Wow, it's so much fun to see improvment!
This morning I changed up the swim routine just a bit, doing sprints first.
100 easy warmup
5x50 at 1 min
5x200 at 4 min
5x50 at 1 min
100 cooldown
(Total 1700)
The first set of 50's I worked on arm turnover more than form. Felt fast and it got the early morning blood pumping. I did most of these at about :40-:42.
The 200's are what really suprised me. The past few weeks, I've been getting them done regularly at 3:13 (for about a 47 second rest between sets). This morning, I consistently did them in 3:03-3:05. Wow! I don't know where I lost that 10 seconds, but they felt so much stronger.
Last week, I worked with a couple of girls on swim strokes and maybe it was a bit of a mind-refresher to me too. I also follow a good triathlon blog and last week she had some interesting video showing Michael Phelps' stroke. http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/?p=1342 I concentrated more on the stroke, mainly with reaching more in a breath stroke. Wow, I did feel a bit more power. Something must be clicking.
One week to go before the triathlon. Whee!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I feel the need for speed
Since I found the average speed function on the bike computer, I've become a bit obsessed. This morning's ride in, I managed to average 16.1mph overall. The first 13 miles I averaged 16.8, but admittedly, it's the considerably smoother and less trafficked half of the ride. I got to work 15 minutes earlier than I used to last summer. Whee!!
Amazing sights this morning -
- Incredible sunrise over the storm clouds leftover from last night's rain.
- A parade of mallards crossing the street; 12 babies in tow.
- A huge, bouffant hairdo on a teenager. It was reminiscent of the early 60's, but on a goth girl.
- Bright green lawns still heavy with rain.
Enjoy the day, all!
Amazing sights this morning -
- Incredible sunrise over the storm clouds leftover from last night's rain.
- A parade of mallards crossing the street; 12 babies in tow.
- A huge, bouffant hairdo on a teenager. It was reminiscent of the early 60's, but on a goth girl.
- Bright green lawns still heavy with rain.
Enjoy the day, all!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Olympic lenght triathlon
So I'm debating doing my first olympic length triathlon (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run).
One of the guys in my circle of former Adventure Team friends has gotten into triathlons the past few years and said that he was planning to do this one this year. http://www.toyotausopentriathlon.com/site7.aspx
So I'm looking at my event calendar for the year and think it actually might fit in well with what is going on this fall. I have 2 major bike events, RAGBAI and Hotter n Hell, in July and August, then the next major event is a half in Las Vegas in December. I'm thinking that by the time I'm ready to start training for the half, this will be the mid-point.
Whaddya think?
One of the guys in my circle of former Adventure Team friends has gotten into triathlons the past few years and said that he was planning to do this one this year. http://www.toyotausopentriathlon.com/site7.aspx
So I'm looking at my event calendar for the year and think it actually might fit in well with what is going on this fall. I have 2 major bike events, RAGBAI and Hotter n Hell, in July and August, then the next major event is a half in Las Vegas in December. I'm thinking that by the time I'm ready to start training for the half, this will be the mid-point.
Whaddya think?
Monday, May 25, 2009
Pre-triathlon
Well this workout was in the plan for yesterday, but after a big breakfast with the neighbors, the belly decided that this would wait until Monday morning. We had another big meal last night and man, I was still full this morning.
Anyhoo, I got up this morning, checked the YMCA website to see what time they opened and was thrilled to see they opened at 7am. Game on! I grabbed the necessary gear and headed out. The plan was a bike-run-swim-bike. Technically, I was doing all the disciplines in order (sort of) and working them at about 80%.
The bike to the Y was fantastic. I did 8.7 miles right at :30 with an average of 16.8! Of course, there's one really good downhill on the way, but hey, I'll take it! There are a lot of great downhills on the course too (followed by uphills, dangit!)
Once at the Y, I went upstairs, changed shoes and jumped on the treadmill for 3.1. Kept the speed at 5.7 for the first .25 miles, up to 6.1 through mile 1, then 6.5 through 2.5 miles. At 2.5, I put the angle up to 2.0 and dropped the speed to 6.0 to simulate a slow, gradual, brutal hill at the end of the race in Austin. Then the final .25 miles, I cranked it up to 6.9 to finish it out. Bleh! Tiring! Finished in about :29, I think. I can't remember.
I did run without socks, which is something I'm considering for these sprint tris. It worked out well without any hot spots so I'll probably do it in Austin.
Waddled back downstairs to the pool to finish off the min-tri. After a quick, cooling shower I jumped in the pool and cranked out 800. I was excited about the time on that 800 until I realized I was doing yards instead of meters. Still, it's going to be pretty close. I got that 800 yards done in :14! Holy crap! Despite being really tired from the bike/run, this went pretty well. The open water with a bunch of other swimmers will slow me down a bunch, but I'm happy with this time, for sure.
Last year my times looked like this for my very first triathlon (same course as this year):
Swim 21:50 T1 03:26 (panicked on the first bit of the swim, then figured it out)
Bike 46:19 T2 02:09
Run 33:58 (choked completely on the run!)
