Well intended this to be a big week and in a sense it was. However, I woke up on Saturday with both knees very sore. this is standard fare the left but a relatively rare thing for the right. The 11 miler on thursday after everything else over the last 10 days may have been a bridge just a bit too far.
On Saturday, Judy and I were going to the beach to check on our place and she let me out and I rode 55 miles to our house--knees felt fine cycling but I decided to cancel my scheduled run. Today was more of the same--very achey even with a lot of ice. so just did a short trainer ride and cancelled today's long run. I will probably have to cut back a bit on M-W as well just to be safe and not sorry. Then sundance so it looks like I'll be getting a good easy week in whether I like it or not!
Anyways, the numbers for the week were:
26 hours training
246 miles biking including 2 solid long rides
34 miles running
12,000 yards swimming
some weights/EFX
The knee pain reminds me that it's been five months now since I last visited my ortho--probably time to get my knee "lubed" up again....
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
"nice" outside--time to get out and play!
Today was the beginning of a "warm" spell here in the mid-atlantic. For the first time this year we were supposed to get above 40 degrees! Yeee-hoooo!
So got up at 5 am and cruised a 45 minute tready run and then after dropping alex off at school headed over to NJ to take advantage of ice/snow free roads. It was 28 degrees when I started--positively balmy! but nice and sunny with only 10-15 mph winds. Warmed up during the ride which was slow but my longest since IM Canada back in august of 2008. ended up a little over 87 miles in a little over 5 hours....it'll do!
I'm tired tonight but happy to get a nice easy half-IM "overdistance base ride" in the bank.....
Hope to play some more outside before I head to sundance next week....
So got up at 5 am and cruised a 45 minute tready run and then after dropping alex off at school headed over to NJ to take advantage of ice/snow free roads. It was 28 degrees when I started--positively balmy! but nice and sunny with only 10-15 mph winds. Warmed up during the ride which was slow but my longest since IM Canada back in august of 2008. ended up a little over 87 miles in a little over 5 hours....it'll do!
I'm tired tonight but happy to get a nice easy half-IM "overdistance base ride" in the bank.....
Hope to play some more outside before I head to sundance next week....
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Grinding
Into an "overreach" week. Ground through:
-4000 yards timed at 67:20 (70:36 IM pace)
-9 "recovery" miles on the run
-2 and half hour trainer ride....
Cranked up my hypoxic tent and passed out in it for 2 hours at 11,000 feet....
Hope to get outside and put some bike miles in the next couple of days...
Trying to put together 10 hard days and then kick back at sundance...
-4000 yards timed at 67:20 (70:36 IM pace)
-9 "recovery" miles on the run
-2 and half hour trainer ride....
Cranked up my hypoxic tent and passed out in it for 2 hours at 11,000 feet....
Hope to get outside and put some bike miles in the next couple of days...
Trying to put together 10 hard days and then kick back at sundance...
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A little sunshine before Sundance!
Today was a modest but in my view important test of my running progress. Loyal readers will recall how horribly my 5k went last week. Today was the 5th time that I ventured forth to run the Icicle 10 miler here in Wilmington.
This is a pretty tough 10 miler with google telling us that it has 552 feet of climbing during the 10 miles. Frequently it is also cold and windy. I've never posted impressive times here (yes I know that I don't post impressive running times as a rule) but because of my prior history I thought this would be a good indicator race for me. I wanted to see if I was as bad as last weeks 5k seemed to indicate. I'll admit I was pretty nervous the night before--I haven't run longer than a 5k in a race situation since August of 2008 (IM Canada). Frankly, I had a lot of doubts. Judy asked me the night before what my objective was and I said all I wanted to do was just go 1 second faster than I ever have before on this course but that I doubted I'd be able to. I also told her I wasn't going to beat myself up if I didn't get it done today.
Times in this race are relatively slow (January, hilly, bad weather). However, I have the history and can compare to subsequent races to get a sense of where my season is going. Let's review the history:
2003: 79:16 157th overall and 19th in my AG. 2003 was early in my career and I don't have much to report about the rest of that season although I did run a sub 21 5k the following weekend.
