It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!

Last week we had 9" of snow on Friday & another 3" on Sunday. And now the temperature is in the single digits. School is closed on Monday & Tuesday, & that means the pool is closed on Monday.

Monday was suppose to be a swim workout, but since the pool was closed I went to SNAP Fitnees & did an hour on the elliptical.

Tuesday was an easy run followed by a strength workout. Since I haven't figured our the strength routine, just did my normal ab/core workout.

Wednesday was bike & swim day. Went to SNAP & used the spin bike for an hour. Then later I went the pool for a 50 minute swim.

Thursday was a run & strength but I just got too busy & had a basketball game out of town that evening.

Friday was another run. I got in 5 miles in about 45 minutes. Then it was off to another game. It was my biggest varsity game to date!

Saturday & Sunday was a bike day followed by a run day. Didn't get either done. Just didn't.

Let's see how this next week goes.

First Week Complete #Rev3CP2014

First week completed with new coach. Not that we are doing anything new, just that it's hard to get in the groove with this weather southern Indiana is having. 

Monday I did my 30' time trial (TT) test. This test is used to determine my heart rate zones for all future run workouts. 

Tuesday was a bike day & it was nice enough outside (for December) that I did a group ride at 8pm. One small problem, I was on my fat tire commuter bike while the 3 others were on their skinny tire road bike. But in the end, it was a good ride.

Wednesday was time for my swim TT test, 500 yds in 8:19.09. I was hoping to get under 8:30.

Thursday was the start of the weather pattern change. I had a run scheduled but wasn't able to get it in, had a basketball game in downtown Indy that night.

Friday was the day we got 9" of snow during the day & was not able to get to Columbus to swim at FFY.

Saturday was my bike TT test to determine my heart rate zones for the bike. I did this test at SNAP Fitness gym on the spin bike. I like using it so I don't "use up" my TT bike.

Sunday was a scheduled run day... But it was in the teens outside so I went back to SNAP & used the elliptical for an hour.

On to the next week!

Rev 3 Cedar Point

My 2014 race schedule is coming along. I've already signed up for Rev3 Cedar Point Full Distance. The race date is Sept 7th. A few of my training friends have signed up too. Elizabeth Eaken & Ryan Knutson are doing the full & Nathan Otte is doing the half. Rumor is RaeAnn Mellencamp is also doing the full but not sure she has signed up.

Also looking at doing the Hoosier Half Marathon in April, Seymour Half Marathon in May, & either Rev 3 Wisconsin Dells Half in June or a half distance Tri in Kentucky in July.

Next step was getting a coach. As of December 2nd, I will be coached by Dream Big Triathlon Coaching out of Bloomington Indiana. I'm excited to start working with Brant. I meant Brant at a Tri a couple of years ago. He is a good competitor & has always stopped to talk to me whenever he sees me. Check out his website at www.dreambigtriathloncoaching.com. 

My goals for the winter months is to cut body fat. I've let it go a little this past year. My endurance is there, but need to get that speed back that I had in 2012. One way I do that is through the app MyFitnessPal. I lost over 30 lbs in a year by counting my calories & knowing exactly what I was eating.

As for my fitness tracking, I add all my workouts to my calendar so I know how to plan my week. The I use my Garmin 910XT & download all my data to connect.garmin.com. Feel free to to take a look at my data on there.

2014 looks to be an exciting year of racing!

July 11th - Pre-IM Muncie 70.3

Just looking over my data & planning out my race day strategy. Found so interesting stuff.

Swim - 39 workouts, 45.11 miles, 28:02:22

Bike - 25 workouts, 767.64 miles, 45:10:53

Run - 90 workouts, 611.79 miles, 90:40:30

Now the first thing I notice is there is not enough bike workouts & I only averaged 30 miles per ride.

Second thing is the run data. 90 workouts & 90 hours, so that means I averaged over 1 hour & 6.8 miles per run. This part of the data I'm extremely happy with.

The third thing is the swim. It is about where it needs to be, at least for me.

So with all this, the race plan is now set. Here it is.

Swim sub 40 minutes (wetsuit legal will make it sub 36 minutes which it is suppose to be.)

Bike average over 20 mph which is 2:48:00 or faster. This will be my longest bike race portion with my TT bike, aero wheels, & aero helmet.

Run sub 2 hours which is a pace of 9:09 per mile. I plan out going out at 9:00 pace for the first half & then turn it up after the turn around.

