Heatfest
Things are going pretty well down here in the tropical sauna also known as Georgia.
It’s been crazy hot. CRAY…Z! We’ve had 6 or 8 days in a row of record breaking heat.
The mercury topped out at 106 one day this past week. Factor in the humidity and it felt like 115+. Not the most ideal training conditions…. especially if you’re doing a half IM brick.
I’ll get to that later……
I ended the week with about 13 hours of training and around 14 last week. It’s been great to get in some good solid training after being sick a few weeks ago. John just sent my schedule for the next few weeks and things are definitely not going to slow down. I have a slightly easier week this week since I have a sprint race coming up Saturday. But the volume continues to increase after this week. I’ll do my first 100 mile ride of the year in a couple of weeks. My longest this year has been 85 (last week). I’m looking forward to the 100 miler. Hopefully we’ll get a break in the heat that day.
DJ and KJ started back to school this week also. The transition went pretty smoothly. I think they were both ready to get back to it. They’ll be missing their lazy summer days before long though. KJ is starting 4th grade this year, which is a huge deal to her because she gets to change classes. We didn’t start that until 8th grade back in the day. Times they be a changin.
Alrighty…..the half ironman brick/simulation…death march.
Since I haven’t been doing much racing this summer, John wanted me to do a half IM sim yesterday. No problem, right? I’ll get in a nice long training day. The pace will be easy to steady. No big deal, right? Right….other than the record breaking heat. The plan called for a 3k swim, 56 mile bike and at least 12 miles of running.
My pool doesn’t open until 8:30am on Saturdays, which meant the day would be starting later than I’d like. I got up around 6 and finished my breakfast by 6:30. I headed to the pool about 8:00am. The lifeguard was there a little early and I was able to start at 8:15. I took the swim really easy and finished in 1 hour and 1 second. I felt great after the swim and was looking forward to getting going on the bike. I headed out to the parking lot of the Y and got my bike ready and bottles loaded. I was covered in sweat by the time I was ready to go…not a good sign.
I took the first 30 minutes very easy and was feeling good. I increased my pace a little over the next half hour and still felt good. At about this time the heat really started kicking up. At around the 2 hour mark I started to really feel the affects from the heat. The air felt like someone had a giant hair dryer blowing in my face. My heart rate was at least 10 beats higher than it normally would be for the effort I was putting out. I drank more water and Gatorade and slowed a bit to try to settle my heart rate down. It helped some, but not much. I finished the remainder of the ride just trying to stay hydrated and save some energy for what I knew would be a rough run. I got off the bike after 57.12 miles not feeling the best, but glad to be done. I checked the thermometerwhen I got home…..99 degrees, and the sensor is in the shade.
I took my longest T2 ever, about 30 minutes, before heading to the local college to do my run. I’d measured a one mile loop there that passes by a cold water fountain. I parked at the tennis complex and headed out. The first loop went pretty well (9:32). I started to think maybe the run wouldn’t be so bad after all. The next loop
slowed to about 10:00, but I still felt ok. Mile 3 took 11:11 and the heat started working its magic again. I was stopping by the truck each loop to drink Gatorade and pour water over my head. I had to walk some on mile four and it took me 12:31. I was feeling pretty rough. I made it to mile 6 and really thought about calling it a day.
I took a break of about 2 minutes and got out of the sun under the shelter at the tennis complex. I drenched myself in cold water and felt much better. I decided I’d continue on and headed out for mile 7. It didn’t take long for the heat to zap my energy again. I took another break after mile 8. I think my brain was totally cooked at that point and I decided I was going to finish no matter how long it took. The girls soccer team was on the field doing drills. I think they were starting to take bets on how long I’d go before I passed out. I trudged through the next 4 miles and finished up in exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Of any workout, race, brick, whatever, that I’ve EVER done, this was by far the hardest. I know it wasn’t lack of fitness, or poor nutrition, or anything else that made it tough. It was the heat. Truth be told, it was pretty dumb of me to keep going on the run. The heat was at dangerous levels for any outdoor activity, much less running....with zero shade. The smart thing would have been to head home after about mile 3 and finish it out on the treadmill.
I suppose the one positive thing I learned is that I can push through feeling pretty bad and continue on to finish. I’m sure that’ll come in handy on the ironman run.
Hope everyone has a great week of training.
Stay Cool!
TJ
It’s been crazy hot. CRAY…Z! We’ve had 6 or 8 days in a row of record breaking heat.
The mercury topped out at 106 one day this past week. Factor in the humidity and it felt like 115+. Not the most ideal training conditions…. especially if you’re doing a half IM brick.
I’ll get to that later……
I ended the week with about 13 hours of training and around 14 last week. It’s been great to get in some good solid training after being sick a few weeks ago. John just sent my schedule for the next few weeks and things are definitely not going to slow down. I have a slightly easier week this week since I have a sprint race coming up Saturday. But the volume continues to increase after this week. I’ll do my first 100 mile ride of the year in a couple of weeks. My longest this year has been 85 (last week). I’m looking forward to the 100 miler. Hopefully we’ll get a break in the heat that day.
