Jun 23, 2012

Weekly Training Summary: June 17-23

Sunday, June 17 - Long Bike
7:09AM: ~55 miles in ~4 hours. (part 1, 2) Got together with several friends, and rode from Franklin Lakes down to Denville and back. Awesome, awesome ride, with a group of people who more closely match my skill level. It continues to surprise me to see how strong I am on the climbs, to a certain point. After that point, it's even more surprising to see how week I suddenly get.


Sunday's Long Ride
11:53AM: 1.14 miles in 11:04 (9:43). By the time we finished, I was already late to be somewhere for Father's day - but as I said to my friends, "I can't say I don't have ten minutes to get a quick run in." Running Streak Day 537.


Monday, June 18 - Bear Mountain Run
6:23PM: 8.23 miles w/1122' gain in 1:26 (10:30) - ascent time 50:00.Thought I'd take advantage of the cool weather and run a route that I've not been on in over a year - Bear Mountain's Perkins Drive. The four mile ascent gains about 1100 feet with a continuous uphill, only offering less-steep portions as breaks. It's an awesome workout. I knew my PR on the ascent to be about 58 minutes, and with hill training lacking lately, I wasn't expecting much from this run. I frankly would have been happy to run an hour. I surprised myself by running almost exactly 50 minutes from the carousel to the summit boulder. Maintained sub-12 minute miles on everything but the steepest sections. Reached the top feeling invigorated and I honestly felt like I could have continued another 4 miles/1100 feet. Of course, I was reminded on the way down the the hardest part of this route isn't the ascent but the descent - four miles of continuous bone-crushing downhill running is really good training, but it beats the hell out of me. Streak 538.

Bear Mountain Run-Up
Tuesday, June 19 - Pool Swim
5:35AM: 1750yards in an hour. "The return to the pool," as this was called, and after my string of successes I had forgotten just how mediocre I am compared to my tri club friends, especially without the aid and buoyancy of the wet suit. We did a few intervals and things, but over all I struggled to keep up with the speed demons. I wonder how much I was affected my the run from Monday.

7:20AM: 1.03 treadmill miles in 10:01 (9:44). A quick mile on the treadmill at work, where I definitely felt the effects of the run from Monday. Streak 539.


Wednesday, June 20 - Bike
5:34AM: 17.84 miles in 57:47 (18.52MPH). On the longest day of the year, you can beat the heat by starting early - but can't beat the sun (it was already light out at 4:45am), and you can't beat the humidity. At 5:31AM it was 67.4ºF, but the humidity was 95%, giving us a dew point of 65.9ºF. And sunny. Without wind. And I am particularly vulnerable to heat and especially humidity. And with the mild weather lately, I am far from acclimatized. I say all of that to say this: I got dropped on the tri course. My time, despite being by second-best ever, was 4 minutes slower than Saturday's race, and I just had no legs on the hills. Normally I can keep up with the skinnies, but not today. Kim, by the way, is awesome for hanging with me while I was sucking the moisture-saturated wind.

6:36AM: 1.28 miles in 12:10 (9:31).For obvious reasons, I bagged the run. By 6:52AM the humidity had not gone down at all, and temp and dew point had both gone up 4ºF. Plus the sun was much higher in the sky. So I ran out a half-mile and back. Streak 540.


12:20PM: Hertz Fitness Center Bootcamp. I tried to take it easy, but bootcamp takes no prisoners. 40 minutes. 

Thursday, June 21 - Track
5:42AM: 4.25 miles in 48:01 (11:18). "I ended up with 4 miles at about 50K pace, and then curled up into a dark corner, in a fetal position, with a dozen fans and ACs blowing directly on me, sobbing." Well, Track was the plan. I woke up, checked the weather, and saw that it was already 78º with a 70º dew point. Got there at 5:30 to find that I was alone. Farted around, took my time, and finally started at about 5:45. Super-slow. I was really struggling, even at 11 minutes per mile. Was going to bag it at a mile or two, until I saw Jim running up to the track! Having a running partner was just the kicker I needed to continue. In fact it was so good running with him that I almost forgot about the weather. Streak 541.

Friday, June 22 - Medium
4:59AM: 8.56 miles in 1:27:10 (10:12). Too short to be a long run; too long (and too slow) to be a tempo run - this run can best be described as "medium." Actually, it was a good acclimatization run. The  heat wave technically hadn't broken yet and the humidity still sky-high, but with an extra-early start, two days of adaptation, clouds that kept the solar radiation low, and most of all an awesome running partner (thanks Mare!), this 90-minute sweat-fest went by quickly and relatively comfortably relative to Thursday and especially Wednesday. Also, since I'm a little behind the 8-ball this month with the 100-miles-in-every-month goal, getting 8.5 in on a weekday was nice. Still, the afternoon thunderstorms were a welcome relief. I was on my drive home from work, and saw the outdoor temps according to my car's thermometer dropped from 88º to 68º in about 20 minutes. Streak 542.

