Week 11 Training Summary
Worked out all 7 days this week
4 runs (4.6 miles, 8 miles, 5.15 miles, and 13.1 miles, total 30.89 miles)
Total workout time this week was approximately 9 hours.
All of my runs were very easy, keeping to my game plan of staying healthy.
18 mile long run next weekend, looking forward to it.
My cyst is still present behind my left knee, nagging at me, but not keeping me from doing anything.
My right IT band is 95%. It twinges once and a while, but overall is it healthy (I think my cycling is helping to strengthen my legs which is helping to keep my knee strong).
Felt like my fitness really improved this week. I am becoming more fit, keeping my heart rate down, and am definitely becoming more experienced on the bike. My legs feel stronger and I am starting to understand that speeding up my cadence is beneficial.
My next sprint triathlon is on September 12 at Greenwood Lake, NY. I am looking forward to doing this race with my friend MH and perhaps my Wisconsin friends CH and JS too.
Thursday - An easy run that turned into an unexpected tempo run - Ran my 5.15 miles on Thursday with the following negative splits (8:52, 8:18, 7:50, 7:14, 7:05). I went out thinking that I would run around 9 minutes per mile for the entire run, but I felt very good after 3 miles so I decided to push for the 4th mile (which is on the west side of Central park through the rolling hills, always the toughest part of the park for me during races, and I ran a 7:14 split. I wasn't going all out, probably 80% effort. Then I immediately slowed down to an 8:00 pace but that felt easy so I decided to push for 1 more mile (knowing it was my last mile) and registered a 7:05 split (again, probably at 80% effort). I felt great after and thought to myself "no question that my easy days are keeping me fresh to run fast after I am warmed up"
Saturday - ING NYC Marathon Long Training Run #2 - My schedule had me at 12 today, but I ended up running 13.14 miles. I ran into my friend and old colleague from Goldman Sachs BG at the start line, and we ran all 13 miles together. I hadn't seen him since I left GS in 2008 (he's still at GS). He is running the NYC marathon this year and has done 2 Ironman races over the last 4 years (Lake Placid and Madison Wisconsin). So, for most of the run we talked about the Ironman race, since my goal is to do one in 2011. He gave me great advice and I admire him for his accomplishments. We had a great run and it was great to see him. I absolutely love running into my old friends during my runs, and this has been happening to me almost every weekend during my training. I felt GREAT for the run, ending up with an extremely easy 1:57:00 half marathon split, average speed 8:59 per mile and an average heart rate of 141. That's not a misprint, 141! We were running negative splits between 8:30 and 8:45 for the last few miles and I had a lot more in the tank to give, all because we went out easy and I kept my heart rate low. I also believe that my long bike rides are really helping my leg strength and fitness. While my average heart rate in cycling is always much lower (around 132 for a tough workout), I think the hills and "interval" training of cycling is making me more fit.
Here is a picture of the start line for the ING NYC Marathon Training run #2. I lined up in the 9 minutes per mile corral. It was an absolutely beautiful day at around 65 degrees with low humidity.
1 swim (1.02 miles, 44 minutes)
Swim felt good, I'm just looking to survive it easily. I need to get earplugs, as I almost always have my right ear clogged with water when I exit the pool
2 bike rides (40.64 miles and 42.67 miles)
Had 2 great rides this week, one with CH and JS on Friday and another today on my own. I feel like I am getting in better cycling shape and that this is helping my running.
Other
Thursday - A nuclear stress test - I'd been having a little chest pain over the last few weeks, so I got a nuclear stress test today (they injected radioactive dye into my body and watched how it moved around my arteries before and after exercise (stress) . Thankfully, the test result was normal. I made it 18 minutes and 10 seconds and the doctor said that I "set the record" for the length of time that I lasted (they said that the previous record was 18 minutes). At the end, I was working hard with my heart rate at 179, the incline very high up (had to be over 20%), and the speed at 6.0 miles per hour. It took over 6 minutes to get my heart rate over 100 during the test, and my average heart rate was in the mid 40s immediately prior to the test. I had also run my 5.15 miles 2 hours before my stress test. At about the 15 minute point of the test, the doctor said to me " you have a shot at the record for length of time for the stress test". I said "oh yeah, what's the record?". She said "18 minutes". I said "OK, let's go to 18 minutes and 10 seconds".
Friday - Went to the Barclays PGA Golf Tournament in New Jersey. It was awesome, we had access to the Barclays tent on the 18th green and walked all over the course. Followed Tiger Woods around with hundreds of other fans. He was actually joking around with the caddies and talking a lot to other golfers. I'm not a huge golf fan, but the guys I was with are and they said that Tiger NEVER jokes around.
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