Weekend Recap and Training Logs

This weekend I had intended to do a repeat of last weeks IM Race sim, however it didn’t quite workout that way.  At somepoint during the week I decided to do the Camp Whitcomb/Mason Triathlon (“500m” Swim/22 mile Bike/5k run) on Sunday with the Race Sim workout on Saturday.

I thought it was a good idea to sign up for the race in advance to make sure I woke up Sunday morning ready to do it – unfortunately the weather did not cooperate on Saturday and I did no complete the race sim as planned.  Being the overzealous fool that I am – I decided I would simply do ~85 miles after the race and find out if 230-240 watts was truly realistic for an IM.

Great concept, lousy experience.  I ended up pulling the plug after about 2.5 hours – between being tired, unfun, and feeling a bit unsteady on the bike I cut it short. 

The race however went very good.  I approached the race with a win or go home mentality – knowing that Pete Metz, and Terry Labinksi could likely outrun me for a 5k, and that Matt would pummel me on the bike, but we would be fairly close Swim/Run – my plan was to throw a grenade in the room and close the door – hoping I would survive.  IOW – Try to drown them, attempt to ride their legs off, and hope they were worse off then me at T2.

Long story short, I was only able to hold Pete off until just short of mile 2 on the run, and Matt who started in a later wave destroyed EVERYONE.  I swam very well, and biked very strongly (288/296)*, but I just didn’t have the legs underneath me like I did at the Stevens Point Tri.

I was a bit surprised by my run – given that I ran sub-6 minute miles for a LONG 5k in the midst of a 28 hour training week a month ago (off of a 10 minute shorter, but stronger ride), but couldn’t crack 20 minutes for an accurate 5k at the end of a 20 hour training week.  Makes me wonder about the role of hard bike intervals during the week (present this week and – depending on your perspective –  heavily present the week of Triing for Childrens, absent prior to SP Tri).  Another hypothesis to test.

On to the training log portion of my post.  My lack of “HTFU” on my post race ride yesterday set off a not unusual for this time of year wave of pre-IM aniexity, so I spent a few minutes perusing my training logs from this year and last year – and feel a bit relieved:

2008 “ 5+ hour rides –  6
2008 “ 4+ hour rides “ 11
2009 “ Average Intensity of 4+ hour rides: 71.6% of FTP (300 Watts)

2009 “ 5+ hour rides “ 5
2009 “ 4+ hour rides “ 9
2009 “ Average Intensity of 4+ hour rides: 70.8% of FTP (Mixture of ~300 watts and 320)

With two long weekends to go.