2 posts tagged “fgsg”

Sunday May 20^th was the Four States TRI in Texarkana ...

Mike Riley and his crew did a super job with the race … This race has been growing each year … There were about 200 entries this year … I have done a lot of races … and I really can’t think of anything they could do to improve … except to Post directions to the race site online somewhere

 

The race features:

1)       Friendly event personnel

2)       Chip timing by the www.atomicracingsystems.com crew and they always do a great job

3)       One turn on the swim course

4)       Nearly closed to traffic bike course

5)       Closed to traffic run course

6)       Great American Flag lined finish chute

7)       Great post-race Food & Drink

8)       Awards (on time) & give away(s)

 

The race & the great weather provided an excellent time to visit with TRI friends that live outside of the area … and it was a great time to hang with training partners also …

 

Daniel Agnew tore up the course record … but Beau Theriot (from The Ride) made him earn it …

 

Now that Daniel is getting some coaching from Chris Hunt (Masters winner and 4th overall at this race), it is scary as to how good he can really be ... 

 

2 guys age 60 finished ahead of me because they beat me by 2 minutes on the swim even though I was happy with my swim … Note: the water was a little murkey ... so I could not see the lane line

 

I was about a minute quicker with the wetsuit … but I gave some of that back when the zipper stuck after the swim …

 

My Ironman Distance Training Plan from www.cruciblefitness.com (and getting my weight under 160) helped my to my best time ever by 2 minutes on this course and a fast last mile on the run ... So I was happy with my results inspite of missing an award by a few seconds ...

 

BUT è I was still 4^th in age group (even though in the top thirty over all) … I had to sprint in the long finish chute to try to hold onto 3rd position ... but as we neared the finish line ... I felt as if I could get a cramp in my right upper hamstring ... And in that delerious moment ... I was able to focus and think rationally that I had a 56 mile training ride after the race and a lot of important Ironman training in the coming days/weeks ... so I backed off to avoid injury ... still very happy with my improvement in this race .... without doing Sprint specific TRI training ...

 

2^nd 3^rd & 4^th in my age group were separated by a total of 20 seconds … Tic – Toc – Tic – Toc …

 

 

Even though my transitions for this race had a few problems … my T1 + T2 time was 3^rd overall (I took a couple of seconds to start my power meter & at T2 I grabbed my Garmin and I had to mess around getting it turned on because of poor planning and not already having it on before the race started) …   

 

I raced my TREK Madone, since I had not had time to get race ready on LUCY yet.  I felt a little down on power on the bike (possibly due to weight loss program & current Ironman training) so I tried to hold it steady instead of pushing too hard and ended up 13^th overall on the bike (just under 23mph) but the restraint on the bike probably helped my run (along with the light weight) … I ran the first mile too slow because I was catching people that I usually never pass on the run so I held back for a while …  

 

Run Mile splits were 7:38, 7:15, & 6:52 (one if not the fastest last miles I have ever ran at the end of a TRI)

 

Photos can be found on my photo site in the set titled (click on the link to the right)è  2007 Four States TRI    

 

Results websites è

4 States TRI overall   http://www.doitsports.com/newresults3/client/84847_199530_2007.txt

4 States TRI agegrp  http://www.doitsports.com/newresults3/client/84847_199529_2007.txt

 

After the award festivities concluded I drove back to Arkadelphia and rode the De Gray ½ bike course (56 miles) and then went home

 

Danger ... Danger Will Robinson !!!!!! ...

Only True TRI - Geeks need look any further ... NOTE: danger of information overload exists ...

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

…

Below are the stats from my power meter for the 4 States TRI & the following 56 mile DeGray ride

Entire workout (253 watts):

    Duration:                 34:22

    Work:                     504 kJ

    TSS:                55.2 (intensity factor 0.982)

    Norm Power:     253

    VI:                           1.04

    Distance:                12.838 mi

    Elevation Gain:       197 ft

    Elevation Loss:       200 ft

    Grade:                    0.0 %  (0 ft)

                                   Max     Avg

    Power:                    483      244      watts

    Heart rate:              150      145      bpm

    Cadence:                104        82      rpm

    Speed:                    34        22.7     mph

DeGray ½ Bike course after the Four States Race è the 1^st & last 8 mile nasty bumpy section is continually getting worse … needs new pavement bad … rode the last 8 bumpy miles easy which brought speed & power for the ride down a little …

 

OVERALL this was a great training ride ... obviously having raced hard 4 hours earlier and then hanging out and then coming back for this ride ... slowed the effort.  This was also my 1st time on LUCY on a course with twisty downhill sections and there were some trafficy section that I was a little tentative on ...

