After a great weekend with the family in Bowling Green, I'm back in Lexington for the usual stuff. I got to have dinner with the family at my grandparents Friday night, do a few workouts with my bro, see my sister as a cheerleader for WKU for the first time, and just have a great weekend in general. I am now enjoying all of the apples and apple cider that I can handle thanks to my grandparents who own "Jackson's Orchard" in Bowling Green, KY. And I know that Eric, Beth, and Casey have enjoyed them as well.
I have really been working hard in the water, and also been putting in the work on the road. I'm still 2 days behind on my running challenge, but that isn't bad for over 30 days of running. And I don't have a workout for today but I did get a suggestion of a video to post on here. This is just a little time trial for fun at the University of Texas. One guy does a 100 backstroke for time (with no 15 meter rule, so it's pretty much all under water) and another is a 150 breaststroke for time. The most impressive thing is the 100 underwater.
http://www.floswimming.org/videos/play/80787-friday-afternoon-texas
and here is another video that is just funning.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/failblog/videos/326/
Tony
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
November already?
Sorry for the lack of posting in the past few weeks but I haven't really had much to blog about now since the season is over but I'll give you a quick update.
Training has been going pretty good. I still have yet to touch my bike since my last race, but I have been slowly upping my mileage in running, and trying to hit some big numbers in swimming as well. I did swim a PR for yardage a few weeks ago by swimming over 37,000 yards, but I proceeded to catch a little cold the following Monday so I took 2 days off from the water, and then took a few days really easy so I was around 15,000 for that week. I managed to hit over 30,000 last week and I felt like I didn't swim a ton either, so that is a good sign. My last three weeks of running has been 40, 47, and 50 miles. This week is going to be a down week before I keep going up the ladder. My running challenge is going really good too. It is over 3 weeks into the challenge and I have run 22 times in 24 days. I have a 2-a-day planned later this week so I'll only be down by one run at the end of 4 weeks.
Coaching is going great. The kids had their first meet a few weeks ago and they all swam pretty well considering it was an early season meet. They have a pretty hard set planned for today with 6 x 200 FAST!!! And tomorrow they have a 5,000 straight swim. Good thing I'm not swimming with them right now, ha.
Fantasy Football is as exciting as ever and I'm in first place in my division. I am playing the guy that I'm tied with in my division this weekend so there is a lot on the line.
I may have a new favorite show that is called "White Collar" which comes on USA on Friday night. It's pretty good.
And having an American win the NYC marathon this past weekend was also awesome. Congrats to Meb for the big W.
Tony
Training has been going pretty good. I still have yet to touch my bike since my last race, but I have been slowly upping my mileage in running, and trying to hit some big numbers in swimming as well. I did swim a PR for yardage a few weeks ago by swimming over 37,000 yards, but I proceeded to catch a little cold the following Monday so I took 2 days off from the water, and then took a few days really easy so I was around 15,000 for that week. I managed to hit over 30,000 last week and I felt like I didn't swim a ton either, so that is a good sign. My last three weeks of running has been 40, 47, and 50 miles. This week is going to be a down week before I keep going up the ladder. My running challenge is going really good too. It is over 3 weeks into the challenge and I have run 22 times in 24 days. I have a 2-a-day planned later this week so I'll only be down by one run at the end of 4 weeks.
Coaching is going great. The kids had their first meet a few weeks ago and they all swam pretty well considering it was an early season meet. They have a pretty hard set planned for today with 6 x 200 FAST!!! And tomorrow they have a 5,000 straight swim. Good thing I'm not swimming with them right now, ha.
Fantasy Football is as exciting as ever and I'm in first place in my division. I am playing the guy that I'm tied with in my division this weekend so there is a lot on the line.
I may have a new favorite show that is called "White Collar" which comes on USA on Friday night. It's pretty good.
And having an American win the NYC marathon this past weekend was also awesome. Congrats to Meb for the big W.
Tony
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Who likes IM?
