So its race week and I'm headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico in a few days for my race that takes place on Sunday the 18th. I am really excited about this race as it will hopefully set me up to have a great 2012 season. Everything is going well and feeling right. I feel mentally and physically ready/fresh to take care of business and accomplish all my race goals. I was becoming nervous after returning home from my Arizona Training Camp: feeling beaten, bruised and extremely fatigued, after logging lots of miles and hours. My coach, Todd Wiley, did a tremendous job dialing me back in and getting my body back on pace and in a strong place. I need to go down there and stay focused, race smart, and have fun. Now with all the time put in, all the sweat behind me, and all the winter illnesses avoided, I am ready to compete and start this season with a bang.
With the 2012 Season upon us I want to wish everyone good luck in all there races and training sessions, and hope to see you out on the course. Race Hard, Leave Everything Out on the Course and Finish Strong. Have a great season and be safe out there.
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Well my first taper of the season is finally here, Ironman 70.3 San Juan, Puerto Rico. The race is a week and half away. What this means: 2012 season is on the horizon, all the second guessing is present, anxiousness is in the belly and anticipation of seeing what this season will bring is eminent.
I am very excited for this 2012 season. It is going to be a true test to see if all the hard off-season training is going to payoff. I have left everything on the line for this season and am anxious to see what is in store for me. This is an exciting place, a good place, and a nervous place to be. I am ready to push my limits and give it everything I have in order to attain my goals. I know deep down I am ready but there is always that second guessing for the first race of the season. You have nothing to compare it to after months of not racing. Will my body react as it did towards the end of last season or will I need to work out the kinks again. In reality though I think we are always working out the kinks to be honest. That is what makes focus and preparation so important for this first race. Every little edge I can get will make a world of difference in the long run, and sometimes those often get overlooked. I am going to go down and try not to worry about the things I cannot control or the things that are in the past and just race hard and have fun. The first race of the season will hopefully set me up to have a great rest of the season. It will add more confidence at this distance and most importantly will give me valuable information on how my body reacts to different sets of circumstances and stresses. I always have a tough time with the taper though. I always feel like I am losing fitness, getting lazy and gaining weight. Although all of these are false, I can't help but feel this way. I think this is natural. It is nice to have partnered up with Todd Wiley, my coach, to ensure me that all those things are not happening and also that I am tapering correctly. I have the confidence that I am doing things correctly and am on the right path to have a great race. About a week and half to go and I will have the first set of results for my 2012 season. I look forward to letting everyone know how it went. I'm going to reach for the moon and shoot for the stars. This week was solely dedicated to training. I flew to Scottsdale, Arizona to put in some long training days to prep me for the season, which is fast approaching. A buddy of mine invited me down to train for 5 days so I jumped at the chance. With near perfect conditions: air temperatures averaging 68 degrees, no clouds in sight and minor winds, we were able to take full advantage of our time. So here is what went down for the entire week. I broke it down into each day:
Monday: Swim: 4200 yds Strength/Core Workout Tuesday: Swim: 3200yds easy Bike: 1 hr trainer session - 14 miles Plyometrics outside routine Wednesday- Flew into Arizona and were riding by noon. Bike: 3:25 - 65 miles Avg speed 18.9 MPH (pooped from flight) Swim : 3500 yds Thursday - Day was beautiful, could smell the flowers and fresh cut lawns Run : 1:32 - 11 miles Bike: 4:49 - 92 miles Friday: Bike : 6:32 - 115 miles Run : 23 min - 3 miles (Transition Run) Swim : 2650 yds Saturday : Run : 1 hour - 8 miles (easy pace felt pretty broken down) Bike : 1:13 - 22 miles Swim : 5000 yds Sunday : Travel day Run : 30 min - not sure of distance Core Workout Totals: A lot of hours and miles Long week, definitely slept good at night. It was fun, learned a lot about my physical capacity, and it was a great place to train. Scottsdale has everything a triathlete could ask for: mountains, flats, beautiful weather, great pool system, and good running trails. I want to thank my friend John Potter who gave me the invite and showed me the ropes while out there. It was a great experience and one step closer to race day. I had another good training week to prep me for my training session in Arizona this week. We had somewhat decent weather only one day of snow, so not to bad and temperatures still aren't that cold for this time of year. I've really lucked out weather wise so far this winter. Here we go for this week:
Swim : 3x 80 min sessions - 14650 yds felt really strong had my stroke technique tweeked this week to become more efficient, by Tri Your Limits coach Scott Rowlands (www.triyourlimits.com). So will continue to perfect my stroke and get stronger. Bike: 5 Hours - 79 miles comprised of two trainer workouts and one road workout Run - 3.25 hours - 27 miles Looking to really crank some miles out in Arizona take full advantage of the beautiful weather and no distractions. Should get 5 good days of training. Train, train train. I had another decent workout week. I am starting to log more time on the bike now and it feels great. Other than the cold weather it is going good but the weather is definitely better than a typical winter up here in the north. Well here it is:
