After taking three full days off, my left knee feels much better today. I decided to go with a straight swim this morning. completed 3100 meters and felt great.
Depending on how the knee feels later after work I may put in a bike ride. No heavy impact that means any running until the weekend.
Taking a day off from training as a result of a slight pain in my left knee. No surprises, but must be a result of this past weekend tough workouts. Depending on how I feel tomorrow I may take an extra day again off or just hit the pool.
Funny how my knee bothers me closer to my races. It may be the peak weeks like last week that causes it. With some days off I should be fine.
I have been icing, using icy hot cream on it and work with a knee brace. One of the disadvantages of such an injury is that my job is not sedentary so I am constantly walking or climbing a ladder.
This concludes my peak week in Ironman Lake Placid Training. Finished the week doing 18.42 hours and 218.34 miles of training. I wasn’t able to do 2 of my schedules swim workouts (one was due to a thunderstorm pool closing and the second was a swim recovery after a long bike/ run brick), but I am very satisfied with the training I was able to complete and the performance in each of these workouts. Looking forward to a full rest day tomorrow.
I had a bit of a sore throat thanks to the humid air so I took some robitussin before I headed out. The early morning weather was about the same as last week when the rain had fallen previously and left that much needed mist in the air. This made for a very enjoyable first half.
Added to my nutrition plan is Carbo Pro (maltodextrin) I have heard about this product online and from some DMers on here including Charlie T. I bought some yesterday at SBR to give it a try. IMO it works wonders, wish all my bottles was stacked with the stuff today. I used 3 scoops on CP and 2 scoops of Accelerade in my Aerobottle, this made a total of 525 calories. I read a Slowtwitch forum that a user mixed up 1000+ calories in one bottle. That should be very sticky situation for the bike frame 
I did not summit the “Bear” today but turned around at Bear Mountain State Park – Dunderberg Mountain. More riders out today that last weekend. A group of about 4 Tri dudes whopped my butt on 9W North. There was no attempting to catch them. I would be gased for sure.
On my way back made my usual aid station stop at Toga bikes for freshly brewed cold water and Ironman Perform. I went with the “mixed berry” flavor as I haven’t tried it and that is a flavor that will be served at Ironman Lake Placid.
Got home on schedule and transitioned to my Newton Distancia for the brick run.
Nutrition used today:
3 x Ironman Perform 525 calories
1 x Liquid Shot 400 calories
6 x Powergels 660 calories
3 x Carbo Pro 300 calories
2 x Accelerade 240 calories
4 x Water
Total 2125 calories
P.S. Also started using Thermolyte Meta Salt today. Took 2 per hour. 300mg sodium per 2 capsules. Strong stuff for tough workouts.
This week marks 6 weeks until Ironman Lake Placid. It’s also my peak week of training hours which is 19 hours. The week started out great. I was able to nail all my workouts.
I came to a glitch today with mother nature. Thunderstorms in NYC led the Flushing Aquatic center to be closed. Apparently the pipes are exposed to the elements making it dangerous to allow swimming – an experience I forgot happened before **please remember next time**. It’s a recently constructed facility, one would expect better foresight with engineering.
My pool workout insead turns to a rest day. Wish I had stayed in bed 
Today marks my longest swim workout towards Ironman Lake Placid on July 24th. The length of the swim was 4000 meters equivalent to 2.4 miles – the Ironman swim distance. Prior to this swim it had been 3400 meters.
The swim workout was as follows:
800 swim warmup
3 sets (300 @ 80%, 300 @ 85%, 300 @ 90%)
500 swim cooldown
My shoulders definitely felt it. Pool side hydration was NUUN. Post workout drank 12 ounces of Chocolate flavored Muscle Milk.
Below are the swim caps representing all the triathlons I’ve completed so far since I started out in 2009 with the inaugural NYRR Sprint Tri. It continues to be a fun and rewarding journey. Thanks to my lovely wife, Anh, for her continued support. Today is exactly 7 weeks away from my first Ironman distance triathlon in Lake Placid, NY. The excitement and anticipation for this Ironman journey continues……..
2009 New York Road Runners Sprint Triathlon
2010 Flat As a Pancake
2010 New York City Triathlon
2010 Westchester Toughman
2011 Flat As a Pancake
Swim:
Heading into this race the obvious goal was for a course PR. All the distances were the same as last year. Swim 400 meters, Bike 12 miles and Run 5k. A welcome difference was the roads were better paved this time in comparison to last years bike which was a bit on the bumpy side. Same as last year I was in wave #1 on the swim. Age Group 30-34. Our wave started about 7:53am. As stated the objective was to go hard on all legs of this sprint distance. However not going all out in training while wearing a wetsuit caught up to me early on in the swim. First panic experience in open water or any water at that. All I felt like doing was ripping off my wetsuit to stop this claustrophobic feeling I was experiencing. This came as a direct result of not practicing hard swims in my wetsuit. I quickly begun treading water to bring my heart rate down and compose myself and rhythm to get back into it. This was achieved successfully. I slowed it down a bit and just focused on getting to one buoy at a time. This swim was definitely faster than last year. Last year the currents were stronger making for a tougher swim for all the competitors including the elites. I made the left turn at the final buoy and onto shore. At that point my wetsuit was halfway down and ready to be stripped at T1.
T1:
Did not go as expected. Huge work needs to go into improving and figuring out a solution for better transition times in my races. I have complained and made excuses about my bike being taller and requiring more effort to yank it out of the rack, but besides that issue I may just be napping in there.
Bike:
This was an amazing leg. I remember looking at my HR data last year thinking I never raced the bike leg, it was in Zone 2. Coming in to this years race there was primarily one goal – to hammer the hell out of the bike course while in Zone 4-5. This is exactly what I did. The course is an out and back. 3 sets (2 miles out and 2 miles back). I stripped the bottle cages, profile design aerorack from my bike this week. I wanted to go as minimalist as I could handle. My hydration choice was my aerobottle. It may be a sprint, but I still lose quite a bit of electrolytes on short course racing especially being 6′ 3″. I finished the bike averaging 23.2 mph.
T2:
Again slow here. Combined T1 + T2 slightly better than last year. Attention needs to be addressed in transition for sure.
Run:
Mile 1 was a bit on the slower side, but I was able to pick it up and push the pace towards the finish.
Great day for racing and thanks again to all the volunteers. Content as always with improvement clauses especially in transition. I PR’d the course by 10 minutes over last year. Race goal met! Again as I noted last year. I would recommend this race as an open water sprint to kick start the season for sure. Anh and I registered in the Husband/Wife category and placed 3rd. That was a great Tri performance on her part, especially being her first open water tri ever. Great job babe!
Overall Time: 1:03:25
Overall Place: 28th/483
Age Group: 9th/46
Husband/Wife Category: 3rd/9
We placed 3rd out of 9 in the Husband/Wife Category
