Sweaty Duathlon / Triathlon Workout with Matt

Yesterday morning started with a 14 mile ride on my mountain bike with Henry in the Chariot. We played on some pedestrian bridges near the Mississippi River, and then spent an hour at a great park:

This was between stops (notice the bike's still locked up) when Henry just
crawled in for a snack - otherwise, he ALWAYS wears his helmet.

I made sure to keep the biking as easy as possible (as easy as it can be pulling a kid on the rolling hills along the river for 14 miles), because Matt and I were getting together later in the day for that nasty and fun bike / run / bike / run / bike / run / bike / run workout that I like to do before races. (CLICK HERE for details on this workout from a duathlon clinic that I went to a few years ago - I think you'll have to click through to page 2 of the article for more on this specific workout.)

Click that link above for more details on the workout, but it's basically 4 intervals of hard biking and fast 1 mile runs. The biking is 9:30 for each, and it's 30 seconds hard followed by 30 seconds of easy spinning. It's a leg-trashing workout!

Here's a shot of Matt during our warm-up spin in my garage:

I was this close to sweaty, beefy Matt for an hour. Sexy.

Warm Up on Trainer (easy-moderate with 1 pick-up): 10:00.6
Transition: 0:11.0
1 mile run: 2:53, 2:59 = 5:52

I did NOT expect to see a 2:53 for my first half mile! I never start that fast. I told Matt when I got back that I still have a decent amount of "short-end speed" left from training for the 1 mile road race last month, but my endurance is lacking, so "the rest of this workout could get a little ugly." But that's the point of this workout. Ugliness. I was ready to suffer.

Oh, and I snapped a photo of under Matt's front wheel when I came back from the first run. This is all of his sweat from JUST the warm-up spin:

Gross. Awesome.

Transition: 0:18.5
Trainer (30 hard, 30 easy): 9:38.6
Transition: 0:14.3
1 mile run: 2:59, 3:01 = 6:00

My run had slowed up a bit, but that was mainly due to biking harder. Being right next to Matt made me want to push a little more on the bike, and that's where I could use the work anyway. So I told myself not to let up on the run just because I felt like I was biking harder - I told myself "remember to just be going HARD this entire time. Suffer, Stenzel!"

Transition: 0:18.0
Trainer (30 hard, 30 easy): 9:28.8
Transition: 0:14.3
1 mile run: 3:00, 2:59 = 5:59

It wasn't until the final interval that I remembered that I had pulled Henry for 14 miles that morning. I'm glad I had forgotten about that - that's one of those little things that could have been in the back of my mind that made me feel OK about easing up a bit. But it wasn't a factor.

Transition: 0:17.6
Trainer (30 hard, 30 easy): 9:27.5
Transition: 0:15.9
1 mile run: 3:00, 2:55 = 5:55

Total time: 1:04:14

That's TECHNICALLY a PR for me doing this workout. When I did this exact same workout on the exact same route back in April, I did it in 1:04:39, and THAT was my PR. But this doesn't take into account biking speed because that's all done for time. So who knows if this PR really means anything.

That final spin was hard - I put a lot into it. And overall I was really happy that my runs were relatively consistent - I usually get faster and faster, and then I kill the last interval. But this was a better workout where I didn't save too much for the final run. It was "smarter." I started stronger and probably got more out of the workout.

Being the biking is all done by time and the run is by distance, I finished before Matt (because I'm a faster runner - he's the better biker). Here he is finishing up his final bike just as I finished the workout:

(Notice the darkroom timer propped up in front of us to make the 30 sec bike intervals easy to time.)

Pharmie and Henry had just gotten home and pulled into the other garage stall. Pharmie told me my hair was blown back from running and looked horrible. I had to snap a photo to see:

Oh. Yep. Horrible.

Henry was running around free in the backseat of Pharmie's parked car, and he kept staring at Matt on the trainer:

Matt joked that he felt like a bear at the zoo. "Dance for me bear! Balance this ball on your nose!"

When Matt took off for his final mile, I snapped one last photo of his sweat pool:

Matt's sweat is going to soak into that crack and make it worse. Good thing we're leveling
our garage in a few weeks. (Really, we are. It's going to be a big late-summer project!)


Matt finishing up his final run up a slow-burning hill.

This workout was given to me at a duathlon clinic a few years ago, but I also love it for before sprint triathlons. In my opinion, it's decent to do before Olympic triathlons too, but it's better for the shorter races. I REALLY feel better about my training (and feel better about being prepared to go HARD on race day) if I can get in this workout 7-10 days before a sprint triathlon or a shorter duathlon.

Matt and I are racing together next weekend!! We're doing the Lake Marion Triathlon in Lakeville - I'm doing the sprint, and Matt will be doing HIS FIRST OLYMPIC DISTANCE TRIATHLON!! Check back next weekend for twitter / blog updates on the race!