Monday, August 09, 2010
Race Week!
This is race week again for me as I’ll be racing the Ironman Lake Stevens 70.3 on Sunday. Last week was a combo recovery/taper week so my training load was way down which gave me some reading time in which I finished another book. So, here are my training updates and a book review:Wednesday the 4th, after two full days off, I hit the pool for an easy paced steady state swim.
Stats for Wednesday’s swim: 2,000-yards in 38:35 (39:35 w/rest) 4x500 w/20-sec. rests.
Thursday I again hit the pool at 5AM for a little longer swim done at just under tempo pace.
Stats for Thursday’s swim: 2,500-yards in 48:32 (49:32 w/rest) 5x500 w/15-sec. rests.
Friday the 6th I hopped on the bike at 4:40AM for an easy spin. No intervals, no huge gears.
Stats for Friday’s bike: 13.3-miles in 1-hour.
Saturday I got outside on the road bike for an easy ride with the guys. The Plasma and Zipp wheels stayed home clean and safe in the garage. I rode out to Gaston with Mike and Jay, where we met up with Troy. All fellow Ironheads teammates. The ride out was very leisurely with Mike and Jay. The ride back with Troy was a bit faster at a little higher average HR, but I felt good and we were still able to chat and get caught up. I ran a steady-paced T-run right off the bike around the neighborhood.
Stats for Saturday’s bike: 49.6-miles in 2:58 @ 16.7-mph. See Garmin Connect data here.
Stats for Saturday’s run: 4.3-miles in 32:03 @ 7:27/m pace.
Sunday the 8th I was out the door early before church to get in my “long” run. It was a very nice morning, but warmer than I thought it was so I worked up a good sweat. Kept the pace steady and tossed in a few strides at the end.
Stats for Sunday’s run: 8.2-miles in 1:05 @ 7:54/m pace. See Garmin Connect data here.
And lastly, this morning I was back in the pool for my last long swim of the season! I kept the pace steady and just focused on form.
Stats for Monday’s swim: 3,000-yards in 57:58 (58:58 w/rest) 5x600 w/15-sec. rests.
The book I finished this weekend was Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. My wife and I recently got caught up in watching some of the TLC or A&E channel shows on hoarders and the struggles they endure. I bought this book for my wife who is fascinated with this whole illness. And the book taught me that that is exactly what this is – an illness. I’ve watched the show and thought these people were freaks. Just throw the damn thing away! How hard can it be?! Well, it is extremely hard for people that have OCD with hoarding and they cannot do it. Some think the items can be used in the future, some think the items will have their “feelings” hurt if they are thrown out, and some think they need all of this stuff to feel loved by them. Sad and strange, quite honestly. The book told the stories of several individuals with this affliction and it is truly amazing the agony they go through by living that way but being unable to do anything about it. And the animal hoarders are equally
amazing. If you’ve seen either of those shows then you would like this book, but even if you haven’t seen the shows this is an entertaining and informational book. I liked it and would recommend it.Now I’m reading the 2nd Edition of Going Long: Training for Triathlon's Ultimate Challenge by Gordo Bryn and Joel Friel. I read the first edition back in 2005 in prep for my first Ironman and now that I’ve signed up for my fourth Ironman, I’m going after a new PR (~10:30!) and this is a newly updated edition I figured I read it again. I’ll let you know what I think of it upon completion.
My race is on Sunday and it would be great to improve on my recent Half-Ironman PR of 5:05, but you never know. Different course, different day…anything could happen. Check back next week for my results and race report.
Thanks for stopping by…
