Triathlon training in earnest...

So...I took Monday off as planned.  Then I went snowboarding on Tuesday instead of training (I had forgotten I had planned that).  First time up in two years--felt pretty good.  I wasn't really feeling 100% that day or the next few actually.  So I took Wednesday and Thursday off as well.  I had a run on Friday which felt...okay...a bit creaky.  So much for training in earnest.  If it's any consolation, I read that I was supposed to take 1-2 weeks off after the race anyway.  And the coach feature on my watch pretty much said the same thing.

Today I had a swim video clinic.  They are supposed to video record you above and below the water, then you go watch yourself and the coach critiques you.  Well...the underwater camera wasn't working.  And after the recorded us above water, the playback wasn't working.  So the coach just told us verbally what he saw.  Not really the value that I wanted.  But, they are supposed to send the DVD so we can watch it, and there is supposed to be a make up session for the underwater part.  The only real drag is that it means another day where Denise has to watch the kids so I can go do my training.  (I think she is getting annoyed by all my training demands.)

So the rest of the weekend I'm hoping for a run and a bike.  I actually hope to ride the bike course on Monday with one of the people doing the race with me, so that should be go to scope it out.

Kaiser Half

1:52:18

One of my rules to myself about this blog is to stay positive.  This will be a short entry today.  I finished faster than my last race by 7 minutes (so technically a new PR).  My legs feel pretty good.  It was cool to see my wife and daughters on the sideline.  That's about it.

Now to break my rule--I'm pretty disappointed in how things went today.  My goal was 1:45, and three weeks ago I was on pace for 1:40.  I think the biggest reason for missing the mark so badly was being sick last week.  One day of more food going out than in, and three days of fever.  So even after that was over, my eating hadn't really come back to normal.  So I just didn't have the right nutrition the week before the race.  Also, between the sickness, a pair of girls waking up in the middle of the night, and who knows what else...I didn't have a good nights sleep the entire week.

I was worried early on when my heart rate spike to 170 right off the bat--I'm sure to adrenaline.  But it never really calmed down (my average for the entire race was 171).  Normally, I can run at 150 or 160 for the first hour plus, then pull out he 170-180 near the end when I need it.  But since it was so high the whole time I was just tired and had nothing extra to give.  Also, it usually takes me 20-30 minutes to get in the zone; then the middle half is really good; finally near the end I have to concentrate again to keep focused.  That middle zone was much shorter today, so again, it was a lot more discomfort and work.  By around mile 9 I was ready to be done.

I did a very good job on distance and speed training, and an okay job on hill training.  But something that had never really occurred to me was training with an elevated HR.  So that's something I need to work on.


My next Half isn't until the end of October, so I've got a long time to stew on this before I can redeem myself.


Tomorrow is a rest day.  Tuesday, starts the Triathlon training in earnest.

One day left

I managed to get my taper in after all.  It became very easy not to over-exercise when I was keeled over with a 3 day stomach flu.  I even got my weight down to race-weight!  So, not exactly how I planned my week before the race.  I did get a nice easy run in on Thursday to make sure my legs still worked.  A little low on energy though.

The other good news is that it looks like no rain on Sunday.  That was iffy for a while because Sunday had been projected for rain for he past week.  And in fact it is raining right now, and supposed again on Monday--so a well timed break in the clouds.

I'm excited to have Denise and the girls at the race.  The girls have never seen me run, so that should be fun.  The plan for the rest of the day is get my race gear together, figure out logistics of drop-off, and relax.