Weekly Wrap-up 08/31/15

Week 1 of my final build for Kona done.  It went great.  I had my best long ride in a LONG time.  4h49m @ 0.73IF, averaging over 23mph until the wind turned and I bonked hte last 30 minutes.   I learned 300 calories per hour at the end of a build week doesn't cut it (glycogen stores not topped off like in taper) for rides over 4 hours.  My excuse, I didn't feel like carrying a couple more bars and didn't want to stop and by any sports drink.  Very happy with my pace.  I was a flat route, but that includes stop signs and a couple bathroom stops, road helmet, 4 bottles, box rims, but good...though worn... tires and latex tube on rear.  Lets felt great until I bonked.  Overall it was a huge confidence booster.  I haven;t had a lot of long rides this year and on most I fell apart pretty early on.  I felt like if I hadn't bonked I could have ridden tempo that last hour.

Running feels good.  I did step on a scale and I'm maybe 1lb heavier than last year, so I'm making progress overall, but the extra 2-3lbs will probably cost me 5-6' at Kona...maybe.  Then again, my energy levels should be more stable.  So it's hard to say.  I think staying cool, pacing well and being mentally strong will make the biggest difference.  IF you feel hot and you focus on the heat, then your performance will suffer.  It was moderately hot at Racine and I never focused on it and jsut held the pace my legs gave me.

Swim is still hit & miss.  I found a local swim coach that I might have take a look at my stroke and give a few pointers.  I can schedule a session through my gym.  Yes, it's a little late to make big changes, but I'm not looking for major changes.  I've swam faster this winter and one and off, but it doesn't quite "stick".  I think the 27xx I swam at Racine was my good stroke and I think that could translate to 59-60 at Kona which would set me up to clear traffic on the bike at Kona a little easier and sooner.  If I swim 1:01-1:03, I'll have to burn a match(s) to move up and avoid a drafting penalty.

Big scare this week was not having my tri bike for 6 days.  Headset was trashed.  Actually, it's been that way for I think 2-3 years.   No I'm not kidding.  I'm a little embarrassed about that.  But headset doesn't specifically slow me down.   So drive train, aerodynamics, tires tubes, on top of it.  So i was on my road bike all week, and in reality, probably rode a little easier, which wasn't so bad and it set me up for a great long ride.  I ended up then skipping the local Olympic distance race (was rainy anyway).

This next week I'm doing Des Moines Triathlon (formerly Hyvee tri).  A friend got me a comp'd entry and a couch to crash on.   It should be a great change to finally break 2 hours and ride under 60'.  I think my goal will be burying myself on the bike and see how many pros I can out split.  Then cruise a tempo run with a negative split around a 37-38.  Should be fun!  the challenge will be the logistics.  We're also visiting family in Keokuk, IA, so I go there first, then straight to Des Moines for packet pickup, then bike check, then dinner possibly with some Facebook friends.  It will be a C+ to  B- race.  I'm only 1-3/4 weeks into a block, but I won't have time for any workout on Sat. so it will be GASP!  a day off.  I think I only have 2-3 of those a year, usually after an "A" race.

Then one final week to get my fitness to a peak again and I'll taper.  To clarify, in a base, you raise your overall training load to that you hit a peak CTL for the season.   In a Build you do 2 things.  You train is a way that's more specific to your race, and you return your CTL to a point right at or just slightly higher than the peak CTL from the base period.   What you don't do, is try and hit a new peak.  In Build 2, you peak CTL might even be lower than in Build 1..especially if you're doing some 70.3's in a build for an IM.  You race yourself out of shape just a little, then use the build to regain that fitness.  But it's a fair trade as those races are great workouts, build your confidence, test your fitness and help establish pacing metrics and race predictions.

By the numbers:

Swim: 2h32m, 11,045y,
Bike: 9h53m, 209mi (mostly Road Bike)
Run: 6h09m, 49.8mi
TOTAL: 18h23m
TSS: 1169


SIDENOTE:  One of my athletes had a great day at Muskoka this weekend.  Did hit his stretch goals, but had a swim PR, comparative bike PR (that's one of the hardest bike courses of all IM's) with negative splits by power.  He ran faster than Maryland last year too and paced really smart, targeting negative splits, but faded in the heat.  

Also, a local female placed 2nd in her AG and 6th overall and should be headed to Kona next year.  She rode a 5:25!!! and had such a lead that a good but not fast 3:56 held off everyone behind.  Haven;t seen the final results to see how it all unfolded.  IM's website is severely lacking for to track competition effectively.

