Technique.
Anyone who remotely follows this blog, knows that I always go on about technique. I know first hand how important good technique is. Sometime ago I swam fairly seriously. Occasionally, I'd get my butt kicked in a race by someone who was smaller and not as strong. They simply had better form. I vowed to become better by attaining better technique. I watched videos of Olympians, I practice mental imagery and most importanly I listened to what my coaches told me. It took awhile, but it worked. Today, the muscle memory that I had from 20 years ago is still alive and well and that I'm still a decent swimmer despite hardly training it. It's all due to technique.
I bring this up because I've dedicated all my riding in December to soley focusing on technique. For that I'm using spinscan that comes with Computrainer. See previous post if you're curious about spinscan or click here:
http://www.racermateinc.com/spinscan.asp
Last week my spinscan high for a mere 30 minutes on the bike was 77. This week it's 86! A 9 point improvement! Might not sound like much to you, but I was shocked. If I really concentrate while spinning, I can actually feel how I'm suppose to spin. ie: slightly changing when a muscle fires or changing my maximum torque angle. It takes alot of concentration and when my attention wonders, the numbers go down. I'll be routinely incorporating technique sessions throughout my winter training.
I'm an idiot. Wanted to do the Chili half marathon at the beginning of March. I procrastinated to the point that now the race is sold out. On the waiting list.
Last weeks totals:
Run 5 times: 60.5k
Spin 5 times: 3+ hrs.
The highlight was doing a 20k'er with Cliff on the Trans Canada Trail at 9 am on Saturday morning when it's -15 degrees. Afterwards, I bought myself and Sally snowshoes from Caledon Hills Cycling, who've recently branched out into winter sports. It was good timing as we almost got a foot of snow yesterday. So Sally got an early Christmas present and we snowshoeing in the middle of a blizzard yesterday. Might not be your idea of fun, but we had a blast!
Cheers!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Spinscan numbers
Ran 6 times this week for a total distance of 73.5k. Ran disciplined, ran smart. Discpline in the sense I kept my heartrate down to the magic number of 145 and smart in the sense that the effort was low intensity followed by excellent stretching afterwards. Paying particular attention to my IT and hip flexors. I'm feeling pretty good and just trying to be hyper aware of any 'bad' pain. Even massaging the IT band is not ringing any warning bells, so I must be doing something right!
Also got in 4 short sessions on the bike for a total of just over 2hours. Really focusing on technique. Computrainer has a program that analyzes your pedal stroke, as it analyzes, it assigns you a number for each leg. The higher the number, the more efficient you are pedaling. A number of 100 is the highest you can go and is really only attainable by a motor. It would signify complete and uniform force through the entire 360 degree pedal stroke. Pro level cyclists routinely hit 80 for their spinscan. It's a tough thing to toy with, you start to play with the numbers as you spin and eventually you start to get 'it'. If I'm not paying attention and just pedaling away, my spinscan number is routinely about 67. I want to get the number up, so I'll sit on the computrainer, run the program and just concentrate on getting high spinscan numbers and pedalling as efficient as possible. I set my new record on Friday with a spinscan of 77!
Now I'm only doing this for 30 minutes at a time, but it's a good start. Got to burn that perfect technique into muscle memory.
Cheers!
Also got in 4 short sessions on the bike for a total of just over 2hours. Really focusing on technique. Computrainer has a program that analyzes your pedal stroke, as it analyzes, it assigns you a number for each leg. The higher the number, the more efficient you are pedaling. A number of 100 is the highest you can go and is really only attainable by a motor. It would signify complete and uniform force through the entire 360 degree pedal stroke. Pro level cyclists routinely hit 80 for their spinscan. It's a tough thing to toy with, you start to play with the numbers as you spin and eventually you start to get 'it'. If I'm not paying attention and just pedaling away, my spinscan number is routinely about 67. I want to get the number up, so I'll sit on the computrainer, run the program and just concentrate on getting high spinscan numbers and pedalling as efficient as possible. I set my new record on Friday with a spinscan of 77!
Now I'm only doing this for 30 minutes at a time, but it's a good start. Got to burn that perfect technique into muscle memory.
Cheers!
Monday, December 03, 2007
Cheater hours
Wah, wah, wah..
Yes winter is here. Big time. We have snow. We have white-out conditions. We have freezing rain. We have more snow.
Despite the inclimate weather I still squeaked out 4 runs for the week. (3X 60min, 1 X 90min) and actually *doubled* my bike trainer hours to ....
Two!
I'm sort of forcing myself to only workout once a day and keep the weekly training hour to a minimum. Going too hard now will must make me all burnt out by July - not a good thing.
I also managed to do 3 X 15 minutes of weights and core. This got me to thinking, when I think of training hours, I think of 'aerobic' training hours. Stretching (and I stretch alot), core work and weights don't count as part of my training hours. If you include these, you're just padding your hours. Hence, cheater hours. Gosh, I probably could have padded my hours by +20% this week if I included the extra stuff. Aerobic hours - that's where the money is at.
December is here. Just like that. This time last year, I was definately more fit. Just interesting to note that. I'm still hoping to train smarter this year and by the time racing starts - I will be faster. So what's the plan for December? Pretty much more of the same, still keeping the aerobic hours fairly low. I'm offically keeping track of mileage and getting much more disciplined in keeping my heartrate in check. I'll be getting on my bike more frequently. A slow, methodical increase in hours is the plan. The last week of December will be super easy, just in time for Jan '08 - when things start to get interesting.
Yes winter is here. Big time. We have snow. We have white-out conditions. We have freezing rain. We have more snow.
Despite the inclimate weather I still squeaked out 4 runs for the week. (3X 60min, 1 X 90min) and actually *doubled* my bike trainer hours to ....
Two!
I'm sort of forcing myself to only workout once a day and keep the weekly training hour to a minimum. Going too hard now will must make me all burnt out by July - not a good thing.
I also managed to do 3 X 15 minutes of weights and core. This got me to thinking, when I think of training hours, I think of 'aerobic' training hours. Stretching (and I stretch alot), core work and weights don't count as part of my training hours. If you include these, you're just padding your hours. Hence, cheater hours. Gosh, I probably could have padded my hours by +20% this week if I included the extra stuff. Aerobic hours - that's where the money is at.
December is here. Just like that. This time last year, I was definately more fit. Just interesting to note that. I'm still hoping to train smarter this year and by the time racing starts - I will be faster. So what's the plan for December? Pretty much more of the same, still keeping the aerobic hours fairly low. I'm offically keeping track of mileage and getting much more disciplined in keeping my heartrate in check. I'll be getting on my bike more frequently. A slow, methodical increase in hours is the plan. The last week of December will be super easy, just in time for Jan '08 - when things start to get interesting.
Monday, November 26, 2007
A broken wing test
So, I'm out running on Saturday and when I'm not concentrating on form, cadence or breathing, I was trying to come up with something to post this week. Training wise it's been pretty uneventful, so there was nothing of interest to post in that department. So as I'm pondering this, out of the corner of my eye I see movement. It was a morning dove on it's back. Not being a bird expert, I assumed the poor thing had a broken wing. Sigh. What to do, what to do...
This is a test..
Whenever I'm put into a situation that involves some sort of action on my part, I think of it as a test. Not a test from the Almighty (I'm actually quite non-religious, at least in the conventional sense, spiritual - yes, but that's a topic for another day); this test is more like "ok, here is a situation, what's the BEST course of action?"
What to do.. what to do..
Find a rock? Put it out of it's misery? I'm a confessed softie, especially when it comes to animals, I've had to put an animal out of misery and I can't say I pariculary enjoy it. But if it has to be done, it has to be done. So I look for a rock to do the job. Well everything is snow covered and no large rocks are presenting themselves. Hmm...
What to do.. what to do..
Pace. Hmmm.. Ok, let's examine this little guy. So I pick up the bird, I can't tell if it's wing is broken or not, but there is a small and fresh wound on it.
What to do. what to do..
Smash it on the ground? As barbaric as that sounds, it would end its' suffering - quickly. Mercy is a good thing.
What do do.. what to do..
I swear at this point the little guy looked at me and said 'what now boss?" Sigh, in for a penny in for pound. So I run home (about 5k away) with a morning dove in my hand wrapped in kleenex. I get home, put him in a box in a darkened area of the basement. Well, I'm in deep now.
What to do.. what to do..
Google knows all. Look up on Google on how to fix a broken wing and think that I could probably pull it off. Call my vet, who refer me to the Wildlife rescue guys.. who are conviently located a good hour away! No pick up service of course. Ahh crap, I've gone this far, can't turn back now (sort of like an Ironman!). Sally and I were heading in the direction of the Wildlife rescue guys to attend a party, so if we left a little earlier we could drive a little extra and at least give the little guy to the pros, at least that way he'd have a chance. So that's what we ended up doing.
Two FREE lessons learned. 1) *Always* try to do the *best* course of action, regardless whether it's easy or not. 2) Sometimes you just can't go back. Yup, now that I think of it, I got alot more out of trying to save a bird then meets the eye. Life, ya gotta love it.
As for actual training..
Run 5 times. Shortest 52 min. Longest 70min (X2)
Bike 1 time. For an hour. On the trainer. Yes the bike is offically on the trainer.
Weights & core: 3 X 15 min sessions.
Cheers!
This is a test..
Whenever I'm put into a situation that involves some sort of action on my part, I think of it as a test. Not a test from the Almighty (I'm actually quite non-religious, at least in the conventional sense, spiritual - yes, but that's a topic for another day); this test is more like "ok, here is a situation, what's the BEST course of action?"
What to do.. what to do..
Find a rock? Put it out of it's misery? I'm a confessed softie, especially when it comes to animals, I've had to put an animal out of misery and I can't say I pariculary enjoy it. But if it has to be done, it has to be done. So I look for a rock to do the job. Well everything is snow covered and no large rocks are presenting themselves. Hmm...
What to do.. what to do..
Pace. Hmmm.. Ok, let's examine this little guy. So I pick up the bird, I can't tell if it's wing is broken or not, but there is a small and fresh wound on it.
What to do. what to do..
Smash it on the ground? As barbaric as that sounds, it would end its' suffering - quickly. Mercy is a good thing.
What do do.. what to do..
I swear at this point the little guy looked at me and said 'what now boss?" Sigh, in for a penny in for pound. So I run home (about 5k away) with a morning dove in my hand wrapped in kleenex. I get home, put him in a box in a darkened area of the basement. Well, I'm in deep now.
What to do.. what to do..
Google knows all. Look up on Google on how to fix a broken wing and think that I could probably pull it off. Call my vet, who refer me to the Wildlife rescue guys.. who are conviently located a good hour away! No pick up service of course. Ahh crap, I've gone this far, can't turn back now (sort of like an Ironman!). Sally and I were heading in the direction of the Wildlife rescue guys to attend a party, so if we left a little earlier we could drive a little extra and at least give the little guy to the pros, at least that way he'd have a chance. So that's what we ended up doing.
Two FREE lessons learned. 1) *Always* try to do the *best* course of action, regardless whether it's easy or not. 2) Sometimes you just can't go back. Yup, now that I think of it, I got alot more out of trying to save a bird then meets the eye. Life, ya gotta love it.
As for actual training..
Run 5 times. Shortest 52 min. Longest 70min (X2)
Bike 1 time. For an hour. On the trainer. Yes the bike is offically on the trainer.
Weights & core: 3 X 15 min sessions.
Cheers!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Bruce Trail, Wierdness
Quite often when I think of 'fun' things to do, others think I'm just plain wierd. I look at the Bruce Trail, all 768km of it, and I think it would 'fun' hike the whole thing. I look at a map of this beautiful country that I love so much and I think it would 'fun' to cycle from coast to coast. I look at the epic wilderness of the Arctic and I think it would be 'fun' to go camping on Ellesmere Island. Maybe I am an odd duck, perhaps people do think I'm 'wierd'. Then again, I think many people are wierd for wanting to sit and watch TV for 5 hours a day.
On Saturday, I went for a challenging hike-n-run along the Bruce Trail with Cliff. A fairly rugged 23k looped section of the Bruce with some pretty good elevation gains. It took us 3.5 hours (exactly the same as last year!), so we weren't blazing the trail or anything, but with the all the elevation gains and losses, by the time we got back to the car, we knew we had a great workout.
During the hike-n-run we'd talk tri stuff, training philosophies etc.. At one point I said I'd like to do this loop twice, make a day of it. (ok, THAT would be a tough workout) You know what? Cliff didn't look at me wierd, I could see the glint in his eye - yea I could probably talk him into doing it. Smile.
He mentioned he'd like to do a back to back 200k destination ride. Two words: "I'm in." I guess we are both wierd.
It was a great day and I felt like a million bucks afterwards. We agreed, we would try to do it once more before snowfall. Maybe in a couple of weeks.
Ran 6 times last week. Good stuff. Running legs are at about 80% and climbing steadily. Brought the bike inside, probably for good. Still *thinking* about swimming.
Cheers!
On Saturday, I went for a challenging hike-n-run along the Bruce Trail with Cliff. A fairly rugged 23k looped section of the Bruce with some pretty good elevation gains. It took us 3.5 hours (exactly the same as last year!), so we weren't blazing the trail or anything, but with the all the elevation gains and losses, by the time we got back to the car, we knew we had a great workout.
During the hike-n-run we'd talk tri stuff, training philosophies etc.. At one point I said I'd like to do this loop twice, make a day of it. (ok, THAT would be a tough workout) You know what? Cliff didn't look at me wierd, I could see the glint in his eye - yea I could probably talk him into doing it. Smile.
He mentioned he'd like to do a back to back 200k destination ride. Two words: "I'm in." I guess we are both wierd.
It was a great day and I felt like a million bucks afterwards. We agreed, we would try to do it once more before snowfall. Maybe in a couple of weeks.
Ran 6 times last week. Good stuff. Running legs are at about 80% and climbing steadily. Brought the bike inside, probably for good. Still *thinking* about swimming.
Cheers!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Sick no more
Been a relatively crappy week. Finally caught that bug that was floating around, pretty much knocked out any will to work-out for a week. Got back up on the horse on Friday and got a decent run in for both Fri and Sat. So this week I'll attempt something a bit more 'normal'.
Next Saturday, I have a planned 25k hike-n-run, which I'm terribly out of shape for. Am I backing out? Hell no. Sorry guys, you don't get off that easy. I have one confirmed buddy joining me, hopefully I can grab a couple more and make a party out of it.
Earlier in the week I was pondering about how triathlon has made such a positive change within me. No one ever asked 'why or what is tri'fusion?' Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Tri-fusion isn't about triathlon. The title actually means the fusion of mind, body and spirit through triathlon. A bit of a play on words. I experience such a peace within myself when things are going well training wise. I try to share that with others.. I feel it's a positive thing. However, I wasn't able to do this until I made the positive changes from within first.. only then was I able to share with others. It could anything from urging a coworker to quit smoking to picking up a piece of garbage on the street. It's all positive change and if I can be some small part of it - that's a good thing. Hey, we all of that power, might as well use it.
Cheers,
Darren
Next Saturday, I have a planned 25k hike-n-run, which I'm terribly out of shape for. Am I backing out? Hell no. Sorry guys, you don't get off that easy. I have one confirmed buddy joining me, hopefully I can grab a couple more and make a party out of it.
Earlier in the week I was pondering about how triathlon has made such a positive change within me. No one ever asked 'why or what is tri'fusion?' Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Tri-fusion isn't about triathlon. The title actually means the fusion of mind, body and spirit through triathlon. A bit of a play on words. I experience such a peace within myself when things are going well training wise. I try to share that with others.. I feel it's a positive thing. However, I wasn't able to do this until I made the positive changes from within first.. only then was I able to share with others. It could anything from urging a coworker to quit smoking to picking up a piece of garbage on the street. It's all positive change and if I can be some small part of it - that's a good thing. Hey, we all of that power, might as well use it.
Cheers,
Darren
Monday, October 29, 2007
Holding steady
As most of you know, October, for me, is pretty much dedicated to slowly acclimatizing my body to the rigours that will applied to it in future training. So to that end, I've very slowly upping my running frequency, doing some weights and the odd bike ride. In a nutshell, that's it.
This week, I'm planning on running 5X, 40min will be the shortest and the longest will 75min. Hopefully get a ride in next weekend and do weights 3 times. I'm not a big fan of weight training, so I only focus on a few exercises (leg extensions for the quads and leg curls for the hammies), core work and pushups. This short session I can bang off in 10 to 15 min. Currently I'm only doing 1 circuit of the above 2 times a week. By the end of the Nov, I'll be doing the circuit twice, 3 times a week. That's it. I think weight training is good tool, but if it cuts into any other swim, bike, run training then it's a no go. That's why the sessions are pretty short.
It's a no go for the masters swim team. Actually, I'm on the list, so the only way I'll get in is if someone drops out. The fact that there is no space available caught me by suprise. I'm thinking about doing a masters swim meet (as an independent) in the spring -just for the heck of it. So for now, I guess when I pick up swimming, I'll be doing it solo again. :/
Went for a ride with Aaron last weekend. We're both in early season, not really caring phase of our training, but before we went, we both agreed that we are not into training if it's crazy cold and raining out. This is a time for fun, not a time for trying to toughen yourself up.
So I setup a ride with half an eye on the weather and things are looking good. Saturday roles around and what do you know, it's cold, it's raining. Damn you Weather Network! The unwritten rule is, if you setup the ride you simply can't not show, that would be very bad form.
