So another week has gone by in rapid fashion!! Marathon training is cruising along great and
I’m inching my way up on mileage, this past week was right around 70 miles and
approaching the max for this plan. I had
the weekend off racing so I got a couple great workouts instead… Saturday I did
my first brick workout of the year for triathlon training; I’ll go into more detail below but had a great
time and look forward to doing more as the weeks progress. I also got my new wetsuit in this week so I’m
itching to try it out in some open water! I went with the X-Terra Vector Pro which comes
highly recommended and although I’m very confident in my swimming ability, it’s
nice to have the reassurance of good equipment.
So I’ve got a lot on my plate in
the upcoming weeks, below is my schedule of events…
May 10th – MVRA Trail Run - 5K Race (Goal of hitting under 18 minutes)
May 17th – Galena Triathlon – Sprint Tri (Goal of
finishing strong and setting a benchmark)
May 24th – Twilight 10K – 1st Race of
Madison Race Weekend (Goal of not tiring myself out for the race 10 hours
later)
May 25th – Madison ½ Marathon – (Goal of under
1:25)
SATURDAY – Brick
Workout – 1 mile swim / 20 mile bike / 6 mile run
With the tri’s coming right around the corner I did my first
brick workout on Saturday. I got to the
pool about 5:45, swam a quick mile (currently I’m around 28-30 minutes). After the swim I hopped on the bike and
cruised around town for the next hour or so until run club started at 7:30.. I
was able to get a little less than 20 miles in.
I transitioned quick to the run and cranked out 6 miles with
Shannon. The swim to bike as expected
was a very fluid transition and I felt just fine, the bike to run however
always takes some work. I felt a little
sluggish for the first couple miles and experienced some shin tightness, this
went away close to mile 3 and I was fine from then on out. I felt great about the workout and encouraged
since I did considerably more distance than my first tri of the season
(660yrdswim/16milebike/4.3milerun). I am itching to get outside and swim in open
water though, my plan is to hook up with the Dubuque Triathlon Club in the next
couple weeks and train with them Monday nights at Barrington once I join.
SUNDAY – Sunday
Long Run – 21.07 Miles (8:06 avg)
This was my best long run yet in regards to how I felt throughout
the run and after. We started at OMB and
went down Asbury, Grandview and to the Mine of Spain again. I was pretty
impressed at the 8:06 average pace being that half the run was on the trails
which add on a considerable amount of extra time. The morning was misty and cool with rain hitting
us the majority of the run, I was not complaining though as towards the end it
felt just great. I fueled with
Honeystingers and also chowed down ½ of a Powerbar (trail mix flavor) which I
handled just fine. I started increasing
the speed around mile 16 or 17 when we climbed the bike path to Grandview..
then the last 4 miles I kicked it in a bit to the finish (7:07, 6:44, 6:44,
6:35). After I stopped I felt amazing
and even went to the pool to get another short workout in. I’m very happy with the way my body is
adapting to the 20 mile plus runs, I’m getting to the point where I can
continue my day without having to lay around dead tired all afternoon. Hopefully this endurance will help me drop a
decent ½ marathon time at Madison in three weeks, I’m excited to give it a
shot.
TUESDAY – Brick
Workout – 1 mile swim / 16 mile bike / 8 miles of running (speedwork and
easy)
Tuesday was a series of good workouts (about 6 hours
throughout the day), I hit the gym hard in the AM doing my lifting routine and
a ½ mile swim. After work I hopped on my
bike and got a 16 mile bike ride in with Scott ending at the University of
Dubuque where I ran some miles with the club and hit the track for some
speedwork. I did some mile repeats and
hit in the 5:30’s so I was feeling prepped for Saturday… I cooled it down,
biked back to the Y and swam another ½ mile cool down before heading home. Now normally
I run much further on Tuesdays (avg of 15 miles over last 6 weeks) but with the
race Saturday and the upcoming tri’s I figured that I may cut back on the running
and add more biking on my Tuesday workouts.
Oh, another Tuesday highlight was I received a box in the mail from
Marion Marathon with an award for our first place relay win, a $50 visa gift
card, free gear and a coupon for 100% free entry to next year’s race! I am very excited and just thrilled to have
netted $200 cash and 2 free race entry’s already this year, it is making my “hobby”
much less expensive at the moment J
Wrapping up, the rest of this week I plan to take it easy, I’ll
scout out the course sometime over the next couple days although there are not
too many surprises with that race… I’ll also lay off the biking and do a little
more swimming, hopefully my next update I’ll be able to say I hit my sub 18 5K
race, wish me luck!!
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