Sunday – Rode solo to Bear Mountain this morning. Started at 9am and got home around 5pm I think. It’s around 100 miles back and forth. It’s really pretty up there but the climb up was quite tough.
Felt my energy level was pretty low going up the hill and was kind of worried at Bear Mountain when I can’t find water and food because I didn’t bring cash. Glad to see an Irish Bar at mile 60 and stopped for Chicken Fingers. That’s the only fuel I had for the 100 miles ride, not a good training plan at all.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192551802
Did a BRICK workout, 3 mile run at around 6:50 min/mile pace along the west side when I got home.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192551805
Went to this bar called Crown Vic in Williamsburg in the evening, a pretty cool beer garden.
A pretty good article about Ironman training, even though the running part killed many triathletes but biking is really important, it really emphasizes getting strong on the bike.
How to Nail the Ironman!
Also read this pretty interesting article by Mark Allen (6 time World Ironman Champion) about running slow to build base fitness in order to run fast. I have always had the mindset of “no pain, no gain” and train hard to run/bike fast. I always subscribed to the believe of long slow miles will make you run slow and all my workouts have been high intensity workouts. After reading the article, I find it really makes sense and figure that this is what I have been missing in my training – training my fat burning engine.
Working on the aerobic system will make out body more efficient at burning fat because glycogen/carb supplies are limited. So rather than improving our glucose burning (gas) aerobic system, it’s more important to improve our fat burning aerobic system. Each molecule of fat burned produces 460 ATP (energy units) vs. only 36 ATP per molecule of glucose.
Perceived exertion is not a good determinant for maximizing your training. High heart rate training leads to high max heart rates and high training heart rate that can feel comfortable, but this doesn’t translate into actually GOING faster at those high heart rates. Only by developing your aerobic base can one maximize the potential of doing intensity training.
So the below article is saying that by training below your heart rate of 180-Age = (for me it’s 152), will increase your base fitness level/aerobic engine.
http://www.markallenonline.com/maoArticles.aspx?AID=2
This is another great article about aerobic training to build a strong base. Gave a couple examples of famous athletes training at a low heart rate.
http://www.freedomsrun.org/Training/TrainingAerobic.aspx
Saturday – Went to Brighton Beach for an open water swim.
Met up at Grimaldo’s Chair at 10am with other swimmers. Saw quite a few Tri teams training there. Probably because the NYC tri is coming up. Brighton Beach is pretty cool, had Russian pastries
and check out a Russian restaurant on 2nd st. The food there was very similar to food in Central Asia, such as Plov and Laghman. That’s my favorite when I was backpacking around Central Asia. Even the waitress is from Uzbekistan. Also passed by the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island just a few blocks west.
Friday – Swim day.
Thursday – Biked with Dan, JP and Steve in CP. Did 5 loops, around 30miles.
Wednesday – Swim day. Swam with Red Tide in the morning. Spin at home for 30 mins in the evening. 3X5 minutes interval.
Tues – Ran 6 miles around CP at 7:30 ish pace
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/191179113
Monday – Swim day. Swam with Steve in River Bank.