Final 1:47:44
So now I'm going to throw this out there for my goal times:
Swim 17 T1 2:30 (different/faster to put on shoes this year)
Bike 43 T2 2:00
Run 31:30
Final 1:36:00
That's a big difference (and my high level goal), but I don't think it's that far out of reach. I'm in much better shape for the swim/bike than last year, but the run probably will be my downfall again this year.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Anyhoo, I got up this morning, checked the YMCA website to see what time they opened and was thrilled to see they opened at 7am. Game on! I grabbed the necessary gear and headed out. The plan was a bike-run-swim-bike. Technically, I was doing all the disciplines in order (sort of) and working them at about 80%.
The bike to the Y was fantastic. I did 8.7 miles right at :30 with an average of 16.8! Of course, there's one really good downhill on the way, but hey, I'll take it! There are a lot of great downhills on the course too (followed by uphills, dangit!)
Once at the Y, I went upstairs, changed shoes and jumped on the treadmill for 3.1. Kept the speed at 5.7 for the first .25 miles, up to 6.1 through mile 1, then 6.5 through 2.5 miles. At 2.5, I put the angle up to 2.0 and dropped the speed to 6.0 to simulate a slow, gradual, brutal hill at the end of the race in Austin. Then the final .25 miles, I cranked it up to 6.9 to finish it out. Bleh! Tiring! Finished in about :29, I think. I can't remember.
I did run without socks, which is something I'm considering for these sprint tris. It worked out well without any hot spots so I'll probably do it in Austin.
Waddled back downstairs to the pool to finish off the min-tri. After a quick, cooling shower I jumped in the pool and cranked out 800. I was excited about the time on that 800 until I realized I was doing yards instead of meters. Still, it's going to be pretty close. I got that 800 yards done in :14! Holy crap! Despite being really tired from the bike/run, this went pretty well. The open water with a bunch of other swimmers will slow me down a bunch, but I'm happy with this time, for sure.
Last year my times looked like this for my very first triathlon (same course as this year):
Swim 21:50 T1 03:26 (panicked on the first bit of the swim, then figured it out)
Bike 46:19 T2 02:09
Run 33:58 (choked completely on the run!)
Final 1:47:44
So now I'm going to throw this out there for my goal times:
Swim 17 T1 2:30 (different/faster to put on shoes this year)
Bike 43 T2 2:00
Run 31:30
Final 1:36:00
That's a big difference (and my high level goal), but I don't think it's that far out of reach. I'm in much better shape for the swim/bike than last year, but the run probably will be my downfall again this year.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Great ride!
So yesterday was a perfect day for a ride into work again. Almost no wind, relatively dry air and cool temps. You can't ask for anything better than that.
I've been using a bike computer for a while now; normally it's set to the mileage screen so I can see how far I've gone. It's just where I like it. But for some reason yesterday I had it placed on the average mph screen and didn't realize it until about halfway to work. I didn't play with it much on the way there, but was excited to see I was holding steady near 15.0 mph average for most of the way, though there were several times on nice long straightaways I had a good 18-20mph pace going.
The morning part of the commute was a new record. Normally each leg of the commute averages about 13-13.5 mph, mainly because of traffic. Yesterday morning, I averaged 15.1! Whee!
My friend, Dianna, is regularly telling me I need to keep my foot positioned more flat, so that the downstroke is almost like scraping mud off my foot. All this time, I'd been lazy and made it more of a toe-down sort of stroke. I think keeping the foot flat really helped in using the entire leg to pedal rather than just the quads.
The same sort of technique was used on the way home, this time I was very concious of the average mph screen. I kept wanting to pump it up a bit more just to see if I could do 15.5 on the way home. Sure enough, I was able to average the 15.5 for the whole trip home. I knocked nearly 10 minutes off my normal commute each way! Whee!
Take that, bad traffic!!
I've been using a bike computer for a while now; normally it's set to the mileage screen so I can see how far I've gone. It's just where I like it. But for some reason yesterday I had it placed on the average mph screen and didn't realize it until about halfway to work. I didn't play with it much on the way there, but was excited to see I was holding steady near 15.0 mph average for most of the way, though there were several times on nice long straightaways I had a good 18-20mph pace going.
The morning part of the commute was a new record. Normally each leg of the commute averages about 13-13.5 mph, mainly because of traffic. Yesterday morning, I averaged 15.1! Whee!
My friend, Dianna, is regularly telling me I need to keep my foot positioned more flat, so that the downstroke is almost like scraping mud off my foot. All this time, I'd been lazy and made it more of a toe-down sort of stroke. I think keeping the foot flat really helped in using the entire leg to pedal rather than just the quads.
The same sort of technique was used on the way home, this time I was very concious of the average mph screen. I kept wanting to pump it up a bit more just to see if I could do 15.5 on the way home. Sure enough, I was able to average the 15.5 for the whole trip home. I knocked nearly 10 minutes off my normal commute each way! Whee!
Take that, bad traffic!!
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