Gotta Love the Monster Set

This workout is an ass kicker.  20,710 yards of swimming in the last 12 days.  Blows my mind that I have swam almost 12 miles in two weeks.    

 

 



6 Weeks to IMLP - Training Summary

This past week was a pretty light week as I had a 3 Mile Open water swim race on Saturday.  I completed the 3.09 miles in 1 Hour 28 minutes for a 1:37/100yd pace.  I was hoping to go a little faster as my swim training has been going well.  I wish I had set my watch to give me splits at 1.2 and 2.4 to see if the extra 6/10th of a mile slowed my overall pace.  At the end of the day I completed the swim and felt great during the entire race.   I also switched to a sleeveless wetsuit and felt much more comfortable and less restricted in the shoulders. 

I had a great brick workout going yesterday until the wheels came off 7 miles into my 60 minute run.  I was able to cover almost 60 miles at 20.2 mph on the bike and was averaging 7:45 per mile until I came unhinged. My nutrition plan was working well but I did not have any fluids on the run which is probably what caused me to slow way down.  Additionally, I had been researching the benefits of Beet Root Juice as it relates to stamina and decided to give it a chance as I drank a shot of a product called Beet-It, which is a British company that makes concentrated beet juice.  It is way to early to make any conclusions as the sample size is one but I sure had a great day yesterday. 

These next 2 weeks are going to be my peak training weeks in my 20 week training plan for Ironman Lake Placid. This week will be 19 hours of training and next week 20 hours.  I will be getting "comfortable with being uncomfortable."  I will continue to use and repeat my mantra for this Ironman training "Keep calm and be efficient".  

5 weeks to go until I toe the line at Mirror lake and I feel good about where I am with my training.  My body is holding up well and mentally I take one day at a time and focus on the next workout.  These next two weeks will be challenging and I look forward to the grind. 

 

6 Weeks to IMLP  - Training Summary 

Monday Jun 16, 2014

Swim

Zone 1

Duration: 00:30:00

Distance: 0

Open Water Steady Swim

Swim at your perceived Z1 pace in open water.

Practice:

Sighting by choosing an object (house, car, lifeguard chair, etc) to swim toward, and lifting head slightly

every few strokes to check course

Tuesday Jun 17, 2014

Bike

Zone R

Duration: 01:00:00

Distance: 0

ZR Ride

**Stay at the lower end of zone R if you feel you need the recovery. Keep cadence at 95+ throughout!

Run

Zone 2

Duration: 00:40:00

Distance: 0

Z1/Z2 T Run (as you feel)

Start your T run within 10 minutes after the bike ride. Start the run in Z1 and descend pace (if you feel

good) throughout the run into Z2. Finish toward the top of Z2.

Wednesday Jun 18, 2014

Swim

Best Sustainable Effort

Duration: 01:10:00

Distance: 4000

Specificity Set #1

Warmup:

none

Main Set:

15 x 50 best effort on TT+10

2 x 600 best effort on TT+10

10 x 50 best effort on TT+10

Cooldown:

1550 easy pull

Thursday Jun 19, 2014

Bike

Zone 2

Duration: 01:00:00

Distance: 0

Z1/Z2 Ride (as you feel)

Start the ride in Z1 and descend pace (if you feel good) throughout the ride into Z2. Finish toward the top

of Z2.

**Keep 90 rpm throughout

Run

Zone R

Duration: 00:20:00

Distance: 0

ZR T Run

Start your T run within 10 minutes after the bike ride. Run duration @ ZR with a cadence of at least 88

steps per minute.

Friday Jun 20, 2014

OFF

Duration: 00:00:00

Distance: 0

Rest

Saturday Jun 21, 2014

Swim

Best Sustainable Effort

Duration: 01:30:00

Distance: 0

Open Water 3 Mi Race

Bike

Zone R

Duration: 01:00:00

Distance: 0

ZR Ride

**Stay at the lower end of zone R if you feel you need the recovery. Keep cadence at 95+ throughout!

Sunday Jun 22, 2014

Bike

Zone 2

Duration: 03:00:00

Distance: 0

Z1/Z2 Ride

Bike 90 minutes at Z1, then 90 minutes @ Z2. Descend the pace throughout the ride and finish toward the

top of Z2. Keep cadence at 90+ rpm.

