Sunday is typically reserved for my long run, but I was afforded the opportunity to ride with an old high school / college friend that I hadn’t seen in years. Jon and I ended up agreeing on a meeting place about 9 miles from my house and on a 40ish mile ride. The “Small West Side Loop” is about 30 miles and was perfect for what we wanted to accomplish. The ride was great. We were able to catch up on old times, talk about different friends we’ve lost contact with, the Tour de France, and pretty much everything else under the sun. We kept a nice steady pace and just enjoyed the moment. Hopefully our schedules will allow us to ride together again soon. Ultimately, I was able to grab 51.56 miles (9 miles to rendezvous point + ride + ride back from rendezvous point) while keeping my heart rate in check.
Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41924804
Monday, July 26th
Since I didn’t do my long run yesterday, and I wasn’t going to be able to swim this afternoon (my son’s birthday party with the family), I decided to get in a morning run. I intended to pound out 8-10 miles, but after just 2, I knew I didn’t have it in me. For some reason, I was feeling sluggish and uncoordinated. I thought that I might get loose after another mile, or two, but it wasn’t meant to be. I took a detour and headed back. Right around mile 5, I noticed that my heart rate was hovering around 177 – 180 and had been above 170 the entire time. I decided to try and bring it back down by walking a bit. After bringing it down to about 142, I picked up the pace again. I was able to keep it below 170 for the next mile or so before it crept back up towards the finish. Overall, I was severely disappointed with this workout. I was averaging zone 4-5 the entire time, was pushing a paltry 9:32 pace, and walked a bit. While there’s nothing wrong with talking a little stroll during a run, it just added to my overall dissatisfaction. I ended up netting 7 miles, so at least it wasn’t a complete waste.
Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41924813
Tuesday, July 27th
On tap was an Endurance – speed workout that looked like this:
Warm up – 300 swim, 200 kick, 12x25 MOD (:10 RI)
4X
300 swim (MOD) (:20 RI)
2x75 swim (FAST) (:15 RI)
400 kick
*100 EASY, 200 MOD, 100 EASY
Warm down – 100 swim
Everything felt fine and as it should. I’d say that I was satisfied with today’s workout. Total pool yards was 3200.
Wednesday, July 28th
Wednesday’s have been pretty predictable for the last 2 months. Moderate ride in the AM and speed run in the PM. James and I both wanted to get in a 3 hour ride, but he was able to leave about 30 minutes later than me. As a result, I saddled up at 5AM with the intention of meeting him (and our friend Chris) out on the course. After about 16 miles, I was able to meet up with James and then set out to meet Chris some 7 miles later. This was a great ride where I was able to keep my average heart rate in zone 2. Averaging almost 18mph, I was able to put in 54.14 miles.
Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42195881
My speed work started at 5PM. Today wasn’t as hot as previous Wednesdays, but it sure was humid. The overcast skies provided a nice relief from the blazing sun too.
Warm up – 3 laps (1 mile)
6x (1 lap on & one lap off)
Cool down – 3 laps
When I got out on the field, I realized that I forgot my chest strap at home. Oh well, guess I won’t be able to confirm that I hit my max heart rate for each “on” lap. When I was out there, I felt really good for the first 3 “on” laps and then felt like I was struggling with the rest. After looking at the data, however, I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to get down to a 6:21 pace and held it within a pretty tight range. The last “on” lap is actually quite interesting in that I was able to get my pace down to 6:44, but immediately plummet to over 10 before finishing just under 9. I was COOKED! The data includes my warm up, warm down, and all water stops. I’m not quite sure why the map has me running down the middle of the field, because I never did that. Maybe it was the cloud cover affecting the GPS? Overall, I covered 5 miles and felt pretty good about this workout.
Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42296961
Thursday, July 29th
I was all set up to do my long swim today, but lightening kept the pool closed. James mentioned that if we couldn’t swim, he would like to run later in the evening. I’ve never started a run at 8:30PM, but that’s what we did. James wanted to get in 7 miles and indicated that we could net 6 if we ran just the cart paths of the golf course. By adding on a small detour, we could get 7. As we set off, it quickly became apparent that there were going to be lighting issues, water issues (from the rain), and landscaping issues. While there was a bright moon, it was covered by the rain clouds. The rain and sprinkling system created huge puddles on the paths and tree branches that were visible during the day become camouflaged clotheslines at night. Speaking of the sprinkling system, it was really nice to get cooled off when the mist hit you in the face. That is until we realized that it was reclaimed water. Overall, this was one of my more memorable runs this year. I really enjoyed it and had fun.
Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42412903
Friday, July 30th
Since I couldn’t get my long swim in yesterday, I scheduled it for today. I picked the following endurance swim:
Warm Up – 300 swim, 200 kick, 6x75 [50 build, 25 B-3 (:15 RI)]
8x50 swim DESC 2-2-2-2 (:15 RI)
4x75 kick (:15 RI)
2x(3x200) @ T-PACE (:20 RI)
1:00 bonus rest between rounds
16x25 odds build, evens fast (:35 SI)
Cool down – 200 swim
This was an exceptional workout. Just enough rest and intensity to keep the heart pumping! The main set of 200’s was a real challenge. Overall, I really enjoyed this swim and was satisfied with the results. Total yards were 3450.
Saturday, July 31st
James and I agreed on a ride that would include 2 laps on the actual Ironman course. If we were successful, we would be able to get about 90 miles. When I woke up and rode to James house, it was still dark, so I didn’t really notice the rain clouds. After waiting outside of James house for a bit, it started to drizzle. By the time we were rolling, it was coming down steadily, but we needed to get it done. After about 6 ½ to 7 miles in, the rain let up and I took some pics to try and capture the mood/moment. We could see some low hanging rain clouds over the route we wanted to take, so we quickly adjusted our route to head north (instead of south to Rio Verde). The idea was to stay closer to home in the event that nature turned really ugly on us. At any rate, the rain picked up again and was pretty steady for the next 25 miles. We actually had the conversation about whether we were accomplishing anything or if we should bag the ride until tomorrow. Ultimately, we decided to roll on. Eventually, the rain cleared and we were able to get in a great 80 mile ride. Actually, we would have come up about 5 miles short, but ended up putting in some garbage miles to get to our magical number.
Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42856486
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