Run 3/26

Finished out the race sim with RD. We ran my neighborhood loop, backwards, so that was 4.6 miles in 44:30. T2 also ran, but did a different route and went longer.

What a day! I'm gonna have a milkshake to celebrate. :)

Bike 3/26

Continuing the race simulation, RG joined T2 and I at my house, where we had our trainers setup in the basement. We watched an episode of NCIS followed by Friday Night Lights.

I did 2:10 at high cadence (> 85) in the 39x17, with a load of 80 or 90 Watts (I upped it partway through). My mph averaged around 17.5 to 18.5. I'm sure the Computrainer can spit out average mph, distance, and all that stuff, but I don't know how to do it. So I'll just estimate 18 mph for 2:10 which works out to 39 miles.

RG and T2 are still on the trainers; I stopped early to cut out the SuperFeet so I can try those out in our upcoming run.

Race Sim

T2 on the bike! My bike is farthest away; RG's bike is closest.

Swim 3/26

I met T2 and JHS at the Pro Sports Club, for a group workout. We shared a lane and swam circles, and would do various things to simulate race conditions for T2. Things like, grab her feet once in a while, crowd the lane as she tried to pass, etc. JHS even pinched T2 to see if JHS could disrupt her concentration!

As for me, I grabbed and tickled T2's feet, after pushing off the wall. T2 responded perfectly to shoo me off: T2 kicked harder. ;)

Anyway, it was 2250 yards: 250 warmup (untimed), and the 2000 yards in 39:20.

Swim 3/25

For the first time I remember, I did a pool swim with a friend! T2 signed me into the Pro Sports Club, and I bought a pass that is good until 3/29. I think the guy gave me a break by extending the pass a few days. In any case, I'm planning to use it every day until 3/29, because the pass was pricey... on the other hand the Pro Sports Club is a very nice facility.

I met T2 at the pool, and we shared a lane. My workout was:

• 250 yards warm up with fist gloves
  
• 500 yards
  
• 250 yards swim
  
• 100 yards with fist gloves
  
• 100 yards with fist gloves and pull buoy
  
• 3x100 yards cool down
  

Altogether, 1500 yards. I didn't keep track of time so I'll use my 2 minutes per 100 yards rule, not counting breaks. Thus, a 30 minute swim.

I did time my 500 yard swim - it took 9:50. This is great, if I can keep that pace up I can finish the IM swim around 82 minutes! I'd be ecstatic with that time.

IMAZ Volunteer, More Info

I got email from the volunteer coordinator, with some info on bike special needs station. We'll be at the intersection of McClintock and Curry in Tempe, Arizona.

An excerpt from the mail:

The athlete can stop halfway through the course (loop two for our course) we will retrieve their bag and pass it off to them as quickly as possible.

The bike course is three loops, so we'll see T2 go by once and be ready for the next pass. As a joke I hinted I would purchase a bike jersey at the company store, and sneak it into T2's special needs bag - this action was immediately vetoed. ;)

This is going to be so cool!!

Rest 3/24

After getting stuffed at a friend's birthday dinner, I contemplated getting on the trainer, but decided rest was a better idea.

My left foot is sore, around the ball of my foot and along the big toe, from running on the SRT yesterday. I think the running shoes I recently bought, a pair of New Balance 880's, aren't cushioning enough for me. This is just my estimation as a runner of six years - some soreness is expected, but this is unusual given the speed and distance I ran.

I can stick to running on trails for a while (Redmond Watershed, Snoqualmie River Trail, many other choices). I can also try using the SuperFeet that T2 gave me last year, to see if that helps. Or, I can try my other pair of shoes, Saucony Grids. Those worked well for me last year, so I bought another pair of them.

Run 3/23

Nice late afternoon/early evening run along the SRT. 7.6 miles, from 60 Acres Park to Wilmot Gateway and back, in 1:15.

The cool thing was I kept my heart rate right at 70% the whole time (155 beats/min for me). It worked out to a 9:55 mile, which I am happy with. Back in September I did a 70% run (midway down on here) which worked out to an 11:00 mile. The rule of thumb is the aerobic pace is about 2 min/mile slower than race pace. Of course, I'm not planning on running IMCdA anywhere that.

Midway, I ate one Gu, since I wanted to see how it would affect me. The good news is it seemed to digest well - I was worried it would kinda hit my stomach like a rock. Still, I have a feeling that for the run, I'll be more of a liquid nutrition person.

Bike 3/22

As T2 said, I need to get on the bike more. :) So today I got out since it was sunny and cool.

I rode 35.9 miles in 2:24, and felt ok doing it. It was fairly windy, and about 2/3rds the way through the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped about 5 or 10 degrees. I was worried I would finish up in a drizzle, but that didn't happen. Whew!

My route was a combination of:

Basic Home Hill Loop



and

Lake Sammamish

Swim 3/21

I felt pretty good in the pool, which might be due to all the sleep I got yesterday. ;) I swam 2100 yards: 10x200 and then 1x100. Total time was 52 minutes, counting rest after each 200. Actual swim time was about 45 minutes.

I counted strokes and I was taking 18-20 for each length. My time for 200 yards varied from 3:55 to 4:15. Yeah, it isn't that fast but I was super happy with this swim because I did half the IM distance in about 45 minutes (granted, that was subtracting out the rest periods). This tells me I'm on track for completing the IM swim before the cutoff. Plus, this was the most yards I've done.

Anyway, I hope to keep building on this. Maybe in a few weeks of this kind of yardage I'll be up for 5x400's.

Week 11

Mar 14 - Mar 20

	Time
Swim	1:10
Bike	2:36
Run	1:41
Strength	0:00
Weight	140.8 lb
Body Fat	16.9 %

Well, no way to sugar coat this but I slacked off last week. The bike workouts are definitely the hardest to schedule - if all I were training in were the swim and run, I'd have no problems at all.

Rest 3/20

I planned to get some snowboarding in, but that didn't work out. Read all about it. My sleep schedule was fried - when I returned home, I took a four hour nap. Then, I woke up to eat dinner, and couldn't fall asleep for a few hours.

Bike 3/19

I did 57 minutes (corresponds to 2 episodes of Sex and the City, Season 6 Disc 2) in the 39x17, with 90 Watts of resistance. I started out at a cadence of 80, as I was feeling tired. Over time I was able to work up to 85 and hold it there. Speed varied from 14 mph to 15.5 mph or so.

Now, I'm really hungry so I stopped to eat. I'm not sure I'll do anymore as I need to get into bed and try to get to sleep so I can try getting up early tomorrow!