Progress

It's been a long time since Lake Tahoe last year, and I've been pretty quiet lately.  There are a few interesting things going on, so let me publicize the major events:

1.) Epic Camp Canada - Flying out on August 18 and returning on August 31.
2.) Ironman Lake Tahoe - This is my main focus for the year.

There have been many reasons for my absence from the internet.  Early in the year, school was soul-crushing.  With work, training, AND school, there just wasn't enough time or energy to go around.  After graduating in June, I had a huge void in my week which I promptly filled with additional training.

My build started the week after graduation (June 16.)  My parents and I went to Tahoe for the week, and they were incredibly enthusiastic and supportive of my training.  Not only did my dad keep me on track when I almost bailed on riding around the lake, but they also rented a kayak when I wanted to swim in the lake.  I can't wait to give them the gift of an awesome Kona vacation in October next year (fingers crossed!!)

Since that week, my training has been incredibly consistent except for a small hiccup with running.  I've had five 20+ hour training weeks.  The breakdowns of each week:

Jun16-22:
Swim: 59min
Bike: 18hr 48min
Run: 2hr 50min
Total: 22hr 38min

Jun 23-29:
Swim: 0min (!!)
Bike: 16h 41min
Run: 4hr 14min
Total: 20hr 56min

Jun 30-Jul 6:
Swim: 35min (!!)
Bike: 21hr 38min
Run: 1hr 19min
Total: 23hr 32min

Jul 7-13:
Swim: 1hr 19min
Bike: 17hr 17min
Run: 1hr 55min
Total: 20hr 31min

July 14-20:
Swim: 2hr 0min
Bike: 20hr 59min
Run: 3hr 15min
Total: 26hr 15min

I've had a few really good workouts that I consider breakthrough workouts:
- Sub-60min Mt. Diablo south gate
- 18:34 Old La Honda
- 16 mile run at 6:16/mi (probably contributed to injuring my foot)
- 148 mile ride from Palo Alto to Santa Cruz and back

Speaking of which, a few weeks ago my foot started hurting.  It's mostly better now, but whenever the pace starts creeping into the low 6's, I get super worried.  Now, I have to wonder how beneficial fast running is for ironman training.  A lot of people on the internet have been criticizing my runs saying they're way too fast.  Given that my goal is to run a 3:10 on race day, it's really hard to say.  Hard tempo running is something that I *REALLY* enjoy.  Since I've been babying my foot post-injury, I've really been missing it.  Hopefully I can get back to those soon.  I feel like there's a benefit, if only to keep me loving running as much as I do.

Epic Camp is four weeks away.  This means I have probably have 2.5 weeks of hard training before I need to start tapering.  John Newsom sent out the points sheet a few days ago.  The breakdown looks pretty good, and it seems to favor runners and swimmers.  There will be a few King of the Mountain competitions for biking, and I believe those will be huge in deciding who wins overall.  I'll see what I can do, but my ultimate goal is camp completion.  That might be hard enough as-is.

I'm headed to Kirkwood this weekend for some good training.  I have a pretty epic ride planned for Saturday, and I haven't finalized my plans for Sunday.