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Key Speed Workouts for the Week October 26, 2007

Posted by riverbrady in : Training , add a comment

Monday was a day off. Tues - Thurs ended up as key workouts where I kept pushing myself while making sure I got the proper nutrition/stretching (min 20 minutes, until tightness was gone)/sleep afterwards (at least 8 hours).

Tuesday
1:25, 9.85 miles

30 min run in the morning - 3.5mi

Running at Barton Springs - evening
18:25 warmup
2 loops [0.9 mi w/some hills + 2 hill repeats of 0.15 mi, jogging down]
- 6:35 (7:26 pace), 1:02 (7:10 pace), 1:01 (6:49 pace)
- 5:59 (6:42 pace), 0:57 (6:17 pace), 0:56 (5:47 pace)
9 min cooldown

Wednesday
56 min, 2725meters
Warmup
- 2x [4×100M: 100free, 75free/25tech, 50free/50tech, 25free/75tech]
- 50M free

Main Set - Decents: Start at 75 on 1:30, decrease 2s per until you can’t hold the pace, then switch to 50s on decent, then similar to 25s on decent
- 16×75 on 1:30 - 1:00
- 9×50 on 0:58 - 0:42
- 6×25 on 0:40 - 0:30

125M cooldown mixing free/back/breast

Thursday
45 minutes, 5 miles

15 min warmup
16:20 min tempo, increasing pace every 5 min (7:25 avg, 5:28 at the end)
5x 400ft hill sprints (0:26, 0:21, 0:23, 0:20, 0:20)
3 min running, 7 min walking cooldown

Feeling the Runner Again

Posted by riverbrady in : Training , add a comment

The last couple years I simply haven’t felt it - the runner that used to be inside me, powering my legs through the hills, cruising down paths without a worry of being able to make it back.

This week that feeling has come back, and what a glorious feeling it is to have again. It draws me on like untasted knowledge, steadily pushing back to where I used to be, and then to wherever things may take me.

Longhorn Olympic Race Report October 12, 2007

Posted by riverbrady in : Race Reports , add a comment

1500M swim, 40k bike (23 miles actually), 10k run (6.24 miles)

This was one of the few races I’ve gone in to with very little idea how things would turn out. I knew I would finish barring some spectacular wipe out on the bike. I didn’t know if it would be within three hours, outside three hours, or where abouts in that infinite range the possibilities lie. The weekend before, after riding over to Decker Lake and riding a loop of the bike course, I considered just how hard this bike course without a flat spot anywhere would be, and took an honest stock of my training since Coeur d’Alene.

The first month and a half afterwards - nada, zilch. Pure rest and healing, a bit of walking. I dropped by and ran at practice once and decided I needed more rest. Afterwards I was getting in frequent short runs (4-5 times/week), swimming on average once a week, and getting in one or two bikes per week. At the beginning of September I started back into weights - a nice long couple month adaptation phase. Two weeks earlier I had raced the Burnet Tri-HARD Challenge sprint.

Considering what I ran in Burnet, I wanted to go sub 2:30. I’d never done an Olympic before…sub 2:30 sounded like a nice time to start out with and within reasonable limits ; ) I did know my run was going to be a sticky part of the equation. It’s been getting better but I’m still a far cry from what I used to consider easy a couple years ago.

Race morning came and I decided to go without a watch again. I kept my bike computer on so it could passively track my distance but I decided to keep it set squarely on miles…no looking at time, just miles and current speed.

Getting in the lake reminded me of my first time in the Gulf of Mexico. It was warm…a toasty 85 degrees warm. While not the most preferable, warm water has never really bothered me while swimming…maybe it’s some core of me that’s still frozen from all the 60 degree ocean swimming from when I was little. In any case, listening to people complain about how warm it is, no wetsuits, yadda yadda, it was a good mental boost. We all have to swim in the same water. Warm is only a negative factor if you let it be, I thought. People were also commenting on the lakeweed. From my warmup swim I knew that it wouldn’t be an issue as long as you kept good form and didn’t sink your hands. As such, while lining up I kept myself further over to the left than most, planning to simply make the beeline towards the turn bouy and not worry about the weeds.