Friday Run with Mare
Saturday, June 23 - Medium with hills
8:20AM: 7.32 miles in 1:23:35 (11:26). I'm not ashamed to say I slept in - After 4:something AM wake-up calls Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday, I decided that a 6AM 100K ride - that I'd have to start at 5AM for reasons I won't go into here - wasn't happening. So instead, I stayed in bed until - get this - 6:55AM! Then, shortly after 8AM, I started a 1-hour run, that ended up longer than an hour. I thought I'd throw in a couple of hills. 20 minutes in I thought to myself, "gee it's taking me a long time to warm up." 45 minutes in, I said, "I guess I won't get warm at all today." Had to walk a couple of miles of this 7.5 miler, which is also something I'm not ashamed of. They can't all be great runs. Streak 543.

Saturday's Run
Totals for the week:

Bike: 71 mi
Run: 31.8 mi
Swim: 1 mi

Totals for the year:

Bike: 528.9 mi
Run: 816.7 mi
Swim: 44,735 yd

Jun 19, 2012

Weekly Training Summary: June 10-16

Sunday June 10: Kingsbridge (Hill)
6:19PM - 3.34 miles in 33:00 (9:53). Quick run up Kingsbridge in the evening after a busy day. Some white van almost ran me down. And I forgot to turn off my GPS at the end. Should have stayed home. Running streak day 530.

Monday June 11: Lonergan (Fake Zero)
6:21AM - 1.55 miles in 15:58 (10:19). Not that I physically needed a rest day, but mentally I did. I ended up slacking all week. Streak 531.

Tuesday June 12: Open Water Swim
5:30AM - swim / Franklin Lake - 1 mile. Getting more and more comfortable in open water. 
6:39AM - Run - 1.32 miles in 13:08 (9:58). Basically ran around Indian Trail Club, exploring and seeing what the transitions were like. 0.2 miles added afterwards. Streak 532.

Wednesday June 13: Fake Zero
6:38PM - run - 1.5 miles in 15:09. Six laps around the track during Joey's lacrosse game. Didn't need a rest day, but I took one anyway. Streak 533.

Thursday June 14: Bike
5:29AM - Tri Course - 17.3 miles in 59:32 (17.4 MPH). Went nice and easy with some friends, until I saw that I could complete the course in under an hour if I put in a good kick.
6:35AM - Fake Zero - 1.09 miles in 10:28 (9:37). Just a quick run out a half mile and back after the ride. Streak 534.

Friday June 15: O.W. Swim and Transition Practice
5:41AM - Franklin Lake - 1 mile in 35:00. Again, super-easy and super-comfortable. The race was the next day, meaning this would likely be our last regular opportunity to train in Franklin Lake until next year.
I then got with John and we practiced transition setup and actually did a rehearsal. In the practice we did a 0.74 mile bike ride at 6:55am and then a 1.12 mile run in 9:47 (8:45) at 7:00AM. Streak 535.

Saturday June 16: The 30th Annual Wyckoff / Franklin Lakes Triathlon
My first real triathlon! Official results here: http://www.compuscore.com/cs2012/june/wyckind.htm.
I'm really slacking on my race reports, but I promise one will be posted about this as well. In brief, I did fine in all three disciplines, and crappy in my transitions. 0.5 mile swim: 18:33, 17.3 mile bike: 53:08, 5.1 mile run:  46:41.

Totals for the week:
Bike: 35.3 mi
Run: 15.2 mi
Swim: 2.5 mi

Pretty much a slacker week for me, especially the 15 mile run.. that's really low, even for me.

Jun 10, 2012

Weekly Training Summary: June 3-June 9

Sunday June 3 - Longish
6:36AM - Run: 13.35 miles, 2:35 (11:39). Running steak day 523. Was happy to get a long run in with Bob, a big guy like me, except that while I specialize in the run, he does so on the bike. He was coming off a 100+ mile ride the day before. Great guy to spend a Sunday morning with. Anyway, he needed 2½ hours and I figured that since he was doing a hilly course at IM-NYC in two months, that we'll run the big hills of Franklin Lakes - and that's what we did. Fun times.