Naturally, Aaron shows, remember, this is the guy with who I agreed with NOT to train in cold crappy weather; yet here we are riding in..
cold..
crappy..
weather.
As usual, the tough part was getting going. As usual, I was glad we rode. Typical.
Cheers!
This week, I'm planning on running 5X, 40min will be the shortest and the longest will 75min. Hopefully get a ride in next weekend and do weights 3 times. I'm not a big fan of weight training, so I only focus on a few exercises (leg extensions for the quads and leg curls for the hammies), core work and pushups. This short session I can bang off in 10 to 15 min. Currently I'm only doing 1 circuit of the above 2 times a week. By the end of the Nov, I'll be doing the circuit twice, 3 times a week. That's it. I think weight training is good tool, but if it cuts into any other swim, bike, run training then it's a no go. That's why the sessions are pretty short.
It's a no go for the masters swim team. Actually, I'm on the list, so the only way I'll get in is if someone drops out. The fact that there is no space available caught me by suprise. I'm thinking about doing a masters swim meet (as an independent) in the spring -just for the heck of it. So for now, I guess when I pick up swimming, I'll be doing it solo again. :/
Went for a ride with Aaron last weekend. We're both in early season, not really caring phase of our training, but before we went, we both agreed that we are not into training if it's crazy cold and raining out. This is a time for fun, not a time for trying to toughen yourself up.
So I setup a ride with half an eye on the weather and things are looking good. Saturday roles around and what do you know, it's cold, it's raining. Damn you Weather Network! The unwritten rule is, if you setup the ride you simply can't not show, that would be very bad form.
Naturally, Aaron shows, remember, this is the guy with who I agreed with NOT to train in cold crappy weather; yet here we are riding in..
cold..
crappy..
weather.
As usual, the tough part was getting going. As usual, I was glad we rode. Typical.
Cheers!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
"Darren, we are riding this Sat.. "
are you in? What the hell, I'm in! Let's not even mention the fact that my bike still had race wheels left on from IMLP - 2.5 months ago! I met up with Aaron and Cliff and rode for 2 hours on Saturday. I'll say two things: 1) I'm glad I left my HRM strap at home (by accident) 2) What is it about group riding that throws every bit of caution out the window? First, we warmed up for about 30 minutes and before you know it I (like an idiot) am out front hammering. (well it felt like I was hammering, average speed says otherwise) I can't shake Aaron, so we mellow the pace for a bit, then what do you know? Aaron is up front hammering - well naturally I must try to keep up - and thus went the ride. Screw heart rate just go out and have FUN. I'm glad I went.
So no Ironman next year. Why? The short answer is: too many eggs in one basket. I tend to be pretty self analytical and pragmatic, so in the end I think it's a case of just not having enough years of training under my belt to effectively do the distance the way I believe I'm capable of. So next year, I'll be racing more often and stick to the half iron distance and under. The juices are already starting to flow and I'm looking forward to next season.
The big show at Kona was last Saturday. Was looking forward to the epic Stadler, Macca showdown in the final few K's, but it didn't happen. Stadler bailed on the bike and in the end Macca won. Props to him. Un-frikin believable how fast/ good these guys are. Kept half an eye on the women's race, but lost interest when hometown favorite Lisa Bentley was having troubles. She's is as tough as they come, but doing IMC and Kona is just too close togethor, in my humble opinion.
Last week mileage: run 4 times, 40-45 minutes each. Bike for 2 hours. :)
Cheers!
So no Ironman next year. Why? The short answer is: too many eggs in one basket. I tend to be pretty self analytical and pragmatic, so in the end I think it's a case of just not having enough years of training under my belt to effectively do the distance the way I believe I'm capable of. So next year, I'll be racing more often and stick to the half iron distance and under. The juices are already starting to flow and I'm looking forward to next season.
The big show at Kona was last Saturday. Was looking forward to the epic Stadler, Macca showdown in the final few K's, but it didn't happen. Stadler bailed on the bike and in the end Macca won. Props to him. Un-frikin believable how fast/ good these guys are. Kept half an eye on the women's race, but lost interest when hometown favorite Lisa Bentley was having troubles. She's is as tough as they come, but doing IMC and Kona is just too close togethor, in my humble opinion.
Last week mileage: run 4 times, 40-45 minutes each. Bike for 2 hours. :)
Cheers!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
2 Month hiatus is over..
Hard to figure out what to say after 2 months of 'laying low'. Basically, I went through a 'triathlon system purge.' Two months of doing anything BUT triathlon. I used the time to rest, catch up on household chores that I somehow managed to put off over the course of the summer, hike, play videogames and log some quality time with Sally. It was a good rest session and my body and mind needed it.
So now I'm back and I'm sure my readership has dwindled from a mere few people to .. oh I don't know.. maybe 3?? Yes, I did get the odd email wondering where the hell I've been - and I believe I'm caught up in that department. As the mind and body are slowly shifting into gear, I'll be blogging and checking my email much more frequently. Promise!
Shh!! SECRIT TRAINING!
Well not really. But it did begin just over 2 weeks ago. Very light, occasional running. Nothing more than 45 minutes, keeping the HR down (very hard to do!), just slowly and methodically increasing frequency of runs per week, stretching and core work. My mind and body are slowly waking up to the fact that off season is over, easy season is in session and regular training will be starting up soon.
Basic highlights for the '08 season: NO IRONMAN (I'll save the whys for a future post), 'A' races will be the Peterborough half and the Muskoka 70.3 and aging up! Yup, I'm at the top of the hill next year at the ripe age of 40.
Other training stuff. I haven't yet, but I think I'll pull the trigger and train with the local masters swim team. Again, running will be a priority this year. Going to do more 'focused weeks' and will try a few months of 1)bike week 2)easier week working on the all 3 sports, 3)run week, 4) very easy week. Slightly different from the build for 3 weeks and rest for 1 week protocol. I'll be introducing speed training, instead of periodizing, I'll be doing a more consistent (but infrequent) speed training - starting in April. Also, throughout the off season I'll be doing wieghts. Hey, gotta face the facts that at age 40 I'm losing muscle mass.
Alrighty, I'm off. It's good to be back!
Cheers!
So now I'm back and I'm sure my readership has dwindled from a mere few people to .. oh I don't know.. maybe 3?? Yes, I did get the odd email wondering where the hell I've been - and I believe I'm caught up in that department. As the mind and body are slowly shifting into gear, I'll be blogging and checking my email much more frequently. Promise!
Shh!! SECRIT TRAINING!
Well not really. But it did begin just over 2 weeks ago. Very light, occasional running. Nothing more than 45 minutes, keeping the HR down (very hard to do!), just slowly and methodically increasing frequency of runs per week, stretching and core work. My mind and body are slowly waking up to the fact that off season is over, easy season is in session and regular training will be starting up soon.
Basic highlights for the '08 season: NO IRONMAN (I'll save the whys for a future post), 'A' races will be the Peterborough half and the Muskoka 70.3 and aging up! Yup, I'm at the top of the hill next year at the ripe age of 40.
Other training stuff. I haven't yet, but I think I'll pull the trigger and train with the local masters swim team. Again, running will be a priority this year. Going to do more 'focused weeks' and will try a few months of 1)bike week 2)easier week working on the all 3 sports, 3)run week, 4) very easy week. Slightly different from the build for 3 weeks and rest for 1 week protocol. I'll be introducing speed training, instead of periodizing, I'll be doing a more consistent (but infrequent) speed training - starting in April. Also, throughout the off season I'll be doing wieghts. Hey, gotta face the facts that at age 40 I'm losing muscle mass.
Alrighty, I'm off. It's good to be back!
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
2.5 weeks, off season?, ITB, Muskoka
Ya I know, it's been a long time between posts. I can hardly believe it's been only 2 and half weeks since IMLP. It seems like a lifetime ago. I don't suffer PIDS (a phrase brought to you by Crackhead)- Post Ironman Depression Syndrome. At least I don't think I do. I'm actually relishing my current lazy state -getting fat and playing video games.
I managed 3 runs last week, each of a 40 minute duration. And each run was a short sufferfest due to some crazy tightness in my IT band. So I've backed off on the running. As for swimming and cycling, I currently have no desire to start them back up, especially since the season is almost over. My initial plan was to try to put togethor a decent marathon on October, but with my current IT issues and my dubious mental-end-of-season-state, I'm leaning to taking an early off season and starting back up in the fall. I take the off season very serious - 4 to 8 weeks of chilling out, I relish the thought of it.
It looks like Muskoka is getting an official 70.3 (half Ironman) in September of next year. Tough decision, IMC, or stay local and do Muskoka in '08? Points to ponder..
Ok, you HAVE to see this video. This is the swim start of IMLP '07. My god, if you are a MOP swimmer (middle of the pack), this, is incentive to train your ass off to be a FOP'er! I now get why the swim freaks so many people out! My hats off to you guys.
Video of '07 IMLP swim.
Lastly, just a quick kudos to the guys at the Brampton Post Office. Funds for this years charity drive for POGO now stands at $2625.00. Just awesome.
Cheers!
I managed 3 runs last week, each of a 40 minute duration. And each run was a short sufferfest due to some crazy tightness in my IT band. So I've backed off on the running. As for swimming and cycling, I currently have no desire to start them back up, especially since the season is almost over. My initial plan was to try to put togethor a decent marathon on October, but with my current IT issues and my dubious mental-end-of-season-state, I'm leaning to taking an early off season and starting back up in the fall. I take the off season very serious - 4 to 8 weeks of chilling out, I relish the thought of it.
It looks like Muskoka is getting an official 70.3 (half Ironman) in September of next year. Tough decision, IMC, or stay local and do Muskoka in '08? Points to ponder..
Ok, you HAVE to see this video. This is the swim start of IMLP '07. My god, if you are a MOP swimmer (middle of the pack), this, is incentive to train your ass off to be a FOP'er! I now get why the swim freaks so many people out! My hats off to you guys.
Video of '07 IMLP swim.
Lastly, just a quick kudos to the guys at the Brampton Post Office. Funds for this years charity drive for POGO now stands at $2625.00. Just awesome.
Cheers!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
IMLP'07 Report
Family, friends, 2200 athletes, 3500+ volunteers(!), countless spectators, beautiful scenery and top notch organization. Just take a sec and try to imagine the type of atmosphere that will generate. It's electric. Even if you have absolutely no desire to do an Ironman, I would highly recommend to spectate one - it really is an experience like no other.
Not much preamble this time, going straight to the main course.
Swim 3.8k:
Estimate: 56 min. Actual: 55:10 Agegroup placing: 7/419. Overall: 35/2208
This is a fast swim course. There is an under water cable that connects the bouys about 5 feet below the water, so everyone tries to get into position so they can see the cable. This saves you from lifting your head and 'sighting'. Basically, just follow the cable and you're set. At the start, I'm positioned very close the front and ask the people around me if they are all around 55 min swimmmers - they are. Cannon goes off and I follow their feet, as it turns out, it's the lead crew. This is just fine with me as I've secured a nice draft within 400m of the start and have settled in really quick. Pretty much a perfect start from my perspective.
The first loop of the swim goes by and as I start the second loop, my goggles literally snapped off. Brand new goggles that I only use for racing - busted. Now I can't see shit. In seconds I lose the draft and lead crew, can't see the cable and start swimming rather crooked. Even though it's fresh water, it's tough to keep my eyes open, so I just shut them and open them to sight and keep on course. I think to myself "if this is the only setback I have today I'll be laughing."
Despite the 2nd loop challenges, I pull off a good swim time. As I exit the water, my vision is very clouded over and I'm blinking alot to try and clear the eyes. My run to the transition tent was at a leisurely pace as my eyes slowly start to refocus.
T1: 5:30 min.
Hehe.. terrible time. Could have gone for a shower and a bite to eat, it was so slow. Cloudy eyes and picking up a bunch of gravel on the bottom of my feet didn't help the situation. But I was on the bike at the 1 hour mark of the race - which was exactly what I wanted. So despite the minor setbacks, I'm happy.
Bike 180k:
Estimate: 5:30 Actual: 5:50 Agegroup placing: 64/415 Overall: 296/2208
This is a tough bike course. 1800 feet of elevation per loop and it's a two loop affair. My bike fitness is better than ever, I train on hills, I've logged many 400+k weeks and even hit a 600k week - so, as usual, I'm expecting alot out of myself. My estimate is sub 5:30 - I did a 5:31 at IMC last year with a 12 minute flat - so taking into consideration my superior bike fitness, plus race wheels and no flat tires, I think doing close to 5:30 is a reasonable /attainable goal.
First loop: ~2:48. Really just concentrated on taking it slow and keeping heartrate down. I knew I was going to get passed alot on the first loop, I wasn't worried. The split was a little slower than I was aiming for as I was looking for a 2:40.
Second loop: ~3:00. Kept effort in check for the first 60min of the 2nd loop and started reeling in guys who went out too fast on the first lap. Perfect. All is going according to plan. With about 90 minutes until the end of the bike, I started to get tummy issues. I have no choice back to back off. I'm bummed beacause I thought I had my nutrition figured out and yet here I was experiencing nausea - again. I'm about halfway through the race and I knew that having stomach issues this early was going to have nasty reprucussions later - and I was right!
I 'slow play', the last 90 min on the bike, losing an additional 12 min over my 1st loop time. I get into T2, happy as clam to be off my bike and knowing all I have to do now is run a marathon. :)
T2: 3:08
Nice T2 time.
Run 42.2k
Estimate: sub 4hrs. Actual: 4:07 Agegroup placing: 76/415 Overall: 354/2208
It's been 2 years since I've last run a standalone marathon. My best guess is that I'm currently about a 3:10 marathoner. (did a 1:25 for a half earlier this year). So I figure add 45 minutes to 3:10 and I'll slide in under the 4hr mark for an IM marathon.
My mantra for the run from the very beginning is simple. "Just run". Do NOT walk, however shitty I feel, just do. not. walk. God I want to walk so bad. My steps are so small, yet I'm still 'running'. The miles go by. I'm half done the marathon with no walking. How the hell am I going to do the last half without walking? I make a deal with myself, run just 3 more miles and walk then. I get to the 15 mile mark without walking. "Ok, run 1 more mile." Still no walking. I play this game to mile 20, when all hell breaks loose. I finally 'lose it' and barf my guts out. See? I told you the nausea I experienced on the bike would have reprucussions later. Hehe - I was right. I walk 100 yards and dry heave for a bit. Brought back memories as this was very near the exact same spot where I barfed on this course 2 years ago. Ahh good times.
After the last round of dry heaves - I run some more. A part of me is happy that I was 'tough' / stupid enough to keep running. I guess that the masochistic part coming out.
So I finish off the last 10k 'running' and as I'm coming into the finishers shoot, I'm sort swearing to myself - mostly because I'm so damned glad to actually have it in sight and be done. Anyway, I think Mr. Announcer guy sees me swearing to myself and says something like: "Give it up for Darren Walton from Alton, it looks like he needs your support!" Then as I cross the line, the 'catchers' grab each side of me and say 'don't worry we got ya'. I say 5 words:
"Thanks guys, med tent please."
Final time: 11 hrs 2 min.
Med Tent
Ahhh, you didn't know of the secret 4th leg of a triathlon. The med tent! Upon entering, they weigh me. I'm down 13 pounds. I say "13?, sheesh that's not so bad, I've been over 20 before!" (The nurse's eyes bug out at this) They hook me up to an IV, I barf, I get some anti nausea meds, blood pressure is low, I fall asleep. About an hour later, I'm good to go. It's like someone flicked a switch, I'm walking, talking, eating and drinking and looking forward to a good nights sleep!
A quick "HI!" to Cliff, Sheila, Shelley, Aaron and Stu - altough our meeting was too short, it was really great meeting with you guys. Please stay in touch!
A BIG congrats to Shelley. Her 7 time Ironman finishers wisdom really shone with her guess of 10:48 for my finishing time. Congrats Shelley! You are now the proud owner of official IMLP running socks! Woo Hoo!!
Not much preamble this time, going straight to the main course.
Swim 3.8k:
Estimate: 56 min. Actual: 55:10 Agegroup placing: 7/419. Overall: 35/2208
This is a fast swim course. There is an under water cable that connects the bouys about 5 feet below the water, so everyone tries to get into position so they can see the cable. This saves you from lifting your head and 'sighting'. Basically, just follow the cable and you're set. At the start, I'm positioned very close the front and ask the people around me if they are all around 55 min swimmmers - they are. Cannon goes off and I follow their feet, as it turns out, it's the lead crew. This is just fine with me as I've secured a nice draft within 400m of the start and have settled in really quick. Pretty much a perfect start from my perspective.
The first loop of the swim goes by and as I start the second loop, my goggles literally snapped off. Brand new goggles that I only use for racing - busted. Now I can't see shit. In seconds I lose the draft and lead crew, can't see the cable and start swimming rather crooked. Even though it's fresh water, it's tough to keep my eyes open, so I just shut them and open them to sight and keep on course. I think to myself "if this is the only setback I have today I'll be laughing."
Despite the 2nd loop challenges, I pull off a good swim time. As I exit the water, my vision is very clouded over and I'm blinking alot to try and clear the eyes. My run to the transition tent was at a leisurely pace as my eyes slowly start to refocus.
T1: 5:30 min.
