Rhett

I have to spend the whole day at a soccer coach training thing, so I had to get up early to get in my run this morning. 

9 miles; 8:47

I took it really slow and easy as my final longish run before next Saturday's half IM.

Easy brick this morning- it was chilly though.

11.7 mile bike with 4 segments of 2 minutes at race effort.  Avg 16.9

4 mile run with 4 segments of 1 minute race effort AP 8:00

It was a good workout this morning to get the legs woken up and feeling race pace without tiring me out. 

I was going to do a nice little swim this morning, but the wind is a whipping out there and the lake is totally wavey, so I decided to make today a rest day. Hopefully I'll get in a short swim Thursday.

10 mile bike, mostly spinning in lower gears with a few pick ups thrown in.

3.6 mile easy run with 3 1 minute pick ups.

3 Days till take off.

Today was my final swim before the big day.  I got in 21 minutes in the lake just to get the body feeling confident about getting in the cold water on race day.  Right at first it felt pretty cold, but once I got going it was actually just right.  Hopefully it will feel about the same on Saturday.

7 mile really easy ride followed by a 1 mile run (8:22) with Blake.  Everything felt great, the bike worked well, I'm ready to race!

It feels so good to go into a race feeling 100% healthy. It's been a while since I have done that.

HITS Half Ironman in Lake Havasu City

I've been training with my good buddy Blake for this race since we ran the Phoenix Marathon last march.  Last year we did our first half ironman and it was tough.  I learned that I really needed to to work on my cycling if I wanted to be a good triathlete.  

I felt 100% healthy and ready to go for this race. This is the first time since 2010 I have felt this good.  I didn't feel nervous the days leading up to the race but I didn't sleep hardly at all the night before the race, so my nerves must have been getting the best of me.  I finally gave up to the tossing and turning and got out of bed at 4 am.  I had some toast with PB&J, watched some Sports Center and headed over to the race.  I got all my stuff ready in the transision area and just relaxed and talked with some friends.  Finally it was time to put on the wetsuits and head down to the water. The sun was just barely coming up and the lake looked beautiful.  There was no wind, so the water was glassy.  Once again my nerves manifested as I was shaking a bit, but was not cold.  

Mercifully the race finally started. It was a beach start with all racers (male and female, half and full) starting at the same time, so there were a few hundred people all charging into the water and taking off. I was able to get off to the side of everyone and avoid most of the mealay. I didn't even get kicked in the head once!  The water felt great and I really enjoyed the swim. It has become my favorite part of the triathlon.  I was a bit sad when the swim finished, knowing I was about to embarke on a long bike ride.  

1.2 MILE SWIM- 30:36

Into the transision area I went.  I've been working on getting my wetsuit off faster and it paid off as I was one of the fastes through Transition 1.

TRANSITION 1- 2:48

When switching from the swim to the bike I always feel it in my glutes for about the first 5 miles, and today was no different.  I settled into a good pace along with a few others that were about my equal. There is no drafting in triathloning, but you can be 3 bike lenghts back of the person infront of you and it seemed to help each of us keep up the pace as we continually leap frogged each other.  Fortunately the bike was uneventful and eventually came to an end.

56 MILE BIKE- 2:48:09

Transition 2 went very smoothly.  I took a few extra seconds to double knot my shoes and headed out for the run.

TRANSITION 2- 1:06

Finally to the run and I was feeling pretty good... so I thought.  I was trying to run slow and easy, but the first 3 miles were in the 7:30s.  I knew this was too fast, but it felt so easy, I just kept going.  Then I slowly started to fade as the work of the bike started to catch up with me.  By the turn around at 6.55 I was spent.  My miles were in the high 9s by then and I was just focusing on moving one foot in front of the other.  Mile 11 took everything I had to keep running, so when I told myself I could walk when I finished that mile. I was in a campground at that point walking on a road along the lake.  Some campers asked if I wanted some ice water, I asked if they had a cold Coke and the dug one out of their ice chest and gave it to me.  I popped it open and it was like heaven in a can.  I continued walking along the lake road drinking my Coke until I hit mile 11.5 when I finally felt like I could run again.  I took it slow at first and eventually passed the one person who had passed me while I walked that half mile. Right as I hit mile 12 a lady running at a good clip passed me and I realized I was starting to feel pretty good again so I went with her.  I followed her for abut 3/4 of a mile when I decided I had enough in the tank to run hard to the end.  I passed her up and finished the strong running the last mile around 8 minutes.  

