Weekly Brush up and Joyuda RR (05/09/11-05/15/11)

This was the end of short 6 week block building towards the Joyuda triathlon. This race features a 1.8k swim , a 65k hilly bike ride and a challenging semi hilly 16k run. I had several goals for this race even though I was on short prep coming to it. I wanted to improve my overall time, cycle under 2hrs 5min, test out my improved race nutrition plan and avoid walking as much as possible.

Getting to the race was a cool adventure getting there at 8pm on the night before the race and preparing for a 5.45 gun off. Race morning was uneventful with my usual P&J sandwich breakfast and away to transition area at 4.30. I set up my spot pretty quickly and I was ready to go with 5min before the start.

I’ve experience cramping early on in the swimming before on longer races from going out too fast and I wanted to improve on that. This time I didn’t swim SO easy as I did at SJ70.3 and decided to settle into a controllable but hard effort and try staying on some dudes feet for the majority of the swim. Around the first buoy I got gapped and decided to maintain my own pacing focusing on taking a good navigation line and not sighting too  much.  At the last turn buoy I was with 4 other guys and decided to just swim the remaining part with them. So with no cramps and with good company out of the water I was in about 10th position, So far so good.

T1 went smooth and I was on my bike before the other guys.

I always feel like the bike is my strongest discipline because I work hard at been as aero and efficient as possible. My plan going into the race was to be a little bit more aggressive than the half ironman and stay at mid zone 3 by hrt. Unfortunately my monitor got crossed or something and just didn’t work correctly giving me all sorts of readings from 50bpm to 225. So on RPE I was and not confident at all. I always feel like I don’t know my body and can’t gauge my efforts at all. If I was going too slow or too fast I just don’t know, all I know is that some 10 dudes got to me and passed me during that time. One thing I am REALLY happy with is my head position. I made it a statement to correct my posture while aero and apparently I did.  My other concern was my nutrition plan. After analyzing all kind of data from past long course races I knew I wasn’t consuming enough and not replenishing my electrolytes during the cycle which could help a little bit with the cramping. I make the changes and ended up with a good outcome and not much of GI issues. Bike was finished and my goal of sub 2.05 was not reached, ending up with a 2.09. (18.5mph avg)

T2 was a normal one with me just taking it a bit more easier giving myself time to settle in and reduce cramping by stressing too much.

Starting the run my hamstring started acting up quickly and I thought Ohh No! This is the end of the race for me, cramping again. I decided to take a quick walk and about 1min later I was feeling ok and running according to goal pace. Another negative aspect I had affecting me technically was that no matter how slower I tried running my Heart Rate was simply not going down. Goal was to stay under 166bpm and I never go under 1.70. Mile kept going through and I was ecstatic realizing that I was RUNNING not much walking any more . Four miles completed and I am in the low 9’s per mile pace. I took it easy on the aid stations and the 4-6 mile hilly stretch and kept the cramping under controlled. Again I was getting passed my some more mature runners but I was feeling ok and running as fast as I could and was prepared for. My longest run week in this block was 28 so I couldn’t ask for more. Approaching the last mile and running it on 9.36 was just the icing on the cake on a very GOOD day consider it all. In the end new personal best for me at this race 4hrs 22min, 6 minutes faster than 2009.

It’s obvious that I am making some good strides towards greater improvement and that amuses me. I  finally know what kind of training I have to do for my body to respond and how to pace myself in each event. To get to the next level I will have to increase weekly volume to at least 11-12hrs weekly including longer bike rides in the trainer going from 1.2hrs –>2hrs, hitting swim sessions greater than 3km and running 30-35 miles per week. After I make those changes then the competition can finally be crushed!!!

Swimming:[2hrs 22min (6650mts)]

Cycling: [3hrs 59min (65km + trainer time)]

Running: [3hrs 52min (39.3km0]

Totals: 10hrs 13min [includes triathlon]

Weekly Brush-up (5/2/11- 5/8/11)

Swimming: [3hrs 3min (8.300mts)]

Cycling: [3hrs 10min (trainer only)]

Running: [4hrs 20min (43.5km)]

Totals: 10hrs 33min

Notes: I will keep this short as this post is mainly just for my own record. YEAH NO READERS AT ALL!  Target for this week was to hit 11hrs of trainer overall, I was short on that mainly because I did not ride outside. As a matter of fact I’ve ridden outside only 3 times since the half ironman which is not pleasant to think about. On the swimming I was ok trying to keep every session over 3k even though I cut them a little short because of lack of motivation.  In terms of running goal was to hit 30miles this week with a long run of 10miles. I did finished that 10 miles but failed to hit 30 total miles for the week mainly because I slept in and other mother’s day activities. Finished with 27 miles. This was final week of preparation for Joyuda for which I am not even pumped up to the fullest but will try to have fun and beat as many people as I can.

Weekly Brush-up and Roselyn Sanchez triathlon for life race report 4/25/11-5/1/11)

Swimming: 4x [3hrs 42min (9500mts)]

Cycling: 3x (3hrs 47min (71km + trainer time)]

Running: 4x [3hrs 53min (31.6km)]

totals:10hrs 40min

Notes: Nothing spectacular as of for week’s numbers regarding volume, consistency or intensity. The real highlight was the run split of my first sprint race for the year. Regarding workouts I am fairly happy with my run track workout on Thursday in which I performed 3x mile repeats into a strong headwind and not slower than 7.40. Into this weekend’s race:

I had my sprint distance race yesterday, It went well! I swam ALL OUT and came out of the water with people which in the past have been known for being much faster swimmers than I. (last week I did 3 workout at 3k each in the pool + the 750mts swim in the race = almost 10k of swimming for the week ;). On the bike man, it was brutal rain and wind gusts, I count at least 5 crashes and know of about 10 others who did too. So I wanted to conserve my teeth and just did a little Sunday ride pace for the remainder of the bike which resulted on getting passed by some folks.
On to the run I thought I was shot but I made it a goal to run under 8min miles for this race as my training and interval workouts suggested me I should. So off I went a little nauseous and weak but running fast. My goal was to run 24.xx so at the first turnaround I took a split on my watch and BAM!!! 12.12 that got me pretty excited and focus on keeping my pace. Boy my HRT was never under 180bpm on that run and I fight with myself like NEVER before, I was thinking I was Javier Gomez during one of those ITU cups and it worked!!! To the finish line and BAM 24.30 on my watch, sprint run PB by almost 1 full minute. like a friend told me: even splits (12.12--12.18) = sign of perfect execution!!! Finally I won my WEAK FIELD age group so I am happy even though I believe I have a faster bike split on me. (I used my road bike with no aerobars and it was the first time on it since October 2010 + 2 hours or riding the day before the race = NOT BAD!) Next race is Joyuda in two weeks and that one will definitely hurt.