One week before Silverman 1/2 ironman
So this was my last week of long hard workouts. Over the past weekend, I was able to get in a 60 mile bike with a few thousand feet of climbing. On Sunday, I put in nearly 15 miles running and it was mostly trail with rocks and major climbs.
The week was spent hitting the pool and putting in decent distance and focusing on form and speed. I did a short Mountain bike ride on Tuesday, that had good climbing that I intervalled. Trail run with my dog on Wednesday and more pool work. Today, Thursday was my last hard workout - 4 miles of speed work running. Instead of hitting the track, I went outside of my neighborhood and ran some good hills hard. I hope that this will get me ready for a very hilly 1/2 ironman.
This weekend will be spent putting in about 45 miles on the bike with a casual ride and my final "brick" workout (bike/run) on Sunday. It will all be casual/comfortable to make sure that the body feels good.
I feel as though I am getting a bit of a head cold right now and I 'am trying to make sure that it will not spread to the rest of my body. I hope this is the case!
Next week will be spent doing very short workouts in the pool/on the bike/running. All workouts will involve some very slow, slow training with spurts of very high end intervals and bringing the heart back down to comfortable levels. This will allow my body to gain the strength and rest and hopefully be ready for what appears to be a very tough race on Sunday 11/11/07.
I found out that the 1/2 ironman course will involve over 4000 feet of climbing on the bike and 1600 feet of climbing on the run. To break 5 hours on this course will not be realistic. This is looking more like a 6 hour day and this is going to be a long day for a 1/2 ironman. So much for speed. My goal is to keep my legs comfortable "spinning" out the climbs and short steps on the hilly run. If I can be comfortable, my fitness should still place me very high. Let's hope nothing goes wrong!
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silverman
Pat,
Good luck down there. Don't forget that you are representing N. NV. so all those Las Vegas pretty boys should be scared. I just got back from racing cyclocross in Chicago and I was really amazed of how fast our local races / club rides truely are. The Reno / N. Cal. area is an amazing place when you start looking at the level of athletes and the training venues / conditions we have. What "flatlanders" call a hill we might call a bump in the road. Now I know you have said the course has some climbing (lots of elevation), but you climb a ton and plus you do it it at altitude! So take it to them!
Carothers
Death March
The next year starts early with another potential death march Jan 13th at the Rock n Roll Marathon! So this sounds like great race prep to me. Not end of season! Good luck man...
Thanks for the extra
Thanks for the extra encouragement! Not sure about speeding up when it hurts. My goal is to go as fast as I can in a "comfort zone". I am not familiar with this course and typically don't like to race on courses that involve extreme climbing, etc. However, this "death march" should be a good way to end the season and get ready for next year.
I will keep everyone posted on my results, I truly hope that it does go good. Even in challenging races, I still like to try and be a top finisher. We'll see.......
Good Luck at Silverman!
Your competing in a very challenging race. By the sound of your training plan, you'll do great. As we say at the Incline Club, Deviate from the Horizontal. "Go out hard, when it hurts, speed up!"
Make sure to fuel with electrolytes especially if its sweltering heat.