Month: November 2017

Week 4. New shoes week! And my last MTB ride for a long time

It was finally time to get new shoes. I retired the original couple pairs of Newtons I’d been grinding away on for a while and replaced them with Newton Fates. I took them out for a spin around the lake for my first recovery week run. I’m not sure if it was fitness or if Spike Lee from 1989 was right that “it’s gotta be the shoes,” but I dropped from a 10:00/mile pace two weeks ago to 9:09 this week at nearly the same heart rate. That’s a sub-4-hour marathon pace, which is my race goal. Obviously there’s a difference between 4 miles and 26 (or 140.6) miles, but I’ve got six months to extend my range at that pace.

My first ride this week was high-power intervals. I think I got a little overzealous on the first interval when I looked up to see almost 800 watts. I backed off for the rest of the intervals, but I was still well above the target power, even though I did this (and all rides this week) at 110% of target.

I decided to do the third ride this week outside on a mountain bike. I’m not very good at mountain biking. I had a pretty solid crash that left my right leg scraped up, a deep thigh bruise and a sore shoulder. So much for a recovery week.

Two days later it was time for the last ride of the week. It was a 75 minute tempo ride that I’ve done a few times now. This time was at the same power as Week 2, but at 10 bpm lower heart rate!

Swimming went well this week. I took things pretty easy, but my pace is really improving! I did a bunch of 100yd and 250yd sets at around a 1:55/100yd pace. Previously I would average about 2:05. The goal is to get down to 1:45/100yd for 2.4 miles. Lots of work left to go…

Week 4: 5250yd/2h36m swimming; 56.4mi/4h43m cycling; 7.3mi/1h12m running; 4300 calories

Cumulative: 12,900yd/6h39m swimming; 288.9mi/20h28m cycling; 29.7mi/5h6m running; 16,100 calories

 

 

Week 3 of 32. Volume increase; continued progress

This was the third week of the four week block, which means it’s the highest volume week of the first block. I did almost all of my bike rides this week at 110% of the target power, and they felt pretty comfortable. That means that I’m gaining fitness, but it also means that I need to do another FTP test to recalibrate. I’ll do that at the beginning of week 5; it will hurt.

My running went well this week. I was running about 10:00/mile at a low Zone 3 heart rate last week. This week it was 9:45. My long run this week was twice as far as last week, a few beats per minute lower HR, and 15 seconds per mile faster. I’ll take it.

Unfortunately I learned this week that the 2018 IM Boulder bike course is about 114 miles. In 2015 my computer logged 110. That’s an extra 15ish minutes I need to shave off somewhere!

Next week, recovery week.

Week 3: 2700yd/1h22m swimming; 101.1mi/6h45m cycling; 13.6mi/2h20m running; 5400 calories

Cumulative: 7650yd/4h03m swimming; 232.5mi/15h45m cycling; 22.4mi/3h54m running; 11,800 calories

Week 2 of 32. This just might be doable.

Week 2. 

The first bike workout of the week was my first interval workout with measured power. The goal was 8 x 20-second intervals at 200% of FTP. I was able to ride the intervals at almost 300% of FTP (almost 600 Watts), so I was happy with that! I rode this in the morning before work and I spent the next few hours really wanting to go work out again.

I ran a lap around the lake and it felt great. I run by heart rate, so I rarely look at my pace. Every mile my watch tells me how fast the last mile was and I was surprised at how fast my miles were given the heart rate I was holding. After the first run of the week, my Garmin-estimated VO2-max was the highest it’s ever been, matching my peak from around the time of Ironman Boulder 2015.

I started the last bike workout of the week at the planned intensity, but it felt like I was soft pedaling. So I bumped it up to 10% higher than the training plan indicates. It was still pretty comfortable. But since I had a brick run coming up, I decided not to push it any further. This was the same workout I did mid-last week. I did it at 8% higher average power at the same average heart rate. Decent improvement for about 10 days. Let’s hope it sticks!

I was able to do the brick run at 10 min/mi pace in a low Zone 3 heart rate on the hills of my neighborhood. About the same as my run around the lake earlier in the week, but this one was preceded by about an hour and a half on the bike.

I’m about 6% of the way done with my training and I’ve already improved my running and cycling a bit. I feel like I have a real shot at breaking 12 hours. I know I’ve got a really small sample size right now and there will be setbacks along the way, but things are going the right direction now, so I’ll take the tailwind.

Week 2: 3250yd/1h41m swimming; 48.3mi/3h15m cycling; 5.7mi/0h57m running; 2900 calories

Cumulative: 4950yd/2h41m swimming; 131.5mi/9h0m cycling; 8.8mi/1h34m running; 6400 calories

Ironman Boulder 2018 Training, Week 1 of 32!

Well, I signed up for Ironman Boulder 2018. Training started this week. I plan to update this site weekly to document my progress and add some public accountability to my training. It might be pretty dry. 

The goal is to beat my friend Coop’s best Ironman time. Even though he was 25 and I’ll be 43! So 12:09:34 it is. I’m still developing intermediate goals to get me there. My two previous Ironman times are 16:05 (1:28/8:10/6:06) and 14:24 (1:33/7:16/5:11). So my biggest potential gains are on the bike. Reducing my bike time is the primary focus, but to cut 2+ hours off my best time, it’ll take gains in all disciplines (including transitions!) to get there.

I’m following the TrainerRoad full distance triathlon base plan right now (build and specialty phases to follow). It’s a lot of indoor trainer work, but I did a 2.5 hour session yesterday and it seems like I’ll be able to work with the long hours on the trainer.

Week 1: 1700yd/1h0m swimming; 83.2mi/5h45m cycling; 3.1mi/0h37m running; 3500 calories

Stay tuned…