Monday, August 20, 2007

Sit Rep

Well last week was a great training week with a couple of flubs, namely a lightening storm that rolled over my open water swim and a birthday party.

I lost one pound and half a percent body fat. Not pleased since its off track from my projections but the trend is slowly, imperceptibly in the right direction for my second full week of base training.

Total training hours 11.75 hours.

Swim 4,700 yards, 1.75 hours, 15% of training

Bike 75.25 miles, 4.91 hours, 42% of training

Run 26 miles, 5.05 hours, 43% of training.

Took a swim test in the pool and found my 300 pace is 6:20 and my 100 pace is 2:06. This is comparable to my 1,000 yd OW laps at Canyon Lake in 20 minutes. I know these times are boringly slow to some, but those put me at around an 83 minute Ironman swim which would be a PR for me and in line for where I should be right now perfecting technique and efficiency for a 75 minute swim at IMAZ and beyond. So I am pleased with that. I will take 2 minute 100's all the way to my Ironman finish.

With some corrections to my pedal stroke, dropping the heel and throwing the knee forward when at the top of the stroke, I really felt a difference in my cycling. Also keeping my HR in Z2 and rpms up as opposed to focusing on rpm and speed, my speed went up. Way UP. And actually I felt better with my HR higher than lower, which really surprised me.

Running out of the heat and in the cooler times dropped my HR and upped my pace. Which of course I knew would happen and dropped 50 minutes off my previous weeks long run, same course and distance. Goes to show how heat/humidity/sun all affect training. I am not saying I will continue to do the right and smart thing but I will remember the lesson.

6 comments:

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

See? It's not you, it's the humidity.
You're doing great, Ironman.

Tony said...

Comm,

Sounds like you are making great progress with the swim. Great job.

My times have been slow but consistent. Last night I swam 2,000 meters and my fastest and slowest 100's were within 6 seconds of each other. I want to work of staying consistant but improving my speed as well.

I have noticed my pedal stroke is very similar to yours. All of my power comes from pushing downward, which is not a good thing. I have been working on dropping my heal and throwing my knees forward at the top of my stroke. I try to visualize myself slamming my knees into my handle-bars. The higher rpm is hard to get used to at first. I am very comfortable with my cadence in the mid 70's, but for me to have an efficient pedal stroke I am now going to have to keep it between 85-95.

I hope this helps.

Bigun said...

nice comm - I feel ya at 2 min hundreds for IM...would be just fine - but 1:50's would be better....ha!

Wendy said...

Comm's -- on track for perfecting technique and efficiency -- that's a beautiful thing!!!

The Big Cheese said...

I can hear the slight increase in engine speed, an increase of pressure on the peddle... That baby is about to get really revved up and the tires will be smokin'

Brent Buckner said...

On track!

1 pound and 0.5% bodyfat loss per week would make for a remade you at IMAZ. A different orbital trajectory, but it would get you there.

I'm pretty sure my type IIa muscle fibres don't meaningfully engage until at least the very tippy-top of zone 1. Zone 2 riding for me shares the load across fibres better than zone 1.