Had a strangely busy last few days and am a little behind on my weekly update.
Shamrox 15k, Columbia, MO
I finished my first 15k Sunday. I'm definitely not in top run form, but I didn't embarrass myself and given the terrain, I think I did pretty well. First, I'll mention again the great performance from my athlete Josh Heger. He's gone from a threshold run pace around 7:15, ran a 6:42 pace on a course that started downhill, moved onto a gravel 1/2 frozen 1/2 soft trail, then finished with , according to GPS, a 152ft climb of 0.4 miles, averaging 7% grade. It doesn't sound as bad as it felt. Josh finished 5th just a few minutes behind me. To top it off, he was in the middle of a training block and took 1 day sort of easy. I'd say his threshold pace is right around 6:30. That's a huge improvement in 4 months. I've very proud of his dedication and faith in the system and process.
For my own race. I'm still 4-6lb above race weight, came off a bout of food poisoning on Friday and am just finally up to 40 miles per week. So my expectations were low. A 6:20-6:30 pace seemed realistic and would put me under 1 hour. The gun went off and nobody took off. Huh.... WTH I thought, lets have a little fun then. So I cruised downhill at a comfortable pace and just settled in. I ran hard but really didn't push myself into too much discomfort. At this point, I'm happy that I'm able to run a tempo pace for 9 miles. The last climb my NGP was 5:41 so I put in a good kick at the end just above threshold. The winner ran 6:14 pace and in shape I would have given him a good run as I should be capable of a 5:50 based on my 1/2 marathon last year... and my weight alone made up to 12" difference in our average pace.
I elected not to run the Beer Mile. Yes, they had a beer mile and I missed the opportunity to try it.
For the rest of the training week, it wasn't a great week. Slow in most of my swims, but felt some good form later in the week. Bike efforts were off and food poisoning cancelled my long ride for the week. I'm tempted to shorten my recovery week and put in some extra miles on Sunday instead of a FTP test. At this point, I know it's lower than before. I want to get outside and ride and get some solid bike fitness. In a ride just today, my speed in my training set-up was pretty good, so it's possible my adjusted position is just a tad faster. I'll have to go back and look at my numbers from last year on a similar set-up. But box rims, road helmet, cycling jersey, 2 bottles and a empty cage, plus a 25mm gatorskin on the rear, plus stopping twice and I still rode 22.7mph @ 235W AP with moderate hills and ighter 6-8mph winds. Damn close to my goal power numbers for Kona. Race trim has typically proven to be 1.5mph faster, but the winds there will cost me almost 1 mph. That still puts me at 4:49, which is right about where I think I could ride. Very encouraging I think. Always good to dream a little.
By the numbers:
Swim: 2h42m, 11,650y
Bike: 6h11m, 111mi
Run: 4h07m, 33.8mi
TOTAL: 13h
TSS: 803
Overall, closer almost to a recovery week.... and again, I'm taking that into account and will cut my recovery week a day short and add some longer rides.
Friday is an indoor triathlon in Quincy, IL That should be fun.
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