Great Success!

I had a great week this week in regards to performance in training. To follow up from last week’s post, I did a run with the team on Monday and was ultimately disappointed when my knee still ended up sore and hurting after the run. I made a trip into the physical therapist who sponsors our tri club, Steve Orrock. A former marathoner turned triathlete, and a fellow registrant for this year’s Ironman CDA, Steve put me on a warmup bike, then analyzed me running on the treadmill. After giving me a few things to focus on while running, I was turned loose with the mandate to keep normal mileage but to do a few things throughout the run to help alleviate what was causing pain. I ended up putting in my biggest mileage week for running even after going through that so a big thanks to Steve for his help.

I showed up to my swim class Wednesday morning to find out that we were doing a timed 650 today to check progress since the beginning of the semester. My goal was to try and break the 13 minute mark which is about where I was sitting when I had last timed myself at that distance. It didn’t feel that I attacked the swim real hard but after finishing in 11:39 I was shouting and fist pumping. I probably looked pretty dorky to the other kids that had finished before me, but I was psyched so I didn’t even care. Monday I had taken a camera to the gym with me and had Mike Park film me some while swimming so that I could analyze my stroke and also have a visual image of some of the nuances in my stroke which my swim instructor has suggested as possible improvements. I think that really helped and has given me some things to focus such as my arm recovery and pull while swimming which makes my training feel more productive.

Robby flew in to Salt Lake on Friday and we road tripped down to St. George for a soccer evaluation camp at Dixie State on Saturday. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get out into some decent weather and test myself with a long brick workout. We arrived at Dixie State College and my brother started his camp around 9am so as he went out to play, I unloaded my bike and attempted to head out into the desert to get on some long roads. Being unfamiliar with the area, I ended up riding many roads into a dead end but I eventually found another guy out riding and he sent me on a route where I could get another 20 more miles in without any dead ends and still wrap finish up back at the campus. Overall I put in 3 hours on my bike and logged 50 miles while out and about. Upon returning to the car, I loaded up the bike and slipped on my zoot tri shoes to give them their outdoor run debut. These things just look fast and when the flash of a camera goes off, they steal the spotlight (see the post run pics below). I took off at a slow pace and jogged for 60 minutes and after jogging for a while, I felt my legs loosen up pretty good. After finishing up my run, I clocked my mileage in the car, grabbed some food, and went back to watch the scrimmages at the end of the camp. My legs felt really good sitting through the end of the camp, the 4 hour drive home, and most surprisingly, they weren’t even the least bit sore when I woke up.

Knowing that I can put in that much time and distance in a ride/run brick without getting sore, along with seeing my swim times improving along the course of the semester has really got me on a pretty good training high for the week. I’m looking forward to continuing on with my training and hoping to continue seeing improvement. 4 weeks until Lake Havasu olympic tri, 8 weeks til Vegas half ironman, and 17 weeks til Ironman CDA!

Week 7: S: 5 mi; B: 50 mi + spinning; R: 19 mi

I'm a Statistic

I started lifting some this week as part of my training but with some lighter weight and more reps. Well after Monday’s session of first time lifting, I was quite sore in my chest and shoulders on Tuesday, and waking up Wednesday morning I could barely move. That’s not a good sign when my second class of the morning is swimming and we’re focusing on doing the butterfly this week. Luckily after some laps of warming up freestyle, I loosened up and felt fine during class but was sore again afterward. I lifted again yesterday and today I feel totally fine so I’m glad that I have that first lift out of the way.
I started out this week wanting to bump up my distance on running some this week and things were going pretty well. Following my swim class on Wednesday, I did a longer run that lasted 80 minutes and felt good and strong but later after finishing I was feeling some pain in my left knee that night and the next day so I decided to take the rest of the week off from running in hopes that I’ll be ready to run again starting Monday. In my jogging PE class, the instructor, who's also the cross country team coach, gave us a statistic on injury prevention that said 80% of runners experience some sort of injury during the year that requires them to take time off from running because of an injury. I think that I may have become a statistic this week but on the bright side I don't see a couple of days off as a major setback for me. Friday I went out hiking/snowshoeing with Danny Oyler and figured I could count that as some cross training since I didn’t run anymore after Wednesday. It wasn’t intense by any means but it sure was fun.


