Monday:
Monday was a rest day for me. Just seems a lot of the time Monday is very stressful at work and I am tired from all the weekend activities so sometimes I will take it as a rest day.
Tuesday:
Tuesday night was the Tuesday Night Flyers Clinic at the Cabot Track. I was actually supposed to just do a 3 mile recovery run but since there was a large group, Dennis didn't really notice when I jumped in on the advanced workout. Here is what our workout consisted of:
1 X 800 (LT Pace) (rest = 400 jog)
2 X 200 (Interval Pace) (rest = 200 jog)
4 X 400 (Interval Pace) (rest = 2 minutes)
1 X 200 (Interval Pace)
It was around 87 degrees and very sunny so this was not going to be much fun. We started with a little over a 1.5 mile warm up. Then we did strides which added another half mile. Then we were off. My 800 was about 20 seconds too fast. My 200's were a little fast but I was within about 10 seconds so that's OK. My 400's were dead on pace and my last 200 was way too fast. I ran it at :52 and I was suppose to be 1:04. We were all pretty beat by the time we were done with this workout. We opted for a short cool down and mine ended up being about .6.
Overall for the night I got in 5.24 miles. Afterwards we all went to El Carnival for a surprise birthday party for Lisa F. or as we have all nicknamed her, Tri Lisa. She was turning 40 so this was a special occasion for her. On top of that she will be competing in Ironman Cour De Lane next month. She is quite an athlete.
Lisa on the left - Ironman @40
Wednesday:
I have to count this one as another rest day. I had to go to Memphis for a company meeting so no time to run. Wednesday night we ate dinner at Texas De Brazil. Oh my god, this place is awesome. It's all you can eat meat! Needless to say, it's probably not the best place to eat when your in training nor is Cracker Barrel where we stopped for lunch. Wednesday night several of us went down on Beal Street and it was lined from one end to the other with motorcycles. Pretty cool. Here are some pictures:
It was around 87 degrees and very sunny so this was not going to be much fun. We started with a little over a 1.5 mile warm up. Then we did strides which added another half mile. Then we were off. My 800 was about 20 seconds too fast. My 200's were a little fast but I was within about 10 seconds so that's OK. My 400's were dead on pace and my last 200 was way too fast. I ran it at :52 and I was suppose to be 1:04. We were all pretty beat by the time we were done with this workout. We opted for a short cool down and mine ended up being about .6.
Overall for the night I got in 5.24 miles. Afterwards we all went to El Carnival for a surprise birthday party for Lisa F. or as we have all nicknamed her, Tri Lisa. She was turning 40 so this was a special occasion for her. On top of that she will be competing in Ironman Cour De Lane next month. She is quite an athlete.
Lisa on the left - Ironman @40Wednesday:
I have to count this one as another rest day. I had to go to Memphis for a company meeting so no time to run. Wednesday night we ate dinner at Texas De Brazil. Oh my god, this place is awesome. It's all you can eat meat! Needless to say, it's probably not the best place to eat when your in training nor is Cracker Barrel where we stopped for lunch. Wednesday night several of us went down on Beal Street and it was lined from one end to the other with motorcycles. Pretty cool. Here are some pictures:
Thursday:
I got back in town around 3pm and Annette informed me that we were meeting in Greystone to bike/run. I needed the training so I was in for that. We got there at 6pm and met Jane who was riding with us. There was a large group of runners there also. Again, it was about 87 degrees so it was pretty hot and sunny. We headed out and the girls went straight down Greystone Blvd and I made a right. i told them I would catch up to them. This was good because I really wanted to ride hard and with Jane being there, Annette had someone to ride with.
I did the first loop from the club house, a big downhill then a right down a culdesac, then a big uphill. The downhill is fast and you have to be careful not to go too fast as you have to turn. The uphill takes everything you have almost to get up. I was in my lowest gear standing to get up this one. A good warm up hill for sure.
Back to the clubhouse then a right on the main road. Another big downhill. I hit about 33 mph on this one with braking some. Now I was trying to catch Annette and Jane. They probably had a 1/2 mile lead on me. When I got to the turn for the 2nd golf course I went straight and obviously they must have turned because when I got to the end they were no where to be found. After I turned around I saw Jane. She was coming to get me. Annette had thrown her chain on one of the hills and they couldn't figure out how to get it back on. A pull on the rear derailleur solved the problem and we were back on the road.
