6/24 - 6/30 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

Kayaking on Lake Wingra

Last week I wrote my weekly status update mid-trip in the airport at Las Vegas. I thought it was mid-trip, but after a flight delay, some thunderstorms mid-flight, and then a torrential storm on my way back from the Milwaukee airport to Madison via vehicle, I realized that air travel is no piece of cake. In this particular instance I rolled into Madison from a midday Spokane flight at the time the sun was starting to come up. My only saving grace was that I only had 4 bags, instead of the 7 bags I would have had if I hadn't used Tri Bike Transport to take care of my bike, gear bag, and wheel bag.

The week post Ironman is always a guessing game to some extent. The key to the game is usually following the mantra "less is more", and even if you are feeling good it usually catches up with you later on and you kick yourself for not following your mantra. With that being said, I spent a lot of time in the pool. It wasn't fast but it might have been my highest time/volume ever. Besides swimming, I did a little biking and running as well, but it was all super easy. Otherwise it was about letting the body rest and that included sitting in a kayak on Lake Wingra and floating around as people twice my age were blowing by me.

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 124 Miles / 17 hours 41 minutes
Swim: 32,808 yards / ~19 miles / 10 hours 58 minutes

Bike: 99 miles / 5 hours 44 minutes

Run: 7 miles / 0 hours 57 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes

6/17 - 6/23 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

My Guest House for the Week

Yesterday I was able to compete in Ironman Coeur d'Alene, and although no race ever goes to plan, I was able to come away with a 7th (9:00:02) place finish that I am completely happy with. Looking at the race and analyzing it, I definitely under-performed, and that is how I expected my body to respond to my latest racing/training block. Although it was my 4th race in 4 weeks, mentally I had no difficulty all day. In the end it would take me 58:04 to swim the 2.4 miles, 4:47:31 to bike the challenging 2-loop 112 mile course, and 3:10:35 to run the 26.2 mile marathon.

My prep last week leading up to the race was one of the most relaxing experiences that I have ever had. I was in rare form, flying for once instead of driving, and although I do like driving, it was probably the right decision for this particular trip. As soon as I got to Coeur d'Alene, I knew the tranquility that was lost by driving across The Great Plains, would quickly be made up in spades by having a guest house right on Lake Hayden with the Wallace family. It was nestled right in there and gave me the feeling of being remote and that is exactly what I needed to accelerate my own recovery and recharge my mental batteries. In addition, it made morning swims painless and the water was absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much Nancy Sue for everything!!!  I also wanted to thank Tyler Blackwelder of Physio One, a PT practice in Hayden, Idaho, for setting me up with my last minute homestay.

Lake Hayden

Overall the weather was pretty wet leading up the race so it was pretty easy to keep the training level down but I still got in a solid 7.5 hours before race day.

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 207 Miles / 16 hours 15 minutes
Swim: 15,494 yards / ~9 miles / 4 hours 04 minutes

Bike: 161 miles / 7 hours 36 minutes

Run: 37 miles / 4 hours 34 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes

6/10 - 6/16 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

Monstrous Double Chocolate Chip Pancake

It was a busy week for me this week. Between a Father's day outing, training, racing, packing, and making monstrous 1600 calorie pancakes, it feels a little like I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off but here is a summary of my week.

This week was the last week of preparation for Ironman Coeur D'Alene and I didn't step off the accelerator until around 7pm tonight. Actually, volume-wise this was my biggest week since my Ironman Cabo build and although this super short taper is not ideal, I remain optimistic about Ironman Coeur D'Alene next week. On the plus side I decided not to drive across country and opted to fly instead and that should help recovery a bit.

A big part of my decision to race IMCDA was to gain course experience in order to come back and really make it a feature race in the coming years. Looking at the start list and expected finishing order on Trirating I know that I have my work cut out for me. Trirating has me at #8 and there are 8 Ironman winners on the list including: Ben "The Hoff" Hoffman, TJ Tollakson, Viktor Zyemstev (Previous IMCDA Winner), Jozef Major, Chris "Big Sexy" McDonald, Matthew Russell, Bryan Rhodes (Previous IMCDA Winner) and Chris Legh. Despite those guys racing, Paul Matthews is actually the clear race favorite but he has never raced a hilly Ironman. Speedster Joe Umphenour is also on the list but he has never done a hilly Ironman either. We shall see next Sunday but by the looks of it I should have a clear group of individuals that I can swim with and that should certainly help me get to the bike and be a little fresher.

As for racing this week, I made it down to the Rockford Triathlon this week. The weather map did not look good at 4:00am in the morning and I was just hoping this race wouldn't turn into a duathlon. By a stroke of luck the lightening in the area stayed away during the swim, and despite a downpour on the bike, I was able to hold off for the win by swimming steady, hammering the bike, and cruising the run. As it stands I continued my streak of never losing a race while coming off the bike in first place.

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 280 Miles / 23 hours 21 minutes
Swim: 21,434 yards / ~12 miles / 5 hours 50 minutes

Bike: 225 miles / 12 hours 09 minutes

Run: 44 miles / 5 hours 21 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes

6/3 - 6/9 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

Pre-race @ Elkhart Lake Tri with brother-in-law

Another Wisconsin week is in the books, and as predicted a couple months back, this has turned into some of the worst training weather in existence. I'm not a wuss for weather, but my body certainly prefers nice weather and the only thing the cold and rain has done for me is make 65 degrees and cloudy feel like a tropical heat wave. Oh, and my bike handling skills have increased rapidly, but so have the number of hours I have spent doing bike maintenance in keeping the bike clean and ride ready.

As for specifics this week, it was more hard training on the body and then I jumped into a local Olympic race on Saturday morning up at the Elkhart Lake Triathlon. I was planning to do back-to-back races, but I invited a friend up for the weekend at that last minute and I promised that after 10am on Saturday morning that I would do whatever she wanted to do. This was my way of getting in a little forced rest similar to what I had before Ironman Cabo back in March, but in that case the forced rest was caused by sickness.

Unfortunately it took me a little longer than I expected to finish the race and it was more like 11am by the time I actually got done. The delay occurred because I suffered a double sidewall cut at the halfway point of the bike. The side wall cuts led to instantaneous blowout of the tube, and unfortunately for me it happened while descending while also having a little tailwind. At the time I was in 2nd place and about 30 seconds down from 1st, but at that instant all I could think about was not crashing, riding straight and steady, and not jamming on the brakes as I came to a controlled stop.

Running the 10K run course at the Elkhart Lake Triathlon

After coming to a stop and dismounting I got to work changing the tire. Although it has been about 2 years since I had a flat in race, I knew if I had a decent change I could still do very well in the race. I took the wheel off my bike - no easy task as it requires a hex wrench as I don't have quick release skewers - changed the tube, filled it up and put it back in the bike before 3rd place had even passed me. I thought that was pretty remarkable seeing that I came out of the water with 3rd place and he is an incredible biker. I would estimate it took me all of 1 minute and 30 seconds to change that tire, however I knew it likely wouldn't hold as I needed a patch kit for the sidewall failure. As expected the tube did not hold and that put and end to my racing. I waited it out for the support vehicle, got a new tire and tube, and road it in. I then ran the 10K run at an aggressive tempo pace, and then re-ran the course with my guest as a cool-down.

Post race with the newest triathlete in the family

The blown tire was a little bit of disappointment but that is part of racing, and if you race enough, you are bound to eventually have a mechanical. However the great news and a big part of the day is that my brother-in-law had a great time doing another triathlon, and my niece competed in her very first triathlon. I always wondered who the next family member would be to complete a race and I'm so very proud of my niece and hope she can inspire some more family members to give triathlon a TRI!!!

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 200 Miles / 21 hours 46 minutes
Swim: 31,824 yards / ~18 miles / 8 hours 51 minutes

Bike: 141 miles / 7 hours 9 minutes

Run: 41 miles / 4 hours 56 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes

5/27 - 6/2 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

Not a trophy guy, but I like functional trophies

This was my second week back in Wisconsin and I really started to get things rolling on all fronts. I absolutely smashed my arms and legs this week with hard swims, bikes, and runs, and when I wasn't smashing the legs and arms, I went for a longer endurance bike and gave the heart a healthy workout. The icing on the cake was a little local race in Iowa called the Pigman.

Earlier on in the week I was already making a plan for Pigman and I had anticipated that I was almost destined for fourth and that is exactly how it ended up. I could have come in to the race a little fresher and there was an off-chance that I could have made a move on the bike, but at the down side that it would require rest and I am not ready for rest yet and I need to keep building. In addition it would have had me running for my life after the bike and that just takes too long to recover from as well.

However, as luck would have it, I probably extracted the most amount of value I could out of this race, and ironically, I was awarded with a Pigman Piggy Bank for my efforts. This is a great trophy for me as I am always picking up coins on the open roads and this is an even better "psychological" remainder of the fitness I am banking. This week I saw my highest swim volume in the last 26 weeks of training and my first 10+ hour ride week since back in February.

As for this week, I am planning to continue the build towards Ironman Coeur d'Alene with more focus on endurance activities midweek and then save most of the lactate threshold work for some more midwest training races. First up on Saturday is the Elkhart Lake Triathlon. I have been doing this race for a couple of years now and I even got my brother-in-law to do the sprint a couple of years back. This year he is stepping up to the Olympic. In addition, my niece is all-in for the kids race. After Elkhart, I am looking to possibly jump in to another race on Sunday, but I don't have anything official yet.

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 227 Miles / 22 hours 22 minutes
Swim: 26,832 yards / ~17 miles / 8 hours 04 minutes

Bike: 176 miles / 10 hours 10 minutes

Run: 34 miles / 4 hours 07 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes