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

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

Vacation time

I'm now back in Lexington after 2+ weeks of traveling. I started the trip on the Thursday before Kansas 70.3. We drove to St. Louis, stayed the night, then traveled on to Lawrence for the race. After the race, we drove back to St. Louis and stayed two nights with Casey's family. Tuesday came around and we came back to Lexington. Wednesday came and we were off to the Lake for a family reunion. We spent several days at the Lake just relaxing and enjoying a few short and easy trail runs. It is always great to see my extended family that I don't get to see very often and to eat all of the amazing baked goods that everyone brings for snacking. We had some fun laying by the pool and enjoying time out on the boat. Very early Saturday morning, we hit the road from the lake to meet up with my dad's side of the family for our trip to the beach. By 3pm that day, we were in Destin, Florida. We spent a very nice week in Destin before traveling back to Kentucky this past Saturday. Unfortunately my car broke down in Bowling Green so Casey had to pick me up to get me back to Lexington, but I did eventually make it, haha.





Florida was amazing and it was nice to get in some good training on the beach. The weather was extremely hot and humid, but I guess its good for a short amount of time. My hardest run workout of the week was performed at 5am as I was trying to beat the heat. I did some early bike workouts as well as I had to ride on a busy road so if I didn't go early, then I had to fight with very heavy beach traffic for 12 - 14 miles of road. Swimming was the easiest of the 3 disciplines as I had a nice outdoor pool to swim in, and the heat wouldn't affect me as much as the other 2 sports. I did several runs in the afternoon when the "feels like" temperature was well above 100 so that made for some "not-so-easy" easy runs. What always makes vacation fun is being able to spend time with my family as we all live in different locations and of course all of the good seafood. I had Lobster twice (which is my favorite seafood) and then several different types of fish that were freshly caught and prepared.





But it is good to be back and to have a normal routine again. I have Muncie 70.3 coming up in about 10 days and then the Giant Eagle Triathlon in Columbus, Ohio on the 31st of July.





Tony

Kansas 70.3 RR

After a couple of solid training weeks, I was ready to race. I felt like a bum during my taper this past week as I was doing a lot of nothing. I am reading a great book that I got for Christmas entitled "Unbroken." Anyways, last weekend I decided to compete in a local sprint Tri to get in a solid effort 1 week out from Kansas and I knew it wouldn't take too much out of me. After some difficulties with the course, I did manage to pull out the win but I could definitely tell I needed to rest more as I didn't feel great in either the swim, bike, or run.
This past Thursday, Casey and I hit the road to St. Louis as we stayed with her parents Thursday evening before heading to Lawrence on Friday. Friday we made it to Lawrence and had a fabulous homestay with Marc. He has an amazing home and Casey and I really enjoyed staying with his family. We even got to Karaoke on Saturday for our evening entertainment.
Saturday was a lot of short, easy workouts, eating food, Pro meeting, and just chilling. I watch the Adidas Grand Prix Track meet on TV and rested before heading out to dinner.

Sunday morning came and I was ready to roll. I got everything ready, set up my T2 before heading down to T1 by the water. At 6:15, I had my wetsuit on and was ready to get started. At 6:30, the gun went off. I had a great starting position on the inside and got out pretty good. I found some feet after about 100 - 200 of swimming and I stayed right where I was for the next 600 - 700 meters. I started to fall off pace just a tad but was really fatigued for some reason. This was the warmest water that I've used my wetsuit in many years and I was getting very over heated. My shoulders were a little tired as I didn't swim in my wetsuit very much leading up to the race as I didn't expect to use it, but these are all just excuses. I lost those feet just before the first turn, and also got hit by a big wave right as I took a breath so it took me 6 - 8 strokes to catch my breath. By that time, a 10 meter gap had opened and I was in no man's land for the return trip to shore. This felt like the longest swim ever. The wind was howling and pushing me to the left so I was swimming like a snake trying to fight the current of the water as I came back to shore. I came out off the water with no one in sight and a feeling that I was in dead last. I hopped on my bike and I was off.

I felt terrible for these first 5 miles on the bike, I had trouble getting my feet in my shoes, and also had a direct head wind. I thought about stopping but figured that I had traveled too far to just stop. I put my head down and went after those guys up the road. I kept my eye on my power and pushed the pace. I caught one guy around mile 8, then didn't see anyone else until Zach Ruble flew by me around mile 22. I caught a few others but wasn't really making up much time on the leaders. The wind was brutal for most of the bike and I was not a happy camper. I had a decent wattage average for my bike split but the time was really slow compared to other years here at Kansas. I came into T2 in about 13 or 14th position with a group of guys just 1 minute up the road or so. I knew if I could put together one of my usual runs, I would most likely catch them.

2 miles into the run I felt terrible. My legs were heavy and I felt like I was slogging along. I passed Zach pretty early in the run but everyone else had at least a minute on me. I held pace for the first lap and loosened up a little but never felt great. Around mile 8, I could finally see places 10th and 11th running together. I passed them around mile 9 - 9.5 and put some good time on them. I was happy to be in 10th given how terrible I felt and knew that 8th place still had a good distance on me. I just ran it in and managed to sneek into 9th position thanks to a guy who went a little too hard on the bike. I crossed the line in 9th place and was extremely happy to be finished.

I am really sore as my shoulders, back, legs, hips, knees, and stomach are all making it hard for me to move normally today. I'm thinking a lot of laying around, or hanging out by the pool if the sun comes out, is my plan for the day. I'm racing in the Muncie 70.3 race in a few weeks but I have 2 good weeks of R&R which will be spent at the Lake this week and then at the beach in Florida next week.

Tony

Training Update...

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks so I thought I could give a little update as to how my training is going. I'm currently waiting for my breakfast to settle before I head out the door for a run workout. I woke up starving for some reason so I had to eat a little bit. This past week was the biggest overall training volume week of my life. I hit just over 26 hours total of training. I put in roughly 210 miles on the bike, 57ish on the run, and then somewhere around 32k in the pool. I had several key workouts last week which included hill repeats on both the run and the bike, and then some 70.3 work on both the run and the bike. Some of those 70.3 specific workouts on the bike SUCK!!! They are just mind numbing and hard to find a great place outside to do them without running into a stop sign, traffic, or stop light. I ended up going on the computrainer as it would allow me to control some of the external factors and allow for me to not worry about having to stop during any of my efforts. I had a fantastic run workout Sunday morning that also doubled as my long run for the week so I feel like I have had some great work heading into Kansas 70.3 in less than 2 weeks. But, something that comes with great training is great Recovery days, haha. I slept in yesterday (Memorial Day) as I had toyed around with the idea of doing a local 5k. I woke up and just felt spent. I had a HUGE breakfast and then could not get off of the couch. I then had a decent sized lunch and went to the pool just to hang out. After the pool, I came home only to lay on the couch some more before heading out to dinner with Casey. We topped the night off with a good movie. So, Memorial Day was a success in the fact that I did absolutely nothing productive (other than laundry).

There is a little Sprint Triathlon this weekend in the Louisville area that I'm using as a tune up this coming weekend. Just something to get the competitve juices flowing and get a little speed in before I go races some of the big boys in Lawrence, Kansas.

Tony

Rev 3 Knoxville Pics

While we waited for them to let us walk down to the water, Matty Reed makes some small talk with Lisska and I about our wetsuits. Lisska and I both have the new "Marlin" Profile Design wetsuit while Matty already has the Marlin 2 (not yet available). And he told us they have to make a custom suit for him since he's so tall.

Coming back into T2.

This is roughly 1.5 - 2 miles into the run. I got this pic from Competitor.com. They refer to it as the "look back" haha.

This was around 3.5 miles or so into the run and I had just put in a little surge trying to gap myself from Thompson and Richie.

Running out of T1 with my Planet X in hand. Look David Thompson is in yet another race photo with me.