- I was going for a 1:28; I got a 1:28.
Four miles until the rest week.
Oh it's slippery!
I'm gonna be straight up with you guys.
After yesterday's 30 minute bike, and 23k run,
I'm a bit of a bitch today.
I am not looking forward to this.
I have a hour and 30 minute bike,
and then a four mile run mostly at race pace,
and I am literally counting down the hours
until rest week starts tomorrow.
After that workout, it happens.
Oh, oh, it is gonna happen.
Glad you can join me on this sissy-fit workout today.
Loud today, and on tough gear.
I'm gonna kill two birds with one stone today,
and give you my daily triathlon tips from the workout,
because a friend of mine might be curling
in our Manitoba Provincial Final.
He's actually the Best Man at our wedding.
And little known fact,
I actually used to be a professional curler,
at one time we were ranked fifteenth in the world.
I don't curl anymore, I gave it up a couple years ago
because I was actually having too much fun on YouTube
and was spending my weekends doing that.
But, if he gets into the final
I wanna be able to go and do that.
So let's get this out of the way here.
Somebody had the brilliant idea yesterday,
of sharing what my personal best times are
in running races and triathlons, time trials, and the pool.
And I like that idea,
to give you guys some context of where I'm coming from.
I would say that I am an aggressive age group triathlete.
And just recently,
an aggressively mediocre age group triathlete.
Let's start with some times.
Running: 5k road races, a 19:02 is my personal best.
5k on the track, which is really your only true 5k, 19:20.
Difference is because road races can lie,
courses can be short, and your watch can lie to you.
10k, I've actually never really done a true 10k road race
that I've been well trained for.
I did a flub of one, and just kinda entered it for fun
on about 45 minutes notice last year, and did 40:40.
I'm convinced though that I've gotta, a sub 40 in me.
Somewhere around a 39:20. Just need to enter one.
Half marathons: just this past year,
finally cracked the one hour 30 minute mark
in half marathons, and did a 128:06 I think.
That was a good day. That was a really good race.
It was a hot day, traction wasn't good,
I was going for a 128, I got a 128.
And most people's times were around two minutes
off of where they thought they'd be.
I had a happy race there. Very, very, very fulfilling race.
I liked that race.
In the pool we do 400 meter time trials,
and my personal best there is 6:09 just a few weeks ago.
In races, I think I've got a sprint 750 meter swim time
of like 11:45, somewhere around there. Sounds right.
Olympic 24:01, and the only half Iron Man I've ever done.
I'm convinced the course was long,
everyone was convinced the swim course
was long at Superior Man last year.
I think it was just under 31? I gotta check that out.
Oh jeez. 33:08. Yeah, that's why I thought it was long.
Okay, first hard set of this bike is about to start.
I'll check back in with ya in 20 minutes from now.
I'll tell you the triathlon time PBs I've had.
Alright alright alright.
We got two 20 minute intervals done. One left to go.
My triathlon personal bests go as follows:
Sprint somewhere around 1:07 40.
Interestingly enough, my watch died right before that race,
so I did that one by feel.
Sprint you can do that with,
because you just hit one step shy of passing out,
and see if you can hold that.
Olympic 2:14 02.
I think I also did that one without a watch.
No, no, no. I had a watch for that one
but I didn't pay much attention to it.
And half Iron Man was, yeah, 446:46
at the Duluth Superior Man triathlon last year.
I've never done a full Iron Man, but it's on tap.
The thing is, when I want to do a full Iron Man,
I wanna be able to race it, not just finish.
And I know that to be able to race it,
probably need somewhere around six to ten more hours
a week that I can train in.
So those are my triathlon personal bests,
but there's something that is really key
that you gotta know about those personal bests
that allowed me to do them.
Because without any sort of structure,
I was nowhere near that.
So I'm gonna go ahead and finish up this last interval,
and after that's done, while I'm cooling down,
I'll tell ya how I was able to bring
my triathlon times down drastically.
Like, hours. In some cases.
Okay, last interval is about to go.
Nine more minutes, and four more miles until rest week.
Ooh! Cool down here, and then onto the four mile run.
Four miles until rest week.
What I'm getting at that's really important to know about
those PB times that I put up.
It didn't start out like that.
The first three seasons of triathlon that I went into,
I was a mow. Just a pure mow.
I think my first sprint race was something like a 1:26
and it hurt so bad.
My next Olympic distance race was a 2:54,
and then I think maybe the next year I got faster
and did a 1:24, but then I took a step back
and did an Olympic distance race in 3:04.
A half marathon in about a 1:58.
Times are anything but impressive.
I was more than halfway down the field,
and I probably weighed about 180 pounds,
but I slowly starting chipping away at it.
And the more I learned, the more structure I gave myself,
the faster I got, worked on my nutrition.
But one of the biggest things that I did
that allowed me to get faster, was I said,
You know what? I don't have the guts to go for two hours
at my max in a half marathon, or an Olympic distance race.
I had to start slower, I had to start shorter,
so I committed in about year four
to focusing on sprint distance races until
I felt comfortable ramping up the distance and the speed.
And being able to focus on that distance specifically,
which builds a ton of speed, a ton of strength.
I brought that 1:24 sprint distance down to about 1:14,
and then 1:12, and then 1:11, and then 1:08, and then 1:07.
And that took three years.
But what happened in those three years,
was that my body got used to really hard training,
and I slowly built up the distances even though
I was still doing just sprint distance triathlons.
I was training more.
And then what happened after three years,
is I jumped up to Olympic distance racing.
And the speed was still there.
I went from a 1:07 PB in a sprint
to a 1:14 PB in an Olympic.
And in the very next year again,
a 446:46 in an Iron Man.
Because I had spent three years focusing on that base
of speed and learning how to be a triathlete
at a shorter distance, which made it much more manageable.
And it allowed me to cut out a whole lot of the variables
of nutrition, of endurance, of huge volumes,
and build a structure of learning what types of training
my body responded well to,
and how I needed to structure my training
to make sure I didn't get injured.
Just learn my body and learn the sport in general.
So start slow to finish fast,
and build up from a strong base at shorter distances.
That's the tip of the day. That's a good one.
Okay, that's the bike for today.
I'll bring you with me for the four mile run
so you can see just how
so you can see just how pleasant it is out there in winter.
Let's go do that. We gotta hurry up.
My buddy's on TV.
Four miles until rest week.
30 minutes until rest week.
Mile one I wish I was done.
Oh it's slippery!
Mile two I feel like poo, and I'm at the turn around.
Mile three you don't wanna be me.
Mile four I'm ready to lie on the floor.
Big hill.
Oh boy. Alright gang, that's it.
It is rest week.
Thanks for putting up with me all week while I was a bitch.
I'm gonna get so much faster over rest week.
Time to watch my buddy.
Have a spectacular day.