Day 142, Week 21, Long Core [33:40]

All good.  Plus elliptical to reach 300 calories burned.

Day 141, Week 20, Short Core [8:25]

And elliptical to get to 300 calories burned.  Using Garmin with cardio on core workout, says I do 8:25.

Day 140, Week 20, Long Brick [55/3M]

Great workout today.  I did several things different.  For fun, I stretched the bike to 56 to say I did a half bike distance and the run to 5K because it's so close anyway.  I planned my hydration and nutrition well.  I still came up 2 lbs down afterwards, wait, no more than that.  My weight was down 2 lbs, but I'm not sure off the top of my head what that translates into down on my water.  I'll figure that out later.  Suffice it to say, I still more water, but I did all I could today.  Filled my two bike bottles and wore my bottle belt on the bike and refilled my belt for the run.  I'm on my way later to Dick's to look for a camelback.  When I got down, though, I wasn't completely debilitated like I was last week.  Yeah!  I think the hydration really helped and also deciding to consume half my burned calories.  I did mostly GU, but 150 calories worth of jerky.  I really like jerky on the bike.  Getting more sodium I'm guessing helps me too. I was faster on the bike, 13.2 vs. 12.9 last week and I didn't have to walk at all on the run.  It was a real confidence booster today.  I went back to my old seat for comparison with the demo John gave me.  The demo is definitely better.  But, the question is it worth $275 right now?  I survived and wasn't miserable just a little uncomfortable.  Will that additional comfort help me be better for the run?  Needs some thought.  My recovery was really good.  No soreness of significance 4 hours later.  We'll see tomorrow.  My back had some discomfort coming on during the ride along with my shoulders and neck.  However, right now, I'm doing fine except maybe just a little discomfort here and there.  We'll see how I am tomorrow.  I did take a naproxen just before starting, so that may have helped.  But, at least no need for any Ben Gay.  Also, I didn't attack the hills as vigorously as I have been.  I'd been proud of myself able to go up more hills not in my lowest gear.  But, this time I nearly always did, but I also tried to pedal going down hill as much as I could, whereas the last couple of weeks, I'd been having to rest going down hills.  I think my approach today helped a lot.  John at 90+ suggested I do that to help train for the flats of Waterman's where there is no "recovery" periods of down hills.

Day 139, Week 20, Long Swim [2650y]

Started out strong, but slowed through out.  It'd not been since the 5th at Ft. Ritchie since I swam last, so I think that's okay and good I finished 1.5 miles.  Also, it was before watches rest period was done.  Probably won't ever be fully rested per Garmin until I start tapering. After North East, I'll swim instead of doing a short brick like I did after Ft. Ritchie so as not to go so long without swimming.

Day 138, Week 20, Long Core [34:00]

Just fine with elliptical to get 300 calories burned.

Day 137, Week 20, Short Core [8:30]

Just fine. Added elliptical as usual to get 300 calories burned.  Now using cardio on watch for the core to capture heart rate.

Day 136, Week 20, Long Run [15M]

A grueling 15 miles today.  Dog slow.  Probably 'cause still recovering from Sunday bike ride.  Real dizzy afterwards.  Probably need to try and drink more water.  I drank the same as the week before, but went a lot slower, so I consume a lot less water per minute this time.  I need to figure out the rate for today and make adjustments and plans accordingly.

Day 135, Week 20, Short Core [8:30]

No problem.  Got calories from biking from and to mechanic to get work done. Had a small number still needed with the elliptical, or so I thought.  Elliptical was in between the bike rides, the first burning 87 calories.  The return burned 125 calories, so I did about 40 more calories than I needed on the elliptical.  Ah, c'est la vie.

Day 134, Week 19, Long Brick [50/2.75M]

Boy, that wiped me out.  Toughest workout ever.  The Bike ride was incredible. My first 1/2 century!  I couldn't quite run the whole run.  Sun came out the second half and beat on me.  I had one last up hill, well, really more a rise that forced me to walk for a quarter mile.  But, I finished and that was great.  I think the bike was much harder than what will be at Waterman's and for the run, the climb rate is significantly more than Waterman's, so keeping confidently hopeful.  The center of my back tightened up, different from Ft. Ritchie where it was the outside of my back.  I think riding lower is a strain from my core not being a strong as it could be.  I think the 90+ seat works well when riding lower, but when up, and presumably, with less strain on my back, I tend to feel like I'm slipping forward and wanting to push back.  The butt cream and glide worked well.  I just decided not to use it all the way underneath and back and had some irritation, not, bad, but avoidable next time.  I'm still not sure I'll back it at Waterman's, but there's nothing happening that convinces me I won't finish.  So, keep on trucking.  I also am having trouble with my upper arms, my triceps I think.  I'm just ignoring them and will keep on working hard on my core workouts.

Day 133, Week 19, Short Core [8:30]

I decided to run in 2nd gear instead of do elliptical to get my 300 calories.  I came up short 9 calories on my estimate of time to run.  That's okay.  If I want to be sticky about getting in 300 calories, our walk with Chumly burned at least 9 calories, so I'm okay.  I planned on 20 minutes for the run, so do 21 next time.  Feeling real good.  Finally feel rested.  I had 13 pushups and some other parts of the core workout had more reps than usual.

Day 132, Week 19, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

45 seconds on the single leg work was a bit much.  40 seconds was a good challenge.  The run was really hard.  Still recovering I guess and maybe more water and nutrition might've helped.

Day 131, Week 19, Short Core [8:30]

Switching around my plan for the week because I feel like I'm going to be recovering all week since I crapped out on my 7 mile run yesterday. So, Thu, today, Short Core, Fri: Short Brick, Sat: Short Core. Not much to say about today.  Got core done and elliptical to burn 300 calories total.

Day 130, Week 19, Medium Run [7M]

Gave out at 4.84 miles.  Really hot and muggy.  If I had my wits better, I might have walked the remaining 2.16 or even run some of it.  But, even on walk back I was feeling exhausted.   I'm sure I'm still recovering from Sunday's race, so I'm not concerned about it. I might rethink the rest of this week.

