Author: Derek

Week in Review: August 20 – August 26 2018

Posted by Derek on in BikeTraining, RunTraining, SwimTraining, Training, Weekly Review

This week was pretty similar to last week in terms of the amount of workout time of just under 8 hours.

The most frustrating part of my training is the swimming. I just don’t feel as though I’m getting any better. For a change, I’m going to try using the Total Immersion swimming methodology for this week.  I had bought the video course on Udemy a while back when it was on sale and I just picked up a couple books on the program.  I decided that for this week, I’m not going to focus on swimming laps, but instead, I’m just going to focus on the skills from the program to see if it can help with my sinking legs.  I’m 90% sure that is the source of all my current issues.

 

Goals for the Week: I don’t expect any changes to my running and cycling.  Swimming wil be to simply do the Total Immersion skills and then perhaps go to the pool one day towards the end of the week to see if I can see ay difference

Tri Bars

Posted by Derek on in BikeGear, Gear

When I bought my bike, it came with regular road bike handles.  The bike was actually available in two versions, a road bike, and a tri bike.  The frame was the same.  Here is a stock photo of the tri version:

After riding the road bike with aero bars attached, I started to not like how it looked.  I wanted that sleek tri-bike look.  Also, I thought it would be nice to have the shifters on the bar end.  So, I ended up buying the various parts I needed – bullhorn, brake levers, and bar-end shifters and this week, I had a bike mechanic install them.  He had to run new cables, but in the end, I think the bike looks great.

I rode 17 miles with them this morning and I love the shifters! With the original STI (integrated) shifters, I’m never quite sure if I wnt up (or down) one or two gears, but with the bar-end shifters, it is all indexed so a single click is a single gear change

All I’m missing are a set of deep section carbon wheels.

Week in Review: August 13 – August 19 2018

Posted by Derek on in BikeTraining, RunTraining, SwimTraining, Training, Weekly Review

During the course of this week, I have managed to complete the half-Ironman distances….it just took me the whole week.  I swam for 2,000m, rode for 73 miles, and ran for 13 miles.  Ok, I was short 0.1 miles!

This week I got a new toy, a Tacx Vortex smart trainer.  I did one ride on it on Saturday using Zwift.  It wasn’t bad.  The Zwift course had more hills than I’m accustomed to.  Over the course of 10 miles, I climbed 497′.  Compare that to today’s 40 mile ride where I climbed 694′ and today’s ride was abnormally bumpy as I had to go over 3 highway overpasses.  I much prefer riding outdoors even though it’s by myself, but the trainer+Zwift will be an acceptable alternative when it’s raining and when winter comes around.

My running continues to be ok.  I still haven’t managed 3 days of 5 miles, but I’ll get there.  I’m just really happy that my Achilles isn’t causing any issues.

My swimming continues to improve slowly, but my Thursday swim was especially satisfying.  For the first time, I felt strong.  I still had to rest between laps, but I didn’t have that sucking air feeling.

My workouts for the week:

 

Goals for Next Week:  I would love to get to running 5 miles for the 3 running days.  I don’t expect to increase my swimming and I’ll be focusing on swimming 500m each day. I just need to work on reducing the rest between laps.  On the bike, I don’t expect to increase my mileage or time, but I will consider trying to a FTP test. I should be ending the week with between 7 and 8 hours of workout time.

Some Swimming Progress?

Posted by Derek on in SwimTraining, Training

I think it’s fair to say that swimming will be the make or break event in my Ironman 70.3 and Ironman career.  I know I need to train for the bike and run, but I’m 100% certain they will not be an issue.  Swimming on the other hand is the event where all my doubts lie.

Most half Ironman training plans seem to be right around 20 weeks and they want you to be able to swim 400-500m continuously before starting the plan.  I can’t do that as yet.  But, given a 20-week plan, it would mean that I have just about 14 weeks (3 months) to get to being able to swim 500m continuously.

I’ve been swimming 500m during my workouts, with breaks, and while I could see small improvements, it just seemed that getting there in 3 months would be a close call.

Today was the first time where I did my 500m and I actually felt as though, yes, I can do this.  I still had to take breaks, but I didn’t have that sucking air feeling after each length.