Hehe.. terrible time. Could have gone for a shower and a bite to eat, it was so slow. Cloudy eyes and picking up a bunch of gravel on the bottom of my feet didn't help the situation. But I was on the bike at the 1 hour mark of the race - which was exactly what I wanted. So despite the minor setbacks, I'm happy.
Bike 180k:
Estimate: 5:30 Actual: 5:50 Agegroup placing: 64/415 Overall: 296/2208
This is a tough bike course. 1800 feet of elevation per loop and it's a two loop affair. My bike fitness is better than ever, I train on hills, I've logged many 400+k weeks and even hit a 600k week - so, as usual, I'm expecting alot out of myself. My estimate is sub 5:30 - I did a 5:31 at IMC last year with a 12 minute flat - so taking into consideration my superior bike fitness, plus race wheels and no flat tires, I think doing close to 5:30 is a reasonable /attainable goal.
First loop: ~2:48. Really just concentrated on taking it slow and keeping heartrate down. I knew I was going to get passed alot on the first loop, I wasn't worried. The split was a little slower than I was aiming for as I was looking for a 2:40.
Second loop: ~3:00. Kept effort in check for the first 60min of the 2nd loop and started reeling in guys who went out too fast on the first lap. Perfect. All is going according to plan. With about 90 minutes until the end of the bike, I started to get tummy issues. I have no choice back to back off. I'm bummed beacause I thought I had my nutrition figured out and yet here I was experiencing nausea - again. I'm about halfway through the race and I knew that having stomach issues this early was going to have nasty reprucussions later - and I was right!
I 'slow play', the last 90 min on the bike, losing an additional 12 min over my 1st loop time. I get into T2, happy as clam to be off my bike and knowing all I have to do now is run a marathon. :)
T2: 3:08
Nice T2 time.
Run 42.2k
Estimate: sub 4hrs. Actual: 4:07 Agegroup placing: 76/415 Overall: 354/2208
It's been 2 years since I've last run a standalone marathon. My best guess is that I'm currently about a 3:10 marathoner. (did a 1:25 for a half earlier this year). So I figure add 45 minutes to 3:10 and I'll slide in under the 4hr mark for an IM marathon.
My mantra for the run from the very beginning is simple. "Just run". Do NOT walk, however shitty I feel, just do. not. walk. God I want to walk so bad. My steps are so small, yet I'm still 'running'. The miles go by. I'm half done the marathon with no walking. How the hell am I going to do the last half without walking? I make a deal with myself, run just 3 more miles and walk then. I get to the 15 mile mark without walking. "Ok, run 1 more mile." Still no walking. I play this game to mile 20, when all hell breaks loose. I finally 'lose it' and barf my guts out. See? I told you the nausea I experienced on the bike would have reprucussions later. Hehe - I was right. I walk 100 yards and dry heave for a bit. Brought back memories as this was very near the exact same spot where I barfed on this course 2 years ago. Ahh good times.
After the last round of dry heaves - I run some more. A part of me is happy that I was 'tough' / stupid enough to keep running. I guess that the masochistic part coming out.
So I finish off the last 10k 'running' and as I'm coming into the finishers shoot, I'm sort swearing to myself - mostly because I'm so damned glad to actually have it in sight and be done. Anyway, I think Mr. Announcer guy sees me swearing to myself and says something like: "Give it up for Darren Walton from Alton, it looks like he needs your support!" Then as I cross the line, the 'catchers' grab each side of me and say 'don't worry we got ya'. I say 5 words:
"Thanks guys, med tent please."
Final time: 11 hrs 2 min.
Med Tent
Ahhh, you didn't know of the secret 4th leg of a triathlon. The med tent! Upon entering, they weigh me. I'm down 13 pounds. I say "13?, sheesh that's not so bad, I've been over 20 before!" (The nurse's eyes bug out at this) They hook me up to an IV, I barf, I get some anti nausea meds, blood pressure is low, I fall asleep. About an hour later, I'm good to go. It's like someone flicked a switch, I'm walking, talking, eating and drinking and looking forward to a good nights sleep!
A quick "HI!" to Cliff, Sheila, Shelley, Aaron and Stu - altough our meeting was too short, it was really great meeting with you guys. Please stay in touch!
A BIG congrats to Shelley. Her 7 time Ironman finishers wisdom really shone with her guess of 10:48 for my finishing time. Congrats Shelley! You are now the proud owner of official IMLP running socks! Woo Hoo!!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Tough day at the office..
Just a quickie!
I'm back. All is good. Here's a really short race report..
swim: highpoint: made goal time. lowpoint: lost my goggles halfway through. Swimming without them was tough on the eyes.
bike: highpoint: 1st loop doing 'Keane descent' at 80kph. lowpoint: really backing off 2nd loop due to nausea.
run: highpoint: I ran the whole thing except for 100 yards.
lowpoint: puking at 20miles, walking 100 yards and puking again.
A great report for those who like em short and sweet, give me a day or two for the full version. Cheers guys!
I'm back. All is good. Here's a really short race report..
swim: highpoint: made goal time. lowpoint: lost my goggles halfway through. Swimming without them was tough on the eyes.
bike: highpoint: 1st loop doing 'Keane descent' at 80kph. lowpoint: really backing off 2nd loop due to nausea.
run: highpoint: I ran the whole thing except for 100 yards.
lowpoint: puking at 20miles, walking 100 yards and puking again.
A great report for those who like em short and sweet, give me a day or two for the full version. Cheers guys!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Lucky Rocketship Underpants
You got yours? I wish I could say I have mine. Rocketship underpants would be *awesome*. Or even cooler - lucky rocketship cycling shorts! Heck, I'd love a lucky rocketship running hat - that'd be cool. If you can find me either one of those, I'd pay large for it.
So, where does the phrase ' lucky rocketship underpants' come from? It's pretty easy, I'm sure someone will post the answer in the comments section.
Taper has gone well. Since the last update I rode for 2 hrs on Sun, swam 1.7k on Monday and went for a 7.5k run today. It was really difficult keeping my effort in check today - the legs were just begging to go. Tomorrow I'll ride for an hour, pack and other than that just concentrate on staying off my feet. Thursday is up bright and early and is travel day.
It's still early, but the weather is looking..umm.. perfect? Cloudy with a high in the 70's. Dare I hope?
Not sure if I'll get to update between now and post race, if not on Sunday goto Ironmanlive
type in my race number (1006), check my progress and send a positive vibe or two. I know at some point I'll need them!
Don't forget to post a finishing time mentioned in the last post. Hey, who knows? You may just score some unbelievable loot! Official IMLP socks - pretty damned sweet.
Cheers!
So, where does the phrase ' lucky rocketship underpants' come from? It's pretty easy, I'm sure someone will post the answer in the comments section.
Taper has gone well. Since the last update I rode for 2 hrs on Sun, swam 1.7k on Monday and went for a 7.5k run today. It was really difficult keeping my effort in check today - the legs were just begging to go. Tomorrow I'll ride for an hour, pack and other than that just concentrate on staying off my feet. Thursday is up bright and early and is travel day.
It's still early, but the weather is looking..umm.. perfect? Cloudy with a high in the 70's. Dare I hope?
Not sure if I'll get to update between now and post race, if not on Sunday goto Ironmanlive
type in my race number (1006), check my progress and send a positive vibe or two. I know at some point I'll need them!
Don't forget to post a finishing time mentioned in the last post. Hey, who knows? You may just score some unbelievable loot! Official IMLP socks - pretty damned sweet.
Cheers!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Slacker Saturday, 10:06??!! Predict my time and WIN!
1006
How did they do that? My number is the same as my finishing time! How cool is that?? 10:06! Oh man that would sweet indeed, but realistically it's not going to happen. For fun, let's crunch the numbers to do a 10:06..
Swim: 56
T1: 4
Bike: 5:20
T2: 4
Run: 3:42
You know, when I write it down like that, it actually seems doable. But if you throw in the obligatory +20 min fudge factor, the projected finishing time weighs in at 10:26. So this is what's floating in the back of mind, however time is of less importance than ever this year. This year the mantras are race smart, finish strong. It should be noted that I've yet to come close to a projected finishing time at the IM distance - the classic overestimating fitness applies here, BUT and this is a big but, I've made huge strides in the 4th discipline of triathlon. Nutrition. I'm not saying I have it nailed, but this will a huge test and I think it's dialed in pretty good.
Here is my overall strategy:
Swim: mantras: "long, easy strokes" Grab a set feet from the 2nd lead pack and take it easy. Time: 56 min.
Bike: mantra: "slow down!" Negative split? Get and keep heartrate < 135 for first loop, add 5 beats for 2nd loop. Start fueling @ 20 minutes and on the 10's thereafter. Eat half a power bar on the 30's followed by H2O. Estimated calorie intake: min:2000 max 2600. Time: 5:25
Run: mantra: "just run." Hold heartrate to 140 and see what happens. Nutrition: 800 cals of dextrose based Infinit. Time: 3:50
The good: my training went really well this year. Spent extra time on the bike to help increase overall endurance. Training started last October, with consistent and more structured training beginning in November - it went well.
The bad: nothing really. Caught 2 bugs, one in Feb and another in April. April was a downer month and missed a bike focus week. Other than that, all is/was good.
The "X" factor: weather. Hot, humid conditions will slow me down. Can't control that, so not worried about it.
In the "What the Hell?" category..
There are 488 in my age category. Yes, that's right, 488. What the hell? In a race where there will be between 2000 and 2200 particpants, there are 488 in the M35-39 division. We are clearly a most troubled demographic and undoubtedly need some sort of professional help.
Taper Udpate:
Mon: swim 2k. Tues: 1 hour message, 1:20 on the Computrainer Zone 2 workout. Wed: swim 3.7k (last long swim), run 7.5k. Thurs: Bike 55 (race setup), run 4k. Fri: run 10.5k (last 'long' run). Sat: open water swim 2.4k (done), pm: run and for tomorrow: ride, max 2 hrs.
Heading to the race?
If you want to meet up, drop me an email, we can exchange cell numbers. My schedule looks like this: Thurs: travel and register. Fri: am swim in Mirror Lake, pm: run. Sat am: ride. pm: bike check in, swim. Sun: all booked up. :)
Predict my time and win a..
Predict my time without going over and win a prize! A sock? A pair of socks? A pair of official IMLP socks? Yes, that's right! Predict my time without going over and I'll send you an official pair of IMLP socks! No emails, you have to post here so all can see.
Cheers!
How did they do that? My number is the same as my finishing time! How cool is that?? 10:06! Oh man that would sweet indeed, but realistically it's not going to happen. For fun, let's crunch the numbers to do a 10:06..
Swim: 56
T1: 4
Bike: 5:20
T2: 4
Run: 3:42
You know, when I write it down like that, it actually seems doable. But if you throw in the obligatory +20 min fudge factor, the projected finishing time weighs in at 10:26. So this is what's floating in the back of mind, however time is of less importance than ever this year. This year the mantras are race smart, finish strong. It should be noted that I've yet to come close to a projected finishing time at the IM distance - the classic overestimating fitness applies here, BUT and this is a big but, I've made huge strides in the 4th discipline of triathlon. Nutrition. I'm not saying I have it nailed, but this will a huge test and I think it's dialed in pretty good.
Here is my overall strategy:
Swim: mantras: "long, easy strokes" Grab a set feet from the 2nd lead pack and take it easy. Time: 56 min.
Bike: mantra: "slow down!" Negative split? Get and keep heartrate < 135 for first loop, add 5 beats for 2nd loop. Start fueling @ 20 minutes and on the 10's thereafter. Eat half a power bar on the 30's followed by H2O. Estimated calorie intake: min:2000 max 2600. Time: 5:25
Run: mantra: "just run." Hold heartrate to 140 and see what happens. Nutrition: 800 cals of dextrose based Infinit. Time: 3:50
The good: my training went really well this year. Spent extra time on the bike to help increase overall endurance. Training started last October, with consistent and more structured training beginning in November - it went well.
The bad: nothing really. Caught 2 bugs, one in Feb and another in April. April was a downer month and missed a bike focus week. Other than that, all is/was good.
The "X" factor: weather. Hot, humid conditions will slow me down. Can't control that, so not worried about it.
In the "What the Hell?" category..
There are 488 in my age category. Yes, that's right, 488. What the hell? In a race where there will be between 2000 and 2200 particpants, there are 488 in the M35-39 division. We are clearly a most troubled demographic and undoubtedly need some sort of professional help.
Taper Udpate:
Mon: swim 2k. Tues: 1 hour message, 1:20 on the Computrainer Zone 2 workout. Wed: swim 3.7k (last long swim), run 7.5k. Thurs: Bike 55 (race setup), run 4k. Fri: run 10.5k (last 'long' run). Sat: open water swim 2.4k (done), pm: run and for tomorrow: ride, max 2 hrs.
Heading to the race?
If you want to meet up, drop me an email, we can exchange cell numbers. My schedule looks like this: Thurs: travel and register. Fri: am swim in Mirror Lake, pm: run. Sat am: ride. pm: bike check in, swim. Sun: all booked up. :)
Predict my time and win a..
Predict my time without going over and win a prize! A sock? A pair of socks? A pair of official IMLP socks? Yes, that's right! Predict my time without going over and I'll send you an official pair of IMLP socks! No emails, you have to post here so all can see.
Cheers!
Monday, July 09, 2007
LB, PB1/2IM, Serious TM engaged.
What an odd title for a post. Starting with LB..
Saturday's workout consisted of: a 3.6k open water swim, 100k bike and a 7.5k run. The highlight: I was out riding on a beautiful day, the kind of day when it's just awesome being out there and riding. I'm passing the cow fields saying Hi to the cows and otherwise just enjoying myself and logging a few K's. Whoa.. what's this? Someone ahead about 700m? Bogey in sight, target aquired. He/she is moving at a decent pace but I'm slowly making gains all the while trying to keep HR in check. It's all a game for me, even though the person ahead has no idea I'm there or that they are even in my little game. For me, it's just fun to try and catch someone ahead of me, hopefully have a little chat and ride some miles togethor.
So I pull within a few meters of the person and say 'hi', just to let them know I'm there. I pull up beside my fellow tri-wienie, do a double take and realize I just reigned in Lisa Bentley. Inside my head I'm going "ohmygodijustreignedinLisaBentely!" On the outside, I'm my usual calm cool collected self. (ya right) Seriously, we just chatted for a bit and soon after went our separate ways, no big deal. But it was damned cool to run a 10X Ironwoman champion a mere 2 weeks away from IMLP!
Fast forward to today. I just got back from an easy 2k swim, (sidebar, I did a couple 'fast' 100m's and was hitting 1:06's -schwing!) and was eating (what else is new) when TSN was showing Ironman Australia 2006. What woman one that race? Yup, you guessed it - Lisa Bentley. Gee, you think I'm in Ironman racing mode yet??
Peterborough 1/2 Ironman was yesterday. I had scheduled to do this race, but backed out, it's just too close too Lake Placid. I probably could have done it and recovered OK, but 'probably' just doesn't cut it, I'm just focusing on the prize and that's a mere 13 days away..
PB1/2IM, gets me nostalgic, three years ago it was my first triathlon, so you know it's a 'must do' for next year!
Taper Mode is pretty much in full swing. Last week I had the luxury of taking 2 days completely off. Pure craziness I know. The mileage looked like this: swim: 7.6k (bailed on a swim) bike 305k and run 35k (bailed on a run). On Friday I wasn't feeling quite 100%, so erred on the side of caution and got some extra zzzz's. All is good now, so no worries.
The plan for this week is to swim ~8k, bike <200k and run about 25k.
Cheers!
Saturday's workout consisted of: a 3.6k open water swim, 100k bike and a 7.5k run. The highlight: I was out riding on a beautiful day, the kind of day when it's just awesome being out there and riding. I'm passing the cow fields saying Hi to the cows and otherwise just enjoying myself and logging a few K's. Whoa.. what's this? Someone ahead about 700m? Bogey in sight, target aquired. He/she is moving at a decent pace but I'm slowly making gains all the while trying to keep HR in check. It's all a game for me, even though the person ahead has no idea I'm there or that they are even in my little game. For me, it's just fun to try and catch someone ahead of me, hopefully have a little chat and ride some miles togethor.
So I pull within a few meters of the person and say 'hi', just to let them know I'm there. I pull up beside my fellow tri-wienie, do a double take and realize I just reigned in Lisa Bentley. Inside my head I'm going "ohmygodijustreignedinLisaBentely!" On the outside, I'm my usual calm cool collected self. (ya right) Seriously, we just chatted for a bit and soon after went our separate ways, no big deal. But it was damned cool to run a 10X Ironwoman champion a mere 2 weeks away from IMLP!
Fast forward to today. I just got back from an easy 2k swim, (sidebar, I did a couple 'fast' 100m's and was hitting 1:06's -schwing!) and was eating (what else is new) when TSN was showing Ironman Australia 2006. What woman one that race? Yup, you guessed it - Lisa Bentley. Gee, you think I'm in Ironman racing mode yet??
Peterborough 1/2 Ironman was yesterday. I had scheduled to do this race, but backed out, it's just too close too Lake Placid. I probably could have done it and recovered OK, but 'probably' just doesn't cut it, I'm just focusing on the prize and that's a mere 13 days away..
PB1/2IM, gets me nostalgic, three years ago it was my first triathlon, so you know it's a 'must do' for next year!
Taper Mode is pretty much in full swing. Last week I had the luxury of taking 2 days completely off. Pure craziness I know. The mileage looked like this: swim: 7.6k (bailed on a swim) bike 305k and run 35k (bailed on a run). On Friday I wasn't feeling quite 100%, so erred on the side of caution and got some extra zzzz's. All is good now, so no worries.
