Tonight's fortune cookie!

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Post ride refreshment emergen.c on the rocks

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Epic ride 6000+ feet of climbing!

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Up and down

So this is the second to last week of full training.  At times, I've felt drained and week-- probably from all the hill training.  I took one extra day off this week, and had an energy surge...although my strenghth was not back 100%.
Trying to drop a pound or two also, this morning I weighed in at last year's ironman race weight.
We'll I'm tired but it's gotta be done- a long ride this weekend with the goal of 6000 feet of climbing. This will be (God willing) accompanied by a long run and long swim.
Keeping the faith and rocking on!

Mirror Lake

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Lake Waramaug 50 miler

Ironman Lake Placid Camp, 2012

Blog and Log

Training for Ironman Lake Placid V2.0 has continued in earnest for the last 2 weeks.  It's down to the wire here, and I am almost exclusively concentrating on my weak spots. Directly after Rev 3 70.3 (Quassy) was a bike focused week.  I rode about 5x in one week, on top of the running and swimming.  The training consisted of almost entirely of timed hill repeats on the local hills that have always given me troubled. My run workouts are done with goal of negative splitting, and the swim workouts all intervals.  It's hard to tell if I am making progress, as my body is fatigued...in the final two weeks of an intense 6 month training program. 

The good news is that last Wed. night, at the annual Solstice Sprint 5k I hit a PR on the somewhat difficult WH Reservoir course. Certainly, it's far from my overall 5K PR, but a 22:55 (7:25 or so pace) on that hilly course, after a long work day, in the midst of Ironman training--I'll take it.  Tonight's swim was an ever so slight improvement on overall yardage for 1 hr, and that's with the skimpy rest intervals mixed in there too.  And the bike hill repeats SEEM to be getting faster.

However, I once again have stopped logging my workouts.  Well I'm getting the hours in, and following the plan so that's what is most important. 

Only time will tell.  Right now less than 5 weeks to get all the details straightned out.  Hoping to drop about 1-2 lbs before race day.  Also, depending on how finances look, thinking of getting the Timex Run GPS which looks like a great device for all three disciplines, and will help with pacing myself on race day.

Also working on some mental training.

And getting myself focused for the descent into Keene. For that specific portion of the course I have gone from my fancy carbon Americal Classic Wheelset to the standard alloy rims that came with the bike for improved brakining power. 

I guess the other big thing that is on my mind is what happens on July 23....I won;t be signing up for Lake Placid again next year, what will life be like after Ironman???  What's next??? 

Rev3 70.3 Quassy, race morning

Rev3 Wrap Up

Mid May involved a 3 day training camp in Lake Placid, NY which left me a little fatigued and disappointed. I was much slower on the hills (especially on the second lap) --maybe I went out to hard on the first. It's especially disappointing in light of the sheer number of hours I've been putting in.

The weekend after I returned to CT, it was a USATF race in Branford. A flat 4 miler, which I ran at 7:29 pace. This additionally contributed to my growing disappointment, as I ran that race last year @ 7:10 pace. Ughh!

The final blow came for me at the Rev70.3, which admittedly I did as Training and did not race. Still I was quite disappointed with my rather slow bike time, 13.59 mph albeit on a very technical course. I think my biggest equipment issues were that my Suunto heart rate monitor lost connection during the swim and I did not get it back until 90 minutes into the bike as well as my bike computer which started flashing, then died... Was lost without my cadence meter.

Well, as planned since I did not race this one, recovery time was minimal. All week I vacillated between quitting tri forever and appreciating how exciting it's been to do something so super challenging in which I have no natural ability.

After getting myself together, I started researching hill climbing technique, and got out to practice the hills a few times. Truthfully, I think the place where I'm losing the most time is on the descents and being too scared to get up out of the saddle. I'm also watching those calories, and will knock this body down to race weight ASAP. Other components of Project Placid include using SwimCordz every morning, taking iron tablets (I think I'm anemic again), tons of body weight squats, only using the stairs at work (those consults on the 8th-10th floors are going to be killer), push ups, taping down my bike computer/ cadence attachment, and using the polar heart rate monitor +/- the add on GPS unit on the run.

I am also contemplating a return to my old training program template as I do not think the volume has been high enough with the Friel program.

So that's it, folks, I'm back at...expecting nothing, prepared for anything, It's Lake Placid or Bust!
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