Monday, June 2, 2008

Mileage Starts to Increase!


This week was really he first full week that I have felt the increase in miles in training. There is no doubt that my training has now changed. Up until now (aside from Tri Camp) I have really been doing the training that reflects my typical training sessions and maybe a little bit more but this week my training elevated even though on my schedule it was looked upon as a Rest Week.

My weekly workout consisted of a couple swims one of which was a 2400 meter swim with paddles and buoy which started to get a bit boring after about 1600 meters, but nobody ever said swimming by yourself in a pool for 1.5 miles was going to be exciting. In addition to the swim, I also got in a 60-minute run and a 90-minute bike ride in during the week. Good solid training and nothing too intense. The weekend cranked up the endurance side though.

I didn’t get my ride started until about 9:30 in the morning and hit the Lake Norman Tri loop in Davidson on the bike. The first loop I did with my business partner, Jeff, and the remaining 2 laps I did solo. It took me about 2:45 to finish the ride and I got in right at 50 miles. The conditions were hot, humid and windy and matched the conditions in Kona almost perfectly.

I am trying to hit my training sessions at a time of day where the temps are in the low to mid eighties on the last half of my training session to emulate conditions in Kona. On Saturday, the weather in Kona, Hi was 84 degrees, 75% humidity and 12 mph trade winds. In Davidson it was 87 degrees when I finished, 60% humidity and 12-15mph winds. Right on!

The winds don’t sound like a lot but anything approaching 8-10 mph can really be felt on the bike, a breeze feels good on the run, but not the bike unless it’s behind you pushing you along and when that happens you rarely realize you have a tail wind, you just think you’re having a fast day!


These conditions took a lot out of me towards the end because I have not yet gotten my endurolytes order in which will significantly help me out here in the heat and I am still tweaking in my nutrition and fluid intake for the hot weather.


To follow up on hydrations, I was testing out a new water bottle that fits on my aero bars. Looks great, works great, neat concept but it comes with a plastic tube to drink out of and you have to trim it so it will fit you on the bike to enable you to drink while in the aero position. My mistake was that I cut it way too short and it did not work for me on the bike. So now I am looking for plastic tubing to start over. The smallest details can drive you crazy.


Calculating your sweat rate during training in the heat is critical! For instance, on Saturday I lost 5 pounds in 3 hours of training (2:45 on the bike and a 0:12 min transition run) way too much to lose. So working with Sonni we will formulate endurolytes, possible salt tablets and I am sure I will be increasing my fluid intake because losing 5 lbs/3hrs and my race in October will probably be 14 hours…those numbers just don’t work. So that’s what training is all about, getting all systems dialed in before you get to the race!

Sunday was a bit easier day, a 90-minute run which I got in 9.5 miles. Nice easy pace and I did it in the early morning when it was still relatively cool. My legs were still very tired from the day before. After the run though I was beat after the two days of training and not getting a good not sleep Friday or Saturday. Good solid deep sleep is very critical!!! You will feel like a different person in training when you have a solid night’s sleep.

Everything else is clicking along well and it just comes down to putting the time in and tweaking everything in as I go along!

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