This year I successfully completed the Lazyman Triathlon. As of today I did 3.45 miles swimming, 112.19 miles biking, and 46.2 miles running.
Getting the swimming in wasn't too hard because I knew I needed to practice for the Cville Intl Tri. Plus doing the swim part of the triathlon should've given me near a mile (though it ended up being a short this year).
I had more issues with the biking mostly because I wanted to go on Sunday mornings. One time it was a thunderstorm and another Sunday was the triathlon. Thus I ended up trying to go after work a few times but that meant shorter rides. That being said, I still got them all in. It also helps that I'm still in training for the IronGirl Triathlon so I couldn't blow it off as much this year.
The run was clearly the best and I should get another 3 miles in tomorrow (so technically part of the Lazyman time) thus putting me very close to a double marathon in July. I made sure to run 3 to 4 times a week as my version of my pre-training for the marathon training program.
Overall, I'm happy with finishing this year!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Marathon Training Starts Today!
Today is the start of my 16-week training program for the Richmond Marathon. I will be following the program laid out in the book The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer. It was highly recommended by friends and having read it a number of times (5+), so I think it will be a good program. My goal is just to finish. I have no time goal since just completing it is a large enough challenge and per the advice of the book – I don't want to turn what could be a great victory into a failure just because I missed an arbitrary time by a few minutes.
A quick overview of my next 16 weeks is that I will run 4 times per week. Two short runs, a medium run, and a long run. This first week it is 3, 4, 3, 5 (all in miles). From there it increases each week following the 10% rule which is that the mileage should not increase more than 10% each week so that the body can adjust to the increased strain. The peak week where I do the most miles is 5, 8, 5, 18. That is the most we ever run in a week and is two weeks before the marathon. The last two weeks is about tapering to make sure the muscles are ready for the big day.
Where am I at right now?
Physically I can run 3 to 4 miles four times a week at a ~12min/mile pace and feel comfortable afterwards. I had been running a faster pace as you may have noted in some of my past race reports, but I typically felt terrible afterwards so it was not sustainable for the amount of miles I need to do. By the end I probably will be running faster, but this isn't about the time, it's about the miles.
Mentally I'm both nervous and excited. I'm nervous because that is a lot of miles ahead of me and I know I need to train even on days when it is hot, raining, or sore from a previous run. I know its going to take a lot of motivation to keep going so I'm glad that my friend David is doing the marathon as well and following the same training program. We can keep tabs on each other (aka harass the other one into making sure they are getting their miles in) and commiserate. I'm excited because this will be a challenge unlike any other that I've attempted.
Now off to go run!
A quick overview of my next 16 weeks is that I will run 4 times per week. Two short runs, a medium run, and a long run. This first week it is 3, 4, 3, 5 (all in miles). From there it increases each week following the 10% rule which is that the mileage should not increase more than 10% each week so that the body can adjust to the increased strain. The peak week where I do the most miles is 5, 8, 5, 18. That is the most we ever run in a week and is two weeks before the marathon. The last two weeks is about tapering to make sure the muscles are ready for the big day.
Where am I at right now?
Physically I can run 3 to 4 miles four times a week at a ~12min/mile pace and feel comfortable afterwards. I had been running a faster pace as you may have noted in some of my past race reports, but I typically felt terrible afterwards so it was not sustainable for the amount of miles I need to do. By the end I probably will be running faster, but this isn't about the time, it's about the miles.
Mentally I'm both nervous and excited. I'm nervous because that is a lot of miles ahead of me and I know I need to train even on days when it is hot, raining, or sore from a previous run. I know its going to take a lot of motivation to keep going so I'm glad that my friend David is doing the marathon as well and following the same training program. We can keep tabs on each other (aka harass the other one into making sure they are getting their miles in) and commiserate. I'm excited because this will be a challenge unlike any other that I've attempted.
