Half Ironman Training with Eric - Page 7

emartin10 · 07-18-2006, 05:20 PM

Easy brick workout today. I had a quick 30 minute spin - actually rode with my GF which was cool. I hopped off the bike, ate a bit, and then went for a 30 minute run (about 4.5 miles). It felt good. I'm getting really stoked for my tri this weekend. WOOHOOO!!!

E

ODB · 07-21-2006, 02:14 PM

Good luck with the tri dude

emartin10 · 07-21-2006, 02:31 PM

Thanks Joe!!

It's been a few days since I've been able to post, but rest assured, I've been training. Our open water swim got cancelled due to lightning Wed. night, so no workouts on Wed. I spun the legs for about 30 minutes on Thursday, and then did a 30 minute run and 30 or so minute swim today (300 swim, 300 kick, 300 pull, 300 swim).

I'm working tonight and then heading to Boulder tomorrow morning. My mom is actually coming out to see my race, she's never seen me race before, so that'll be really cool. And, there are a million pros that are coming (Tim and Nicki DeBoom, Heather Gollnick, Brad Bevin, Simon Lessing) just to name a few. AND, Whit Raymond (Ironman Hawaii announcer) is announcing the race. It's going to be awesome!

I'll get a post race report up as soon as I can on Sunday evening. I'm stoked, and hydrated, and ready to roll.

E

swiminto · 07-21-2006, 03:02 PM

Martin...go kick some butt......

emartin10 · 07-21-2006, 04:37 PM

Will do man! Thanks for the encouragement.

E

emartin10 · 07-23-2006, 06:55 PM

Okay boys and girls - Boulder Peak Race Report - Sunday, July 23, 2006

First off, it was just pure awesome.

Woke up at 4am for 1 1/2 whole wheat english muffins, a banana, and a Gatorade Endurance/Hammer HEED mix. My buddy and I left his place and got to the race at 5:30am. I got one of the last transition spots open (there were 1650 people registered). So I set up real quick, did about a mile run warm up, and felt great.

My wave was the 6th to start (M 29 & Under). We started behind the F 29&Under, M and F 50&Up, and the M 30-39. The M 30-39 hauled ass, but everyone else was SLOW, for the most part. It sucked simply because I was having to cut through people like mad - mostly on the swim, but for most of the day. Anyway, my swim was awesome. 1500m swim, took me 26:03. Not too bad a transition (1:54).

Off on the bike. The ride was alright, nothing special. The highlight was Old Stage Road. It's a 15% gradient, 2/3 of a mile hill, that just chews people up and spits them out. I've never been able to ride the thing without stopping, and a bunch of people had to walk the hill with their bikes....except me! I made it, and was very pleased with myself for that. The rest of the ride was mostly downhill or rolling. I took a gel about 10 minutes before the hill, and another with about 15km to go. I averaged 19.1 mph - finished 26 miles in 1:21:40. So not bad, but not great. T2 - 45 seconds.

The run was amazing. It was 6.2 miles, and I just felt great coming off the bike. So I pushed it. And pushed it. And pushed it some more. At about mile 3, I look up, and see my training partner ahead of me. Now, I've never beaten him, never even come close. The closest was a 5 minute loss in the last tri. I saw him, and pushed even harder. I passed him right after the turn around, and that was all I needed. I was Floyding it, and dumping water on myself at every aid station, trying to stay cool. "Don't let him beat you, Don't let him beat you!"

I finished about 5 mintues ahead of him, and finished the run with a time of 45:19 - a 7:18 mile pace. My overall time was 2:35:44.

I'm stoked. It was a great race, and we watched the pros race after ours. Chris McCormick won the guys, and Lisa Clay won the gals. They were hauling.

Great Sunday. Awesome Sunday!

E

swiminto · 07-23-2006, 08:25 PM

Wow..that is friggin sweet....You rock...you went, you took names, and you kicked ass....Congratulations. Way to go..passing your training partner must have felt awesome.

PS: I hope you got a good post Tri treat,, like a massage or a nice juicy burger with fries, washed down with a chocolate shake.

ODB · 07-23-2006, 09:22 PM

And what kind of beer did you have? Great race and report. I don't know that I'll ever attain that kind of speed, you know, of course, without training.

