That Turned Fast

Last night I went out for my long run, which I have been consistent with and it's been feeling better each week.  The plan was to head out for 15 miles.  Surprisingly right from the first few steps I took I felt good.  My legs were good, not heavy, and there seemed to be a little spring in my step.  I had a plan to try to hold a 7:20 pace for the duration of the run, so at the beginning I really held things back and ended up going through the first mile in 7:12, whoops but it just felt really easy.  So I figured I would stay with how I felt and take a look at my garmin every so often.  As the run went on I continued to feel great.  I'm not sure if it is because it was peaceful and quiet, or that my running legs are returning, but I'll take it!  My fueling throughout the run was perfect and I actually thought about going farther.  That thought quickly disappeared as I was about 1.5 miles from my house.

The roads up until this point were great, all of the sudden I found myself pushing off and not going anywhere.  Yep the roads had turned into ice in what seemed like a matter of seconds.  I confirmed this by trying to slide on the roads, sure enough I busted out a 15 foot "road surf" yep this was going to be sketchy making it home.  I wanted to make sure I was careful as not to take a digger that close to being done.  So I jumped onto the grass where I could and was super careful.

All in all a great run!  Computrainer this morning took a little extra focus, but I was happy with it none the less.

Slowly Ramping It Up...

It's about 16.5 weeks out from Ironman Coeur d' Alene and so that means things are starting to ramp up a bit.  I have been trying to focus on my swim stroke and have been in the pool a fair amount (for a triathlete) this past week or so.  Actually I've been in the water 5 times already this week, and will be in the water again tonight.  That doesn't mean that I'm hammering out huge yardage each session, but I'm trying to get a better feel for the water, and what better way to do it than to swim more right?  When you pick it up in one area another will probably fall off a bit.  I haven't been cycling as much this week as I have in the past weeks, but have still been getting some solid work in on that front.  My run has been picking up and I've had my biggest mileage week since prior to IMAZ.   The consistency is going to be crucial as I said before, and I have been consistent with my long runs.  I have hit it 4 weeks straight now, and feel good about that.  I don't want to ramp up my running too quickly, and have been healthy thus far and am determined to stay that way!  I've been adding 10 minutes to my long run each week.  I'm going to continue to build that in the coming weeks until I hit about 2 hours and 30 minutes.  Keeping the pace in check is really the key!  I tend to get impatient and then pick up the pace so that the run is over quicker, not always the most ideal.  I was guilty of this on Sunday, and ended up going a little faster than I had wanted.  This week I am going to try to back it down and work on negative splitting the run finishing up just faster than race pace.  I don't quite understand the theory where you train slower than race pace and expect it to be there when you race.  How does that work?

This morning was an early wake up call for computrainer:

15' Warm Up
6' @ 90% (280 watts)
3' RI
5' @ AT (305 watts)
3' RI

4' @ 110% (340 watts)
3' RI

5' @ AT (305 watts)
3' RI

6' @ 90% (280 watts)
Cool Down
Still have masters swim tonight and I was planning on meeting up with Bird to get a run in prior to swimming.  I'm going to keep things in check for the run, as I want to have a good swim.  Big goals are going to take some big work!

A Dull Pain

My legs hurt.  It's not the type of pain where you can't do anything, but as I sit here I can definitely feel them throbbing.  It's not from running too much, but I have been riding a fair amount and have had three weeks in a row with a huge "threshold" type of effort where I sustained 300+ watts for 30 minutes.  I'm guessing that's taking it's toll.  The good news though is that I've been feeling better running.  And I've been able to get my "long" run in for the past 3 weeks in a row.  Long is relative now as I am only classifying it as over an hour.  The approach is a little different for this build as I am trying to slowly build my miles and pace. 

The interesting thing about building my pace is that I feel like garbage at paces slower than around 7:45, as soon as I'm running longer and harder I feel better.  Don't ask me why but I just do.  I also hate running on the treadmill.  The time just seems to drag and the effort I have to put in seems a lot greater than what it does on the road.  I can head out on the road and crack off sub 7 minute miles without any effort, when on a treadmill I feel like my lungs and legs want to give out right away.  Weird!  We had a good computrainer effort this morning at Endure It:

15' Warm Up
4 x 8'  (continuous)
- 4' @ AT
-1' RI
- 2' @ AT
- 1' RI
5' @ 80%
Cool Down

I don't want to say the numbers came easily, but at the same time it wasn't a huge struggle either.  After a big weekend of riding and running it was nice to have a solid effort today.  Hopefully I'll get a short run in today, and masters swimming tonight.  I am feeling better in the water so that's a bonus.  Big season ahead, still trying to decide on a few races.