2005: 77:08 145th overall and 20th in my AG. I was just coming off of IMFL (11:31) and subsequently ran a 1:38 open half-marathon at Caesar Rodney (which is a tough course) and then ran a 20:33 5k a month latter.
2007: 77:15 141st OA and 18th in my AG. This was my great year as Pete Reid was my coach. In March I did the B&A open half-marathon in 1:38; in April the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in 69 minutes (!); in May I did a 1:38 half in the White Lake half-Ironman; and in September I did a 1:33 at the Philly Half-Ironman. Set my IM PR at IMFL.
2008: 77:16 150th OA and 13th in my AG. I did a 1:40 at the B&A latter that year.
So, given my 2007 times and my similar level of commitment to that year, setting a PR on this course would be a very good sign.
Race morning, I left my hourse and the temp was 14 degrees, wind at 10-13 mph and a wind-chill of 4 degrees. This was the coldest Icicle Run that I have faced. My strategy was to "ease" through the relatively easy first 2 miles and then try to keep my HR under 168 on the very challenging 3-5 mile section. The rollers from 5-7.5 I wanted to recover and then hammer the downhills from 7.5-9.5. Then I wanted to just try to survive the difficult Adams Hill and then try to kick it home in under 77:08. Here's how it went:
Mile 1: 7:04 with a 163 avr HR. Might appear fast but I thought it was a good first mile--very easy being downhill and with the wind.
2: 7:37/14:41 cummulative with 163 HR. Good HR control but I was worried--wanted a sub 7:30
3: 7:56/22:37 @ 165. I was still under control but beginning to worry about my pace.
4: 8:01/30:38 @ 167. Brutal mile. Real slow yet my HR alarm was going a lot. Began to think I wasn't going to get it done.
5: 8:02/38:40 @ 166. Backed-off a bit to make sure I wasn't going into the red. At aid station the water was a frozen slush. At this point I realized that I had done a pretty good job of dressing (not much).
6: 7:44/46:24 @ 166. Decided to go for it over this rolling mile. I knew that I needed decidedly negative splits to reach my objective and thought that it wasn't likely (despite the course profile I'd never negative split this course before). In the latter parts of this mile I began to get my "sea-legs" and began to think that I might be able to give it a go down the stretch.
7: 7:28/53:52 @ 167. Feeling it and going for it. Not an easy mile and yet I posted my second fastest. I became convinced that I had a real shot. I knew that I had to make the next two miles happen to give myself enough cushion on the tough last mile.
8: 7:36/61:28 @ 168. I was pushing it but seemed to have a bad spell. I wanted a sub 7:30 here. Worried now!
9: 7:24/68:52 @ 168. Yes! Knew I had a great chance! Loved feeling the spring and attack of this mile. Committed!
10: 7:52/76:44 @ 170. Brutal hill but I was confident. I sealed the deal and took 24 seconds off of my PR! Finished 97th OA and 5th (!!!!) in my AG (out of 29). 3rd and 4th were in the two spots right in front of me.
Awesome! I'm thrilled.
Must put it perspective of-course. I'm probably not as bad as that guy that stunk up the 5k last week and I'm probably not the guy that's going to set run PRs all year (but hey--you never know!).
For the week I did 22:20 (so a pretty hard week to race off of) with 207 miles on the bike, 35 miles running, and 10.5k on the swim.
Looking ahead I won't race again for 6 weeks. Time to do the home work! On the 21st, Judy, Kara, Anders and I are going to the Sundance Film Festival for 4 days. Over the next 10 days its HARDCORE baby. Close to 30 hours in the week ahead.
I still believe!!!!!
This is a pretty tough 10 miler with google telling us that it has 552 feet of climbing during the 10 miles. Frequently it is also cold and windy. I've never posted impressive times here (yes I know that I don't post impressive running times as a rule) but because of my prior history I thought this would be a good indicator race for me. I wanted to see if I was as bad as last weeks 5k seemed to indicate. I'll admit I was pretty nervous the night before--I haven't run longer than a 5k in a race situation since August of 2008 (IM Canada). Frankly, I had a lot of doubts. Judy asked me the night before what my objective was and I said all I wanted to do was just go 1 second faster than I ever have before on this course but that I doubted I'd be able to. I also told her I wasn't going to beat myself up if I didn't get it done today.