Ogedei · 07-24-2006, 07:48 AM

Sounds like you had an awesome race man! Congrats! You will be able to crush this pathetic half ironman no trouble!

Og.

finboy · 07-24-2006, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emartin10

Okay boys and girls - Boulder Peak Race Report - Sunday, July 23, 2006

First off, it was just pure awesome.

I finished about 5 mintues ahead of him, and finished the run with a time of 45:19 - a 7:18 mile pace. My overall time was 2:35:44.

Great Sunday. Awesome Sunday!

E

Eric! Awesome is not a strong enough adjective to describe your day! I'd say stupendous! Your run pace is freakin' great...fantastic job. I can't even run that pace completely fresh for more than 800 meters...Oh....My...God.

I've been out of touch for awhile, but it was a treat to logon today and see this race report...your 1/2 is gonna be good. Keep up the good work.
-fin

emartin10 · 07-24-2006, 03:33 PM

Thanks guys! I'm still riding high today, that's the fastest 10K I've ever done, and with the course the way it was (read: massive bike hill), I'm just thrilled.

swiminto: I had a thin crust veggie pizza, a glass of wine, and a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich

Joe: it usually takes me about 4 hours or so for my gut to feel good enough to eat, let alone drink beer. Beer is tonight, and it's COLD 90 Schilling. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm.

Thanks for all the support guys. I was lacking some motivation before this race, but the race combined with this support is just great. I'm counting the days until my Half. OH, and the aero bars are on the way!!!!

E

emartin10 · 07-26-2006, 12:16 PM

So I've been a wee bit sore in the ole knee that last few days, so I have tried to stay off of it. I had a swim/bike brick planned for yesterday and today, but I'm moving both bike rides to a ride on Friday (planned off day). So here were the two swims from yesterday and today:

Yesterday:
WU: 150 swim, 150 kick
Set: 3x750 (1 is RPE 3, 2 is RPE 8 for the first 100, RPE 4 after, 3 is RPE 5) - I only did 500 on the last set, I was wasted tired
CD: 2x125

Today:
WU: 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull
Set: 16x50 (odds RPE 4, evens RPE 9)
CD: 150 easy

I'm feeling okay. My knee is scaring me a bit, so I want to make sure I give it some rest in the next few days. We'll see if I can do a long run tomorrow...

E

emartin10 · 07-27-2006, 05:32 PM

Today was a change of plans. My knee was feeling a lot better after a really hard massage last night. BUT, I didn't want to push it with the long run planned for today, so I hopped on the bike for about 90 minutes today and made sure I got some rolling hills. They offer a good tempo for me, since lately I've just been jumping out of the saddle and turning a big ring to get up them. Strength baby.

I've got a big run planned tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes!

E

emartin10 · 07-28-2006, 01:59 PM

Horrible day today. Ugh.

I had a 2 hour run planned. We'll start with that.

I set out with all my nutrition so I can practice for my race. So 2 gels, and a bottle of Hammer HEED energy drink. I drove my run course earlier and put a few bottles of water out so I could take the gels. First gel spot, about 35 minutes in, no prob. Feel good, take my gel, ditch the bottle (which I went back for, I'm no litterer

). Make it to the turn around and I started to feel heavy. I turned around a few minutes early since I got that tank is running low feeling. Back to my second gel spot, about 60 mintues in, and I feel like crap. I take the gel, pull a Floyd and dump 2 bottles on my head and off I go. I felt better for a bit, but after about another 25 mintues, I was toast. Just gone. I called my GF to come pick me up. My legs weren't tired, I wasn't winded - although I did quit after a really tough 4 minutes of tempo.

I think I was just mentally gone. Race day does more than adrenaline me up, it really motivates me. I think sometimes with my workouts, I say "Oh, I better get this run out of the way..." which is not the mental state I need to be in right from the start. It makes it seem unimportant. So, step one is to get the mental state right for my training. I think I also didn't eat late enough last night to give me any energy for this morning. So step 2 is to get the nutrition timing right, even for the training.

So I move on. Tomorow I have a 3 hour ride and 30 minute run. Hopefully I'll be in a better state tomorrow. Thanks for listening!

E

emartin10 · 07-30-2006, 12:10 PM

Well yesterday was better than Friday. It was about 100 degrees, so my ride got a bit shortened, but I did manage to get a good solid 2 hours 20 minutes in. Did 42 miles in that time, so averaged just about 19 mph, which is pretty solid for me over that time span. If I could hold that in my Half, I would be in really good shape.

I didn't get my 30 minute run in, I'm still trying to recover from last weekend, and my knee is still a bit sore - so I'd rather take a break than hurt myself. I have off days scheduled for today and tomorrow, so I'm going to take it easy and hit it hard Tuesday. Have a great weekend all!

E

lookingforward · 07-31-2006, 05:24 PM

Just logged onto this site, and was very motivated by your training schedule. I trained for a year for my first tri and then had surgery a month after my first race. That was 11 months ago. Now I am struggling to get back to that fitness level I once obtained and hope to find some races nearby during the winter months. You being in Colorado, you understand my dilemma. Although born in Colorado, I now find myself in Wisconsin. Any recommendations on finding local or at least regional races that are well run? Thanx for being an inspiration.

emartin10 · 08-01-2006, 06:30 PM

Well, I don't know if I'm an inspiration, but thanks!

I would go to www.trifind.com or www.active.com to find races. They usually won't put something up unless it's a pretty well run event, and the good event coordinators will take the time to think about advertising there. I hope you can find a good race, and jump right back in where you left off!

Good luck!

E

emartin10 · 08-02-2006, 11:40 AM

So I had to rearrange my workout schedule this week. I went to an amazing concert on Monday night (www.xavierrudd.com). If you haven't heard of him, I'm very sorry. You're missing out in a HUGE way. So we were out late, and ended up waking up very early to hit up a really great yoga class while we were in Boulder. So I was working on about 5 hours of sleep, and for me, that's just not a good situation to do a 2+ training day in.

Soooooo, I just did a 40 minute run yesterday with strides (1 minute of high tempo every 5 minutes). I really start to taper this week and next for my big race, next weekend (August 13th!!!).

Today, I'm riding my bike there and back to the open water swim. It'll be about 45 minutes of spinning (15 miles or so) and then about 60 minutes in the water, in full race gear. Always a good time!

Anyway, off to play on my day off work!!

E

emartin10 · 08-03-2006, 02:45 PM

Last night was great. I rode out to the lake, 45 minutes out (took the long way to get some extra climbing in

), and flatted at minute 44. D'oh! My lovely girlfriend showed up on her bike about 15 minutes later, right when I was getting into the water to swim. She came to pick me up later, what a gal! So the ride was good, and the swim was great! Probably about 2000 meters, open water, perfection. Went to eat some thai food afterwards, and ate a big ass plate of chicken, veggies, and brown rice. Great day!

Today, I had a really easy 60 minute spin. It was a ladder, so it looked like this:

5 minute warm up
10 minutes RPE 3
10 minutes RPE 5
10 minutes RPE 7
10 minutes RPE 5
10 minutes RPE 3
5 minute cool down

On the really intense 10 minutes, I found a great hill, chunked it into a really big gear, and just killed the legs. It was awesome, and I almost puked at the top

. All in a days training.

Have a great Thursday, off to work for me.

E

emartin10 · 08-04-2006, 01:14 PM

A weird thing happened today. It is an off day, and upon driving to work, my legs got this very weird, tingly, almost like a caffeine buzz feeling. It's like they were telling me that it's time to workout. "We feel good man, lets roll!!!" I've never, EVER felt this before, but it made me smile. I think I'm peaking at just about the right time in my training, and cannot wait until next Sunday to dominate this HIM.

That is all.

E

ODB · 08-06-2006, 08:39 AM

Eric feelin' "tingly"? The competition better watch out!

emartin10 · 08-06-2006, 10:07 AM

Yes indeed, those bastards!!

I rode for 90 minutes yesterday with some good hard climbs. The big one is up a dirt road, so it's very good core work trying to balance on gravel ascending and descending. It was great though, the weather was fantastic.

