Sunday, July 12, 2009

DANG IT (Happy now FZ?) :P

Okay, so I pulled out of RI 70.3 a couple of weeks ago in order to take care of an aching knee (same one that ended my season prematurely last year) to ensure that I can stay on track for IMWI. In place of RI, I hit up a local race on Saturday, rode home, and then ran long today.

Well... looks like the WTC gave my timing chip, bib number and NAME to someone else! WTF?!?! I wasn't even in the state of RI today!!!

To make matters worse, the guy DNF'd after a bike ride that would be a good 18+ min. slower than what I'd turn in on that course.

I suppose I shouldn't care, but I won't lie: I do. I hope they fix that BS ASAP because I'm kind of pissed about it.

Anyway, my long run wasn't a lot of fun today. Off to the Dr. tomorrow to try to get this knee taken care of. I need to get back to hitting my PFMS exercises religiously and to keep up with my stretching.

Nice job to Amanda Russell for her 70.3 PR today. I had a few other athletes throw down too: Quinn Borchard out in CA was 2nd AGer in a big sprint event (would have been 4th elite) and Dave Smith of VA was 4th overall in a pretty competitive Olympic. Those guys are hitting up Vineman and Steelhead, respectively, in the next couple of weeks, so things are looking good.

Okay, back to work tomorrow.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Pow Wow

Well, at least I had a good Swim

Big thanks to Craig Lewin and the North Shore Swim Club for helping to bring my swim around. It's getting there.

Not much more to report besides that. I was GROSSLY underpowered on the bike today: Nearly 40 watts lower avg/Norm power than Cohasset (same distance: 12.5 mile bike leg). That's just stupid weak. I felt AWFUL out there on the bike today.

But... I gave it all that I had so no excuses. The legs just wouldn't go despite my best efforts. I suppose today shouldn't come as a big surprise given all the IM work I've been laying down, but it's still tough to accept the fact that you were only able to put out the same wattage you held, easily, for a 100k pace ride just 6 days prior... a pace ride you executed in the midst of a 90 mile cycling/17 mile running brick session.

Oh well, just one of those days. They sure do suck when they decide to rear their ugly heads though.

Congrats to my friend Dean Phillips on his victory and to pro cyclist turned triathlete Lynn Bessette for her awesome showing too (she'll be making big waves in the sport very shortly).

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Crawling Into The Pain Cave

Today was the first of my BIG IM assessment sessions and man oh man did it go well. The short of it:
  • 14 mile warm up (ride over to ECV TT course)
  • 100k @ IM Goal Watts (Dean Phillips was kind enough to join me for 80k. I can't thank him enough for the company as it made the session FLY by). Avg. power of 271 watts/norm of 275 and I felt absolutely sensational throughout. Despite the wind and lack of aero kit, I covered the 100k in 2:33 and passed through 56 miles in 2:18. It felt very easy.
  • Rode home 14 miles (total of 90 miles of riding on the day)
  • Quick Transition and out the door for a hilly 17+ mile run. Avg. pace of 6:25 for the distance. Passed through 13.1 miles in 1:23:50 and despite a really painful blister on the ball of my left foot and the fatigue that goes hand in hand with being nearly 6 hours deep into a pace session, I held it together and capped the workout. The final 30 min. of the run were anything but easy though. I won't lie.
I still have a way to go until my IM fitness is 100% and I'm ready to make an all out assault on IMWI, but as long as I can continue to stay motivated and injury free, I am extremely confident that I'm going to have a good day on 9/13.

You can never disrespect this distance though, so as good as I felt today, I know that race day will feature nearly 4k of swimming, an entire 180k of hard riding and a full marathon and as such, I'll be sure to lay down the necessary training that will allow me to handle this absurd distance when the day comes.

Things are headed in the right direction though, that's for sure.

Here's the Garmin File from today's long T run if you'd like to check it out.

p.s. Big props to my Dad for helping me with today's run. Gatorade every other mile really gave me something to look forward to out there, especially when I had to run by the beach and think about all the fun everyone else was having while I suffered alone.