Big Creek Tri Dilemma

This weekend marks the 29th year for the Big Creek Tri in Polk City. Initially I signed up for this race as part of Flatland Series' special price for all 5 of their events. Herein lies the dilemma - this race lands right smack dab in the middle of my big volume training for Ironman Wisconsin (my 'A' race) - we're talking about a 100 mile ride followed by a 5 mile run off on Saturday and then a 2 hour run followed by an hour bike ride on Sunday. So, my options are:

1) Skip the big volume training and do well at Big Creek
2) Skip Big Creek and focus on big volume
3) Do both

A sensible person would probably go with either 1 or 2 - but I've convinced myself to do #3. So, I'm going to do a 1 hour ride tomorrow, open water swim on Friday - 80 mile ride with 5 mile run off on Saturday, Big Creek on Sunday, 2 hour run, 1 hour ride on Monday.

I don't anticipate setting a PR at Big Creek - not even close for that matter, but it will be fun and I'll still get my volume in for the week - best of both worlds.

RAGBRAI

When most people here RAGBRAI they think of pie and a huge party. I'm using RAGBRAI this year as a training opportunity. My plan is to head down to Indianola tonight and ride Wednesday - Saturday. Wednesday is a pretty short day (44 miles) so I'll use Wednesday as a speed day starting with a 5 mile warmup, then 7X4 miles at 90%, 1 mile recovery, 4 mile cooldown. Thursday is going to be my long day with a 100 mile ride (original route is 76 miles, with the option of doing 100 miles). This will be my LSD ride and making sure I can cover the distance - I will then follow it up w/ a 3 mile run-off. This is going to be a tough day and I'm going to try and only make a few stops along the way. The century ride will also give me an opportunity to test out my nutrition plan. Friday is a longer day 76 miles) - today I'm going to focus my time on the hills - we've got over 3,088 feet of climb. I'm going to put my energy into energy utilization on the hills and technique. After this ride I will do an 6-8 mile run-off. Saturday is a short day of 44 miles and I'll use this as a recovery ride - nice and easy with a few pick-ups to get the blood flowing.

I'm looking forward to getting out of DM for a while and enjoy the training, and time with the family and friends. For updates on my riding, check out my Facebook page.

Looking Ahead

Now that Hy-Vee is in the books it's time to re-focus training on the longer distance 'A' race - Ironman Wisconsin. Essentially, this means I will spend a lot more time on the bike. My goal over the next 4 weeks is to get comfortable riding 80 miles, with hills, at a pace of 19-20 mph. This will be accomplished with some long rides of 4+ hours on the weekends, 3 straight days of RAGBRAI in 2 weeks, and speed work of 1.5 hour rides during the week.

My other focus is the run - I will continue to build on the base that I already have and include longer runs on the weekend, and include interval, track, and speed work during the week. The goal here is to be able to comfortably run 16 miles at an 8:45 pace in the next 4 weeks.

The swim will remain the same, but adding some yardage to accommodate the longer distances of upcoming races. In reality, you don't spend much time in the water compared to the other disciplines in the water, so training should reflect that. I will also focus on speed, drills, and technique within the overall yardage.Thanks for reading