Day 129, Week 19, Long Core [34 minutes]

I bit tiring more than usual, probably still in recovery from Sunday's race, but not bad.  Reduced rest periods by 15 seconds (4:45/6:45/9:45).  And added elliptical to get 300 calories burned.

Day 128, Week 19, Short Core [8.5 minutes]

Good short core day with elliptical for 300+ calories burned. Back and shoulders are feeling fine.  Mary put on generous Ben Gay a couple of times yesterday and my hips are fine and not hurting like sometimes they are wont to.  That's probably because I didn't actually run a big percentage yesterday.  And, my calves, hammies and quads feel fine.

Day 127, Week 18, Ft. Ritchie Olympic Triathlon

Horrible race.  Although, the split legs of the swim were great.  Both were successive PRs of 1:59, 1:56 per hundred yards for 0.25-0.50 miles.  However, with having the split legs and running along the beach between them, I tried to mark laps on my watch and it screwed up all the tracking for the whole race. I did the best I could to salvage my results with what I got.  And on top of that, I got no GPS data for the swim. Ah, c'est la vie.  The think I hated about the swim there was that on the back side, I frequently would have vegetation plastered on my when turning to breathe.  That alone may make me reconsider do this triathlon in the future, and I don't like the having to get out and run the beach between the two legs. My swim finish 67/135. I'm very pleased with that.

The bike actually was the hardest course I'd ever done, even more so than Diamond in the Rough up in Perryville with it's monster hill coming out of Port Deposit.  Ft. Ritchie climb was 75.5 ft/mi and Diamond 49.6.  My weekly long rides, now up to 45 miles are typically 65 ft/mi.  Waterman's will be 4.  The worst thing was that around mile 14 give or take a couple, my back started to spasm along with my top shoulder muscles and biceps starting to hurt. The back was by far the worst. The only way to get relief was to coast standing-up straight and tall over my front wheel and stretch my back.  Unfortunately, there was many opportunities for coasting especially after the turn around and the 3.5 mile long hill on the way back with a 3.6% grade. Actually, that was quite doable for me in my lowest gear.  If it'd been much longer, it would've become grueling, any much steeper I might not have been able to do it. However, I think it did drain me quite a bit and it really made my run suffer. My bike finished 111/135.  I also lost time early on by a contact slipping out of place.  The might have taken me 3 minutes or so to fix. That is fine.

The run was the worst of all.  My spasming back forced me stop half a dozen times to lay down and stretch out my back which really did a good job on relieving the pain.  However, it would always work it's way back, especially on hills. And the tough bike ride forced me to walk a lot more than run.  I almost decided on the first loop that I was done because I knew I couldn't continue with the back pain. However, on the last time I stretched my back I told myself that I know what I need to do to be able to finish.  Don't worry about when the back pain comes back, just stop and stretch it out and run as much as I can, then walk.  It doesn't matter if they give me a medal or not and I go past the 4 hour cut-off, it's just finish the course that matters.  I ended at finishing at 4:04:14 and got my medal.  Yeah!  Here's the profile of my pace during the run.  You can see when I was running, walking and stopped to stretch. (Faster is up.)  There's a few down spikes and those are when I stopped at the water stops. The drop of at the end is me forgetting to stop my watch.

I'm pleased that under the circumstances I was able to keep my chin up and finish.  I finished 134/135 in the run.  There was a guy that passed me while I was stretch who said was battling leg spasms, so maybe he was the 135th. Of course.  I estimate maybe I lost 6 minutes stretching my back.  If I hadn't, then, I would've moved up one place.

I finished dead last overall and that's fine considering my battle.  Taking out the stretching time, I would've come in 132nd.  Of course, the stretching time was also resting time, so maybe not.  In the end, my bike performance was the killer.  I'm not sure what happened there that I got bad spasms and other muscle pains. The cropped up before I got to the hard part of the ride.  On July 27th, I got a new demo seat to try out and also some aerobars.  On the 29th, I did a 45 mile run with them and didn't have any problems.  The only real difference today is I swam 1500 meters beforehand. Maybe if I had my aleve on me I might have been able to fix the problem with that, but I'm not sure about that. The only other thing I can think of is maybe I wasn't drinking enough water.  I drank maybe 1/2-3/4 of the rate  usually do on my training runs.

Another lesson learned as that I almost went out of T2 without my bib, but luckily the volunteer at the  exit pointed it out.  I lay out everything so I can see everything I need so I don't have to think about what I need.  It's all there right in front of me. But, this time, I layed my wet suit over my stuff and during transitions I grabbed underneath it for the things in my head I needed to get.  Today, my bib wasn't in my head, so I had to run back and get it.  It wasn't a big deal, just frustrating that I screwed up my plan and that I had to run back while at the same time my back was killing me. Lesson learned it don't put my wet suit on top of my stuff.

Next is North East on the 29th.  The bike looks like 16% less climb than today and the run is about the same.

Day 126, Week 18, Short Core [8.5 minutes]

Nominal short core day will elliptical to burn 300 calories.  All rested and ready for tomorrow's race.

Day 125, Week 18, Long Swim [2650y]

Great swim. PR pace for 1.5-1.75 miles. I concentrated on working out the hesitations just before taking each stroke. I think maybe they been their because of trying to think about what I'm doing since the swim clinic.  I have to be careful not to push up my stroke rate but I could get in a good groove by starting my catch immediately after my arm hits the water in front.  Cool.  And Garmin says rest until 6:30 Sunday morning.  My wave starts ~8:30.  2 extra hours!

Day 124, Week 18, Long Core [34 minutes]

Seemed grueling on the second two sets.  Stomach was a upset some.  Otherwise, it was a good tough workout plus some elliptical to get to 300 calories burned.  I did notice when I got up this morning a little soreness/discomfort on the outside of my legs just above my ankles.  No big deal and only notice if pressure applied, so just something to note.

Day 123, Week 18, Short Core [8.5 minutes]

and elliptical to get 300 calorie burn balance.  No ill effects from yesterday's long run.  Cool!