Including transitions (T1 & T2), I'm shooting at breaking 5:30. The weather will be perfect & hopefully I be near perfect.

Memorial Day update

I really needed to do a marathon update but its been over two months since that race. So I will just update everything I've done & am doing since then.

I really loved the marathon in DC, easy to get to everything by the Metro. I will be doing this event again! I PR'ed the race by about 25 minutes with a 3:53:40. I was hoping for a little faster but I'll take my first marathon under 4 hours!

After a couple of easy weeks, next up was the Seymour Mini Marathon on May 4th. Another PR by 4 minutes with a 1:38:40. Now I will say the course was a little short but I guess I can't complain since I was the one who designed the route!

The next day was the B2 Bike Time Trial, a 20K all out effort. But....it was rainy, cold, & windy. Still went out with Liz & pre-ride the course plus a little more. We both thought it was the hilly course, which has uphills, downhills, & turns. And after riding the course, I thought it was too dangerous to race. I packed it in & took a nice hot shower.

Next up on my schedule was Camp Pyoca Sprint Triathlon. I was ready for the Tri season to started. Then I got the call, the call from Camp Pyoca stating that there was not enough pre registered to have the event. Cancelled, now what. Well I found a Duathlon on the same day in Shelbyville. Good enough for me, and cheap. It was a 2 mile run, then a 16 mile bike, finished off by another 2 mile run. I finished 11th overall with a time of 1:16:30, but that was only good for 5th in my age group. No hardware! Still need to work on speed in the run. I thought my bike was slow also but after checking out the results, I had the 6th best bike if the day.

Last week I started a running clinic put on by Danny Fisher in Columbus. This clinic is aimed at helping runners for the upcoming Mill Race Marathon in September, which I have on my schedule. Last week we did a track workout & I had my fastest mile (6:10) & half mile (3:00) since high school. Tonight we did mile repeats & he had me do them faster than I would have thought I could have!

The schedule for the rest of the summer/fall for me is/

Red White & Blue Festival 5K on June 15th.

Muncie Ironman 70.3 on July 13th

Buckhead Border Triathlon on July 21st

Columbus Triathlon on August 10th

Columbus Mill Race Marathon on September 28th

So it looks like I'll be dining a lot run training for the next couple of months!

Somedays I swim

Somedays I bike

Somedays I run

Everyday I Tri!

Marathon Race Day Plans...From Mind to Paper

Sitting here this evening looking over my Garmin Connect data & thinking about my race day marathon plan. So I thought what better way to think about it by putting it to paper. So here goes...

I signed up for the Rock-n-Roll USA Marathon in DC for a few reasons. First is because my step-daughter lives in Arlington, VA & its always good to go visit. Second, free room at her apartment. Third, something to keep me motivated during the cold winter months. Fourth, as I found out later, my step-daughter was signing up to do her 1st half marathon so my wife gets to be there for that also!!

Now I entered this race with 4 marathons under my belt, 2 of them during an Ironman, with a PR of 4:18:40. And a new goal of a PR of 3:45:00. So the Monday after Thanksgiving was the start of my 16 week training plan. After a couple of weeks & multiple speed workouts, I changed my goal down to 3:30. By the start of February, I started doubting the 3:30 goal. As the length of my runs grew, I doubted that I could hold an 8 minute mile every mile for 26.2 miles. My times for my longer speed runs were just a little off of that time. February was a month full of negative thoughts (I was extremely glad it was only 28 days long!) The last 2 weeks, my attitude has changed. I knew I had to get serious about my race day plan. So I started looking back at my data, checking pace & heart rate. Then I decided to changed my plan from a pace plan to a heart rate plan. I think this will be my best plan based on not knowing the course. From the elevation chart, the course looks to climb from mile 4 to mile 7. If I try to keep my pace correct for those 3 miles, I might just red line too early in the race.

Now for my plan - 3:45 is the goal, 3:30 is wishful thinking, & 3:59:59 is a must! To achieve this, I will keep my heart rate between 145 & 150 for the 1st 13.1 miles. Then for the next 10 miles, heart rate will be between 150 & 155. The last 5K is whatever it takes!

Based off my data, I should be able to keep around an 8:30 pace for the 1st half, then closer to 8:00 pace for the next 10 miles. The last 5K, the sky is the limit.

