Ironman training

Sunday – Rode to Nyack and back this morning. The weather was pretty warm and I am sun burned now. Got a flat tire on the way back but luckily I was not far from the bike shop when that happened. Took me a while to change the tire and had to try out 3 different tubes, first tube was uneven and I learned I should not keep my tube under the sun inside the pouch behind my bike saddle, second one pop when I pumped it to 110 psi and luckily the third one worked. In total, rode around 53 miles at 17 miles an hour.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/178020228

Saturday – Long run with the whippets, 13 miles along the west side highway at 7:20ish pace. It’s pretty warm today.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/178020256

Friday – Swam for an hour at River Bank pool. Keri told me that my stroke didn’t sync too well and seems like I stopped at each stroke. I always thought I need to glide more to increase my distance/stroke, but instead by doing this is slowing down my momentum. So I’ll have to relearn my swim stroke.

Thursday – Did track workout at East River track, first track workout of the year. We did 2X800m, 2X1600, 1X3200, 3X400

Wednesday – Interval bike ride 3X5 mins. Tried out the heart rate monitor, got my heart rate up to 150-155 for each interval.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/176643275

Tuesday – Ran 6 miles loop around Central Park, 7 min/mile pace
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/176643296

Monday – Swam at River Bank for an hour.

Sunday – Volunteered as a course marshal for the TD 5 boro bike tour. We started at 7:45am at downtown and arrived in Staten Island around 10am. The course is around 35 miles. Riding as a course marshal is great because we got to front in front of the VIP riders and just right behind the police car. Finished the ride early and figured I need to get more miles in on my bike. I was on the bike for only 20 mins this whole week, so happened to meet a friend on the Staten Island ferry on the way home and borrowed his bib and did a second loop (skipped the Bronx because they opened up the road when I got there). Met up with Katie and Lindsay in Staten Island, then we rode back to Central Park and did 8 loops around the Harlem Hill. In total, I think I managed to get in 80-90 miles.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/176643290

Saturday – Long Run/Progressive run in Central Park, 11 miles. Picked up pace each mile after mile 7 with an average pace of 7:09 min/mile.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/175128362

Friday – Swam for 30 mins in Chelsea

Thursday – Rest day

Wednesday – BRICK Bike ride on my trainer 4X5 mins interval then ran a quick 2 miles around 6:30 pace after

Tuesday – Hill repeats 6X800m CatHill in Central park
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/173906356

Monday – an hour Swim session at River Bank state park

Sunday – Ran the 4m JP Morgan Run for One today. Was shooting for a sub 6 min/mile pace PR but had a tough time after mile 2 going up those hills. Legs were sore from yesterday’s basketball game, should have rested my legs. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172957428 4 mile, 24:38, 6:09 pace

Had my last swimming lesson at 9pm tonight. The instructor taught us something about open water swimming.. such as drafting, sighting and swimming in a straight line.. Oh man..all those open water swimming styles are so tough, really got me worried about the swimming part again. The hardest part is sighting, my legs kept sinking when I sight and really required a lot of effort.  So this week, because of the race on Sunday, I have not been training as hard, only did one bike ride. Need to put more effort in biking for this coming week.

Saturday  - Basketball and short bike ride

Friday – Swim for 40 mins in the evening, still hate swimming

Thursday – Rest day

Wednesday – Did a quick bike ride, 2 loops around CP and 4 loops around Harlem Hill. It’s a short workout because had a dinner appointment that night. I think in total, I only rode around 18 miles.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172475476 (not exact)

Tuesday – Did a lactate threshold alternate run with my team. 0.5 mile 5k pace and 0.5 mile 10k pace for recovery. Did 5 repeats in total around 5 m. Was pushing myself and average pace was 6:07 which was faster than my PR.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172475459 (not exact)

Monday – Weekly swim session plus Covo happy hour pizza after. I am still a slow swimmer so Nikki helped me took a video of my swim for me to analyze it after. Please critique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s6kwa4-FqI&list=UUQTQyLRtNYyZaDktAPrjjmA&index=1&feature=plcp

Sunday – Was a rainy day, did 2 loops bike ride around the park, swimming lesson in the evening.