Now off to go run!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Cville Int'l Tri Race Report
Today was the Cville International Triathlon. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I was on a relay team with two of my coworkers. I was doing the swim part.
We arrived on site this morning at a little before 6. First thing I did was check in and pick up my packet since I had not done it on Saturday. Normally I do pick these up early so I can make sure I have everything prepped with my race number, but for swimming they only write the number on you so all I could've picked up was my race cap.
For the next hourish I just hung around and chatted with folks. At 7:15 they held the prerace meeting down on the beach. They announced that the water temperature was 80 degrees so wetsuits could be worn but would disqualify the person from any prizes. I was just happy that the water was that warm since the air temperature was only about 65 degrees.
Due to the relatively few participants, there was only 3 starting waves for the swimmers, 4 minutes apart. The first wave was men 34 and under, Clydsedales, and relay teams. Second wave was all the women, and third wave was men 35 and over. A couple minutes before 7:30 my wave entered the water and walked/swam out to the starting point. Even though some of us weren't quite there yet they started promptly at 7:30.
During the initial rush I was kicked and run into a few times, but after that I was mostly out of the pack. I tried to keep a balance between pushing hard and not fighting the water (which happens when I push too hard). The swimming itself wasn't a huge strain, it was spotting the buoys that got me. As often as possible I tried to keep another swimmer within a few feet so I could either see them when my head was in the water or I could see the bubbles from their kick. This helped me feel like I was somewhat more on track.
When I got out of the water I gave the run up the hill all of my power. I dashed past an older man who was jogging and clearly saving strength for later. Since I had nothing else to do after handing off the chip I pushed as fast as possible. Midway up the hill I looked for David to make sure he was ready. He wasn't by his bike since I had told him it would take me about 35 minutes and it was only 27 minutes. I called out to him and he headed to his bike to grab the rest of his stuff. We swapped the chip and he was off.
After talking with other folks and getting a sense of average times, we concluded that the course was probably only ~1200m long. Thus everyone was coming out faster than expected. Open water lake courses like these are just hard to get consistent since the buoys can drift some despite being on anchors. Also some estimation is used as to where to place them.
The bike portion was 24ish miles and David gave an estimate of 90 minutes for him to complete it. After I handed off the chip I started my stop watch so we had an idea of when to expect him back. In the mean time, I changed, wandered around, chatted with folks, and cheered on the people who returned sooner than he did (both because they were better bikers but also were out of the swim well before me). Right on time he came in at 89 minutes and handed the chip off to Will.
We once again played the waiting game and timed when he left. Since the run is two loops we could get a sense when he would finish based on when he came around the first time. He passed by the first time at 28 minutes so we expected him to finish right around 56. His running was very consistent and he passed the finished line after 56 minutes.
Overall we completed the triathlon in just under 3 hours. I'm happy with how we did. We had no prayer of winning it since the first two relay teams had their bikers come back about an hour after David went out. They were much quicker out of the water and on the bike. That being said, we weren't last. I may have been the last relay swimmer out of the water, but David was able to pass one of them on the road. Will kept that advantage through the run.
All said, it was a pleasant morning.
We arrived on site this morning at a little before 6. First thing I did was check in and pick up my packet since I had not done it on Saturday. Normally I do pick these up early so I can make sure I have everything prepped with my race number, but for swimming they only write the number on you so all I could've picked up was my race cap.
For the next hourish I just hung around and chatted with folks. At 7:15 they held the prerace meeting down on the beach. They announced that the water temperature was 80 degrees so wetsuits could be worn but would disqualify the person from any prizes. I was just happy that the water was that warm since the air temperature was only about 65 degrees.
Due to the relatively few participants, there was only 3 starting waves for the swimmers, 4 minutes apart. The first wave was men 34 and under, Clydsedales, and relay teams. Second wave was all the women, and third wave was men 35 and over. A couple minutes before 7:30 my wave entered the water and walked/swam out to the starting point. Even though some of us weren't quite there yet they started promptly at 7:30.