Run

Zone 2

Duration: 01:00:00

Distance: 0

Z1/Z2 T Run

Start your T run within 10 minutes after the bike ride. Run 25 minutes at Z1, then 35 minutes @ Z2.

Descend the pace throughout the run and finish toward the top of Z2.

Quassy Rev3 Half Iron Distance - Race Recap

First big test of the year and I think that I am on track for Ironman Lake Placid with lots of work still to do.  This past weekend I completed Quassy Revolution 3 Half Distance on a very tough hilly bike and run course in 5 Hours and 26 Minutes.  The race was located in Middlebury, CT and the conditions for racing were perfect.

Race Week Taper

Race week started out nice and easy and I needed it as I was smoked from the previous week build phase.  I focused on rest and recovery for most of the week while getting ready for the trip down to CT.  Towards the end of the week I got with my coach to go over the pre race carb load protocol, race pacing and nutrition plan.  QT2 Systems has this all worked out for you and takes the guessing out of it.  They even have it timed out for you.

Pre Race Carb Load


The plan you see on the left is my Ironman pre race carb load which is a two day protocol.  For this 1/2 Ironman race my timeline started with the LARGE Dinner! 2 days before the race.  You will notice that there are no veggies and little fat during this time frame.  The day before the race I got up early and did my light bike and run workout and then headed to Bickford's Pancake house for my BIG Breakfast.  I have not had a breakfast like this in months.  I ordered a stack of three pancakes, 2 eggs, home fries, and white toast with a cup of decaf coffee.  The waitress said "you must be hungry"  To be honest I did not think I would eat it all but I did and I enjoyed every bit of it.   The rest of the day while driving down to CT,  I just followed the timeline.  It seemed like I was continually eating all day.  The only think I missed was the english muffin and jelly at 3:00 as I was at the pre race meeting.




Race Pacing Plan

Being that this race is really hilly on both the bike and the run, the focus was to swim steady, bike conservative and save the legs for the run.  That was the plan so lets see how well I did.

Race Day Nutrition Plan

I woke up at 0400 (not really as it felt like I never slept) and had my breakfast at 0415 which was 3 hours from my wave swim start.  The apple sauce, banana, protein mix has worked really well for me and I have been using it before my long weekend brick workouts.  I putzed around for about an hour getting my gear bag finalized and put on my race number tattoos and and headed down to lobby for a shuttle ride to the transition area.  I was a little early and was offered a ride from QT2 athlete Kendra McDowell and gladly accepted.  We arrived at transition with plenty of time to set things up and head to the beach for a warm up swim.  It was a cool morning in the low 50's but was going to warm up nicely.


1.2 Mile Swim - 33:33    

Swim Course

I got to the beach and headed into the water for a warm-up.  Within 2 minutes I had a head on collision with another swimmer with both of us going at full pace.  Wow, that really woke me up.  I still have a lump on my head from the impact.  It took me a minute or so to get my composure back. I then swam in a direction where there was no one else swimming to complete my warm up.  My wave had 100 starters for all males 50-59 and 58 of them were in my 50-54 age group and started at 0715 .   At 0700 I took my caffeinated power gel and 8oz of water and waited for the start.  at 0715 and I was off.  I took a position to the right close to the sighting buoy's and went out at a brisk pace to get clear of the traffic.  I tried to catch a draft but was unsuccessful as I was swimming faster than the person I was trying to draft off.  I settled into a comfortable pace and swam from site buoy to site buoy.  Things went well with sighting until my first right turn.  The sun was bright and made seeing the buoy's difficult and I went a little bit wide and that cost me a little distance and time.  I was able to get back on track by looking at other swimmers ahead of me and the life guards on paddle boards.  Sighting after the second right turn was not an issue and I was able to increase my pace a little.  I completed the swim in 33:33  and was happy with my effort.  After the swim, my wave place was 8/100 and age group place was 6/58

