Iron Week 41 was a step in the right direction. The right direction for me could be many places, as long as I'm running to get there. The run is my Achilles. By June '08, it will not be.
Run:
I upped my run mileage for the week to 25 - a personal best for a week in a really long time. Also, I upped my long run distance to 11 miles. Time and pace...well, no matter really. Not yet. Put in the distance now, and those things will take care of themselves. It was not an "Iron run week"...but it's getting there. Once I'm over 30 weekly miles, I'll start to feel like it's worthy of the Iron Week label. Along those lines, I'm considering changing my Gasperilla Half Mary in February to the full deal. I'm shaking my head as I type this.
"The only Marathon I'll ever run again will be at the end of an Ironman" - Bigun
Bike:
The bike proved to be problematic for me this past week. Only one ride of 58 miles early in the week. Had to work Saturday morning, and by the time I got done swimming, I just, well, was done for the day. I just added the Horrible Hundred to my event list for this year...it's a killer, hilly bike ride up in Clermont, and any time "hills" and "bike" come up in the same sentence describing a local bike event, I'm in. I also just found the website for last years Bike Across Florida - 165 miles - that was held last April. Two months before IMCdA...sounds like a great deposit.
Swim:
I finally did the "4:15am, run 3 miles to the pool, swim for an hour and then run home" workout I've been threatening myself with for a while now. It's got the makings for regular, at least 3x per week occurrence. I'll go for 2x this week, and if I get 3x, well, that will just be gravy. My 5k of swimming consisted of all 500m sets. I'm getting locked into that distance, and while that's not bad, I should mix it up a bit more. I'm really just happy to get in the pool these days.
Overall I got in a little over 9hrs of training in. Not a bad week really. One more bike, and I'd have had a good week. Oh well, put that one behind us.
Watching the swim to bike transition of IMWOO was an eye opener. The early folks all ran bare footed and stuck their feet in their bike shoes at the mount line. I will work more on that in the coming weeks, and put it to the test in the Florida Challenge Half.
Jetpack and Texafornia have a new website - 140dot6 - there's a link in my sidebar. The concept has me intrigued, so much so that I'm constantly on the alert for a place to do a self-supported full distance swim, bike and run. I think I found a great spot, save for the pool swim, which is ok. My sick mind has me looking for a date to put myself through this bit of torture, the earlier the better so that I can continue with training for the big show. Jan 6th sticks out of the calendar for me. We'll see.
26 comments:
Bigun -
Think a little about the flying bike mount. For an IM, is the possible few seconds saved worth the risk?
In a 12+ hour race, it's not in my book.
Take your time, make sure you're steady and put the shoes on in transition. Then clip in at the line.
My $.02.
Now if you're doing a sprint, then it's on. Fly onto that bike and get the shoes on in the first 1/4 mile.
Agree with Bill. Look at the transition times. They are all fairly long anyway. You are not going to save much time by putting your shoes on. Run to your bike with your shoes in hand if need be and slide them on at the bike. I would not risk it. Now at the dismount, I saw a lot of people leave their shoes on the bike and ran into T2 in their socks.
I would so be scared of doing the flying burrito instead of the flying bike mount. (my kids used to call it a flying burrito whe they would run full force and going flying ..... at anything, usually your lap when you weren't expecting it). I third that motion.
Wanna try the Horribly Hilly Hundred here?? It's got a couple hills.....
A self supported full, not a chance. I figure that I can acomplish just about anything given the time and I don't have anything to prove to myself or anyone else. If I'm doing something I'm gonna be meeting people, getting a shirt and traveling to some place I want to visit. I have put in a zillion miles around here and there is no way I'm repeating that experience in a single day, self-supported full.
Run, run, run. Agh! my %#$&@! nemisis, ruuunnn! I think I'm just going to start hill repeats on the Sandia Mountain while drinking vomit and flogging myself with a cat-o nine tails to toughen the stomach and body. I will be ready for IMCDA.
Thanks for your comments! I really don't plan on EVER doing the flying bike mount. I just HATE running in bike shoes. In no time, I tore up my last set of plastic Look clips. One long pavement transition and they are just about toast.
