Motivational Movie Monday

Sian Welch & Wendy Ingraham - The Crawl - 1997

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w

Power Up

Week 8 testing showed another power jump of 8% since my last test on week 4.  That's an 18% increase since I started on the training plan.

Using the same 7.5 mile climb as a test, here are the numbers

Prior to start of training plan
223 Average Watts
10.3 mph average
65 rpm cadence

Week 4 testing
242 Average Watts  (+8.5%)
11.5 mph average
74 rpm cadence

Week 8 testing
263 Average Watts (+8.6% compared to week 4; 17.9% increase overall)
11.6 mph average
74 rpm cadence

14 seconds

My week 8 run test was yesterday.  

I finished the 5k run in 21:00.  That's a 14 second improvement over the same run on Week 4.  That's about 1.1% better or roughly 4 seconds faster per mile than I was at the last testing point.

Average HR was 176, with a max of 188.

Not as fast as I hoped I would be after four more weeks of training, but faster is faster so I'll take it!

It was also 17 degrees hotter yesterday (99 F) than it was on July 29th (82 F) so maybe that gives me a bit of an excuse.

Bike test is coming up this Saturday.

Tempe Lake Update

The following was reported by Rick Baldwin on www.iamtri.com in the Ironman Arizona 2010 Group Forum:


According to a very nice City of Tempe official who is overseeing the Dam replacement project. Here's the scoop:


The project is officially 10 days ahead of schedule, keep in mind though that more monsoon rain could cause slight delays in the future.

The lake is scheduled to start filling on 8 October. A cofferdam will be built to allow the lake to start refilling (do not need to wait for arrival of the fourth bladder).

It will take 2 weeks to a month to completely refill the lake depending on the flow rate from source water at Roosevelt Lake.

Bladder 4 is scheduled to arrive mid-October, once it arrives, it will be installed and the cofferdam will be removed.

Motivational Movie Monday

Adidas - long run commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l-xvPF14PE

T Minus 3

Only three months to go until IMAZ!

I'm starting week 8 of my training plan this week.  This is another testing week which means a 5k run for time and another 40 minute FTP test on the bike this week.  I hope I continue to show improved numbers.

Check back later in the week for the results from the tests.

Lake Progress

"Three new rubber dam sections will be lowered into place by a crane on Thursday as Tempe works to restore the empty Town Lake."


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38731002

Motivational Movie Monday

Ironman Hawaii 2008 Motivation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTrrQ9TDMY4

Motivational Movie Monday

"You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRNqoqFzTi0

More power!

Scotty we need more power

Last week (week 4 on the training plan) was a testing week, so I had the opportunity to see if my training is resulting in more power on the bike and faster times on the run.

The results were good across the board.

For my run test, I did a 5k time trial at the Rosebowl which has a nice flat and measured 5k loop.  My 5k time was 20:39, or about 6:40 per mile.  That's about 10 seconds faster per mile than I did in my pre-training plan test.  Obviously the run at Ironman Arizona  in November is much father than a 5k, but the testing helps me set my Vdot score, and establish challenging training paces.

For my bike test, I did a warm-up ride, then did a 7.5mile climb from the base to the first peak of Little Tujunga Canyon.  Prior to the start of my training plan, I averaged 223 watts, 10.3 mph, and 65 rpm cadence on the climb. Since I started my 20 week training plan, I've been using 220 watts as my Functional Threshold Power (FTP) value. Last week I improved by over 8% to average 242 watts, 11.5 mph, and 74 cadence on the same exact climb.

The bad news is, today is interval day on the bike.  I had to go and re-work all of my interval numbers using the new threshold value.  I'm guessing I'll sleep well tonight after riding with these new training zones today.

Tempe gets OK to start replacing dam

by Dianna M. Náñez - Jul. 31, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

"Tempe has been given permission to begin replacing the Town Lake dam that burst July 20, draining the lake of nearly 1 billion gallons of water.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources had put construction on hold following the dam's failure."

Read the full story here: Tempe gets OK to start replacing dam

Motivational Movie Monday

Men's 4x100 freestyle relay 2008 Olympics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVZrne7X5ww