SBR Utopia ~~~~ Permanently OPEN!! (Page 8)

Fred, that's super speedy, congrats to her!

Good luck to everyone at Alcatraz and anyone else that is racing as well.  

Escape from Alcatraz swim times

Chris - 36:43
Melissa - 45:28
Bryan - 38:27

Great job James!!

Not much for me.  I've gotten in a couple of runs while here, hoping to get out again this evening as well.

Looks like Chris had a solid run after the swim, bike, and sand ladder -- 8:19 pace for 8 miles is awesome!!  Nice work out there, Chris!

I had a miserably bad long run yesterday....not entirely sure what happened, but I just fell apart (not sure if it was mental or physical, but it just was not my day).  Brushed it off and had a decent couple rides, followed by an almost-as-long run today that was about a million times better than yesterday's run.  

I mentioned the other day that I'm doing a TTT next weekend.  Turns out there's an individual TT race the day before that I'm really considering.  The only issue with it is that with two days of bike racing (and a sprint tri the following weekend), it's unlikely that I'll be getting any long runs in.  I'm racing another 70.3 on June 29th, and though it's not an A race, I'd still like to have a good race.

If I can keep my running consistent and volume up in the mid-30's, do you think I'm setting myself up for a death march on the HIM run leg by having not done many long runs since SG70.3?  I've read that consistency and volume trumps the long run....and the next two weekends of racing should be fun and new experiences, so I'm leaning toward just forgetting about (and not stressing over) missing long runs.  Thoughts?

This is why I use lap NP.  So I don't chase watts where I know I don't need to.  For example, after the hard part of my ride today, I was cooling down on my way home for about 7 miles.  With some downhills, coasting, and easing into red lights, my lap power was around 95, but my lap NP was around 150...right where I want to be for a cool down stretch.  I suppose I could hit the lap button a bunch more times, but it the lap NP gives me a ballpark of where I really am when not hitting the lap button.

The good thing about TTs or TTTs is that they are normally around and hour or less.  So while it is very hard racing, the overall training stress you build up isn't that much as compared to say an Olympic distance tri.  It doesn't need as big a taper, nor need as much recovery either due to the non impact nature of cycling.  I bet you could probably do a medium long run the day before the ITT, do both TT's on the weekend, and still wouldn't put you in a big hole.  In fact, you might end up around the same as far as fatigue if you had done a normal long ride and long run instead of racing the TTs.

I had an okay ride Saturday...rear brake started rubbing as my wheel was slightly out of true, but for some reason I thought it was my crank...and cut the ride a short a little after halfway to make sure I wasn't going to do damage to the BB area.

Made up for it today though with a strong ride.  Legs really feel like they are coming around...and just in time for my June races.

Sounds a lot like what I was thinking!  I won't be tapering for the ITT/TTT as a) they'll be my first time trial experiences so I might as well set the bar low so I can PR the next time around, and b) the 70.3 is more important to me this time around.

I still plan to run ~35-37 miles this week, which will mean mostly medium / medium-long runs.  I also like to think Saturday's long run was terrible because I didn't ride before it.  I rode today and had a great 6.7 mile run in some HOT weather....I think I just run better off the bike.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it....will run both Saturday and Sunday after the TT's. 

Awesome!  Great work James!

(knew he was going to crush it)

Matt

Just fantastic.  What could be a fantastic venue and seeing friends before a race???

Oh - having a great race after the day before!  (see question in above post)  

Fantastic, all!!

Matt

Pretty well here.  Have a HIM next weekend after non-ideal 2 months of training.  Think it'll work out OK after this weekend, but am concerned about depth of fitness.

Did a brick yesterday with 5 intervals at HIM target HR of 141-144 and got consistent W across them (141 bpm and 240-245W), but think that even though that's the right HR, I might dial the W back a bit (FTP is ~260-265, I think).  Then did 7:08/mile for a bit under 4 miles right off the bike at my target HR (might dial that back a bit, too).  

Hard to know, as this is only my second HIM and my training has a hole in it early April from injury.

Did a HIM pace/effort OWS ~1.15 miles today at 1:17-1:18/100.  Felt pretty good.  Guess you all were right about doing 100's in the pool 'til you want to puke!

Good weekend, overall, even though training through the back half of the week was hampered by travel.

Matt

First ever DNF - pulled the plug 1/2 way through the bike and soft pedaled the rest of the way back.  Trying to use the Rusty attitude when things go wrong and just accept that it wasn't supposed to be my day and I'll just need to regroup and move on.  Hopefully will shake this sickness over the next couple of days.

Bummer Neil.  

I know it gets in your head, but I'm sure you wouldn't make that call unless it was the right one (so, taking the "Rusty attitude" is the right thing).  Tough, but in all likelihood the smartest thing to do, or you'd end up in a deeper hole.

Hope you feel better soon and are rocking the race course before you know it!

Matt

That sucks Neil, I've been there (pulling the plug on the bike and soft pedaling back to the start).  I hope you are feeling better soon!

Sorta on the subject of illness, I learned last night that eating a piece of goat cheese pizza at 8:30pm and then going for a run at 9:00pm is a really bad idea.  

Definitely a good swim session when the burning carries over into the next day.