Another couple weeks of great training under my belt and some cool plans for the next two. I hit the pool 2-3 times a week and have been feeling pretty good in the water. I always try to add in some drills to my workouts early on to get back in the habit of controlling my stroke. A couple years ago Eric Arndt got a bunch of us Tri-Sharks together and did a video swim analysis which showed I had some issues with my technique. I've been trying to correct them on my own with drilling and focus work. This past fall I even tried to do some masters swimming with a coach giving me some advice. I bailed on the masters since they made me kick too much (I don't like to kick). So I just continue to do my Total Immersion swimming stuff which I think helps me focus on the "right" way to get through the water. I'm working on 2000-2300yds a session for now.
I've been keeping up with the running and slowly increasing my Sunday long runs up into the 13-14 mile range. The past few weeks before my half marathon in St Louis Brian, Keith and I have been running out at the Tri-Shark bike course which is a good 13 miler with some challenging hills.
I suppose this is why I did a pretty good job at the half finishing with a 1:33. I'm glad we spent time running those hills in preparation for that St Louis course. It's pretty rolly and can sneak up on you in the last few miles. My splits showed I had maintained a 7min mile for nine and then slowly faded with 7:30's for 10, 11, 12, and 13. I suppose I'm happy with that.
My plans for run training leading into the Madison marathon will be to maintain a 14-18 mile long run but to finish the last 1/4 to 1/3 with increased effort close to LT. Had a nice run with Brian today where I finished this way. It felt pretty good and I hope to continue like this through June and then take a mid season run break to focus more on the bike. Maybe it'll warm up by then...
Not a lot of biking going on around here since the weather is just down right shitty. Keith and I've been out one Saturday and I've been out a couple week days. The rest have been on the trainer in the garage. This past Saturday though I had an incredible training session with my Kona-mate Chris Sweet. He and his Team Evo Tri have picked up Vision Quest training as a sponsor. Each of their teammates get a mentor coach from Vision Quest to work with. Chris works with a Vision Quest guy here in town, Stan Watkins who has THE ultimate set up in his basement. 6 decks for CompuTrainers wired into his computer projecting onto a HUGE screen. Up to 6 riders can train, race, do a simulated pace line, whatever. We had 4 guys and did 2x15min intervals after a good warm up, then to finish, 4x30sec V02 max efforts. All in all a 1.5 hour workout that felt like a 4hr ride afterwords. Stan input a my LT at 270. This would the max effort in watts I could maintain for 40min. This would also be the number I needed to hold in those intervals. Pretty cools stuff. It gave me another perspective of what it feels like to train with power.
My tri camp with Sweet is coming up this weekend and we're putting the finishing touches on getting it all complete. Made a trip out to the camp site and it looks pretty cool. Made it over to the pool to see where we'll be doing the video analysis, and drove parts of the bike course. It's pretty challenging. We're "gonna make them sweat" for sure! The Sullivan Tri is the week after so I'm looking forward to getting the season started on a good note. Hoping for good weather for both...
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