Monday June 4 - Rest w/core
12:30PM - Run: 1.86 in 16:53 (9:05). Streak 524. After running a couple minutes at what felt like sub-9, I looked at my watch and saw barely sub-19! So.. the GPS was all wonky. After it stabilized I hit "lap" then I ran to a known mile-marker. Then I hit lap again. Adjusted the first lap to be 1 mile minus the second lap. Then I took a shortcut back to the office, and took a short core training class at the Hertz gym.


Tuesday June 5 - Swim
6:30PM - Swim: 2000 yards in 1 hr. Masters swim coached session. Workout was as follows: 350 warmup
4x100 (25 kick + 25 drill + 50 swim) , 350 (first 100 hard) , 250 (first 100 hard) , 150 (first 100 hard) , 4x100 pull (count strokes - min 15, max 20 - per 25 yards) , 100 cooldown. The 350/250/150 first 100 hard are designed to imitate the first few minutes of a triathlon.  You're supposed to go over 90% for that first 100, and then try to get your breath back and fall into a rhythm for the balance of the set. Very cool workout.

7:40PM - Run: 1.1 in 10:00 (9:06). Streak 525. Quick run on the gym treadmill immediately after the swim.



Wednesday June 6 - Bike/Run
5:37AM - Ride: Wyckoff Tri Course (17.3 miles in 1:01:25, 17MPH). The Wyckoff YMCA Triathlon Course is a 17 mile loop from Franklin Lakes to Campgaw in Mahwah and back. I've done it several times, and it's a fun course to do with friends. This morning's ride was with MaryEllen, Roseann, and Kim.
Oh, and by the way, this was my first ride on the bike  that I'll be using at Ironman Florida. It's on loan from a very generous friend in the tri club.
Specialized Transition Expert

6:43AM - Run: Seminole Loop: 2.59 in 22:55 (8:52). Streak 526. Ran with MaryEllen. Towards the end, I was thinking to myself, "gee, she's really pushing me hard. I'm getting a real workout." Later, she sent me a note, which basically said, "gee, you really pushed me hard. I got a real workout."



Thursday June 7 - Open Water Swim/Run
5:49AM - Swim: 2 laps of Tri Course/Franklin Lake (1600 meters total). Nice swim with about ten people from the Tri Club. Wonderful that Indian Trail Club is letting us use the lake so much ahead of the triathlon. We're going as a guest of someone who's a member, and ITC is OK with it, even if we go every morning between now and the Wyckoff Triathlon, which is held there. They're even providing a lifeguard on a kayak!

800 meter swim course is yellow, 1.2 mile is red


6:34AM - Run: Seminole Loop: 2.57 in 21:36 (8:25). Streak 527. Ran with Anthony. Unlike the run with MaryEllen yesterday, there was no dispute over who was pushing who. At one point, Ant was trotting along and asked if he was going to fast for me. Betwen gasps, I somehow told him yes, this is fine, keep going. Then I puked.



Friday June 8 - Long Open Water Swim/Run
5:40AM - Swim: 1.2 miles open water, ~50 minutes. Since yesterday's 2x800 went so well, I thought today I was ready for the big 1.2 mile swim - that's half the Ironman distance. I went to bed extra early and was first at the lake, right after 5am. I was worried that many of my tri club friends, who are running Eagleman 70.3 on Sunday, would not be willing to swim so long but I  thought wrong. Of the ten of us, I think all but two did the long course. As for me, I simply started swimming and tried not to get tired. And I finished feeling like I could do it again, which is exactly what will be required at Ironman Florida, when we do two loops of this exact same length - in the Gulf of Mexico.


6:47AM - Run: 3.7 miles in 36:36 (9:56). Streak 528. Ran with MaryEllen and Arnold, which is really enjoyable. Both are just a pleasure to run with. Did a loop around Franklin Lake, via a short connector trail which MaryEllen showed us. This loop, which is almost exactly three miles long, will prove to be super-useful in the future. Mare and I added a half-mile to the end to coincide with her training plan.



Saturday June 9 - Long Ride
4:46AM - Ride: 49.08 miles in 3:19:38 (segment 1 segment 2). So, here was the deal. I know I need to get some long bike rides in, as I've been neglecting that discipline lately. But I also know I needed to go to Brooklyn too get the power steering pump on my minivan replaced and to hang out with my aunt and uncle who live in Mill Basin. So I did what I had to do. The appointment for the car service was 8am, so I left the house at 4:45am and rode my bike 45 miles to the mechanic.
Segment 1  - the long segment
Having never done any rides to NYC before, I wasn't sure of the route. In a car, I'm an expert. I can drive all over NY without even thinking it. But on a bike, where I can't go on the same highways, and where the preferred routes are those where cars aren't allowed, getting from A to B can be a little more difficult. There were a couple of confusing moments, the biggest one getting from the George to the Hudson River pathway that runs the length of Manhattan and is very popular among cyclists, runners, rollerbladers, etc. I ended up taking an elevator (!!) down to the path.

