my car and headed down Williston on the bike. I hadn't done this road in a while and I remember why, it's just all trucks and a very narrow bike lane. Not exactly prime biking conditions. I also have some bad, bad associations with terrible rides on that road as well. But after I crossed I-75 I settled into Aero and was doing a solid 22-25, even after yesterday's grueling bike effort. I mean, I know I have to show off a little when I train with Justin, since he destroys me in the run and is a slightly better swimmer too, but I was just straight flying. He kept up, but I was thinking "Damn, I"m just crushing this today." I looked at the plants for any sign of wind and saw none, thus assuming I was just that good.
Then I turned around. Justin had bailed at the 20 minute mark as he'd wanted to do a shorter ride, but at 30 minutes I turned around, having averaged about 22 on the way down. Crushing a short ride, I thought. Well, notsomuch. Despite my thinking there wasn't much wind, I couldn't manage to muster much over 18 at the beginning of the way back. I even slowed to around 16 before I said "Fuck this, I'm averaging 20 on this bitch" and pushed it all the way to the end. Made it just over 20 miles in just over 1 hour, averaging exactly 20. The gel I took at the 15 minute mark helped, but during the ride I sarted to think, ya know, wind is a lot like societal privilege. Could be racial, gender, socioeconomic, whatever. But here's my thoughts...
Like wind, when you have privilege working for you, you don't even notice. You breeze through not realizing that you have a great force working behind you. You usually just think you're doing awesome all on your own. Or, for some, you realize you have it and decide to take full advantage, pushing as hard as you can to get the best possible result. But really, you never notice it until it is working against you. When wind, or privilege, is not in your favor everything becomes twice as hard as it usually is. You spend a lot of time saying "This isn't fucking fair. This looks so easy but for some reason I just can't do as well as I want to." Then you either decide to let the force against you win and perform poorly (as I did most of last cycle), or say fuck it, work a lot harder, and get the result you want. Like I did on my ride today. Last cycle I was a nigger sitting in jail. This cycle I'm Barack Obama. You see what I mean?
Deeper than usual? Sure. But it can't all be gels and Cliff Bars.
Run - 45 minutes (treadmill)
In continuing with my theme of improving my speed with treadmill work, I opted to do today's short run on the treadmill at 6.4. Which was too fast to maintain, so I dropped it to 6.2 and did ok. My stomach started feeling a little weird, which I found odd since I hadn't had any more Lipodrene and had only a Cliff bar and PB&J. I felt a little strained going at that speed for 45 minutes, which some might call sad, but I think its an improvement that needs to be made. Yeah, this run was kinda pathetic, but I need to keep doing treadmill work on shorter runs until my speed improves. I did get to watch the end of the Mets-Marlins game. But for some reason the bullpen only seems to like to close out games quickly when I'm tryingto watch them during a workout.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
T22 - The Ugly Club - Swim/Bike Brick (Stationary)
Gainesville
My schedule has been very weird lately. I tend to do work all day, maybe do some training, then stay up and do work until 2 a.m. Miami time aside. Waking up at 11, going to bed at 3. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not, as I've been very productive, but it leads to workouts like this one, with me heading out to GHFC at 10 p.m. And let me tell you, there are no good looking people at the gym on Saturday night late. I had the opportunity to walk around a little, and it was like being at Curves or something. I think all the people who are too fat to get dates, and too self conscious to workout with other people around go late night on Saturday. And me, of course, I'm just a weirdo.
Swim: warmup: 400 continuous. last 50 in each 100 is kick
main: 8 x 100 EBEH
2 Lipodrene
48 hours off and I hit the pool with a vengeance. I think I timed my ephedra just right, but I went pretty strong during the warmup. Each EBEH was also solid, as I was not dogging it at all on the "easy' laps. I also put out full effort on all 8 final laps. Nothing bad to say about the swim. I think time off just does me well.
Bike: 45 minutes (Stationary bike)
Yeah, this was another thing I did a little too much last cycle, doing the stationary bike instead of the trainer or going on the road. Again, the whole no motivation thing really hits the bike the hardest, especially when you can use the iPod and watch TV on the stationary. At any rate, it's recovery week and I hadn't used the stationary once yet, and I really didn't feel like setting up the trainer after I got home.
I changed over and walked by a couple of solid 4s engaged in deep conversation on my way upstairs at GHFC. This must have been the social highlight of their night. I put on the iPod and did 45 minutes on the stationary bike, which was not terribly challenging. It still makes you sweat a lot, though. I walked back downstairs to shower and the 4s were still talking, still not working out. Definitely their social highlight.
I'm going to try to keep the stationary bike workouts to a bare minimum this cycle, but if there was even an appropriate spot, this was it. That, and I was supposed to meet up with this girl after my workout, so unlike the rest of the people in there I had social plans that extended past a conversation on the staircase.
My schedule has been very weird lately. I tend to do work all day, maybe do some training, then stay up and do work until 2 a.m. Miami time aside. Waking up at 11, going to bed at 3. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not, as I've been very productive, but it leads to workouts like this one, with me heading out to GHFC at 10 p.m. And let me tell you, there are no good looking people at the gym on Saturday night late. I had the opportunity to walk around a little, and it was like being at Curves or something. I think all the people who are too fat to get dates, and too self conscious to workout with other people around go late night on Saturday. And me, of course, I'm just a weirdo.
Swim: warmup: 400 continuous. last 50 in each 100 is kick
main: 8 x 100 EBEH
2 Lipodrene
48 hours off and I hit the pool with a vengeance. I think I timed my ephedra just right, but I went pretty strong during the warmup. Each EBEH was also solid, as I was not dogging it at all on the "easy' laps. I also put out full effort on all 8 final laps. Nothing bad to say about the swim. I think time off just does me well.
Bike: 45 minutes (Stationary bike)
Yeah, this was another thing I did a little too much last cycle, doing the stationary bike instead of the trainer or going on the road. Again, the whole no motivation thing really hits the bike the hardest, especially when you can use the iPod and watch TV on the stationary. At any rate, it's recovery week and I hadn't used the stationary once yet, and I really didn't feel like setting up the trainer after I got home.
I changed over and walked by a couple of solid 4s engaged in deep conversation on my way upstairs at GHFC. This must have been the social highlight of their night. I put on the iPod and did 45 minutes on the stationary bike, which was not terribly challenging. It still makes you sweat a lot, though. I walked back downstairs to shower and the 4s were still talking, still not working out. Definitely their social highlight.
I'm going to try to keep the stationary bike workouts to a bare minimum this cycle, but if there was even an appropriate spot, this was it. That, and I was supposed to meet up with this girl after my workout, so unlike the rest of the people in there I had social plans that extended past a conversation on the staircase.
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