Well it’s been 5 years that I’ve been involved in this crazy sport.  Back when I started I never would have imagined I would be where I’m at.

I think I have a long ways to improve, and a lot to learn about myself and the sport.

Last year I posted a summary of the results from the Pleasant Prairie Triathlon over the course of my Triathlon career.  Well here is the summary of results from 6 Pleasant Prairie Triathlons:

I said it last year, and I’ll say it again – my run needs work. 

With my bike being about a 59:45, there has been a ~2 minute improvement in bike split per year over the years – I have a feeling the improvement on the bike (at least for this distance) is going to start tapering off.  If I really work over the winter, I can probably get down to a legit 58 bike split, but we’re talking averaging nearly 26 mph, and probably in the neighborhood of 330 watts.  Considering my FTP is in the 300 to 310 range right now.  That’s a tall order – 10% improvement.

With "less" work, I can probably gain as much or more time on an Olympic Distance race by improving my run versus my bike.  Continuing to chip away at my swim probably can’t hurt either. 

What I really need to figure out is how to just man up for those long races and ride times that are very inline with a race this short.

A new Race Report is up!  I had the Pleasant Prairie Triathlon this past weekend.  I am really happy with the result.  It is a great boost in confidence and motivation builder for the last couple of weeks leading up to IMWI.

Last week I started to have a lot aniexty building about Ironman Wisconsin.  With only a few weeks to go until the race – I felt my fitness was not where I had hoped to be, and that I had not done enough long rides, runs, etc. to even be able to finish the race in a "respectable" time – i.e. run the whole marathon.

I managed to lay those concerns and the aniexity to rest by reminding myself that I need to go into the race not worried about the time I want to achieve, or a place I want to get, or even getting a Kona slot.  All I need to worry about is getting to race day healthy and rested, while getting as fit as I can.  Then show up on race day and execute the race.

If I do that the time and everything else will be rewarding.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my approach to training.  This year I made a few changes in my general approach by including a lot more intensity on a regular basis.  I think that the inclusion of this intensity has really helped my fitness and improved my top end – however I think that I also attempted to keep to much steady state work.  Why do I suspect that?

The biggest indicator that I have been trying to keep to much intensity in the program, along with to much steady state work is that on many workouts I am unable to "successfully" complete the workout.  Meaning I’m just not able to hold the power I should in theory be able to or even had planned for the workout.  This could be an indicator that I have overestimated my FTP, or Tempo pace, which is entirely possible.  But based on some of the good race performances I have, I think I have both of those reasonably accurate.

Another indicator is that both my FTP and Tempo pace have been relatively stagnant since I first started tracking it earlier this year.  To me I take these as indicators that I am trying to do to much work, and not allowing my body enough time to recover properly and get optimally stronger.  Meaning that I have improved and raised my fitness, just not to the point I could have.

I’ve been thinking about all the books I’ve read, and things I know and have come up with another revision for next year – a pretty common sense one actually.  Instead of trying to do my typical "volume", and just add in some intensity, which was my approach this year.  Next year I am going to make myself earn the volume – much like Jack Daniels suggests for how fast to train.

After my post-season break, I will likely do a period of light training for several weeks.  Then I’ll start a weekly program that has my key intensity sessions, but will be an overall very low program.  After 4-6 weeks of successfully completing the workouts, I will step up the intensity and/or the volume a slight increment.  I’ll do that for a few cycles and see how it progresses and then reevaluate.

This week is a pretty important week of training – I’ve got 3 key workouts to nail.  A long run, which I did last night – 2:30 / 20.5 miles.  I did it indoors to avoid the heat and humidty that caused me to break on my last long run after an hour.  Today is a pretty easy day, with a 3 hourish ride + a short run tomorrow that will include some HIM efforts.

Friday and Saturday will be pretty easy days, followed by a long brick on Sunday.  The plan is to do this as a race sim type ride @ IM pacing and see how it shakes out, both in terms of time to accomplisht he distance, and my ability to hold the Power/pace.

Next week will be a restish week capped off by the Pleasant Prairie Olympic Tri.