5 Mile Bike

5 Very slow miles on hybrid.

Spent good part of day working on my race plan for next year.

Trying to pick target races.

This evening I attended a HEAT Board meeting as an interested member and pickup up some good info about what races to do or avoid.

5 Mile Hybrid Bike

Rode the hybrid at work today, nice and easy. 5 miles in 28 minutes. Too many acorns on the road to ride the good bike.

KenpoX

I tried the yoga workout in the P90X package and it was too difficult for me. I did it for about 30 minutes, but way too hard. I need a beginner yoga tape.

I then did the KenpoX, which is basically an hour of kickboxing. This was a fun workout. I broke a sweat and had my hearrate up in the 120's.

5 Mile/6 Mile ride

Got two short rides in at work today. First averaged 13.2, the second 12.2 To go faster I need inspiration. No pain from the new seat position. uncertain if it is making an overall difference in power.

6 Mile Bike/ 2.2 Mile Tempo Run

Adjusted the seat foward a little and tried it. Only went six miles not to aggravate anything with the new angle. I seemed to pedal better in the hard gears, but worse in the easy gears.

After work, I did a 2.2 mile tempo run in 22:11 with an ending heart rate of 134. I am going to have to do my evening runs at the track now as it was dark when I finished. I would have liked to have kept going. I am running well with these cooler temperatures.

5 Mile/10 mile Rides/1250 Swim

Rode 5 miles in 25 minutes, then later adjusted the seat up and rode 10 miles in 47 minutes. I felt like I was getting more power, just riding easy, but the side of my right knee feels a little funny now.

later went to the pool. I swam 500 easy with the pull buoy, then five 100's on 2:15, then an easy 250 with the pull buoy.

Speedworkout/Stretch

Ran 2 miles at tempo pace at the track. 19:30 with heart rate of 155 at end, then walked two laps, then ran 1 mile at fast pace 8:33 with ending heart rate of 164.

Then went home and did the 55 minute stretch workout on P90X.

5.5 Mile Run

Ran 5.5 miles in 59:25. After programming my watch at a two mile measured distance on the resovouir course, I found it was much more accurate for use. Nice night to run, my heart rate was anywhere from 134-144 on the flat parts to 155 on the hills. I did slow down the longer the miles went on. I think these longer run are going to be helpful to my 5K runs.

I have decided not to enter the Half Marathon. I am not trained and don't want to cause any nagging injuries to develop. I will likely work on doing a fast 5K as my next race. Uncertain if I will do a last October triathlon.

My new running shoes arrived as I have passed 100 miles on the current ones.

2 Mile Run

Ran two miles tonight at the track including one fast 8:45 mile and then one easy one. This was just an easy recovery run. My legs and wind felt good.

Madison Triathlon 9-11-2010

Took almost ten minutes off last year's time, finishing in 1:42:16. Beautiful day, no flats, no getting lost. More later.

Results

Swim: 17:07 (184 out of 403) (46%)
Transition 1: 2:22 (235)
Bike:51:52 (328) (81%)
Transition 2: 1:27 (286)
Run: 29:28 (305) (76%)

Total: 1:42:16 (286) of 374 (76%)

2009

Total time: 1:52:04
288 out of 349. (83%)

368 (includes relays)
Swim 161th 17:44 (44%)
Bike 304th 54:26 (83%)
Run 330th 33:10 (90%)

Very slow in both transitions: 4:42 2:02

Time picked up in 2010:

Swim: 37 seconds
T1: 2:20
Bike: 2:32
T2: 35 seconds
Run: 3:42

Total 9:46

4 Miles

Went to reservoir, ran two miles uphill using the 5-1 run/walk ratio, and then ran back down. I also used the last two mile run to recalibrate my watch. It has continued to read slow, measuring 2 miles as 1.82 miles. Hopefully the new calibration will wok better. Both runs were about 10:45 pace.

It was hot and I was tired.

Not looking good for the 1/2 marathon right now.

6 Mile Ride

Rode six miles today. That was all I could get in between calls.

10 Mile Bike

Rode ten miles in 50 plus minutes. Legs were tired from last night's run.

