Gettin' in Shape

3 hour ride on the trainer, finishing with a 164 watt average.  One of the things keeping me entertained were the past Ironman races that were being shown on Universal Sports.  All day Friday they showed the 2001 through 2009 Kona Ironman World Championships.

My brother Larry that's also doing the St George Ironman went down and rode one loop of the course for his ride.  On the two steepest hills he had to go down to his smallest 30 tooth ring on the front (he has three rings on the crank) and largest 27 tooth ring on the back.  On the third toughest hill (the Veyo hill in the St George marathon) he was on the front 30 ring and back 24 tooth ring.  This tells me I'm going to need to change the gearing on my bike.  Currently my smallest front ring is a 39 and largest casette ring is a 25.  

The three toughest hills on the course are: a short 300 - 400 foot long hill at 18 - 20% grade, a .8 mile long hill with 8 - 13% mixed grades, and a .5 mile long hill with 7 - 9.5% grades.

I got on some blogs of people doing the St George Ironman and some of them are leaving their gearing the same, some are changing the rear casette to a 12-28 or 12-27, and some are changing to a compact crank as well as changing the rear casette.  I'm thinking of changing the casette and riding the course to see how it feels.

1 hour 30 minute run on the treadmill alternaing between 1.0 and 1.5% incline, finishing with a 8:34 min/mi average.

The swim was a long base interval of 1900 meters with a warm up and cool down of 300 and 200 meters. 

Week 8 of training, this week is a recovery week so the distances are a little lighter.  7:41 min/mi average for the run.  This is a little quicker than usual.  I think from missing yesterday and a couple of training days last week I was feeling better and getting after it a little more.  Drill sets, a base interval, and sprints for the swim.

Just a short recovery ride.

A short easy pace recovery run.  In the pool I had drill sets, fartlek intervals, and speed intervals.  I'm not sure why but the training guide seems to be using more swimming speed intervals in this training than in the 70.3 training.  

2.5 hour ride for today.  I rode one of the courses on the computrainer, a few hills but mostly flat.  Average watts: 173

Every other week we have a long ride on the weekend.  Starting next week, my brother that's also training for the STG Ironman and I are going to try and run down to St George so we can get these long rides in by riding the actual course.  It will get us off the trainers and on the road as well as get us familar with the course.

1800 meter base interval for the swim with a warm up and cool down.  Also for today was a bike/run brick consisting of an hour bike immediately followed by a 30 minute run.  For some reason the transition to the run felt better than past bike/run bricks and I got up to speed quicker than usual.

44 minute run with 8 x 1 minute hill/sprint intervals at 4% incline and 9mph.  

Drill sets,  base interval, sprint intervals, and kick sets for the swim. 

Foundation run for today.  I finished with 8:06 min/mi average.

Drill sets, fartlek, and speed intervals in the pool. 

I finally got the STG Ironman course the other day and got it downloaded on the computer. For the ride, after warming up on the trainer for 10 minutes, I rode the first 33 miles of the STG Ironman course.  I pulled an average of 191 watts with an average speed of 18 mph.  I think being able to ride the course on the trainer is going to be a big help in preparing for the race.

A little slower pace for the run averaging 8:34 min/mi.  I think I pushed a little too hard on the bike yesterday and I wanted to take it a little easier today so my legs are ready for a long ride in St George tomorrow.

For the swim I had my first 2 mile time trial.  The training schedule only called for 2800 meters but I push that out to 3200 just to see what I could do it in.  I wanted to finish at or under 60 minutes and ended up coming in at 58 minutes.  I was surprized to come in 2 min under 60 min.  My fastest mile swim is 27:30 so I was excited about the 58 min time for 2 miles.

Two of my brothers and I went down to St George to ride the Ironman bike course. We started in Washington, followed the course into St George, rode the loop, and finished at the intersection of Tabernacle and Main street where the bike to run transition will be located. It was nice weather and was good to get out on the road. We got a little cold after the Veyo hill with the sun lower in the sky and higher speeds of all the down hill coming into St George. My neck also got quite sore. I guess while on the trainer I'm not spending enough time holding my head up in the proper position.

We rode a total of 56 miles finishing with a 16.4 mph average. It felt like we we're a little slow through some sections. My brother still doesn't have a tri bike and I coasted down most of the hills and still matched his pace.

As for the three big hills, their rideable with a 39/53 crank and 11/28 cassette. On the first short steep one I was on the 39 and 28 rings and was out of the saddle the whole way up. For the second big hill I was on the same 39 and 28 rings and stayed down for the first half of the hill but then had to get out of the saddle for the last half of the hill. On the last hill (Veyo) I was on the 39 and 25 rings for the first third of the hill then the 39 and 28 rings for the rest of the hill and was down in the saddle the whole way up.

The first two hills really took it out of me and it took some time to recover after reaching the top. On the Veyo hill I felt good all the way up and my legs were in good shape and ready to go after reaching the top. I think the course is doable with this set up and for now I'm going to hold off on getting a compact crank. I did finally get the STG Ironman interactive course for my Computrainer and have riden the first 33 miles. I need to ride the first two big hills and see what wattage I'm pushing to get up them. Also, I need to ride two loops of the course and see how my legs feel the second time through the hills. After that I should know if the current set up will work.

44 minute run with 8 x 1 minute hill repeats at 4.5% incline and 8.8 mph, 2 minute recovery in between.  For the swim, more drill sets and speed intervals.  The speed intervals were 10 x 50 meters at sprint pace.  The 8th, 9th, and 10th intervals were tough.

Today I rode the hilly section of the stg Ironman course on the trainer.  With the new 11-28 cassette the two steepest hills are rideable but get so steep my cadence slows down to 67-75 rpm, at which point I have to get out of the saddle and stand up.  My wattage at the slower cadance and standing up is in the 210-235 range.  I think these two step hills are rideable without having to go to a compact crank, which is the direction I'm looking at going right now.  (Even though, I'd love to have a compact with the 36/52 ring setup, but I'm going to hold off on spending more money on the bike right now.)

Brick workout 1.5 hours on the bike trainer and a 30 minute run.

50 minute run.

2200 meter base interval for the swim with warm up and cool down. 

Riding the St George course on the trainer.  8 x 1 minute sprint intervals mixed in.

45 minutes on the treadmill with 8 x 1 minute sprint hill repeats.

Drill set, base interval, sprint intervals, and kick sets for the swim. 

1.5 hours on the trainer riding the Kona course.

45 minute run with 6 x 20 second sprints at the end.

Drill sets, fartlek intervals, sprint intervals, and kick sets for the swim.

4 hours 10 minutes on the trainer riding the St George course.  I finished with a 16.8 mph average.  On the actual course my average speed would be a little higher because the trainer can't fully simulate the down hill sections.  When riding the course a few weeks ago I got up to 40 mph on a couple of the hills.  On the trainer I can only get to 32 - 33 mph on the same hills.

1.7 mile time trial for the swim, I completed it in 47:26.

2 hour run on the treadmill at 1.5% incline.  I finished with 14.25 miles, a 7.1 min/mi average.