Sunday, May 20, 2012

BFAS Triathlon Race Report


My new wheels!

After several months of putting up with frequent flat tires, and being perplexed on why it kept happening, I finally took the plunge and upgraded to a new wheelset.  I found a great price on Amazon for a set of Easton EA50 wheels, and they arrived in time for race day!

The BFAS Triathlon series is where Matt and I got bit by the tri-bug.  This was the first triathlon we ever did, back in 2010 and we’ve been hooked since.  They offer three races a year (plus a duathlon, which I participated in earlier this year) and it really a fun and well run event.  My personal best was the second race of last year, where I completed it in 1:16.  For this race, my goal was to get under 1:15 and be in the top half of my age group.

We arrive to the race site bright and early, we are old hat at this by now, and proceed to check in and get body marked.  We set up our bikes in transition area, and then headed out to the beach for the quarter mile ocean swim.  The ocean was pretty rough that morning, and there was a strong current as well.  Matt and I swam out for a warm-up and we both came in and commented on how rough it was.  It appeared we had a difficult swim ahead of us.

Artist rendition of what the swim looked like
We all lined up and waited for the opening horn to send us off.  And we waited, and waited and waited.  Having done this race a few times, I knew something was up, as they are usually very good at starting everything on time, and I suspected they were considering cancelling the swim.  Finally after several minutes, my suspicions were confirmed as the race director pulled everyone over and explained that the swim portion was going to be cancelled and replaced with a short (about a half mile) run on the beach.  No one really complained, and I suspect many were relieved. 

So they line us up on the beach, sounded the horn and we were off!  Since this run wasn’t really planned, the beach run wasn’t actually measured, but it was approximately just short of a half mile.  I hit the timing mat at 2:32 and began the 100 or so yard trek to the bike transition area.  I ran my bike out of transition, mounted and was on my way.  The bike course is 13.1 miles, and my personal best on this course is 35:46.  As this is a sprint triathlon, you don’t have to worry too much about pacing and saving yourself for the run.  And though I may not have gone 100% (there is still a run), I was going at least 95%.  I felt good the whole way and completed the course in 35:13, knocking over 30 seconds from my personal best.   I racked my bike, put on my running shoes, and headed out to the 5k course.

Running has always been my weakest discipline of the three, but it is the one I have been working the most on.  My previous record on this course was 26:55 (my GPS consistently measures this course a bit long, about 3.2 as opposed to 3.1) and I could tell right away, that I would best that easily.  I ran the first mile just under 8 minutes, and ran each mile faster than the previous.  I crossed the finish line with a run time of 24:26, easily smashing my old record.  My overall time ended up at 1:06:28 and I finished 6th out of 15 in my age group.  Since they cancelled the swim, I can’t really compare that time to previous times, or my goal time. But since I have done this race several times, I know I usually swim the course in about 8-9 minutes.  I completed the first run in 2:32, so if I had 6.5 minutes to my overall time, that still puts me at 1:13ish, which is easily a personal record for me, and well under my goal time.  Couple that with the 6th out of 15 finish, and I’m easily very pleased with my race results.  I’m especially pleased with the progress I’ve made in my running.  I still nowhere near as fast as Matt, but I’m at least making progress.

Speaking of my brother Matt, he also had a very successful race.  He finished 4th overall (just missed a top three finish by 45 seconds), and was the champion of our age group.  He is really getting pretty fast and I think he has an excellent chance of finishing top 3, and maybe even winning our Ironman race in Orlando

Monday, May 14, 2012

Week 1 Summary


Week 1 is in the books, and all ready we’ve ran into some diversity.  Nothing real serious mind you, just some technical difficulties with my bike.  After fixing my flat tire from the St. Anthony’s race, I promptly flatted again immediately on my next ride.  I took the tire to my local bike shop to have them look at it, figuring that maybe something more serious is wrong with it.  They changed the tire and said they didn’t see any problems.  I put the tire back on, but then I started a session on my rollers, and the tire popped again in like 10 minutes.  Now this was especially concerning, as I’ve never flatted on my rollers before, and I’m not really sure how that could even happen.  So I took it back to the bike shop and they looked it over again.  Again they found nothing (though they didn’t charge me this time), and they fixed the flat.  I picked it up on Friday, just in time for our trip to Daytona Beach.  Sunday I intended to ride from Daytona back to Jacksonville.  I started my trip, but then 15 miles in my rear wheel flatted.  At least this was a different wheel, so it appears that the front tire is working.  Anyway, I didn’t have a change kit with me, so my wife picked me up, and I rode back home with the family.

