I can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here. At least Christmas decorations outdoors will be minimal since the road out front is still under construction. One less thing to worry about.
I posted on Facebook that I'm looking into starting a local USAT registered Tri club. I'd love to see the sport grow locally. The swimming program is very strong and those have proven to be a great feeder for youth triathlon. I need to look into affordable liability coverage so i know what the costs will be. Then advertise at the YMCA and some local businesses.
I had another solid training week, hitting some new training records including total training time (17 hours) and total run miles (50).
Weekly totals:
Swim - 14,500y
Bike - 135mi
Run - 50mi
Running form continues to feel great. NO significant aches or pains other than some minor forefoot soreness later in my runs. I think that's just a matter of getting use to more flexible, less supportive shoes. Overall blisters are non-existent and my PF in my left foot is held at bay. I'm weighing in at 161lbs, so that's definitely helping. Only about 4-5lbs to race weight... I'm in the home stretch.
Shoes! OK, I'm seriously going to apply for a Saucony Sponsoship. I'm not kidding. I just picked up a pair of Verratas. I love my Kinvaras so much, that a slightly light zero drop version might become my new favorite. Now I'm only missing their A5 race flat and I'll have a complete set of their neutral shoes. That's the Cortanas, Kinvara, Kinvara Trail, Virrata, and even the Fasttwitch 6 too. But that' a mild stability race flat, so not exactly the same, but I'll include it. My only odd ball I have in my Brooks T7 race flat. But that will get replaced with the A5. Those are 12mm offset anyway and I have some issues with blisters... so probably time to retire it to just track work and fast tempo runs.
My swims have been pretty good. I'm continuing to get a little stronger. I'm pretty close to where I want to be, so in the next few weeks I'll probably drop down to 9-10k/week (drop out 1 or 2 swims) and add back in another bike session.
My bike is now my biggest concern. I'm lacking the overall fitness to really push even a moderate tempo for more than 2 hours and I'm not sure I can sustain a threshold effort more than 10 minutes. I have my work cut out for me. Time to start suffering on the trainer. I did have 1 great ride on Friday. I hammered out a solid 24.5 miles ride in 1:08 including stop signs and getting in and out of my driveway/construction zone. Average HR was 145, so at the top of zone 3. I felt great. Cruising at 28-30mph on the few flats along the river. Great stuff. Today's 80miler wrapped things up. a Good Low-medium tempo effort with a oppressive 18-22mph headwind going out. I was at a solid zone 3 effort at 140HR just to hold 16-17mph at times! On the return, that same effort yielded 28mph. Of course that never averages out evenly (time vs. distance and all). SO it was a fairly slow ride, but I had my training wheelset on, so that obviously made a difference. With wet roads I decided my rear wheel with a Gatorskin was the best option and my matching wheel with a GP4000 (non S version) is a good high grip all condition tire. The downside is that even with reduce tire pressures, these OEM Bontrager Race Light wheels are stiff as all get out compared to my Zipps. The ride quality sucks. On the ride, I ate about 900 calories. I kept it on the light side since it was only a 3-1/2 - 4 hour ride planned.
Next week I'll back down the run mileage 1 notch and try and bring up my bike mileage and intensity a little. Get in some good sprint interals. Nothing too structured, just some good hard rides. Heck, maybe jump in at a morning spin class even.