The weather didn’t work out for me to get any outdoor bike rides in this week (I probably should have gone on one Friday since it snowed on Saturday). Instead, I was limited to exercise bike workouts only, but it's not like that’s a bad thing though when I get to watch Gonzaga play while I ride. This week was a repeat week in the training program that my brother and dad are following and I try to follow some of the same workouts as them each week to make sure that they’re not leaving me in the dust. I swam another 2500 continuous like them this week and it was a good, strong swim for me and I took my time down a few minutes to around the 46 minute mark.

Week 6: S: 5 mi; B: spinning; R: 12 mi

School=exams=no fun (Brandon's equation of higher learning)

I don’t have anything too exciting for this week’s entry (not even any pictures either). My school week included 3 tests in 3 days so my free time and also my mileage were a little bit limited because of that. Since I started training a month ago, I have dropped around 6 or 7 pounds and this week I finally noticed it as I moved back down a notch in the old belt. Problem is I still have some weight to drop but no more notches on the belt. It will be rewarding to have punch another one though when that day arrives. The weekend finally freed up a little bit of time so on Friday after class I went to the pool, and not to be outdone by my dad and brother on their training plan, I also swam a 2500 continuous as part of my swim workout that day. I was surprised that I was able to maintain my form (notice how I didn't say good form) and stroke the entire time and it took like 48 min. On Saturday I went to the tri club ride/run brick but in the 20 miles that we rode, there were 6 flat tires among the group and not enough spares to go around for the last couple so I ended up riding back to the school to grab my car and loading up two of the stranded riders. I called it a day after taking them back to the school and home. I had a couple of really good runs this week as far as time is concerned. I did a 5-mile run 40:18 and had a 4-mile run that I was trying to squeeze in before a class so I pushed it pretty good and had a time of 29:28 with my fastest split at 6:51. I was still a few minutes late to class after that one.

Well I’m thinking this week will be a good one training wise and hopefully I’ll get a few longer sessions in this week. I’ve only got 19 weeks left to prepare!

Week 5: S: 4 mi; B: 20 mi + spinning; R: 15 mi

Training Continues

The training continues here in Provo and it was a pretty good week with a couple of highlight workouts that stand out. Back home on the training plan that Dad and Robby are following, this week is a recovery week so I tried to be lazy and recover some as I saw fit during the week. Wednesday I was able to get out and put in a run between classes that got me a little over 7 miles. I went back down the Provo river trail and still made it back for class. I hit the tri club spin class that night and I’ve noticed that my legs are getting stronger for climbing because I felt much stronger on the couple of climbs in the ride I did later in the week. Thursday night I went back to the gym and hit the exercise bike to watch the zags game on the tvs attached to the bike. Friday I put in a long swim workout with part of it being a continuous mile and did that in around 33 min. Although that’s not fast by any means, I’m still happy with the progress that I’ve seen in my swimming.

Saturday turned out to have some decent weather. With temperatures in the teens, I bailed on the tri club outdoor ride and run at 9am but only because I had already set plans to ride at noon with family friend Brad Gerrard. We did a 33 mile ride that was awesome and actually near perfect weather and conditions. We left Brad's house in Mapleton and rode out to the boat docks at Utah lake (see pic) before turning back and following the same route home. Near the 24 mile mark, however, we crossed a set of railroad tracks that gave me a snake bite in my rear tire. While I was changing my tire, Brad’s rear tire all of sudden went flat. Just so happens that back in September, that same crossing took out both of my tires on a ride also with the Gerrards. Lesson learned…walk the bikes across that set of tracks in the future.

Week 4: S: 4.25 mi; B: 33 mi + spinning; R: 10 mi
20 weeks left til Ironman!!!