As a result of all my tire problems, I was not able to get anywhere near as much bike time as I had planned.  The rest of the week, however, actually went very well.  Below is my summary for the week:

Monday
Swim: 2000 yd TT (37 minutes);  That’s slower then I want to be.  We’ll do this test every 4 weeks, and my goal will be to get it to 30 minutes before the race
Run: 3 mi short run (9:12 pace);  I felt really good on this run. I kept an even pace and no real fatigue set in

Tuesday
Swim: 1000 yd swim (17:45) just a nice consistent swim, still need to bring the time down, but I wasn’t really trying to push hard here
Run: 3.25 mi short run (9:12 pace); This was done on the treadmill after my swim.  Again, I felt good, pretty similar to yesterday’s run

Wednesday
Swim: 2400 yds; mostly 50 and 100 yard intervals, with the primary focus on stroke rate.  There was also some 200 and 300 yard swims in between sets
Run: 6 mi medium run (9:26 pace); Started off strong and felt good.  The last two miles, or so, I started to fatigue a bit.  Pace/Hr was 7.7%, and that needs to be under 5%.  It’s better than it’s been, but I still have some work to do.

Thursday
Run: 3 mi short run (8:59 pace);  Felt stronger on this run then any of the others so far

Friday
Swim:  3000 yds mostly 500 yd intervals
Run: 6 mi medium run (8:58 pace);  Easily my best run of the week.  I felt great the whole time.  I negative split the run (second half faster than the first half) and my Pace/HR was 3.2%.  This was a real encouraging workout!

Saturday
Run: 9 mi long run (9:47 pace); Started out pretty good, but I could tell my legs were a little tired from last night’s run. (there was less than a 12 hour turnaround between runs)  I did the whole run on the beach, which was pretty cool, but it was also very windy.  Apparently I had the tailwind on the way out, which gave me a pretty stiff headwind on the way back home.  I’ve never had the wind bother me on runs, but when I made the turn around I went from holding a 9:25 pace to barely a 10:00 pace.  The last couple miles were rough.

Sunday
Bike: 14.5 miles/ 45 minutes; This was my aborted long ride.  Not much to say, as I didn’t ride long enough to really get much info.

Weekly Totals:
Swim: 8.1 kms/2:59
Run:  30.25 miles/4:42
Bike: 14.4 miles/0:45
Total workout time: 8:28

Other than the bike, it was a good week for me.  The bike is easily my strongest discipline of the three, so I’m not too worried about missing out on it this week.  I got some really good work done on my run and swim, and as long as the bike doesn’t turn into a long term issue, I should be ok.

Goals for Week 2:
Swim: 8 kms
Run: 30 miles
Bike: 5.5 hours
We also have a race this Saturday, the BFAST Sprint Triathlon.  I’ll post a race preview later this week.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

The Journey Begins!


They say, “A journey of 1000 miles, begins with one step.”  Well, on Monday, our Ironman journey began with a 2000 yd swim.   And so it begins, the road to Ironman, and 24 weeks of disciplined and progressively increased training.

Our training will be broken up into six 4-week training blocks, with a swim test and a bike test done at the end of each.  (we will not be doing much in the way of run testing, as our run focus will be more about just increasing our weekly mileage)  The first 12 weeks (3 blocks) are considered “base training,” as the focus will be mostly about building endurance.  The majority of our efforts during this time period will be at lower intensities, allowing us to gradually increase the mileage we are able to swim, bike and run.  The final 12 weeks (3 blocks) are known as “the build,” and our focus changes from increasing our mileage, to getting faster at our current distances. 


