Colchester ½ Marathon

I haven’t been training specifically for a ½ marathon, but when one pops up on the schedule at a convenient time for a $3 race fee, you sort of HAVE to do it. My focus the last couple of months has been on the Lake Placid Ironman, my first Ironman race and not specifically on running. Of course, I’ve been running a lot, you can’t train for a triathlon without running, but my long runs are around 10 miles at this point as I’ve been slowing building up volume.

In any case, Saturday morning my brother and I headed out for the race, he having never done a ½ before, and this only my second. I didn’t know much about the course, other than the rumor that it was “somewhat hilly”. Of course, hilly turned out to be a bit of an understatement; apparently the Alps have been moved to CT. The hills were relentless, there was no flat at all, we went up and down the entire time. Matt and I ran together the whole way, and figured to try and pace steady through 10 miles, then use whatever we had left. Unfortunately, 10 miles coincided with the final 3 mile uphill to the finish. At that point, my legs were trashed from the hills, and there wasn’t much left. I tried to keep my legs turning over, but the pace was pretty slow. I’m pretty sure that anyone out for a leisurely walk would have passed me at that point. My brother pulled away a bit, and I tried to go after him, but my legs just wouldn’t move. He ended up finishing about 30 seconds ahead of me, we both came in just over 2:15. I had hoped for better, but in retrospect I feel that was a pretty good time for me for that course.

Race Results here... http://greystoneracing.net/pages/Race%20Results%202007/Colchester%20Half%202.24.07.txt

Rested on Sunday, and back to spin class this morning…

Read more...

Goals for Week February 18 - 25

Back to a bike focus for next week, although this one will be a bit different with the race at the end of the week. It's looking good for the 1/2 marathon on Saturday, although I haven't done a lot of specific training for it. I'm hoping to finish around 2 hours and just have fun running with my brother and sister-in-law.

I need to keep getting on the bike next week and I'm going to try getting in the water 3 times, to help improve my swimming. It's still tough to do much swimming with the pool I'm limited to, but I'm hoping more repetition will help.

Have a good week everyone.

Read more...

Good Excuse?

Well, I haven't been able to get a workout in the last couple of days but I have a good excuse :0

I had some dental work done about 8 years ago (root canal) and it's been giving me trouble lately. So I went in to the dentist on Wed. to have the tooth pulled, (It turned out to be seriously decayed under the crown, the smell was awful when it came apart in pieces) and the Doc said "No strenuous exercise!". I felt that was a good reason not to get any workouts in :)

I did get back to Yoga at lunch today, so at least I've done something... back on track tomorrow for a Spin / Run brick in the morning, and perhaps a longer run at lunch time.

Read more...

Slacking and Hurting

Well... I've been slacking, haven't posted for a while, sorry about that. Work has been pretty busy and it's been tough to find the time to sit down and write a few paragraphs during the day when I usually get the chance. In any case, training has been fairly steady, although the workload has impacted that a bit as well. I'm still getting the workouts in for the most part, but the quality slipped a little last week as I was pretty tired.

Two interesting notes from the weekend, first my brother has been totally roped in at this point, he went and bought a road bike. We took a ride up to Brookline, near Boston, to pick up a used Specialized Allez in pretty good shape. Frame looked great, and although the components weren't top notch, they should work pretty well until he's ready to upgrade. A nice ride up with the oldest and youngest of my girls as well.

I also managed to get outside for a mtb ride on Sunday morning again, we've missed a few weeks with the snow on the ground. The ground is back to being manageable with a few inches left, but mostly packed down on the trails. A bit slicker than usual, you had to be careful on the downhills and spun out a bit easier going up, but it was still fun. It probably made for a tougher workout with more spinning than a usual ride.

I also got a nice long run in during the afternoon, and I'm pretty sore today. This morning, spin class was a bit tough and I jumped in the pool afterward to try and work out the stiffness. It didn't help too much, hopefully Yoga at lunch time today will improve things.

This coming week is a Run focus, and I'm going to keep in that way for a couple weeks as there is a 1/2 marathon coming up on the 24th that I'm eyeing. It's the kids school vacation week, so plans may change, but if I get the chance I'll head over and run it.... we'll see.

Read more...

Summary (and Goals) for Week

Whoops, missed my goal post on Friday so I'll put it in here. First, the results from my first recovery week... well, it was a recovery :)

As I mentioned, the goal for this week was to allow my body to catch up with the work that I have been doing for the last 3 weeks. It seemed to work pretty well, as I'm feeling ready to go again. In fact, I suspect I may have backed off a bit too much as I was starting to feel antsy this past weekend. It snowed on Friday night, so I didn't get to go out for a ride this weekend and instead rode on the trainer in the basement. It's a little tougher to get motivated when you are in the basement.

Other training related notes for last week, I got a 1 hour massage, hoping that would help loosen the muscles. It worked pretty well, and definitely helped my shoulder loosen up. It's been a bit tight for a few weeks, and feels much better now that it did. Hopefully I'll be able to fit a massage in every 4 weeks or so. Thanks to Peg at Relax and Release, if anyone needs a massage in Ellington, CT I would definitely recommend her. Also, I order a few Spinerval videos to watch on the trainer. They are mostly the base building type workouts, long rides with some intervals. That includes the Hardcore 100, a 5 hour plus workout! I hope to complete that a couple of times this winter.