Weekly Wrap-up 8/17 & 8/24

Getting caught up once again.   I had wrapped up my "Build 1" block with another week of solid work after a short recovery from Steelhead.  I didn't quite hit the numbers I was targeting, but I put in some good consistent work.  I followed that up with a recovery week leading to my final build for Kona.

Wow, I can't believe I'm <40 days away from stepping on an airplane for the big island.  Couple thoughts on that.  1st, Steelhead & Racine proved to me that even if I'm a little heavier and a little behind in terms of training than where I wanted to be, or even where I think I was last year, the consistency of the last 5 years combined with good sense of pacing, seem to rule the day.  It seems close to the that it's a matter of having enough fitness, and knowing how hard you can go with what your legs give you that day.  I seem to manage solid races even when I'm a notch below my best in my training and how I feel on race day.  2nd, the final month is a little bitter sweet.  I'm closing a chapter in my athletic career.  I think the realities of balancing training, family and the fact that I'm 37 years old mean that in terms of peak performance, this is the pinnacle of my athletic career.  Perhaps 10-15 years down the road I can train with equal or greater volume if I have the hunger to perform, but I won't be as fast as I am now.  That sense of mortality creeps in just a little.

In my training these last few weeks I'll keep visualizing myself feeling strong, having a great race.  Having a solid swim and riding up to the front of the field with the best in the world.  Hitting the run relaxed, controlled, feeling strong yet light with a nice bounce to my step with a ringside seat to the pro race out on the road 10-15 miles up ahead for the men and I figure just 3-4 miles up to the women race.

By the numbers (8/10-8/16):
SWIM: 2h37m, 11,508y
BIKE: 10h56m, 234
RUN: 4h48m, 38.5mi
TOTAL 18h21m
TSS: 1061


By the numbers (8/17-8/23):
SWIM: 1h43m, 7,601y
BIKE: 7h42m, 150mi
RUN: 3h24m, 27.8mi
TOTAL 7h42m
TSS: 749


What's left:
2 Olympic distance "fun" races.  Those will pretty much be my "speed" workouts for the block.
3 Long rides between 4 and 5-1/2 hours
3 long runs of 14-16 miles (actually 2, since I did a long run this morning)
A little more swimming.... if possible

My focus is IM pace, with some tempo mixed in on the bike.  My medium and long runs, other than the OD races will be mostly z2 pace at IM intensity.  I say "intensity" because my pace in 90F, 80% humidity will be slower, but the intensity will be the same.  I think realistically I can roll a 7:25-7:35 pace and set a run PR and go just under 9:10 and even that is a stretch goal.  I have to be realistic about the wind on the bike and the heat.  But hey, why not dream a little.  I tend to perform on hard courses and tough conditions.

Sidenote: I'm finally "Ranked" having completed my 3rd race of the season.  I'm tied for 12th 35-39 nationally.  2nd (really 3rd, not sure why Dan Stubleski isn't ranked yet) in Michigan.   Corey Perez rocked Triple T, which always scores really high.   I'm just short of 100 points.  3 more shots at improving my point average. :)

If anyone has any questions on details of my training, race execution, etc, feel free to ask or e-mail...  coachmikegirard@gmail.com

2015 Steelhead 70.3 Race Report 08/09/15

Pretty cool to have a major Ironman branded race right in my new hometown.  I rolled out of bed at 4:30AM, took my time getting breakfast, doing final double checks, airing up the tires and rolling out of the house.   Its dark, but I've ridden this the 3 miles down the road to Jean Klock Park 20+ times before sunrise on training rides the last few months.  I know every all the big potholes and manhole covers.  Legs felt pretty good.  Z2 felt nice and easy.  I bypassed the long line of cars and rolled up to the line for transition.  I went through the usual checks and transition set-up.  I forgot rubber bands for holding my shoes but got a couple from a guy next to me in line.

