in which a Boom King buys a watch, and runs, and swims

having no watch makes working out an interesting guessing game. so I bought a watch. 

today:

mode: run you lazy fucker

duration: 1hr 6mins

location: Richardson's to Suisan and back again

comments: i tried to push myself into the imaginary zone 4 for the last 20 minutes. but i don't currently have a heart monitor so I have no idea what zone I was living in.  Sunday I will borrow a heart monitor from TnT. Should make things interesting. I hope it has a robot voice and says things like, "You are no longer in Zone 4. Run faster you lazy beyotch or I will start using the taser." Sadistic robot coaching being the ultimate goal of all this technology.

extra credit: swam for 7 minutes (yes you read that right SEVEN minutes without stopping!!!!) @ Richardsons Beach. Felt much better than my pool workout. Probably I was pushing too hard at the pool yesterday. Plus the chlorine makes me a neurotic quitter baby. 

sample track workout

The long course program we're doing basically has three runs per week: an interval run early in the week, a long slow run later in the week, and then, of course, there's the brick on the weekend.

As an alternative to the fairly simple interval workouts this program calls for (e.g. 60 mins run, with 20 mins in Zone 4), you can do a track workout. Below I've pasted a sample track workout from the GGTC track program this week:

4/15/2008
Warm-up followed by drills on upper deck.
2 x100 strides on straight; jog the curves.

Main set
6 x 800s descending in 2 groups of 3. All recoveries are stairs followed by SLOW jog/walk down.
#1 @ base
#2 @ base minus 5 sec/400 (10 seconds faster for 800)
#3 @ base minus 7 sec/400 (15 seconds faster for 800)
Extra 400 easy jog/walk after #3
#4 @ base minus 5 sec/400 (10 seconds faster for 800)
#5 @ base minus 7 sec/400 (15 seconds faster for 800)
#6 @ base minus 8-10 sec/400 (16-20 seconds faster for 800)

Long Course athletes will complete one additional 1200 at base + 5
sec/100 (15 seconds slower for 1200).
Cooldown, static stretch replenish fluids, eat (within 45 minutes)
approx 1-1.2 gram CHO/kg of body weight plus 10-20 grams protein.

Short Course interval total: 4800 meters
Long Course interval total: 5000 meters


We don't have a track in Kapa'au but we could use the grassy area circling a baseball diamond as an alternative. 

Tuesday swim: TnT

We planned to swim at the pool but apparently the pump is broken, so we went to Mahukona instead. I decided to wear a mask and snorkel and Todd just wore goggles. This means a much easier swim for me since I could breathe normally... I wanted to try out my new mask, and it was supposed to be an easy swim. I should probably stop doing that, though -- I can use as much practice as I can get at actual swim breathing. We each swam for about 35-40 minutes. It was bright and sunny, but super windy and choppy which made it kind of tiring. I saw a pair of gilded triggerfish!

tuesday training: swim

mode: swim

distance: 7 or 8 laps @ sparky pool in Hilo (700-800 meters?)

time: 22 minutes

yeah. i pooched it. didn't ever really hit my stride. felt like crap afterwards. increasingly I am coming to believe that chlorinated pools and exercise are a bad combination. hopefully the ocean won't be so bloody rough next time we have a swim day.

it's official

We are now ALL signed up for the Honu Half, a real half-ironman race on the west side of the big island May 31st. That's just about 6 weeks from now. EEEEEeeee!
Ok so actually we're all in pretty good shape -- each of us kicked ass last weekend at the Lavaman olympic distance triathlon at Waikoloa. It was thecrab's first race, and he's clearly a natural!
This will be my first half-ironman, and I'm more than a bit nervous when I think about the distances: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run. Especially those last two. What I really need to do is to not think about the big picture right now, and focus on day-to-day training. If I do it right, the race should be perfectly do-able! With that in mind, here's what I did yesterday to kick off training for the Honu Half in earnest: a bike-run brick.

We started at Hapuna Beach Park, which is where the Honu Half will actually start. No swim practice for us though! Starting at the beach parking lot, we biked north for one hour or so, and the return took about the same amount of time (I know that seems obvious, but it doesn't always work like that, depending on the wind!) The winds were pretty intense but not so bad during the ride except for one part leaving Kawaihae, about 2 miles of under 10mph because I was going uphill right into the wind, YUCK! Most of the ride went pretty well, however, and I felt okay to run next. That was about 30 minutes out and back towards Puako, fine for about the first 40 minutes, but then I started having some trouble with overheating. I managed to push through it, but the run was pretty brutal: hot, dry, and desert-y terrain with big gusts blowing dust into my eyes. After that, a heavenly cooling soak and brief swim at Hapuna made me feel WAY better.

my stats for the day:
bike: ~2hours, made it to Mahukona and back, ~32 miles.
run: Hapuna parking lot through Puako and back, ~1 hour and ~ 6 miles.

woo!

Sunday April 13, 2008

mode: brick

bike distance: approximately 36 miles

bike duration: approximately 2 hours

bike course: HBP to Kawaihae, coastal highway towards Hawi

bike profile: rolling terrain, windy

run distance: approximately 8 miles

run duration: approximately 1hr 5minutes

run course: HBP to end of Puako Road

run profile: mostly flat with a few small hills

start: Hapuna Beach Parking lot

friday april 11, 2008

mode: bicycle

intensity: moderate/high

distance: approx 40 miles

climbing elevation: approx 3000 feet

equipment: Trek 1000

stops: Hilo Bike Hub, 45-60 minutes

overall duration: approximately 3-4 hours