7/29 - 8/4 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

2013 Ironman Steelhead 70.3 Bike
The late season endurance training has began as I try to do some crash training for Ironman Louisville, Ironman Wisconsin, and Ironman Hawaii. Yes for those that had not heard, I am proud to say that I was able to secure enough points to secure my spot in the big dance in October on the big island of Hawaii. In total there were 580 pro males that had points for the World Championship and the top 43 were given their slots at the end of July. 10 more males will receive their slots at the end of August.

As for my plan, I don't have a lot of time to train for Louisville so the loose plan is to go into Louisville fatigued and see what happens. If it doesn't go well I always have Wisconsin as a back up and I would hopefully be more rested for it. I'll deal with Hawaii after Wisconsin but the whole point of going to Hawaii is to get some experience. I know given my swim and the group dynamics of triathlon that I stand no chance of success without the front pack swimming ability. After much debate, I have been mostly convinced that the honor is too great and the sport is just too strong to forgo the spot. Here are the other 43 qualifers.

2013 Ironman KPR Males
2013 Ironman KPR Males


As for racing this week... I packed up and headed over to Michigan to race at Ironman Steelhead 70.3. This was my 4th time at Steelhead, 2nd as a pro, and I did it 2x as an age-grouper. Last year it was my first 70.3 event as a pro, and despite a poor swim I was able to TT solo back up to the lead pack and came off the bike second to race winner Daniel Brestcher. Because last year Steelhead fell the Sunday before Louisville I ended up just cruising the run, but this year I had different plans, and I really wanted to run hard if I was in a good position to do so.

Coming in to the race I had a good amount of fatigue built up in the training days leading up to the race. The shake-out swim, bike, and run on Saturday before the race went terrible but I attributed this to normal travel day fatigue from the previous day. On race morning, I felt pretty good, and although the swim appears slow based on time, I was actually really happy with it all things considered and it was much better than Ironman Racine two weeks prior.

Onto the bike, and in rare form, I asked Chris Bourdeaux if he wanted to work a bit with me on the bike. He agreed and we set sail on reeling in the guys from the front swim pack. After reeling in a couple of guys we caught up to a pair. It was clear that the larger and stronger athlete (Josh Seiferth) was simply just bringing his tailgater along for the ride and when it comes to riding I hate to give anyone a free ride.

After a few failed attempts at shaking the rider I had to draw on good old problem solving skills. It was one of those "get the sheep, hay, and wolf" across the river but only take one at a time kind of problems. In the end I was able to shake the rider off my tail and I regrouped with the two that were now ahead. The three of us continued ahead and we working pretty well until a side wall blowout at mile 48 effectively ended my day of racing. Luckily for me I actually learned something from last sidewall blowout and brought a tire patch along with the normal supplies. Unlucky for me was that I didn't realize it was a sidewall cut until I had already wasted my spare tube and CO2, but I am very grateful for the age-grouper who stopped and gave me his spare tube and C02.

I rode the bike in for the final 8 miles and the half patch held up fine and I was off the bike. I was well out of the money at that point but I still needed the miles for my Ironman training so I ran the half marathon. I was planning on running every mile at a different pace to work on contraction rates of the muscle fibers at different speeds, but halfway thru I got suckered into running a few miles at a more constant pace with long time friend Mark Vermeesch. I also got in a bit too much socializing in the first couple of miles, but overall I got the miles needed for my Ironman training.

2013 Ironman Steelhead 70.3 Run
And that brings me to my moral of the week. Often times I will tell people "to get what you can out of the day". I am not one of those "finish by all means" people, but I do expect people to give it some thought when things are not going their way. There is always something to be salvaged. If that is a finish then so be it, if that is some fitness then so be it, if that means stopping to live to fight another day then so be it. Regardless some thought is required.

And lastly a couple more thank yous are in order. I wanted to thank the Lear family for having me as a guest at their home this weekend. And thanks to Ali Engin for his great photography work and providing the pictures for this weekly update.

My weekly swimbike, and run totals:

Total: 284 Miles / 21 hours 42 minutes
Swim: 13,290 yards / ~8 miles / 3 hours 53 minutes
Bike: 222 miles / 11 hours 19 minutes
Run: 54 miles / 6 hours 29 minutes
Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes

6 comments:

  1. So I have to ask, How did you get the sheep, hay, and wolf across that river?

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    1. Maybe I will post a partial power file later this week. I will show the spikes so you garner what I was doing but I'll keep the absolute numbers a trade secret.

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  2. Glad to hear you're taking the Kona slot...you've earned it! Pretty amazing to look through your results at how far you've come in just a few years.

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    1. Thanks Scott, I appreciate the kind words and the appreciation/recognition of just how far I have come as an athlete.

      -TG

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  3. Follow you on DailyMile.com. I will be racing Louisville as well. Keep up the great work. Very impressive.

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    1. Thanks Jason. Start the taper, I'll see you in Louisville.

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