…and it feels good!
6 solid workouts, easy pace and volume, and no pains. This time of year is supposed to be all about building base. I need to do some more reading on how to structure this time. I understand the fundamentals, but translating those into particular workouts is always challenging for me. Not so much that I couldn’t find something to do, but it’d be nice to set up the days to work towards a goal.
I took the bike in to the LBS for a few hours Saturday. They replaced the small chain ring and changed out the stem to drop from 17deg to 6deg. $35 and I didn’t lose the bike for long, which seemed pretty good. It rained all day today, so I rode today on the trainer in front of the football game. The chain is running smoothly now. I felt more stretched out on the hoods and in the drops, but felt pretty good in the aero bars. LBS said to give it a month before adjusting anything else.
I did it! I signed up for Lake Stevens 70.3! WOOHOO!
Next July 6, I’ll be half an Ironman! Or a Half-Ironman! I’m sure as hell not ready for it. But, it already gets me fired up just thinking about it!
Now it’s time to nail down ye olde training planne…it will have to be more rigorous than last year’s what-do-i-feel-like-doing-today plan.
Filed under: bike fit
I did a 1 hr workout on the rollers this morning, and the front derailleur is doing weird stuff. Going from the large to small ring, the chain drops onto the cog and doesn’t settle into the teeth, and so i’m spinning in the small ring without any engagement of the gears. It makes riding rollers a little tougher than usual. 
This had happened once or twice on the road, but I thought they were isolated incidents. I’m not a wrench, so I’ve got to visit my friends at the LBS. A little irritating since I just had them tune it up a month ago.
I also want to try to get my position to be more aero. I sit up pretty high, and it’s pretty comfy, but at 6′-5″, I’m a big sail. After two years riding now, I think I’m as acclimated to the bike as I can be in this position. Everyone says fit is everything. I don’t want to mess with a good thing, but…(I guess I really do want to mess with it a little). So what does that mean? You guessed it…a trip to the LBS.
…contemplating HIM still, haven’t signed up for anything… I’m leaning towards the Lake Stevens 70.3. The family seems on board with that weekend to be my support crew, so it seems likely. My only certainty is that I will sign up for a half before the new year.
I looked at a couple of plans from a book published by Triathlete Magazine. It’s got 10 different plans for each standard tri distance. The basic setup seems most compelling: 20 weeks of 9 workouts/week. Swimming and running are doubled up on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. I think I’d be able to do my usual swim at 5:30am and then bring my stuff to work to run at noon. The key thing: being organized enough to get my stuff together the night before. I even think I could drop the sunday swim if home life was busy enough; my twice weekly swimming has been pretty effective for oly distance, and the half is barely longer.
Meanwhile I’m starting off again after a month and a half of doing very little. The swim is surprisingly hard for a low intensity workout. I’ll get it back though by ramping back up slowly. I’ve been running lightly twice a week, even running at noon to see how that works with my work schedule. I’ve been all over the map for my pace on those runs, but I’ve been able to run flat courses without IT pain, and that’s very big for me.
So, 20 weeks back from Sunday July 6 is a training start date of Monday February 18. That leaves 14 weeks starting now to get some base re-established.
I will spend the first four weeks doing 6 workouts/week working on establishing my routine and base strength. Then, ease into the new schedule of doubling up to try to get a routine going so that I can hit the HIM plan feeling good about my weekly routine.
Right now, my goals for next year are:
finish a HIM
do a sprint (never done one)
get my run up to 8:00/mi for 10k
My goals for this winter are:
increase running base back to 8mi long run days and stay injury free
increase swim volume back up to 3000 yd workouts
stabilize Friday evening schedules so that i can do early morning rides on Sat without disturbing the family too much
Filed under: triathlon
I had one of those “why do you do triathlons” conversations with my Dad. He just wonders if it’s all too much: on my body, on my home life, etc. (Of course, he also thought i’d already done an ironman.) but, he did have a good point, which was: how do you balance that with family time?
i do olymic distance tri’s. i’m very much a beginner despite having done them for two years now. when i’m in training, it definitely eats into my free time. my schedule has been 6 days/wk with one workout a day; bricks or long bikes typically happen on saturdays; and Mondays are off. my weekday workouts are start as early as 5am to be out of the way of work or family time, and that has worked out really well. we have a preschooler, and I do have to make room for my wife to work out too since the little one isn’t old enough to be left on his own.
as i research what it takes to step up to a half ironman, one of the issues is getting in the bike time and the subsequent brick time. the swim distance is barely more, and I feel confident that my current time in the pool is plenty to get me through the new distance with some confidence (and even be somewhat competitive). The bike distance is doable, but getting dedicated time to ride is not easy. My wife is starting to consider biking, and I’m trying to bring her over as gently as possible. It’s not that we need to do everything together, but, if she rode too, maybe she’d come ride with me, and we could tow the boy. the run is totally doable. my current time available is enough to tackle the HIM. I do need a LOT of work on my run, but it seems accomplishable.
i’ve looked at some sample 20 week training plans. most of them incorporate a 9 or 10 session week with the running days paired with the swimming days. At first glance, i reaally wonder if that’s possible for me; I’m at 6/week now. I see two potential things that may work for me: run at lunch at work, and try to do a long bike on the trainer during the week. it will all be a guess. I know what it takes to do it well. i know that the training is all about the consistency and the quality of the workouts.
i’m considering signing up for lake stevens 70.3 or Pac Crest or boise 70.3. And, i’d like to do it before the new year to anchor my training with a goal. After (or before) that, I’d like to do a sprint tri, which I’ve never done, and a couple of olympics again.
