My Mind Wanders

During every run and ride now my mind seems to drift towards next year's Ironman. It's only been 6 days since I signed up, but this race, which according to the handy countdown clock to the left of this post is still 356 days away, is dominating my thoughts as I train.

As difficult as it might be, I need to refocus. I still have two races left this year...one of which (The BoilerMan Triathlon) is only three weeks away. My training has been going well, but as I get down to the last few weeks before the last triathlon of the season, I need to be thinking about this race, not one that I won't run until next August. I've had mixed results this year in Olympic distance races and I want to finish the season on a high note - so doing well in West Lafayette is very important.

I doubt I will be able to push the thoughts of Ironman out of my head anytime soon; and it was once again the first thing I thought of as I hopped on my bike this morning. The sun had just come up and it was a very Autumn like, 52° F. That's down right chilly for riding a bike. I couldn't help but think about the drastic difference between the temperature this morning and what it was just one week ago - the morning of the 2010 Louisville Ironman. It was more than 20 degrees warmer as the athlete's started their race. As the morning turned into afternoon, the temperature rose to 92° F. As I type this today, just one week later, it's a very comfortable 78° F outside, with little to no humidity. Is it too early to start hoping for weather like today next August 28th???

FRIDAY'S WORKOUT:

Bike

2 hours on the indoor bike in Zone 2...building endurance
Same workout as last Friday - I did a 10 minute warm-up, then increased my heart rate to zone 2 (125-137 bpm) and held it there for an hour and forty minutes, then did a 10 minute cool-down. I listened to a podcast on why you should use microwaves - interesting stuff!
Avg HR = 131 bpm
Max HR = 142 bpm

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT:

Run

6.76 miles in 50:16 (7:24 min/mile pace)
Over the last few weeks, I've been trying to run at "race pace" on my Saturday morning runs. The distance has varied a little bit, but the object is to get my body used to running at this pace (or faster) for 6.2 miles (10K), which is the run distance for the BoilerMan Triathlon.
These runs are done at a pace slightly above comfortable, but they are not all-out...I save that effort for my intervals. The goal is to be able to hold this pace longer without my HR climbing out of zone 3 (163-168).
8/14 - 5.32 miles (7:18 pace) - out of zone 3 around 3.5 miles
8/21 - 6.19 miles (7:30 pace) - out of zone 3 around 4.5 miles
8/28 - 5.27 miles (7:11 pace) - out of zone 3 around 3.75 miles
9/4 - 6.76 miles (7:24 pace) - out of zone 3 around 5.8 miles

TODAY'S WORKOUT:

Bike

20.33 miles in 1:01:24 for a pace of 19.9 mph
I've done this same ride three times now, and today was my slowest...by over a minute. I was feeling kind of sluggish, but honestly my hands and feet were numb for the majority of the ride. Here's a comparison from the previous time I did this ride and this morning:

So what jumps out when comparing the two rides? It's hard to tell, but my top speed on the downhills was a little slower today. I got up to 37 mph on the downhill at mile 7 on 8/22 and only reached 35 mph today. On the downhill at mile 11, I got up to 38 mph on 8/22 and only up to 36 mph today. I'm blaming it on the windchill!