Training Week 13: 3/10/08 - 3/16/08

Planned Training

Monday - 3/10/08:

REST DAY

Tuesday - 3/11/08:

AM - none

PM - Swim = 1 hr 5 min (Master's), Run = 1 hr done

Wednesday - 3/12/08:

AM - Run = 45 min done

PM - Bike = 1 hr 10 min done

Thursday - 3/13/08:

AM - Bike = 1 hr done

PM - Run = 40 min done

Friday - 3/14/08:

AM - Swim = 1 hr (Master's at noon) done

PM - Bike = 1 hr 30 min done

Saturday - 3/15/08:

AM - Run = 3 hr done

Sunday - 3/16/08:

AM - Volunteer at Tucson Tri done

PM - Swim = 1 hr 15 min, Bike = 1 hr done

Weekly S/B/R Compliance (based on BT training plan):

Swim = 200 min / 200 min = 100%

Bike = 280min / 280 min = 100%

Run = 355 min / 305 min = 116%

Total SBR training time for Week #13 = 13.9 hrs

Monday, 3/10/08 Update:

I am FRIED from this weekend. Legs & body are sore and I'm tired. Thank goodness today is a rest day.

Friday morning I got up at 4:30AM and hit the morning Master's swim, followed by a 20 min run. Then I went to dinner at Leslie's house and hung out with her and Shari all night. Saturday I got up early and drove down to Garner Canyon and rode some of the trails down there with Liane. We were trying to follow the cartoony map and got turned around quite a bit. I contributed to getting us on some extra trails, but at least I brought the map, so I don't totally suck. The whole time we were laughing at our situation, so it was all good. I followed Liane home and got to exercise the 4X4 of my Jeep to get up the 4 miles of twisty road leading to her house. It's more of a Jeep trail than a road (it reminded me of Chiva Falls). It climbs way, way up high, and I just concentrated on keeping my Jeep from rolling off the side of the mountain. It's times like that that justify me having a Jeep. Nate made us panini sandwiches, and we spied on their crazy drunk neighbor who was getting arrested on the dirt road and his hooker girlfriend walking home. Good times.

I had enough time to get home (30 min to get down Liane's road), get my MTB stuff out of the Jeep, and throw on my running clothes and fly down the road to Sabino Canyon for the sunset run. I got my race number and visited with some Tri Girls before the race. Before I knew it someone said "go" and we started running. I've never ran the road in Sabino Canyon, so it would be interesting. All I knew was to expect hills and water. The group thinned out pretty early, so I found my groove and worked my way through the pack. We came to the first water crossing, where many around me were cursing. I've had to run in water on lots of my training runs, so I wasn't too worried. I made sure to pick my feet up extra high so that I wouldn't trip and continued on. Shortly after there was a second water crossing. Got through that one, and about a mile later was the third. There was a crazy steep hill before the turnaround, and I took shorter steps to get up that. I hit the turn, grabbed some water, and kept running. I saw a ton of Tri Girls out there, which was great as I was always yelling or cheering for someone in the crowd. I felt great on the way back, as it was mostly downhill until the very end. The last hill was about as steep as the one before the turnaround, but I knew I had less than a mile to go once I reached the top. Got to the top and it was a fast downhill to the end. I pushed pretty hard at the end and came in at 59:57, just under the 1 hr mark. According to the race results, I averaged a 9:22 pace, so I was pretty jazzed about that. Shari and I hit Eegee's afterwards, then I headed home to shower, which I needed badly. After riding the bike with Liane on dusty trails for 3 hrs, and doing a hard run, I was definitely funky.

Sunday morning I got up early again, got my tri bike stuff together, and drove out to the Wal-Mart on Cortaro to meet up with Shari and Johnny for my 100 mile training ride. Shari rode with us to the Picacho gas station, then headed back. Johnny and I continued on to Casa Grande. There were a ton of wild flowers by Picacho, and Johnny snapped lots of pictures. How he can ride and get good pictures and not crash is beyond me. We made a few stops along the way for food and water and to stretch a bit. We got to the outlet stores in Casa Grande and turned around to head back. The wind wasn't too bad for the ride back, and mostly swirled around us to where we'd have a slight headwind, then a slight tailwind, then still before the pattern started up again. There were 2 tough parts of the ride for me: getting back to the Picacho gas station, and the last 10 miles. At Picacho they were having a civil war re-enactment show, so there was lots of cannon fire and smoke. Thankfully we didn't get shot. We made it to the Marana Chevron for one last stop and stretch before the final 10 miles. These last miles my butt was getting really sore, and I just wanted to get OFF the bike. For most of the ride we had averaged 15.3 mph, which was my perfect "go slower than you think and don't eat the paste" pace. The last 10 miles I wanted to get back so we averaged a bit faster and made it back with a total average of 15.5 mph. This was perfect and exactly what I'm hoping for IMAZ. The pace allowed me to practice my nutrition and hydration, which worked out well. We rolled into the parking lot just under 100 miles, so we did a few laps in the parking lot until my Garmin GPS clicked over to 100 miles. We packed up and hit Chili's right after. While it tasted good, my stomach felt really bloated on the ride home. Probably because it was used to processing mostly liquids all day, and then I slam a pile of food into it. There was a plug flow situation happening there, but by the time I got home I felt much better.

2 more hard weeks of training left, then taper. This week is the long-run week, so Saturday has a 3 hr long run. LAST LONG RUN OF THE TRAINING!!! YAY!!! The following week will be my last long bike. As you can tell, I'm just trying to survive until the taper.

Here are some of Johnny's pics from our Sunday ride. Can you believe he can take these and not crash?

Shari and I starting the ride:

Picacho Peak in the distance:
There was a corridor of purple flowers for quite aways:


Me checking out the wildflowers as we rode past Picacho:


Heading towards Casa Grande (I-10 and outlet malls in the distance):
Almost there!

Proof that we made it:

Heading back to Tucson after the turnaround:

Wildflowers on the other side of the road:

Purple flowers and a purple jersey:

Wednesday, 3/12/08 Update:

The IMAZ athlete guide is now online: http://www.ironmanarizona.com/2008AZAI.pdf I really can't believe April and this race is almost here. I'm just hoping to get to the start line healthy. Everything after that will be easy. I want race day to be here so that I can get it done. I'm definitely ready, and I just want to be done with this race. 4 more weeks of anticipation is going to kill me!