Day 122, Week 18, Long Run [15 miles]

Great run. PR distance and my peak distance before the race.  I'll have four weeks of doing 15 mile runs before tapering.  Didn't quite feel grueling, though it was tough. I probably could've done with more water. Pace wasn't as fast as I'd like, but I'm still recovering from brick on Sunday.  It'll be the same for the 4 weeks left outside the two Olympic races I have on the calendar.  Best of all no knee pain like I had last week.  I switched to my new shoes and obviously my shoes were my knee pain problem.  That's good.

Day 121, Week 18, Short Core [8.5min]

Also got in elliptical to have 299 calories for the day.  I adjusted my weight in Runkeeper after the fact and it gave me one less calories, so my target calories on elliptical was one short.  Oh, well, c'est la vie.  Ready for 15 miles tomorrow.  I hope I'll be okay. Garmin tells me I need to rest after yesterday's training for 4 days or until Thursday.  But, I'm doing endurance training.  Good for me to do 15 miles not fully rested.  Yeah!

Addition: I did a workout class at 90+ on hip mobility.  Learned about gauging mobility, rubbing out muscles with roller, stretches and strength exercises.  I'm not going to incorporate yet, but there's good stuff for thought there.  I need to get electronic copy of her handout.

Day 120, Week 17, Long Brick [45/2.5M]

Great brick at new PR distance.  I switch from trying to layout of single circuit and layed out various loops to put together.  It worked out really well.  Try out seat worked better, though still sliding down some.  Practiced with new aerobars too. I feel like I want to adjust the arms rests forward some.  I'll play with them.  I also need to clean up my bike from mud and GU on the handle bars and frame.

Day 119, Week 17, Short Core [8.5min]

No twinges in pecs. Yeah!  And, added elliptical to reach 300 calories burned for the day.

Day 118, Week 17, Long Swim [2650y]

Getting through my swims.  I bit slower today.  I wonder if I'm accumulating being tired.

Day 117, Week 17, Long Core [34min]

Got through all 4 sets when minor twinges in my pecs. I think it was a little bit of strain, but nothing major.  We'll see how I am after swimming tomorrow and hopefully I'll be fine for short core on Saturday.  Followed up a bit today with elliptical to get 300 calories burned in.

Day 116, Week 17, Short Core [8.5min]

Yeah!  I got through all exercises and nothing but a ghost of a twinge on my pecs!  And, followed up with elliptical to get 300 calories burned for the day.

Day 115, Week 17, Long Run [14.5M]

Pushed to 14.6 so I'd have a distance PR.  It was a grueling day.  I ran in the afternoon which I hate because of ran in the morning.  I did check for lightning strikes in the afternoon 'cause I don't care about the ran, but...  I should've checked in the morning, but oh, well, that's fine. Next rainy morning when I think there could be lightning.  My heart rate was in the 180s and 190s most of the time, but I made it.  Next week I go to 15 miles and stay there until taper time, so I think I've got the run prepared. Yeah!

Day 114, Week 17, Short Core [8.5min]

I did ab crunch again and watched my pecs and made sure I didn't over do it and it seemed okay taking it easy, so I think I'm good getting them back in.  There was a tad bit of discomfort, but that was okay.  As that gets to feeling better, I may add back in the push-up rotation or push-ups.  I'm glad I have some progress getting my core stuff closer to back up to full steam.  I got in 260 calories worth of elliptical, so I got in 300 calories today.  Yeah!

Day 113, Week 16, Long Brick [40/2.25M]

Great ride.  PR distance surpassing the Barnsdall ride and really smashed it with more climb and speed.  Difficulty metric (speed x climb rate) this time was 926 vs 696 for Barnsdall, 33% harder.  2.25 mile run was great to @ 9:49 pace.  Feeling great with where I am.  10 weeks to go, 7 train/3 taper.

Day 112, Week 16, Short Core [8.5min]

Tried doing ab crunches, but it did still irriate my left pecs.  Sigh, oh, well.  Got the balance of 300 calories on my elliptical.  It was strange, it measured about 17 calories per minute.  All my other past ones, including on this same machine was more like 10.  Oh, well.  I'll go with what it tells me.

Day 111, Week 16, Long Swim [2650y]

Felt hard today.  Pace was okay, 2:19, though as the swim keeps going, the time behind 2:15 pace mounts up so it feels discouraging even though, I swim about the same pace throughout.  My left pec was hurting some.  I think the swimming is not good.  Let's go next week, then see how it goes and then decide if see Dyer about PT.

Day 110, Week 16, Long Core [8.5min]

Continue to not do push-ups, ab crunchs or push-up-rotations.  Got planned 4 sets in and also ~16 minutes elliptical to make 300 calories.

Day 109, Week 16, Short Core [8.5min]

Only about 6:30 'cause of left pecs.  Got a good walk in, but not quite enough for total of 300 calories exercise today.  I need another 31:40 at least to get to 300 calories.  My wrenched back from yesterday isn't doing bad and made it through the core set. Genius, use elliptical besides walking for calories.  The one here at the hotel yielded me 9.76 calories/min whereas as my morning walk only 4.33.  I'll use my elliptical at home, too.  It'll be great.

Day 108, Week 16, Long Run [14.5M]

Distance PR, yeah!  Apparently it was hillier than I thought 50ish ft/mi, so my pace was steady 10:27. I was sorta hopeful it be lower with a flat course, but it wasn't but that's okay.  All-in-all it was a good run.

Day 107, Week 16, Long Core [34min]

With left pecs hurting I cut out push-up, ab e and push-up-rotate, so gave myself 10/13 credit. I also got in 150 calories worth of walking, about 34:30 minutes.

Day 106, Week 15, Short Core [8.5min]

Right pec hurt some, but I got through.  I'll try for 4 sets tomorrow.  I don't know if I'll get through it, but I'll do the best and can and improvise as needed.  Today, I'm starting to try and burn at least 300 calories a day.  I came up a bit short today, 291 calories, 49 core, 242 walking.  I'll add a couple of minutes to the walk next time.  I planned 50 today and did 52:30 today, so, do 55 next time.