Times in this race are relatively slow (January, hilly, bad weather). However, I have the history and can compare to subsequent races to get a sense of where my season is going. Let's review the history:
2003: 79:16 157th overall and 19th in my AG. 2003 was early in my career and I don't have much to report about the rest of that season although I did run a sub 21 5k the following weekend.
2005: 77:08 145th overall and 20th in my AG. I was just coming off of IMFL (11:31) and subsequently ran a 1:38 open half-marathon at Caesar Rodney (which is a tough course) and then ran a 20:33 5k a month latter.
2007: 77:15 141st OA and 18th in my AG. This was my great year as Pete Reid was my coach. In March I did the B&A open half-marathon in 1:38; in April the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in 69 minutes (!); in May I did a 1:38 half in the White Lake half-Ironman; and in September I did a 1:33 at the Philly Half-Ironman. Set my IM PR at IMFL.
2008: 77:16 150th OA and 13th in my AG. I did a 1:40 at the B&A latter that year.
So, given my 2007 times and my similar level of commitment to that year, setting a PR on this course would be a very good sign.
Race morning, I left my hourse and the temp was 14 degrees, wind at 10-13 mph and a wind-chill of 4 degrees. This was the coldest Icicle Run that I have faced. My strategy was to "ease" through the relatively easy first 2 miles and then try to keep my HR under 168 on the very challenging 3-5 mile section. The rollers from 5-7.5 I wanted to recover and then hammer the downhills from 7.5-9.5. Then I wanted to just try to survive the difficult Adams Hill and then try to kick it home in under 77:08. Here's how it went:
Mile 1: 7:04 with a 163 avr HR. Might appear fast but I thought it was a good first mile--very easy being downhill and with the wind.
2: 7:37/14:41 cummulative with 163 HR. Good HR control but I was worried--wanted a sub 7:30
3: 7:56/22:37 @ 165. I was still under control but beginning to worry about my pace.
4: 8:01/30:38 @ 167. Brutal mile. Real slow yet my HR alarm was going a lot. Began to think I wasn't going to get it done.
5: 8:02/38:40 @ 166. Backed-off a bit to make sure I wasn't going into the red. At aid station the water was a frozen slush. At this point I realized that I had done a pretty good job of dressing (not much).
6: 7:44/46:24 @ 166. Decided to go for it over this rolling mile. I knew that I needed decidedly negative splits to reach my objective and thought that it wasn't likely (despite the course profile I'd never negative split this course before). In the latter parts of this mile I began to get my "sea-legs" and began to think that I might be able to give it a go down the stretch.
7: 7:28/53:52 @ 167. Feeling it and going for it. Not an easy mile and yet I posted my second fastest. I became convinced that I had a real shot. I knew that I had to make the next two miles happen to give myself enough cushion on the tough last mile.
8: 7:36/61:28 @ 168. I was pushing it but seemed to have a bad spell. I wanted a sub 7:30 here. Worried now!
9: 7:24/68:52 @ 168. Yes! Knew I had a great chance! Loved feeling the spring and attack of this mile. Committed!
10: 7:52/76:44 @ 170. Brutal hill but I was confident. I sealed the deal and took 24 seconds off of my PR! Finished 97th OA and 5th (!!!!) in my AG (out of 29). 3rd and 4th were in the two spots right in front of me.
Awesome! I'm thrilled.
Must put it perspective of-course. I'm probably not as bad as that guy that stunk up the 5k last week and I'm probably not the guy that's going to set run PRs all year (but hey--you never know!).
For the week I did 22:20 (so a pretty hard week to race off of) with 207 miles on the bike, 35 miles running, and 10.5k on the swim.
Looking ahead I won't race again for 6 weeks. Time to do the home work! On the 21st, Judy, Kara, Anders and I are going to the Sundance Film Festival for 4 days. Over the next 10 days its HARDCORE baby. Close to 30 hours in the week ahead.
I still believe!!!!!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
pluggin away
Lots of work/travel but trying to plug away. Good set of w/os today:
3 hours on computrainer with core set of 12 x 3 min @ 250+ watts/2 min @ around 180 watts. The core averaged 223 watts for the hour. I probably could have handled 270+ watts for the hard part of the w/o as I'm guessing my FTP is around there but I'm cpmmitted to not frying my brain early in the year so that I'm still motivated in November. In any event 223 watts at the rear cassette is equivalent to 228 watts at the pedals and given the quantum nature of the w/o my normalized power was certainly north of 230 watts. I'd like to be in the 230-240 watt range at Ocenaside so this was a fine effort.
Hopped off the bike for an extended (45 min) transition run on the tready then went to the Y for a solid swim w/o including a set of 200s which were all comfortably in the 2:55-2:57 range.
Then a nice run double of 30 minutes.
This doesn't exactly set me up for lots of energy at sunday's 10-miler but as much as I'd like to go fast on sunday I need to train through these early season road races...
3 hours on computrainer with core set of 12 x 3 min @ 250+ watts/2 min @ around 180 watts. The core averaged 223 watts for the hour. I probably could have handled 270+ watts for the hard part of the w/o as I'm guessing my FTP is around there but I'm cpmmitted to not frying my brain early in the year so that I'm still motivated in November. In any event 223 watts at the rear cassette is equivalent to 228 watts at the pedals and given the quantum nature of the w/o my normalized power was certainly north of 230 watts. I'd like to be in the 230-240 watt range at Ocenaside so this was a fine effort.
Hopped off the bike for an extended (45 min) transition run on the tready then went to the Y for a solid swim w/o including a set of 200s which were all comfortably in the 2:55-2:57 range.
Then a nice run double of 30 minutes.
This doesn't exactly set me up for lots of energy at sunday's 10-miler but as much as I'd like to go fast on sunday I need to train through these early season road races...
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Bad news/good news from the front
Raced my first 5k of the season and quite a while today.
I did really poorly. I ran a 23:32 when I expected to easily manage a 21:30. My splits/HR were: 6:53/159; 7:10/172; 7:38/172 and for the last 0.1: 0:52/171.
The course was relatively easy except for the last 0.1 which was straight up a steep hill for some reason.
In my defense, it was 19 degrees with 30-45 mph winds and wind-chills of 2-5 degrees. The wind was a factor and I'll give the benefit of the doubt as a result. but I am quite disappointed. I'm 20 pounds lighter with a lot of good running work in and I',m as slow as I've ever been.
It is what it is. I guess I'm the 22:30 5k guy with the most potential! we'll see. I need to get under 21 in an open race to really be a factor....
On the good news front. I did get a 56 mile ride in outside (hard to do with all the snow and cold/wind) this week and I did my Saturday swim 100s all in the 1:18-1:23 range with the last 7 all under 1:20.
I would have been a happy clam with a 21:30 today (modest a number as it is!)
ended the week with 19:26 of training/172 miles on the bike/38 miles running/7.5k in the pool.
Need to work hard and create the capacity to do hard work without working so hard!
I did really poorly. I ran a 23:32 when I expected to easily manage a 21:30. My splits/HR were: 6:53/159; 7:10/172; 7:38/172 and for the last 0.1: 0:52/171.
The course was relatively easy except for the last 0.1 which was straight up a steep hill for some reason.
In my defense, it was 19 degrees with 30-45 mph winds and wind-chills of 2-5 degrees. The wind was a factor and I'll give the benefit of the doubt as a result. but I am quite disappointed. I'm 20 pounds lighter with a lot of good running work in and I',m as slow as I've ever been.
It is what it is. I guess I'm the 22:30 5k guy with the most potential! we'll see. I need to get under 21 in an open race to really be a factor....
On the good news front. I did get a 56 mile ride in outside (hard to do with all the snow and cold/wind) this week and I did my Saturday swim 100s all in the 1:18-1:23 range with the last 7 all under 1:20.
I would have been a happy clam with a 21:30 today (modest a number as it is!)
ended the week with 19:26 of training/172 miles on the bike/38 miles running/7.5k in the pool.
Need to work hard and create the capacity to do hard work without working so hard!
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