56 Mile Bike - 3:01:33 

Bike course and Elevation Profile

As I headed into T1 bike transition I started to get out of my wetsuit while trying to keep calm and be efficient.  I got to the bike and again I had a issue getting my feet out of the wet suit. I remained calm but it took me longer than it should have and probably cost me 45 seconds in transition.  I got my cleats, helmet and was on my way.  I immediately started my nutrition plan and started to drink.  My plan was for me to drink five 24oz bottles of power bar sports drink during the entire ride to ensure I was not dehydrated for the run.  Peeing once during the 56 mile ride would be a good indicator to know if I was hydrated enough.  I did not pee at all during the entire race so my fluid intake needs to increase.  Goal of the bike ride was to keep my wattage down during the hill sections of the course so my legs would not be toast for the run.  I did my best but my bike is a 9 speed 12x25 with a standard crank which caused me to have lots of low cadence and wattage spikes.  I did stay within my self and my heart rate was kept a manageable level.  There was one section of the course that included a 7

mile steady climb which definitely increases your wattage and lowers you average speed.  The rest of the ride was uneventful and I finished in 3:01:33.  After the bike, my wave place was 9/100 and age group place was 6/58. 

13.1 Mile Run - 1:47:13

Run Course and Elevation Profile 

I made my way into T2 and got my sneakers, hat and run nutrition and headed out on the run course.  The dreaded run was on my mind all week as I did not know what to expect.  The first two miles were down hill and my race plan called for me to run conservative as there were many hills coming.  My coach wanted my first mile to be around 7:45 and control my heart rate.  I came through at 7:35 so I adjusted my pace and settled in knocking off mile after mile and eating 1 cliff blok every mile.  Miles 4-7 is where the fun began with the sustained hill climb.  I just kept my feet moving and kept my heart rate steady.  When the down hill sections came I tried to gain some time back.  The middle of the course was rolling and manageable.  At about mile 9, we ran by the finish line which was a nice downhill and I was able to get in a 7:35 mile in.  Miles 10-12 were not to bad but mile 12 was a ball buster.  I kept moving but I may have been able to walk faster.  Once I crested that last hill it was a nice small down hill to the finish and my race was over.  After the run, my wave place for the entire race was 8/100 and age group place was 8/58.  Overall place was 122/745. 

Post Race Coaching Analysis

My 2001 Cervelo One Triathlon Bke

We all have this technology to record our data but if you do not use it is just data.  So a day after the race my coach went over the data to see what we can learn from it and use it in preparation for Ironman lake placid.  As you can clearly see from my power profile of the race,  the shaded areas are the areas of high wattage and low cadence and these are called "run killers"  in my case I had 9 miles of wattage greater than 300 and 19.66 miles of cadence between 25 and 75.  My run could have been better if I managed the bike better.  Granted the run course was hilly but there may have been gains to be had.  So what are the adjustments we made based on this data?  As I said earlier, my bike is a 9 speed 12x25 with a standard crank.  So the adjustment I made was taking the compact crank I had on my Fuji Altamira and put it on my Cervelo Tri bike, Both were shimano 105's.  I also changed out the 12x25 rear cassette to a 12x27 cassette.  This will now allow me to be able to spin more on the hills and control the high wattage and low cadence which will help my legs for the Lake placid run.  I will have my first ride with this configuration on Saturday which is scheduled to be a 4 hour ride.  We will see how it goes.  Another adjustment I need to make is drink more on the bike I will also do more of that in my training. 

At this point in my Ironman Lake Placid Journey (50 days to go) I am happy with my progress on all levels.  I started out the year at 213lbs and at this mornings weigh in I was 187lbs.  My original race weight goal was 190 but am now targeting 180.  The weight loss without a doubt has helped my running.  7 weeks to go and much more work needs to be done.  My next event in preparation for lake placid is on June 21st with the Mashpee 3 Mile Open Water Swim - Mashpee, MA  Thanks for following.

Phil