Keuka Lake Tri Training Week 5

Another week of triathlon training down!  It's kind of crazy because we are only one month away from our first ever duathlon.  I'm excited, but nervous at the same time.  For our triathlon we picked the sprint distance, but for our duathlon we picked the Formula 1 distance.  So that means we have to run 2 miles, bike 10 miles, run 1 mile, bike 10 miles, run 2 miles.  Not to mention that the running legs are on trails!  Good thing we have one trail run done and we are planning a few more soon.

 Ironically, look at what came in the mail today!

Monday

Off day.  I did continue the Amazing Arms 'n Abs April Challenge and did 20 bicep curls, 20 tricep extensions, 20 hammer curls and 20 tricep kickbacks.

Tuesday

I mentioned last week that we were both experiencing some lower leg soreness so we decided to skip a 6 miler on our training plan altogether.  I wanted to give us one more day off from running, so we switched swimming and running this week.  

Sorry I keep using this photo, I should take one of my own

source

Since it was the last day of 600 yards, we did a "time trial".  I finished the yardage in 8:37, which isn't too bad but it was slightly slower pace than when we did our 500 yard time trial.  We are going to start swimming the last two days of each distance consecutively and see if this helps us improve.

I also did 30 standing obliques (each side) and 30 standing crossovers (each side) for the Amazing Arms 'n Abs Challenge.

Wednesday

After 5 days off from running, we hit the road and busted out 5 miles.  This run was AMAZING!!  I did feel tired during it but we kept our pace under 9:00 minutes per mile almost the entire time!

Dailymile entry

I continued with the April challenge after our run and did 15 pushups, 25 front raises, 25 lateral raises and 25 bent arm side raises. 

Thursday

Our training plan changed a little bit last Thursday with the addition of brick workouts!  Not sure what a brick workout is, don't worry you probably aren't alone!  

Source: Uploaded by user via MacKenzie on Pinterest

A brick workout is when you do two (or three) of the disciplines in one workout.  There is little to no break in between, which is supposed to simulate the transitions that happen during a triathlon. 

Our training plan only calls for bike/run brick workouts, but you can do any combination while training for a triathlon.  There is a local triathlon group in Rochester that does run/bike/run workouts and swim/bike/run workouts.  We are planning on joining the group next year and taking advantage of these workouts during Musselman training (half-iron distance) and then Ironman training the following year!

We started off with a 5 mile ride near where I work.  Mike got ahead of me, which is fine because I am slow on the hills, and I finished 5.09 miles in 22:32 minutes (13.6 mph).  We immediately ran into my building at work and stored our bikes in my office, we got some strange looks!  We need to figure out a better transition situation but for our first week it worked.

We then headed out to run 3 miles.  We started with an uphill, so Mike got ahead of me again.  I was pretty surprised with my paces (9:03, 8:48, 8:50) because my legs felt heavy (hence the name "brick" workout).  I don't think wearing my Kinvaras helped either because my form was a little sloppy since I was tired.

I did the Amazing Arms 'n Abs workout when I got home and did 36 basic crunches, 36 scissors and 72 crossover crunches.

Friday

Friday was pretty light, with just 700 yards in the pool.  We did a 200 yard warm-up, 2 x 200 swim, descending each 50 yards and a 100 cool-down.  I didn't do the Amazing Arms 'n Abs workout this day.

Saturday

Source: lolsnaps.com via Sean on Pinterest

We did our first long ride outside!  I think so far the longest we have ridden outside was 8 miles, maybe less.  We braved (rather I braved, since Mike isn't afraid) the roads and did 12 miles in about 53 minutes (13.5 pace).  We had to stop a few times for traffic and we walked our bikes across a one lane steel-deck bridge!

The route was slightly hilly and I had to ride out of the saddle a few times.  I was brave and I rode in the drops instead of the hoods a few times too!  I just need some aero bars (or a triathlon bike) and I will be all set.

Sunday

I wish I could say that the week ended on a good note, but it didn't.  Mike did pretty decent but I had a hard time on our "long" run this weekend.  Since we didn't do our 6 miler last weekend, we cut back each long run by one mile until the last week of tri training.

I figured out our route and even included a monster hill because I need more training on hills!

The first three miles weren't too bad, all of them were under 10:00 minute per mile pace.  The third mile had the evil hill!  For some reason, after the hill I couldn't get my legs to go.  I told Mike to leave me and he took off (not too much ahead of me, I could see him most of the time).

The last three miles were all above 10:00 minute per mile pace.  I was frustrated but I knew that it wasn't meant to be so I just kept going, determined to finish.  I was so happy when my watched beeped at mile 6! 

I haven't been running sub-10:00 minute per mile for that long, but with a few runs under 9:00 minute per mile pace this run frustrated me (although my average pace wasn't too bad, 9:48 minutes per mile). As I said on my personal Facebook page, though, the bad runs make me want to go out there and do it again more than the good runs sometimes!

How was your training last week?  

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