Week 55 Results - Rehearsal Day

M - Swim (2.0 miles - 1:07:03)/ Bike (40 miles - 2:20:00)- Brick
T - Missed
W - Run (8.0 miles - 1:03:55)
H - Missed
F - Missed
S - Swim (2.0 miles - 1:05:00)/ Bike (70 miles - 4:18:00)/ Run (11 miles - 1:54:00) - Brick
S - Rest

Total Workouts: 3 (2 bricks)
Total Hours: 11 hrs 47 min

Swim Total: 4.0 miles/ 2 hr 12 min
Bike Total: 110 miles/ 6 hr 38 min
Run Total: 19 miles/ 2 hr 57 min

Ending Weight: 173 lbs

Fun week. While I was hoping for a bigger week in terms of workouts and hours, I'm happy with the quality this week. The highlight of the week was my trip out to St. George where I met up with 6 of my friends for a boys' weekend. The main purpose of this trip was to pre-ride the bike course and get a good feel for the terrain so that I'm not surprised in three weeks. I ended up modifying Saturday's workout and expanding it to a full rehearsal day routine based on a recommendation from Jim Moss. Following is a write-up of Saturday's activities:

Swim - Rich Goode, Stan Hansen and Greg Hoole joined me for this leg. We opted to do a pool swim versus going to Sand Hallow. This decision was based on both safety (didn't want to get hit by a boat at 7 AM) and logistics (getting bikes there and back, etc). I ended up swimming 2 miles (1:05:00) in the new community req center in Washington. Felt good. Then headed back to my parents' place in Sun River (south of Bloomington and southern most part of St. George). Rested for about 40 minutes.

Bike - Rode with Rich and Greg the whole way with Stan and John Richards going part of the way. Rode from Sun River to the start of the Ironman bike loop via Green Valley (apx. 13 miles), then did the 45 mile loop and came back home. Total bike was 70 miles in 4:28:00. Pretty slow pace. The roads near Kayenta are in terrible condition. The hills near Gunlock are very steep. However, the worst part of the ride was the head wind (30 - 35 mph) all the way home from Veyo. While I was hoping to take advantage of the downhill, I ended up exerting quite a bit of strength even on the downhill. Overall, I really enjoyed the bike ride, but it was definitely a challenge. I can only hope we don't experience similar headwinds on 5/1. Rested for 1 hour.

Run - Ran with Rich Goode. Instead of running the actual marathon course (heavy traffic), we opted to simply run from Sun River out (1 hour) and back. I ended up doing 11 miles in 1:54:00. I felt better than expected for the first 8 miles but definitely hit a small wall at mile 8. I think this had less to do with my conditioning and more to do with my liquid nourishment. It was a warm/windy day and I didn't do great planning for placing my liquids. I had my friends place Gatorade at mile 4. Drinking at mile 4 and then again on the return at mile 8 was not sufficient.

Nourishment - I opted to try this first Ironman without Infinit (although my buddy Rich Goode is doing Infinit and seems to like it) and instead go with Gatorade/Gu/Bloks (bike only)/Salt Caps. This has worked out okay for me in training. I did the following: went through two Gatorade bottles on the first 40 miles (refilled with water at Veyo). Finished off another bottle and 1/2 over the remaining 30 miles. Basically, I'm drinking about 1 bottle every 20 miles/1.25 hours. Many of my fellow riders have commented on the fact that I don't drink enough liquids but it hasn't really bothered me. I need to conscientiously think about drinking, many times not drinking because I'm thirsty. I switched off between Bloks (3 at a time - cherry with caffeine) and Gu (chocolate) on the bike. I ate three 6-packs of Bloks and two Gus on the bike. On the run, I had a Gu at mile 6 and another at mile 10. Didn't have any stomach issues; however as mentioned, I did feel like I was about to hit a wall near the end of my run. Again, definitely didn't get enough to drink on the run.

The overall experience was great. I don't think this was a huge confidence booster, but it wasn't demoralizing either. I feel confident I can finish this thing; although, the race day weather element will play a big part in things. I think this is going to be a slow triathlon for everyone given the challenging course. While my main goal is to finish, I was thinking I could do this in apx. 14 hours (80 min swim/7 hr bike/5 hr run/20 min transitions); however, I now think it will be closer to 15 hours with the bike being closer to 8 hours.

T-minus 3 weeks and counting!!!!