Sunday – Rode to Piermont in the morning, did around 60 miles. What a hot day today! The weather was almost 100F. Like yesterday, tried to keep my heart rate below 155 bpm during the ride.
At Strictly’s bike store, the SRAM guys gave out test rides on their Specialized Tarmac with Zipp 404 wheels, SRAM red and power meter. I think the bike cost around $10,000. Did around 10 miles on the bike, finally figured out my power output after having been reading about the topic for a while. My power average around 150-160 watt but it can easily spike up to 200-4oo watt if I get up on the saddle going up the hill. Also notice that my right leg is pushing out more power than my left. I don’t think the $10,000 bike add a lot more value than my tri bike. I think fitting and being comfortable on the bike is more important.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/194872943
Went to RACycle in Brooklyn in the afternoon to check out a few tri bikes since my tri bike is a little too big and I have been looking around for new bikes for a few weeks. They are selling Quintana Roo Seduza for $1800 and Cervelo P2 for $2800. For me, I think those 2 bikes have the best value and resale value. I’ll need to get a new bike in the next few days since the Ironman is just 5 weeks away.
Went out for a long run in CP, again tried to keep my heart rate below 155 after reading Mark Allen’s article about base training. Usually I run at a 7:20 pace for 12 miles but by keeping my heart rate under 155bpm, my pace was 8:40 instead.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/194872913
Was going to run at least 15 miles but somehow stepped into a stupid hole and sprained my ankle..ouch! First thing came up my mind is how long will this keep me out from training.. :(((
Saturday – Rode up to Piermont, did around 50 miles today. Checked out the bike store at Piermont, that owner was pitching me the size 51 P4 for $4500 selling at cost including bike fitting. It does sound like a good deal because I remember just the frameset was selling for $4500. I guess to buy a bike, a main consideration is looking at the resale value, so seems like a $4500 p4 might have better resale value than a $2800 P2. But who knows.. Just too much risk to take on.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/194872995
Did a 3 mile run/train to the Whippet Track meet at Lower east side after getting back to the city. Managed to do a 400m relay which was pretty fun.
Friday – Swim day. Went to River Bank state park, they increased the lap swimming fees to $30. But the pool was pretty empty, they opened up the barrier and it’s a 50m pool now.
I needed a pool certification for the Brooklyn Bridge Swim and managed to get the life guard to sign off my swim of 2km (40 laps X50m) in 57 minutes. This was the longest I have swam so far and felt great, pretty proud of myself because just 6 months ago I can’t even swim 10 yards.
I bought this book Swim Speed Secrets for Swimmers and Triathletes: Master the Freestyle Technique Used by the World’s Fastest Swimmers by Sheila Taomina (The only person who competed in 3 different sports in Olympics (Swimming, Triathlon and Modern Pentathlon) recently and this really gave me another perspective of improving my technique.
http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1341379783&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=swim+secrets
Just to give a summary of the book, the Pull is the key! Short and simple.
Another thing to keep in mind is to have a high elbow! Visualizing a brick wall below the water and try to pull yourself over it.
The harder the resistance when you pull at the bottom, the better it is, which is exactly opposite of gliding/streamlining through the path of least resistance on the top.
Thursday – Rest Day. Went out to a charity event, Back on my feet in the evening.
Wednesday – Did 5 loop ride around Central Park, kept a 20miles/hour pace. Guess I am getting stronger on the bike than few weeks back.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/194872958
Tuesday – Skipped the hill workout and instead did a long run 12 miles around CP at 7:38 pace.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/194872970
Monday – Swim day in Chelsea Parks for 45 mins, the pool was just too crowded. There were probably 7-8 people in a lane.
