Week 14 - Recap

Week 14 had some great training weather here in New England with the weather in the 70's and 80's this week. I was able to get in some great bike miles this week. Also, for the first time on Thursday I was able to ride with a group that leaves from my gym at 6am. The group ride was a little too early for me because I'm not the one that likes to get up that early to workout. We rode with about 12 guys and we did a 30 mile loop and we ended up averaging 21.4 mph, which was great for me! I was also able to go for another group ride this past Saturday with my fellow TriFury group. We had a great turnout of about 25 riders, but it didn't take long for things to thin out with myself and another local great triathlete, Thor Kirleis to take off on our own. The course for the group ride is well marked on the roads and we were told that it was a 30 mile ride, but it ended up being a 32.6 mile ride and we averaged 20.9 mph. All and all it was another great week for bike mileage, but my running mileage again was low.

Here are the totals for Week 14:

• Swim - 7,282 yards
• Bike - 81.66 miles
• Run - 10.61 miles

Week 13 - Recap & Bike Fit

Well the recap of Week 13 is a week past due. Between work, racing & my long weekends spending time with my lovely girlfriend, it doesn't leave me much time to post, so here I am catching up. Week 13 was a decent week considering I was able to add more miles to the bike this week, but I ended up slacking on the running. On Friday, April 18th I was able to schedule a professional bike fit at The Cycleloft in Burlington, MA. It was great to finally get dialed in and learn the process of a bike fit. The bike fit started by first analyzing my current setup. After looking at my current setup it was apparently very unorthodox. I was to far forward on my bike and my bike cleats weren't in the correct position. The bike fit ended up taking about 2 hours, but afterwards I couldn't believe the difference. Joel, the bike fit professional, made adjusts to my cleats on both my race and training shoes, adjusted the saddle and post to the correct height and then lowered my aerobars to give me a pretty basic tri-bike setup. I was also given a set of orthotics for my bike shoes. Come to find out it’s not normal to have your knees hit the middle tube on the bike. This was happening because from my thigh to my knees, they go inwards and then my tibia's bow out. The orthotics fix this problem almost making my legs straight when I peddle and relieving a lot of stress that I had been feeling on my IT band. I was able to test out the bike fit I had received on Friday in the Wrentham Duathlon on Sunday, April 20th.

Here are the totals for Week 13:

• Swim - 7,282 yards
• Bike - 37.1 miles
• Run - 9.94 miles

Wrentham Duathlon - Run 3 / Bike 11 / Run 2

This was a race I had put on my race calendar during the winter when I was planning out my season, but didn’t sign up for because I wasn’t sure what the weather would bring considering it was an early spring race. I still wasn’t sure if I was going to race this one or not until the night before.

The weather for race day was suppose to be in the mid 40's to lower 50's with the race starting at 8:30. When Jess and I arrived it was cloudy and about 43 degrees. It was going to be great running weather, but I knew it was going to be a chilly bike leg. By the time I finished warming up and setting up my transition area the sun was out and it had warmed up to maybe 50 degrees.

Run - 3 miles - 16:43 (5:34 per mile pace)

The first run went great and it felt like a relaxing pace. I didn't want to take the first run to hard because I wanted to save whatever I had left for bike leg since I haven't been able to put much time in on the bike. The run was pretty flat with no hills and was a 3 mile loop around the Wrentham Fairgrounds. I finished the first run 4th overall and 2nd in my age group. As soon as I went into the transition I was passed by a few people because I hadn't switched my running shoes over with the quick laces. This transition was also setup in the grass and it was soaked from the morning dew. My plan was to try and start the bike leg with my bike shoes clipped in on the bike and then tighten them up once I was going on the bike. I wasn't able to do this since we started on grass so I ended up putting on my bike shoes in the transition area and ran my bike out to the road.

Bike - 11 miles - actual -10.93 miles - 31:38 (20.7 mph)

Well I knew that this was going to be my weakest leg of the duathlon since I haven't put enough time in the saddle training for my half ironman. Well sure enough I was right. The course wasn't that hilly, but had some rolling hills, which I would have to say that I kinda struggled with. It didn't take long for me to start getting passed on the bike leg. I think I ended up getting passed by about 12 people on the bike leg, which put about 16 people ahead of me coming into the second run. This transition was done exactly how I wanted to do it. I ended up unstrapping my bike shoes and leaving them clipped into the pedals and pedaling with my feet on top of my bike shoes. As I approached the dismount area I was able to ride in and jump off and start running with my bike. This was a much quicker transition and was able to get my running shoes back on allot quicker even though I still had to mess with laces.