Day 105, Week 15, Long Brick [35/2M]

Great brick.  The ride was pretty tiring for me, but a good route.  I liked the country side, winding roads and hills (well, at least the down hills.)  My average speed was 13.8mph over 13.6 on last long ride and the hill climb rate was a little steep at 67.4 ft/mi over 59.3 on last long brick. Did good on run on the run, though it took me about 1/3 of a mile to get up to my steady pace. I'm happy with overall 10:07 pace.

Day 104, Week 15, Long Core [34min]

Skipped. Left pec still hurting.

Day 103, Week 15, Short Core [8:30min]

Skipped. Left pec hurting from back seat injury and still recovering from tri and long run yesterday, so don't have energy to improvise.

Day 102, Week 15, Long Run [13.75]

Excellent run. Chose a flatter route, more like 55 ft/mi instead of 65. Pushed to 13.78, so it's a new distance PR! Yeah!

Day 101, Week 15, Long Swim [2950y]

Good swim.  I was faster than I though.  The seconds behind 2:15 pace kept adding up, however, it was a long was so of course they would add up.  It ended up being a 2:19 pace which is only 4 seconds behind nominal.  I was pleased.

Day 100, Week 15, Long Core [34min]

Too beat.

Day 99, Week 14, Short Core [8:30min]

Too beat.

Day 98, Week 14, Diamond in the Rough Olympic Triathlon

It's kinda like being angry. It's better to wait until you've recovered to make any judgements. Even though I didn't do as well as I'd hope looking forward to the Half-Ironman in September I'm training for, I finished the race which is a victory, and I finished all three legs without having to take any breaks or walk. I swam well, however, I royally screwed it up because I sighted on the wrong buoy for the first 1/4 mile of the .94 mile swim. A, c'est la vie. I wished I'd done much better in the bike. I was hoping for 15-17 mph avg, but only managed 14. The climb rate was about 50 ft/mi. However, will be only 4 for the September race, so hopefully I'll be okay there. The run went really well. If I managed an 11:00 pace I'd be happy, and I came out with 9:59! Over course, different races will have very different terrain, my first Olympic in Claremore last year, my time was 4:04:19 and yesterday, by second one, was 3:48:37. I did perform much better yesterday. I'm still way down close to the bottom in the standings, but that's not why I do it. In the end I do know that it's something that not many people can do and I did it.

I'm going to change my training plan to do long courses for all three and no short:

• Sunday: Brick
• Monday: Short Core
• Tuesday: Run
• Wednesday: Short Core
• Thursday: Long Core
• Friday: Swim
• Saturday: Short Core

Day 97, Week 14, Short Core [7min]

Got in 4 sets to make up for all the missed sets the past week.  Yeah!  I'm feeling pretty good, ready for tomorrows Diamond in the Rough Olympic.

Day 96, Week 14, Swim Drills [1650y]

Got swim drills in, but not core workout.  I finished the 1650y set in record time.  Yeah!

Day 95, Week 14, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

Did good.  Didn't have to walk for the run.  Good weekday traffic on July 4th.

Day 94, Week 14, Medium Run [7M]

Didn't make it. Walked at 5.9 for .5 cause heart rate was way high. I'm going to stop the speed work to see if maybe I'm pushing to hard for my planned schedule.

Day 93, Week 14, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

Did 45 seconds on one leg drills.  Yeah! Heart spiked up a couple of times into 160s mid-way, then way up 170s-190s for last fifth or so.  It bled over into running and I wasn't able to run all the way.  Had to walk some in a couple of intervals. And, well, the second running interval I did in 2nd gear, so no surprise I had to finish walking.  Maybe I shouldn't do any more 2nd gear running.

I did get in two sets of core workout.  Making up for 1 of the 4 I was supposed to do on Sunday and the 1 I was supposed to do today.  Yeah!

Day 92, Week 13, Long Core [34min]

Too dejected from Saturday's failure.  Maybe I can make up the sets.

Day 91, Week 13, Long Run [13.75M]

Didn't make it.  Heart rate went haywire too much.  Sigh.  I set up my route to end up back home to get more water after the first 2 loops, but when I got there, I was more dizzy than I liked so I stopped.  Maybe I could've rested a bit, then started again walking.

Day 90, Week 13, Medium Swim [2200y]

Good swim.  My max heart rate didn't get out of the 180s, first time since May.

Day 89, Week 13, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

Good brick with the trainer. Did 40 seconds for single leg intervals.  I'm ready to graduate to 45 seconds next time.  My heart rate was high for my run, but stayed under 200 so I'm good with it.  I got 3 sets of core workout done, so that's 2 more making up for all of what I missed on Monday plus the one planned for today. Yippee!

Day 88, Week 13, Short Run [4M]

Good short run.  Started in 2nd gear and upped the end in 3rd gear for the last .75 starting at 3.25.  Next week, go to 1M in gear. That'll be a lot harder because it'll be starting on uphill.

Day 87, Week 13, Swim Drills [1650y]

Good workout.  Improved overall pace for drills by 1 second/100yds. Maybe I was swimming a little to hard, maybe not.  It didn't feel to bad, but my heart rate was really up.  I also got in 2 sets of core strengthening, yeah!  2 down to make up, 2 to go.

Day 86, Week 13, Long Core [34min]

Well, that didn't happen.  Jeremiah called and needed a ride late in the day and sucked up my time for the workout.  I'm finding it hard to feel like the long cores in the morning the day after my long workouts, so do them in the afternoon which makes them vulnerable to be usurped like today.  I'll try to make them up in the coming days.

Day 85, Week 12, Long Brick [30.5/1.75M]

Good long brick.  Hamstrings were killing me after the bike.  I guess that means I'm stroking well with my back and upstrokes per what John at 90+ told me.  It was second longest ride to the Barnsdall ride and just bit longer than the Woolaroc ride and PR for 30-35 miles. Yeah!  Heart rate got up there 140/195.  I think I'm okay if keeping it under 200 and that's what I'm going to go with.  Well, for biking and swimming I really can't monitor it much. I just go by how I feel.

For my running portion, it was good too. No records, but I was able to do last .5M in 2nd gear.  Heart was up too.  Started 150s then up to 180s.  In last .5M in 2nd, it was in the low 190s.  I felt fine.