The plan for this week is to swim ~8k, bike <200k and run about 25k.
Cheers!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Headwinds, finally on the list!
Went for a fairly flat 100k ride today. It was an out and back affair with the first 50k against the wind. It took me 1:42 to get to the halfway mark for a paltry 29.3kph. Now the way back, that's another story... zoom zoom zoom. The 2nd 50k was done in 1:16, at 39.0 kph, a mere 26(!) minutes faster on the return leg. Amazing the difference a little wind makes.
During my swim yesterday, I was lucky enough to have some kids from the swim team join me for lane swim. I guess I was more grateful then lucky. The vast majority of my swims have been lonely, boring, just-get-it-done affairs and unfortuneately there is no one around to push me, so I just push my self and log the K's. Having the kids there brought back memories and before you know it I was swimming 400's 10 to 15 sec faster then normal. A solid bonus that they knew the 'rules' to lane swimming too.
The fine folks who are reponsible for putting on IMLP, *finally* added me to the particpants list. I was starting to get worried, as I submitted my app 2.5 weeks ago and processing it is suppose to only take 5 days. But apparently someone was on vacation and it didn't get done until now. Another item that is checked off on my 'to do' list. Phew.
Cheers!
During my swim yesterday, I was lucky enough to have some kids from the swim team join me for lane swim. I guess I was more grateful then lucky. The vast majority of my swims have been lonely, boring, just-get-it-done affairs and unfortuneately there is no one around to push me, so I just push my self and log the K's. Having the kids there brought back memories and before you know it I was swimming 400's 10 to 15 sec faster then normal. A solid bonus that they knew the 'rules' to lane swimming too.
The fine folks who are reponsible for putting on IMLP, *finally* added me to the particpants list. I was starting to get worried, as I submitted my app 2.5 weeks ago and processing it is suppose to only take 5 days. But apparently someone was on vacation and it didn't get done until now. Another item that is checked off on my 'to do' list. Phew.
Cheers!
Monday, July 02, 2007
Happy Canada Day, Taper, Monthy Totals, WTF are the helmuts?
Hi Canada, happy belated to ya! You're lookin damn fine for 140 years young! You're the best - cheers!
Even though I'm in taper mode, it's subtle taper mode. Last week, I was still loggin some decent miles, but there were subtle differences; increased swim mileage, 1 less workout then normal and a slight decrease in run mileage. I also inserted some higher intensity sessions on the bike. The engine is built, now I'm just fine tuning it.
This week the plan is basically the same: 11-12k swimming, ~300k bike and ~45 running K's. After that, it hardcore taper time..
Not a bad month for June, the log shows:
swim:43.7k
bike: 1465k
run: 249k
Very similar to May, but May had a bike focus week, so this month had about 250k less biking K's, but a slight increase in swim and run totals. Probably should have tried to bike more, but nothing I can do about that now, you can't cram for an Ironman!
It's been a bad week for 'adult' cyclists not wearing helmuts in these parts. I've seen families out riding around, the kids are wearing helmuts, but older and 'wiser' Mom and Dad are not. Boggle. I've seen 'real' cyclists, commuters and Joe-average all not wearing noggin protection. I don't get it. Don't give me the freedom of choice argument - that's BS. Your personal freedoms stop when your stupidness induced brain injury intrudes on my/the publics tax dollars. So suck it up, be a dork and wear your helmut!
T-Minus 20 days..
Cheers!
Even though I'm in taper mode, it's subtle taper mode. Last week, I was still loggin some decent miles, but there were subtle differences; increased swim mileage, 1 less workout then normal and a slight decrease in run mileage. I also inserted some higher intensity sessions on the bike. The engine is built, now I'm just fine tuning it.
This week the plan is basically the same: 11-12k swimming, ~300k bike and ~45 running K's. After that, it hardcore taper time..
Not a bad month for June, the log shows:
swim:43.7k
bike: 1465k
run: 249k
Very similar to May, but May had a bike focus week, so this month had about 250k less biking K's, but a slight increase in swim and run totals. Probably should have tried to bike more, but nothing I can do about that now, you can't cram for an Ironman!
It's been a bad week for 'adult' cyclists not wearing helmuts in these parts. I've seen families out riding around, the kids are wearing helmuts, but older and 'wiser' Mom and Dad are not. Boggle. I've seen 'real' cyclists, commuters and Joe-average all not wearing noggin protection. I don't get it. Don't give me the freedom of choice argument - that's BS. Your personal freedoms stop when your stupidness induced brain injury intrudes on my/the publics tax dollars. So suck it up, be a dork and wear your helmut!
T-Minus 20 days..
Cheers!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
T-minus 4 weeks..
Did I cook myself?
Could I have done more?
Should I have done less?
Ahh the questions are starting already. The four week 'reality check' can be tough because I think more often then not we ignore symptoms even though they are staring us in the face. So, to answer question one:
Q:Did I cook myself?
A: I'm typing this after a heavy weekend. Fri: 5k swim, run 7.5k (an 'easy' day.... cough) Sat: bike 180k @IM effort, 14k run afterwards. Sun: run 26k
I don't feel cooked, I'm eating very well and slept great last night. I'm actually in a very content and happy zone, so no, I don't think I fried myself. Hopefully by the end of my taper I'll be 'strong like bull'.
Q: Could I have done more?
A: Such a fine line between doing more, absorbing it and not self destructing. The vast majority of my workouts have been at a heartrate of 142 or lower. I've been able to stack on more miles and effectively recover just due to the fact I've kept the intensity low. The whole goal for this year was just to build a bigger engine. I think too few of us think short term, how many people are willing to take an entire year or two just to build their endurance base? The odd thing is, I have gotten faster without doing any speed work. Why? 10 months ago, when I set my HR ceiling, there were many times I had to walk up a hill just so I wouldn't go over my HR cap. Now, I'm easily running sub 5min K's on long runs, with the same HR cap. The effort was the same, but yet I'm faster.
Building endurance through more time on the bike. I can't believe the difference this had made over the last 7 months. The body can absorb alot of saddle of time. If I knew just how readily it does this, I probably would have done even more on the bike, or at least threw in more bike focused weeks in.
Bottom line, I feel really good on where I'm at and I've learned much about myself over the last 10 months. So to answer the question, should I have done more? No, because I didn't know then what I know now.
Q: Should I have done less?
A: Reality check. I'm 39, can I absorb vasts amount of training like when I was 19? Doubtful. However, with acception of April (sick), I've been injury and sick free - good signs. Every 4 th week, I'd cut mileage in half or more, just to rest up. I think the strategy worked. I'm sure the odd extra day off wouldn't have hurt, but on the other hand since I don't think I fried myself, my rest strategy seems to have worked.
Saturday was an awesome day. Rich Pady organized a group ride/run to help raise money for POGO. (the charity I'm raising $$ for) A great turn out, no big egos to contend with, just a bunch tri wienies training togethor and raising some extra dough for the kids. It was a 2X 90k loop affair designed to be as hard as the IMLP bike loop or harder. My strategy was simple: first loop keep HR to 135. Second loop, keep HR below 142. Try to negative split. Nutrition: 6X bottles of Infinit and 3 Power Bars.
Result: even split, almost to the second.
Notes: It's unbelievable how ridiculasly 'easy' you have to ride the first loop in order to negative split the 2nd loop. Scary. First loop 2:51. Second loop 2:51. Total: 5:42. Add race wheels, no traffic stops etc.. my estimated bike split at IMLP should be 5:25 ish. If possible consume 1 more litre of water and 1 more power bar at LP.
After the bike, did a 14k run. Felt very good, got the running legs within 2k and found my groove, kept HR @ 140.
Notes: drink more water! How much of a difference will swimming 4k before the bike make? Mental note, swim SLOW at LP!
A quick 'Hi!' to Stu and his sexsy P2C, you may not know it, but you will do IMC again and you will rock the course. Think about it for '08, I need more training partners! :) And of course Cliff was there grinning the whole time while grinding up the hills. Isn't it funny seeing someone grinning while you know they are suffering makes your own suffering seem not so bad??!
Gotta go EAT - again!
Cheers!
Could I have done more?
Should I have done less?
Ahh the questions are starting already. The four week 'reality check' can be tough because I think more often then not we ignore symptoms even though they are staring us in the face. So, to answer question one:
Q:Did I cook myself?
A: I'm typing this after a heavy weekend. Fri: 5k swim, run 7.5k (an 'easy' day.... cough) Sat: bike 180k @IM effort, 14k run afterwards. Sun: run 26k
I don't feel cooked, I'm eating very well and slept great last night. I'm actually in a very content and happy zone, so no, I don't think I fried myself. Hopefully by the end of my taper I'll be 'strong like bull'.
Q: Could I have done more?
A: Such a fine line between doing more, absorbing it and not self destructing. The vast majority of my workouts have been at a heartrate of 142 or lower. I've been able to stack on more miles and effectively recover just due to the fact I've kept the intensity low. The whole goal for this year was just to build a bigger engine. I think too few of us think short term, how many people are willing to take an entire year or two just to build their endurance base? The odd thing is, I have gotten faster without doing any speed work. Why? 10 months ago, when I set my HR ceiling, there were many times I had to walk up a hill just so I wouldn't go over my HR cap. Now, I'm easily running sub 5min K's on long runs, with the same HR cap. The effort was the same, but yet I'm faster.
Building endurance through more time on the bike. I can't believe the difference this had made over the last 7 months. The body can absorb alot of saddle of time. If I knew just how readily it does this, I probably would have done even more on the bike, or at least threw in more bike focused weeks in.
Bottom line, I feel really good on where I'm at and I've learned much about myself over the last 10 months. So to answer the question, should I have done more? No, because I didn't know then what I know now.
Q: Should I have done less?
A: Reality check. I'm 39, can I absorb vasts amount of training like when I was 19? Doubtful. However, with acception of April (sick), I've been injury and sick free - good signs. Every 4 th week, I'd cut mileage in half or more, just to rest up. I think the strategy worked. I'm sure the odd extra day off wouldn't have hurt, but on the other hand since I don't think I fried myself, my rest strategy seems to have worked.
Saturday was an awesome day. Rich Pady organized a group ride/run to help raise money for POGO. (the charity I'm raising $$ for) A great turn out, no big egos to contend with, just a bunch tri wienies training togethor and raising some extra dough for the kids. It was a 2X 90k loop affair designed to be as hard as the IMLP bike loop or harder. My strategy was simple: first loop keep HR to 135. Second loop, keep HR below 142. Try to negative split. Nutrition: 6X bottles of Infinit and 3 Power Bars.
Result: even split, almost to the second.
Notes: It's unbelievable how ridiculasly 'easy' you have to ride the first loop in order to negative split the 2nd loop. Scary. First loop 2:51. Second loop 2:51. Total: 5:42. Add race wheels, no traffic stops etc.. my estimated bike split at IMLP should be 5:25 ish. If possible consume 1 more litre of water and 1 more power bar at LP.
After the bike, did a 14k run. Felt very good, got the running legs within 2k and found my groove, kept HR @ 140.
Notes: drink more water! How much of a difference will swimming 4k before the bike make? Mental note, swim SLOW at LP!
A quick 'Hi!' to Stu and his sexsy P2C, you may not know it, but you will do IMC again and you will rock the course. Think about it for '08, I need more training partners! :) And of course Cliff was there grinning the whole time while grinding up the hills. Isn't it funny seeing someone grinning while you know they are suffering makes your own suffering seem not so bad??!
Gotta go EAT - again!
Cheers!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
"You got beat by a girl??"
Muskoka Race Report
"You got beat by a girl?" Actually got beat by two of them. Having the likes of Samantha McGlone or Tereza Macel 'beat' me is actually quite an honour. I often use the pro women as a bit of a bench mark for my own performance. I know when my times start to near their times, I've attained a certain level of performance. I'm just happy I'm healthy enough to even consider hanging on their heals because they can certainly lay the smack down and kick a lot of ass!
Goal: Attain an IMLP spot.
Arrival
I'm a keener. Got to the site nice and early. It takes me awhile to feel completely warmed up and I wanted a good spot in the transition area. So I arrived early enough to take the bike for a spin, go through check in procedure, lightly stretch out, go for a jog and finally do a swim warm up. I had some extra time and met up with Cliff , who was so keen on racing, he got a speeding ticket on the way to the race site! Hmm.. racing to get to a race.. ironic?
After talking to a few people the day before the race and in the transition area, I found out that quite a few were looking for Ironman spots. Silly me, not signing up the year before and leaving it to the last minute to qualify. I just find it so difficult to pay a large chunk of change to IMNA a full year before a race. Too much can happen between then and now. So I take my chances and try to qualify. Hey, sometimes life is gamble.
Swim 2k: Time: 29:06 Age group: 4/95 Overall: 41/792
I'm in the 3rd wave. Not a big fan of wave starts, I'd prefer a mass start, but the format for this race is 'chase', so we do waves. The horn blows and we're off, nice clean start. I breath left, I breath right and appear to be leading the crew in the first 200m or so. I relax and think about doing nice long strokes. I'm sighting the bouys really well and put my head down and swim 20 or 25 strokes without sighting, pop my head up and still maintaining course. All good signs. I feel like I'm swimming about a 1:24 pace. I run into a little traffic during the last half of the swim, just due to catching up the previous waves, but navigation is good and had no problems swimming around them. A little dissapointed in my 1:28/100m pace, I know swimming, and I know I was swimming faster than that!
Out of the water in 4th place in my division. I have NO idea how 3 buggers in my age group managed to pass me - totally didn't see them. We exit within 30 seconds of each other - so it's a close race.
T1: I see one of the guys that exited the water me and compliment him on his swim. I get an odd look, which in turn I find odd.
Bike 55k. Time: 1:33:29 Age group: 14/95 Overall: 76/792
I liked the bike course. I think many people would say it's 'challenging', lots of rolling hills and a few good climbs. I even came out of the saddle once or twice and rarely do that on any climb. I was keeping my effort in check during the bike, wanted to get a few calories down and just gauge my overall feel. I was a little scared that I may experience nausea as I have in the past, but I didn't! Phew! In hindsight, I should have put the hammer down more on the bike - but hindsight is 20/20, right?
Run 15k Time: 1:02 Age group 10/92. Overall: 75/792.
A very solid run for me. I'm very happy with it. I can attribute my decent run performance due to my increased bike endurance. I just got off the bike and immediately ran ~4 minute K's for the duration. I used to envy the guys who could run after the bike.. I'm slowly turning into one of those guys! The hard work is starting to pay off.
I got passed by one guy in my age group and asked him if he was going for a IM spot and he said "No". (phew) So I wasn't sure at this point, I thought I was around 4 th in my age group and after I checked the official results I was suprised that 3 more guys managed to get by me. So I finished 7th. Eep, that's enough to make me sweat on whether or not I'll get a IMLP spot!
After the awards ceremony they give out the Ironman spots. There seem to alot of people here and more than once Sally and I saw the odd tear on someone who wasn't able to qualify. My heart goes out to them, to train all those hours and not get a spot. The competition was that intense. So they call the M35-39 division and a BUNCH of us trod up to the desk. Nerve wracking. (what is it with us mid-life-crisis-guys trying to capture the athletisism of our youth??) We are talking amongst ourselves.. 'what spot are you going for?', what's your time?' etc... I know there is at least 2 spots for IMLP, but the bad news FIVE out of the 6 guys that were faster than me showed up to claim a spot! They start the procedure... 1 guys take IM Florida, the next 2 take IM Canada, the next one take IMLP! I'm next, I got the other IMLP spot! PHEW! Didn't have to wait for roll down. But there were many dissapointed guys in my category and I'm kinda bummed for them. I think the level of competition at this race kinda took everyone by suprise.
Well I didn't want this to turn into a long convuluted report but it sort of ended up that way. :)
Cheers!
"You got beat by a girl?" Actually got beat by two of them. Having the likes of Samantha McGlone or Tereza Macel 'beat' me is actually quite an honour. I often use the pro women as a bit of a bench mark for my own performance. I know when my times start to near their times, I've attained a certain level of performance. I'm just happy I'm healthy enough to even consider hanging on their heals because they can certainly lay the smack down and kick a lot of ass!
Goal: Attain an IMLP spot.
Arrival
I'm a keener. Got to the site nice and early. It takes me awhile to feel completely warmed up and I wanted a good spot in the transition area. So I arrived early enough to take the bike for a spin, go through check in procedure, lightly stretch out, go for a jog and finally do a swim warm up. I had some extra time and met up with Cliff , who was so keen on racing, he got a speeding ticket on the way to the race site! Hmm.. racing to get to a race.. ironic?
After talking to a few people the day before the race and in the transition area, I found out that quite a few were looking for Ironman spots. Silly me, not signing up the year before and leaving it to the last minute to qualify. I just find it so difficult to pay a large chunk of change to IMNA a full year before a race. Too much can happen between then and now. So I take my chances and try to qualify. Hey, sometimes life is gamble.
