Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

It’s been a busy week aerobically speaking.  Instead of wasting time grousing about my 5K performance I stepped up the exercise.  Saturday I went on a 31.5 mile bike ride, for the most part maintaining a pretty moderate pace — 17 to 18 mph — but sometimes getting up to over 20 mph.  The bad news is that it started raining about 5 miles in, and at about the 25 mile mark I couldn’t handle a turn on the wet asphalt of the bike trail and took a tumble.  No permanent damage to the bike or its rider, but I’ve got some nasty looking bruises and scrapes on my left calf, arm, and thigh.  Some new tires may be in order.

The next day I ran 11 miles in a little over 1:32, around an 8:26 pace overall.  The conditions were perfect, about 20 degrees cooler than the weekend before, so in the middle of it I decided to do a 3 mile tempo run.  I managed to hold a good pace and finished in 20:50, a 6:57 pace.  That was 20 seconds per mile faster than the pace I managed during my 5K race one week before, but it felt nowhere near as tiring.  Weird.  I’m not sure why I bombed so badly during the 5K, but I think it was a combination of heat and poor pre-race nutrition.  I just ran out of gas that day, whereas this last Sunday I felt really strong and could have run faster than I did.
Monday I didn’t do much but did swim about 500 yards, focusing on stroke technique, breathing every third stroke, and maintaining a steady pace.  It still feels like I’m swimming a lot more slowly than I should be, but I should manage to get through the swim leg of the race two weeks from now.

Today I cut out of the office at 2 and went for a run — 7 miles in 56:17, about 8:02 pace overall, although the pace varied from about 7:20 to about 9 min/mile at various times.

Aerobically I think I’m in good enough shape to handle the triathlon, but my swim technique leaves something to be desired and I’m not sure how my legs will feel at the end of the 25 mile bike ride.  I need to put a little more time in the pool and on the bike before June 8.

I’ve spent almost no time lifting weights recently.  I’m going to hold off on the serious weight lifting until after the triathlon and then maybe get back into more strength training.  The focus, though, will definitely be on running, and trying to figure out if it’s realistic to shoot for a sub-40 minute 10K before the end of the year.

I ran a 5K last Saturday, thinking and hoping I’d get a PR and maybe even break 20 minutes (after running a 5K in 20:33 about five weeks before).  I wasn’t even close.  By 8:30, when the race started, it was already almost 80 degrees, and with the bright sun and no shade it felt a lot warmer than that.  I vowed this time to start out a little slower, but I went even slower than expected and clocked 6:38 for the first mile.  I started a little too far back in the crowd and watched as the faster runners broke away and left me behind. I’m not sure it would have  made a big difference because I couldn’t have maintained a fast pace that day anyway.  After about a mile and a half I slowed way down and at times I think I was barely keeping the pace under 8 min/mile.  Finishing time was 22:38, more than two minutes slower than my previous 5K.  Even with that time I placed 26th out of 594, which shows I wasn’t the only one flagging in the heat.

So now the focus is squarely on the June 8 birthday triathlon, and I’ve stepped up my training.  I did a double swim/bike workout late last week, and biked again the evening before last following a light workout in the weight room.  I’ve also run twice since Saturday, both six mile runs.  This morning’s 6 miler was in 46:49, a 7:48 min/mile pace overall, with 4 miles at a brisk 7:43 followed by one mile in a challenging 6:54.

After the triathlon the plan is to slowly build mileage to 25 mpw or more by July 1 while minding the Achilles tendon, and after building a foundation by mid-July I’ll start on a 10K training program to try to run a 10K as close to 40 minutes as I can in mid to late fall.  It’s going to be a big stretch to do it.  If I reach my goal I’ll plan to shift to longer distances in 2009.

Running going well.  Had an interval workout with local running group on Tuesday, did 3 x 1 mile @ about 6:46; then 3×600 at pace ranging from 6:45 to 6:20.

Had a combo swim/stationary bike workout yesterday: 66 lengths (1.5K — race distance) in 30:30 and 30 minutes on bike at low intensity for 10.8 miles and 300 calories burned.  Definitely not in optimal shape either in swim or on bike, so those disciplines need a bit more work before June 8 triathlon.

Weight, surprisingly, was down to 168 this morning, probably in part because I was dehydrated from the workout the night before.  That’s the lowest I’ve weighed since starting my blog last November.

Bought a tri suit yesterday.  Now I have to work out harder so I don’t look so ridiculous in it.

Only 5 weeks to go before the triathlon.  My overall cardiovascular conditioning is improving, but my swim and bike training is lagging, so I wrote out a plan for the next five weeks.

I ran well this weekend.  Saturday morning ran an easy 6 miles, maybe around 8:30 to 9:15 min/mile pace.  Sunday morning I ran 7 miles, with the goal of running a three mile tempo run at 7:15 min/mile pace.  I was on pace at 2 miles, then my Garmin stopped, throwing me off for the last mile, and forcing me to reset it.  I followed up with a half mile at about the same pace, and then after about a mile of recovery run ran a final mile in 6:47.  Overall pace over 7 miles was around 8:14 min/mile.
I plan to run either a 5K or 10K two weeks from now.  I hope to convince the kids to come along and participate in the 1/2 mile fun run (assuming the missus is willing to watch over them while dad gets ready for his race).

I’m so close to the triathlon that I’m not going to fret too much about speed.  In addition to continuing my running I’m going to try to get a few long (1.5 hour to 2 hour) bike rides in, to get my body acclimated to endurance cycling, and also some long swims (around 1 hour) and a few time trials around race distance.

It’s going to be interesting.