Day 84, Week 12, Long Swim [2800y]

Good long swim.  PR pace for 1.50-1.75M.  Fifth longest and longest since November.  My new strokes didn't help me got faster, but it might have helped keep up my pace over the long distance and maybe used less energy than with my old strokes.  I'm pleased and am looking forward to the next long one, 2950y.  After that 3100y topping 1.75M

Day 83, Week 12, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

Got out on the road instead of the trainer today.  I realized if I did the trainer all the time during the week, then I'm only getting out on the road for my long bikes which is every 2 weeks.  I should get out at least once a week.  It'd be better if I did it on the first short brick of the week instead of the second since my long brick is just the day after tomorrow.  Anyway, it was good and included doing the last 1/2 mile run in 2nd gear.  Heart rate was in the 180s and that's okay.

Day 82, Week 12, Short Run/Core [4M/8:30min]

Good run.  Started 2nd gear through 3.5 and finished in 3rd.  Slightly slower than last week, but that's okay.  I'm pleased with 9:10 2nd gear and 8:22 3rd gear.  Yeah!

Day 81, Week 12, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

Good short brick.  Felt good at the end. I upped the one-leg intervals on the bike to 40sec. My left leg was having a hard time getting through each set.  I'll keep going with 40sec and it'll get there.  My right one did really well.  Not perfect, but pretty good.  I'm surprised 'cause before it's been the opposite, but left leg doing much better.  Oh, well.  I felt good pulling with both legs.

Day 80, Week 12, Swim Drills [1650y]

Swapped out side-kicks (100y each side) and put in 50y long arm dog paddle along side Tarzan.  That let me pull Tarzan back to 25y on the second round.  Total distance went from 1900-->1650y.

Day 79, Week 12, Long Core [34min]

Still feeling tired after yesterday's 13.1M.  Waited until the evening and still then even a little tired.  My thought to rest 5, 7 and 10min between sets was good and I did all 4 sets in one session. Yeah!

Day 78, Week 11, Long Run [13.1M]

Grueling run today.  Not at all like my 12.5M 2 weeks ago.  Heart rate got up high, though never did get into the 200s which is good.  I hope I can keep stretching.  It didn't even occur to me to do the last 1/4 in 2nd gear.

Day 77, Week 11, Short Swim/Core [2200y/8:30min]

A little slower than usual, 2:20.  Chalk it up to working with new swim stroke.  We'll see how it goes in the coming weeks.

Day 76, Week 11, Medium Run [7M]

It was an okay run.  It felt a little bit on the hard side.  Good pace, though, 10:02.  My plan for doing the last quarter in second gear didn't work out because my heart rate was in the 180s, actually, upper 180s, at 6.75M, so I didn't want to push it higher.

Day 75, Week 11, Short Brick/Core [45min/1.75M/8:30min]

Good ride on trainer.  One-leg drills good at 35 seconds/5 minutes.  I should move up to 40 seconds.  I might make my way to 60 seconds, then stretch to every 6 minutes.

Day 74, Week 11, Swim Drills [1900y]

First time trying new stuff learned at the clinic.  I think I'm getting it, but it will be slow progress.  Maybe I"m 15-20% of the way there.  I'm looking forward to see how I do on Saturday 2200y swim.  I want to not to be too excited about and want to make sure I take my time.

Day 73, Week 11, Short Run [4M]

Great workout.  Now, that my 4 milers have been all in 2nd gear, I decided to ratchet up and do the last quarter in 3rd gear.  And, then do my 7 milers and long weekend runs with the last 1/4 in 2nd gear.  Then every week add a 1/4 in 3rd to the 4s and 1/4 in 2nd to the longer ones.  My average pace today was slower (9:06 vs 4:00) vs my last 4 mile run all in 2nd gear, but that's okay.  Maybe a little disappointing, but of no consequence.  My 2nd gear for was at 9:00 on the 12th and 9:11 today, and my 3rd gear today was 7:52!!!!!  A 24:30 5K would be cool and a sub-24 would be really awesome.

Day 72, Week 11, Long Core [34M]

Great workout.  In the morning I felt like crap and decide to make it a full rest day after the swim clinic on Saturday, for which my upper arms and back of shoulders were sore, and the long brick on Sunday still left me tired.

However, right after work, I felt much better and decide, yeah, I can do it.  And, so I did.  All four sets in one session.  I did extend the rests to be 5min, 7min and 10min instead of the usual 5min each.  We'll see next time after my 13.1M on Sunday how I feel on Monday.  But, that's an acceptable option to get all my sets in one session.

Day 71, Week 10, Long Brick [26/1.5M]

Great brick.  PR for average speed for 25-30 miles.  Third longest bike, 26.08, and longest in over a year surpassed only by the trips to Woolaroc (30M) and Barnsdall (40M).  The 1.5 mile run was okay.  Heart rate was somewhat wonky.  Up the hill past the Pleasant Grove bridge, it shot up from 130s to 170s and hit max of 192.  For the run, it was on a steady rise start from 120's and half-way up the hill jump from 135-148.  Kept rising with a dip starting down from the top of the hill , but came back up and peaked at 175 and dropped to 148 and stayed steady about 3/4s of the way down the hill.

Day 70, Week 10, Swim Clinic

Awesome clinic with Sheila Taormina, Olympic gold medalist.  I really have head on better stroke pull.  There's a lot I won't get right, but there is a lot I can and that will really improve my efficiency and swim.

Day 69, Week 10, Short Run/Core [4M/8:30min]

In 2nd gear again and same 9:00 pace as last 4 mile run.  Great!  I felt god at the end.  Amazed that my pace got better throughout the run with 9:18 in the first mile and 8:43 in the 4th mile every mile faster.  I did my core right after the run.  That felt really good to do.  I don't think I'd want to do it after longer runs, but you never know.  Maybe I'll try it.

Day 68, Week 10, Swim Drills [1900y]

Good day of drills.

Day 67, Week 10, Long Core [34min]

Excellent.  Did all four sets in one session.

Day 66, Week 10, Long Run [12.5M]

Great run.  Longest since before my spring set backup last year when I was up to 12.2 miles and the longest since the 2016 Baltimore Half-Marathon.  And, a PR pace for 12-13 miles.  Yeah!!!!

