Friday, April 10, 2015

CheapRunnerMike's 2015 Update (or, what I've been up to these last few months)

Posted by CheapRunnerMike

Hey guys...sorry I've been MIA for a while but life has been nutzo and I have had almost no time to think about blogging let alone put pen to paper, errr...fingers to keyboard.

I left you all hanging after my Disney Marathon recap and my 2:58 BQ...here's what has happened since.

With my marathon done and that mission accomplished it was time to set my sights on some 2015 goals. I knew triathlon would play a big role in my 2015 race season and I started scoping out which races I wanted to do. After last year's Musselman 70.3 I felt like I had some unfinished business with the Half-Iron distance. I had a great time and was pleased with the result, but I knew I had a lot more in me on a better day. So with that I set my goal race for the year as the Barrelman 70.3. It is another half iron race held in the Niagara Falls area on September 20.  You get to start out with a swim at the Welland International Flat Water Centre followed by a 90km bike from Welland to Niagara Falls and culminating with a two-loop half marathon through Niagara Falls.  Late September should be a beautiful time of year to race there, I can't wait!

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I know September is a long ways off, but I started building up my swimming and biking base as soon as I finished Disney.  I started attending a bike class every Saturday morning with my London Triathlon Club teammates and it was a butt-kicker!  We would do a two hour workout on the bike trainer and then "cool down" with another hour of core and stretching.  I had pools of sweat around me when I finished up.One week Coach Sheri even put us through a 3 hour ride where I clocked over 100km!

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When not riding with the group I have been working hard at home on the trainer.  I have struggled in past winters with indoor riding as it was really unfocused…I would just hop on the bike in front of the TV and spin away for an hour or so.  This year I heard about a program called TrainerRoad that gives you structured workouts and organizes them into specific plans based on what you are hoping to achieve.  They also use a feature called Virtual Power that converts your speed and cadence into watts (or virtual power) based on your trainer's individual power curve.

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It has been a huge help in getting me focused and seeing improvements on the bike and I will be using it for years to come.  Jackson even decided that he would get in on it…

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Swimming has been going well too…I've been getting in a solid 2 (sometimes 3) sets per week and with time in the pool comes improvement.  My 100m times are dropping and I am feeling very comfortable in the water.  I am looking forward to getting out in some open water, but we're still a little ways away…here's the lake up at the cottage from  not too long ago.

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Michelle and I did sneak away for a week in Mexico though, where I did get to take advantage of some great swimming in the Caribbean Sea.  We both got to go running together a few times as well so we managed to work off a little bit of the food and drinks!

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I've been keeping steady with my running and getting out 3 to 4 times a week despite the winter weather.  I am in a much better place with my running this year than I was the same time last year.  I have built my mileage back up and I am looking forward to running my first race since Disney this weekend, the Run for Retina Half Marathon.  I'll follow that up in two weeks with the Forest City Road Races Half Marathon.  My goal for this weekend is to see how close I can get to 1:25 and then build on it with improved pacing for Forest City.  I've worked hard and proved what I can do, running 1:27:30 over the second half of Disney, so I should have a shot at 1:25.  If nothing else, my current PR of 1:29:16 should be broken…I have beaten that time regularly in training runs, most recently a few weeks ago in Chicago on the awesome Lakefront Trail.

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I have a couple of other races on my calendar, including a pair of Olympic Triathlons (Guelph Lakes I and the Blue Water Triathlon) as well as another long course tri in Kingston (up where my sister and her family moved last fall) so it looks to be a fun season in store.  Throw in the weekly Splash n Dash along with a Triathlon Camp that I'll be going to the end of May and I should have plenty of swimbikerun miles in by the time my 'A' race rolls around in September.

Well there you go folks, a little bit of an update to let you know what's been going on, at least in the athletic part of my life!  Hope all is well with you guys…cheers!

10 comments:

  1. Guelph 1 is also on my race schedule this year. Bluewater was, but been bumped as I'm voluteering at the Pan Am Games road cycling race that day.

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  2. Cool Abe...which distance are you doing at Guelph? I love doing Bluewater, it's basically a local race for us as it is just down the road from our cottage...the kids join in the following day for the Ironkid races so it's always a lot of fun.
    That will be quite the experience being that close to the elite cyclists...nice!

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  3. I'll be doing the Olympic distance, 2nd race at that distance after Lakeside last year.

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  4. Awesome, I love that distance...the Oly at Guelph is a very fair course with a rolling out and back on the bike. The run is interesting too as you have road and trail...just make sure you are familiar with the course before running it as there are a few turns and they aren't always well marked (as you can see in my recap from last year http://www.3cheaprunners.com/2014/06/guelph-lake-1-olympic-triathlon.html)

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  5. nice to hear from you again mike! of course, i know (via Dailymile and Strava) that you've been working away like crazy, so it's just nice to know what your goal events are so that i can root you on more specifically!

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  6. Welcome back - fun to catch up on all of your athletic plans!!
    Glad you have another 70.3 coming up!

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  7. Thanks Patrick...been meaning to get something posted before I actually ran a race, and Boyd's post the other day spurred me on to get it done

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  8. Yup, I see lots of training in my future Kim :)

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  9. So good to see you back! Sounds like you're doing great, and have some awesome things coming up. The pic of the lake at the cottage is amazing!! I think I'd still be scared to walk on it!

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  10. That was some think ice Katie, nothing to worry about!

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