Swim 2k: Time: 29:06 Age group: 4/95 Overall: 41/792
I'm in the 3rd wave. Not a big fan of wave starts, I'd prefer a mass start, but the format for this race is 'chase', so we do waves. The horn blows and we're off, nice clean start. I breath left, I breath right and appear to be leading the crew in the first 200m or so. I relax and think about doing nice long strokes. I'm sighting the bouys really well and put my head down and swim 20 or 25 strokes without sighting, pop my head up and still maintaining course. All good signs. I feel like I'm swimming about a 1:24 pace. I run into a little traffic during the last half of the swim, just due to catching up the previous waves, but navigation is good and had no problems swimming around them. A little dissapointed in my 1:28/100m pace, I know swimming, and I know I was swimming faster than that!
Out of the water in 4th place in my division. I have NO idea how 3 buggers in my age group managed to pass me - totally didn't see them. We exit within 30 seconds of each other - so it's a close race.
T1: I see one of the guys that exited the water me and compliment him on his swim. I get an odd look, which in turn I find odd.
Bike 55k. Time: 1:33:29 Age group: 14/95 Overall: 76/792
I liked the bike course. I think many people would say it's 'challenging', lots of rolling hills and a few good climbs. I even came out of the saddle once or twice and rarely do that on any climb. I was keeping my effort in check during the bike, wanted to get a few calories down and just gauge my overall feel. I was a little scared that I may experience nausea as I have in the past, but I didn't! Phew! In hindsight, I should have put the hammer down more on the bike - but hindsight is 20/20, right?
Run 15k Time: 1:02 Age group 10/92. Overall: 75/792.
A very solid run for me. I'm very happy with it. I can attribute my decent run performance due to my increased bike endurance. I just got off the bike and immediately ran ~4 minute K's for the duration. I used to envy the guys who could run after the bike.. I'm slowly turning into one of those guys! The hard work is starting to pay off.
I got passed by one guy in my age group and asked him if he was going for a IM spot and he said "No". (phew) So I wasn't sure at this point, I thought I was around 4 th in my age group and after I checked the official results I was suprised that 3 more guys managed to get by me. So I finished 7th. Eep, that's enough to make me sweat on whether or not I'll get a IMLP spot!
After the awards ceremony they give out the Ironman spots. There seem to alot of people here and more than once Sally and I saw the odd tear on someone who wasn't able to qualify. My heart goes out to them, to train all those hours and not get a spot. The competition was that intense. So they call the M35-39 division and a BUNCH of us trod up to the desk. Nerve wracking. (what is it with us mid-life-crisis-guys trying to capture the athletisism of our youth??) We are talking amongst ourselves.. 'what spot are you going for?', what's your time?' etc... I know there is at least 2 spots for IMLP, but the bad news FIVE out of the 6 guys that were faster than me showed up to claim a spot! They start the procedure... 1 guys take IM Florida, the next 2 take IM Canada, the next one take IMLP! I'm next, I got the other IMLP spot! PHEW! Didn't have to wait for roll down. But there were many dissapointed guys in my category and I'm kinda bummed for them. I think the level of competition at this race kinda took everyone by suprise.
Well I didn't want this to turn into a long convuluted report but it sort of ended up that way. :)
Cheers!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Scared?
Nah, not really. More like 'healthy nervous'. Why? Racing this weekend and it's been much too long since I've last raced. I'm ready. I'm fitter. (fitter?). I'm faster (hopefully). I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm a little more experienced and I'm really looking forward to 'test' myself.
Everynight before I goto sleep, I take the opportunity to focus on breathing and goto my 'happy place'. It's a meditation ritual that usually sets up my sleep rather well. Waaaay back when I swam seriously, I used this time of 'twilight sleep' to visualize my swim technique. It was almost like having a DVD of proper swim technique, I'd put it on slow motion and visualize exactly how I wanted to swim. Program the mind and the technique and more importantly the muscle memory will follow. Hey, it worked for me then, so now I still do it. Only this time I'm running over race strategy, transitions etc... you know.. tri stuff.
Last week's numbers:
Swim: 10k
Bike: 425K
Run: 67K
Pretty much exactly what I wanted. The highlight was the weekend, Sat: an open water swim! (3.3k), a 140K bike followed by a 12.5k run. I felt awesome. Capped it off with a long run of 30k on Sun.
This is an easy week. I have Mon, Wed and Fri scheduled as easy days, Saturday is travel and chill with Sally day. Sunday.. it's off to the races!
Everynight before I goto sleep, I take the opportunity to focus on breathing and goto my 'happy place'. It's a meditation ritual that usually sets up my sleep rather well. Waaaay back when I swam seriously, I used this time of 'twilight sleep' to visualize my swim technique. It was almost like having a DVD of proper swim technique, I'd put it on slow motion and visualize exactly how I wanted to swim. Program the mind and the technique and more importantly the muscle memory will follow. Hey, it worked for me then, so now I still do it. Only this time I'm running over race strategy, transitions etc... you know.. tri stuff.
Last week's numbers:
Swim: 10k
Bike: 425K
Run: 67K
Pretty much exactly what I wanted. The highlight was the weekend, Sat: an open water swim! (3.3k), a 140K bike followed by a 12.5k run. I felt awesome. Capped it off with a long run of 30k on Sun.
This is an easy week. I have Mon, Wed and Fri scheduled as easy days, Saturday is travel and chill with Sally day. Sunday.. it's off to the races!
Saturday, June 09, 2007
The economy... of movement.
Odd, a Saturday blog update. I haven't had the urge to update lately, but tonight I just felt like writing - so here I am. Now the question is what to write about? Lately, my blog has pretty much degenerated to mileage totals etc.. blah blah blah. The main reason is due to lack of time. As regulars know, I try to take training as serious as I can at any given moment, so alot of stuff gets put on the back burner. Can't update, must get to bed. When I focus on training, I train. I use up all my SAPs (spousal approval points) and focus on the task at hand. That means no TV, little internet and I'm usually too tired to read more than a page of my book before off goes the lights. What's even wierder is that I love doing it.
Part of me wonders just how narcissictic a blog is. I guess there is component of that which is bothersome. There is time a factor, I mean I just spent 15 minutes writing a paragraph and half! Even though I don't have many readers, I still feel compelled to update. So why do it? I guess it's sort of like opening a door, take a peak inside and if you like what you see, hang out with me, if not, move along, there's nothing to see here.
So, I was the pool the other day and someome says "how do you make it look so easy?" A simple question that demands a long answer. The easy answer is "practice", which is absolutely true, but it's much more than that. It's about econonmy of movement, being relaxed, thinking about technique, being fluid, looking 'effortless' and of course practice. I'm always thinking of that whenever I swim, bike or run. I'll try to emulate a pro that makes it look 'easy', I'll visualize what he/she does and start to incorporate it into my own technique. When I run, I always try to be fluid, strong, have quick feet, rythmic breathing, good posture, relaxed shoulders, loose fingers etc.. Eventually it becomes habit. Soon everything will 'gel' and you may get that feeling once. Remember it. You'll get it again. Soon enough it will be habit and now you're in the 'zone'. Embrace the zone because that's when the shit really starts to get interesting.
Well it's past my bedtime, so I must be off. Cheers!
Part of me wonders just how narcissictic a blog is. I guess there is component of that which is bothersome. There is time a factor, I mean I just spent 15 minutes writing a paragraph and half! Even though I don't have many readers, I still feel compelled to update. So why do it? I guess it's sort of like opening a door, take a peak inside and if you like what you see, hang out with me, if not, move along, there's nothing to see here.
So, I was the pool the other day and someome says "how do you make it look so easy?" A simple question that demands a long answer. The easy answer is "practice", which is absolutely true, but it's much more than that. It's about econonmy of movement, being relaxed, thinking about technique, being fluid, looking 'effortless' and of course practice. I'm always thinking of that whenever I swim, bike or run. I'll try to emulate a pro that makes it look 'easy', I'll visualize what he/she does and start to incorporate it into my own technique. When I run, I always try to be fluid, strong, have quick feet, rythmic breathing, good posture, relaxed shoulders, loose fingers etc.. Eventually it becomes habit. Soon everything will 'gel' and you may get that feeling once. Remember it. You'll get it again. Soon enough it will be habit and now you're in the 'zone'. Embrace the zone because that's when the shit really starts to get interesting.
Well it's past my bedtime, so I must be off. Cheers!
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Anatomy of a 'big' week, monthly totals etc..
Just finished a big week of training. I was on vacation and decided to make training the number one priority. Tried to train like a pro, ok well maybe a pro's easy week. :) Here's the low down:
Monday (easy day): swim 3k (a.m.) run 7.5k trails. (p.m.)
Tuesday: bike 129k, run 7.5k trails. (brick)
Wed: bike 108k, run 10k road. (brick)
Thur: swim 4.8k (a.m.) bike 90k (computrainer)
Fri: swim 2.7k (a.m.) run 10.5k (noon), bike 30k(p.m.) on computrainer. (recovery ride)
Sat: bike 208k (!)
Sun: run 30k
Totals for the week: swim 10.5k, bike: 565k run: 65.5k. Exceded all goals for each sport - good stuff. Things to consider when doing a 30 hour training week:
1) Sleep. I made sure to get to bed early and every night I was logging 8.5 to 10 hours of sleep. If I felt I needed a nap midday, I took one.
2) Nutrition. Had to be hyper aware of getting good quality food into me. Between getting lots of zzzz's and eating well, I was able to recover effectively.
3) Massage. Paying attention to the IT bands and the quads. After every leg workout, I'd message my quads for 5 min. I also felt this made a difference in my recovery.
4) Stretch. 20-25min of stretching after every workout.
Highpoints: I'm swimming faster than I should be. Not sure why as swimming is my best sport and hence trained the least - but I'll take it! Mileage PR on the bike. I'm a firm believer in logging lots of miles on the bike as this is a very effective way of increasing overall endurance. Met up with Cliff on Saturday, he was doing '3rd line climb' hill repeats. Hard man stuff. So a salute goes out to him. Lastly, after a tough week, today's 30k run felt good. Hey anytime a 30k run feels good, it's a highlight.
So in the end, my attempt to train like a pro for a week was a success. I enjoyed every minute of it and suprisingly, don't feel beat up at all. Back to work and the real world tomorrow.
Totals for the month of May:
swim: 36.9k
bike: 1706k
run: 237.5k
The goal for the month was to log bike K's and 1700k is a mileage PR. Not bad in the run department either, alot of short runs (7-8k) does start to add up over time. The other bonus for May was my half marry PR.. so yea, May was a good month. Cheers!
Monday (easy day): swim 3k (a.m.) run 7.5k trails. (p.m.)
Tuesday: bike 129k, run 7.5k trails. (brick)
Wed: bike 108k, run 10k road. (brick)
Thur: swim 4.8k (a.m.) bike 90k (computrainer)
Fri: swim 2.7k (a.m.) run 10.5k (noon), bike 30k(p.m.) on computrainer. (recovery ride)
Sat: bike 208k (!)
Sun: run 30k
Totals for the week: swim 10.5k, bike: 565k run: 65.5k. Exceded all goals for each sport - good stuff. Things to consider when doing a 30 hour training week:
1) Sleep. I made sure to get to bed early and every night I was logging 8.5 to 10 hours of sleep. If I felt I needed a nap midday, I took one.
2) Nutrition. Had to be hyper aware of getting good quality food into me. Between getting lots of zzzz's and eating well, I was able to recover effectively.
3) Massage. Paying attention to the IT bands and the quads. After every leg workout, I'd message my quads for 5 min. I also felt this made a difference in my recovery.
4) Stretch. 20-25min of stretching after every workout.
Highpoints: I'm swimming faster than I should be. Not sure why as swimming is my best sport and hence trained the least - but I'll take it! Mileage PR on the bike. I'm a firm believer in logging lots of miles on the bike as this is a very effective way of increasing overall endurance. Met up with Cliff on Saturday, he was doing '3rd line climb' hill repeats. Hard man stuff. So a salute goes out to him. Lastly, after a tough week, today's 30k run felt good. Hey anytime a 30k run feels good, it's a highlight.
So in the end, my attempt to train like a pro for a week was a success. I enjoyed every minute of it and suprisingly, don't feel beat up at all. Back to work and the real world tomorrow.
Totals for the month of May:
swim: 36.9k
bike: 1706k
run: 237.5k
The goal for the month was to log bike K's and 1700k is a mileage PR. Not bad in the run department either, alot of short runs (7-8k) does start to add up over time. The other bonus for May was my half marry PR.. so yea, May was a good month. Cheers!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Tardy Tuesday update..
Sorry for my tardy updates lately. I've been focusing on training, sleeping and eating, as a result, my internet time is way down. Less interent = more training! So without further ado, here are the tardy numbers for last week:
Swim: 8k
Bike: 483k
Run: 56.5k
A good week. Only 2 swims, but each one was 4k. I wanted 450k on the bike, flirted with 500, but I'm happy with 483k. As for the run, was aiming for 60k, but I won't beat myself up for missing it by 3.5k.
Swim stuff. Want to swim slower then IM pace? Breath every 5 strokes. Want to swim at IM pace? Breath every 3 strokes. Here's a good set to experiment with: 2(5X200). First one drill, your choice. #2 breath every 5, #3 breath every 3, #4 at half IM pace, #5 at Oly or faster pace. Repeat.
An interesting footnote on how 2 'hard' days can differ. Thursday's plan was to bike 110-120k and run 7.5. It was hot, humid and we were under a smog advisory. I checked the air quality index and it was at 'moderate' (AQI was 40, today was 'good', AQI 17). Basically I was on the cusp of training outside or riding the Computrainer inside. I trained outside. Got lost on my bike, (exploring new territory), ended up bonking and grinding out 160k. Got home late, much to the chagrin of Sally, went fetal, then proceded to cough my lungs out for 40 mintues. Ok, so now I know I can't train long on 'moderate' air quality days.
Fast forward to Saturday. Good air, good temperature and overcast. I biked 192k and felt great, even did a short 5k transition run afterwards. A 7 hour endurance day and it was awesome. I was amazed at the difference between the 2 days. Lessons learned: dial back the intensity even more in the heat and humidity and train indoors during smoggy days.
Vacation this week. :)) Hoping to do some big numbers. It will be my last 'big' week. Here's the plan for the next 4 weeks: this week: 'big' week. (~bike 550k, run 60k) Week 2: 'moderate' (bike 400, run 60) Week 3: easy. (race on the weekend), Week 4 'moderate' (last hard weekend on June 23/24) Taper begins June 25...
Swim: 8k
Bike: 483k
Run: 56.5k
A good week. Only 2 swims, but each one was 4k. I wanted 450k on the bike, flirted with 500, but I'm happy with 483k. As for the run, was aiming for 60k, but I won't beat myself up for missing it by 3.5k.
Swim stuff. Want to swim slower then IM pace? Breath every 5 strokes. Want to swim at IM pace? Breath every 3 strokes. Here's a good set to experiment with: 2(5X200). First one drill, your choice. #2 breath every 5, #3 breath every 3, #4 at half IM pace, #5 at Oly or faster pace. Repeat.
An interesting footnote on how 2 'hard' days can differ. Thursday's plan was to bike 110-120k and run 7.5. It was hot, humid and we were under a smog advisory. I checked the air quality index and it was at 'moderate' (AQI was 40, today was 'good', AQI 17). Basically I was on the cusp of training outside or riding the Computrainer inside. I trained outside. Got lost on my bike, (exploring new territory), ended up bonking and grinding out 160k. Got home late, much to the chagrin of Sally, went fetal, then proceded to cough my lungs out for 40 mintues. Ok, so now I know I can't train long on 'moderate' air quality days.
Fast forward to Saturday. Good air, good temperature and overcast. I biked 192k and felt great, even did a short 5k transition run afterwards. A 7 hour endurance day and it was awesome. I was amazed at the difference between the 2 days. Lessons learned: dial back the intensity even more in the heat and humidity and train indoors during smoggy days.
Vacation this week. :)) Hoping to do some big numbers. It will be my last 'big' week. Here's the plan for the next 4 weeks: this week: 'big' week. (~bike 550k, run 60k) Week 2: 'moderate' (bike 400, run 60) Week 3: easy. (race on the weekend), Week 4 'moderate' (last hard weekend on June 23/24) Taper begins June 25...
Monday, May 21, 2007
Monday weigh in..
Ya gotta love the easy weeks that have built in long weekends! Here's the stats for the week:
swim: 10.7k
bike: 130k
run: 42k
weight: 158
Picked up an extra swim session and the high point for the week was on Friday when I logged a 5+k swim. I did my favorite long distance set:
4X400m @ 6min
8X 200m @ 3min
16X 100m @ 1:30
Usually I have low energy stores by the 16X100m set, but I made extra sure to have enough food in me before the swim, so all was good. Held 1:25's for the last set for each one - just slightly faster then IM pace. Throw in a cool down and bada bing - 5k done.
Bike: 130k on the Computrainer.
Run: First run since half marry was on Thursday. Did 7.5k+ on the trails for the Thurs and Fri and a early morning Sat and Sun run of 14k each. I was out of town for the weekend, so had to squeak in a run when I could.
That pretty much caps off the week.
The plan for this week. Swim ~6k, bike 450k, run 60k. I've already had a 'recovery ride' today, so maybe if I'm lucky I'll break 500k on the bike. That would be a record methinks. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, I'm starving, off to make dinner. Hope you have a great week - cheers!
swim: 10.7k
bike: 130k
run: 42k
weight: 158
Picked up an extra swim session and the high point for the week was on Friday when I logged a 5+k swim. I did my favorite long distance set:
4X400m @ 6min
8X 200m @ 3min
16X 100m @ 1:30
Usually I have low energy stores by the 16X100m set, but I made extra sure to have enough food in me before the swim, so all was good. Held 1:25's for the last set for each one - just slightly faster then IM pace. Throw in a cool down and bada bing - 5k done.