As in Individual Medley, not Ironman. The workout of the week is going to be a main set that our swim team did almost a week ago. It is called the Ultimate IM set and I know the kids did not have fun doing it. The send off's can be changed around to fit any swimmer, but this is a long set so it shouldn't be performed by anyone who doesn't usually swim a large amount of yards. Or if you aren't really used to swimming a lot of IM. You don't want to mess up your shoulders because of the amount of Butterfly you must swim during this set.
And unfortunately, there isn't a video to post with this workout, but here is how the set is broken up (and I'll post the "B" intervals for the set):
4 x 400 IM alternating 5:45 and 5:30 send off's
8 x 200 IM all on a 2:55 send off
16 x 100 IM alternating 1:25 and 1:15 send off's
We had the 400's and 100's on alternating intervals. They would swim one at moderate pace and then one fast. The 200's were all on the same interval.
Out of the 20+ swimmers that started the set, only 3 finished the entire workout as planned without missing an interval. Most of the swimmers were forced to swim freestyle on the faster interval during the 100's. This only happened after they missed an interval.
And an update on the 100/100 challenge, I'm 9 for 9 right now. I have actually not missed a day of running so far and its going good. Most days I'm keeping it pretty easy with a shorter run of 30 - 45 minutes. I did do a longer run on Saturday and plan on doing another this weekend. I put in 40 miles last week and plan to be around 45 this week.
T-Bird
And unfortunately, there isn't a video to post with this workout, but here is how the set is broken up (and I'll post the "B" intervals for the set):
4 x 400 IM alternating 5:45 and 5:30 send off's
8 x 200 IM all on a 2:55 send off
16 x 100 IM alternating 1:25 and 1:15 send off's
We had the 400's and 100's on alternating intervals. They would swim one at moderate pace and then one fast. The 200's were all on the same interval.
Out of the 20+ swimmers that started the set, only 3 finished the entire workout as planned without missing an interval. Most of the swimmers were forced to swim freestyle on the faster interval during the 100's. This only happened after they missed an interval.
And an update on the 100/100 challenge, I'm 9 for 9 right now. I have actually not missed a day of running so far and its going good. Most days I'm keeping it pretty easy with a shorter run of 30 - 45 minutes. I did do a longer run on Saturday and plan on doing another this weekend. I put in 40 miles last week and plan to be around 45 this week.
T-Bird
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Pushup Challenge and the 100 in 100
This is a little bit different from some of the past workouts that I've posted but its a good little off season challenge to try out. The main goal is to see how fast you can do 100 push ups. This challenge originated from this guy's friend (who is a girl) who said that she did 100 pushups in 2 minutes and 47 seconds. So, being the man that he is, he felt he should be able to do this easily if she could do it. And, he fails miserably almost doubling her time.
You can break it up however you want, you just have to finish 100 pushups as fast as possible.
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235353-flotrack-2009-xc-season/201816-the-pushup-challenge
Here is the link to the guy who explains the challenge and shows his attempt at the challenge. I have never tried it because I'm too scared of how horribly sore I would be for the following days.
Monday I also started a running challenge that I have heard some people do over the winter to help them with motivation. Dave K wanted to do 100 runs in 100 days and for me to do it with him. So far, I have ran twice in 2 days so I am on pace, haha.
The rules:
a.) each run must be over 30 minutes to count.
b.) there can be multiple runs in a day as long as there is at least 2 hours between runs
That is pretty much it. Nothing too complicated. And I have started up my winter of swimming as well. I'm going to act more like a swimmer when I'm in the water and focus on some more distance swimming which I have never really done much of. Yesterday I did 3 x 1000 on a faster send off. This was extremely hard, and I died miserably on the last one, but it gives me some room for improvement if I decide to do this set again, ha.
That's about it for now.
Tony
You can break it up however you want, you just have to finish 100 pushups as fast as possible.
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235353-flotrack-2009-xc-season/201816-the-pushup-challenge
Here is the link to the guy who explains the challenge and shows his attempt at the challenge. I have never tried it because I'm too scared of how horribly sore I would be for the following days.
