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!
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