Run - 2 miles - 11:51 (5:55 per mile pace)

The last run wasn't to bad, but my legs could feel it from the bike leg. I'd have to say that they didn't feel like they did the first time I ever did a bike to run transition. My legs are getting use to the bike to run transition but I do need to spend more time doing this. This run was flat as well with a 2 mile loop going around the Wrentham Fairgrounds as well with no hills.

Finish

I was able to pass 2 people on the run to finish 14th overall and 4th in my age group with a final time of 1:00.14. I wasn't sure how I was going to finish as far as time or place considering I hadn't really examined the results from the previous year so I was happy that I finished in just over an hour. It was also great that my Aunt Joyce who lives about 20 minutes away was able to show up and be part of the cheerleader / support group and kept Jess company during the race. Also, as a I side note, Jess and Joyce said that I had definitely finished in the top 10 after the race so I was excited to find this out. So after waiting for the race director to post race results I found out that I wasn't even in the final results. Well, come to find out they weren't able to download the actual results since the cord that connects to their laptop wasn't working so they had to resort to manual timing. After talking to the race director and giving the my time I ended up placing 16th overall and 5th in my age group. I was definitely a little disappointed since this would be the first race of the season that I wouldn't come away with any hardware or prizes. Well we ended up sticking around for the awards ceremony for the 1st and 2nd place for every age group and then left. After we got home and checked the results online I had found out that I had actually done much better than I had originally thought.

All and all it was a great race considering the SNAFU with the results. It was also a good indicator that I need to put more time in the saddle to get ready for my half.

Week 12 - Rest & Recovery

Well this past week was the best recovery week I've ever had. I've been finding that even on my recovery weeks I've still been working out at the same intensity as my normal weeks, which in turn has started to burn me out my first week back after a recovery week. So this time around I decided not to workout as much. I also took some time off this week since I really wanted to rest up my legs for next weeks workouts since a week from today I had run a half marathon PR. This week consisted of three (3) days off from training, three swim days, 1 running day and 1 biking day. Here are the totals for Week 12:

• Swimming - 3,366 yards
• Biking - 1:36 (28.5 miles)
• Running - 2.85 miles

Week 11

After this weekends great half marathon performance I figured as part of my Week 11 recap I might share some some insight as to how I have improved my performance. I’ve left certain things out of my blog in the previous weeks, but for the last 4 weeks I’ve been doing 1 track session a week. Each week was a little different, but it mostly consisted up to about 12 – 200 meter repeats with a 200 meter jog between or up to 10 – 400 meter repeats with a 2 minute rest between each one. I think I can safely say this paid great dividends in greatly improving my times.

This past week consisted of one running speed work session and then two short runs, run at a 6:30 pace. I also was able to get outside twice last week on the bike, which was great. The downside to it was that by the time I got home from work I was limited because of daylight, but I managed some great hill repeats one day and one steady ride. Swimming consisted of a Time Trial on Friday of 1,650 yards, which I was able to complete in 24:16, which I’m not sure if that’s great or not. If I compare it to my last Swim Time Trial back in Week 6, I was only 2 seconds slower at the half mile mark, which isn’t to bad. Week 6 was a 1,000 yard time trial that I completed in 14:42. I think I was slower this time around only because I stopped lifting twice a week and have been focusing on just training, but from the looks of it I may have to start lifting again just to keep my muscle base up for the swimming.

All and all I can’t complain with a great break through performance in the Half Marathon this past Sunday. Here are the totals for Week 11:

• Swim - 6,424 yards (3.65 miles)
• Bike - 90 minutes
• Run - 22.14 miles

Year to Date Totals:

• Swim - 62,902 yards (35.74 miles)
• Bike - 1,230 minutes
• Run - 202.14 miles

Great Bay Half Marathon

Prior to race day, Jess and I decided to drive up Saturday and pickup my race number and then drive the race course. I wanted to drive the course because the topography map shown on the race site was set at such a huge scale it was hard to tell how hilly the race actually was, but I also wanted to mentally prepare myself for the race as well. Going into this race I wanted to see if a Personal Record (PR) was attainable.

