Monday, April 18, 2011

Let the Training Begin

Monday, April 18, 2011  at 9:15 PM
Yesterday marked the official start of training for Steelhead 70.3.  Jennifer and I took last week off (excluding a couple rides on the bikes), and we started training for our next events.  We're both doing an Olympic triathlon on June 26, but that will work into my training for my half-ironman.  Jenn created her training schedule on beginnertriathlete.com, but they only allow you to do free ones for sprints and olympics.  So, I'm too cheap to drop $30 to get the "Bronze" membership, and I decided to look around on the internet to find a free one.  There are a bunch out there if you look hard enough.  They all are pretty similar, so it's a matter of what you really want.  I ended up with this one if you care to check it out, or you can see the first week's right here:

I liked how it was laid out and the different workouts it incorporates.  Those parentheses by the swims represent different workouts for the pool.  The only thing that I am frustrated about, and it was this way on all the training plans, is that the run workouts are by time and not distance.  It makes a big difference to me how hard I'm going to run depending on how far I have to go.  Any wisdom on figuring out how to do these runs better?

I'm sticking with the workouts but not with those days.  I plan on moving them around a bit to work with the weather, and taking Saturday off.  Yesterday's workouts were pretty awesome.  Josh and I decided to brave the INSANE wind and go for a 20 mile ride.  Both of us are decent riders, but we struggled on the way out.  We more or less did an out and back that went straight into the wind and then right back out of it.  We were cranking pretty hard and only averaging 11mph.  The wind was crazy!  Then, once we made the turn, it was amazing to hardly even pedal but be flying down the road at 23-24mph.  It was so much fun.

After the ride, I decided to go for a run.  I ran my favorite 6 mile out and back, and I felt pretty good.  That was the first run since I busted last weekend on the half-marathon.  Again, the wind was a factor, but it was just opposite than on the bike.  At the turn, I was running just under 8 min/miles.  Then, after plugging away for the next three with a major headwind, I ended with a 8:18 pace.  I thought that was pretty decent considering I was just going for anything under 9 min/miles.  I couldn't let the wind beat me, because Mary @ trilikemary.blogspot.com did a the Southern Footprints Half-marathon in the wind this weekend and smoked my time from last week.  She was a big encouragement on this run!  Check out her race report...

Today, my legs are pretty tired.  They're not sore, but they are just "used."  It's a good feeling.  Tomorrow will be the first swim that I've done in a long time.  It's time though, because Steelhead is in 17 weeks!  We got snow this morning, so hopefully the weather will be decent for outdoor runs and rides in the upcoming weeks.

I have enjoyed reading all your race reports from your races this weekend.  It looks like you all have had a lot of fun!  Maybe one day we'll race together.

8 comments:

Ironman By Thirty

Looks like a great plan!

My training plan uses time vs. distance for the bike and runs. It took some getting used to but I basically convert the time to distance. If it is a 45 minute Z2 run, I'll do an 8:15 pace or so and shoot for around 5 miles. But if it is a tempo 45 minutes, I'll go for 6 miles. Sometimes one run comes up short and another long, but in the end it works out. Don't get too hung up on the times and just get the workouts in. 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there is trivial in the grand scheme of things.

Good luck starting your training!

KC (my 140 point 6 mile journey)

I usually find a few free online plans and then mesh different aspects of each one, tweak a few things here and there to make a training plan. I usually go by distance not time but when you are done, the time and distance are somewhat correlated.
The wind has been horrible here. I beg to differ that Chicago is the windy city. I say Tampa is!

Caratunk Girl

I like the plan - I used TriNewbies for my first HIM and I finished with a smile.

I do what Kevin does - I convert it to distance. Except I use a 10 minute pace so I don't have to do math. ha ha So yesterday I was supposed to do a 60 min run - I ran 6 miles...it was a 56 minute run, but that is close enough to 60 minutes I say...my coach seems to agree. If you are speedy like Kevin & KC, you might have to run 7 or 8 to get close to the time...

Matty O and his wife Heather did Steelhead, check his RR if you haven't already.

Matty O

Kevin is right on.

The way I do it, typically they have zones or intensity levels you should train your runs at.

You should know your different paces by now based on your running to gauge what pace is which zone or level.

a piece of advice your goal running time for a triathlon should be about 7% lower than your regular running time. So take your average 13.1 time and adjust the 7% and then that is your RACE pace. All the other paces will be adjusted off of that.

Good luck!

DRog

and ur off!

we have snow in the forecast 2 of the next 4 days

at this point im over it...unfazed...bring it on!

D

Jon

Just a heads up as you progress deeper and deeper into HIM training. The following things helped me out a LOT (and depending on where you are, it may take a bit to reach these milestones).

#1: Swim: Swimming 3000 yards in a workout is a sign that your swimming endurance is pretty good. Doing this 3X a week means you are in a good spot. Again, you may have to work up to this. Swimming for an hour is an equivelent. Now, this doesn't mean swimming straight for an hour. Breaking the swim up into intervals will progress your swimming MUCH farther and faster than long straight swims.

#2: Bike: Riding a full 56 miles in a training ride then running a 3 mile brick run and not feeling hungry means that your endurance is there, but most importantly your nutrition on the bike. Another thing to work up to. More on the nutrition down below.

#3: Run: Frequency of running really helps out a lot. Running 4X a week leading up to the race pays huge dividends. I found that running 3X a week didn't cut it for my first HIM. Running 9-10 miles once a week REALLY pays dividends as your long run.

#4: Nutrition: In a sprint or Olympic distance race, you can fudge the nutrition and get by. With the HIM distance, you can't fudge it. Messing up your nutrition will ruin your day! This is what long bikes are for. Like I mentioned above, if you can nail your nutrition on the bike, your run will go waaaaaaay better! Trust me, I made the mistake in my first HIM and paid for it dearly.

Shoot me an email to campbell.jon@gmail.com if you have any Q's regarding the HIM distance. Its a fun one but it can also be a humbling one. I'd rather you have fun then be miserable.

tri like mary

Hey! Thanks for the shout out! Glad to see you're back at it and I'm looking forward to meeting you at Steelhead!

Unknown

Looks like a great plan!

I'm with the others - convert it to a pace that you are comfortable with. I'll be honest, we do what Mandy does and convert everything to a 10 minute mile because it makes it easiest to calculate. If I'm feeling good or enjoying the run, I might add a little to it. :)

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