Tuesday, February 9, 2010

24 Weeks... and counting

24 weeks and counting down until Ironman 70.3 Racine. My training is now fully underway and I'm loving every minute of it, almost every minute of it.

I started doing speed work in my swims (in addition to the longer endurance sets), which equates to pain in the water. While swimming still proves to be biggest weakness, I spent most of the last several months practicing the swim and building a solid base. Yesterday I met with two teammates who thoroughly kicked my butt in the water. While it was only a 2600 yd set, the intervals helped me realize how my workouts now need to feel. It has been said that you cannot win an Ironman in the water, but you can certainly lose an Ironman in the water. So while I doubt that I'll reach the 1:15/100 meter split, I will have a solid swim!

As soon as the weather warms I will be breaking the bike out of the trainer and hitting the roads. I got a sweet deal for a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer through the RACING GREYHOUNDS team buy. I am still amazed at the amount of resistance I get on that thing. I'm told that when I actually get my bike out on the road, that it will feel like someone has cut the rope that's been holding me back and I'll fly. I do hope so, as I will need my average speeds at Racine to be 24 mph. Last year I was right around the 20 mph mark, up from 17 the year before.

Running is still my comfort area, so I have not yet began to hit the run workouts. I'm taking those slow and steady for now. I plan to start the intense runs in a few more weeks. Then I'll begin to do tempo runs and get back in the groove. Last year I ran a half marathon in 1h36min @ a 7:26 pace avg. I want to be under a 7 min pace per mile for Racine and hit a total run time of less than 1 hour and 30 minutes. I don't think that will be a problem. We'll see how things go after the swim and bike.

Lastly, I've added a significantly different approach to strength training this year. I'm focusing on endurance sets and multi-muscle group routines. Kettlebell workouts are now commonplace and I am building the 'powerhouse' in my legs.

Year to date, here's my totals:

2010 totals
Bike: 9h 45m 15s - 151.3 Mi
Run: 6h 58m 11s - 42.28 Mi
Swim: 4h 14m 26s - 11700 Yd

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