Monday I also started a running challenge that I have heard some people do over the winter to help them with motivation. Dave K wanted to do 100 runs in 100 days and for me to do it with him. So far, I have ran twice in 2 days so I am on pace, haha.
The rules:
a.) each run must be over 30 minutes to count.
b.) there can be multiple runs in a day as long as there is at least 2 hours between runs
That is pretty much it. Nothing too complicated. And I have started up my winter of swimming as well. I'm going to act more like a swimmer when I'm in the water and focus on some more distance swimming which I have never really done much of. Yesterday I did 3 x 1000 on a faster send off. This was extremely hard, and I died miserably on the last one, but it gives me some room for improvement if I decide to do this set again, ha.
That's about it for now.
Tony
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
WOW
Last week might have been the least exciting week of the year. I was taking some time off, and I filled that time I usually spend training by just sitting around. I was bored out of my mind. This week, my coaching schedule is in full swing. The kids are swimming 2-a-days, 3 days a week and have started swimming a workout on the weekend. So I went from working just around 15 hours a week to around 23 hours a week. So I don't feel too much like a bum anymore, haha. I have ran the past three days and have swam a little, but no serious training has begun yet. This past Saturday was a lot of fun with Ben and his girlfriend coming up for the game on Saturday. Those two and Casey and myself all went to the UK/Bama game, then to Mellow Mushroom, and then to the movies for a pretty exciting Saturday. Sunday, Casey and I were able to enjoy a little tennis, which neither of us had played in forever.
Now, the workout of the week is going to be from the Hansons-Brooks project. Brian Sell is running the Chicago Marathon this weekend (I think, ha) so I figured I could show a video of his training. He has been known to run 150+ miles weeks. He did not break 10 minutes for 2 miles in high school, but has since become an Olympian by making the 2008 US marathon team. They are doing 8 x 1k at just faster than marathon race pace. The coach talks about throwing the marathon guys on the track a few times just to keep a little speed in their legs. They did this workout 5 weeks before the Boston marathon. Enjoy
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/129-brian-sell/170131-hansons-brooks-workout-2009-boston-marathon-episode-12
Tony
Now, the workout of the week is going to be from the Hansons-Brooks project. Brian Sell is running the Chicago Marathon this weekend (I think, ha) so I figured I could show a video of his training. He has been known to run 150+ miles weeks. He did not break 10 minutes for 2 miles in high school, but has since become an Olympian by making the 2008 US marathon team. They are doing 8 x 1k at just faster than marathon race pace. The coach talks about throwing the marathon guys on the track a few times just to keep a little speed in their legs. They did this workout 5 weeks before the Boston marathon. Enjoy
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/129-brian-sell/170131-hansons-brooks-workout-2009-boston-marathon-episode-12
Tony
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Workout of the Week
I have another running workout to show you guys. This workout is performed by a HS team that I believe is in Illinios. They have several national championships in XC and numerous state titles in their recent history. The coach is a bit of a legend and he has his boys doing 5 x 1 mile today with 3 minutes recovery. It's always cool to see a HS team this large when compared to a team like I was on in HS that barely had a full team of 7 guys running XC. And this workout is a couple of years old. This video was recorded during the fall of 2007.
And I have reason to believe that is Al Pacino that is coaching or at least it is his voice twin. They sound identical.
Here's the link. Hope you enjoy.
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/475-joe-newton/5083-york-hs-workout
Tony
And I have reason to believe that is Al Pacino that is coaching or at least it is his voice twin. They sound identical.
Here's the link. Hope you enjoy.
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/475-joe-newton/5083-york-hs-workout
Tony
Monday, September 28, 2009
Augusta 70.3 Race Report
Well the season is done. I am sitting in Corbin right now and am headed back to Lexington today. Beth, Eric, Jeff, Neely, Casey Gilvin, Ben, Dave K, and myself all raced in Augusta, GA yesterday and we had a blast. Ben and I drove down Friday morning from Corbin and arrived just before 5 pm. We hung out at the hotel before going to get some steak with Jeff and Neely. Everyone else arrived a little bit later in the evening. Saturday we did our usual pre race activities. We ate a big breakfast, went for a short bike ride and a short run, got all of our racing gear ready, and went to the pre race meetings. Saturday evening we watched UK get destroyed by UF while we enjoyed our pizza from Mellow Mushroom.
