8/19 - 8/25 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

2013 Ironman Louisville Pro Podium
 #1 Chris McDonald, #2 Patrick Evoe, #3 Thomas Gerlach
#4 Jonathon Sheron (not pictured) #5 Ryan Bates #6 Mike Hermanson

The most important weeks for me to document are the weeks after Ironmans and the weeks before. This blog has been my own sort of repository I can look back to when I am on the road traveling or out and about and I need to reference something quickly. I encourage everyone to write even if it is not in the public space. It forces you to take a closer look at your training, your body, and your recovery. I haven't wrote a more in-depth race report in quite some time so I will write a more lengthy Ironman Louisville race report later on this week.

The short and skinny from Ironman Louisville this past Sunday was that I had another great race. The race for the win was pretty much out of the question with Chris McDonald putting the race out of reach early on the bike. It ended up being the same podium as last year just in a different order for Chris and Patrick Evoe, and myself still taking third. In the end I went 8:41:11 with a 51:52 swim, 4:36:28 bike, and 3:07:12 run.

For those interested I will be doing a live show on the podcast "In The Big Ring with Ben and Lindsey". We are shooting for a 9pm central start but you can always watch it later as it is recorded. I'm sure we will talk a little about Ironman Louisville, Ironman Wisconsin, and a few other subjects.

If you have been following along you will know that my taper basically started last Monday morning. Here is what I did this past week leading into Louisville for that taper:

Monday: Bike #1, 18.5 miles, 59 mins, 2x8 min intervals at race pace, 1x5 min interval at race pace. Bike #2 easy cruise to Masters swim practice.  We swam a varying set of 200s. Feeling pretty terrible in general today. Last 200 was 2:38 LCM.

Tuesday: Run 6.5 miles at 7:30 pace middle of the day, to acclimate to heat. First hot day we had in Madison in a long time. 90 with humidity and wind.  Bike, 27 miles, 1:30 min, road a trail where I road race pace from one intersecting road to the next, then did the next section of the trail at recovery pace, and repeat. Ended up being about 10x race pace intervals for a total of about 20-30 mins of race pace work. Swim 2000 meters, 38 minutes. Just swim easy. Still feeling terrible.

Wednesday: Run 5.5 miles with race pace intervals. 3x .5 mile, 1x 1.5 mile.  Goal was to burn the race pace into the legs and to continue heat acclimation. Scorching mid-day, midwest heat-wave run. Easy bike to the pool. Swim 3000 meters in 59 minutes. 5x200 LCM descending. Still feeling terrible.

Thursday: Travel Day

Friday: Swim 1800 with ms as 8x100 desc on 1:30 in 1:16, 1:15, 1:14, 1:13, 1:12, 1:11, 1:10 1:09.  A perfect descending set just to get the body going. 1.25 mile run from where I parked to the Galt House for the pro meeting. 13 mile bike, 42 mins, I biked the out and back technical section of 1694 twice. Feeling ok.

Saturday: 8 mile bike ride 27 min with 2x3 min intervals at race pace, .5 mile run. Basically ran from my car to transition to pick up my run and run special needs bag that I was missing. Feeling ok but not worried about it.

Sunday: Race. Felt fine all day. Made a crucial swim mistake early. Biked pretty easy, but back tightened up around mile 100 or so. Ran easy but I was very tight.

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 242 Miles / 18 hours 28 minutes
Swim: 15,032 yards / ~9 miles / 4 hours 08 minutes

Bike: 193 miles / 9 hours 22 minutes

Run: 41 miles / 4 hours 57 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes

8/12 - 8/18 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

Hay is in the Barn

Looking back at my training logs I can't believe how different the training has been in the lead up to Ironman Louisville for this year in contrast to last. Last year I was battling Achilles Tendinitis for the majority of the summer and that was really hampering my ability to get in the run miles. The same injury worked wonders for my bike as I focused on lots of lactate threshold intervals and V02 max intervals. This year I haven't worked so much on moving that red line. Instead I have focused more on getting more run miles and longer bikes. In addition, last year I went into Louisville after two weekends of racing at Rev3 Wisconsin Dells and Ironman Steelhead 70.3. This year I had two free weekends off.

Although overall I am feeling pretty good, I have no idea how the race will go this weekend. I have built up a good amount of fatigue with 4 century rides in just the last 10 days and a long run on Friday. I know it is very aggressive taper just leaving a short 7 days, but I remain cautiously optimistic about the race.

Regardless of my feelings on the day, I am at a point in my career where I know I can contend for the win in the right field. Looking at the race, the smaller field size suits me and the challenging rolling bike of Louisville suits me as well. It has been a terribly cool year in Wisconsin and I can't remember the last time we had a 90 degree day. This could potentially leave me unacclimated if weather presents itself like it did in 2010 and 2012 but nonetheless I'll take the day in stride. However, whatever the day brings, if I find myself in a position to make the winning move I will not hesitate. The days of me racing and people congratulating me on my consistency are behind me. I'm going to Louisville to win. I don't need anymore 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th place trophies, I want the big one. Next week my update will come from Louisville and we will see how the chips fell. Until then here are...

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 285 Miles / 23 hours 03 minutes
Swim: 18591 yards / ~11 miles / 5 hours 39 minutes

Bike: 234 miles / 12 hours 18 minutes

Run: 41 miles / 5 hours 04 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes

8/5 - 8/11 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

Sign I Came Across At End Of 200K Ride

Since Ironman Texas (May 19th) there has been two weeks where I did not have a race scheduled on the calendar. They were the weekends after Ironman Texas and Ironman Coeur d'Alene. This weekend made it now my 3rd free weekend and I took every advantage of it to get in as much training as I could. Truthfully, I'm feeling a little bit like a zombie right now and that is something I haven't felt since my Cabo build earlier this year. Fortunately with Ironman Louisville in less than two weeks there isn't much more punishment I give my body and still gain from it so I have no choice but to lighten the load. I'll likely hit it hard over the next few days and then start a short 10-day taper for Ironman Louisville.

As for specifics on this week, well I got right back at it after my appearance at Ironman Steelhead 70.3 last Sunday. Because I pulled the plug on that race at Mile 48 of the bike, I was able to get right back at it on Monday and set a personal record for a 1 hour "power-hour" time trial in the pool. I had a few other good swims as well with a collegiate swimmer I have been swimming with, but the real focus was to keep building in the bike miles. It was one of those weeks where every pastry was starting to sound good and I had quite a few cookies, muffins, donuts, and pancakes on my way to my highest weekly mileage since the Cabo build. Power wasn't great but I attributed that to so many hard & long "race" bikes and I am hoping that the increased endurance miles will help me run to my potential at Ironman Louisville.

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 368 Miles / 30 hours 47 minutes
Swim: 24,825 yards / ~14 miles / 7 hours 02 minutes

Bike: 302 miles / 17 hours 09 minutes

Run: 52 miles / 6 hours 35 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes