Week of the Time Trial - What does this mean

So the last week has been the week of the "time trial" and has offered opportunities for me to be in pain while do some comparisons vs last year.

Swim

Going by my chosen path of turning up to the pool without reviewing workouts as it my give me an excuse to wimp out I appeared on Monday with Gatorade and Banana in hand and upon entering the pool saw we had a 2 x750m time trial with about 30 or seconds rest.

To put it simply my swim sucks, it is gradually improving however a sliding scale I would say it has improved from I can't believe that guy is not drowning to below average. From Jan to March I spent a lot of time in the pool and are now back on the mission again after just attending club workouts for a couple weeks.

So where is my swim, combined time for the two TT's was 33 mins. Considering my UBC tri time from last year was 42 Min for 1500m a 20% improvement isn't bad. Secret for next 3 months will be to live in pool ocean. Something I didn't do enough of last year. Aim is to Swim Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun and start working in some longer sessions as part of this.

A lot of improving to do but projected ironman time with the help of a wetsuit = 1 hour 15 Min

Bike

Doing a time trial test on the bike is weird one. After a cruisy ride on saturday to horseshoe bay and around UBC a couple times which was a lot of fun decided to ride the Vancouver Half Iron course on Sunday. Wasn't a pure time trial as such, instead aiming to hit my heart rate zone for the ride and seeing what time was at the end.

Trying to push for 3 hours on your own in a non race situation is mentally tough but managed to stay above my zone for 76% of the time and ended up taking 2 hours 50 min for the 94km. Was happy with this as equates to 5:25 IMC Pace and I definetely feel I could hold this pace for a lot longer (Especially with addition of nutrition and aero toys (Wheels and Helmet))

With bike focus just beginning thinking I am about 10 to 15% faster than this time last year and a lot stronger.

Run

So no real time trial to speak of, but did run just over 4 minute km's for 4km after the bike time trial. Baced on Sun Run and TC10k I would figure speed wise are about 10% faster and from a mileage perspective I definetely will be doing more than my 35km a week from last year and as aresult I know my endurance is a lot better than this time last year.

What does this mean for IMC run, not sure to bonest. I think 3:20 is not an overly aggressive target however until I race couple half iron's will be hard to tell. Regardless feel confident will be able to crank out a fast ironman run come race day. keeping with todays them though I would say I think I could crank out around a 3:35 if I was lining up in penticton today.

Overall

So where am I at now, add the times together from above and it equals around 10:20 including transitions. Obviously this all paper based and shawnigan lake of a minimal taper will be the first real test. Main focus is to hit my session targets, mix up endurnace and intensity and have fun. Add to this improve my swim technique and hopefully the end of May and start of June will bring some positive feedback in the terms of race results at Shawnigan and Oliver.

Last Notes from the Treadmill

hit the treadmill for the first time in 09 today for a V02 workout. Actually found this to be a really good tool for this so think this may become a regular fixiture on my plan. Really cool workout, was happy with it so are putting the numebrs in below;

Warm Up

• 20 Min dynamic drills

Treadmill at 1.5% incline

• 5 Min @ 6 minute mile pace
• 4 Min @ 5 Minute mile pace
• 9 Min Recovery walking
• 5 Min @ 6 minute mile pace
• 3 Min @ 5 Minute mile pace
• 8 Min Recovery walking
• 5 Min @ 6 minute mile pace
• 2 Min @ 5 Minute mile pace
• 7 Min Recovery walking
• 5 Min @ 6 minute mile pace
• 30 Sec @ 5 Minute mile pace
• 1 Min @ 4:48 Mile Pace (Treadmills at work don't go any faster - will put in a request to see if they can recitfy that)
• 6 Min recovery
• 1 Min 12 Sec @ 4:48 Mile Pace

Total of 31:42 Minutes of Hard Running

Cool Down

• 30 Min dynamic drills

Weird Looks

Work Gym is normally empty at 6pm (Especially during a playoff game) but for some reason there were a few hardy soles around (8 or so) working out. Was getting some weird looks when cranking it up especially from those on the treadmills next me.

Exciting Posts to Come

• Summer Beer Mile
• Swim Tips from the slow lane :)
• Things that annoy me