Sunday, May 16, 2010

IronGirl and Vdot

I think I came as close as I can come to a proud father yesterday. My wife, my sister, and a real good friend took a large step forward this weekend when they competed and finished a sprint distance triathlon here in Henderson, NV. I tried to get my wife to guest post but she turned her nose up and poo-pooed that idea. It was a beautiful day for a triathlon and I was a basket case not able to race. They got through it healthy, happy, and as fast as they are trained for. They killed it and it was sure fun to see them perform so well. It seems that we may have a race all of us can do and Karl will make his triathlon debut. That should be a memorable event and I am looking forward to it. Clay? You in? STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVA! Perhaps some pics posted soon. I know I still owe some pics from RAGE I am still working on that.

I am happy to say that my VDOT has improved since last year. Funny that I did nearly a year ago without really looking at it. I didn't want to know. I ran a 7:13 one mile all out. Today I ran a 6:53. A 20 sec improvement over last year. What does that mean? It means that there is a formula to follow to predict certain race times. Of course you have to train at that intensity to get there. My VDOT formula says that I am capable of 24:15 5K, 50:23 10K, 1:52 Half, and a 3:56 full. All I have to do is work at that intensity to get there. If you look further you will find that knowing this pace it will also predict what your intensity is for each workout. It tells you what you should interval at, what you should recover at, what your long run pace should be, and what speed workouts should be on the track. Of course I couldn't take very much credit for all this info my run coach Karl paced me today and handed me a sheet of paper printed from the Mcmillan running site. Wanna increase VO2 max? Wanna work at lactate threshold? This info is what you need to scientifically figure all that out. We feel there is no way to reach a specific goal unless you train specifically. Thanks Karl. Here is how my week has been:

Monday-Softball
Tuesday-Softball plus 3 mile run in the am. A 26:00. Nice felt awesome.
Wednesday- Did a kettle bell workout and core.
Thursday-Pushed the ride I had for blistering wind. Will the wind pleeease stop?
Friday-Rest
Saturday-Irongirl Sherpa. It is way harder than it sounds
Today-VDOT, 800m repeats. With everything in total 5 miles or so on the track. My Right foot is sore. Not used to the track. QUOTE:

"there are no speed limits on the way to excellence."

3 comments:

Chuck said...

Congratulations to Julie, Joni, and Andi on their first triathlons. All three of you did fantastic!

A 6:53 mile is awesome! Just imagine how much faster your race times would be if you could run all of your workouts with Karl!

Karl Stutelberg said...

Typo! It was a 20 SECOND PR not 20 min.
What this really means is that you are fitter, faster, and aerobically stronger than you were a year ago!
The 7 minute barrier is now broken, can't wait to see how some summer 5ks go! Would enjoy pacing you at one of those too!
What Ron didn't tell his readers is that we ran the mile even for three laps and he finished strong with a great finishing kick.
Look out!

Whitarican (White-A-Rican) said...

Just found your blog and reading through your posts and good stuff here. That would have drove me nuts too if it was perfect weather for a triathlon and I could only watch :(. Hey but there are plenty more! Good luck with your training and can't wait to see some race reports when you race!