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San Francisco, California and, Carrboro, North Carolina, United States

Sunday, March 13, 2011

GETTING FIT (March 7 - March 13)

I have put in some great workouts over the past few weeks and I am beginning to see the results of the hard work.  In addition, I signed up for my first two races of the year:

IM 70.3 California April 2 (Oceanside, California)

IM 70.3 U.S Pro Championships April 10 (Galveston, Texas)

Also, I'm happy to announce that Kiwami has offered to be my racing kit sponsor.  Kiwami produces the fastest suits in triathlon and I can't wait to race in the new kit at IM CA 70.3. 

My Monday Brick turned out really well this week; a relief after I really struggled with it the last two weeks. Coming into Mondays my legs were feeling trashed and I couldn't stick the really tough intervals at the end of the workout. I took Sunday's run easy (following my workout program) and came into Monday ready to put a huge effort in on the brick and make the times, and I did! Not only did completing the workout make me feel good, but it also reinforced that I need to stay on my program and get in quality efforts and easy sessions.

The workout calls for a 60 minute bike ride.  The bike consists of a 20 minute warm up and then 20 x 1 minute hard efforts with 1 minute easy in between. 

A transition run follows the ride.  The run consists of the following 4 sets of intervals:
(1) 5 minutes @ 5:30 pace (1 minute easy) and 3 minutes @ 5:30 pace (1 minute easy)
(2) 5 minutes @ 5:30 pace (1 minute easy) and 3 minutes @ 5:30 pace (1 minute easy)
(3) 5 minutes @ 5:20 pace (1 minute easy) and 3 minutes @ 5:20 pace (1 minute easy)
(4) 5 minutes @ 5:20 pace (1 minute easy) and 3 minutes @ 5:20 pace (1 minute easy)

I killed the workout and even dropped the pace to 5:15 on the last effort.  I'm feeling fit. 
 
In addition to feeling great on the run, I felt great in the pool too.  Two weeks in a row of great swims.  I'm feeling like a swimmer again.
Saturday's workout was the key workout for the week and completed an excellent week of training. 

73 mile ride with JP, including a 45 minute effort, 30 minute effort and 15 mintue effort; followed by a T-run .



Transition Run with JP

The T-Run started off well.  We went out in 5:35 pace and then threw in a 5:25 pace for the second mile and a bit before easing into 3 minutes at 6:30 running. The next 12 minutes wasn't quite as kind to me -- a coupld of minutes in I started to feel the effects of the first running effort (oh yeah, and that little bike ride we did too!). On a hill when JP put the hurt on me and started to pull away, I tried to surge and hang on, but my heartrate shot up to 178. I knew I needed to bring it down and focus on keeping good quality work for the next 9 minutes.  I slowed my pace from 5:30 to closer to 6:00 minutes, let JP get away, but still hung in there the best I could.  My heart rate lowered to 170 or so, and I was able to regroup and finish off the 12 minute effort with a 5:50 mile.




This was an excellent workout, thanks to JP's company (and he kept me honest!).  To put those efforts in on the bike and the run gave me the confidence that I can go to IM 70.3 CA and put together a good race. Only a few weeks til I get to put all of this training to the test. I'm getting fired up for the start of the season!     

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