Bike: 130k on the Computrainer.
Run: First run since half marry was on Thursday. Did 7.5k+ on the trails for the Thurs and Fri and a early morning Sat and Sun run of 14k each. I was out of town for the weekend, so had to squeak in a run when I could.
That pretty much caps off the week.
The plan for this week. Swim ~6k, bike 450k, run 60k. I've already had a 'recovery ride' today, so maybe if I'm lucky I'll break 500k on the bike. That would be a record methinks. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, I'm starving, off to make dinner. Hope you have a great week - cheers!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Sunday Synopsis
By the numbers..
swim: 6.5k
bike: 414k
run: 53k
turtles saved: 1
bike accidents: 1
season high bike mileage: done!
PB's: 1
Wowsers, what a week. Ok, working backwards, starting with the last one. I PB'd at Mississauga half marathon today. I really kinda, sorta have to laugh at this because it was *totally* unexpected. No taper, large time on the bike, including 165 hilly, chilly, windy K's yesterday, I thought running a 'race' today would have basically amounted to a silly experiment. So with my HRM on one wrist and my garmin on the other, my intention was just to gather data, learn and run hard. Basically, I went out at 4:00/k, took note of my heartrate and pace at every kilometer marker. HR was pretty steady @168-170 for the duration, a tad higher towards the end. This is solid 10+ beats below my LT which is ~182. From the 8k mark on, I kept thinking: "ok, the legs are going to give out now" - they didn't. At the 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15k mark, I thought the same thing, but they were still holding up. Very cool, thank you legs. Slowed a bit from 15 to 19 and tried to come in strong for the last 2. Total time: 1:25:24. Solid.
Logged over 400k on the bike, this was actually my primary goal for the week. I'm continually amazed at how much faster my recovery is and I think a large part of this is due to my extra cycling time and fitness level.
Bike schedule looked like this: tues: 123k wed: 36k on the computrainer (recovery ride) thurs: 90k on the CT (road a loop of Lake Placid) and Sat: 164k.
Bike accident. Pretty much covered it in the last post. I'm so grateful nothing got hurt too bad.
Turtles saved. My yearly save the turtles drive is officially underway. This one was a big sucker that bascially parked himself in the middle of the road. Damn thing must have been 40 pounds. Silly turtle. Got him safely to the pond on the other side of the road.
Run. Missed one scheduled run. Was suppose to run on Tuesday after the bike - looked after the road rash instead and called it a day.
Swim. All is good. Technique feels solid, endurance is lacking a bit, but there is still time to get some extra pool work done. Not worried. Actually, this will be a good week to get an extra pool session or two in - let the legs recover a bit.
C'est tout for now - cheers!
swim: 6.5k
bike: 414k
run: 53k
turtles saved: 1
bike accidents: 1
season high bike mileage: done!
PB's: 1
Wowsers, what a week. Ok, working backwards, starting with the last one. I PB'd at Mississauga half marathon today. I really kinda, sorta have to laugh at this because it was *totally* unexpected. No taper, large time on the bike, including 165 hilly, chilly, windy K's yesterday, I thought running a 'race' today would have basically amounted to a silly experiment. So with my HRM on one wrist and my garmin on the other, my intention was just to gather data, learn and run hard. Basically, I went out at 4:00/k, took note of my heartrate and pace at every kilometer marker. HR was pretty steady @168-170 for the duration, a tad higher towards the end. This is solid 10+ beats below my LT which is ~182. From the 8k mark on, I kept thinking: "ok, the legs are going to give out now" - they didn't. At the 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15k mark, I thought the same thing, but they were still holding up. Very cool, thank you legs. Slowed a bit from 15 to 19 and tried to come in strong for the last 2. Total time: 1:25:24. Solid.
Logged over 400k on the bike, this was actually my primary goal for the week. I'm continually amazed at how much faster my recovery is and I think a large part of this is due to my extra cycling time and fitness level.
Bike schedule looked like this: tues: 123k wed: 36k on the computrainer (recovery ride) thurs: 90k on the CT (road a loop of Lake Placid) and Sat: 164k.
Bike accident. Pretty much covered it in the last post. I'm so grateful nothing got hurt too bad.
Turtles saved. My yearly save the turtles drive is officially underway. This one was a big sucker that bascially parked himself in the middle of the road. Damn thing must have been 40 pounds. Silly turtle. Got him safely to the pond on the other side of the road.
Run. Missed one scheduled run. Was suppose to run on Tuesday after the bike - looked after the road rash instead and called it a day.
Swim. All is good. Technique feels solid, endurance is lacking a bit, but there is still time to get some extra pool work done. Not worried. Actually, this will be a good week to get an extra pool session or two in - let the legs recover a bit.
C'est tout for now - cheers!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Welcome to the club.. a quandry no more.
There are two types of cyclist, those that have crashed and those that haven't.... yet. I'm now a proud member of the former. :) My induction to the club was so fast, I scarely knew it occured until I was on the pavement. Here's the details: Tuesday I have a long brick scheduled (long ride followed by a run), I'm out on the bike and feeling great, I'm so owning the hills and the wind isn't bothering me at all. Just one of those days everything feels good. So I'm at the 3 hour mark into my ride and figure, damn I feel so good, let's do another hour. An unscheduled extra hour - hell ya!
I'm 10k from home and passing a construction zone where they are doing road work. Guess what they decided to put on the pavement? Some sort of oily petroleum product - nice. My bike slid out from under me so fast and bam I was down. At the time I was only going 20-25kph, so I didn't get too banged up. Just a bit of road rash, some sore wrists and couple of bruises. Perhaps the biggest downer is the SIX cars that zoomed right past me without even asking if I was ok. To them I give a BIG hearty one finger salute. Hehe.. had to get that off my chest. Karma has a way of biting you on the ass and to them I really hope they don't experience that feeling of being totally let down by my fellow man.
Anyway, enough of that. I just know you want to see pics!
Not so bad. The good news is I'm still able to bike and run. (phew)
Earlier this week I had a bit of quandry. I have a half marathon scheduled for this weekend and I was debating about whether to take a couple of easy days and go for a PB or keeping up the volume and just go for a good hard run. Well, between my biking mishap and the fact that I'm pushing pretty good bike/run volume, I've decided to just go for a hard run and see how well the legs hold up. Should be interesting..
Gotta go.. bedtime!
I'm 10k from home and passing a construction zone where they are doing road work. Guess what they decided to put on the pavement? Some sort of oily petroleum product - nice. My bike slid out from under me so fast and bam I was down. At the time I was only going 20-25kph, so I didn't get too banged up. Just a bit of road rash, some sore wrists and couple of bruises. Perhaps the biggest downer is the SIX cars that zoomed right past me without even asking if I was ok. To them I give a BIG hearty one finger salute. Hehe.. had to get that off my chest. Karma has a way of biting you on the ass and to them I really hope they don't experience that feeling of being totally let down by my fellow man.
Anyway, enough of that. I just know you want to see pics!
Not so bad. The good news is I'm still able to bike and run. (phew)
Earlier this week I had a bit of quandry. I have a half marathon scheduled for this weekend and I was debating about whether to take a couple of easy days and go for a PB or keeping up the volume and just go for a good hard run. Well, between my biking mishap and the fact that I'm pushing pretty good bike/run volume, I've decided to just go for a hard run and see how well the legs hold up. Should be interesting..
Gotta go.. bedtime!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Games, wheels and a great week.
I frequently play little games with myself in order to get a job done. A work/ reward type thing. For example, sometimes I'll write a workout down on my calender before I actually do it. Then when I have to do the workout a part of me says 'well it's already written down, you can't change it or wimp out now. Another one is I'm only allowed to eat or drink at the top of the hill. This allows me to focus on the task at hand while knowing there is a carrot (however small) that awaits me when I'm done. Some other 'games', counting strides or exhales, crossing the crack in the pavement at the bottom of my driveway and visualizing that as my Ironman finish.. hey whatever keeps you going, right?
I guess the big news is I now have race wheels. :) I ended up getting the H3C's.. actually a fellow tri-wienie had a pair for sale and he lives an hour away. So after Saturday's long and windy ride I went and checked them out and made a deal for them on the spot. He actually bought them from the fellow I mentioned in my previous post - Speedy. So instead of buying a brand new set, which are not cheap, I saved some coin and got a gently used pair.
Just a quick update on the sponsorship news. Speedy, the Canadian distributer for Hed, is also the rep for Blue Competition bikes. As it turns out, he is in fact looking for athletes to represent the Blue line of bikes. Basically, you get a free frame and obviously in return you have some responsibilities and of course the bike still needs all the components; so this isn't in the cards just yet - but maybe in the future. But if you're in the market, I urge you to get in touch with him - you have nothing to lose.
A good workout week. I can't believe IMLP is closing in so fast, I'll be tapering in what? 6 weeks? Damn! I'm so not ready. Though I guess one is never 100% 'ready'. There is always the feeling I should have done more..
Anyway, here's the numbers for the week:
swim: 6.5k
bike: 385k
run: 66k
I guess the highlight was Saturday's long ride. It was a tad windy, a tough effort and an all around solid workout. Total ride was 163k. I've been tweaking nutrition and it pretty much seems that I can eat anything I want as long as I keep my heartrate below 140. For example, at the 90k mark, I stopped at a convience store, ate 500 cals worth of snickers bars, chugged back some Infinit, hopped on the bike and got the HR up to 140 and suffered no ill effects. More experiments to follow, but this is very good news.
Cheers!
I guess the big news is I now have race wheels. :) I ended up getting the H3C's.. actually a fellow tri-wienie had a pair for sale and he lives an hour away. So after Saturday's long and windy ride I went and checked them out and made a deal for them on the spot. He actually bought them from the fellow I mentioned in my previous post - Speedy. So instead of buying a brand new set, which are not cheap, I saved some coin and got a gently used pair.
Just a quick update on the sponsorship news. Speedy, the Canadian distributer for Hed, is also the rep for Blue Competition bikes. As it turns out, he is in fact looking for athletes to represent the Blue line of bikes. Basically, you get a free frame and obviously in return you have some responsibilities and of course the bike still needs all the components; so this isn't in the cards just yet - but maybe in the future. But if you're in the market, I urge you to get in touch with him - you have nothing to lose.
A good workout week. I can't believe IMLP is closing in so fast, I'll be tapering in what? 6 weeks? Damn! I'm so not ready. Though I guess one is never 100% 'ready'. There is always the feeling I should have done more..
Anyway, here's the numbers for the week:
swim: 6.5k
bike: 385k
run: 66k
I guess the highlight was Saturday's long ride. It was a tad windy, a tough effort and an all around solid workout. Total ride was 163k. I've been tweaking nutrition and it pretty much seems that I can eat anything I want as long as I keep my heartrate below 140. For example, at the 90k mark, I stopped at a convience store, ate 500 cals worth of snickers bars, chugged back some Infinit, hopped on the bike and got the HR up to 140 and suffered no ill effects. More experiments to follow, but this is very good news.
Cheers!
Monday, April 30, 2007
Monday weigh in, April's totals, a new chapter..
Yowie zowie - holy irregular updating of the blog, Batman! A quick recap of last week: jury duty is a drag. This basically sums it up: wait in a large lounge with 150 potential jurors (fortuneately I brought a good book- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini) only to get told that we are not needed today and to come back tomorrow. In the end, I never did get called, but I sure did get some serious reading done!
So between jury duty, work and being away for the weekend, the totals for the week aren't exactly earth shattering. Here the scoop:
swim- 0!
bike: 185k
run: 38k
Hey, sometimes real life messes with my training schedule, just gotta "buck up little soldier" and deal with it.
So April didn't happen exactly as planned. I must remind myself that in the grand scheme of things this isn't a big deal. I'm only in month 8 of a massive 2 year 'base building' phase, so having the odd bad month is not a big deal.
Here's the numbers for April:
swim: 23.9k
spin: 11hr 30min
bike: 300k
run: 173k
May starts a new chapter. Training wise, I'm going to juggle things up a bit, but my basic week will look like this from now until IMLP. Mon- easy swim (2-2.5k), easy run (optional). Tues: long brick (100k ride, 40 min run) Wed: short brick (30-50k ride, 30 min run). Thurs: long brick. Fri:long swim, short run. Sat: long ride/short run. Sun: long run. Once in May and once in June I want to skip Sunday's long run and do another long ride for some tough back to back long ride action. I was thinking of grabbing a couple of fellow tri wienies and ride to Midland (about 190k), stay the night, then ride back the following day. Might be able to talk Cliff into joining me? :)
Last week I promised I'd talk to Hed about race wheels, I talked to "Speedy" the Canadian distributor for Hed and after picking his brain and discussing my needs etc.. I think we/I decided that the Hed 3 carbon would be a good choice. For the record, I'd recommend anyone in the market for wheels to give Paul a call. He spent over an hour with me on the phone discussing my needs, wheels, aerodynamics, racing and sponsorship opportunities. To me, time is a most valuable commodity and anyone who willingly spends an hour with me without having the need or pressure to 'close a sale' is OK in my book. Get in touch with him, through his website here. I'll let you know if/ when I pull the trigger on those bad boys... hmmm... I do have a birthday coming up... :)
So between jury duty, work and being away for the weekend, the totals for the week aren't exactly earth shattering. Here the scoop:
swim- 0!
bike: 185k
run: 38k
Hey, sometimes real life messes with my training schedule, just gotta "buck up little soldier" and deal with it.
So April didn't happen exactly as planned. I must remind myself that in the grand scheme of things this isn't a big deal. I'm only in month 8 of a massive 2 year 'base building' phase, so having the odd bad month is not a big deal.
Here's the numbers for April:
swim: 23.9k
spin: 11hr 30min
bike: 300k
run: 173k
May starts a new chapter. Training wise, I'm going to juggle things up a bit, but my basic week will look like this from now until IMLP. Mon- easy swim (2-2.5k), easy run (optional). Tues: long brick (100k ride, 40 min run) Wed: short brick (30-50k ride, 30 min run). Thurs: long brick. Fri:long swim, short run. Sat: long ride/short run. Sun: long run. Once in May and once in June I want to skip Sunday's long run and do another long ride for some tough back to back long ride action. I was thinking of grabbing a couple of fellow tri wienies and ride to Midland (about 190k), stay the night, then ride back the following day. Might be able to talk Cliff into joining me? :)
Last week I promised I'd talk to Hed about race wheels, I talked to "Speedy" the Canadian distributor for Hed and after picking his brain and discussing my needs etc.. I think we/I decided that the Hed 3 carbon would be a good choice. For the record, I'd recommend anyone in the market for wheels to give Paul a call. He spent over an hour with me on the phone discussing my needs, wheels, aerodynamics, racing and sponsorship opportunities. To me, time is a most valuable commodity and anyone who willingly spends an hour with me without having the need or pressure to 'close a sale' is OK in my book. Get in touch with him, through his website here. I'll let you know if/ when I pull the trigger on those bad boys... hmmm... I do have a birthday coming up... :)
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Worst inaugural ride ever? Sunday weigh in.
Ok so the title is misleading, I'm sure it wasn't the worst inagural ride, but is sure as heck wasn't the best. Let me back track a bit... We had a fantastic weekend in southern Ontario, the weather was pretty much perfect, sunny with highs around the 24C mark. Bascially, perfect riding weather. I'm pumped. Friday was nuts. Work, swim 4.8k, eat, do house chores, run 7.5k, eat some more and prep bike. A very full day. Alot had to accomplished to get a clean slate for Saturday's first ride of the season. Fast forward to Saturday:
On the road at 8:40, want to start the season of with a bang and get 150 to 160k in. 10k into the ride, flat tire. Change tire, but now I dont' have a spare. I figure I'm only 10k from home, I'll zip back and get another. So I head home and figure that while I'm here I'll change the rubber in the backwheel to something a little more newer. Pump up the tires and I'm good to go. Ding Ding. Round 2:
8k into ride number 2, ssssssssss... damn, there goes the air - voila flat number 2. Ok, so obviously I'm having an issue. I take the rubber off the wheel and inspect the wheel - can't find a single thing wrong. No nicks, foriegn objects - nothing. A fellow tri-wienie stops and we shoot the breeze while I get back up and running - we end the conversation with maybe we'll meet up later and do some time trialling work. I think 'great!', I just maybe able to salvage this ride yet. Since I'm only 8k from home, I zip back and grab my last spare tube, refill water bottles and eat a banana.
Ding. Ding. Round 3:
I'm on my last spare, so I decided I better swing by the bike shop and grab some more. Better safe than sorry. So as I'm getting ready to leave the, who drops in? My fellow tri-wienie from round number 2. His workout was done and was about to do an easy ride home. I'm not into that. I came out today to log some K's and damnit that's what I'm going to do. I get 90 minutes into round 3, you guessed it, flat numero 3. Ok now I understand the Normann meltdown of Kona '05. Actually, I didn't go balistic at all, just kinda laughed, sat on the country rode and took my tire apart for upteenth time for the day. Flatted in a different part of the tube and still could find NOTHING causing it. That's the only part that cheeses me off - not being able to find the cause.
Ding Ding Round 4
Uneventful. Made it through the rest of the ride without flatting, had at least 150k on the agenda and in the end only manage to scrape togethor 115k.
