Monday, July 25, 2011

Brick Run after Long ride this past Friday

I'm just trying a few things and this is my first of several workouts that I'll post. I just got a new Garmin so I figured I could share some cool info. This was a 7k (supposed to be 8k but temp's were around 100 degrees so I cut it short) @ a strong pace or roughly half marathon race pace. I did a 4 hour ride preceding this run with some race pace efforts.



Let's see if this works

Tony

Another Post?

Well another solid week of training has come and gone. I am finding myself on another Monday where I'm just chilling and watching a little "Bones" on tv. I realized that July is almost over and I've only posted once during this month. Nothing too exciting has happened since Muncie but my training has been going very well. I got in a very solid training week after Muncie and enjoyed a recovery day on Sunday the 17th by going to the Red's v. Cardinals game in Cincy with my girlfriend and her friends from home. We had a blast and enjoyed some great baseball even though the Reds won.


This past week I got some really good workouts in dispite the heat. I was waking up early to get the hard workouts in and just suffering in the heat for the easier workouts. I think the week caught up with me as I melted on my long run yesterday. Not sure if I was just worn out from the week of training or if the heat was taking the extra energy out of me. I enjoyed sleeping in this morning and a short shake out run in the rain just to help loosen the legs up from last week's work.


I'm looking forward to racing this weekend in Columbus at the "Giant Eagle Triathlon." I haven't raced an Olympic distance triathlon since Rev3 Knoxville in May. Let's hope I can get the leg turnover going this week in time for the race on Sunday.



Tony


And being the track nerd that I am. There was a new AR ran in the 5k recently by Bernard Lagat and you should check out the race. He is a phenominal athlete and I really appreciate a great performance, in any sport. Here is the video.

http://youtu.be/C5eJbkC4iuE

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Muncie 70.3

This past weekend I made my first trip up to Muncie, Indiana for the Half Ironman race that has been held there for the past 32 years. I have always heard great things about it and since it is now an Ironman owned event, I figured I would go race. I drove up Friday morning and actually came into town on the bike course so I was able to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I drove straight to the race site and got in a little bike ride and open water swim before heading to my homestay's house. Thank you to Karen Wenger and Al Smith for hosting me and Casey for the weekend and giving a place to sleep. After the Pro meeting and an amazing dinner that was cooked by Karen, we sat around and relaxed before going to bed.

Saturday morning was a little different than most race mornings as I got to sleep until 5:15am since the race didn't start until 8am. This was extremely late compared to most 70.3 races. I ate a little food, then headed down to the race site. After racking my bike, I got everything set up and headed down to the water. I was anxious to try out my new Profile Design speed suit as I have never used one before. The water temp was well over 80 degrees so we were definitely not using wetsuits.

At 8 am, the gun went off. I got a pretty good start and was out well. After a few hundred yards, I settled in on some feet and felt good about my position. I got a little too comfortable and I lost those feet. I immiediately put on a surge to get back on but it was too late. I was by myself for 300 - 400 yards before a group of guys caught me. I just sat in that group all of the way until the end of the swim. I came out of the water with a few guys who usually out swim me but also a few guys that I normally out swim so I guess it was where I should have been????

Any ways, I ran into T1 and was out onto my bike. I had a much better transition than I did in Kansas and also Muncie has a much easier first few miles on the bike to get warmed up than Kansas did. It took me a few miles to get warmed up but once I warmed up, I was moving pretty good. I passed a few guys that I came out of the water with and made a move to catch 2 guys that were just up the road. I exerted maybe just a tad too much energy in catching those guys too fast, but it doesn't matter now, I caught them. Me, Joe McDaniel, Zach Ruble, and Daniel Bretscher all stayed pretty close for almost the whole bike leg. We were only about 1 minute or so down from the "main" pack and at both turn arounds we were maintaining this gap. We had a nice little tail wind from 33ish miles up until 45 - 47 miles. It was great to have a nice tail wind during this section. Mike Caiazzo flew by us around the 45 mile mark and kept going. He ended up having a fantastic race and finished 2nd overall.

I came into T2 with the same 3 guys that I had been riding with for most of the bike leg and we were in spots 9 - 12 overall. I had a good transition and was off running. I felt alright, but not normal for the first 1.5 miles. Then it hit me. My legs already felt like jello and it felt like my quads were going to cramp at any second. I backed off a little and tryed to maintain my pace. I could see the "main" pack just barely up the road. They maybe had 1 - 2 minutes on me and I felt that with my running ability that I should have been able to catch at least 3 - 4 of those guys. Well, the wheels fell off and I just went slower and slower. I did catch 1 guy but only to be passed by another. I was sitting in 10th place for most of the run leg and not making up any ground. Once I had covered 5 miles, I had to walk a little. I started walking 30 seconds per 2 miles of running. That plan worked and got me to the finish line even if it wasn't as fast as I wanted to go. Brent Poulsen flew by me around mile 10 and I was able to hold on to 11th postion for the rest of the run.

This was my best swim/bike combo of the year but unfortunately the heat got to me on the run and I just melted. This was my hottest race of the year and I believe I was a little too excited to start the run. I should have been a little more patient and settled into a slower pace to start the run. Maybe I could have held this slightly slower pace and ended up running faster in the long run.

Anyways, I had a decent result given the conditions and was extremely pleased with my bike leg as I have never gone that fast for 56 miles before. Next up is the Giant Eagle Triathlon on the 31st of July. Then Steelhead 70.3 on the 14th of August.

T-Bird