Locked and Loaded--Heading to Kona tomorrow!

OK--it is upon us!  Very pumped.  Also glad I don't have more emotional energy vested in the US Ryder Cup Team--heart-breaking!

A number of quick things to report:

The Week:

Three hard days at the beach with a IM length swim with the 7-mile babes, a 15-miler and a 86-mile bike.  Then--up to Boston for parents weekend at Boston College so we slid right into a 16-day Kona taper.  Stats for the week just ended:

Swim: 7500 yards
Bike: 198 miles
Run: 27 miles
Time: 18:17

The Month:

Last month of my pre-Kona build.  Hit peak-week mid-month and had a couple of life "interruptions" down the stretch.  Monthly totals:

Swim: 41,000 yards
Bike: 1,116 miles
Run: 124 miles
Time: 97:07

Three-Month IM Build

Find below a summary of my final three month IM-build before the following IM races:  2007 IMFL (where I did a 11:19),  2010 Kona,  2011 IMAZ (11:52), and this year's build for Kona 2012:

                                              2007          2010          2011          2012

Swim

R-3                                       36.8           19.1           35.0           38.9

R-2                                       42.0           30.7           36.4           36.9

R-1                                       49.5           41.1           40.3           41.0

Total                                    128.3          90.9         111.7         116.8

Bike

R-3                                       817            823           1212          1166

R-2                                       903          1141            806           1106

R-1                                       542            823           1105          1116

Total                                   2462          2787           3123         3388

Run

R-3                                       104            93             147             131

R-2                                       119            109            110            133

R-1                                       108            105            177            124

Total                                     331            307            434            388

Time

R-3                                       71.0           76.7        101.0            99.0

R-2                                       88.7         101.6          76.8            95.6

R-1                                       61.8           78.1        107.9            97.1

Total                                    241.5        256.4        285.7           291.7

A number of observations:

1. I was a lot faster in 2007 than today.

2. I've put more time into my swim over the last two years than I did pre-Kona 2010.  Obviously, not what I did back with Peter Reid in 2007 but I think My swim should be fine at Kona this year.

3. I continue to build my biking.  I keep doing more biking but at a lower power output.  This is probably not the right thing for me but it's what I generally enjoy.  I'm very consistent on the bike.  I don't expect any real surprises on the bike at  Kona this year.  I did 6:20 in 2010 and I feel like I should and could be 20 minutes faster this year.  That said, if that didn't happen it would not be a huge shock to me.

4. My run has been consistent in this year's build both volume and intensity wise.  The volume has been adequate but the intensity (ie speed) unfortunately has been dreadful--I'm getting older and a lot slower on the run .  That said, if I use my brain on 10/13, I could indeed run faster than 2010.

5. I continue to increase my workout volume (time) and get slower as the years go on.  what is the lesson here?

We are laeaving for Kona tomorrow morning.  Please check back frequently as I will be a very active blogger in the days to come!

19 DAYS TO KONA

So last week was a very solid BIG PUSH kinda IM build--sitting at 19:30 through Friday....then we had the World Extreme Bocce Championships--which were awesome and could be the source of an entirely different blog--but I won't bore you.  Suffice it to say there was little real training going on this Saturday and Sunday.  None-the-less--last week's stats:

swim: 8500 yards
bike: 257 miles
run: 28 miles
time: 22:39

The two day hiatus might be a good thing.  I'm back at the beach today and did a 15 mile run and a IM+ swim....tomorrow will do my last major (100+ mile) ride....

Still have to finish the Shoreman race report....soon!

Kona Big Push one

OK--26 days to Kona.  Big push week number one.  Here are the stats:

swim:  13,500 yards  (big swims of 4000 and 4500 yards)--BIGGEST SWIM WEEK OF THE YEAR
bike: 344 miles  (big bike of 116 miles)
run: 41 miles  (big run of 13 miles)
time: 30:26

So....a little light vs plan for the run and the bike.  It is what it is.  Post H-IM fatigue early in the week and I just think being 55 years old is beginning to catch up to me.  I think that 30 hours or so is about the limit that I can reasonably expect to reach these days--especially if I want to string 2-3 weeks together at that level.

Some of this limitation is physical but more of it is motivational.  Even with our empty-nest situation and my between job status, I find it really hard to drag myself out for more than 30 hours a week.  What that means is that I'm not that excited about some workouts but once I get into them for 5-10 minutes I'm ok.  Motivationally, I think I could handle 35 hours or so, but I sense I'm getting close to my limit.

Physically, I'm pretty solid.  I hurt.  My knee sucks.  But beyond that, things are pretty good.  I've been dealing with a low-level upper respiroratory thing for several weeks but it is probably just a function of lots of working out and not that much eating.  I did a 4000 yard swim this morning (and followed it up with a 13-mile run and a 1:45 bike) and did not feel any real upper body fatigue--this is a good sign.  I do think if I were to push up to 50+ miles/week running and combine that with mid 300s on the bike that I might be rolling the dice a bit so I think I won't do that this coming week.