Ding Ding Round 5
Got home, finished my chores just in time for the arrival of my M.I.L. Hehe, actually my mother in-law and I get along fine, I agree with everything she says and then Sally straightens her out. Hey, it works. :)
So the weekly weigh in is 24 hours ahead of schedule. Why? Tomorrow I must report of jury duty. Hey, I'm all for doing one's civic duty, but deep down I'll breathe a sigh of relief if I don't get picked. I also plan on re-taping the inside of my offending wheel, with the hope of that will solve my flatting problem.
Last week's numbers:
Swim: 6.8k
Spin: 3 hours
Bike: 115k
Run: 64k
Weight: 157
Once or twice this week I had to remind myself that I'm still recovering from being sick. (I can still feel residual crap in the bottom of my lungs) So overall it was pretty good week.
Stuff to think about this week: run 6 times, fix wheel and contact HED in regards to race wheels. I've been putting that last one off, but I promise, promise, promise to do it this week. Oh yea, must finish off taxes too. Oh joy.
On the road at 8:40, want to start the season of with a bang and get 150 to 160k in. 10k into the ride, flat tire. Change tire, but now I dont' have a spare. I figure I'm only 10k from home, I'll zip back and get another. So I head home and figure that while I'm here I'll change the rubber in the backwheel to something a little more newer. Pump up the tires and I'm good to go. Ding Ding. Round 2:
8k into ride number 2, ssssssssss... damn, there goes the air - voila flat number 2. Ok, so obviously I'm having an issue. I take the rubber off the wheel and inspect the wheel - can't find a single thing wrong. No nicks, foriegn objects - nothing. A fellow tri-wienie stops and we shoot the breeze while I get back up and running - we end the conversation with maybe we'll meet up later and do some time trialling work. I think 'great!', I just maybe able to salvage this ride yet. Since I'm only 8k from home, I zip back and grab my last spare tube, refill water bottles and eat a banana.
Ding. Ding. Round 3:
I'm on my last spare, so I decided I better swing by the bike shop and grab some more. Better safe than sorry. So as I'm getting ready to leave the, who drops in? My fellow tri-wienie from round number 2. His workout was done and was about to do an easy ride home. I'm not into that. I came out today to log some K's and damnit that's what I'm going to do. I get 90 minutes into round 3, you guessed it, flat numero 3. Ok now I understand the Normann meltdown of Kona '05. Actually, I didn't go balistic at all, just kinda laughed, sat on the country rode and took my tire apart for upteenth time for the day. Flatted in a different part of the tube and still could find NOTHING causing it. That's the only part that cheeses me off - not being able to find the cause.
Ding Ding Round 4
Uneventful. Made it through the rest of the ride without flatting, had at least 150k on the agenda and in the end only manage to scrape togethor 115k.
Ding Ding Round 5
Got home, finished my chores just in time for the arrival of my M.I.L. Hehe, actually my mother in-law and I get along fine, I agree with everything she says and then Sally straightens her out. Hey, it works. :)
So the weekly weigh in is 24 hours ahead of schedule. Why? Tomorrow I must report of jury duty. Hey, I'm all for doing one's civic duty, but deep down I'll breathe a sigh of relief if I don't get picked. I also plan on re-taping the inside of my offending wheel, with the hope of that will solve my flatting problem.
Last week's numbers:
Swim: 6.8k
Spin: 3 hours
Bike: 115k
Run: 64k
Weight: 157
Once or twice this week I had to remind myself that I'm still recovering from being sick. (I can still feel residual crap in the bottom of my lungs) So overall it was pretty good week.
Stuff to think about this week: run 6 times, fix wheel and contact HED in regards to race wheels. I've been putting that last one off, but I promise, promise, promise to do it this week. Oh yea, must finish off taxes too. Oh joy.
Monday, April 16, 2007
The funk is out! The funk is out! Monday weigh in.
I think the last of this @#%%%^! bug is over with. Three weeks to the day.. zoinks. After my 1.5 hr 'nap' on Fri, I crashed early and got 9.5 hrs of sleep. This put me in good shape for Saturday and I ground out 3:20 on the computrainer. I had 3 hrs on tap, but since I'm in Colorado, I have some good climbs to contend with and I never stop halfway up a climb, so the total time for Saturday spin session was 3:20. I asked myself, 'is the funk out?' I say to myself, 'I think so.'
So I crash on Saturday night and get 10 hours of zzz's. Yea baby! Next on tap, a 2 hour run. This will be the real test, as long runs always leave me feeling a little beat up. The good news is I got er done and it actually felt ok! Woo hoo... the funk is OUT! I'm so frikin happy to be healthy again. :))
So, here's the numbers for last week:
swim: 7k
bike: 4hrs 30min
run: 52k
Training wise, it's been a brutal last 4 weeks. Easy week, followed by a week of crappy-sickness, followed by 2 weeks of slowly-getting-progressively-better-sickness. Not exactly going according to plan, but now that that is all behind me, what now? The one thing I must resist to do is try to 'catch up' on lost training. Oh yea I'll be starting to crank out some good mileage, but I'm not going to jump into right away - so the next 10 days will just be a build period and by May I'll be going full bore.
Sally always asks me 'what do you think about on your long ride/runs?' To which she gets the standard male response ' I dunno.' What do I think about? I had some great topics I was going to bring up on my blog, I mean some good, serious, deep stuff - but that was 24 hours ago and can I remember it now? No. I think I just enter a quasi dreamlike state and just think about stuff. I really should carry a voice recorder so I don't forget all this stuff.
C'est tout for now. Cheers!
So I crash on Saturday night and get 10 hours of zzz's. Yea baby! Next on tap, a 2 hour run. This will be the real test, as long runs always leave me feeling a little beat up. The good news is I got er done and it actually felt ok! Woo hoo... the funk is OUT! I'm so frikin happy to be healthy again. :))
So, here's the numbers for last week:
swim: 7k
bike: 4hrs 30min
run: 52k
Training wise, it's been a brutal last 4 weeks. Easy week, followed by a week of crappy-sickness, followed by 2 weeks of slowly-getting-progressively-better-sickness. Not exactly going according to plan, but now that that is all behind me, what now? The one thing I must resist to do is try to 'catch up' on lost training. Oh yea I'll be starting to crank out some good mileage, but I'm not going to jump into right away - so the next 10 days will just be a build period and by May I'll be going full bore.
Sally always asks me 'what do you think about on your long ride/runs?' To which she gets the standard male response ' I dunno.' What do I think about? I had some great topics I was going to bring up on my blog, I mean some good, serious, deep stuff - but that was 24 hours ago and can I remember it now? No. I think I just enter a quasi dreamlike state and just think about stuff. I really should carry a voice recorder so I don't forget all this stuff.
C'est tout for now. Cheers!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Get the funk out!
I can tell I'm slowly coming out of my 'funk'. Still not 100%, but improving, and that's what is important. The workouts since I've been sick have been rather uninspired, physically I'm probably around 80-85%, mentally, I'm still in a bit of a rut, but it will come around. As an example today, I had a 4k swim planned and physically I felt quite strong in the water but I was feeling tired mentally and doing a workout when you are not 100% into it is rather taxing. I did get the job done, went home, ate and promptly fell asleep - for an hour and half! Needless to say, my 2nd workout, which was to be a short run, promptly got tossed out the window. I hoping by the start of next week I'll be back to 'normal'.
Tomorrow I'm going to grind out 3 hrs on the trainer and Sunday I'll see if I can run for 2 hours. Hopefully all goes well. Have a great weekend!
Tomorrow I'm going to grind out 3 hrs on the trainer and Sunday I'll see if I can run for 2 hours. Hopefully all goes well. Have a great weekend!
Monday, April 09, 2007
Monday weigh in..
I wish I stuff to report, but I don't. I'm still not 100% and am now starting to get a little worried. I know I'm on the mend as I'm sleeping much better, but I'm still have congestion issues, especially at night. Damn, I've been fighting this bug for 15 days now and it appears it's going to be hanging on for a few more yet. I can hear you now: "why don't you go to the doctor??" Ok, got me, I'm guilty. But seriously, what's a doctor going to say? 'Rest, eat well and here take some drugs.' So, I'm batting 2 out 3 - that's not too bad. Joking aside, if I can't clear the last of this bug up in the next few days, I will go - promise.
I did keep last week's promise of only working out for an hour a day, for Monday to Friday. As a result, last week's totals are messed up. Here's the low down:
swim: 7.6k
spin: 4hrs
run: 12k
No, that run total is not a misprint. My whole schedule is messed up due to this damn bug and I've had to take multiple days off during the week to get the extra rest. The long run got moved up a day (which made it today- hence it's not in last week's total - oh and by the way, it was crappy - had 2 hours on the schedule, felt terrible so cut it down to 1.5 hrs).
So that's basically the situation, it looks like this week is going to be yet another easy week and hopefully I can shake the last of this illness. Hopefully the workouts that I do are enough to maintain fitness because I'm sure the heck not gaining any. Gotta run... err make that sleep. Cheers.
I did keep last week's promise of only working out for an hour a day, for Monday to Friday. As a result, last week's totals are messed up. Here's the low down:
swim: 7.6k
spin: 4hrs
run: 12k
No, that run total is not a misprint. My whole schedule is messed up due to this damn bug and I've had to take multiple days off during the week to get the extra rest. The long run got moved up a day (which made it today- hence it's not in last week's total - oh and by the way, it was crappy - had 2 hours on the schedule, felt terrible so cut it down to 1.5 hrs).
So that's basically the situation, it looks like this week is going to be yet another easy week and hopefully I can shake the last of this illness. Hopefully the workouts that I do are enough to maintain fitness because I'm sure the heck not gaining any. Gotta run... err make that sleep. Cheers.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Another brick in the wall, monthy totals.
So my big bike turned out to be a big bust. Hey it happens. Not much I can do except re-examine the coming month, tweak the plan and soldier on. The good news is that I'm slowly winning the battle over the bug that sidelined me. Last week I ended up putting all my efforts into 'getting well.' I like to do that, focus on one thing and do it the best I can, then move on. So how did I focus on getting well? Pretty simple, try to think good thoughts (this can be tough, being sick just makes me feel sorry for myself), eat super-well and get lots of rest. Positive thoughts and meditation looks after my mind and soul, eating well and getting lots of rest looks after my body... 100% health is sure to follow!
Naturally I asked myself if I was over training. It can be hard to be objective about oneself, but after looking at the symptoms and the data I decided that I wasn't. Here is why: I wasn't displaying the usual symptoms of overtraining ie: chronic inflamation, messed up sleep patterns, phsyical injury, GI distress, high resting HR or sugar cravings. Actually this months totals were LESS than last March's totals, so I truely don't believe I was shelling myself. For now, getting sick twice in 8 weeks I'm going to chalk up to 'one of those things.'
I imagine my immune system is like a wall, after it's been compromised I must rebuild it. How? 1) estabish and stick to a regular sleep pattern. Super important for the coming 4 months. 2) I need 8 to 8.5 hour every night. 3) Be hyper aware of the diet. Fruits, veggies, quality protein, whole grains and healthy carbs - my junk food allowances are: pretzels on occasion and a daily handful of chocolate chips.
(and yes the title of the post is a Pink Floyd reference:)
March totals:
Swim:27.3k
Spin: 31:30hrs
Run: 160.5k
I give my current swim fitness a 'B'. Bike fitness a B- and run fitness a C. The goal for April: maintain swim fitness, bring bike fitness to a 'B' and run fitness to a B-.
How?
This week for Monday to Friday, I PROMISE not to work out more than 1 hour a day. I must finish building up my 'immune system wall'. The following weeks will be cycle/run focused, but I'll still be swimming at least twice a week, getting 7+k in. I wanted to start a running 'tempo cycle' and get a weekly tempo run in for the next 6 weeks - that plan is currently on hold.
Lastly, I updated the race schedule, it's on the left. There are a couple of more I've got my eye on, but the important ones are up. Somehow I think this year is going to be dedicated to "building the base"... That's all for now,
Cheers!
Naturally I asked myself if I was over training. It can be hard to be objective about oneself, but after looking at the symptoms and the data I decided that I wasn't. Here is why: I wasn't displaying the usual symptoms of overtraining ie: chronic inflamation, messed up sleep patterns, phsyical injury, GI distress, high resting HR or sugar cravings. Actually this months totals were LESS than last March's totals, so I truely don't believe I was shelling myself. For now, getting sick twice in 8 weeks I'm going to chalk up to 'one of those things.'
I imagine my immune system is like a wall, after it's been compromised I must rebuild it. How? 1) estabish and stick to a regular sleep pattern. Super important for the coming 4 months. 2) I need 8 to 8.5 hour every night. 3) Be hyper aware of the diet. Fruits, veggies, quality protein, whole grains and healthy carbs - my junk food allowances are: pretzels on occasion and a daily handful of chocolate chips.
(and yes the title of the post is a Pink Floyd reference:)
March totals:
Swim:27.3k
Spin: 31:30hrs
Run: 160.5k
I give my current swim fitness a 'B'. Bike fitness a B- and run fitness a C. The goal for April: maintain swim fitness, bring bike fitness to a 'B' and run fitness to a B-.
How?
This week for Monday to Friday, I PROMISE not to work out more than 1 hour a day. I must finish building up my 'immune system wall'. The following weeks will be cycle/run focused, but I'll still be swimming at least twice a week, getting 7+k in. I wanted to start a running 'tempo cycle' and get a weekly tempo run in for the next 6 weeks - that plan is currently on hold.
Lastly, I updated the race schedule, it's on the left. There are a couple of more I've got my eye on, but the important ones are up. Somehow I think this year is going to be dedicated to "building the base"... That's all for now,
Cheers!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Kinda bummed..
Ever have something you were looking forward to and it turned out not quite like you expected? Yea, I was looking forward to my big bike/training week, it's the end of winter, the weather is great and I've been looking forward to a week where I could just focus on training, sleeping and eating. Saturday starts of rather well, a solid brick workout weighing in at 3.5 hrs. Sunday was similar, but a bit longer - 4 hrs in total. The thing is, I felt awesome, bricks are notorious difficult workouts and I just plain old felt good. What a great start to my little epic week.
Sunday night roles around and I start feeling kind of funny. "oh oh.." It's now Tuesday I'm just coming out of a little 24-48hr bug that reaked havoc with my system. This has me bummed as it was only 6 weeks ago when I was sick, now I've been nailed twice in a short period. Not good. So now the priority is getting back to 'normal', eating well and getting 8+ hrs of zzz's every night.
A hearty thanks to Sally for putting up with me, I'm really a cranky sot when sick. Big hugs to my wife. :)
Sunday night roles around and I start feeling kind of funny. "oh oh.." It's now Tuesday I'm just coming out of a little 24-48hr bug that reaked havoc with my system. This has me bummed as it was only 6 weeks ago when I was sick, now I've been nailed twice in a short period. Not good. So now the priority is getting back to 'normal', eating well and getting 8+ hrs of zzz's every night.
A hearty thanks to Sally for putting up with me, I'm really a cranky sot when sick. Big hugs to my wife. :)
Saturday, March 24, 2007
301W, T-minus 25 minutes.
Training camp officially begins in 25 minutes, so I figured I would do a quick blog update.
The last 5 days have been very easy, I want to make sure I'm 100% rested for my mini camp because I know I'll be rather shelled by next Sunday. Recap of the week:
Mon: Swim 2.5k
Tues: off
Wed: Swim 4.8k
Thurs: Spin 1hr (LT test!)
Fri: Swim: 3.1k
Even though it was an easy week, I upped the swim mileage. I figure getting the extra swim time still counts as 'easy' since it is time that doesn't involve leg work. Nice endurance set on Wednesday: 4X400, 8X200, 16X100. Booya.
It's been 2 months since my last bike LT test, so Thursday's workout was dedicated to that. What's interesting about doing the test is that it provides concrete data on whether or not your improving. Here is a brief synopsis of my last LT test numbers:
Time: 28:20 Avgerage speed: 38.1 Watts: 283
And the latest numbers are:
Time: 27:40 Average speed: 39.0 Watts:301 (yay!)
Good stuff, fitness level is increasing and I'm getting faster. Whoever said "It doesn't get easier, you just get faster" is so right on the money. It's difficult to describe just how tough a LT test is unless you do one. These are done at 100% effort, all out, leave nothing behind. Its funny though, when your done I always say to myself 'hmm, I bet I could have gone faster...' But during the test you tsay things to yourself 'oh my god, I've got 10 minutes to go... or.. I should do this test on another day.' Time seems to slow down too, in the last couple of minutes the seconds are taking there sweet time. You should try it sometime.
Lastly, here is the plan for the week:
Sat: 3 hr ride, 30 min run
Sun: 3hr ride, 30 min run
Mon: 1 hr ride am, 7.5k run pm
Tues: 2 hr ride am, 2 hr ride. pm
Wed: swim am, 1 hr ride pm
Thur: 2 hr ride am, 2 hr ride pm
Fri: 1 hr ride am, 7.5k run pm
Sat: 3 hr ride, 30 min run
Sun: run 2+ hrs.
Ok, it may not be EPIC, but that will be a solid/tough week.. Every workout will be in primarily mid/high zone 1.
Eep, 2 minutes until the official start, gotta go!
Cheers!
The last 5 days have been very easy, I want to make sure I'm 100% rested for my mini camp because I know I'll be rather shelled by next Sunday. Recap of the week:
Mon: Swim 2.5k
Tues: off
Wed: Swim 4.8k
Thurs: Spin 1hr (LT test!)