DJ and KJ started back to school this week also. The transition went pretty smoothly. I think they were both ready to get back to it. They’ll be missing their lazy summer days before long though. KJ is starting 4th grade this year, which is a huge deal to her because she gets to change classes. We didn’t start that until 8th grade back in the day. Times they be a changin.
Alrighty…..the half ironman brick/simulation…death march.
Since I haven’t been doing much racing this summer, John wanted me to do a half IM sim yesterday. No problem, right? I’ll get in a nice long training day. The pace will be easy to steady. No big deal, right? Right….other than the record breaking heat. The plan called for a 3k swim, 56 mile bike and at least 12 miles of running.
My pool doesn’t open until 8:30am on Saturdays, which meant the day would be starting later than I’d like. I got up around 6 and finished my breakfast by 6:30. I headed to the pool about 8:00am. The lifeguard was there a little early and I was able to start at 8:15. I took the swim really easy and finished in 1 hour and 1 second. I felt great after the swim and was looking forward to getting going on the bike. I headed out to the parking lot of the Y and got my bike ready and bottles loaded. I was covered in sweat by the time I was ready to go…not a good sign.
I took the first 30 minutes very easy and was feeling good. I increased my pace a little over the next half hour and still felt good. At about this time the heat really started kicking up. At around the 2 hour mark I started to really feel the affects from the heat. The air felt like someone had a giant hair dryer blowing in my face. My heart rate was at least 10 beats higher than it normally would be for the effort I was putting out. I drank more water and Gatorade and slowed a bit to try to settle my heart rate down. It helped some, but not much. I finished the remainder of the ride just trying to stay hydrated and save some energy for what I knew would be a rough run. I got off the bike after 57.12 miles not feeling the best, but glad to be done. I checked the thermometerwhen I got home…..99 degrees, and the sensor is in the shade.
I took my longest T2 ever, about 30 minutes, before heading to the local college to do my run. I’d measured a one mile loop there that passes by a cold water fountain. I parked at the tennis complex and headed out. The first loop went pretty well (9:32). I started to think maybe the run wouldn’t be so bad after all. The next loop
slowed to about 10:00, but I still felt ok. Mile 3 took 11:11 and the heat started working its magic again. I was stopping by the truck each loop to drink Gatorade and pour water over my head. I had to walk some on mile four and it took me 12:31. I was feeling pretty rough. I made it to mile 6 and really thought about calling it a day.
I took a break of about 2 minutes and got out of the sun under the shelter at the tennis complex. I drenched myself in cold water and felt much better. I decided I’d continue on and headed out for mile 7. It didn’t take long for the heat to zap my energy again. I took another break after mile 8. I think my brain was totally cooked at that point and I decided I was going to finish no matter how long it took. The girls soccer team was on the field doing drills. I think they were starting to take bets on how long I’d go before I passed out. I trudged through the next 4 miles and finished up in exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Of any workout, race, brick, whatever, that I’ve EVER done, this was by far the hardest. I know it wasn’t lack of fitness, or poor nutrition, or anything else that made it tough. It was the heat. Truth be told, it was pretty dumb of me to keep going on the run. The heat was at dangerous levels for any outdoor activity, much less running....with zero shade. The smart thing would have been to head home after about mile 3 and finish it out on the treadmill.
I suppose the one positive thing I learned is that I can push through feeling pretty bad and continue on to finish. I’m sure that’ll come in handy on the ironman run.
Hope everyone has a great week of training.
Stay Cool!
TJ
posted by TJ at 12:08 PM
8 Comments:
Dude! You rock!! That's some awesome training, especially in the heat. Money in the bank :-)
I feel you on the heat! It's been the same here in KC with the next few days to be more of the same. I lived in Georgia one summer though and I think you may win on humdity.
So glad to have come across your blog, it's very motivating to read about some else kicking their butt... makes me feel like a slacker and out the door I go!
That's crazy! We have nothing like that for heat up here in the NortWoods. I don't know if I could handle that. Kudos to you for the stamina. Above all be safe.
I agree with Wes. I think any time you can workout in the hardest conditions is beneficial.
Train hard, race easy.
Wow, TJ, that is crazy!! But I'm impressed. You toughed that out and it will give you a lot of well-deserved confidence if you hit a rough patch in your next race. I think you were smart about being stupid (ha ha) meaning even though you probably shouldn't have been out there, at least you took breaks, drank tons, and slowed down. Way to go. :)
WHOA!! I posted on my blog about how I love this hot weather...but now I'm not doing half IM bricks in it or anything!! That's some serious mental toughness you've got to keep going like that.
Oh yeah - Michele and I signed up to volunteer for IMFL '07 today - see you there!!!!
Oh my. Anytime it's that hot, I say get on the dreadmill!!
You can count this workout as double miles.
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