I think my swim is locked in--I'll be fine at Kona.

My bike, I believe is very good as well, but it's hard to tell given the training load I'm under--I'm pretty much always tired on the bike given the bike/run load I'm under.

My run---well, it is what it is...


I owe a race report from my Shoreman Half and I'll get to that soon....more focus on training than writing this week.

Might dial down slightly this week--say 25-30 hours as my son Alex and I are defending our World Extreme Bocce Championship title on Saturday....

ALL GOOD!

Weekly totals

This past week:

swim: 11,500 yds
bike: 248 miles
run: 17.6 miles
time: 20:08

OK--all eyes on Kona now.  The BIG PUSH starts tomorrow--3 big weeks in a row.  Next week's plan calls for:

13,000 yds swimming
21:30 on the bike
6:45 running
32 hours total

Let's see how the old bod holds up.....

Shoreman Highlights

I competed in the Shoreman Half-Ironman distance race yesterday.  My performance was certainly less than I would have expected and hoped for and a far cry from last year's pre-IM HIM preprace, SkipJack.  I'll post a full race report shortly but here are some highlights.

1.  The conditions and the length of the course conspired against a fast time yesterday.  I had hoped to go under 5 hours but race day featured 20-35 mph winds and severral boughts of torrential rains--so much so that I was just about blinded at times during the ride.  Lots of standing water on the ride course was also a concern (that said, it was a very simple course technically so I never felt particularly challenged--safety wise--on the bike).  The temp hovered around 80 degrees and was generlly overcast with a few periods where the sun peaked out--wild weather day.  The humidity was very high--in fact around 90% and so the dew point was above 70 degrees--which at the end of the day is just too high for me to do a long-course triathlon in.  The swim turned out to be 1.32 miles long--a little over 200 yards longer than the standard--this added about 3:10 to my swim time.  The bike turned out to be 57.3 miles in length--this added about 3:50 to my time, relative to standard distance.  The run however, was short at 13.02 miles--this shaved 47 seconds vs. a standard 13.1 miles.  Net-net, I lost 6:13 vs. a well-measured course.  None of this is a surprise as they announded before hand that the course was long.

2. I swam pretty well, but not great.  My swim time was 34:32--I was 4+ minutes faster than any of the other 15 55-59 YO competitors in my AG.  I was 7-15 minutes ahead of the key competitors.  With the distance adjustment above, my time would have been 31:02, which would have been my fastest HIM split ever, but still, I think I have more potential on my swim.  I's give my swim a B+/A-.

3. I transitioned very well and picked up valuable time in both Ts.

4.  My bike was very disappointing.  Right from the start, I had real power-shortage issues.  I just couldn't stress my aerobic system enough due to leg power issues.  This may be due to a lack of fitness, but more likely due to a possible sickness (Alex has been sick recently) or my calorie-deficit that I am running in prep for Hawaii.  Further, my recent back issues flared up and I just couldn't power through my stroke like I normally do and I couldn't stay down in the aero-position due to the pain--it was a most unpleasant ride.  Further, my new front-end hydration system didn't arrive and time and I went out their with only one bottle.  As it turned out, they only had one bottle exchange on the course (though I snagged an 8 oz bottle from a nice lady) and this was water only--no nutrition.  As a result, I was only able to drink about 45 oz for the ride and I consumed only 700 calories or so--this led to caloric and hydration deficit--which created some issues for me  (this is all just bad planning on my part).  Anyways, I had my worst bike of the year, only splitting 2:40.  this was probably a good 12-14 minutes slower than it should have been.  As bad as it was, it did have the virtue of being 10+ minutes faster than anyone else in my AG.

5.  I left T2 with an 18+ minute advantage--it should have been more than 30 minutes but it did prove to be enough.

6.  My run was very challenging as I was undernurished and dehydrated.  I persevered and had to suck it up down the stretch to hold off a fast-closing competitor.  I ended up winning  by just 33 seconds and my final run was 2:08 and my OA time was 5:27:35

So, pretty disappointing all-in-all.  Oh well--it's money in the bank.  also, it's nice to string 3 AG wins in a row heading into Kona.  At this point, I have 5 wins and 4 seconds in my 10 races this year.

Now, it's time for the BIG PUSH over the next three weeks--The next time I race will be Kona....

Race report shortly....

life interlude

Three days doing the family move thing and lots of guests for Labor Day so triathlon went to the backseat this week.

This week will be soft as well as I am doing a Half IM on Saturday.

The lull before the storm as the next three weeks will be huge--looking at around 30 hours/week.

I did the Tim Kerr 7-miler (58:30) so I'm still under 60 until 60....it was a comfortable effort but not easy. It could be a real challenge to break 60 minutes there for the next 5 years...we'll see....

So, this week's totals were light:

swim: 4000 yards
bike: 175 miles
run: 33.2 miles
time:16:26

I did make sure to get my run miles in and sacrifice my swim/bike with the family time pressures.  I did do a 4000 yardf swim today (i felt bad but swam well--63:22) and tomorrow am planning a long ride, if the the weather holds....

all good!