Fuzzy four days.

The last four days have been pretty much a blur. The training has been pretty intense and I've been able to stay really focused with only a week before I leave for wildflower. I had one of those moments when I'm like, oh shit! is that next weekend? I've been trying to get all my gear together this week to reduce any panic/ last minute stuff. I'm really looking forward to getting up there early and having some time just to relax.

As for the training.

Today is a day off. I'm thinking about getting in the water for a little recovery swim with the Tri club just to spend some more time in the wetsuit. I'm still not feeling super comfortable in the new Zenith. We'll see.

Thursday.

workout 1 was a two hour ride with a focus on working hard in the hills. the goal was to spend more than 10% in Zone 4-5a. workout 2 was a 45 minute run zone 1-2.

I decided to go straight to the source. Mission Gorge pass. 8-12% grades on either side with one side having 2 climbs one ~5 minute, one ~7 minute, the other side is one long 8 minute climb into the wind. I had a 30 minute warm-up then hit it. The first climb felt good, the following 6 were tough and I was definitely feeling some accumulated fatigue. Still working hard nonetheless. Here's a graph of the gritty part of the workout.

Here's a graph of the same hills from last year about the same time: 050206

Definitely some good improvement here. I still felt my wattage was down about 5% Thursday, though HR was pretty moderate. After the ride I decided to hang out and hit an adjacent trail run for my 45 min. I took about 15-20 minutes to recover/stretch then I went out on a relatively flat run. Time to look out for Rattlers as some mtb'er saw one about 3 minutes in front of me. No siting. I felt pretty flat on this run and just tried to take it easy working on form to get me through it. I took pleasure in the fact that this was the last hard day for the next 3-4 days. Sweat test data:

pre:164.4

post:162.0

24 oz consumed over 2 hours. ~70 degrees.

Wednesday.

I had a one hour aerobic swim and a 2.5 hour MTB planned in zones 1-3 +/- I'd been looking for an opportunity to get back in open water and the wetsuit and Wed. was good. I swam from LJ shores buoy line to the cove and back. Total time straight swim about 40 min. I stopped at the quarter mile buoy to do some turns. It definitely took some time to get warmed up. I really need to do about a 15 minute warm up before I start feeling fresh. The water was lumpier than it looked but I was swimming straight. I was trying to site more than normal to work on technique. The buoy turns felt better than ever. I did a quick core workout out of the water and headed over to Penasquitos to get my ride in.

I tried to keep it mostly rolling with a few mellow climbs and felt the bike handling improve. My plan was to ride to Black Mountain summit again just to not have to repeat too many sections of the Canyon. I rode the same access road as Sunday but hit a little easier gear which made it easier to moderate HR. This time it took 18 min. with AvgHR 144-Max 157. Made it back to the car at 2:45 a little long. I really enjoy getting out in the "country" away from the cars. I did a sweat rate test on this ride.

Pre ride: 163.4

Post ride: 160.2

Total fluid consumed 40oz.

that's 91oz. lost. 33 oz/hr. Seems like a lot but it is what it is.

Tuesday.

Tuesday I had a one hour aerobic session in the pool and a 60 min. cruise interval run workout. I also went to a nutrition seminar with Kim Mueller from FuelFactor at B+L . I had to plan this day carefully to not get stuck in traffic gettting to North County. My plan was to swim in Coronado then head up to Encinitas to get in my run. I was supposed to do the run on the track, but that would've put me in PL at 4:00 not good.

The swim went really well feeling really fresh and balanced. I worked on not pulling so wide with the left side and my shoulder felt great while I was more symmetrical. Here's what I did:

5x100 warm-up

100 kick

1000 @ 1:45

100 kick

2x500 @ 1:41-1:43

2x100

2900m total

This swim felt great and I had that good tired and hungry feeling. I grabbed a little food and found a nice flattish mile in Cardiff for the run. I was doing 60 min with 3x1 mile @ 10k +:10s. this is hard to pace for me. Here are the splits and HR avg. after 10 min warm-up.

Mile 1: 6:34 HR 159/max 173

Mile 2: 6:27 HR 168/max 180

Mile 3: 6:41 HR 172/max 183

I went by feel on these and obviously could have used some 1/4 mile splits. It felt good to run hard even though my legs were feeling the weekend still. I didn't try to slow the last one but fatigue was setting in. Not as good as the last track session but some good speed nonetheless. After this I went for a quick cool off in the ocean and headed to the Nutrition gig.

It was really good with some good info that will help me stay strong through the run. Most revealing was the hydration theory. My big problem is cramping. Focusing more on fluid intake and less on calories will help as dehydration is the biggest performance zapper in races 1-3 hours in length. My sweat rate tests will help determine my hydration needs. Kim will help me figure out what I'll take on the bike and pre-race. I've been experimenting with more electrolyte in my bottle. I 've been trying 2 scoop Carbo-Pro and one MotorTab in 24 oz. That's about 300 calories and 250mg sodium. I'm a salty and heavy sweater so that sodium should really help the cramps. I also plan on taking some Thermolytes on the bike and run depending on the temp. I also would like to figure out how to just carry one bottle on the bike if possible. That may mean H20 at the turn around with a Carbo-Pro concentrate in a gel flask. I'll update as the plan gets more nailed down but this formula seems to be working so far.

Monday:

I was supposed to get in a recovery swim. It didn't happen. I was planning on hitting it with TCSD at 6:00pm. but I had to work late. I knew the rest of the week would be a schedule stretcher so I figure best to clear the decks to concentrate on the key workouts ahead.

All in all I'm feeling pretty good. I'd wished I saw some more impressive numbers on the bike yesterday but I need to trust the training. I've been beat down pretty good over the last 10 days and some cumulative fatigue is to be expected. I don't have a goal finish time yet. I'm gonna run some wattage data and figure I can run 7:15-7:30's at least. Last year was 8:00's and 199W avg on the bike with a 26 minute swim. I'm looking to shave 8-10 minutes and hit the top 20 or better. I'll discuss this with Jim to see what my expectations could be. This weekend has some lighter recovery workouts and should be good to spend some time with the family.

e