Now for the nutrition side of this, which is usually the forgotten element in endurance races. I have trained during my long runs with water & GU gels. Taking 2-4oz of water every mile & 1 gel every 4 miles for the 1st half & then 1 gel every 3 miles for the last half. That would be a gel at mile 4, 8, 12, 15, 18, 21, & 24 for a total of 700-800 calories. If I change that to 1 gel every 3 miles, it would add 1 more to the total for 800-900 calories. This seems to be a better plan as I've been told I needed about 1000 calories total for a marathon.

So there it is, my pacing, heart rate, & nutritional plan for the USA Marathon on March 16th. I'll be posting sometime after the race either here, or on Twitter (@gregreasoner), or on Facebook. All 3 sometime, but if you really want to know how I did, check my Twitter 1st. Don't wish my luck, as I've put in the work this winter. But instead, I need mental strength to get this done. When the going gets tough, the tough get going!

Opps....Been Awhile Since Last Post

Only did one post in February, just lazy I guess. It was a rough month. All this cold weather has really got to me metally. Missed some runs because of it, actually skipped 6 days running in a row, IN A ROW. Not really good training for a marathon. Wasn't that I was sitting around on my butt, still did my swimming (mainly because I am the one with the key to the door) & still was doing basketball. Just lost a little motivation to run. I never got cold while running, just using it as an excuse. I'm afraid it will show come race day.

Now on to race day. Been doing a lot of thinking (probably too much) about pacing & nutrition. When I signed up for this race, I was thinking about running a 3:45 (8:35 pace). As my training ramped up, I felt like I could up that pace to 8:00 which would be a 3:30. So I changed my runs to meet that new pace. But the last 6 weeks, that pace seems like it might be too much to ask. Now I'm thinking that I'm going to base the first 1/2 of the race off of heart rate, then the next 10 miles I will push that heart rate up a little more. Then the last 3.2 miles will be all out. All that being said, its back to 3:45 goal. Which still would be a big PR.

Nutrition is next. In training during my long runs, I drink every mile. But at the race, aid stations are about every 2 miles....what to do. I can't carry all that extra water. My Fuel Belt could carry enough water for about 6 of those miles. Can I just refill those bottles without losing much time?? Guess I'll find out.

Oh, almost forgot, first race of the season was on 2-16, ValenTimes 10K. I got a PR by more than 7 minutes. 44:19, 7:07 pace, 10th overall, 3rd age group.

Now for the totals
2-4/2-10 - Weekly total - 13.75 miles, 2:05:34, 9:07 pace
2-11/2-17 - Weekly total - 41.43 miles, 5:51:52, 8:29 pace
2-18/2-25 - Weekly total - 48;36 miles, 7:09:03, 8:52 pace
2-26/3-3 - Weekly total - 28.81 miles, 4:28:47, 9:19 pace

Marathon training total - 413.41 miles, 61:51:57, 8:58 pace

Biggest Week So Far

Biggest week so far was on schedule.  Monday was my rest day, did 1650 yards in the pool, nice recovery work. Tuesday was what they call your marathon time predictor, Yasso 800's. Plan was 800's in 3:30, which is equal to 3:30 marathon. I ended up with 4 x 800 with times of 3:29, 3:35, 3:41, 3:30, pretty close to what I wanted, 8 miles total for the day. And it was 65 degrees outside. That was of note because Wednesday, the temp dropped all day & was windy for our group run. Still got in 6 miles. Then headed to the pool for a recovery 1650 yards. Thursday was a rest day. Friday was Tempo day (as usual). Tough getting out the door though, as temp was 20 with single digit wind chill. But...still got out the door for 10 miles with 7 at MP. Good run, was extremely happy with this one. Saturday was another rest day but Sunday was the long run. 20 miles scheduled, again 19 degrees with single digit wind chill. I did an 11 mile loop & was ready to call it quits after that. But managed to get back out for the 2nd half of the run. 2nd half was rough, legs hurt, knee hurt, hard keeping hands warm. Still manged to get it in, finished with 19.6 miles at 9:05 pace. Not the 20 I wanted but close enough for the condition I was in.

Another big week this upcoming week!

Weekly training totals - 44.1 miles, 6:28:21, 8:48 pace

Marathon training totals - 320.44 miles, 48:06:29, 9:00 pace

New Blog Title

Since my blog was titled Ironman Louisville 2012, & that is done (but not forgotten) I thought is was time to convert to a new title & blog listing. So here goes, just wish I could move some of those posts to the new blog. Oh well!