Week 15 Progress Report
Wow! Week 15 already. Originally my first triathlon was going to be the San Diego Triathlon which is on June 25th or week 20, but after adding in a decent taper I just felt I was not going to be prepared as I would like. I haven't yet done an open water swim, and haven't prepared for my transitions yet. So I signed up for the Santa Barbara Sprint, which gives me plenty of time. It takes place on August 27, at the end of week 28. That means I have about 11-12 weeks left to train and get ready. That does not seem like much to me, and I'm getting a little nervous.
Here is a rundown of last week's training.
Monday: Did a slow run for one hour. I only did 3.9 miles. I wanted to do more, but I was coming back from an entire week off and did not want to push it too much.
Tuesday: Swam 1800 meters in 45 minutes. Once again I limited my self to 45 minutes, because I was coming off of an entire week off. I was faster than normal though which was encouraging.
Wednesday: I did a hard 60 minutes on a spin bike. There was not a class at the time I was available, so I just put on some headphones and enjoyed an episode of Get Your Geek On! I think everyone was wondering who the guy laughing his ass off over on the spin bike was.
Thursday: I ran another 60 minutes on the treadmill and pushed a little more. I was able to do 4.5 miles.
Friday: I was a little burnt out on Friday, and did not sleep well. My daughter has been having sleep issues, so that means I have sleep issues. It is just hard enough to get out of bed at 5am when you get the full seven that I try to do. On just 5 hours sleep it is really a struggle. And when I don't get up early I hit traffic on the commute to work which really grinds you down. So I skipped my morning swim. I was feeling really guilty about it all day, so I left work early and headed to the gym. I was able to swim 2500 meters, which is the longest I have ever done, and I was able to do it in 63 minutes. I felt much better, especially because I knew that I would have little time to train over the holiday weekend with all the family outings.
Saturday and Sunday: relaxed and did no training.
Monday: Ok, Monday is really part of week 16, but I did the bike ride I had planned originally for Saturday, that I just didn't have time to do. So I'm going to include it here. I rode up to the Rose Bowl, did 5 laps and then rode back. My neighbor rides up to the Bowl on occasion too and gave me a new route to try. It is mostly back streets with few lights, but there is one log section on a main street with lots of lights. Here is a chart of the ride from my Polar S625x. I took out the heart rate info, because there were too many gaps. For some reason I have been having trouble with the heart rate data on my rides, but the speed and cadence sensors have been working great.
The red line is the altitude. You can see the five peaks on the chart. Those are the five laps at the bowl. I love the down-hills. I cannot stay in aero position for too long, but I do get down into aero on the down-hills. Then I just put it in the highest gear, and just jam down the hill. It is a blast! You can see the speed (blue line) just jumps way up on the downhill. Coming back on Arroyo is also great because no only is it downhill, but there are lots of curves as well. Carving the corners is a lot of fun.
I do have a hard time holding a line while in aero. I know that it is a skill that I need to work on, but I also think that the geometry of my bike is not helping. I have a road bike with a short top tube. This allows me to have a full set of aero bars, but also means that my weight is very far forward on the bike and the ride is a bit squirrelly. I always try to give other riders a wide berth.
Here is a rundown of last week's training.
Monday: Did a slow run for one hour. I only did 3.9 miles. I wanted to do more, but I was coming back from an entire week off and did not want to push it too much.
Tuesday: Swam 1800 meters in 45 minutes. Once again I limited my self to 45 minutes, because I was coming off of an entire week off. I was faster than normal though which was encouraging.
Wednesday: I did a hard 60 minutes on a spin bike. There was not a class at the time I was available, so I just put on some headphones and enjoyed an episode of Get Your Geek On! I think everyone was wondering who the guy laughing his ass off over on the spin bike was.
Thursday: I ran another 60 minutes on the treadmill and pushed a little more. I was able to do 4.5 miles.
Friday: I was a little burnt out on Friday, and did not sleep well. My daughter has been having sleep issues, so that means I have sleep issues. It is just hard enough to get out of bed at 5am when you get the full seven that I try to do. On just 5 hours sleep it is really a struggle. And when I don't get up early I hit traffic on the commute to work which really grinds you down. So I skipped my morning swim. I was feeling really guilty about it all day, so I left work early and headed to the gym. I was able to swim 2500 meters, which is the longest I have ever done, and I was able to do it in 63 minutes. I felt much better, especially because I knew that I would have little time to train over the holiday weekend with all the family outings.
Saturday and Sunday: relaxed and did no training.
Monday: Ok, Monday is really part of week 16, but I did the bike ride I had planned originally for Saturday, that I just didn't have time to do. So I'm going to include it here. I rode up to the Rose Bowl, did 5 laps and then rode back. My neighbor rides up to the Bowl on occasion too and gave me a new route to try. It is mostly back streets with few lights, but there is one log section on a main street with lots of lights. Here is a chart of the ride from my Polar S625x. I took out the heart rate info, because there were too many gaps. For some reason I have been having trouble with the heart rate data on my rides, but the speed and cadence sensors have been working great.
The red line is the altitude. You can see the five peaks on the chart. Those are the five laps at the bowl. I love the down-hills. I cannot stay in aero position for too long, but I do get down into aero on the down-hills. Then I just put it in the highest gear, and just jam down the hill. It is a blast! You can see the speed (blue line) just jumps way up on the downhill. Coming back on Arroyo is also great because no only is it downhill, but there are lots of curves as well. Carving the corners is a lot of fun.
I do have a hard time holding a line while in aero. I know that it is a skill that I need to work on, but I also think that the geometry of my bike is not helping. I have a road bike with a short top tube. This allows me to have a full set of aero bars, but also means that my weight is very far forward on the bike and the ride is a bit squirrelly. I always try to give other riders a wide berth.
posted by Anonymous at 12:49 PM
2 Comments:
Try not to push your inaugural Tri back too far or you'll run out of season and if, like me, you become instantly addicted, you will be scrambling to get another one in.
This was a concern. I want to do at least three events this season, so I just went ahead and signed up for all three at once. The other two are in September. Unfortunately I did not realize that they are only a week apart! Oops.
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