Now for the goals for this week, it's back to a bike focus. 5 days or more on the bike with a couple long rides. I'm planning to get in a 2 hour plus ride again this week. Swimming is still in maintenance mode, and I will also ramp up the run a bit. There is a 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks that I'm considering. It feels pretty good to think that I have the base fitness to go run 13 miles if I feel like it!

Read more...

January... or how I overcame cabin fever

January was a very good month training wise, I came very close to 40 hours total. Here's the numbers:

Summary
7,000 yds swimming - 2 1/2 hours - Ouch... still not very good
378 miles biking - 21 hours, much of this is MTB, and the miles are converted to effort
75 miles running - 7 1/2 hours.

Obviously, a focus on the bike which has been real helpful in building my base endurance. Additionally, it's helping me lose some weight and round into better shape. I have another 15 pounds or so to go before I hit my planned race weight. As I've mentioned, lots of time on the mountain bike, and its been a lot of fun. I can feel the mountain biking do a lot for my cardiovascular system, although it definitely still feels different when I get on the triathlon bike.

Swimming is going to be an issue pretty soon, although I'm reasonably confident that I can stretch it out once I can get outdoors to swim. I'm trying to maintain my feel for the water, and then I'll just have to ramp up the endurance later when I get a chance. Still waiting to hear back from the swim coach.

Running is progressing well, I think it will be more of a focus for February and I've been considering a 1/2 marathon at the end of the month. That would be a pretty solid test for me to ensure I'm in at least as good a shape as I was for Hartford this past summer. We'll see, this may get added to the schedule.

Looking forward to a good February!

Read more...

Summary for Week of 1/21 to 1/28

Very solid bike week, I spent a lot of time on the bike in various permutations. Spinning classes, trainer and mountain biking all week, I ended up with 145 miles total and 8 hours. The mileage is a bit off since I plug in a formula for trainer and spin time, but it should represent effort fairly well.

I had my longest ride on the trainer on Saturday, spending 2 1/2 hours spinning in the basement. Not a lot of fun, but overall I was pleased with how I felt. I had to stop more from boredom than from lack of energy so that was a good sign. It was a struggle to stay in the aerobars however, so I suspect my neck will be sore the first few times out on the road.

Mountain biking was also a bit of a breakthrough for me this week as well, although I crashed pretty hard again. I've gotten to the point where I can spin up the hills pretty well and my legs can handle most of the inclines. Big rocks, or tough lines cause me to have to stop or pull off, but I feel like my legs can handle it. I'm really enjoying the rides too, which helps to get in the extra time without feeling like a burden. Although not entirely specific to triathlon training, I think it's been a really good part of my routine.

Good week, and I'm approaching 40 hours of training for the month of January... I'll post the monthly totals later this week.

Read more...

Goals for Week of January 21 - 28

Recovery week!!

My first recovery week on the plan, and I'm looking forward to it. It's good to feel like I'm on target so far, and following a solid plan. Recovery weeks are focused on allowing your body to "internalize" the training you have done over the last 3 weeks. As I build the hours of endurance training it will take more to allow my body to really make the gains I need to survive a 14-17 hour endurance event.

The week consists of similar repetitions, but stepping back the volume. Key workouts are reduced in length, and a focus is more on form and recovery than getting miles in. I've also scheduled a massage for this week... hope it helps :)

Read more...

Summary for Week of 1/14 to 1/20

Solid week, but I feel beat today. I needed to take yesterday off completely, and I'm still feeling sore today. The focus on running really paid off I think, I had a breakthrough run on Friday night. Part of that was due to the sun starting to go down, and being a ways from home but I was also in the right place mentally to really push. The run was 7 miles, not my longest, but I was running hard the whole time.

That followed up with a long day mountain biking on Saturday was enough to make my legs feel pretty rough for a day or two. While I didn't get the quantity in that I wanted I did manage to get 3 quality run days in, which I think is more important in the long run. Hopefully I will recover a bit more from Yoga today so that I can get in a solid bike week before my recovery week next week.

Consistency and effort are improving... I'm feeling good!

Read more...

Saturday at Case

What a blast mountain biking today!

Myself, Matt, Josh and Bruce went over to Case Mountain for a nice long ride in the snow. We had gotten an inch or so this week, and I hoped much of it had melted off to allow for decent traction. There were some spots that were melted, but it was pretty slick for the most part. We took the blue/yellow trail in, which has some tough single track with a lot of tough little sections. One area has a pretty good drop and then a sharp turn at the bottom where we all took turns crashing. Bruce got his foot stuck as he went over the bars nicely and rolled with the bike. Matt got the "clean" award since as he was thrown over the bars he jumped clear of the bike and managed to roll nicely.

After a bit more riding, the fun began. First, Bruce wrapped the rear derailleur around his wheel, so we ended up converting his bike to a single speed. Unfortunately, the chain was so twisted that it kept riding down the cogs and then falling off. The only alternative at that point was to put the chain all the way to the right... or the toughest gear. Bruce went to work on his power :) Then Josh's crank arm fell off, so he practiced 1 legged drills for a while. We managed to reattach it, but it would stay on for shorter and shorter periods of time until we finally had to leave it off. Then of course we got a bit lost coming back and took the long way. Finally, to cap off the day, Bruce got a flat tire as we headed down the fire road to the truck!

All in all though, we had a great time and enjoyed the beef stew provided by Heather when we got home!

Read more...