Category: triathlon

D.C Heat

Another weekend and we are traveling again. This ti,e it is to dc to see my family. I have to take the bike along because it is another training weekend . I start off on sat around 12 and it is hot hot. Around 97 . I bike the wo&d loop by the time I have done the loop from regan to Vienna I am cooking. I start to try to cool down by throwing water on myself . That only helps a little. Get to dulles and I have to take a 2 min break because of the heat. I ride back to vienna and get to the car. Kamil meets me outside. I grab a water bottle throw it on my face and then grab the last of the infinit and start to run. After 70mi I meant to do a 4 mi run. The run around the park is enough to do me in. Stop at mariam’s house to grab more water.
My cousins are there, considering my state I think they wanted to stay well away. I was sweating buckets. I sit down for a while and then go back to fatimas’s house to take a shower and come back for a late lunch. Nothing better than a diet of nihari and haleem after a hard days workout.

Race Rehersal

First day of camp and a bunch of us have to do a race rehearsal. We meet up at high peaks cyclery and weather gods are having a laugh at us. It is slightly colder and most of us need an extra layer. We head out of town and do the modified bike course. I do a 3:10 on e first loop. Get back into town take a break for 10 min and then head out again. The next loop I am somehow with a faster group of riders ( don’t know how that happened) . On the 2nd loop I decide to skip the 2nd outback. On the way back from Wilmington the sun is out and I am cooking in e extra layer that I have on. I get back into town and I stow the bike . The second loop was slower around 3:29. I curse myself for riding a 6:30 split I was meant to do an even 6:00.
Either way I have done 109 miles and just want to get off the bike. I would have been willing to sell my bike for $1 if I didn’t need it for the race. I start off on the run with Keith . We are doing a nice 9min/mi after 3 miles I pick it up to race speed. Run down the hill flip it around and run back into town

2 down 44 to go

Just started the 12 week race-specific prep. In the words of crowie “Race Speeeecific Brriik” , need to add an Australian accent to that. 2 days of a long bike-run, followed by a long bike. Man my ass is sore, my legs are tired, my eyes have wind/sub burn and I am starting to think what the hell an ironman is all about. Did a 80mi bike ride, followed by 4mi run. Felt I was going to collapse. Total of 6hr of constant moving, a lot less than the 12 I am going for in an ironman.

The next day was a 60mi bike ride. It is almost a wonder I could get back on the bike. Lets just say certain parts of my anatomy were really really sore.

Debating a race

Somewhat recovering from being sick and I have full 1/2 IM race this week. The harryman triathlon. I was going to use it as a training race for the full distance race. Now I am debating whether it makes sense to toe the line, when I am at 40%. What good can come out of this. I already have my mental 6-pack of being able to run 13 miles with fever, not sure if I need to do 1/2 IM B race while still on antibiotics.
At the end I decided to skip the race and make it a full training day. I am going to 3000 yds in the pool, 70mile bike , 6 mi run. My own triathlon. With the option of skipping out if things get too bad. I race myself today. I race my body, my mind, and the conditions.

Self supported tri

So what does a triathlete need to do when he is recovering from a sinus infection and has asthma, he needs to do a self-supported triathlon. I mean isn’t that obvious, it is so obvious it is stoopid . So I am not doing the harry man race. I get up in the morning go for a long swim of 1hr. The pool is somewhat empty so it is nice.
On the way back I stop by to get breakfast.
And then it is off for e ride. Do the 1st loop of 40mi using 2 bottles of infinit, feel good legs feel fresh. Stop by the house to get refills and then head out for the 2nd loop. Doing well till the 70 mi mark and then the wind picks up. I must have been riding into a horrid headwind because I slowed down from 18mph to 14. Finally get home having done 96mi. Change into running shoes, timed it perfectly because R is done with her ride she decides to pace me for the run. I run out to silversands beach and do the regular 8 mi loop from the house. By the time I get home I am beat but considering I was recovering from an infection this was a good day.

A good training week

So returning from a weekend with the family. And a somewhat avg training weekend. It was time to turn the dial up. It is called the ironman ! Not sleep on the couch, eat nihari, and pie man . Ok well maybe if they made that a triathlon I would participate anyway.

I knew each day counted this week. I was able to get all of the scheduled workouts in, even the swims. Which for the lazy ass I am at 5am is a surprise.

It started off with a good swim monday , and then a run. On tuesday I joined the masters swim, to get royally whiped by doing a total of 3800yd swimming. I felt like a drowned rat at the end of the swim.

Wednesday felt strong on the bike doing some serious interval work. On the bike to work I hit hammered it home, and then ended with a 3mi brick run. The legs felt good. I was thinking ok this is not that bad I know I can run 3 at interval pace after 30mi of hammering a bike.

On thursday did a long run for 1 1/2 hrs. Which felt decent had to cut it short because I was not feeling well. And then took friday swim off. Finished the week with a total of 15hr of training for the week.

Bad Weather Days

Nothing puts the dampener on the mood than bad weather. Or maybe more when the weather changes from winter to wonderful spring, and then cold harsh winter again. I guess most would call that living in new england. I just call it the weather gods playing with our emotions. They give us a couple of good days, and then a thunderstorm. They give us a clear sunny day, and then a tornado. I am sure my college roommate would have something more educated/informed to say about the weather all I can say is “I want good biking weather”.

Saturday was horrible went out for 60 mi bike ride in cold miserable windy 32F weather. Cut it down to 20 mi and returned bushy tailed from west haven beaches.

Sunday didn’t even bother with the run.

29 weeks, 1 day

So I wish I could find something funny about 29 weeks, but it doesn’t match any lunar, solar, celestial, biological cycle I know of. But hell all I know is after 29 weeks of training, I have to do an IM . So I planned this out way back in sept, tweaked it in nov/dec, jan and finally I am settling on this plan in march. Being the obsessive compulsive I am I might need to tweak it again.

But Lets just say that between now and jul 26th everyday counts

1/4/2010 1
1/11/2010 2
1/18/2010 3
1/25/2010 4
2/1/2010 5
2/8/2010 6
2/15/2010 7
2/22/2010 8
3/1/2010 9
3/8/2010 10
3/15/2010 11
3/22/2010 12
3/29/2010 13
4/5/2010 14
4/12/2010 15 Transition Week
4/19/2010 16 Transition Week
4/26/2010 17 IM Training
5/3/2010 18
5/10/2010 19
5/17/2010 20 Big Day
5/24/2010 21 1/2 HIM
5/31/2010 22
6/7/2010 23 Lake Placid Camp
6/14/2010 24
6/21/2010 25 Olympic race
6/28/2010 26 Race Sim
7/5/2010 27
7/12/2010 28
7/19/2010 29 IMUSA