6:30AM left transition and headed to the bathroom line then headed to the beach to meet up with the family.  Around 7:10 I got my wet suit on and warmed up for 5 minutes.  Water was on the warmer side.  Barely cooled you off.  It was going to be a warm swim.  Arms felt OK, but didn't have the same snap as Racine.  I got back in around 7:30, then headed to the line for my wave.  I think it was 14th out of 17 waves.  It was going to be 90 minutes of yelling on your left and dodging other competitors.   That's just how it goes at these events.  I get it, I understand the need to compress the race, but it makes things a little sketchy when you have riders going 15mph, riders going 19mph passing them, riders going 23mph passing that person and I'm the 4th one along doing around 28 mph.  I wonder if just going to 5 minutes between waves 6-17 waves would help resolve it.  That's only adding 10 minutes to the last wave, but it might make a pretty big difference.  That's another 1-2 yards on average between each person.  That sounds small, but it's pretty big when it gets congested.  It also means it will take another 5-10 miles for the faster age groups to catch some of the earliest waves.  It might however make lap 2 of the run more congested, but honestly, I'll take that trade-off.

None of this is possible without support from my family.  Love you guys!  My 6 y/o daughter had a blast at the beach.

Horn goes off, and I don't know what it is, but I swear that almost everyone hesitates for a split second and somehow I'm already 1-2 steps ahead.   I'll summarize the swim real quick.  I went too hard with all the dolphin diving and running, swam the 1st 300M too hard and never fully recovered.  I never found my stroke and while I swam straight and had a good time overall, it wasn't what I was hoping.  My sub 4 dream was already dead, but a sub 4:10 was a there as was maybe a sub 4:05.  Traffic on the swim wasn't terrible.  About typical.  The water was pretty calm so you could see most swimmers up ahead with plenty of time to maneuver.  SWIM TIME 31:01

I breezed through T1, hit the flying mount and got to work T1 TIME 2:22.  I managed my power output a little to catch my breath, relax and recover from the swim and T1.  By the time I reached the bottom of the long hill on the Blue Star Highway I was ready to roll.  Plenty of scary moments.  I took out a cone and went from slightly annoyed to downright agitated.  Much worse than Racine.  I think the light tailwind was the main reason.  It speeds up the slowest riders and creates more congestion.  Last year we had a headwind going out.  

When shoulder ended 12 miles in, there's some froze heaves and I hit it hard and lost my aero bottle.  It was a shock as I've never lost that bottle before.  But it was sweating as in high sight, I foolishly filled it with cold Gatoraide.  So now I just had my BTA bottle.  So hand offs would be more critical.   

After the turn East, the road got bumpy and folks were riding to the left to avoid some of the rougher patches.  I've ridden this route 4 times in the  last 2 months and honestly, this is stupid.  It's not much different.  If it's too bumpy, take some air out of your tires, sit up or use latex tubes, but please, please don't obstruct faster riders.   I still refused to cross the center line resulting in having to nail my brakes a couple times, and after yelling on your left 3 items in a row loudly, got cussed out.  My heart rate shot up, I put in some hard efforts to get around traffic.  I finally had to ease up a little.  A group of 4 riders rolled past me over the yellow center line.   We had just passed an official earlier, so I dropped back.  Not to be arrogant, but I knew I was faster, but was just having trouble with lap traffic...and I suspected they were riding over their head.  I sat back, but every time we can to a downhill or flat section I was in Z1 or coasting and rolling into the back of the group.  I passed them a couple times with some hard pulls, but every longer hill they caught me.   Finally as we turned back into a crosswind on a long flats section I made the pass stick and pulled away.  What I...and they didn't know, for what it mattered, or didn't matter, was that I was actually the leader on the road by over a minute at that point with Dan Stubleski, arguably the top amateur in the world at the IM distance, was 5 minute behind me in second.  I had a real race on my hands.

The last 25 miles I finally had mostly clear road and could finally get into a rhythm.   Unfortunately, so did Dan, and he put over a minute into me that last 40k, just like last year. A simple reminder that there are contenders and pretenders, and I was clearly put back in my place.  That guy is a machine.  But hey, I was 1st off the bike and out of transition by 5 seconds.  That lasted probably 200 yards (virtually), and the race was over at that point.   BIKE SPLIT 2:06:34 (within 60" of my BBS prediction).   

BIKE DETAILS | Division Rank: 1

SPLIT NAME	DISTANCE	SPLIT TIME	RACE TIME	PACE	DIVISION RANK	GENDER RANK	OVERALL RANK
36.6 mi	36.6 mi	1:21:48	1:55:11	26.85 mi/h
56 mi	19.4 mi	44:46	2:39:57	26.00 mi/h
Total	56.0 mi	2:06:34	2:39:57	26.55 mi/h	1	1	1

I should have this screenshot framed.  It will probably never happen again in a major race.

