Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Almost "Tri" Ready and Another Race Week

A pretty decent past few days, since my little stomach bug incident last week. Went for a quick 2 mile run last Thursday, just to be sure I had shaken the bug, and more importantly, to test out my brand new Nike Lunar Eclipse running shoes! I always seem to make the mistake of going faster on new shoes, because I know I'm keeping it short. Ended up with an 8:45 pace. I should really learn to take it easy, especially when the purpose of the run is to "ease" into the new shoes. All in all, the shoes felt good. Nice spring to them, good support and definitely not as mushy as the Lunar Glides. Why did I ever abandon Nike? Anyway, the Mizuno's have been relegated to just "casual" duty now. The plantar fasciitis seems to be at its worst the days after I train in them. So now the rotation will consist of the Lunars and Asics. But, probably will stick to just the Asics until the Tri.

Which "transitions" me very well to my next training session. On Saturday, on a warmer and rather humid day, I did a bike/run brick. Just simply did one transition to test my endurance. Completed 9.5 miles on the bike, then ran 3 miles. It was tough, but I was able to complete it and was definitely a confidence booster. The 9.5 mile bike took about 40 minutes, and actually was a little harder than I remember. I was really hoping for a better time than that.  I purposely pushed it for the majority of the bike to tire out my legs, as to see how I perform in the run with my legs fatigued.  So I get off the bike, lock it up, and down about half a pack of Gu Energy Gel, along with some water, and continue to the run. This was a little harder than I remember as well. Both knees were experiencing some pain from the start, along with my left heel. But as I got into my run rhythm, everything was okay. I got to the halfway point and briefly took a breather (30-60 seconds) and quickly continued the run. Though I was pretty beat from the session, it felt good knowing that I was able to do that, and was not completely gassed (like I was from mile 10 of the half!). Knowing that I only had another 2.5 mile bike and 1 mile run on top of that, I had a rough idea of how I'd feel and do on raceday. Of course, I didn't have the swim to start. So I'm now going to put my money on that I'll finish in around 2 hours. 

It was back into the pool on Sunday. Did 800m, took a short break, then another 200m, as a bonus. Did the 800m in about 24 minutes. Still hard to say how that will translate in an open water swim, but I'll take it for now, since it does not seem likely I'll get any open water time, except for the day before during swim practice. It was good to know that the 200m bonus felt strong, even after the initial 800m. So long as I don't gulp a bunch of water on raceday, I think I'll be okay. And just okay....

It will be the Celebrate Israel Run (4m) this coming Sunday. So it'll be 2 more training runs for the rest of this week, either 5 and 6 miles or 5 and 5.  I plan on hitting the pool on the off days and then take Saturday as recovery.  Lots going on and lots to come. Less than 3 weeks left.....*whoooaaaaa....*

No comments: