It’s now just twenty-seven weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon. My training is still coming along okay, although it was abbreviated a bit this past week. I had two travel days to and from Nashville for the Rock ‘n Roll Country Music Marathon. It actually ended up being a half-marathon, but it was a new PR for me.
Training stats this week:
Swimming: 0 meters
Bicycling: 2 x 45 mins outside
Running: 8.1 miles, 4.4 miles, 13.1 miles (half marathon)
Strength Training: 2 x 20 mins
It is now just twenty-eight weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon. My performance in last weeks Nautica South Beach Triathlon showed me that I still need a lot of work. My bike speed is too slow, and intestinal issues prevent me from doing my best. My training this past week was altered a bit due to having participated in the triathlon. I took an extra recovery day on Monday, and did no swimming at all.
Stats this week:
Swimming: 0 Meters
Bicycling: 2 x 45 mins outdoors
Running: 2 x 7.5 miles
Strenth Training: 2 x 20 mins upper body work
I completed the 3rd annual Nautica South Beach Triathlon this past Sunday. This is the first time that they had both a “classic” distance and an olympic distance. I completed the latter in 3 hours 30 minutes. Despite all of my training in the past year, I still came out slow. The swim took about 40 minutes. The bike leg took me 1 hour and 26 minutes. And the run (walk) cost me 1 hour 17 minutes. I should also point out that it was Natalie Morales’ idea to have an olympic distance tri. That’s the same Natalie from NBC’s Today show. BTW, she beat my time by about 38 minutes.
Having slept only about 2.5-3 hours, I was really tired when I got up at 4:15 a.m. The race was to start at 7 a.m., but parking near the transition area is tough to find if you get there after 6. I did manage to get a spot in a parking garage just a couple of blocks away.
The weather was nice. With mostly cloudy skies, a temperature of 70F, and light winds, it looked like the rain would hold off.
The first near-tragic accident of the morning took place in transition. I heard a commotion a few feet away and looked up to see a girl holding her head. Apparently a coconut had fallen from the palm tree above her bicycle and hit her on the head. It must have grazed her. I looked up to find no palm trees or coconuts above our heads.
The water temperature was 76F – this made the event wetsuit-legal for those that wanted to wear them. My wetsuit was in the car, and after much deliberation, I decided to go back and get it.
7:00 a.m. at the start. The first wave went out. My wave was next at 7:03 a.m. The waves were at least 3-4 feet. I ran into the surf and tried to swim, but kept getting pummeled by waves. It didn’t take long to get to the first buoy, where we would take a right turn. I thought the official said we had to swim past six more buoys, but I didn’t see six. Swimming in a straight line South was very difficult. I kept sliding down the back side of waves, or inhaling ocean water as I turned to the left. Eventually, I started breathing only on my right side. After what seemed like only 20 minutes to me, I could no longer see any more buoys. Looking at shore, I saw what appeared to be a finish chute, but thought it was way too soon. The more i looked at the beach, the more I realized that it was indeed the finish. So, I turned right and swam to shore.
T1: I spent less than one and a half minutes in transition, despite having to remove my wetsuit. Although, now that I think about it, I removed the top half on the run to transition, nearly falling into the sand dunes while doing it.
Bike: I exited T1 onto Ocean drive and got onto my bike. I had practiced this at least, so it was nice and easy. There was a lot of traffic on the streets. The police were letting cars go through intersections, and I really had to watch it here. Going up and over the MacArthur and Julia Tuttle causeways was easy in 1st or second gear. I wanted to spin instead of muscle, my way up. There seemed to be a lot of newbies on the course, or at least people that didn’t understand that they needed to stay in the lane. Because of this, I was blocked a few times. One guy even passed me on the right side. I guess he’s a cycling guy, not a triathlon guy.
As I came down to the last half mile on the bike, I started to remove my feet from my shoes. It was then that the Garmin Forerunner 305, which was around my handlebar, decided to come off and it hit the street with a loud smack! Crap! I can’t lost that $300 piece of equipment. So I veered off the course and stopped. I managed to get my left foot unclipped, but not the right, and wham! I hit the pavement. Now I was pissed because I’ve done this long enough to not be falling over. Plus, I knew that several people saw me and that’s embarrassing. I did manage to find the Garmin and get back on the bike, with my feet out of the shoes. Coming to the dismount line, I hopped off the bike as I had practiced so many times before and it seemed quite effortless to me. At least I got something right.
T2: I really hate the long straws on my hydration system. It makes racking and un-racking my bike difficult. For the most part, T2 was okay, though it did take me four minutes.
Run: My heart is pumping now – about 171 BPM. I try to slow down so that I’m in a lower heart rate range. I am also finding that I have gas or bloating or intestinal distress on the left side, so I start walking. About half of the run was just walking. Plus, I kept getting pissed watching the “classic” participants running by me like they were so quick. They only swam half of what I did and biked just over half of what I did. I kept reminding myself of this because it made me feel better to know that I wasn’t that far behind.
Overall it was a great day. I need to find a way to get more sleep and have less intestinal problems. At least I can say I had a nice race with Chris Lieto, Chris McCormack (they both did the classic distance, which I still don’t understand), Natalie Morales, and more. The really nice thing is that Miami is just a three hour drive and has great weather, food, etc.
This past Saturday marked twenty-nine weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon. My training started with a 7.5 mile run on Sunday, which I intended to do two more times. But, due to the upcoming Nautica South Beach Triathlon, I ended up doing mostly recovery days. I did find a nice multisport training book in Miami. It even has a 27 week half-ironman training plan. I think I may use a variation of that in my own training.
Stats this week:
Swimming: 2 x 1500 meters pool
Bicycling: Rode my “comfort” bike from here to BJs and back
Running: 1 x 7.5 miles
Strength training: 1 x 20 min
I bought a new Cervelo P2 triathlon bike and didn’t want to break the carbon, so I bought a torque wrench. Actually, I already had a torque wrench that I bought from Sears for about $20. It’s a beam type wrench, and I didn’t feel it was accurate enough to use with the carbon fiber bike.
This new torque wrench from Pedro’s is what I bought on rei.com, and I paid $150 for it. As I later found out, a simple google search would have saved me about $50.
The wrench is small, which is good. When you are torquing some of those bicycle bolts, there isn’t always room for a long beam-type torque wrench. Can I just say how much I hate typing “torque wrench”? Pedro’s wrench (or just PTW) has a dial of sorts. You pull the bottom away from the wrench, and then turn it until the desired torque value appears in the window, then put the bottom back up. It’s actually spring loaded, so the pushing/pulling is easy. Using the wrench is easy too. As you tighten the bolt, the wrench clicks and slips when you get to the desired torque value.
Here’s the part that really screwed me up: PTW has a 1/4 inch drive. All my sockets are 3/8 inch drive. So now I have a really expensive TW, and no sockets that work with it. Another google.com search revealed that Pedro also sells sockets for their wrench. For some reason, rei.com didn’t tell me that I should have also bought those. But, I had all these nice hex sockets, why should I have to buy new ones? The solution: 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch socket adapter bought at Autozone for about $5. Just go down to your local store and get it, you’ll never find it online. BTW, Autozone has a lot of good tools.
Bottom line: If you have a carbon fiber bike, you’re going to need a torque wrench like Pedro’s. Don’t buy it at rei.com. And if you already have 3/8 inch drive sockets, go to Autozone for an adapter.
It is now less than thirty weeks until Ironman 70.3 Miami. My training seems to be on track, although I missed a workout or two in the past week. I also did transition training on Saturday. Running to get my bike, running with it back to the street, trying to jump on – that didn’t ever work, riding away and putting my shoes on, riding back and taking the shoes off, and dismounting. My neighbors must think I am nuts.
I am still making adjustments to my new Cervelo P2. No, I don’t have the tires they shown on their website 🙂 Also, it appears I don’t have the build that all3sports.com advertised. My cassette is a CS-6600, which is not part of the Shimano Ultegra 6700 product line. Okay, it’s about a year older, and I can’t tell the difference, but it’s just plain wrong. At one point last week I managed to get my Cervelo up to 26 mph, which is fast for me! It’s true, I had a tail wind, but it wasn’t a 20mph tail wind.
Stats this week:
Swimming: 3 x 1500 meters pool
Bicycling: 50 mins and 30 mins on Cervelo outdoors. Missed one day.
Running: 3 x 10K
Transition training
Today marks thirty-one weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon. The past week was a nearly normal training week for me save Sunday, when I ran the 38th Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That was fun!
I still need to make final adjustments to my new Cervelo P2 triathlon bike. Mainly the saddle height and aero bar positioning, and then I should be ready to ride in the Nautica South Beach Triathlon in two weeks!
Stats this week:
Swimming: 3 x 1500 meters
Bicycling: 2 x 75 mins indoor trainer (missed one due to the marathon)
Running: 2 x 10K + 1 marathon in 5:46
Strength Train: 3 x 20 mins with brisk walk warmup (30-45 mins)
Today marks thirty-two weeks to Ironman 70.3 Miami. My training is now more on track and includes swimming, biking, running, and strength training.
Tomorrow I will run the 38th Yuengling Shamrock Marathon here in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It should be a beautiful day for a run.
Stats this week:
Swimming: 3 x 1.5K
Bicycling: 3 x 75 mins indoor trainer
Running: 3 x 10K
Strength Training: 3 x 20mins
It is now just thirty-three weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon. My training is starting to seem more like real training as I am swimming now. I have even written a one month training plan on a white board in order to more easily keep track. A typical week is as follows:
Monday: Run 10K in the a.m., Bicycle 75 minutes on the indoor traininer p.m.
Tuesday: Swim 1500 meters at lunch time, strength train for 20 minutes in the p.m.
Repeat two more times Wed – Fri.
Saturday – Recovery day.
Also, I now have a true, carbon fiber, triathlon bike! My new Cervelo P2 arrived this week and I rode it for the very first time today. So far, I love this bike! Just need to make a few tweaks. I think I will continue riding the old Trek 1000 on the indoor trainer and take the Cervelo out on the weekend for experience.
Stats this week:
Swimming: 4500 meters (pool)
Biking: 225 minutes indoor trainer with some hill simulation
Running: 30K
After waiting for three weeks, I finally received my replacement Cervelo P2 triathlon bike. Here is a picture of it.
Cervelo P2
This is my first true, triathlon bike, and so far I love it! There’s still some tweaking to be done, but it’s mostly ready to ride. I took it out and rode around the block a few times and still cannot believe how fast it seems to be compared to my old aluminum frame Trek 1000.
I have also de-badged the bike by removing the all3sports.com decals as well as the bike model and Cervelo support decals. Thank you Marriott for the plastic key card that did the trick.
