2009 Late Season Training

Beesting & Loose Skewer

This past week I finished my first of three Build weeks to set me up for Ironman Louisville on August 31st. I managed to survive, learn a few lessons along the way, and was thankful for the rest days in between. The key workouts consist of:

1. German style 5 hr bike ride faster than IM pace
2. Zone 3 bike ride for 90 minutes followed by 60 minute run faster than IM pace
3. Long hard run

A lot of times when you do really hard workouts like this you don't know what to expect. Sometimes you surprise yourself yet other times you make a few errors. The major lesson so far is pacing.

WEEK 1
Workout #1 was designed to be soulcrushing but with poor pacing, I sort of ruined it. I did the TriWisconsin Lannon loop three times (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3062739) with a working knowledge of how fast I can ride it per loop. Last week I did two loops at breakneck speed without much trouble. However, this time the wind was up and my stubborness led me to believe that I could still muscle out three loops fairly close to the same pace per loop. I was wrong. My final loop was 11 minutes slower than the first. Not good. And when it came to running 30 minutes afterwards, I struggled. While the focus was the 5 hr bike part and running was simply bonus material, I did not get what I wanted out it, plus I got a nasty beesting while riding. Adding insult to injury, my rear skewer was loose for the ride. Thankfully, I lucked out and nothing bad happened.

Workout #2 was at Crank Daddy's bike shop on a ergmo/computrainer to ride at constant watts to keep my heart rate within zone 3. What I did was ride 425 watts (the thing must be WAY off) for 90 minutes followed by a 60 minute build run. The first 20 minutes were to be easy, the second twenty moderate hard, and the final 20 tempo. It was a challenging workout.

Workout #3 was the long hard run. The goal was to run my usual 2:45 loop faster than usual and see what happened (house down north ave to parkway, parkway to Hawley then back along wells (at Hawley & Wells turn usually takes 29-30 minutes), connect with parkway head north, across bridge to hart park, up parkway to north ave junction (usually takes 60-62 minutes) up parkway to hwy 100 back along other side of parkway, back down all the way to Hawley, same route back to north ave then to home street). 20.5 miles later I finished in 2:30. I had to fight a few mental demons along the way yet I survived.

WEEK 2
Workout #1/German Ride
This was a combo workout with Camp Whitcomb/Mason Triathlon followed by 2.5 hr bike ride immediately afterwards. The race went really well (see race report) and the following bike ride was manageable. I was far off IM race pace, but I made it. I also thought about running after the ride, but called it a day. This was my substitution for the week's German Ride.

Workout #2
Long brick workout of 2.5 hr bike (originally going to be 3.5 hr) followed by 2 hr run. The bike was on pace until 2:10 when I was stung by a bee on the right thigh, ouch! I had to stop on the side of the road and was in considerable more pain than last week's episode. After a few minutes, I decided to cut my ride short and head back to the car. Ten minutes later I felt fine at the car, I decided to finish with the long run. I ran strong hold sub 7:30's. I was happy that I kept it together mentally.

Workout #3
Instead of a computrainer ride at Cranky Daddy's I opted to go outside and do the Lannon ride. I rode sub 1:40 for 35 miles with a 7:30 pace run for 45 minutes afterwards.

WEEK 3
Workout #1/German Ride
Long ride was 105 miles to Theresa and back in sub 5 hrs (4:56) with a sore throat/head cold. I was supposed to run afterwards but with a late start time I had to get to work. I ran 1 hr later in the day and it was easy. I did, however, check out the legs after the bike with a short jog and felt fresh unlike the previous effort the week before or a month prior when I did the exact same workout (105 miles to Theresa and back in 5:00) but could barely walk afterwards.

Workout #2
Long Run 1.5 hr hard at sub 7:20 pace in the heat. I suffered.

Workout #3
Olympic distance triathlon (see race report).

+++++++++++++++++++++

I followed this with Matt Fitzgerald's two-week taper.

+++++++++++++++++++++

In conclusion, the season has gone by fast. Adrienne and I have done a number of races with the usual drama. We won a few, lost a few, had moments of greatness and moments of failure. Mentally I feel cloudy with erradic motivation but physically things seem to be getting sharper. I believe the build workouts I have chosen for this year will make me stronger to handle the challenges of racing an Ironman.