 

Note: my distance was measured from the entrance to the parking lot … so it was a tiny bit short  

Entire workout (208 watts Normal Power):

    Duration:                 (2:53:30)

    TSS:                188.9 (intensity factor 0.808)

    Norm Power:     208

    VI:                           1.09

    Distance:                55.467 mi

    Elevation Gain:       2388 ft

    Elevation Loss:       2333 ft

                                   Max     Avg

    Power:                    516      191      watts

    Heart rate:              141      128      bpm

    Cadence:                116      79        rpm

    Speed:                    38.7     19.2     mph

Each interval below is a road segment between intersections for turns

Interval 2:

    Duration:                 25:26 (25:35)

    Work:                     327 kJ

    TSS:                       34.9 (intensity factor 0.907)

    Norm Power:           234

    VI:                           1.09

    Distance:                8.064 mi

    Elevation Gain:       479 ft

    Elevation Loss:       272 ft

                                   Max     Avg

    Power:                    463      214      watts

    Heart rate:              138      130      bpm

    Cadence:                106      81        rpm

    Speed:                    34.3     19.0     mph

Interval 3:

    Duration:                

    Work:                     70 kJ

    TSS:                       8.4 (intensity factor 0.856)

    Norm Power:           221

    VI:                           1.31

    Distance:                2.445 mi

    Elevation Gain:       118 ft

    Elevation Loss:       312 ft

    Grade:                    -1.5 %  (-197 ft)

                                   Max     Avg

    Power:                    516      168      watts

    Heart rate:              138      126      bpm

    Cadence:                100      76        rpm

    Speed:                    38.7     21.3     mph

Interval 4:

    Duration:                

    Work:                     88 kJ

    TSS:                       8.3 (intensity factor 0.841)

    Norm Power:           217

    VI:                           1.04

    Distance:                2.492 mi

    Elevation Gain:       79 ft

    Elevation Loss:       62 ft

    Grade:                    0.1 %  (16 ft)

                                  Max     Avg

    Power:                    331      208      watts

    Heart rate:              136      129      bpm

    Cadence:                98        81        rpm

    Speed:                    29.5     21.3     mph

Interval 5:

    Duration:                 27:16

    Work:                     334 kJ

    TSS:                       31.5 (intensity factor 0.833)

    Norm Power:           215

    VI:                           1.05

    Distance:                9.918 mi

    Elevation Gain:       305 ft

    Elevation Loss:       551 ft

    Grade:                    -0.5 %  (-243 ft)

                                Max     Avg

    Power:                    407      204      watts

    Heart rate:              139      131      bpm

    Cadence:               106      82        rpm

    Speed:                   32.2     21.8     mph

Interval 6:

    Duration:                

    Work:                     32 kJ

    TSS:                       3.3 (intensity factor 0.913)

    Norm Power:           n/a

    VI:                           n/a

    Distance:                0.834 mi

    Elevation Gain:       16 ft

    Elevation Loss:       7 ft

    Grade:                    0.2 %  (10 ft)

                                   Min      Max     Avg

    Power:                              364      223      watts

    Heart rate:              129      137      134      bpm

    Cadence:                56        83        76        rpm

    Speed:                    15.7     23.2     21.1     mph

Interval 7:

    Duration:                 ()

    Work:                     134 kJ

    TSS:                       12.2 (intensity factor 0.819)

    Norm Power:           211

    VI:                           1.03

    Distance:                3.751 mi

    Elevation Gain:       56 ft

    Elevation Loss:       56 ft

    Grade:                    0.0 %  (0 ft)

                                   Min      Max     Avg

    Power:                              353      205      watts

    Heart rate:              129      137      135      bpm

    Cadence:                40        92        82        rpm

    Speed:                    5          25.2     20.7     mph

Interval 8:

    Duration:                

    Work:                     128 kJ

    TSS:                       11.2 (intensity factor 0.804)

    Norm Power:           207

    VI:                           1.01

    Distance:                3.666 mi

    Elevation Gain:       52 ft

    Elevation Loss:       30 ft

    Grade:                    0.1 %  (20 ft)

                                   Min      Max     Avg

    Power:                    126      287      205      watts

    Heart rate:              104      137      131      bpm

    Cadence:                29        96        84        rpm

    Speed:                    6.5       24.3     21.1     mph

Interval 9:

