Sunday brick: hard! hot!

This was our most difficult brick to date, mostly because it was the longest so far; all told, about 3:45 of training. We started at Hapuna with a 2:30 ride to Hawi, where we all turned around at the spot where the actual Honu Half turnaround will be. We were supposed to do 35 minutes at race pace at some point during the ride, but at about five minutes in I encountered Todd and Ben helping out the poor woman Ben mentioned who'd taken a big spill on the side of the road. I was a little bit annoyed because so far I'd been keeping a really great pace and was just ramping up, but she really needed us, and I hope someone would stop their workout to help ME on the side of the road!
After a bit we all continued, and I got my pace going again. Got to the turnaround in 1:25, which put me right on target for returning to Hapuna at 2:30 (those last 10 miles are a slow steady climb and then a super speedy descent.) I was making great time all the way back and feeling strong, even though I ate all my gel (next time, carry more!) and drank all my water (need to find a place for another bottle on my small-framed bike!) Then, I heard a twanging sound in my back wheel, thought I could have broken a spoke but nothing seemed to change so I figured some random road crap had just bounced up through my spokes and made a loud noise. HOWEVER, riding those last 8 miles was a total SLOG, and yeah, coming up out of Kawaihae is kind of an unpleasant and hot little climb, but I started thinking what is WRONG with me? I didn't feel especially tired, or weak, or dehydrated, so I started suspecting that my back wheel was tweaked. Sure enough, I got back to Hapuna (in 2:38, damn it!) and I had broken a spoke and my back brake was totally rubbing against the wheel! Got in some extra strength training and didn't even mean to. At least it wasn't ME.
Since I've been concerned about my left leg I decided I wasn't necessarily going to run that far, and headed off to Puako planning to play it by ear. My leg actually didn't really bother me at all (maybe because all my muscles were totally warmed up?) and I ended up going out about 1:05. We were supposed to run 1:10, so it was close. The plan was to do 25 minutes at race pace, but at about 20 minutes into the run the heat started to become REALLY noticeable. I ended up doing 20 minutes at a higher intensity, but still didn't end up going that fast or hard because the heat was really affecting my heart rate. Then, I ran out of water, AGAIN, so the last mile or so I ran/walked, trying to keep from dehydrating. Must ALSO figure out a way to carry more water on the run! This run was brutal, but not as brutal as the last time we did this same route, and I made it farther in the same amount of time. Came back so dehydrated I thought I might kill someone for their water, found Ben locked out of both our cars, so we went and spent $4 on 32 oz of water (that's how they getcha!) which was blissfully cold. On the way over to the food stand I drank the entire water fountain.
Todd made it back (having even more problems with heat and dehydration than me) and the healing waters of Hapuna saved us all from heat exhaustion, but not from total loopiness!
All in all I feel like I totally kicked ass this Sunday, and for the first time I can actually comprehend finishing a half-ironman. I slept hard Sunday night, but I didn't even feel sore or trashed the next day. Woooo!

Note to self: going to Costco and trying to shop after a training day like this is a BAD, BAD IDEA.

e-z bike

Hilo Bike Hub to Kaloli drive on a borrowed Cannondale triathlon bike. about 23 miles. held my heartrate around 145-150 for the entire ride. overall ride time 85 minutes. short of the training regime's 120 minutes. oh well. the borrowed triathlon bike was very nice. 

why the borrowed bike:

1: my bike frame is too big for me to set the bike up properly

2: a triathlon bike could help me shave time off my race results due to better aerodynamic characterists

3: i want to reduce the chances of damaging my perineal nerves due to having a bike frame that is too big for me. ie. on Sunday I gave my self a case of numb nuts. 

start hard, blow up: Sunday Brick

i took the entire week off. excuses include: busy with work and school, vog in Hilo and Sulfur Dioxide levels in the "not so safe for breathing" range.

So today we do our weekly brick. Today is the first of the "train the race course as much as possible" series that we are probably going to do from now until race day. Of course I forgot all my swim gear and showed up late. What a douche I am!!!! 

TnT showed up at 8am and we got our shiznit together and rode out of Hapuna. I immediately forgot to turn right and do the short loop down to the Mana Lani. Durh..... But I was working on my cadence (keep it high and effort in the moderate and lower range, concentrate on repetition instead of strength) and it was going well. Todd dropped me a bit south of Lapakahi park, but soon enough I came over a hill and there was Todd, a female biker with some nice road rash wandering around in the road and some dude in a rental SUV. Luckily for Team Boom King we were just there to help. Apparently the bloody lady, Kerri I think was her name, just found herself on the ground attached to her bike. The SUV didn't hit her he had stopped to help when he saw bloody biker lady. So Todd and I helped the lady regain her bearings and evaluate damage. Soon enough Tammy showed up and Team Boom King did what we could to help Ms. Roadrash adjust her seat and bars. Then once she seemed to be sorted out we resumed our ride. Todd and I went to the Honu Half turnaround at O'opolu (spelling?) and back to Hapuna. We nailed the timing right around the 2:30 mark we were slated to do on this Brick. Tammy showed up soon after. Then we got our asses on the run to Puako and back again. It was hot. Effing A hot! Plus we had just completed a 50 mile bike ride. I did not reach the end of the Puako road this time around. But I did nail the run timing almost exactly at 1:05 as per the training menu. 

