Thursday, April 24, 2008

Speed Play

Today is day 10 of my 52 day build for Eagleman.  Today was a day of speed play.  Here is what went down:

Run: warmed-up for 15 minutes and then hit 6x 3min @ sub 5k speed (6:00-6:20/mile) with 2 min easy and then jogged home for a total of 8 miles in 64 minutes.

Swim: After a 1000 mixed warm-up I did an 800 TT in 12:07 (this is just a tad off my goal pace of 1:30/100).  I'll extend the distance of my TTs by 200 yards a week over the next 6 weeks and hopefully zero in on the goal pace.  I also did 8 broken 100s (50/25/25) all at 1:10-1:15/100 pace.

Bike:  On the Computrainer...15 min warm-up
10min@ 260 watts/5 min easy
5 min @ 300 watts/3 min easy
3 min @310 watts/2 easy
2 min @ 330 watts/3 easy
1:30@ 360 watts/3:30 easy
0:45@ 392 watts/4:15 easy
5min@255watts/5 easy
3 min@ 265 watts/2 east
10min@ 107 rpm
25 min warm down

nice!


Body Fat

Measured at 7.7% today.  This is considerably higher than the 4.3% I measured in the Cadence Kona Challenge and the 4.5-5% I typically measured last year.  I weigh 175 pounds so this implies that I need to lose a good 7-8 pounds to be race ready.  6 weeks to Eagleman--I'm on it!

Plan A/Plan B/Plan C

Update on my Kona qualification plans:

Plan A: I go sub 4:40 and qualify at Eagleman70.3 in early June.  I use IMAUS 5 weeks latter as a high quality brick workout but am careful/conservative on both the bike and run to minimize post w/o down time (this means rather than hammering out an 11 hour IM, I'll cruise to a 12:30-13 hour w/o and very little taper).   I'd then skip IMCAN and build for Hawaii.

Plan B: I don't qualify at Eagleman70.3.  I use IMAUS to experiment with the bike.  I'll ride VERY conservatively and try to focus on going sub 4 hours on the marathon.  I'd go into a maintenance mode/taper up to IMCAN and try to qualify there in late August.  Then maintenance cycle again and race Kona in October.

Plan C: I fail to qualify at IMCAN in Plan B above and end the year at the US National Long Course Championship in Nevada which I have already qualified for and entered.

Anders Update

So anders has recovered nicely.  The inflamation in his peroneal brevis tendon went away quickly with rest and advil.  By thursday he was able to bike and friday pounded out 8 miles.  He is fully mended.

Back at IMAZ, two of the guys that were behind him during lap 3 of the bike went on to run 4 hour marathons and qualify....oh what might have been!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

IMAZ--bad news

Well bad news here in Arizona.  Anders, at about 100 miles into the bike developed a severe pain in the outside of his right foot.  this pain was so great he had to ride in with his foot out of the shoe.  When he got into transition he was unable to put very much weight on his foot.  Upon leaving transition he had to sit down and the medical people worked on him for a while.  They diagnosed his problem is a severe inflamation of where the tendon that comes down the outside of your leg attaches to the outside of the foot.  The medical people and the race director strongly advised him to not continue on.  they told him that he would probably be injured for 6-12 months if he did.  Versus 2 weeks or so if he didn't continue.

This was brutal.  anders had rode his bike into 3rd place before the injury and entered transition still in 5th place despite not being able to put pressure on his foot over the last 12 miles of the bike.  He was just a minute or so out of 3rd.  He is obviously disappointed but I know will ultimately benefit from not really hurting himself on the run.  We are in recovery mode back at the hotel now....

IMAZ BIKE LAP 2

Anders came through lap 2 at 4:40:27 averaging 20.20 mph for the second lap--a slow-down of 0.8 mph from the first lap.  However, the conditions are much tougher now--sustained 20-25 mph winds and the temp is now 89 degrees with blazing sun.  Anders seemed in excellent spirits--he told me it was windy and gave me the hang 10 on the way out.

Significantly, with the exception of the leader (who was first overall, including pros, out of the swim) he made up time on all of his competitors on the second lap.  The standings after lap 2:

Kahn 4:06
Schmitz: 4:36
Evans: 4:38
CHRISTOFFERSON: 4:40

SCHMITZ I INCORRECTLY HAD AS BOSCH AFTER LAP 1.  So Anders passed 3 competitors and picked up 2-3 minutes on numbers 2 and 3.  He has a very good chance of being 2nd or 3rd at the start of the run......

That's my boy!

IMAZ Bike lap 1 Standings

here are the standings in the M18-24 AG after one bike lap:

Kahn   2:24
Melnuk  2:36
Bosch  2:43
Evans  2:45
Parry  2:46
Rogers 2:49
CHRISTOFFERSON  2:50

I

IMAZ Bike lap 1

Anders came through Lap 1 with an elapsed time of 2:50:34.  His bike speed is 21.07 mph which translates into a 5:19 bike split.  Anders passed 5 of the 10 guys in his AG who outswam him.  He has one guy, who exited the water a few seconds behind him, move slightly ahead of him during the lap.  as a consequence Anders has moved up to 7th in his AG (out of 79).  he was smiling when he went buy and he said something but I was too busy yelling for him to hear it.

It is now 83 degrees and sunny and the wind speed is now 22 mph--it's really, really tough out there......a lot of work ahead.....I'm not sure I could do it in conditions like this....

I expect him by again around 11:45 or 2:45 EST....

IMAZ Swim/T1

Anders exited the water in 63:45 which put him 306th OA and 11th in his AG out of the water.  This is a little slower than he did an IMFL but he is better placed (62:38/13th in AG) which tells me the swim here is probably a little slower than IMFL last year (which makes sense because IMFL lasgt year was as good as a swim gets).

His transition was 4:17.  I yelled to him as he went by but he was very focused on avoiding the other cyclists in a tricky ride out to the main part of the course.  He is now on the first of his 3 laps.  It is currently 74 degrees and very sunny.  The high is expected to hit around 93-95 sometime early in his run (most likely).  There is a fresh breeze--about 10 to 15 mph here but it will be more out on the Beeline highway.  The wind will be in his face on the outbound portion of the lap--this is also up hill with a total net climb of 400-500 feet.  He will do well to average 20mph through this part.  He will be flying on the return back to transition--certainly doing 30+ in stretches.  

Anders plan is average 200 watts on lap 1, 210 on lap 2 and 220 on lap 3.  this is below his capability but makes sense give the heat stress that he will have to deal with as the day grinds on.  I would expect him to complete his first lap somewhere around 1:40-1:50 which will be shortly before 10am local/1pm EST.  

Game on!  More latter.

IMAZ they are off!

well they are underway!  anders slept well and we awoke at 4am for bagels and coffee.  left for the site at 5 am.  sweet parking place.  i helped anders get ready and gave him a hug goodby/i love you.  he seems very on his game--so fit!  very emotional for me--first time i ever watched one in person.  i choked up--please lord let him have a great and safe day--he deserves one.....waiting near t1 now--more later!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

IMAZ prerace

Yesterday and this morning Anders and i went down to the swim course and swam in Tempe town lake.  The water is suprisingly pleasant and quite chilly--about 66-68 degrees--perfect for an IM swim.  You swim directly into the sun so sighting is a little difficult.  The course is very simple.  One very big loop.

I actually swam the whole course yesterday--it took me 76 minutes and this included a couple of minutes talking to one of the life guards.  I think anders will have a god shot at swimming close to 60 tomorrow.

The weather is forecasted to be brutally hot--95 degrees with no shade.  going to be a tough day out there....

Friday, April 11, 2008

IMAZ

I'm off in Phoenix helping Anders get ready for sunday's IMAZ--which will be his 4th IM of his 21 years on this planet.  Race day is forecast to be 94 and windy--yikes!!!!

We arrived yesterday and got everything ready for him.  Nice meal last night at the Salt Cellar.  this morning we are off to swim in the Tempe Town "Lake"....

It's a different experience to be at one of these things and not have to race....I'm going to focus on being the best support crew I can be!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

March Totals

With the tucson training camp, March 2008 was a very good month training wise.  My bike and swim are making excellent progress.  My run is still a disappointing despite my higher volume this year.  I'm starting to hit the track now and I hope that makes a difference soon.

March Summary (2008/2007/% change)

Swim: 42.7k  39.0k  +9%  (yds)
Bike:  1205  850  +42%  (miles)
Run:  131.5  144.9  -8% (miles)
Time: 111:29  90:19  +23% (hours)

YTD through March

Swim:  116  141  -18%
Bike:  2714  2365  +15%
Run:  407  363  +12%
time:  286  271  +6%