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August 04, 2006
Lake Tahoe Triathlon - What's Next?
Training for me must have a purpose. If I do not have a goal, a race, or some other factor motivating me, I find that my training consistency, as well as my training intensity suffers. My next big race is just 6 weeks away, the Lake Tahoe Triathlon (www.laketahoetriathlon.com) This is an Olympic Distance event, which really “ups the ante� with respect to the training volume and quality I need to put in place to complete this event. It will consist of a brisk 1.5 K (0.93 mile) swim in Lake Tahoe (around 62 degree water temperature, a 24 mile bike ride from the Lake, up to Brockway Summit, down to Truckee and back over the summit (over 3000 foot elevation gain) and then a 6.2 mile run around the hills of Kings Beach.
I did this event last year, and the swim nearly killed me. By the time I got out of the water, I had most, if not all the symptoms of hypothermia. Once I thawed out from the swim, the bike ride tried to finish me off – the last 3 miles of climbing up Brockway Summit the second time, with a 15% grade and a headwind really made it tough to keep moving. I ended up walking with my bike the last ½ mile or so, as my quads were wiped out, and with my high geared bike, I simply couldn’t pedal any further. After the swim and the bike, my strategy for the run was “just keep moving�. I did, and ended up finishing with a time of just a little over 4 hours. Even though I was totally exhausted, my quads were shot, my calves were screaming at me, and my stomach was unhappy with being bounced arournd on the swim, crossing that finish line was one of the more significant moments in my life, and I will remember that momemt for the rest of my life.
My strategy this year hopefully will allow me to shave a significant amount of time off my total. I finally bought a full triathlon wetsuit (to replace the shorty “water-ski� suit I used last year). This should help with the hypothermia, as well as reduce my swim times, with its increased buoyancy and vastly improved hydrodynamics.
I’ve also bumped up my swim training yardage, and just recently started working out with the Durham Masters Swim Group. This has really helped increase both my frequency of workouts, as well as the intensity of the workouts.
Lastly, I have continued to push both my cycling and running fitness. I started a few months ago doing Honey Run Road in the afternoon, after work, at least once a week on my Mountain Bike. I’ve added additional hill workouts to my running routine, as well as weekly track workouts (speed work), as well as shorter distance early morning bike rides.
Posted by Dennis at August 4, 2006 05:22 PM