Day 65, Week 10, Short Brick/Core [45min/1.75M/8:30min]

Good brick with the trainer.  I felt more loose and relaxed afterward.  I think it helped recovery from yesterday's race.  My pedal strokes seemed more whole today.  I think yesterday was a good training exercise.  I concentrated on the run trying to stay around a 10:00 pace.  I was really trying to go more like 9:40 or so.  My heart rate stayed pretty low.  I think I'm getting in better shape and condition.  Yeah!

Day 64, Week 9, Rock Hall Sprint

Great performance today.

Swim
Unfortunately, the swim was cut way down to ~300m (I measured 240) because the wind was wreaking havoc with the buoy positions.  I thought I was struggling and having a hard time and was worried about my ability to swim in the open water.  As it turns out, my pace was fantastic at 1:50/100 yd compared to my normal 2:15 in the pool.  My GPS could've been off, but they claimed it was ~300m which means since I measured 240m, if they were right, my pace would've been 1:29.  I barely believe the 1:50.  I can't imagine going 1:29.  Ignoring their claim, the GPS error could be like 5 or 10 meters, so if the distance was 230m, my pace would've been 1:56, still a great pace for me.  It was a PR my 0.0<0.25 mile pace.

Bike
I loved the flat course.  However, the wind was wicked.  The whole course felt like it was uphill all the way. However, I had a PR of 17mph for any ride I've ever done.  It was my first tri with my new bike and clipless shoes.  It was also the second flatest ride I've ever done.  Also, I've been training well.  Obviously everything paid off well for me.

Run
Luckily the rain held off from the bike until the run and the rain doesn't bother me at all running.  The run was great too, it was my 2nd fastest 3-4 mile run, 8:55 overall pace. It was also the 3rd flattest run.  The end was fun, about a 1/4 mile out I wanted to just pass everyone I could and ramped up to about 6:40 by the time I got to the finish line.

Conclusion
All-in-all it was a really great race.  My training has really paid off.  My only concern is that I can't maintain these paces for a 70.3.  For my Olympics, I've got to really work on measuring my paces or I'll never be able to finish the half in 7 hours.  Swimming will be the hardest since it's harder to see my watch in the water.  I don't even know if it displays pace while swimming.

My goal for the half is 1 hour (swim @ 2:15/100y plus 10 minute in transitions) + 3.5 (bike @ 16 mph) + 2.25 (run @ 10:00) = 6.75 hours.

Day 63, Week 9, Short Swim/Core [2200yd/8:30min]

Slow today, 2:22 instead of normal 2:15. Oh, well.  Life goes on. I got my planned workout in and that's what counts.

Day 62, Week 9, Short Drill [45min/1.75M]

Good brick.  Nothing special about it.  All ready for Sunday's sprint.

Day 61, Week 9, Swim Drills [1900y]

Good drills today.  Made Tarzan drill all the way both times. Yeah!  And got 2 sets of core work done so I'm all made up missing last weeks 4 set workout from being sick.

Day 60, Week 9, Medium Run [7M]

Good run.  I thought about 2nd gear for last mile, but thought nah.  I kept in 1st and my pace came out 10:15.  I'm pleased with anything sub 10:20.  The couple of 4 mile 2nd gear runs I've done recently helped get down to 10:15 today.  I'm happy.

Day 59, Week 9, Long Swim [2650y]

Excellent 1.5 mile swim. It was nice and easy and relaxed. I let myself not focus on my kick and let me legs just go along easy.  I also tried some to be breathing out from the start of turning my head into the water.  I also got in 2 sets of core workout leaving 3 more to get in before the weekend race.
I was surprised that my max heart rate was 191.  The heart rate profile looks kinda funky so I should probably take it with a grain of salt.  The belt did seem a little loose when I was done.

Day 58, Week 9, Short Run [4M]

Awesome run. 8:59 pace.  Well, Garmin says 8:59, Runkeeper 9:00, and Strava says 8:59.  I use RunKeeper as my official record.  Either way, it felt great.  I did same thing on my 4M on the 25th when I went at 9:24 running in second gear. Today was a combination of having that previous day and I think I listened to a podcast, so just ran real relaxed while focusing on the podcast. 

Day 57, Week 8, Long Core [30min]

Did one session of 3 sets in the morning and one in the evening.

Day 56, Week 8, Long Brick [22.25/1.25M]

Great brick today.  Heart rate very well behaved.  Max speed PR on bike (42.8mph) and second best average speed for 20-25 miles.

Got in 2 sets of core work.  That makes me 3 behind.  With 4 on rest day tomorrow, Sunday, I need 5 next week over the 6 days going into the Rock Hall Sprint on Sunday.   Why not Tuesday-Saturday with break on Monday after Sunday's 4 unless I get in more doubles like I managed today.

Day 55, Week 8, Short Run [4M]

Insanely decided to run it all in 2nd gear and it worked out.  9:24 pace was great.  Heart rate avg was 150s and max 177s compared to Wednesday's 11 mile run in first gear of 140s and 160s.  Maybe I'll do all my 4 milers in 2nd gear.  Leave everything else including the 7 milers in 1st.  I expect my 1st gear pace will improve.

Day 54, Week 8, Long Core [30min]

Still have a cold and didn't have energy to do any core work.  I'll try to make up the 4 sets over the course of the coming week.

Day 53, Week 8, Long Run [11.75M]

Great run.  Nice and relaxed with nominal 10:23 pace and heart rate didn't exceed the low 160's.  I'm back on track with longest run since Spring '17 set back.

Day 52, Week 7, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

Just like Sunday.  Did just fine with elliptical and treadmill despite having a scratchy throat.

Day 51, Week 8, Short Run/Core [4M/8:30M]

On the treadmill.  Yuck!  I run on it with no incline.  That is still hard.  I go at 10:00 minute pace and it's challenging more so than going on hills on the street. My heart rate however, is steady at 170~175.  Which is interesting that with hills at home at 10:00 average pace, my average is in the 140s.

