Tuesday, May 14, 2013

May 6-12: Training in Real Conditions



I finally took on some hills with my powermeter.

Yeah, I’ve had it since January, but I’ve been doing a lot of lactate threshold/tempo work indoors, and focusing on long, flat rides to prepare for Charleston for a few months.

Also, I’m a wimp, and I didn’t want to confirm with data what I already knew from experience: I spike my power on hills.




Badly.

We were out on MacArthur/River Road on Saturday, on hills that aren’t nearly as long or steep as those I’ll see in Mont Tremlant in 13.5 weeks (WHAT?), but even in my easiest gear, I went above my functional threshold power WAY too often. Sure, I can make it through a bike workout, but 112 miles of that followed by a marathon is a different story.

In other “time to suck it up and get out in real-world conditions” news, I did a 1 mile open water swim on Sunday.

It was…not fast. But I got more experience in open water, which was the whole point, and won my age group, so it wasn't terrible, I guess.

Monday: Rest day.

Tuesday: In the morning, 6.14 miles (9:03/mile) with hill repeats and 2 miles at the end building to half marathon pace (8:30/7:53 – hi, downhill!). Followed it up with 4300 yards of swimming with DCRP masters in the evening, where we did a bunch of fast 75s.

Wednesday: 45 minutes of strength training in the morning (yessssssssss! Finally.). A solo track workout in the evening, with 5.73 miles including an 800-1200-1600-1200-800 ladder (3:41-5:45-7:50-5:55-3:54)

Thursday: An hour on the trainer in the morning, with spinups to 110 rpm and a 15 minute build to Zone 4 (208W). In the evening, 4500 yards with DCRP Masters with MORE fast 75s, and a slew of 200 IMs that I finished on the 2:55, which is faster than I’ve been at the IM for a while.

Friday: 5000 meters of straight up swimming in the morning, followed by 45 minutes of strength training in the evening.

Saturday: 41.5 miles of biking followed immediately by 6.13 mile of running (9:19/mile). Rachel and I rode out to the T in Potomac, and then I ran up and down Connecticut Ave. It was just like every weekend of Ironman training last year, including the drenching humidity.

Sunday: A one mile lake swim in Ellicott City, MD, in 31:52…as much as I hate to say “the course was long” – well, based on the top finishing times, the course was long.

6 comments:

  1. WATTS! I need to get me some WATTS!

    Loks like a very solid week and let's just face it: ALL COURSES ARE LONG! I don't care who measures them......haha!

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  2. OK, so your OWS "wasn't fast," yet you still won your age group ... just taking that in for a brief minute ... :) Nice work!

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  3. Way to get at them weights shawwty! I'm envious of your swimming ability--I couldn't even gauge mine at Wildflower because the water was so choppy and sighting was awful so I was looking around like every 3rd stroke. Sheesh- excuses excuses.

    So my mom might make me come home at some point this summer, so you owe me a meet up. And an introduction to your cute friends if I remember correctly!

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  4. Yeah that humidity this weekend was not cool. And then yesterday I wake up and it's literally nearly freezing outside. WTF. Nice job on the age group win! Damn those long courses.

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  5. Yes that course was long. My garmin measured at it 1.23 miles. Winning your age group is awesome and congrats on that. Also congrats on getting some strength work in. I know about the struggle for that...well maybe you don't have a struggle getting that in but I have been.


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