Then I sat around next to the locked cars wishing I had been smart enough to leave a bottle of water in the bed of the pickup. Todd had the keys. And of course he showed up last. Luckily Tammy had a few buxorz and bought us each a bottle of water. LIFESAVER TAMMY!!!!

Then a dunk in the ocean. Some post training endorphin/fatigue laughing fits on the beach and lunch at Tako Taco for me. TnT went southward to CostCo(w).

I'm concentrating on time and miles instead of pushing myself into arbitrary heartrate/effort zones. I did this entire brick at a 150-178 heartrate as measured by my borrowed heart monitor. I rarely felt like I was pushing my heart or respiration. Mostly I'm trying to avoid a knee blowout while I continue to build my base and slowly shave my times per mile.

Friday run, Saturday swim

On Friday we were supposed to do a long endurance sort of run, so I decided to run a little longer than our workout sheet said because, well, I'm not that fast a runner and it takes me longer to go farther than some OTHER people I know. I ran towards Pololu and back, turning around at the 28 mile marker. I didn't push too hard but inadvertently got some intervals in anyway because there are three gulches and a few other hills in the direction I went. Felt really strong the whole time, and even felt like I could have gone a bit more when I got back home. However, my left leg is still bothering me -- doesn't hurt in any particular place for too long, but it aches in the hamstring, then in the IT band, then the knee, then the shin... the whole thing is just kind of unhappy. Definitely planning to see someone about it now -- this will NOT get in the way of Tammy's first half! Anyway, ended up running about 1:37, and went a little over 9 miles.

Just got back from our Saturday 'easy swim'. It was easy in that I didn't push very hard, but again we went to Mahukona and again it was choppy with a current. I got slapped around for a while, got a little dizzy, but kept at it and it actually felt pretty good. Mostly because I wasn't fighting the waves, I just went with it, letting the surge dictate my rhythm. Swam for 32 minutes. Ready for big brick tomorrow.. I THINK...

Wed-Thurs-Fri suck run

My running has been sucking this week. Wednesday I was supposed to do roughly 25 minutes in Z4 but I just could not kick up my heart rate that high. I think the problem was that I swam long that morning, and didn't eat enough afterward. My heartrate just refused to rise into Z4 on the run no matter how hard I pushed.

Friday's run was problematic as well. I was trying to heat-train, so I ran at about 2PM. I found that for the first 40 minutes or so I could keep my heart rate in Z2 if I ran everything but the steepest uphills. However, on the return trip, I found my heart rate kept jumping over Z2 on even the mildest uphills. So I ended up walking a good deal of the hills on the way back.

Thursday morning's bike went well, if a little long (miscalculated how long it would take to return home). The swim went OK, but I didn't swim quite as far as I did on Wednesday (not too surprising).

Next week I want to time the swimming right so that I don't wreck my interval run, and hopefully this will carry through to my long slow run.

Top Ten Baby!

It looks like they re-ranked the male 35-39 results from Lavaman and....Ben is now #10!

RUN-BIKE-SWIM (not slackin' anymore!)

Wednesday was for running, and also got in some heat training. I ran from home towards Halaula, turned left on the old mill road, and headed all the way down an old track to the lighthouse, along the cliff trail for a bit, and turned around. Had to pause for a minute at the lighthouse to look for tropicbirds, then my 25 minutes low z4 began, which was no problem to reach as it was hot, almost no breeze, and uphill. Total run time 1:07, about 6 or so miles. Didn't overheat, but I definitely felt the heat affecting my performance.

Thursday AM ride was supposed to be 1:30 also with 25 minutes low z4. Not too much wind today, rode the regular route from home past Hawi and down the coast, turning around at about mm11. The wind of course picked up on the way back up the hill towards Hawi, making it take a little longer than I expected, total ride time 1:34, about 25 miles. I had a harder time keeping it in low z4 -- on the bike I tend to space out a bit and forget to push it when I'm going uphill -- how lame is that?!?

That's okay, I made up for it later with a pretty awesome swim. Pool reopens tomorrow but today we had to do the equivalent of a 'master's swim', so we went to Mahukona again. I ended up swimming for 51 minutes, with two different 10 minute intervals of higher intensity. Got somewhat choppy towards the end. Again, hard to say how long I swam, since I sure wasn't swimming in straight lines.... maybe 1.3 miles? Saw a bunch of amazing pyramid butterfly fish!