    Duration:                

    Work:                     30 kJ

    TSS:                       2.6 (intensity factor 0.806)

    Norm Power:           n/a

    VI:                           n/a

    Distance:                0.771 mi

    Elevation Gain:       13 ft

    Elevation Loss:       13 ft

    Grade:                    0.0 %  (0 ft)

                                   Min      Max     Avg

    Power:                    109      291      206      watts

    Heart rate:              126      134      131      bpm

    Cadence:                80        97        88        rpm

    Speed:                    17.4     20.7     19.3     mph

Interval 10:

    Duration:                 31:40 (32:54)

    Work:                     365 kJ

    TSS:                       32.1 (intensity factor 0.78)

    Norm Power:           201

    VI:                           1.05

    Distance:                9.894 mi

    Elevation Gain:       538 ft

    Elevation Loss:       279 ft

    Grade:                    0.5 %  (259 ft)

                                   Min      Max     Avg

    Power:                              378      192      watts

    Heart rate:              106      138      129      bpm

    Cadence:                28        101      78        rpm

    Speed:                    3.2       34.8     18.7     mph

Interval 11:

    Duration:                

    Work:                     86 kJ

    TSS:                       7.1 (intensity factor 0.74)

    Norm Power:           191

    VI:                           1.03

    Distance:                2.499 mi

    Elevation Gain:       62 ft

    Elevation Loss:       72 ft

    Grade:                    -0.1 %  (-10 ft)

                                   Min      Max     Avg

    Power:                              312      185      watts

    Heart rate:              123      132      129      bpm

    Cadence:                57        93        79        rpm

    Speed:                    1.3       24.7     19.2     mph

Interval 12:

    Duration:                

    Work:                     124 kJ

    TSS:                       13.2 (intensity factor 0.855)

    Norm Power:           220

    VI:                           1.16

    Distance:                2.405 mi

    Elevation Gain:       328 ft

    Elevation Loss:       131 ft

    Grade:                    1.6 %  (197 ft)

                                   Min      Max     Avg

    Power:                              374      190      watts

    Heart rate:              105      141      125      bpm

    Cadence:                41        116      69        rpm

    Speed:                    4.7       30.6     13.3     mph

Interval 13:

    Duration:                 27:40

    Work:                     246 kJ

    TSS:                       19.3 (intensity factor 0.647)

    Norm Power:           167

    VI:                           1.13

    Distance:                8.221 mi

    Elevation Gain:       269 ft

    Elevation Loss:       509 ft

    Grade:                    -0.5 %  (-236 ft)

                                   Min      Max     Avg

    Power:                              371      148      watts

    Heart rate:              95        132      120      bpm

    Cadence:                49        99        74        rpm

    Speed:                    5.2       36.7     17.8     mph

Well my FTT (Functional Threshold Test) did not go as well as hoped.  Three weeks ago was my previous FTT. 

I thought I had improved more over the last three weeks and a with good effort today ... I expected a higher increase in POWER like maybe 15-20 watts ... but the numbers only showed a few watts increase for the 40 minute TT (Time Trial).  With an average of about 24 mph (28-29 mph north & 20-22mph going south) for 16 miles.

Excuses for low POWER numbers ... Well ... here they are ...

1. I would like to think the problem was the 12-15 mph SSW wind, about twice what it was Sun (see photo of the flags @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dewonn43/428767034/in/set-72157600002157919/), but power numbers aren't affected by wind. 
2. I did do about 130 miles over the weekend with 4 or 5 x 20minute 80% FT efforts and 6 x 6-8 minute FT efforts ... but that was what my plan called for.
3. I had a stomach virus Wed/Thu last week
4. I am cutting back on calories to get my weight down (at least that is going good) for racing

After the test, I did a little test riding on Erik's Lucero ... (it weighs about 2 lbs less than my Trek Madone) ...  

Alex helped me clean my van out since I got so much grief about it over the weekend ... See this photo and ride photos from the FGSG ride in the 2007 March Rides photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dewonn43/sets/ 

Then went to Cook's Landing for the Tuesday Nite FGSG (Fast Girls Slow Guys) ride ... mostly rode easy since I had already done my FTT training ... but did have to hit it a few times just for grins ... There was a huge group of 40+ riders ...

And wouldn't you know it ... I ended up with a 1/2 IM distance on the bike today ... since the FTT / Lucero test ride was 28 miles and the FGSG ride was 28 miles ...