13.1 MILE RUN- 2:02:19

My FINAL FINISHING TIME was 5:25:01 which was a 55 minute PR over my only other half IM! I was really happy with that, but disappointed that my run time was identical to my first half IM.  I obviously need to figure out how to run after putting in a hard biking effort.  This year I mostly focused on improving my cycling and that is where I made up most of the 55 minutes. Next year to work on putting it all together and finishing with a good run.

OVERALL PLACE- 16

AGE GROUP PLACE- 3rd, so I got a nice little plaque for my efforts.

4 easy. Legs felt good

6 easy.
 

6 easy

Legs have felt perfectly fine all week, so I decided to push the pace a bit this morning with a progression run.

First mile at 8:00 increasing speed by 10 seconds each mile through mile 8 which was 6:50, then the last 2 miles really easy.

4 easy miles before heading to work this morning. It was a beautiful morning as the sun rose during my run.

8 mile easy run on a chilly 46 degree morning.

AP 7:25

I probably did this run a little too fast for an easy run, but I didn't feel like I was pushing at all until the last 2 uphill miles. 

1 mile warm up mile

6 by 1/2 mile at tempo effort with half mile easy recovery

This was my first speed type workout I have done probably since last January.  I tried to keep the faster efforts at tempo speed instead of speed speed so I can slowly work back into faster paces.

6 easy recovery miles.

I am trying to be smart so I figured I'd keep it short and easy to recover from my intervals yesterday.
 

6 more easy miles this morning but a little faster than my recovery miles yesterday and I threw in five 1 minute strides at 5k pace for the first minute of each mile after the first.

4 easy miles

Now that my half IM is over, I'm planning on making Fridays my long run day.  Tomorrow  however I'm doing the annual 5k Turkey Trot, so I just did a short easy run today. 

HAVASU TURKEY TROT 5K

It was a perfect morning for a 5k, 50 degrees, no wind, and clear skies.  Cade (10 y.o.) decided to join me this morning.  After getting our race bibs, I took off for a warm up with Jim.  We ran around a mile.  I threw in a couple strides.  

We lined up and after a few glitches with the timing clock and starting gun, the race was finally under way.  About 10 people flew off the line like they were doing a 400 m sprint. I let them go, knowing I would pass most of them soon.  Sure enough within a quarter mile I was in 4th place.  I knew I would never come close to Dan who is in my AG, but out of my league, but I had my sights set on the other two whom I did not know.  I hit mile 1 in 5:54 and was about 150 yards behind the 2nd and 3rd runner.  I could tell I was starting to gain on them a bit. Right as we hit mile 2, 5:57,  I caught the 3rd place guy and passed him rather qucikly.  The second place guy was about 100 yards ahead at this point.  I was focusing on him and trying to real him in slowly.  As we were nearing the end of the 3rd mile he peeked over his shoulder and saw that I was about 50 yards behind him, and he kicked it up a notch.  Third mile 5:54.  I was giving it everything I had on the last 0.1 but it was not quite enought to catch 2nd, so I ended finishing 3rd overall and 2nd in my AG, BUT WITH A 27 SECOND PR!  18:23

Once again I have proven my theory that triathlon training makes you a faster runner.

Cade set a PR also today running 26:13 and getting second in his AG.  He missed first by only 2 seconds.  

1 mile warm up followed by 3 x 1 mile at 10k effort with one mile easy paced recovery, then 0.4 mile cool down.

Total run 7.4 miles

Legs felt perfectly fine.

4 easy miles.

That's all I had time for since I had a teeth cleaning appointment before work this morning.

10 easy miles with 5 x 1 minute strides thrown in.

Happy Turkey Day to everyone!