August (and everything , er before...)

OK, time to report on August 2018.  Bottom line, a real solid IM Build month.  Here is August 2018 vs. last year:

                   Swim         Bike         Run          Time

2018             35k          1,085        105          105 hours
2017             13               939          41            72

So, obviously I'm doing a lot more in getting ready for my IM this year than last.  I think it might be more instructive to look at my June-August IM build for each of my last three IMs as well as my progress this year:


                    IM         Swim         Bike        Run         Time

2013           IMLT      119            3069        337          268
2014           Kona       128            2988        333         261
2017           IMAZ       24            2864        159          220
2018           IMFL        77            3180        258          287

So swim wise, I'm starting to rebound nicely from the challenges I faced last year with my shoulder bursitis.  For these three months, I didn't put in as much volume in as I did in 2013 and 2014 but at 35k yards this month I'm pretty much back to where I was in those years.  I've been very conservative rebuilding my swim after having to go through 4 months of rehab last year due to my shoulder and I'm very pleased with how far I've progressed.  My recent times on my long OW swims are as good as I've ever been able to produce.  As far as IMFL goes, my swim is battle ready right now!

There is less variation in my biking volume.  I'm pretty consistent through the years.  I just completed my 8th consecutive month of 1,000+ miles this year.  My bike is solid.  Not as good as 2013/2014 but really trending up.  At the end of the day, I'm now slowing down on the bike as I age.  Still, I'm optimistic I can get strong enough to ride a 5:30 at IMFL, which puts me in the game!

My run (i.e. mostly walk) is what it is.  I'm putting the time in but my quality is so much less now--most of my Run(Walk) is walk these days.  I'm trying to get to the point where I can go after the swim/bike and still paste together a 6 hour marathon.  Not awesome of course, but it still might be good enough to punch my ticket to Kona in 2019...so I continue to push on....

At the end of the day I'm really working pretty hard at this.  I enjoy it and believe I have a chance, both to finish IMFL and perhaps to grab my 4th Kona slot.  I could not ask for more from a motivation stand point!  I'm really hammering now and am very motivated to stay on it!

rc             

Moving forward....

I just completed a pretty solid week, training wise.  Here are the totals:

Swim: 7,233 yards
Bike: 250 miles
Run/Walk: 34 miles
Time: 26:53

Most of this was actually recorded on Friday-Saturday as I had bust work schedule M-W and then was traveling on Th.  So, very solid effort.

Highlights included a 100-mile bike ride on Friday and the Cedar Island 5k swim race on Sunday.  The race turned out to be 4,299 yards in length--essentially 100 yards more than an Ironman and I did it in 66:30 which averages out to 1:33/hundred and implies I went through the IM distance in under 65 minutes.  I was 4th out of 11 in my Age Group but missed 2nd by 45 seconds.  it was  good swim for me as I did a bit better than a couple of folks I train with whom I generally consider to be better swimmers than I.

Back on it--Minnesoty style!

So this post comes from the Northern wilds of my Mom's cabin--in the family since 1934!

First up, let me give the final status on July--kinda a half month of IM build:

Swim: 23,700.  A very good month.  The total for the month is low but most of the volume was packed into the back half of the month.  And as you will see below, my swim is spinning into great shape--especially this far out in front of the IM.

Bike: 1043 miles--my 7th straight month with more than 1,000 miles.  I have very solid endurance.  No problem riding 100 miles.  I just need to begin to up the intensity and the period of time I stay locked in aero position.  I have the power to do a 5:15 split at IMFL.  But I suspect if the race went off tomorrow, I'd need to settle for 5:40 or so--those 25 minutes are important and the hard work here is coming.  I have a very deep base to build on!

Run: 102 miles.  Very slow.  But I'm beginning to climb the endurance hill (at my slow pace).

Time: 97:24.  Hey, I'm on it.  At least that's clear!

-------------

Ok, I flew to to Minnesota to visit my fam.  With the travel, I wanted to focus on 2-3 IM class workouts over the 4 full days here.  I've done pretty well given this objective.  I did a 17.6 mile run/walk on Friday and today I had my longest swim of my life!

Headline stats: Over 6,000 yards (3.4 miles).  I averaged 1:42/100 and went through the IM swim distance in 70 minutes (which would be my second fastest IM swim):

While I'm very encouraged to swim this far--(I'm a long way removed from my bursitis of last year!), I'm even more pleased with the consistency of my 500 yard splits.  I was pretty steady all the way through 4,000+ yards and then began to slow a bit--not a worry because I won't have to swim the far.

Competitively, a 70 minute IMFL swim (in salt water) would be great and seems very doable at this stage!

I also note that my average stroke length was just 1.6 yards.  It was probably 1.65 through the 2.4 mile IM distance.  If I can build this to 1.75 yards/stroke by the time of the race (which is principally a function of endurance power--not fading in stroke pressure as I get beyond 2500 yards) then a 66 minute swim becomes possible.  In 2007 when I last did IMFL, I did a 66 minute swim....

So my bike was a little light (we had some severe storms here) but I hope to get a long ride in tomorrow before i head back East.  Here are the last week stats:

Swim: 11.700 yards

Bike: 195 miles

Run/Walk: 22 miles

Time: 22:25

Onward and upward!