During the initial rush I was kicked and run into a few times, but after that I was mostly out of the pack. I tried to keep a balance between pushing hard and not fighting the water (which happens when I push too hard). The swimming itself wasn't a huge strain, it was spotting the buoys that got me. As often as possible I tried to keep another swimmer within a few feet so I could either see them when my head was in the water or I could see the bubbles from their kick. This helped me feel like I was somewhat more on track.
When I got out of the water I gave the run up the hill all of my power. I dashed past an older man who was jogging and clearly saving strength for later. Since I had nothing else to do after handing off the chip I pushed as fast as possible. Midway up the hill I looked for David to make sure he was ready. He wasn't by his bike since I had told him it would take me about 35 minutes and it was only 27 minutes. I called out to him and he headed to his bike to grab the rest of his stuff. We swapped the chip and he was off.
After talking with other folks and getting a sense of average times, we concluded that the course was probably only ~1200m long. Thus everyone was coming out faster than expected. Open water lake courses like these are just hard to get consistent since the buoys can drift some despite being on anchors. Also some estimation is used as to where to place them.
The bike portion was 24ish miles and David gave an estimate of 90 minutes for him to complete it. After I handed off the chip I started my stop watch so we had an idea of when to expect him back. In the mean time, I changed, wandered around, chatted with folks, and cheered on the people who returned sooner than he did (both because they were better bikers but also were out of the swim well before me). Right on time he came in at 89 minutes and handed the chip off to Will.
We once again played the waiting game and timed when he left. Since the run is two loops we could get a sense when he would finish based on when he came around the first time. He passed by the first time at 28 minutes so we expected him to finish right around 56. His running was very consistent and he passed the finished line after 56 minutes.
Overall we completed the triathlon in just under 3 hours. I'm happy with how we did. We had no prayer of winning it since the first two relay teams had their bikers come back about an hour after David went out. They were much quicker out of the water and on the bike. That being said, we weren't last. I may have been the last relay swimmer out of the water, but David was able to pass one of them on the road. Will kept that advantage through the run.
All said, it was a pleasant morning.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Two Parts Done!
Today I finished both the swimming distance and running distance. I will keep more miles in each of these before the end of the month but I met that part of the goal. As of today I still have 41.26 miles left on the bike. I still have confidence that I can complete that portion too since tomorrow we have a 23 mile bike ride planned. So two more short (10ish) mile rides after that and I'll be over in that category too.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Heart Rate Training
To build my base cardio, the last two runs I've done have been heart rate training. Specifically, I ignored my time and pace, and instead focused on keeping my heart rate in zone 3. For me this was about 150 bpm. I was actually a bit surprised that doing this made the run much more enjoyable. I didn't come back and feel utterly exhausted or feel like I might pass out. I think I may have been pushing too hard in general these last few years instead of building the solid base.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Flat Road
Last night I biked some country roads from a friend's house. The area was mostly flat with a few gentle hills. It only took a few miles for me to realize that biking and really pushing my speed on the flats could be as difficult as some of the more hilly courses. Training out at Walnut Creek for the Sprint triathlon I encountered rolling hills everywhere except for a 2-3 mile section. Here it was just the opposite. On all the flats there isn't a change in how your muscles are being used, just keep pushing hard. Definitely built some muscles.
That being said, I was able to 13.52 miles in 54 minutes which averages out to 15mph. Not bad considering my fastest time on the Walnut creek course is an average of 13.5 mph.
That being said, I was able to 13.52 miles in 54 minutes which averages out to 15mph. Not bad considering my fastest time on the Walnut creek course is an average of 13.5 mph.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Lazyman Started
Just a quick note to highlight the the GoogleDoc plug-in on the side of the blog that tracks in near-real time my progress through the Lazyman (see post below for full description). As you can see, I've already made progress on both the bike and the run. I have plans to swim tomorrow so hopefully that number will go down soon too.
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