Day 50, Week 7, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

Well, that didn't happen as planned.  My hotel here in Austin doesn't have an exercise bike.  I made do with 45min on an elliptical, then 1.7M on treadmill.  On the elliptical, I managed to burn a good amount of calories, ~550 and my heart rate stayed between 110's and 130's depending on the level.  I did good on treadmill going at 10:00 pace the whole time and my heart rate staying around 180.

Day 49, Week 7, Short Run/Short Core [4M/7min]

Good 4 mile run in the cold rain.  It wasn't as miserable as I thought it might be. I got to use my new tri-top and jacket from MMTC. The jacket was great in the cold rain.  My heart rate was well behaved and didn't get up the low 60s.

Day 48, Week 7, Short Swim [2200y]

Really of my pace.  But, first time with swim HRM seem to work well.  HR steadily rose to about 145 at 1900 yds, then rose sharply to 170s and end around 185.  Not in range of concern, but definitely similar to pattern I've been seeing.  My resting heart rate is on the decline after I restarted the metoprolol on Tuesday.  Not down as far as it was yet, but around 45 where is was hovering in the upper 40s.  I expect it to go down to around 40.

Day 47, Week 7, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

Good short brick.  Heart rate was on the high side in the last 3/8 mile or so, but only top 190 for a moment.

Day 46, Week 7, Swim Drills [1900y]

Good workout. Made it through the second 50y of tarzan. Yeah!

Day 45, Week 7, Long Core [35min]

I got all four sets done in one session. Yeah!  I sign of my increasing strength and time saver since I need only one session now.  Dr. See says I can go back on my metoprolol so hopefully, my heart will start behaving and I can do my runs without stopping.  Only have short runs for the next week and none until Saturday except for short brick on Thursday, so I'll have plenty of time for the metoprolol to come up before next week's 11.75M run.

Day 44, Week 7, Long Brick [19/1M]

Okay ride. I love the route. Speed was held back by conditions. It wasn't rainy, but foggy and damp. Road was wet and brakes too and some of the winding and steep places were unfamiliar.  Came up 1/4-1/2 miles short so went around a block.

Day 43, Week 6, Long Swim/Short Core [2550y/7min]

Boy, that was a tiring swim. I did try breathing out all the time my head was in the water.  The rhythm felt good.  It may have pushed up my level of effort. Exhausted most of the day.  But, I feel like I'll recover just fine for tomorrow's long brick.

Day 42, Week 6, Medium Run [7M]

Sucky run. Heart rate wacky. Had plan of 1 mile run/.25 mile walk.  I did upped pace. Maybe that was a mistake.  Next time I'll do .75mile/.25mile run/walk and keep at slow pace.  But, then we'll see also what the electrophysiology cardiologist says on Tuesday.  No running before then except for 1 mile after my long brick on Monday.  I'll try running the whole mile.  Nothing to lose.

Day 41, Week 6, Short Brick [45min/1.75M]

On the training still with 30 seconds each leg isolated every 5 minutes.  I'm getting better I think.  I think concentrating back up and forward on pedals on road rides is being beneficial.  Run spiked heart rate at .73 miles and came back down within a 1/4 mile.  I will come down some but not all the way if I'm walking up hill.  It spike again near the end.  Average 12 minute mile.

Day 40, Week 6, Short Run/Short Core [4M/7min]

Did 1 mile run (not jog), 1/4 mile walk.  Heart behaved and didn't spike, so that was good.  Each mile it did rise.  The first mile it was in 140s, second mile lower 160s, third mile upper 160s.  The overall pace was 10:06 which might just cut it for the half.  But, I don't know if I can sustain the 8-9 minute pace for each 1 mile running legs over the course of 13 miles, just from an exhaustion point of view, but also if my heart rate will keep going up every leg.  Next week's 7 mile run will be a good test of that.

Day 39, Week 6, Short Brick [45/15min]

Good brick.  Found a great route: Hanover Rd --> Old Hanover Rd at Woodensburg --> Piney Grove Rd --> Longnecker Rd --> Butler Rd --> Central Ave --> back home.  HR on run spiked, but all in all a great work out.  Especially taking of from the mechanic.  Good to have alternate wheels for transportation.

Day 38, Week 6, Swim Drills [1900y]

Set my rest periods to 45sec first time through, then 30sec second time through since doing half on the second round.  I think it's less than what I have been doing, but now, it methodical.  I wasn't able to get through the second Tarzan.  That's okay, I'll do better next time.

Day 37, Week 6, Long Core [28min]

Did it in two sets of 2 before breakfast and late afternoon.

Day 36, Week 5, Long Run [11.25M]

Lots of wacky heart rate, so walked a lot.  On the one hand, it doesn't bode well for the half.  On the other, it felt pretty good just being out exercising and accomplishing my distance goal regardless of the time.  I'm going to try finding a running/walking ratio that works.  It allows surprises me that level of effort doesn't seem to be the cause of the heart rate jumps. If it starts, it seems to start around 3 miles.  Today at mile 9.25 after all the wackiness that was going on, I upped my pace for 1.75 miles as planned and it was on an up hill and my heart rate didn't jump up. Today, if my heart rate jumped, I started walking for .25 miles and if my rate wasn't down to 100, then I went another .25 and started running again.  The original plan was 2 miles running/.25 walking and I stuck to that accept for walking when my heart rate spiked.

	0.00	0:00:00
J	2.00	0:21:03	2.00	0:21:03
W	2.25	0:25:23			0.25	0:04:20
J	3.38	0:37:09	1.13	0:11:46
W	3.80	0:45:48			0.42	0:08:39				6.8	1:11:11	0:10:25
J	4.25	0:49:34	0.45	0:03:46						2.67	0:47:17	0:17:43
W	4.50	0:53:50			0.25	0:04:16				1.8	0:15:47	0:09:01
J	5.33	1:02:25	0.83	0:08:35
W	5.83	1:11:25			0.50	0:09:00
J	6.50	1:18:09	0.67	0:06:44
W	6.75	1:22:25			0.25	0:04:16
J	7.94	1:35:24	1.19	0:12:59
W	8.44	1:43:54			0.50	0:08:30
J	8.75	1:47:34	0.31	0:03:40
W	9.00	1:51:27			0.25	0:03:53
J	9.25	1:54:05	0.25	0:02:38
R	11.00	2:09:52					1.75	0:15:47
W	11.25	2:14:15			0.25	0:04:23
			6.83	1:11:11	2.67	0:47:17	1.75	0:15:47

Jog/Ran 8.58M/1:26:58, Walked 2.67M/0:47:17
Walked 23.7% by distance, 35% by time.
2M run/.25M walk didn't work.   Could do 2.25R/.75W.  Or, 1.5R/.5W.  2R/.667W. I like 1.75M/.5W (22%)

Day 35, Week 5, Short Swim/Short Core [2200y/7min]

Great open water swim at Lake Royer in Ft. Ritchie.  Garmin watch didn't perform very well, but it was short, 75m, out and back loops.  My watch said I did 2367 yards, but I did 15 laps which works out to 2250m or 2461y. The GPS maps was all over the place. Rough estimate of out to the buoys and back was .02M~35y, so total is 2496.  I'd planned 14 lap which would've been about 2330y the minimum I could to get my 2200y plan with 150m loops.  Time was 56:37 for a pace of 2:16.

Day 34, Week 5, Short Bike [45min]

My standard trainer, 45 minutes with 30 seconds each leg single at the 5 minutes marks. I got better at understanding the motion my legs needs.  The left leg is doing much better than my right, but my right leg is coming along nicely.  I almost was able to do it smoothly for a full 30s seconds.  When I get I can do both pretty consistently, then I'll move up to 45 seconds every 5:30.

Day 33, Week 5, Medium Run/Short Core [7M/7min]

Made it, but heart rate was spikey.  Walked quite a bit.  Plan for long run and maybe all runs now is try 2 miles running, 1/4 mile walking.

Day 32, Week 5, Swim Drills [1900y]

Good work out. Started being more mindful and focusing on what each drill does for me. I also made up 7min core I missed yesterday.

Day 31, Week 5, Short Run/Short Core [4M/7min]

Thought I was gonna make it without my heart rate spiking, but it did at 3.6 miles.  It came down at 3.91 miles, so I got a bit more running at the elevated pace.  I did elevated my pace at 2.25 miles plan on 1.75 miles elevated. Oh, well, c'est la vie.  I got 4 miles in, that was the plan however I got there.  I forgot the 7min core.  Make it up tomorrow.

Day 30, Week 5, Long Swim [2450y]

Good increase in distance.  The longest since January 1st.  In four weeks I'll get to 1.5 miles!  I adjusted my weeks to start on Mondays to match my regular weekly exercise schedule that starts on Monday's.  My long workouts will now be the last day of each training week.

Day 29, Week 4, Long Core [30min]

Stepped up to do three of the 4 sets altogether with 5 minutes rest in between and kept up with full push-ups all the way, yeah! I'll work until I can do 4 sets altogether, then work on shortening breaks.

Day 28, Week 4, Long Brick [16.25/.75M]

Good bike ride up Hanover Pike.  Hilly as hell though. It may have been harder than I should have done.  Rest day tomorrow.  Completed 4 weeks of training.  Only 22 to go!

Day 27, Week 4, Short Bike [45min]

On training.  Made a workout routine: Ride both legs, every 5 minutes, 30 seconds each single leg.  Today, gears 1-5 for both and 1-4 for single legs.  Felt real good, though, heart jumped up about 37:30 from 130/40's to 170/80's until the end.

Day 26, Week 4, Short Run/Short Core [4M]

Most excellent run.  Max heart rate was 180 and I stepped up for 1.5 miles (2~2.75).  So stopping the metoprolol does definitively be wacky with my heart rate.  It could be I had an anomalous few days.  Or maybe over training coupled with stopping metoprolol.  I feel better.  And, I got in short core for Thursday.

Day 25, Week 4, Short Bike [45min]

Well, didn't do run.  I'm thinking my wacky HRs on runs maybe overtraining, so for now will only do bricks on long bike weekends.  It was a good ride first time out with my bike shoes.  Although it was on the NCR trail which I know now I don't like riding on.  I got over 18 miles an hour without killing myself.  So, that is really good and on a road, I think I'm going to fly.  Though, I got a call from the heart monitor people (I couldn't answer because of driving), but I looked and the last couple of miles stepped up to the 190s straight from the 130s.  Oh, also, made up for yesterday's missed core set.

Day 24, Week 4, Long Core [30 min]

Well, only 21 minutes (3 of the standard "7 minute workout"). I fell asleep on the couch and was to groggy at bedtime to get the fourth set in.

Day 23, Week 4, Long Run [10.75M]

Well, not 10.75.  My heart rate was going wacky, so I walked a lot and had to stop short because of an appointment I couldn't miss.  I'm going to run by heart rate and go until I hit 170, then walk for a 1/4 mile.  Try that for awhile.  We'll see what doc Stacy says at the end of the two weeks with the heart monitor after the 1st.

5/5 update: Replanned long runs with equal percentage increases starting with 10 miles on next long run day and get to 15 miles on same original planned date.

Day 22, Week 4, Swim Drills/Core [50/7min]

Actual time was 1:02:12. Overall pace was 3:16/100yd, better than 3:23 last drill time. Last 200 free was 2:06, good for at end of a work out.

1X

100 Regular

1½ X

100 Kickboard (w/ snorkel)

100 Catchup (w/ snorkel)

100 Side Kick

100 Side Kick other side

 50 Tarzan (50 both times)

200 Side-to-Side

 50 Single Arm

 50 Single Arm other side

200 Breath Both Sides

100 Fists

1x

200 Regular

1. 30 sec jumping jacks, rest 10
2. 30 sec wall sit, rest 10
3. 30 sec push-ups, rest 10
4. 30 sec crunches, rest 10
5. 30 sec set-ups, rest 10
6. 30 sec squats, rest 10
7. 30 sec tricep dips, rest 10
8. 30 sec planks, rest 10
9. 30 sec high-knee running, rest 10
10. 30 sec lunges, rest 10
11. 30 sec push-ups and rotations, rest 10
12. 30 sec side-plank
13. 30 sec side-plank other side