Only two more weeks to the 2010 Muskoka 70.3, my goal race for the 7 Systems contest I am in. I think I am on track and haven't had any downtime in my training....thanks to using 7 Systems Endurance supplements :)
My only race in August was the Toronto Island Sprint Triathlon, which you can read about in my blog. I'd say it was a success, despite having a poor swim in my opinion.
In the 3 other weekends available for training this month, I did the following:
August 8th - Biked 114K to a family cottage in Bayfield and followed that up with a 10K run. The ride was almost entirely into a headwind or crosswind, so that was tough. In addition, it was super humid and I got rained upon twice. The 10K run was not fast!
August 22nd - Biked an 83K loop around New Hamburg and followed that up with two loops of 8K around town for a total of 16K worth of running. Again, VERY humid day. I took all the hydration I could on the ride (72oz of Infinite), and consumed another 48 oz running as I filled up both my Nathan Speed Belt 2 bottles after the first loop. When it was all said and done, I lost 6 lbs all while consuming 120 oz of fluid. Glad I wasn't doing an Ironman, as I'm sure I would have bonked at some point! I just find it hard to drink much more than I did!
August 28th/29th - I had planned on another long ride/run on Sunday, but after getting a quick training email from Jasper Blake (a bit of a benefit from being in this contest), I decided to mix it up this weekend. So on the Saturday, I thought I'd see how quick I could just run 15K. So, in the middle of the day in hot and humid weather again, I did a 15K run in 1:01:45. This was a pretty hilly run in windy conditions, so I was pleased with the effort. Garmin data below on this one.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46664511
On the Sunday, I decided to do the long(ish) ride but only follow that up with a short 5K run. The ride was 72K and the run 5K, which I did at a decent enough pace of 4:10/km.....did I mention how humid it was again!!
In addition to the weekend stuff, I've still be getting to the New Hamburg pool 3x week, biking to work (58K round trip) 3x week and doing my Tuesday tempo run (~6K - 9K), and Thursday Intervals (usually 5 x 800m w 200m recovery). If it works out, I'll hit the gym for some weights/stretching/hot tub once or twice too!
This routine is similar to last year's effort where I did 5:01 at the 2009 Muskoka 70.3, but this year, I've definitely stepped the swimming up a bit more and have done more mid week running. I actually have a spreadsheet that has tracked every run I've done since 2004. I'd share it with you, but it's huge! Here are some highlights of it though.
Even from 2009 to 2010, I've made some good improvements. Due to more speed work, my average run speed has dropped 5 seconds per K. This includes all the long runs training for the Around the Bay 30K and Ottawa Marathon this year. In addition, I am on pace for about 150 runs in 2010, which is 20 more than last year. Each year I am seeing improvements in training and racing (both running and triathlon) so this in encouraging. At 37, I have to wonder how much more improvements are left.
I hope the final two weeks prior to Muskoka go well and that I can have a good race once again. Beating Andrina's performance of a 9% improvement in her goal race for the 7 Systems contest is going to be next to impossible, but hey, I'll do my best, and I hope to have fun doing it!
Race Details:
750m swim
30K Bike
7.5K Run
The day started off very early, as I decided to drive down to Toronto from New Hamburg, rather than pay $150 for a hotel room. So after the alarm went off at 4:45am, I quickly grabbed a bite to eat, took my 7Systems supplements and hopped in the truck for the trip down the 401 to Toronto. At 6am on a Sunday morning, the traffic was light, and I made it down to the ferry terminal by 6:45...plenty of time to catch the 7am ferry over to Centre Island.
Once over on the island, it was a good 3/4 km walk/ride over to the transition zone. By this time, I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad, so I quickly put my bike and bag in transition and took my place in line for the port-o-potties. From there, it was over to get my chip, body marking and tee-shirt (note to self - you are not a medium, so get a large shirt next time! Deanna will be using this race shirt, not me). After getting all my stuff, it was time to get organized in transition and get on the bike for a quick ride. I rode the first 2-3K of the bike course to get a feel for what the roads would be like, as this is not your typical bike course. It was a 3 loop 10K course on closed, but relatively narrow roads with ALOT of other riders and pedestrians. Once back from the bike, I did a quick run. I normally run a bit longer, but this morning is was ridiculously humid out, so just moving around was causing me to sweat! Back from the run, it was pretty much time to head down to the lake to listen to the race briefing and get a bit of a warm-up swim in. Back to that humidity....As most triathletes will know, getting a wetsuit on can be difficult at times. Throw in a sweaty body and 95% humidity, it makes it almost impossible (at least it was to me). I got my legs in, but couldn't get much else on, so I headed down to the lake to get the rest of it on in the water. I must say, this was the hardest experience I have ever had getting into a wetsuit. Eventually it went on, and I did a bit of warming up until our wave started.
Lake Ontario was pretty choppy race morning, which isn't something I'm used to. At 8:24am, our wave went off, and things started off ok (for a while). I quickly found myself getting unusually tired, due to the waves. I'd go to take a stroke and there would be no water, or try to breathe, and get a wave right in my face. It also made sighting the buoys a lot harder. I found myself having to stop, look around and regroup a few times, something I haven't really had to do this year yet. By the time I got to shore, my watch had said about 12:45. So despite what I felt was a "horrible" swim, I was really only about 20 seconds longer than some of my more recent 750m time trials in the pool, where I was averaging about 1:40-1:43/100. In this race, I just couldn't find anyone to draft off of, which makes a big difference. So despite not liking to see my average time of 1:55/100 for the swim, it really wasn't too bad. The long run to transition is what makes the average time not what I'm used to seeing. Despite this, I still need to make improvements in this discipline. Overall, 35th out of 424 in the swim.
Checking the results afterwards, I was surprised to see how fast so many other people were at this race...and a lot faster. I was disappointed to see my average for the run at 4:13/km. I knew I ran faster than that and confirmed it using the gmaps pedometer, since I wasn't using my garmin for this race. I think the run course was definitely long at about 7.8K, rather than 7.5K, which would still keep me at a little over 4 minute kms. This link is somebody else's Garmin data for the same run course, and it shows 7.8K.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/44661719
In the end, I finished 14th overall in the run, 8th overall in the race out of 424, and 3rd in my AG as 1st and 2nd overall in the race were also in my AG :(
Patryk Biegalski, in my AG photo above, was the overall race winner in a time of 1:29:33 (2:25 faster than me), so I ran some numbers compared to him. He put 1:36 into me on the swim and only 49 seconds from T1 to the end of the race. So clearly, if I could have stayed close to him in the water, it would have been a pretty interesting finish. I certainly think if I had him in my sights on the run, I might have been able to push a little bit harder. Always something to work on I guess!