With course map in hand, Jess and I started driving the course and at about mile 2.5 to mile 5 the course turned into a packed down sand/gravel road that was loaded with potholes. I was like you have to be kidding, we are running on this? So I stopped to check to see how bad it was to run on and it wasn’t that bad at all. We continued driving and miles 2.5 to 5 were rolling hills with nothing major that had some down hills. Once we got past mile 5 was right where the hills started. It started with a huge downhill into a little valley right to a good size hill right at mile 6 and mile 7. The good thing was that after each hill at mile 6 and 7 was that there was a flat section with little rolling hills, which made for a great recovery from the two hills. The great part of the race was going from miles 8 to 9 since it was mostly downhill. Once we reached mile 9 it was flat all the way to the home stretch with the exception of a small hill at mile 12.2 or so.

Jess and I arrived race day around 10am, which gave me an hour to the start of the race. I went for a about a 10 to 15 minute warm-up run and then came back and stretched out. While stretching out my shin splints were bothering me and I was still considering whether or not I was going to try and race in my racing flats or my regular training shoes. I ended up racing in my racing flats and right up to the start I was wondering how much of a good idea this was going to be since I’ve never run a half marathon in racing flats. Needless to say after stretching out I seemed to be okay. Right before the start I went for another 10 minute warm-up run to make sure I was ready to go and then headed for the Starting Line.
I lined up right on the Start Line since they started it a 6:00 minute per mile pace. My race strategy going into the race was not a PR because of the hills so I figured I’d still be around a 6:24 per mile pace. The first mile ended up being a 5:58 and it was comfortable. I was also surprised to find myself in the front pack of runners with the exception of two runners who were running the first couple of miles at about a 5:30 per mile pace. At mile 5 things started to thin out and left me with a pack of four runners. It was a great group that I ended up running with and we even ended up talking a little during the race. I stayed behind them because after mile 5 we were running into the wind. I figured, why should I spend my energy to break the wind when I could use them to do it. We ended up running as a pack of 4 right up to mile 12 and that was were everyone started to thin out and head for a strong finish. Since this race was my longest run of the season, I ended up hitting the wall right at the last small hill at about mile 12.2. It wasn’t till I looked at my watch at mile 13 did I realize I was about to set a PR for the half marathon. There was no sprint to the finish for me since my legs were so cramped, but needless to say I was happy when I finished with a time of 1:18.19, which is a 5:59 per mile pace. Once I got through the finish line chute it was great to see Jess smiling and saying, “You beat your old time and I got some great pictures of you!” I ended shattering my Half Marathon PR by 6 minutes! My previous PR for the Half Marathon was 1:24.16 (a 6:24 per mile pace) at the B.A.A Half Marathon that was held on October 7, 2007.

My time was good enough for a 6th place overall finish and I was 1st in my age group by about 9 minutes! After I finished I grabbed a bottle of water and a bottle of Accelerade. Accelerade has become my recovery drink of choice and I almost prefer this over Gatorade. After hitting the recovery tent, Jess and I headed for the gym so I could stretch out. The funniest part was when I entered the gym, the people that had been waiting for their loved ones and friends to finish thought I was the 1st place finisher and started clapping for me! It was great and I didn’t mention I was the 6th finisher. Hahaha! After stretching out we waited for the awards ceremony. The awards were great! I ended up getting a mug and inside was a gift certificate to Margarita’s Restaurant for 2 free dinner entrees and a 50% off gift certificate on any of the Loco Running shoes they offer. (Loco Running was the race organizer who also happens to make shoes and is a running club in NH.) Overall I ended up winning about $100 dollars in gift certificates, not bad for a $40 dollar registration fee!

Overall, I was thrilled, psyched and amazed that I was able to pull off such a great Half Marathon time with only 11 weeks of training under my belt. I can’t wait to see how I make out in my 2nd year of triathlon.

Here were my mile splits from the race:
1 – 5:58
2 – 6:03
3 – 6:00
4 – 6:03
5 – 5:54
6 – 5:55
7 – 5:45 (mostly downhill at this point)
8 – 6:04
9 – 5:54
10 – 5:54
11 – 5:54
12 – 5:57
13 – 6:14