I struggled with my socks a little in T2.  Shorter ones would go on faster, but I like the long purple to to match my Race Kit and like the coverage and compression on my achillies.  T2 TIME 1:57

I came out of T2 and the inside of my quads and 1 hamstring were cramping a bit.  I kept easing off and just relaxed, tried to pick up my cadence and recover.  6:15-6:30 felt comfortable, my legs felt good, but not like Kansas last year, but a lot better than Racine.  I figured it might be another good race to try and roll some negative splits, so I cruised, took in as much fluids as I could, grabbed a gel then carried it to the 2nd aide station and ate it before getting some water.   Around mile 4, around came Dan, right on schedule.  I gave him a hard time about taking so long, asked him what his bike split was and he was gone.  

Lap 2 I tried to roll on the pace just a little.   I grabbed another gel at the same point and kept grabbing water, ice, Gatorade, red bull, coke, what ever was easiest to grab.  I hit about the 8 miles mark and realized this was it.  This was my last chance at a possible lifetime PR at the distance.  I wasn't getting any younger, I might not have course conditions at this event or be able to train at this level again for a few years, so it was now or never, time to suffer a little and take it home.   Hit the 10 mile mark and really started to focused.  Went up the hill on Benson Rd the last time and I knew it was all downhill from there.  I rolled on a it felt like 5:30 pace, but was barely 6:00-6:15.  Breathing was heavy and rhythmic, I was into threshold zone at this point... this was all I had left.  Hit the chute, did some math and knew I nailed a sub 4:10.  I got a small cheer form he crowd when it was announced I was from St. Joseph, MI.  I think it took the announcer by surprise to have a local guy place that high.   RUN SPLIT 1:26:09  OVERALL TIME 4:08:03.   I guess I should have run just a little faster and getting to 1:25 and 4:07....haha.   

Looks like I just barely ran negative splits.  Pretty happy with how I paced it overall.  It's a fairly hilly course and was a humid day. 

RUN DETAILS | Division Rank: 2

SPLIT NAME	DISTANCE	SPLIT TIME	RACE TIME	PACE	DIVISION RANK	GENDER RANK	OVERALL RANK
1.6 mi	1.6 mi	11:10	2:53:04	6:58/mi
4.6 mi	3 mi	19:10	3:12:14	6:23/mi
6.6 mi	2 mi	13:19	3:25:33	6:39/mi
9.6 mi	3 mi	19:22	3:44:55	6:27/mi
13.1 mi	3.5 mi	23:08	4:08:03	6:36/mi
Total	13.1 mi	1:26:09	4:08:03	6:34/mi	2	2	2

This was one of those races that really makes you feel like your hard work paid off, yet at the same time, it makes you more hungry for more.  You an now taste that next level.   Riding that fast starts to make you dream a little.  I had gone into Kona knowing I was get schooled, especially on the run.  But now with 2 solid swim/bike splits, I'm thinking that I could ride my way to the front of the amateur race.... before I then get trounced on the run.  But it puts a solid time near the top 10 (AG) as a possibility if I can execute and race smart.  Either way it motivates me to put in a solid block of training and be as fit as I can when I set foot on the Big Island.  Being just a little arrogant, over confident and a bit cocky has worked pretty well so far the last 2 years.   Why stop now.  Just keep swinging for the fences!

Congrats again to everyone that finished and Dan Stubleski for yet another dominating performance!!!

Training Update 08/10/15

Before I post my Racine Race report, I have a few week of training summary to post up here.  I know it's always more art than science and a matter of listening to your body when you recover from a long course race, then try and turn around, get some fitness back and race another less than 4 week later.  The build wasn't ideal and a lot of family commitments took priority, but I came into Steelhead ready to race and set some PR's.

Looking back, it's not the build I wanted, but I think the important take-away, is that I mostly cut out recovery rides and swimming, so my run consistency was great and my key bike rides were there.  So in terms of "value" I hit the mark.  I think mentally and physically, a slight drop in training load wasn't a bad thing after a long season of training to this point.  Psychologically, having a great day at Steelhead will pay off come Kona and that final block of training.  that being said, this was the lightest 4 week period of training I've done since the Fall.

By the Numbers:
7/20-7/26
Swim: 2:00/8804y
Bike: 6:42/145mi
Run: 3:22/27.6mi
TOTAL: 12:04/767TSS

7/27-8/02
Swim:2:06/9244y
Bike: 7:37/168mi
Run: 5:54/48.2mi
TOTAL: 15:37/994TSS

8/03-8/09 (including the race)
Swim: 2:42/11866
Bike: 6:56/165
Run: 4:29/37.9mi