Our first 4 week block began this week, and my goals for week 1 are as follows
Swim: 8 kms
Bike: 5.5 hours
Run: 30 miles
(included in these are a 2000 yd swim time-trial test and a bike threshold test)

Bike goals are in hours, instead of miles, as I will be doing a decent portion of my bike training indoors, on my rollers.  Since this does not lend itself to mileage (at least not real accurately), time spent biking is a better indicator of work done on the bike.

My schedule calls for me to run Monday – Saturday, swim M-W-F, and Bike T-W-Th-Sun.  Saturday is the long run, and Sunday is the long ride.  This week’s long run will be 9 miles, and my long ride will be 50-60 miles.



At this point it’s hard for me to have very specific time goals for this race, as I’ve never done anything close to this distance.  So, I really only have a guess as to how fast I could do it now, and another guess on how much improvement I should expect over the next 24 weeks.  As such, I have set a “loose” goal of trying to break 11 hours.  Breaking 11 hours will give me a really good chance of being top 5 in my age-group, and thus earning a spot on the podium. I really have no idea how realistic that is, but it is at least a starting point.  As we get into the season, my training and testing will give me a better idea of what kind of times I’m capable of.  We are also doing a ½ Ironman 3 weeks before the full Ironman, and that race will give us the best estimate of what time to expect in Orlando.

At this point, I’m excited about the journey ahead.  The trick will be maintaining that focus and enthusiasm during the tough training days ahead.  Consistency will be the key.  If I listen to my body, and stick with my plan, I will arrive in Orlando, on race day, in peak condition and ready to put forth a great race.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Transition Week Continued


The rest of my transition week workouts are as follows:

Friday:
4 mi run (9:28 min/mile);   A nice easy short run.  I felt good for the most part, though I’m still getting a little too fatigued toward the end, as evidenced by looking at my Pace/HR ratio. 
I was not able to get to the pool today.  The AC in our house went out yesterday, so I had to wait at home today until the repairman came.   The AC is now fixed, but the repairman didn’t leave to after 1:00pm, and the Kid Zone at the Y closes @ 1:30 on Fridays and is not open on Friday afternoons.

Saturday:
8 mi long run (9:56 pace);  I started off feeling pretty good (that’s pretty much been the theme for this week), but my pace really dragged off the last three miles.  My pace/HR ratio changed 13% from 1st half to 2nd half of the run.  That really needs to be below 5%.  I’m obviously not where I need to be, from a running standpoint, at least not based off this week’s runs.  Luckily I have some time to correct this problem.

Week Totals:
Run: 25 miles/4:06:55
Bike: 0 miles/0:00:00
Swim: 1.1 kms/0:27:00
Total Time:  4:33:55
TSS for the week: 351.1

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Transition Week


I’ve put the disappointment from last week behind me.  It sucked, but it’s just one race and now I need to focus on what’s ahead of me.  Of course, what’s ahead of me is a pretty big undertaking, a 140.3 mile race!  But specific training for the Ironman won’t start until next week.  This week is a transition week, where the only real goal is to maintain fitness until the start of the next training cycle.  (in this case just one week)  Specifically, all I really want to accomplish this week is to get 25 miles worth of running in, and to get in the pool a couple times.  I may get on the bike this weekend, but it is not a priority.  All my running is done at a endurance or conversational pace.  Once I get a couple blocks into my Ironman training, I’ll start running a little harder at the end of my long runs, but even then, the vast majority of my runs will be at a conversational pace.

So far this week, my training has looked like this:

Monday:
4 mile run (9:24 min/mile)
Normally I would take the Monday after a race off, but given that my race didn’t last too long, I figured I’d get a run in.  I felt good, didn’t push too hard, and kept a solid pace

Tuesday:
Off

Wednesday:
1200 yds in the pool, mostly working on stroke rate.
3 mi run immediately following the swim. (10:56 min/mi)
I felt really sluggish during both these workouts.  My swim times were slow, and my run was abysmal.  Not really sure what the cause was, I guess some days you just feel better than others.

Thursday:
6 mi run (9:49 min/mi)
Felt pretty good for most of the run, though I started to tire a bit at the end.  The last climb up the bridge was a chore, but I definitely felt better than yesterday.

I plan to get in the pool again tomorrow, and then follow that up with another short run.  On Saturday I’ll do my long run, and then Sunday I may get on the bike, I’ll see how I feel.