Gettin' in Shape

This week is a recovery week.  

For today a one hour ride with 8 x 1 minute sprint intervals.

Drill sets, a base interval, and sprints for the swim.  

38 minute run with 6 x 1 minute hill repeats at sprint pace.

Swim and recovery run with sprints at the end.

Short 20 minute recovery ride prior to Saturday's race or simulated race.

Time to get caught up on the blog.  With work, family, and training I have a hard time blogging the daily workouts.  

For Saturday an Olympic Tri race was scheduled, but because there wasn't one available my trianing guide had an alternate for the swim, bike, and run.  After swimming at the pool in the morning I ran home for the bike and run.  For the bike I rode the trainer for 1.5 hours. For the run was 45 minutes on the tread mill.

Fun stuff scheduled for this coming week.  I'm heading to St George on Thursday for the winter tri camp being held down there over the weekend.  I'm looking forward to hearing from others that know their stuff about Tri training.  I'm a little anxious about the tough training schedule they have planned.  It's going to be good.

Update on my brother who's also in the STG Ironman.  He finally got a tri bike and on the maiden voage today he got about 6 miles before blowing out the rear tire when crossing a railroad track.  What a bummer.

For today an hour and fifteen minutes on the bike trainer riding the Kona course.

Today was the first day at the winter tri camp in St George.  Most days started with swimming beginning at 6 a.m. and then moved on to biking followed by running. 

Todays swim consisted of a warm up, kick sets, a 2000 yard time trial, and then cool down.  Wes, the swim coach, push us hard on the time trial so we could get a good 100 yard split time which was used for training on the following two days of swimming.

At 10 a.m. we meet and went on the first ride of the camp.  For the 56 mile ride we rode from the hotel to the Ironman course and rode it along Red Cliff connecting at Bluff, through one loop, and then back Red Cliff to the hotel.

For the Run we meet up at around 4:45 p.m. and did a 45 minute trail run.  Rachel, one of the coaches, grew up in St. George and knows a lot of the trails.  Prior to the run Aaron, the running coach, took us through some stretching and warm-up drills.  It was fun to get off the road and run out through the red rocks and hills.  After the run I was feeling pretty sore and wore out from the days activities.

We finished the day off back at the hotel with Rachel taking us through a yoga stretching routine.  I was suprised how much better I felt after the stretching, still sore but better.

Up at 5:35 a.m. to get to the pool, muscles still sore and feeling yesterday's training.  Today for the swim Wes had us doing 100 yd speed intervals followed by 50 yd speed intervals.  The interval time was calculated using our 100 yd split time from yesterday.  He worked us hard, at the end of the speed intervals I was completely wore out.

The rest of today's work out was a bike/run/bike/run brick combination.  We started at Veyo on the bike and rode the loop back to Veyo, 43 miles.  This was followed by an hour run doing an out and back from Veyo.  I was feeling really worn out so I cut the run short only getting in 4.25 miles.  Next was an hour and fifteen minute ride following the loop back to the far southwest side of St George, 23 miles.  This ride was followed by another hour run, which I did get the full hour in finishing with 6 miles.  Killer pace right!!!!  That's all I could do.

Wes suggested we do a ten minute ice bath on our legs.  I was too sore to go get ice, so I just did a cold bath.  It did help my legs feel a little better.

No swim today.  It was nice sleeping in.  We started at 9:30 a.m. this morning out in the hotel parking lot with a transition clinic.  Barb, nutrition and motovational coach, had a transition rack set up and Aaron took us through the process of how to get through transitions smoothly and quickly.  On my next sprint or olympic distance race I'm going to use the transitions techniques and see how much I can shorten my transition times. 

For today's training all we had was a long ride.  The plan was to complete the entire Ironman course.  We started at Sandhollow reservoir at about 10:30 p.m., a little later than planned.  The hills on the ride from Sandhollow into town weren't as bad as I thought they would be.  On the first loop out to Veyo we had a little bit of a head wind but it was nice having the wind to our backs coming from Veyo to St George. 

At the end of the first loop we met up with the pace vehicle to refuel and fill water bottles.  One of the gals was done at that point and while I was helping her load her bike the other three Ironman riders took off.   (We were short on time to get the second loop in and had started drafting taking turns leading.)  From Bluff to the far southwest side of St George, riding on my own, I wasn't able to catch them.  Looking at the clock I didn't have time to get the second loop in so I rode from there back to the parking lot at Sandhollow reservoir.  I got back to Sandhollow just after the sun had gone down finishing with 102 miles.  I was a little bummed out I didn't get to ride the second loop of the course and get the full 112 miles.

I messed up the entry for today and put yesterday's ride in for today.  That's now fixed.  Today was the last day of the training camp with a ride and run scheduled.

We started the day with a short and relatively easy ride.  We went from Tabernacle and Main St out to Tuacon and back.  With sore legs it was nice not pushing the pace too much.

The last event of the training camp was a 2 hour run following the Ironman out and back route.  We started at 11:30 a.m. at Tabernacle and Main St.  Starting with worn out legs I set out at a 9:40 min/mi pace.  The climb out of town and up onto the top of Snow Canyon Pkwy/Skyline Drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  For some reason at the state park loop (about mile 5) I hit the wall.  From there on out it was a struggle.  After reaching the turnaround at 1000 East I had a hard time on the up hill sections back across Skyline Drive.  Through the rest of the run it felt like 90 degree weather even though it was only in the high 60 and low 70s.  I carried a water bottle the last 4 miles to keep my hat and head wet as well as for drinking.  It was a good feeling to get back to the vehicles at Tabernacle and Main St knowing we were done with the training camp.  Before leaving town I went back to the hotel and cleaned up.  I also got an ice bath in which made a big difference and got my legs feeling a little better.

As for the camp, I loved it.  It was a blast getting out and meeting new people.  The coaches, training, and other participants we're great.  I enjoyed working with all of them.  I need to thank Brent for introducing me to Di from the Desert Sharks Tri Club, and a thanks to Di for telling me about the tri camp.

I've had a long break since training last.  After the training camp I took a couple of days off as instructed by the tri camp coaches then I got sick the remainder of the week.  As for this week I had a hard time getting motovated to get back into the training.

It was nice to get back in the pool and the swim felt good.  As for the run, I was supposed to go twice the distance but had a pain through the center of my arch on my left foot so I cut it short.  I'm a little worried about what's causing the pain.  I first felt it a coule of weeks ago at the training camp on the second Saturday run and then again on the final run we did on the last day of the camp. 

A little longer ride for today, I got outside and enjoyed the weather.  I't was a little cold on the back side of West mountain.  There was a slight breeze coming from the west bringing cooler air from off the ice.