Weekend update

Saturday - Mantanzas 5k - St. Augustine, FL
My cold was still in full force on Saturday morning and I woke to a drizzly, overcast, chilly day. But, I decided to do the running race, but bag the cycling race later that day if it was still raining...I was already registered for the run, so what the heck.

I packed all of my running and cycling gear into the car and headed to St. Augustine. It was going to be a nice course right through the oldest city in the U.S., right by Fort Mantanzas. By the time the race had started, the rain had stopped. I reached the first mile in about the time I wanted, 5:45...but, would soon find out it was too fast for how I was feeling! The "monkey jumped on my back" through the second mile with a split of 11:53 (6:08 mile 2nd)...and then he started kicking, screaming and swinging through the finish with a time of 18:43 (6:12 3rd mile pace). Hmmm...it seems being sick has a cumulative effect as the race progresses. It was a good workout and was faster than the 19:20 I did on December 31st...so I can't be too unhappy. It started raining, so I took the rest of the day off to try and recuperate.

Sunday - Penny Farms Brick
I decided to ride our local "long" group ride (about 80 miles). It was pretty chilly when we started, and didn't warm up that much...maybe because it was so windy. This made for a pretty hard ride. I decided to sit in and take it easy so I could do a run afterwards. I don't think I drank enough during the ride, and it showed when I hopped off and went for my run. I try to do all of my "Bricks" with a fast transition (under 5 minutes...usually under 3). Today it took longer getting off all of the clothes I was wearing for the ride, but still under 5 minutes. FYI, "Bricks" are called Bricks because that is the way your legs feel when you start running after having ridden your bike...nice, huh? Anyhow, I ran an hour after the ride...and it hurt. The first 20-30 minutes kind of hurt, but every 10 minutes after that the pain grows exponentially! I was pretty thirsty, and should have strapped on one of those tri-geek belts that hold fluids. I have to remember that everything I do on the bike will have a big effect on the run afterwards (eg. Drink more!)...and put on one of those fluid belts, even if it looks kinda dorky.

Hopefully I'll be over this cold soon, and haven't put myself in too much of a hole.

Parting Thoughts About Long Days
I've seen two schools of thought on long days of training for Ironman triathlons:

One method has you doing your long ride and long run days back to back on the weekend. I think the theory is that you can prefatigue your legs on Saturday with a long ride followed by a short run, and then you do your long run on Sunday with tired legs. This would simulate how your legs would feel in an actual Ironman triathlon. (Huddle/Frey)

The other method spreads out your long run, long ride, and long swim with days in between. Like, long run on Wednesday, long swim on Friday, and long ride on Sunday. This way you can have an optimum workout in each activity without a lot of accumulated fatigue (besides the shorter faster stuff done the rest of the week days). (Gordo/Friel)

Which method works best? I've passed this question along to a coaching expert, Shawn Burke at Velocity Multisport. Shawn has done a bunch of Ironman and 1/2 Ironman races, and has done a lot of coaching...so he's one of the main guys I go to for triathlon questions. I'll post what he thinks when I hear back from him.

Sween