Once out of Manhattan, my original plan was to head south down 3rd ave and towards a similar path that goes around Brooklyn next to the Belt Parkway. But I was unfortunately running out of time and had to ride straight to the mechanic, in a neighborhood called Rugby which is just south of Crown Heights. Riding in Brooklyn streets, I transitioned from the role of cyclist to target. Lots of cars, all over the place, buses, delivery trucks, pedestrians - really keeps you on your toes. Plus, the traffic lights were whipping me like a rented mule.

I arrived at the mechanic at 7:50am, and waited. The mechanic himself didn't get there until 8:18, and Alex showed up ten minutes later. After we left the car there I rode down to my aunt and uncle's house in Mill Basin (he came in his car to pick up Alex and Joey), clocking in another four miles, bringing my day to 49 total.

9:14AM - Run: 1.11 miles in 10:23 (9:22). Streak 529. Fake zero immediately after the long ride. After a nice cool morning run, by the time this started it started to heat up. Glad to get in a cold shower after this!

Totals
Bike: 66.4 miles
Run: 26.3 miles
Swim: 3.3 miles

Jun 3, 2012

Weekly Training Summary: May 27-June 2

Yes, I am jumping in on the weekly training summary bandwagon.

Sunday May 27 - race
My first Triathlon! (report coming soon on this one. I know, I know. I still owe you an Umstead report. Sorry.)
6:38AM - Swim: 1/4 mile, ~8 minutes. My first open water swim. Couldn't swim straight. Still, tenth out of the water out of 25.
6:48AM - Bike: ~10K, ~21:00. I crushed this course. Passed four people, and was in sixth place off the bike.
7:10AM - Run: ~5K, 31:38 (9:43). Haven't run a 5K this slow in a while! Just felt sluggish and slow. Running Streak day 516
Again, more detailed report coming soon.

Monday May 28 - rest
This was a rest day for me. Ran a quick mile (in the heat) and then spent a few hours in the pool. Good times.
3:58PM - Run: 1.21 miles, 12:38 (10:27). Streak day 517

Tuesday May 29 - swim
6:00PM - Bike: 2.31 miles, 20:00. YMCA Gym Treadmill, immediately before Masters' Swim workout. Streak day 518.
6:30PM - Swim: 2100 yds, 55:00. Boye Pool. Did a variety of workouts, but finished out with 800 yards continuous.

Wednesday May 30 - Cross Train
12:05PM - Run: 1.03 miles, 9:43. Quick Treadmill Run before Boot Camp. Super-Easy. Streak Day 519.
12:20PM - Bootcamp: 40 minutes. Really glad I went super-easy on the treadmill, because I couldn't see straight after this workout.

Thursday May 31 - Track
5:36AM - Run: 10K Meters, 1:02 (10:03). Indian Hills High School with a few people from the Tri club. 4x1200 w/400 recovery. 1.5 mile warmup and 1 mile cooldown. Streak Day 520.
12:18PM - Powerwalk: 2.56 miles, 39:17 (15:21). Annual "Walk at Work" day at Hertz. Hung out on a powerwalk with some colleagues.

Friday June 1 - Open Water Swim
5:15AM - 800 yards, 20:00. Franklin Lake/ITC. Swam one lap of the tri course. Felt constricted, couldn't breath properly. Decided to bag it after just one because I didn't feel safe. Probably was an overreaction, but I'm not entirely used to open-water swimming yet.
6:41AM - Run: 2.55 miles, 23:04 (9:03). Quick lap to From Market basket to Scioto/Seminole Rd and back. Ran it nice and hard, especially after a slow start - hard enough to call this a tempo run. Streak day 521

Saturday June 2 - Long Swim
4:05PM - Run: 1.3 miles, 13:13 (10:11). Quick run around the pool before jumping in. Streak day 522
4:45PM - Swim: 2500 meters, 1:15. Suffern Village Pool. Actually didn't plan to do this workout, it just worked out (heh) that way. Wasn't even wearing swim shorts, and the board shorts I was wearing was like a parachute. Longest swim ever.

Totals: 
Bike, 6.3 miles. WTF? I gotta focus on the bike more, it's over half the Ironman in terms of total time!
Run: 20.4 miles
Swim: 3.5 miles
Boot Camp: 40 mins