Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 pm | 4 Comments »

Zone 5 Duathlon

I threw conventional wisdom out the window this week.

Instead of a recovery week after last Saturday’s marathon, I did relax for a couple of days, then started working out again. Tuesday’s bike ride, my first in seven months, showed me that I could definitely carry my leg strength from running marathons over to the bike.

So I signed up for a duathlon today. It was a 2 mi run/13mi bike/2mi run.

It was a first for this race director, so the race was a wreck thanks to an unmarked/poorly marked bike course. But I made lemonade. For me (and most of the other racers) the bike was either short or waaaay to long.

So for my 1:02:22 race, I was Zone 5 for 51 minutes of it and in transition for 3 minutes. The remaining 8 minutes were either ramping up to Zone 5 during the run/bike/run legs or coming down while in transition.

Of course you may want to evaluate for yourself after a race as long as a marathon, but why not sign up for a small race and take advantage of your peak fitness? If you’ve peaked properly, you might be on the downward slide, but you’ll still be peaked for a race such as this. The key will be evaluating your fatigue and making sure you can race safely.

In all honesty, I’m certain I could race again in just a few short days.

Unfortunately, no time for another.

The full race report is here.

Workout:

Type: Run
Date: 05/03/2008
Time: 08:20:00
Total Time: 1:02:22.00
Average Heart rate: 156
Max Heart rate: 179
Calories: 1469
Distance: 13.1 miles
Average Pace: 4:45.71/mile
Ascent: 20 ft
Descent: 20 ft

Filed under: Clarksville, Cycling, Fitness, Marathon, Run, Triathlon, family, race report, sports | Digg! this story! Digg! this story. | Leave a Comment

Post by:Bill Anders

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 2:05 pm | 4 Comments »

First Spin of the Year

Residual stiffness in the legs from Saturday’s marathon, so I dusted off the Softride and took it for a spin. It’s the first time I’ve been on it since my IM-distance race last September. Matter of fact, I had to take the race number off and it’s still got the race wheels on it.

It was nice to get zipping along the road again. Although I certainly don’t buy that HR data - 247bpm means my heart would blow out of my chest. It’s likely my Softride jersey, which builds up a good static charge as it flaps in the wind; matter of fact, looking at my Garmin data, my HR would shoot above 200 every time the elevation dropped and my speed rose.

I can guarantee you that I didn’t ride that hard.

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 04/29/2008
Time: 14:05:00
Total Time: 00:56:48.00
Average Heart rate: 156
Max Heart rate: 247
Calories: 1005
Distance: 15.45 miles
Average Speed: 16.32 mph
Max Speed: 32 mph
Ascent: 155 ft
Descent: 155 ft

Filed under: Cycle, Cycling, Fitness, Marathon, Triathlon | Digg! this story! Digg! this story. | Leave a Comment

Post by:Bill Anders

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 3:35 pm | No Comments »

Mid-70’s

Normally Sunday’s are my scheduled day off. Always have been mainly so I don’t spend both weekend days training; it’s family time and relaxation time.

But who could deny a mid-winter day in the mid-70’s? Not me. Plus, I needed to get some blood through my legs today after yesterday’s run. I’m not stiff today, but it’s a good idea anyway. Also, the way things are stacking up at the moment, it looks like I won’t get a run in tomorrow. And I certainly don’t want to take two days off in a row. Not right now.

So it was another day of exploration along the trails through a nearby park. Lots of mud, so slower going than I wanted to, plus a higher HR than I wanted, but that’s the way it worked.

While down there, I took a moment to check out the trout stream, which they’ll stock soon. Some good seams to work. Now I just need to get new tippets for the fly rods. It’s not the mountains, but any day on a stream with a trout on the end of the line is a wonderful day.

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 03/02/2008
Time: 15:35:00
Total Time: 00:53:29.00
Average Heart rate: 137
Max Heart rate: 155
Calories: 816
Distance: 12.02 miles
Average Speed: 13.48 mph
Max Speed: 27.2 mph
Ascent: 285 ft
Descent: 285 ft

Filed under: Cycle, Cycling, entertainment, family | Digg! this story! Digg! this story. | Leave a Comment

Post by:Bill Anders

Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 3:40 pm | 1 Comment »

Exploration

One of the lessons learned over the past month of downtime before last Sunday’s marathon was that I needed to do more cross-training to maintain flexibility. My run focus over the past six months has really wreaked havoc with my flexibility and that gradual tightening resulted in an injury that kept me running for a full month before that marathon. Not a good thing.

So today was a good spin around the trails near my house, exploring side trails that I don’t have time to check out when I’m on my long runs. Got home in time to enjoy the last 30 miles of the Tour de California.

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 02/24/2008
Time: 15:40:00
Total Time: 00:52:59.00
Average Heart rate: 142
Max Heart rate: 156
Calories: 1304
Distance: 10.52 miles
Average Speed: 11.91 mph
Max Speed: 26.3 mph
Ascent: 662 ft
Descent: 662 ft

Filed under: Cycle, Cycling, Diet, Fitness, Flexibility, Marathon, Run | Digg! this story! Digg! this story. | Leave a Comment

Post by:Bill

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 9:26 pm | Comments Off

News You Can Use

Marathons Cut Risk Of Fatal Vehicle Crashes

So register, run and save a couple of lives.

Oh, but don’t sprint at the end.

Not much news on the training front. I’ve mainly been running for the past month since my marathon. The work schedule has really kept me from the pool during lap swim times. And since the sun sets before I leave work, I haven’t been doing much on the bike. I abhor trainers, even rollers, but I need to get back on them. And with zero triathlons on the horizon, it’s a bit tougher to jump on the trainer, even though I keep telling myself that it’s good for the soul.

Just over nine days until the Mississippi Blues Marathon. I’m running the half, which I’ll treat as a training run for my next full, the 26.2 with Donna, in February. The half is just a good excuse to get out of town for a day and see another part of the country that we haven’t yet, plus get out and shoot some photos. I can certainly run the 13.1 from my front porch, but what’s the fun in that?

Here’s hoping the Holidays are everything you want them to be. We’re nice and relaxed here.