Sunday, July 18, 2010

Week 4 of HIM Training Recap & Katy Century Ride

This was the first recovery week of the 20-Week Matt Fitzgerald Half Ironman Training Plan and here are the totals:

Swim - 3 Workouts - 3hrs 55mins -  8200 yards
Bike  - 3 Workouts - 6hrs 04mins -  116.75 miles
Run   - 4 Workouts - 2hrs 05mins -  14.03 miles
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            Totals - 12 hours 04 minutes

I know those numbers are a little higher than a normal recovery week but I did take it pretty easy except for the weekend.  On Saturday I went on a group ride with a bunch of people from my Master's Swim club. It was only 22 miles but the pace was fast and then a few of us did a short 2.14 mile run to complete the Brick workout.

And today was the Katy Flatlands Century Ride.  It was already 80 degrees (topped out at 97) at 6am and the humidity was at 90% so I loaded up on EFS Liquid Shots and the S! Sodium Caps (ended up taking 12 of these). There was at least 2000 cyclists on this ride and you could choose from a number of different distances - 24,40,62,84, and 100.  I was in the fourth or fifth flight and it was extremely crowded for the first 10-15 miles or so.  After that it started to space out and was much more comfortable.  My plan was to try and not draft too much and I did an okay job of this.  But as you can imagine with that many riders and huge peletons you sometimes just got sucked into them - which I did not mind all that much when I needed a little rest (-:

The ride was going pretty well.  For the first 50 miles I averaged 20.6 MPH and then around mile 55 I started to have trouble with my right cleat.  It kept slipping off the pedal and would then unclip and each time it tweaked my knee - not good times!  It did this 4 times so I pulled into the rest stop at mile 60 and luckily found the SAG vehicle. I gave the tech guy my right shoe and he said it was pretty jacked up.  I kicked off my other shoe and went over and refilled my bottles and ate a banana and some Oreo's.  I also took this moment to wring out the sweat from my headband and jersey - you could have filled a five gallon bucket with the sweat!  I went back and got my shoe and the tech told me it needed replaced but he tweaked it and should be good for the rest of the ride.

So I took off and within 5 minutes the cleat slipped off again and then again.  Needless to say this was not fun.   Well, about 2 miles later (mile 65) the split came and you either went left for the 100 miles or right for the 84 miles.  With the pain-in-the-ass cleat it was a no brainer to cut it short and take the 84 mile route.  I was a little bummed because I really wanted to complete the century and I was still feeling pretty strong but these things happen and at least I didn't discover the cleat problem during an actual race.  Think I might just get new Tri Specific shoes?

Oh, the best part is that the last 20 miles of the ride the cleat didn't misfire once - had to laugh at this!

The main positive take-away for me was that despite the extreme heat I had an excellent ride.  My average over the 84 mile course was 19.4 MPH and the last 10 miles I averaged over 20 MPH and my legs felt great at the end of the ride.  Six months ago I would have struggled to average over 17.5 MPH over this distance so all the hard work is paying off!

This coming week is back to the grindstone.  The plan calls for about a 15 hour week of training and then next week I have an actual Sprint Tri - can't wait  Here is the Week 5 Schedule:

Thanks for Reading and have a great week,

Jeff

19 comments:

  1. Nice week! I'm bummed that you didn't get to do the entire century but 84 miles is nothing to sneeze at. And your avg pace was great, especially compared to your average pace last year. Have a great week!

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  2. 84 miles is 84 miles!!! congrats on that ride. The most I have done is 67 so far and that took almost 4 hours. You were putting in some serious MPH. How was the elevation? Enjoy!

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  3. You're a beast. I only wish I could put together training weeks like yours. I know I've been hampered by an IT-band strain that I'm slowly but surely coming back from, but it's frustrating knowing that I could be doing so much more but simply can't right now. Reading blog posts like yours gives me motivation though because I want to compete in my first HIM next year, and knowing what you and other HIMers do on a week-to-week basis makes me feel more prepared. Thanks and keep training hard (yeah, as if *I* need to tell you that =P)

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  4. Sounds like you had a good ride even with the cleat issue. Someone needs to turn off this heat outside though!

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  5. Dude your recovery week was as many hours as our long weeks haha!

    Nice ride!!! I was wondering when we will have to replace our cleats... we try to go on rides where we don't have to stop and unclip that much.

    84 miles is still a solid number man! Congrats and keep up the good work!!!

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  6. 84 miles is one heck of a workout for a recovery week! And with an awesome average speed too.

    I'm still in the 17.5 mph range for that sort of distance. I guess I better keep up the training!

    Good luck with Week 5!

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  7. Great overall training...fantastic week! The best part about the cleat issue was it happened on the training ride and not in a race! Have a great week
    -D

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  8. Great job on the ride! Sorry about the shoes but at least you did not find this out in a race. I hope this week's training is just as fabulous!

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  9. Well done with the training! You are doing great with the heat.

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  10. WOW! Solid training week! That is awesome!

    Way to go on the 84 miler - you know you could have done it, stupid cleat...That cleat would have really made me mad. I have tri bike shoes and really love them...

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  11. 84 miler? You slouch! Kidding. Solid week of training man. Ah... training for a HIM.. so fun.

    Stay patient with the run man. Humidity is tough, especially down there in Texas. By the way, how is Walker Texas Ranger? Word is, he counted to infinity... twice. I also heard that in the nineties, he visited the Virgin Islands. They are now known as "the islands."

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  12. YAY on the 84 miler!!

    Completely awesome on the run. Especially, because I KNOW that 8 of them came "treadmill style". ;)

    Love the header. Why am I just noticing this? Do you keep changing things up or am I losing it? [don't answer that].

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  13. 12 hours is a rest week!?!? What are you training for the triple Ironman?!?!? ;)

    What kind of pedals/cleats are you using?

    Nice 84 miler, btw.

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  14. Great week man! Bummer about the cleat though. It sucks when the body is willing but something else is off.

    I have really enjoyed following your HIM training. Intense.

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  15. You really kicked it, even with that crazy humidity and temps!

    thanks for the Picasa info...I like to think I'm kind of technical, but sadly I'm not. I can barely figure out my new cell phone.

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  16. First group ride I did this year, I could not get unclipped at a stop sign and toppled over. Later, after the ride was over, I realized that I lost 2 screws on my cleats which made it tough to unclip!

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  17. Hi Jeff,
    I don't know how you put in your crazy miles and move that fast in the flipping Texas summer:) Nice job on your bike ride!

    I like the new picture of the bike transition area....oh, and you look pretty good too:) You look like a Tri guy:)

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  18. LOL!!!! all you need is a new cleat, but in Jeff's world that translate to I need new shoes.

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  19. Cool, you have an excuse to get new shoes!

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