Temperature at 5:20 PM

Got to love the warm summer evenings in the midlands of SC!!!!

Have you seen my Mojo?

58 days before my A race and I'm feeling tired and out of shape. My FTP on the tri bike has dropped from an all time high in April (road bike) but seems to be holding steady for now. My VDOT has stayed the same pretty much all season but for good reason. I pulled my hamstring early on and any speed work really aggravated it so I stayed at the same level and recently dropped the pace by 10 seconds/mile and have been OK. The swim is getting better but will always be my weakest link.

It seems as though I go through this every season with April being my peak month and then I slowly slide down hill from there. This was definitely true when I was just road racing and appears to be the same now that I've switched to triathlons.

For the past 4 years, my training has always started the first week in January. After 12 weeks of intense workouts, I'm flying going into April/May and has me wondering do I really need a 38 week HIM plan or could I get away with a 16 or 20 week plan, made up of my outseason and race prep. One other note, is that I always respond well to V02 work, especially when I do it before the longer FTP intervals. I did V02 intervals for the first 2 months of my 2008 season and then added FTP intervals and saw the biggest FTP gains to date. In addition, I was able to maintain the high FTP throughout the entire season. This season, I started with a different plan that had me doing FTP intervals for 9 weeks and then added V02 for 5 weeks and I was again flying after the 5 weeks of V02.

My plan for the next few weeks incorporates a day of V02 intervals a week so hopefully this will jump start my mojo as I'm not feeling it right now.

Race Prep has started

I'm starting the final 12 weeks of training for my A race - Ironman 70.3 Augusta on September 27th. The run and swim volume increase by an hour each discipline and if everything goes as planned, I'll put in 13 to 14:30 hours a week over the next 10 weeks before cutting back the volume for peaking/tapering.

Today called for 3200yds of which I completed 2900yds due to my training partner needing to get to work or me being a slow swimmer. WU: 200 swim, 200 pull MS: 40 x 50 (10") as odds hard and evens easy. 100 easy swim and then 2 x 300 (15") pull CD: 200 swim

I finished up with an hour run with 3 x 1 mile at TP.

Tomorrow calls for: WU: 200 swim, 200 pull MS: 6 x 200 (15") Pull @ T-Pace +5" CD: 200 and a 40' run @ LRP/MP.

87 days and counting

87 days until my A race. I start my 12 week HIM plan on 7/6 which will take me right up to race day. My swim workouts will change slightly but mainly the time will increase by about 50%, not to mention the distance. Hopefully by the end of the 12 weeks, I will have made peace with the water and will be Hackett or Phelps-like swimming in the nuclear waste run-off stream called the Savannah River.

I've bagged quite a bit of bike and run testing as I feel I'm pretty in tune with my power #'s and don't want to aggravate my hamstring or piriformis muscle by trying to blow out a 5K test. It is what it is and on race day, I will run what my body says I can run.

Regarding the bike power, I've dropped my FTP over the past several weeks as adapting to the new aero position has taken longer than expected and I'm having difficulty hitting the target range for my intervals. Part of it is that I need to HTFU and "Just Do It!", but now that I'm more aero, I'm finding it difficult to hit the FTP target. I did add a spacer back under my stem now that I'm done with short course racing and also in hopes of eeking out a few more watts.

Race Report - Tri the Midlands

First race of the 2009 season is in the books. I improved my swim time by over 3 minutes versus 2008 and my run time by 1:37. The bike course changed so no way to compare results but even though I held back, my split was within 60 seconds of the open/top finishers. Not sure what happened in transition but in looking at my times, I could've showered and shaved in the time it took me in T1 and T2. I was over a minute slower in total transition versus 2008.

They changed the run course slightly and instead of running the sidewalk out and back, we ran the road out and sidewalk back. The change resulted in a much steeper grade on the out portion of the run and such that I saw many people walking the steepest point. I was hoping for a sub 21 run but just didn't feel it. I wore my cushion shoes - Nike Vomero's to help me absorb the shock of going down hill and I think the additional weight kept me from a quicker turnover. Still improved my time over 2008 but not where I wanted to be. Knowing that there was only one peson in my age group ahead of me (several minutes) made it hard to push myself over the hills/etc.

22 out of 255
3rd place Masters (second place was 5 seconds faster)
2nd place 40-44 AG

500M Swim (plus 60yd run to T1) - 10:43
T1 - 1:36
Bike - 14 miles - 37:40 (my computer says 14.6 miles)
T2 - 1:14
Run - 5K - 22:08

1:13:18