Week 5 - 12/21/06

Well another few weeks have come and gone and I am still working hard on my training for the tri in April. Over the past two weeks I have received my new bike, got it dialed in and am really enjoying all aspects of the training. On Saturday 12/16 we did hill repeats at Torrey Pines. Wow, this was pretty grueling. I joined the advanced group and we did each hill either staying in the same gear, sitting down or standing and so on. I tried to maintain a high cadence (rpm), but those of you who know Torrey Pines understand it is hard to maintain a cadence of 90 standing up in your large chain ring!!!!

My swimming has been coming along also in the last few weeks. As of last Tuesday 12/19 I can finally say I am starting to feel more and more comfortable about swimming a mile in the ocean without looking like a beluga whale breaching all the time. I am nowhere near able to swim 1 mile nonstop at this point, but all the small nuances about swimming effectively are coming together: my breathing feels more natural, I am swimming from my hips and not my shoulders anymore, my neck is not feeling like it is going to snap and I am kicking much more proportionately now.

As for my running, I am doing real well in my own eyes. I did the 1 mile time trial (TT) in 6:52 seconds and could have easily shaven 20 seconds off of that. I also have done a 3 mile TT and ended up with a 22.20. Over the past two weeks I have been running in the advanced group doing interval training. The first interval training was 5x 1000 meters at our training pace (which was calculated on factors I cannot even begin to explain) and then most recently we did 4x 1200 meters. Since a very important part of running for a tri is pacing and split times I have been concentrating on adhering to what the program calls for on our split times. I use my Ironman watch to check my times, but now my body pretty much knows what running a 1:35 lap vs. a 1:50 lap feels like.

This weekend we will be riding in Scripps Poway Parkway and doing laps on a 16 mile course with a pretty brutal hill. I am sure I will be pretty tired after this ride, but Sunday is Christmas Eve so that will be nice to spend some time with the family.

Till next time,
Troy

Week 3 - 12/3/06

Well another week has come and gone and we are moving along with our training progression. This past Wednesday we had out 1 mile time trial, so that coach can give us our projected splits, 800m, 5k and 10k times. I ended up running a 6.52 mile, with some definite room to improve, but was very pleased with my time. Honestly the last time i ran a time trial for the 1 mile had to be in college during some football season at either SFSU or Chico.

My typical other training activities this week were spinning on Monday, swimming with the group on Tuesday night, swimming on my own on Thursday, and taking Friday to recover.

On Saturday we all met in Carlsbad again for our bike ride and clinic. The clinic this week was on Cadence (which i learned may be the single most important aspect of the bike portion), shifting intervals and speed. Although this training was not as strenuous as the others, it was very beneficial from the learning standpoint.

After my Saturday bicycle ride I headed down to play in the our playoff football game...which we won. Next week is the championships.

For any of you interested, on Saturday 12/9 NBC will be airing the 2006 Ironman in Kona, which is the same course I will be on for this Triathlon.

For More Information, click on the Ironman Image below: