Chili Chase Race Report, Week 16 Summary

This week was my highest volume of training yet this year. My total training time was 23 hours and 15 minutes. For the week I ran 61 miles which was more than I have run in a week since I was running cross country at Augustana over 6 years ago. I also had my highest bike week this year with 140 miles. For swimming I was able to get in 12,000 yards over three swims. I also lifted weights 3 times, did speed drills and strides 3 times, lunges, and plyometrics twice, and core work 6 times. I was excited by how well I was able to recover from this high volume. My plan is to keep the volume up for two more weeks before backing down a couple weeks while my family is on a cruise for Spring break. On Thursday I received ART treatment from Dr. Kaminski at Kaminski Pain and Performance Care and that had me feeling great when I left his office! I had a couple good bike workouts with Jeff Castro who is a local triathlete that finished very high at Ironman Kona in the late 90's. The workouts with Jeff were on a computrainer (a fancy device that measures the watts, or power you are cycling at). On Monday we did 5x5 minutes at 300 watts and it was a killer. Friday I did a long run of 13 miles and then finished with 4x200 in 35 seconds on the track at PV. Following that I met Jeff for another 5x5 and my legs were pretty tired. I managed to hold the 5x5 at 270 watts. My favorite workout of the week was actually in a local road race on Sunday called the Chili Chase. It took place in Davenport, Iowa.

Before this run I did my last swim workout and then headed straight to the race. I wanted to get 9 miles in so I warmed up for 3. The race was a 4 miler and it was pretty cold...about 13 degrees with the wind chill. My plan was to tempo run the first 3 miles at 5:40 pace and then race the last mile hoping for a 5:20. The first mile started down a bit of a hill but then came back up a hill and went through a snow covered street and I hit the mile mark at 5:47 feeling very relaxed. I was in 4th place and could see the leaders about 10 seconds ahead of me. The second mile was slightly downhill and I ran it in 5:31 still feeling very relaxed. I was right back on the pace I had hoped for crossing the 2 mile split in 11:19. The leaders were about 6 seconds ahead of me at this point. In the 3rd mile I caught the lead pack of 3 guys and stayed with them waiting to hit the 3 mile mark when I would start my hard mile. I came through the 3 mile mark exactly where I had planned at 17:00, a 5:40 pace for the first 3. I changed gears right away and started running the last mile hard. It was flat for the first half mile but then finished up a long gradual hill nearly 1/2 mile in length. It hurt but I ended up running it in 5:11 and won the race by about 10 seconds. I was really excited about running the workout exactly as I had planned. I didn't think I would be able to run 5:20 once I saw the course finished up a long hill so I was very pleased with the 5:11. It left me knowing I'm in better running shape than I've ever been for triathlons. I was especially glad to be able to do that kind of workout at the end of a week where I did so much training. It was also exciting to watch my wife Jen win the women's race. We each received a gift card to Chili's Restaurant for our wins. It will be tough to stay away from the Chili's Loaded Cheese Fries but I read somewhere that's one of the worst foods you can eat with 3 days worth of fat so I'll have to remember that when we go there. 3 months until my first big race in Memphis...It's coming fast. I think about it every day and it motivates me to lose my last few pounds and to train hard. I have no doubts my biking and running will be at the level I need them to be but I'm still scared to death about the swim...Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!!