The countdown began and then we were all off in the fun that mass starts are. Heading out the couple/few hundred meters to the turn it was difficult to find feet as it seemed the group shifted directions continually. I contented myself with sitting alongside the edge of the pack and grabbing feet for a bit when I could, but found myself going solo more often than not as I was steadilly passing people. Just before the turn I finally found someone who was almost going my pace and settled on his feet. A couple minutes later I felt someone settle on mine and we had out line heading across the back stretch of the swim. The only problem…he wasn’t quite going as fast as I’d like. I could swim normally, then I’d start brushing his feet and reign things in for a bit. I thought about passing him a couple times but thought it would be better for my energy to let him continue to pull me for a bit as we weren’t going much slower than I felt I’d be going solo. When we were about 2/3 through the backstretch I finally decided that enough was enough, and I wanted home…when he veered off course I kept on my line, passed him, and kept going. The only downside was that I was now leading and I could still feel the other guy on my feet despite a small burst to try to shake him at the same time.

Patience, I thought, wait for the bouy and then lose him. Use those quick turns Jamie showed us. So I waited. I sighted myself to within inches of the bouy, did a 1 stroke turn and put a bit of extra juice in the next few strokes. He was gone, I was free, and he was going to have to use just as much energy as I would. The rest of the swim went rather unremarkably…a constant strong stroke into the exit ramp and on to T1 and the bike with no idea what I’d just done swim-wise. Based on the bikes on rack I knew there were a few guys in my age group out ahead, but that I was also relatively far in front, essentially leading the 2n pack out of the water (as we caught one of the swimmers from the elite wave as well).

The bike was calm. I kept the first lap a bit easier than I intended to do the entire ride but still kept things strong throughout. There was one guy (the fellow who beat me at Rookie) in my age group I was expecting to catch me at some point on the ride. I’m happy to say that I never saw him until mile 18 or so…a good indicator that I haven’t lost as much bike fitness as I was worried about. The only mistake I can think about is that I forgot about my Gu until mile 19 when I intended to take it about mile 10 to give things time to digest. I had a bottle of water and a bottle of Nuun with me. It seemed to be just the right amount of liquid for the conditions.

At T2 I could tell I’d been in an elongated sprint race for the past hour and a half or so. My legs were tight…working, but tight. An easy jog took me to my rack where a quick shoe change and I was off on the run.

As I expected, my stomach wasn’t too happy about the Gu, but it wasn’t entirely unhappy either. It took about a mile - mile and a half for things to fully settle down. It was more difficult getting liquids in, but I was getting water down at each aid station in addition to pouring an extra cup over my head, down my back, or wherever I could toss it…something that felt wonderful until the squishing in my shoes that started about mile 4.

I also kept to my plan, running the entire run, using the downhills well to pick up the pace and pass people, using my arms to keep me trucking up the hills (even if slowly). Throughout the run I saw Luisa a few times and fellow Texas Iron people all over the place. Coming up the last little hill towards the finish I picked it up a bit for the last flat section and finish chute where I found myself crossing in 2:33.

I was elated to be done, a little bit disappointed for a minute about not making 2:30 (though it lasted all of 9 seconds or so), and ready for some real food. Luisa looked at the results while I was in line to get into transition. I knew I couldn’t be way back in my age group due to the lack of people who passed me on the swim or bike, but I wasn’t sure how many people on the run that passed me were in the sprint. I was looking at numbers, but never knew if I missed someone (as I was #29 and everyone in my age group were withing 20 or so. High number 25-29 year olds were obviously doing the sprint). When I found out I was 5th in my age group I was happy. When I found out I was 23rd overall I was shocked (preliminary results was 21st, final results was 23rd).

When I got home there were a couple big surprises. I had a break through swim time for me in racing. I kept up a 1:43 pace while not feeling winded while swimming or after getting out of the water. I had actually run a sub 2:30, as I forgot to account for wave start times when I crossed the mat (and the fact that the clock was started a couple minutes early anyways).

Overall place: 21st/250
Men 25-29: 4th/28
- 5 minutes and 9 seconds out of 3rd place and hardware, so getting my run time significantly reduced by next year will make an interesting race to come.

Overall time: 2 hours, 27 minutes, 56.5 seconds (sub 2:30!)
Swim: 25:48.55 (1:43/100M avg)
T1: 1:42
Bike: 1:07:27 (20.5mph avg)
T2: 1:00
Run: 51:56.60 (8:23 min/mile avg)

Overall I’m very happy. It was my first olympic distance race, and a very hilly one at that. It was also rather hot and humid. My running still leaves much to be desired, but that’ll happen after a year and a half of injury. Prime goal this winter is to get it started back to where it used to be (I miss my sub 40min 10k’s)