Swim: 3x80min workouts: 14550 yds Run: 3 hours and 15 minutes : 30miles Consisted of: 1 track Workout; 2 Transition Runs, and 1 10k race The 10K race I placed 7th overall and 1st in my Age Group: 35:44 Bike: 5 hours and 15 minutes: 90 miles Consisted of: 1 Trainer Workout, 2 Road Workouts Notes: Was happy with my performance in my race considering I have yet to do any speed work. My pace was 5:46/mile. I wanted to be around 5:40 so wasn't to far off. I'll keep working hard and doing everything in my power to keep making improvements. Next week I am heading to Scottsdale, Arizona for 5 days of training in hopefully beautiful weather. Can't wait to crank out some miles in a new place. The week started out pretty sloppy with all the snow melting away but mid week the temperature climbed up into the mid 40's. Here is a glance at my past week:
Swim : 3 sessions x 80 minutes = 4 hours & 14250 yds Bike : 2 trainer workouts and 2 long rides = 9 hours & 159 miles Run : 2 treadmill workouts b/c of snow, 1 easy run and one long run 3 1/2 hours = 25 miles Misc. workouts: 3 1/2= 3 hours Total Hours: 20 Felt very strong this week. This weekend I was down in N. Carolina training and had beautiful weather. I did a long ride one day and the next day did my long run and felt very strong. I think it was a combination of training in a new location and awesome weather. Last week I started to add a long swim day were I log 6000yds for one workout to try and help my endurance for racing, we'll see if it works. Till next week train hard and stay focused I had a long bike ride yesterday on a beautiful but windy day and had a big training day today (4hrs of a little bit of everything). I was wiped out by the end of the day. I grabbed a quick snack before bed and headed up a little later than normal which was a no-no. I should of made it a priority to go to bed on time. I tossed around in bed for hours and stared at my clock watching the time tick away. With my early morning swim workout approaching, I managed to log probably a horrible 4 hours of restless sleep.
I woke up and went to swim practice and I was exhausted, unmotivated and lacked FOCUS. It started by losing count on short distance swim sets, then my stroke lost its fluidity. I was wasting so much energy with the poor quality of my swim stroke and was getting very frustrated that I kept losing count or my place in the workout. About halfway through the workout I gave myself a pep talk and got myself out of the bad funk I was in. I now was somewhat working on all cylinders other than my body was fatigued. My form was back and I was back on track with the workout but I felt like I was spending so much of my extra energy on focusing to keep myself in line. I made it through but very frustrated and upset with the overall effort I just put into the workout. Which brings me to question: How important is rest when it relates to focusing? Obviously we know we need to rest to let our bodies recover properly so we can train the following day just as hard but maybe something that is overlooked is the ability to focus completely. When racing or competing, any slip in concentration or focus could be the difference between a PR or a DNF. Focusing is so key in these long endurance races but to stay focused for such long periods of time it is so hard to begin with, so we don't start behind the eight ball before the race even starts. A proper night's sleep is the first key, in my opinion, the day of a race. Don't take a short cut when it is so easy to go to bed at a decent time the night of the race. Now the only problem is trying to fall asleep on pre-race night. In order to perform at a high level make sure you take advantage of every portion of the race as possible. Take care of the easy ones and they will set you up in a better position for the harder ones. SLEEP HARD - STAY FOCUSED This week was a good week other than the winter weather towards the end of the week. Here's what I was up to:
Swim: 3x80 min sessions: 14,050yds (on Wed did 6000 yds) Bike : Consisted of 3 trainer workouts: about 4hrs 10 min - totaling 65 miles was suppose to have long ride on 1/22 but 6 inches of snow put a damper on that idea. Pushing it till Monday or Tuesday weather and road conditions permitting. Run: 3 hours 40 min - totaling about 31 miles - did long yesterday of 13.2 miles on a regular route for myself and PR'd it, so was happy considering icy conditions, all the layers I was wearing and the overall cold temperatures. Misc Core execises: 3 at about an 1hr each : total 3 hours Total Workout Hours per Week: 15 hours First week that I could see the improvements from last season. I felt like I was getting faster and stronger but never related to the workouts till this week. I am not really feeling the fatigue factor as much now as I did before. Todd, my coach from T Wiley Sports, has me on a good plan and will continue to work it as hard as I can, to get the results I desire. Till next time - Give that little extra at the end of each workout Welcome to the K17Sport Blog.
Just got back from a three hour bike ride in freezing conditions. I was debating if I should suck it up to ride outside BBBRRRRR!! or just ride on the trainer BBOOORRRIIINNNGGG workout!! I decided to go with riding outside. It was 16 degrees at the start of the ride and got all the way up to 19 degrees by the time I was done. My whole ride I kept thinking, why am I out here in these frigid conditions and when is it to cold to ride. So I came up with a, how you know when its to cold ride list: 1) Your water bottle freezes within the first twenty minutes of riding 2) You can't eat anything for fear of breaking teeth from food being frozen 3) The fog on your sunglasses begins to freeze 4) Your face is frozen in an ugly smirk that says "What the hell am I doing" 5) You can't feel any of your 10 toes or 10 fingers and Finally 6) You get home and your spouse says is that snot frozen all over your face!! I think next time when it is so cold I will opt to go the boring route. |
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