My alarm went off at 4:30 am Sunday morning so I could eat my usual breakfast before the race. We were mostly packed and were headed towards the transition area by 5:30. My wave was the first wave to go off at 7:30. This was my first ever 70.3 race without swimming in a wetsuit, but I wasn't too worried about that. It was a point to point swim, with the current of the river, and with a strong wind at our back.
The gun went off at 7:30 and we dove right in. I had a different mind set about this race. I told myself I would race my own race, as opposed to focusing on what everyone else was doing like I had been doing for the past few races. The swim is where I have been getting a little nervous about and really trying to swim with the fast guys. Once we were in the water, I focused on a strong, efficient stroke, as opposed to worrying about swimming fast. Well, this worked out great. I was in the front of the lead pack for about 5 minutes until everyone picked up the pace a little. I ended up at the back of the 1st pack and I stayed there for the rest of the swim. I was very controlled and comfortable the whole swim and never felt overwhelmed like I did at Tuscaloosa or Steelhead. I came out of the water side-by-side with Victor Zyemtsev (who won Ironman Louisville) and we went ran into T1. I could see the leaders heading out of T1 as I was heading in so I knew there wasn't a big gap at all.
Once on the bike, I passed 2 guys early, then just put my head down and kept rolling. Chris Legh passed me about 5 miles into the bike and made me look like I was standing still. He is really strong. We had a tail wind for the first hour so it was fast. I covered almost 13.5 miles in the first 30 minutes and just under 26 miles for the first hour. Nick Waninger caught me around mile 12 - 14 and kind of gave me a little boost. We have raced many times this year and are very equal in ability. Once he caught me, I put my head down to stay close to him. We ended up riding the rest of the bike course together (not drafting, just using each other's energy to keep moving fast). We caught several guys over the next 20 - 30 miles. 2 - 3 guys actually rolled us up pretty good too. There were some strong guys there. This bike course was a lot tougher than I expected and the strong winds did not make it a fun day. I really suffered the last 10 - 15 miles because of the strong head winds that we were fighting to get back to transition. I really slowed down a lot over the last hour of the bike ride. I came into T2 behind Nick and 2 guys that had just passed us on the bike. We headed out on the run, and I knew it was going to be tough. I did not feel good at all, but I sure hoped it would get better.
Nick started to pull away, but I ran the other two guys down (they had about a 30 - 45 second lead off of the bike) within the first 3 miles. I was still chasing Nick, but he had a great run and he only distanced me even further throughout the run course. The rest of the run was a battle with myself. I never passed another guy and no one passed me. I managed to run 1:19 and change on a 13 mile course ( 1/10 of a mile short). I crossed the finish line in 11th place overall and just under 4 hours for my finishing time (3:59:35).
This was my worst result in a 70.3 race this year, but my best race. Those were the toughest conditions that I've had to race in this year, and the strongest field that I've raced against. They pushed me to my fastest 70.3 of the year and a good finishing note for the 2009 season. I've had a long season and am glad to be finished. But the thing about these races is they really motivate me for other races. A little fire inside of me wants to race at Clearwater. This will most likely not happen since I'm not qualified but ....
It would probably be the best decision to figure out my bike position (I could barely walk after the race because my knee hurt so bad from the bike ride), work on my swim stroke, and build up my running miles so that I'm able to run 5:40 pace for 13.1 miles after a hard swim/bike. Guys like Greg Bennett just make it look so easy.
And our Lexington crew really did well. Ben finished 5th in his AG and this was also his first ever attempt at this distance. Beth finished 3rd in her AG, Jeff finished 3rd in his AG, Eric finished 6th in his AG and got a spot for Clearwater. Neely finished her first ever 70.3 race.
Overall we had a great time and I would love to race there again next year.