Saturday – Long run with Beth, Jim and Kevin. 16 miles at 7:30 min/mile pace along the west side
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172475437

Friday – Swim session

Thursday – Ran with Nike town, did 3X0.6 mile run at sub 6 min/mile pace

Wednesday – Don’t remember

Tues – Did hill workout with my team. 14x200m up Cat Hill. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/169815821

Monday – Bike ride, 3 big loops around the park and 10 loops around Harlem Hill 32 miles at 19 miles/hourhttp://connect.garmin.com/activity/168926112

Sunday April 15th – Swimming lesson in the evening

Saturday April 14th – Rode 3 loops around CP in the morning. Had a crash after the 2nd loop, it sure doesn’t feel fun crashing at 20 miles and hour on the bike. My shirt and gloves were cut but luckily my bike wasn’t damaged, at least I don’t have head injury. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168089876

Did another long run 14 miles in the evening with Lindsay, because of my injury, just ran it easy at 8:30 pace http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168089879

Friday – Swim session

Thurs – Niketown run

Wed – Don’t remember

Tues – Ran 6 miles, the workout was 6 min run at 7 :30 pace and surge for 2 mins after that.

Monday – Swim session

Sunday – Rode 3 loops around Central park plus 10 loops around Harlem hill. Harlem Hill is a 4.4% grade hill so it’s a pretty good hill workout. Weather was amazing today and it’s pretty crowded in Central Park. So did the Hill Repeats until the park became less crowded. Rode around 34 miles today. It’s more efficient riding in Central Park than going all the way to Nyack because it only took me less than 2 hours to do 34 miles and was able to to avoid the traffics.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/166178911

Saturday – Did the Scotland run 10k, was pretty nervous before the race because my left ankle has been hurting the whole week and was glad that my left ankle turned out ok. I felt fine after the first mile so I raced it. 39:38, 6:24 m/m pace
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/166178900

Friday – Swam for 30 mins in the pool in Chelsea. My problem now is that my legs are sinking, I guess I’ll need to figure out a way to gain more fat so I can float better..lol

Thurs – Rest

Wed – Swam in the pool in Chelsea

Tues – Did a recovery run with the whippet, my left ankle were hurting, afraid that it might be  tendinitis so took it easy, especially there is a race coming up on Sat. Only ran 2 miles.

Mon – Swam in the pool in Riverbank State Park (145th st) with Keri, Rich, Emi and Nikki. This is my first time to the pool, it’s $2 for lap swim. Keri gave me some good advices
- Catch the water more before pulling
-Don’t glide too much and keep the turnover of my stroke constant so I don’t lose momentum
-Figure out a way to avoid my legs from sinking
The pool is pretty nice, not as crowded as the one in Chelsea but it’s a little far so not too efficient use of my time, even though the pool is nicer. Went to Covo for happy hour pizza later, the pizza is amazing. It’s 50% off on every Mon and Tues.

Sunday – Rode to Nyack by myself and came back with Dan, Ellen, Rob. Rode around 60 miles and ate at Halo Berlin when we got back.

Saturday – Went for a morning 12 miles run by myself because got up late. 12 miles at  7:14 pace
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/166178861

Friday – Don’t remember what I did on Friday.

Thursday – Did hill repeats for 20 mins with Niketown

Wednesday – 4 loops bike ride around Central Park with Steve. Had a hard time keeping up because my legs were still sore from yesterday’s workout.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/166178869

Tues – Lactate Threshold  Alternate run with the Whippet. 0.5 mile at 5 k pace and 0.5 mile at a pace 15 secs slower. Started the first set too fast, tried to keep up with Rei and ended up doing 5:42 pace and was suffering after that. This is always my problem, starting out too fast. Hope I will remember this next time.

Monday – Swam in Chelsea

Did a short intensity workout this evening, biked for 8 miles, ran 2 miles and swam in a 3 hours period.
My legs were still kind of sore from yesterday’s bike ride, but decided to go for a quick bike ride around Central park. Did a loop in 20 mins and my legs were already burning.  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/161689214
Rode home and then went for a 2 mile run at the west side at 6:30 min/mile pace http://connect.garmin.com/activity/161689218  Got home at 7:30pm, cooked spaghetti, ate it then went for my 9pm swimming lesson. I think the workout is a little similar to a sprint tri, except for the bowl of spaghetti.

We did drills during the swimming lesson today, started out a 200m swim, 200 pull, 200 kicks. Did a fast 200 m swim and my time was around 4:30 mins I think, my first ever time trial in swimming. Wasn’t fast but at least I got an idea of the level I am at. Then John, the instructor wanted us to do alternate breathing swim drills, by doing 3,5,7,5 strokes before getting a breathe. I had trouble doing that, because I have been so use to doing 2 strokes swim before breathing.

Yesterday, (Saturday) rode around 65 miles to Nyack with NYCC http://connect.garmin.com/activity/161689207

Went for a swim on Friday after work.

Did the Indian drill run with Niketown on Thursday, did 4 repeats of half a mile at 7min pace. Then did 30 mins of biking on my trainer with 3x10mins sets.

Rested on Wed.

Did hill workout on Tues with the whippets, 10X400m up cat hill.

On Monday, went for a swim after work.

Ran the NYC half marathon today, finished it in 1:27:53, just just missed my PR by a bit. Weather was awesome and the course was great. There were around 15,000 runners. First 6 miles were a little hilly because it’s in Central Park but after that, it’s all flat. As usual, I started out a little faster than I should have, and kind of slowed down at the end. There were a few CPTC girls who passed me at mile 12, but managed to pass them before going in the tunnel before South Street Seaport which is the finish line. I was expecting to PR in this course but my legs felt a little different from the bike training. It seems to me that biking uses a different sets of muscles and increases the density of my quad’s muscles which I felt a little unnatural.

NYC Half http://connect.garmin.com/activity/159195001

The past week has been a little slow, still recovering from my long bike ride and run from last weekend. Didn’t bike as much in order to save my legs.

Swam on Monday morning, felt a little easier breathing on my left now. I think I just need to delay catching my breathe a little later until my left stroke goes all the way back.

On Tuesday, did a slower 4 miler tempo run at 7 min pace http://connect.garmin.com/activity/159195081

On Thursday, did a 5 mile recovery run with Niketown.

Went to the pool again on Friday and did a short bike ride to Brooklyn on Saturday before the NYC half.

On Monday, did a Brick workout. After setting up my bike trainer, I did a 20 mins lactate threshold ride on the bike and ran 4 miles at 6:44 min/pace at the west side before heading to my group meeting at 7:30pm. The first 2 mile, I got a strong headwind behind me so the negative split is because of the headwind. I kind of like this workout, it’s pretty intense but it’s short.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/155942326

Tuesday, ran with Niketown and did 2 loops around the reservoir which is around 3.2 miles at a 6:30 ish pace http://connect.garmin.com/activity/155942324 and then went for a swim with Steve at the pool on 54th st. The pool is only 18 yards but that wasn’t my night, didn’t feel very good in the water and drank couple mouthful of pool water. Then I had to rush to UES to meet a friend, the E train wasn’t running so got home pretty late, a long day.

On Wed, did another Brick workout. Biked for 20 mins at a lactate threshold pace, then went out for a 3 mile run at 6:44 min/pace http://connect.garmin.com/activity/155942320 which is exactly the same pace as on Monday before rushing to my Spanish lesson.

Had to file my tax return on Thursday so took that as my rest day.

On Friday, went for a morning swim in the pool for 45 minutes.

On Saturday, went for a group ride with the SIG-A group under NYCC. It’s a nice ride, a little windy and cold in the morning but weather got warmer later in the day. We rode up to Blauvelt which is a little south of South Nyack. Rode 50 miles in the group and then did my own thing in Central Park, http://connect.garmin.com/activity/157188994 in total, I did around 60 miles.

On Sunday, signed up for a long run with the whippet. Went out the night before plus we lost an hour because of day light saving, so was pretty sleepy.
Decided to biked from midtown to Prospect Park because it’ll take the same amount of time on the train anyway, if not longer. Ran 15 miles around Brooklyn, it’s a pretty nice course, we went from Prospect Park, passed by the Gowanus Canal, ran passed IKEA, DUMBO
, 

Williamsburg, Fort Greene and back to the park, did a whole scenic loop around Brooklyn.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/157189010

Biked back home after the run and attended my 2nd swimming lesson at night. We still did drills like last time. Actually I felt pretty good in training this time, maybe it’s because I swam in the slow lane so I found myself swam faster..lol

So this week has been a productive one for training, managed to work out everyday except Thursday. Kind of get a taste of how’s life going to be for the next few months. For the weekend, I biked around 80 miles, ran 15 miles and swam for an hour. Those activities really took up a lot of my time, will need to re prioritize my life.