The hills continued, up one big one and down the next. We did this all the way to the back of Greystone then turned around and headed back. The last hill going back up to the clubhouse is always a tough one. I hit the bottom of it at about 25mph and then as you start to go up your speed drops to almost zero. This one takes a lot of effort to get up and I was standing and pumping my legs to make it. Annette and Jane both had to walk up this one. It just takes a while to learn which gear to use and build up the strength to conquer these monsters on the bike. One thing about it, biking the hills will make you faster and stronger. Average bike speed 13.9 on the hills.
We met Michele in the parking lot for the run. All I can say is the run sucked bad. Maybe it was because I really pushed it on the bike, but I think it was the heat mainly. 87 degrees is not running weather, especially for hills. Needless to say, we did a lot of run/walk on these. We did an out and back, ending with 2.5 miles and a very slow 11:52 pace. Pretty sad.
Friday:
Friday is almost always a rest day for me and this was another one.
Saturday:
I really wanted to do a practice race for the duathlon on Monday. I needed some running miles but I needed bike miles too. There were groups of runners/bikers doing all kinds of different things today. Some meeting at 6:30, some at 7:00, some at 8:00. Annette was running with Cheryl and Michele with the Little Rock Marathon training group at the river trail. They were starting at 6am which meant getting up at 5 or before. I opted out of all of these and decided just to do my own thing and practice my race.
I set all my stuff up in my garage and prepared to do my 2 mile run. My intent was to duplicate as best i could the mileage of the race and practice the transitions. When I started my first run at 6:30am I could barely breathe. It was probably 74 degrees and 95% humidity. My heel was hurting a little too so nothing really felt good. I just wanted to get this over with and get on the bike which is always fun. The air was so thick or maybe it was my brain, I had to do some walks in a 2 mile run. This didn't make sense but I struggled through it. I did an out and back, getting back at 22:21 with 2.09 miles and a 10:43 pace. Terrible. It had to be the humidity.
I had a good transition to the bike with a 1:20 changing shoes and getting my helmet and all on. I sped out of the driveway like I was in a race heading towards town on South First Street. Since it was early, traffic was very light so I decided to go down Kerr Station Road and turn at the middle school. There are a few good hills on Kerr Station but I was able to hammer most of the way and keep a really good average speed. I cut across at the middle school to Bradley and then to Dietrich. Then I turned on Campground road and headed up the big hill to Stagecoach. This slowed my mph again but I kept pushing. Stagecoach was very rough so I couldn't ride as fast as I wanted on this section. I turned on to Honeysuckle and then back down Dietrich and headed for South Side Elementary. I figured I might get to see some of the 8am runners heading out and I did. Vicki asked me if I wanted to brick with them but I didn't have my running shoes with me or I probably would have. I hammered down 321 back to Kerr and reversing my route home from there. It was really a good bike ride, the hills slowed me down some and the stop and go through some of the city streets hurt my average a little. I rolled into my garage with 15.13 miles @57:38 for a 15.7 mph average.
My transition back to the run was good. Took me a little longer than last time and I think it was because I had to grab my phone. T2 time 1:53. I was off and running again. This time I was warmed up really good. Sweat was pouring off of me and I did get a big drink before I ran out along with drinking about half a bottle while I was on the bike. I was running faster but I burnt out really fast. I looked down at my garmin and I was running about an 8:53 through the first block. Then I started getting winded so I took a 20 second walk break. The heat was tearing me up on the run. I would run 1/2 a block then have to walk. Somehow I managed to get through it. About 1/2 a mile out I decided I couldn't bear to do the same out and back run so I turned on another street hoping it would get me close to 2 miles. Anything different at this point was good.
I finished this last run with 1.84 miles and an average pace of 10:20. The only bright spot is I know on race day I am super motivated so I think I can have a pretty good run. I was very happy with the bike, and in a duathlon, you can make up a lot of time on the bike really fast. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be a little cooler or at least the humidity. I can deal with the heat running but the humidity just kills my breathing.
My running mileage is way down since the marathon and this was the week I was supposed to start ramping back up. It looks like I will miss my mileage goal by a bunch this week, but I have been getting some bike miles so maybe that counts for something.
Hopefully my next post will be a good race report from our Memorial Day Du!
Posts
1 comment:
Good luck with the Du!!!
I like this post: week at a glance is a good idea.
Post a Comment