Preliminary results can be found here:
http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/augusta70.3/?show=tracker&rid=260&year=2009
Until next time.
T-Bird
My alarm went off at 4:30 am Sunday morning so I could eat my usual breakfast before the race. We were mostly packed and were headed towards the transition area by 5:30. My wave was the first wave to go off at 7:30. This was my first ever 70.3 race without swimming in a wetsuit, but I wasn't too worried about that. It was a point to point swim, with the current of the river, and with a strong wind at our back.
The gun went off at 7:30 and we dove right in. I had a different mind set about this race. I told myself I would race my own race, as opposed to focusing on what everyone else was doing like I had been doing for the past few races. The swim is where I have been getting a little nervous about and really trying to swim with the fast guys. Once we were in the water, I focused on a strong, efficient stroke, as opposed to worrying about swimming fast. Well, this worked out great. I was in the front of the lead pack for about 5 minutes until everyone picked up the pace a little. I ended up at the back of the 1st pack and I stayed there for the rest of the swim. I was very controlled and comfortable the whole swim and never felt overwhelmed like I did at Tuscaloosa or Steelhead. I came out of the water side-by-side with Victor Zyemtsev (who won Ironman Louisville) and we went ran into T1. I could see the leaders heading out of T1 as I was heading in so I knew there wasn't a big gap at all.
Once on the bike, I passed 2 guys early, then just put my head down and kept rolling. Chris Legh passed me about 5 miles into the bike and made me look like I was standing still. He is really strong. We had a tail wind for the first hour so it was fast. I covered almost 13.5 miles in the first 30 minutes and just under 26 miles for the first hour. Nick Waninger caught me around mile 12 - 14 and kind of gave me a little boost. We have raced many times this year and are very equal in ability. Once he caught me, I put my head down to stay close to him. We ended up riding the rest of the bike course together (not drafting, just using each other's energy to keep moving fast). We caught several guys over the next 20 - 30 miles. 2 - 3 guys actually rolled us up pretty good too. There were some strong guys there. This bike course was a lot tougher than I expected and the strong winds did not make it a fun day. I really suffered the last 10 - 15 miles because of the strong head winds that we were fighting to get back to transition. I really slowed down a lot over the last hour of the bike ride. I came into T2 behind Nick and 2 guys that had just passed us on the bike. We headed out on the run, and I knew it was going to be tough. I did not feel good at all, but I sure hoped it would get better.
Nick started to pull away, but I ran the other two guys down (they had about a 30 - 45 second lead off of the bike) within the first 3 miles. I was still chasing Nick, but he had a great run and he only distanced me even further throughout the run course. The rest of the run was a battle with myself. I never passed another guy and no one passed me. I managed to run 1:19 and change on a 13 mile course ( 1/10 of a mile short). I crossed the finish line in 11th place overall and just under 4 hours for my finishing time (3:59:35).
This was my worst result in a 70.3 race this year, but my best race. Those were the toughest conditions that I've had to race in this year, and the strongest field that I've raced against. They pushed me to my fastest 70.3 of the year and a good finishing note for the 2009 season. I've had a long season and am glad to be finished. But the thing about these races is they really motivate me for other races. A little fire inside of me wants to race at Clearwater. This will most likely not happen since I'm not qualified but ....
It would probably be the best decision to figure out my bike position (I could barely walk after the race because my knee hurt so bad from the bike ride), work on my swim stroke, and build up my running miles so that I'm able to run 5:40 pace for 13.1 miles after a hard swim/bike. Guys like Greg Bennett just make it look so easy.
And our Lexington crew really did well. Ben finished 5th in his AG and this was also his first ever attempt at this distance. Beth finished 3rd in her AG, Jeff finished 3rd in his AG, Eric finished 6th in his AG and got a spot for Clearwater. Neely finished her first ever 70.3 race.
Overall we had a great time and I would love to race there again next year.
Preliminary results can be found here:
http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/augusta70.3/?show=tracker&rid=260&year=2009
Until next time.
T-Bird
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