February Update

I need to try and update this more.  Last fall after my 1st race, I decided to start doing my own training. It was ok for a while as a break.  However, my workouts became very repetitive.  Late December I attended a happy hour with Outrival gain and ended up chatting with my now coach Michelle Leblanc. She recommended that coaching would be a good idea for me since I was basically doing none of the things that someone should be doing to improve.

I have a natural talent for running and other athletics and she saw that in me I guess.  It has been a great decision.  In the month that she has been coaching me, I have yet to repeat a similar workout outside the long runs and bike rides.

My swim (used to range at 2000 to 2500 yards) are now minimum of 3000 and getting into 4000.  I thought I could never swim that much, but I am making it.  Last week was my longest yardage total of about 11,000!  Sounds crazy, but it is a lot for me and I am seeing the improvements in the endurance.

The bike has improved.  Michelle immediately pointed out that my bike training should be about 50% of my weekly volume.  Prior to working with her I was shooting for about 33%.  I also wasn't incorporating long bikes on a weekly basis.  That has all changed and I feel that I have improved and my it shows on my longer bikes.

On the run side, I am starting to go very fast (more than I though I would).  I have brought my mid zone 2 run HR pas to 145 bpm or so at 7 min miles.  That is very fast!  Last Friday, I did a 70 mile bike followed by a 6 mile brick run and came off doing 6:30 - 6:36 miles at the top of zone 2 and a few into zone 3!  Incredible that I could do that.  One of the weirdest things lately has been getting used to this faster pace and having a low heart rate.

The other thing that I have been experimenting with is nutrition.  I referring to both daily and race day nutrition.  On the daily nutrition, I bought Matt Fitzgerald's book Racing Weight, 2nd Edition.  This book is like a bible to me.  Since starting to follow the daily steps on nutrition, I have seen my performance, recovery, and overall health improve.  One of the things I took for granted, was my carb intake.  Since reading and re-reading this book, I have almost doubled my daily card intake.  This has mad a huge difference.

The other nutrition aspect has been race day nutrition.  I had been experimenting in the past with gels and bars on the ride.  As many know, this can be tricky.  Thus, I ordered some Infinit Nutrition a few weeks ago and am loving this stuff.  The consultation was quick and easy and the formula came custom for me.  Many triathletes swear by liquid nutrition and I am a believer now.  It's so easy to drink every 10 minutes and know that my nutrition is coming in.  I throw a salt tab from Energy Lab every 20 minutes to make sure I hit my hourly electrolyte need (per Michelle's race planning worksheets).  I feel great during rides and feel good on the run.

Back to the title of the post, I am doing my 1st half marathon this weekend here in The Woodlands.  I can't wait and I'm pumped.  This will be a good test for the Galveston 70.3 in April.  I hope I can deliver per my training results.

I'll update that later.