Swimming: I've been doing open water swims exclusively for the past few weeks. Even going and hitting up Lake Lowell before work at times. Shawna doesn't like that fact; doesn't like me swimming alone in the open water, but it needs to get done. My swimming is the biggest concern I have right now. I'm not concerned about not being able to finish the swim, I know that I can finish. It's the length of time that the swim is going to take me. I think that half of my concern is just in my head. According to research, just having a wet suit on, should make me 14% more efficient through the water, and 5% faster. The problem is that I don't feel any faster. I actually feel way slower. I don't feel claustrophobic in my suit or anything, and so long as I have it on correctly I don't have any shoulder restrictions or less range of motion. I just feel slower.
The biggest part of the problem is that you can't judge, or at least I can't judge, what my pace is. In the pool, I have instant feed back as to my pace. Every 100yds I can look at my watch and know if that pace is sustainable, to fast or to slow. I can't do that in the open water. Distances at both the Clocktower pond and Lake Lowell are just estimates, and even when I do use my watch I can't really compare it to the previous times because there are either no buoys, or the distance between them is a complete unknown. At the clocktower, your start/stop locations on the watch can be 25-50yds off from the last time that I swam out there. So I have a really hard time judging my pace.
The other problem is that I have a hard time pacing myself in the water. In the pool, I could rip out a 1:18 100yd split, but that speed won't last. I was working on not tearing off the line so quickly and trying to keep my initial 100yd closer to the mid 1:30's, knowing that my usual cruising pool pace is mid 1:40's. But in the open water, I guess I'm afraid of taking off too quick, and so I've slowed down even more. Or at least that's how it feels. But again, I can't judge distance so I can't tell for sure. It's a vicious cycle that is really driving me bonkers! If there is one point of concern for the event, it's the swim time and how I will pace myself in the water.
Bike: Last week I got my NFD tri suit that I had ordered a few months back. My buddy Jed had put together a cycling order through Voler, but there was no where near enough of a demand to get them to do any tri gear. Jed then found a different company that would do the tri stuff after we placed a large enough order of tech tee's (think Under Armor). So myself and Todd got NFD tri suit's and Jeff who is doing the Boise 70.3 got a NFD tri shorts and then an NFD cycling top. I'm not sure what Jeff will be wearing this weekend, but I'll be wearing my NFD tri suit.
I took a few hours off from work on Wens to hit the bike course one last time before the event. Last week I had taken my bike to Antonio over at Tritown and had him adjust my seat. I was feeling that the seat tilt was a little to drastic as I was having to push myself back on the saddle every 5 miles or so. I was at a -3* and had him shallow it out to a -1*. Boy was that a HUGE mistake! I got out on the course and had some severe pain down below. Climbing the one main hill wasn't too bad, but I think that was because it was right off the bat from where I parked the car and started. Once I was on the flat land and some small rolling hills, the pain came on and it was all I could do to keep pedaling. I had only made it less than 9 miles before I had the opportunity to turn around and take a short cut back to the car. I took the short cut, and at times pedalled while standing instead of being in the saddle. Once back to the car, I called Tritown to make sure that Antonio was there and then drove over and had Antonio put my seat back to where it was before. I'll take the occasional pushing back on my saddle for now over that pain. Later that night while at work, I got on the trainer and had no pain what so ever. It was as if it never happened. Yesterday, I jammed out of the house after dinner for a quick ride before it got dark, and no pain after the almost 13 miles. Today, I did some transition practice, and had no pain. The problem has been fixed and we'll see if I really have a problem with the sliding forward and having to push myself back on the saddle. I'm hoping to get one more longer ride in maybe tomorrow or Tues before the event, but we'll see how that goes.
Lately on my rides I've been keeping a higher cadence, mid 90's, and going on an easier feel. I know that this makes me a little slower than being one gear heavier and slower on my cadence, but I'm thinking that this will save my legs for the run. I don't know........ Come the day of the race, I will just play it by feel. On some of the flats, if I'm feeling good, I'll push it and drop it down a gear and get some more speed. When I start to get tired or fatigued, then maybe I'll shift it back a notch and let my legs rest a little bit more. I do know that when it comes to the down hill sections, I will bomb them as fast as I can and enjoy the ride. I'll pay for the down hill at some point by having to do the climb, but I'll take the down hills when I can. Fortunately, the last 15 miles or so of the course is fairly flat, so depending on the wind, it might turn into a speed fest, or a total suck fest. 14mph winds will definitely suck if they're around all day. Then you will see my cadence stay in the 90's the entire length of the course if that's the case.
Run: I've been doing pretty good with the runs, really working on keeping a steady pace. With any treadmill runs, which have been fewer and fewer, I try to keep a realistic pace that I can sustain for every round if I'm doing intervals. All of my longer runs of late have been outside. My friend Ben seems to always find me when I'm out running, so I think he's starting to stalk me. Seriously though, the outside runs have been going good. Early morning, late afternoon, doesn't matter. I take my Camelbak Delaney pack with me to keep the fluids going and hold my id and phone just in case. On Friday, we had our quarterly fitness evaluation here at work. This consist of crunches, sit and reach, push ups and then a mile and half (1.5mi) mile run. The fastest that I've ever done the run is 8:28, and damn near died doing it. Friday, I got an 8:34, which is a couple seconds faster than what I got last time. The big break through for me on this event this time though was the pacing. I didn't take off as hard, and instead tried to keep everything under control instead of slipping off right after the one mile mark. So I guess my pacing work is paying off.
As I mentioned earlier, I did some transition practice today. The first real transition practice that I've done. I started with having my shoes clipped in to the pedals and starting like that. Trying to get my feet into my shoes while on the move, and then work on getting my feet out of my shoes while on the move as well. I would go through the middle, open garage bay at the station, out into the street, around the corner and then into the back parking lot of the station, and back through the middle bay. After many, many loops around, I had a pretty good hang of getting in and out of my shoes while on the move. Next step was then a full transition set up. I had to pretend getting out of my wet suit, but then did the whole sunglasses, helmet, simulate race belt, and then grab my bike and run. I had a point that I chose as my mount/dismount line and then I'd jump on my bike and start my loops. The first loop would have me getting my shoes on and then the second loop had me getting the shoes off and still pedaling. At the dismount zone, I'd hop off, run my bike to the truck and lean it against the truck; take my helmet off, put my socks and shoes on, grab my cap (will have a visor the day of) and started the run out the front of the garage bay. Then I'd start all over again. I did about an hour of total transition practice today and now feel fairly comfortable with the transition process.
I haven't planned out what the rest of this week will look like for me. I know that I want to get one more longer ride in on the bike, and another distance open water swim in as well. Otherwise, It'll be just a matter of some lighter workout stuff and trying to stay loose. Friday Jeff and I will head down to pick up our packets and walk through "Ironman Village". For all the months of training that I've done, I still don't feel like I can call myself a triathlete until I cross the finish line on Sat night. Because I have no pics to share this week, I will instead leave with a video. Here's a band called Chevelle with their latest single Face To The Floor. I love the opening guitar riff, and it just sets the tone for the entire song. Hopefully my face wont be to the floor until way after I cross the finish line!
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