I have an 80 minute run planned today, the last real big training day before the HIM. The rest of the week, I'm tapering. So this is it I suppose, at least for a few weeks

As soon as the legs start tingling, I'm running. I still have one more triathlon after the half, but it's just a fun, all out sprint. If I don't puke, I fail

Anyway, Happy Sunday!!!

E

emartin10 · 08-07-2006, 05:18 PM

Man oh man. That run course better watch the hell out. I ran like I stole something yesterday, just under 11 miles in 80 minutes. That's a blistering pace for me, about 7:10/mile. I ran with no gels or sports drink, just one bottle of water, and I felt fantastic!

I know I won't be able to hold that this weekend, but if I can finish with sub-8 minute miles on the run, I'll be THRILLED! I'll have gels and aid stations this weekend, which will definately tip the scales for me.

I had a quick brick today, 20 minutes swimming followed by 30 minutes on the bike. I am supposed to get about 30 minutes in running today, but my knee is pretty sore so I may just take the day off from running. I feel a bit of stiffness in my ACL, so I'm trying to take it really easy on it. It doesn't hurt during any workout, but afterwards and when I wake up, very stiff! So I'm mellowing out a bit today.

I can't wait for this weekend. So pumped!

E

Ogedei · 08-08-2006, 01:03 PM

ROCK ON MAN! We are all with you in spirit man! Can't wait for you to destroy this thing!

emartin10 · 08-09-2006, 01:07 PM

Okay, quick catch up. Easy easy brick yesterday:

15 minute swim (5 min warm up, 5 minutes FAST, 5 minute cool down)
20 minute bike (5 min WU, 10 minutes FAST, 5 min CD)
15 minute run (5 min WU, 5 min FAST, 5 min CD)

I had a 15 minute swim today at a constant pace.

I'm ready. I just want to go to Denver!

E

emartin10 · 08-09-2006, 08:38 PM

I'm just sitting here eating like crazy (Whole wheat pizza dough with a ton of crushed tomatoes, no cheese, a chicken breast, and a bunch of veggies) writing out my nutrition plan for this weekend. Here's what it looks like:

4:00am - Wake up - 2 WW english muffins, banana, Gatorade
5:15am - Transition set up - Gatorade, 2 Fig Newtons
6:30am - Nervous - Water, Gel
6:40am - Swim Start
7:15am (ish

) - Bike Start - Wait 20 minutes to take in any food, stomach upset - Throughout bike leg, one bottle Gatorade Endurance/hour
7:35am - Gel, Water, Electrolyte Cap
8:20am - Gel, Water,
9:05am - Gel, Water, Electrolyte Cap
9:50am - Gel, Water
10:35am - Gel, Water, Electrolyte Cap (no food or fluids for last 15 minutes of bike)
10:50am - Run Start
Mile 2 (2nd Aid Station) - Gel, Water
Mile 7 (7th Aid Station) - Gel, Water
Mile 11 (11th Aid Station) - Gel, Water, Pray...

I'm shooting for a 25 minute swim, 3 hr 10 or so bike, and under 2 hours run - so under 6 hours for the whole race. We shall see!!

I can't handle solid foods on big races like that, the nerves and GI distress that comes from it really make it hard for me. So tons of Hammer Gels, and Gatorade Endurance. Water a lot too. Caffeine is gone from the diet as of yesterday until after the race, when I get a nice, big latte (after about a gallon of water of course). Same with beer, and I'll have a beer at the finish line, after some water as well.

Anyway, I'm just slow at work and started working on my nutrition. Leading up to this, I've been eating a lot of carbs, water, and good lean proteins. Anyone have any feedback???

E

emartin10 · 08-10-2006, 02:43 PM

20 minute bike ride today, followed by a quick 15 minute run. Drinking water, eating food, getting anxious. Want...to...race...NOW!

E

Ogedei · 08-11-2006, 02:41 PM

Is it tomorrow is tomorrow the big day???

emartin10 · 08-11-2006, 06:22 PM

Nope, Sunday! I'm leaving for Boulder tomorrow, and going to packet pickup. I had a planned off day today, and have a really quick bike and run tomorrow. I'm stoked!

E

ODB · 08-11-2006, 07:42 PM

Good Luck if we don't hear from you before the race. Stick to your plan and rock that race!