5.4 Mile Run

Ran 5.4 miles in 57 minutes with an ending heart rate of 135. Beautiful night to run.

Lake Quassy Swim Festival 9-4-2010

Swam the mile and a half and the half mile.

Results

There were record numbers of swimmers compared to last year.

91 swam 3 miles, 122 swam 1.5 miles, 96 swam 0.5 mile, 35 swam all three events compared to last years respective 68, 94, 70, and 28.

It was a very nice day, clear sky, slight breeze. They said the water temperature was 77. The difficult parking situation was resolved by having us park at Lake Quassy and then catch a short five minute ride on the Quassy Queen, a small ferry, that took us over to the sailing center dock. It ran throughout the day and was very convenient.

Last year, I did only the half mile. I hadn’t known you could do more than one event. This year I did the 1.5 and the 0.5 mile with the thought that next year with enough West Hill or Terramuggus practice, I will try do all three.

Eating my breakfast at 8:00 AM, (pouring syrup on what my daughter called a dinosaur pancake, which she insisted I make for us -- one pancake filling the whole giant pan), I thought of the 3 mile swimmers who were already in the water. While I was glad I wasn’t in the water then, by the time I arrived on the ferry, as I watched the last of the 3 milers come in, I sort of regretted not trying that distance this year. I think 3 miles is quite an accomplishment for any swimmer.

Registration was quick and easy. It cost $65 for the two races for day of the race sign-up. It would have been only $45 if I had signed up before August 1. $60 for early signup to do all three versus $90 day of the race. People doing all three races got one color bathing cap to identify them. I got a red bathing cap for the mile and a half and a light blue on for the half.

The mile and a half swim is basically a straight line across the lake and turn around close to the far shore and swim back in a straight line. The three mile is two out and back laps. The buoys are well spaced so the sighting was fairly easy for the most part. I was confused a little on the way back because the mile and a half swimmers had red bathing caps that made me briefly mistake one wayward swimmer for a buoy. The swim back was choppy, but I just turned my head father back to breathe and had little problem other than an occasional splash in the face when trying to sight. My goal was to do the swim in less than an hour so I was quite pleased with my 53:33.

They had a nice food spread so I ate some pretzels, yogurt with M&Ms, orange slices, a banana, some chips, an oatmeal cookie, a brownie and Gatorade. They also had Subway sandwiches as Subway is one of their sponsors.

The half mile swim I decided to go out steady and then try to race it back in. I was surprised at how fatigued I felt once I started swimming, and it made me appreciate how those who had done all three races must feel. While I think I could finish the three miles okay, the mile and a half following a three mile swim has to be very tough. I was glad the half mile following the mile and a half was only a half mile. Even though tired, it was great to be swimming. As I have said before the most enjoyment I get out of this whole triathlon experience aside from crossing a finish line is open water swimming in cool clear water, just gliding along enjoying the view of lake and land. Quassy is such a great place to swim. They have open water training groups in the summer and if I had the time and weren’t concentrating on my riding, I would definitely try to join one for at least one of the summer months.

I was a little disappointed with my half mile time. Even though tired, I put on a hard sprint starting at the last buoy, but my half mile pace was still slower than my mile and a half pace. I was out of the water and up the steps in 18:50, but the results were recorded as 19:02. Instead of electronic chips, we called out our numbers as we came out of the water and they were typed into the computer. Even at 18:50, it was slower than my last year’s time of 18:15, although clearly I was much fresher then.

I got some more chow, and waited around during the raffle hoping to win a Lake Quassy Open Water Sailing Festival T-shirt, but they did not call my number. They seemed to have quite a delay in getting the half mile results, so I ended up catching a ride back on the Quassy Queen before hearing how everyone did. To my surprise I came in second last year in the wet suit division, but this year there were many more wet suit swimmers, including several very fast ones.

I already have this race marked on the calendar for next year.

(Also, while there I found out they have started an annual one mile-swim held earlier this year on July 30.)

2.4 Tempo Run

This evening my legs hurt and it had been bitterly hot all day and while not as hot this evening, was still humid. I ran anyway and my legs felt fine running. I did the 2.4 mile loop in 24 minutes.