Sweetness...I hear ya, but I also have a hard time footing the IM bill. Someday I'll be rich and famous...
You are famous already!
Thanks for the moment of video prominence!
Glad IMLive put you closer and gave you some fun.
I am copying your program to look at later...
My f"lying bike mount" would take me right into the pavement...heh.
Great Post. I'll be following your IM training, I'm so inspired by everyone. I hope to join in a few seasons.
Congrats on a good, solid week of training! :)
p.s. no flying mounts or dismounts for me either...
Hey Dude -
My bike mount is kind of like a little hop...not flying (Flying Burrito! LOL). I'm afraid I'd catch "something important" on my Xlab saddlewing. The important thing is that you just keep moving.
The decision to mount with shoes already clipped on or not is transition area dependent. Concrete or asphault you do not want to run with your shoes on your feets, good chance you'll damage the cleats. Soft terrain but thorns, cow pies, etc where you might want to protect your feets you can run with your shoes on. Steep up hill immediately out of the trainsition area you want your feet in the shoes to start - otherwise you might look like that old guy on the bike on "Laugh In" that went so slow he fell over.
Always dismout barefotted leaving your shoes on the bike.
Caution statement: Tighten the tension on your pedals as tight as it will go so your shoes don't accidently unclip while you have your weght on them. It happened to me in my driveway while practicing. Check out the scars on top of my feets when you see me at the Great Florida Challenge.
Self-supported, simulated ironman? Yea. About that. You might want to just plan 3 1/2 IM races or simulations during your buildup (last one like 8 weeks before your IM)....unless you think you can train through the self-supported, simulated ironman...Personally, I think if I tried something like that I'd just lose a month of training time trying to recover from it.
I'm going to turn off my computer now and swim 3k.
One other caution statement: make sure you slow down before you dismount...I jumped off of my bike and started running at about 12 mph Saturday. I bruised the @#$%^&*! out of my heel. It didn't help that the guy in front of me stopped dead in his tracks for no good reason....I really am going to turn off my computer now. I have to go train so I can make the other military participants in the Great Florida Challenge suffer.
Nice training week...the run to the pool and back sounds a bit brutal....
I'm not sure if I'll ever be able able to hop on my bike like that.
Doing a full test run? wowzer. I definitely couldn't recover fast enough, but I am hoping to get another HIM in before the BIG SHOW.
Hey Dude -
I just looked back at my Ironman Talk notes (What? You don't take notes on triathlon podcasts?).
Coach John Newsom recommends 1/2 IM races or simulations run at IM pace 13 weeks out, 9 weeks out, and 5 weeks out (he uses 4 week training cycles and 2 week tapers, if your cycles are different or us a 3 week taper you ccan sdjust accordingly).
At 5 weeks out a simulation is better than a race to prevent getting caught up in the race and abandoning IM pace.
The focus is on practicing nutrition and IM pacing.
Ok, I just finished training session #3 (those military guys will suffer) and I need to eat and change a flat bike tire :^0 The tire I damaged at Morton Plant Mease finally gave out.
Bigun, if you hate running in bike shoes, and this is a stretch, but you COULD get mountain bike shoes, you can actually run on those treads and not feel the clipless... they're kind of indented into the shoe. They work on a few roadbike pedals, I have crankbro's and know they are compatible. I thought about getting them because we have to carry our bikes up and down the George Washington Bridge stairs to get in and out of the city.
BTW, cool video.
Great video, I especially liked the part where it said, Tex wins!
The full mary and the bike ride across Florida sound like sound Iron training.
Props on your upidge in the run mileage as well.
A live swim start for IM is almost spiritual and to be experienced by all triathletes.
I suspect that the sunrise start of an Ironman has become the impetus of more future Ironman finishers than any other reason possible.
I forgot to comment on the video. That was really cool to capture those guys at the finish.
Bigun, Thanks for the video!!!
(Yeah, I'm late. But I'm home now, and borderline coherent!)
What' your PR for the most comments on a post?
well from one guy in a single post...lets see, 1...2....3....4...5 - that's a PR...five it is...thanks Excel man...now turn off your computer and go train!
ExcelMan is funny! I like him.
BTW - PR for comments on a post - 42.
;)
D'ooah
Post a Comment