Fri: Swim: 3.1k
Even though it was an easy week, I upped the swim mileage. I figure getting the extra swim time still counts as 'easy' since it is time that doesn't involve leg work. Nice endurance set on Wednesday: 4X400, 8X200, 16X100. Booya.
It's been 2 months since my last bike LT test, so Thursday's workout was dedicated to that. What's interesting about doing the test is that it provides concrete data on whether or not your improving. Here is a brief synopsis of my last LT test numbers:
Time: 28:20 Avgerage speed: 38.1 Watts: 283
And the latest numbers are:
Time: 27:40 Average speed: 39.0 Watts:301 (yay!)
Good stuff, fitness level is increasing and I'm getting faster. Whoever said "It doesn't get easier, you just get faster" is so right on the money. It's difficult to describe just how tough a LT test is unless you do one. These are done at 100% effort, all out, leave nothing behind. Its funny though, when your done I always say to myself 'hmm, I bet I could have gone faster...' But during the test you tsay things to yourself 'oh my god, I've got 10 minutes to go... or.. I should do this test on another day.' Time seems to slow down too, in the last couple of minutes the seconds are taking there sweet time. You should try it sometime.
Lastly, here is the plan for the week:
Sat: 3 hr ride, 30 min run
Sun: 3hr ride, 30 min run
Mon: 1 hr ride am, 7.5k run pm
Tues: 2 hr ride am, 2 hr ride. pm
Wed: swim am, 1 hr ride pm
Thur: 2 hr ride am, 2 hr ride pm
Fri: 1 hr ride am, 7.5k run pm
Sat: 3 hr ride, 30 min run
Sun: run 2+ hrs.
Ok, it may not be EPIC, but that will be a solid/tough week.. Every workout will be in primarily mid/high zone 1.
Eep, 2 minutes until the official start, gotta go!
Cheers!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Monday weigh in. Long term planning..
Last week was the end of a 4 week build and it was a good week. The first 2 weeks were moderate volume of all 3 sports, the 2nd week I cranked it up a notch and last week it was cranked up yet again. Here's the numbers:
Swim: 5.6k
Bike: 8hrs 30min
Run: 67.5k
Weight: 157
Due to March break, I only managed 90 minutes in the pool but still got some quality work in. Fridays main set was a 20X100m on 1:30, alternate one slow and one fast. (1:18-1:20 for the fast ones and 1:26-1:28 for the slow)
The biking is going well. I'm just trying to log as much trainer time as possible without going too crazy. The Computrainer really helps as simulates outdoor riding so well - minus the lousy drivers and crappy weather of course.
Even though I feel like I'm not logging enough running K's, my run feels strong. The Mark Allen low heart rate protocol I've adapted is slowly paying off dividends. Earlier in the week I was noticing I had to put in more effort to reach my desired heartrate training level. More effort = more speed and yet my HR is still in zone 1. Good stuff.
Here's an interesting tidbit about Jasper Blake, Canadian Ironman Champ for '06. His zone 1 heartrate before IMC for running was 3:45/km! Interesting to note that he split a 2:48 marathon for an average of 4:00/km. Even he had trouble maintaining his training zone 1 running heartrate during a race, obviously biking 180k before hand has something to do with it.
Do you have a long term plan? No I don't mean long term as in 6 months from now.. more like what are your goals for next year? The year after? I've been mulling my long term triathlon plan for a few months and here is what I've settled on. Keep in mind this long term and the crystal ball gets murkier the farther I look down the road. This year: IMLP: goal: sub 10:30. Next year: IMC: goal: sub 10hrs. 2009: IMOO or IMFL: goal: qualify for Kona. 2010: Kona. Yea, I've got plans until 2010... go figure.
Next week I'm off work. I've slotted my 2nd BIG BIKE week for it. Yes, I'm taking time off work to train. I don't have a problem with it, neither should you. :) Here's my bike plan: 1st big bike week was end of Jan, where I managed 11hrs on the trainer. 2nd big week is 2 months later, I'm going for 18+ hrs over 8 or 9 days. Two months after this one is my 3rd big bike week and 7 weeks after that is IMLP. Am I training smarter? I think so... am I getting smarter? Hmm.. the jury is out on that one.
Cheers!
Swim: 5.6k
Bike: 8hrs 30min
Run: 67.5k
Weight: 157
Due to March break, I only managed 90 minutes in the pool but still got some quality work in. Fridays main set was a 20X100m on 1:30, alternate one slow and one fast. (1:18-1:20 for the fast ones and 1:26-1:28 for the slow)
The biking is going well. I'm just trying to log as much trainer time as possible without going too crazy. The Computrainer really helps as simulates outdoor riding so well - minus the lousy drivers and crappy weather of course.
Even though I feel like I'm not logging enough running K's, my run feels strong. The Mark Allen low heart rate protocol I've adapted is slowly paying off dividends. Earlier in the week I was noticing I had to put in more effort to reach my desired heartrate training level. More effort = more speed and yet my HR is still in zone 1. Good stuff.
Here's an interesting tidbit about Jasper Blake, Canadian Ironman Champ for '06. His zone 1 heartrate before IMC for running was 3:45/km! Interesting to note that he split a 2:48 marathon for an average of 4:00/km. Even he had trouble maintaining his training zone 1 running heartrate during a race, obviously biking 180k before hand has something to do with it.
Do you have a long term plan? No I don't mean long term as in 6 months from now.. more like what are your goals for next year? The year after? I've been mulling my long term triathlon plan for a few months and here is what I've settled on. Keep in mind this long term and the crystal ball gets murkier the farther I look down the road. This year: IMLP: goal: sub 10:30. Next year: IMC: goal: sub 10hrs. 2009: IMOO or IMFL: goal: qualify for Kona. 2010: Kona. Yea, I've got plans until 2010... go figure.
Next week I'm off work. I've slotted my 2nd BIG BIKE week for it. Yes, I'm taking time off work to train. I don't have a problem with it, neither should you. :) Here's my bike plan: 1st big bike week was end of Jan, where I managed 11hrs on the trainer. 2nd big week is 2 months later, I'm going for 18+ hrs over 8 or 9 days. Two months after this one is my 3rd big bike week and 7 weeks after that is IMLP. Am I training smarter? I think so... am I getting smarter? Hmm.. the jury is out on that one.
Cheers!
Monday, March 12, 2007
Monday weigh in
Last week was my 3rd week of a 4 week build, in which I've been distributing my time more equally among the 3 sports. It was a pretty good week workout wise, although I did miss once scheduled short run. I have to remind myself that's it's OK to miss a workout every so often, especially if I'm feeling tired. Here's the numbers:
Swim: 7.3k
Spin: 8hrs
Run: 51k
Weight: 157
The weeks highlights:
- met up with Cliff, on Friday for a swim session. I haven't seen Cliff since last October and wanted to see his swim progress. The good news is, in my opinion, he's reached the stage that in order to get better, he's going to have to start logging some serious pool time. It's a bit of a milestone of sorts, so a hearty congrats goes out to him.
-also pool related, my main set on Friday was a 10X400m on 6 min. Good set, coming in on 5:45's. My swim is at about 90% already and I'm very happy with that.
-passed the $1,000 mark for my charity fundraiser. Woo hoo 4 digit territory, and yes I do think a 5 digit number is on the horizon. Perhaps in a couple of years. It's all about taking baby steps in the right direction.
Not much else to say, solid spin hours, the running K's are a tad low, but I'll be adding a run or two this week and start building them back up. I have a run build scheduled for April. Actually the plan for the next 7 weeks goes like this: hard week, easy week, bike week, easy week, 3 week run build session.
That's all for now, cheers!
Swim: 7.3k
Spin: 8hrs
Run: 51k
Weight: 157
The weeks highlights:
- met up with Cliff, on Friday for a swim session. I haven't seen Cliff since last October and wanted to see his swim progress. The good news is, in my opinion, he's reached the stage that in order to get better, he's going to have to start logging some serious pool time. It's a bit of a milestone of sorts, so a hearty congrats goes out to him.
-also pool related, my main set on Friday was a 10X400m on 6 min. Good set, coming in on 5:45's. My swim is at about 90% already and I'm very happy with that.
-passed the $1,000 mark for my charity fundraiser. Woo hoo 4 digit territory, and yes I do think a 5 digit number is on the horizon. Perhaps in a couple of years. It's all about taking baby steps in the right direction.
Not much else to say, solid spin hours, the running K's are a tad low, but I'll be adding a run or two this week and start building them back up. I have a run build scheduled for April. Actually the plan for the next 7 weeks goes like this: hard week, easy week, bike week, easy week, 3 week run build session.
That's all for now, cheers!
Monday, March 05, 2007
Monday weigh in..
I'm just thinking on the fly - about inspiration. The reason why I bring it up is because I got an email earlier today from someone who said they thought my blog was inspiring. It sort of makes me feel proud, embarrassed and humble all at the same time. I don't feel I write particularly well, yet I've had comments from people saying otherwise. Usually, I just to write as if I'm talking to you, and it's usually just off the top of my head. Some days it seems to just flow out and on other days I can't string two words togethor for the life of me. So when someone takes the time out of there day and drop me a note - it means something - and that's cool shit.
So I'm pondering about 'inspiration', what inspires you? Who inspires you? Something to think about. I get inspiration from many sources and sometimes don't even know it until I think about it later. Go to an Ironman, jeez if that doesn't inspire you to do something, then I think there is something wrong with ya. The list is long about what/who inspires me, sometimes it's fleeting. I'll see an eldery person who has gone through WWII and I think "I can't imagine what they've seen". There is inspiration there. Back to Ironman, how about the 75 year old nun, Sister Madonna Budder, multiple Ironman finisher and was at IMC and did Kona last year. Inspirational.
It reminds of the quote: "What ever you do, do it well." I'm going to just leave it that - something to think about.
Back to some actual training stuff! Last week numbers:
Swim: 6.6k
Bike: 6:40
Run:: 57.5
Weight: 158
This has been my standard week. I up the time spent in one sport and usually there is time taken away in another area. It's always a combination of balancing the sports and taking the time to focus on one area, then re-balancing. I'm pretty much in a phase of training where I'm balancing the 3 sports. The obvious exception is swimming and that's just because that's the area where I need the least improvement.
This week I'm going to try up the bike time a bit and hopefully the run mileage too. That will be challenge because tomorrow they are talking about MINUS 30C windchills! Those of you that read regularly know that I wimp out when it gets ridiculas outside. The good news is that I have 2 others sports in which to pick up any slack. So instead of run/bike day tomorrow, it's looking like a swim/bike day. See? Having 3 sports to balance can be good thing!
Have a great week.
So I'm pondering about 'inspiration', what inspires you? Who inspires you? Something to think about. I get inspiration from many sources and sometimes don't even know it until I think about it later. Go to an Ironman, jeez if that doesn't inspire you to do something, then I think there is something wrong with ya. The list is long about what/who inspires me, sometimes it's fleeting. I'll see an eldery person who has gone through WWII and I think "I can't imagine what they've seen". There is inspiration there. Back to Ironman, how about the 75 year old nun, Sister Madonna Budder, multiple Ironman finisher and was at IMC and did Kona last year. Inspirational.
It reminds of the quote: "What ever you do, do it well." I'm going to just leave it that - something to think about.
Back to some actual training stuff! Last week numbers:
Swim: 6.6k
Bike: 6:40
Run:: 57.5
Weight: 158
This has been my standard week. I up the time spent in one sport and usually there is time taken away in another area. It's always a combination of balancing the sports and taking the time to focus on one area, then re-balancing. I'm pretty much in a phase of training where I'm balancing the 3 sports. The obvious exception is swimming and that's just because that's the area where I need the least improvement.
This week I'm going to try up the bike time a bit and hopefully the run mileage too. That will be challenge because tomorrow they are talking about MINUS 30C windchills! Those of you that read regularly know that I wimp out when it gets ridiculas outside. The good news is that I have 2 others sports in which to pick up any slack. So instead of run/bike day tomorrow, it's looking like a swim/bike day. See? Having 3 sports to balance can be good thing!
Have a great week.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Monthly mileage, hardest bike workout ever..
Just finished my 80k time trial bike workout about 2 hours ago. It's hard to describe just how much of a sufferfest the last hour was. I wanted to quit, I wanted to cheat (bad thoughts), of course I didn't but I sure wanted to. Having never done a workout of this type before I wasn't quite sure how to pace myself. My strategy was try and hold a mid zone 3 heartrate and see how well I do. I did fine up to about the 1:10 point and from there on it was pretty much a game of counting minutes, breathes - anything to keep my mind off of my obvious discomfort. Final time was 2:14, the first 40k look was just under 1:06 and even though I thought pacing was screwed my 2nd lap was about 2.5 minutes slower than the first. I'm actually kind of pleased because I wasn't pushing the watts and it certainly felt much slower. Methinks the legs are going to be a little cranky tomorrow.
I also did a 10.5k run earlier in the day, so I'm sure that was a factor in my bike workout from hell.
February mileage report:
Swim: 19k
Spin: 25hrs 40min
Run: 103.5k
The number dont' lie, no it wasn't a great training month. Between being sick and the subsequent recovery period, I just wasn't able to log huge numbers. The good news is my swimming feels good and 25+hours on the trainer isnt' too bad.
March 1 is big day for me.. in my mind we're so close to the end of the winter that I can almost taste spring. Oh man that makes me happy - I can't wait. Of course we are getting walloped with snow and freezing rain as I type, but I don't care. Winter's days are numbered...
Ok, I'm off. Must get a well deserved 8+ hours of zzzz's.... hmmmm... sleep.
I also did a 10.5k run earlier in the day, so I'm sure that was a factor in my bike workout from hell.
February mileage report:
Swim: 19k
Spin: 25hrs 40min
Run: 103.5k
The number dont' lie, no it wasn't a great training month. Between being sick and the subsequent recovery period, I just wasn't able to log huge numbers. The good news is my swimming feels good and 25+hours on the trainer isnt' too bad.
March 1 is big day for me.. in my mind we're so close to the end of the winter that I can almost taste spring. Oh man that makes me happy - I can't wait. Of course we are getting walloped with snow and freezing rain as I type, but I don't care. Winter's days are numbered...
Ok, I'm off. Must get a well deserved 8+ hours of zzzz's.... hmmmm... sleep.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday weigh in
Not a heck of alot is happening, last week was my first week of getting back to some 'normal' workout and feeling 100 percent healthy. Here's the numbers from build week number 1:
Swim: 7.1k
Spin: 7 hrs
Run: 49k
Two swims, with one of them being a 4k'er. I like the 4k swims because in my mind they are the ones that 'count'. Anything 4k and over counts because an IM swim is 3.8k, so I figure 4k plus is great for building endurance. If I can get 20 or so 4k+ swims between now and IMLP, my swim will be fine.
7 hours on the bike - no complaints there. The highpoint being last Thursday I did a 45 minute zone 3 workout - pushed 268 watts for the duration, felt good. I've come to the conclusion that to get fast on the bike, one really must embrace suffering. I don't know why, but when the legs start to hurt, I think they are fibbing because you can keep pushing at the same effort for a very long time before they truely start to give out. I only bring this up because I have an 80k time trial on the books for this week - and I'm looking forward to it with apprehensive trepidation.
Yay, I'm back running. While 49k isn't alot, it felt good and felt strong. I don't think I lost much run fitness during my sickness. Sunday's run was a 20k'er (hmm, nice -20C windchill) and I held sub 5min/K for the duration while keeping the heartrate in zone 1. A good sign.
So basically the plan for this week is to maintain swimming and biking and up the running K's a bit. Cheers!
Swim: 7.1k
Spin: 7 hrs
Run: 49k
Two swims, with one of them being a 4k'er. I like the 4k swims because in my mind they are the ones that 'count'. Anything 4k and over counts because an IM swim is 3.8k, so I figure 4k plus is great for building endurance. If I can get 20 or so 4k+ swims between now and IMLP, my swim will be fine.
7 hours on the bike - no complaints there. The highpoint being last Thursday I did a 45 minute zone 3 workout - pushed 268 watts for the duration, felt good. I've come to the conclusion that to get fast on the bike, one really must embrace suffering. I don't know why, but when the legs start to hurt, I think they are fibbing because you can keep pushing at the same effort for a very long time before they truely start to give out. I only bring this up because I have an 80k time trial on the books for this week - and I'm looking forward to it with apprehensive trepidation.
Yay, I'm back running. While 49k isn't alot, it felt good and felt strong. I don't think I lost much run fitness during my sickness. Sunday's run was a 20k'er (hmm, nice -20C windchill) and I held sub 5min/K for the duration while keeping the heartrate in zone 1. A good sign.
So basically the plan for this week is to maintain swimming and biking and up the running K's a bit. Cheers!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Bye-bye California, hello Arizona!
Egad, it's been awhile. I have not forgotten about you - honest! I was going to do an update on Friday, but got sidetracked by computer issues. Actually, the computer royally ticked me off, so I reformatted. Anyone who has done this before, knows it's a pain in the butt. The good news, I have my most of my old software back up and running and the system is running so much better now.
The last 2 weeks, I've been rather hamstrung by a nasty little bug that is being rather persistent. Last week I was going to 'get back at it' - and to a certain extent I was successful, but I was lacking heart. Things weren't still at 100%, so I kept the intensity down and just concentrated on getting back to being sick-free. Here is what I ended up doing last week:
Swim 5.9k
Spin: 9hr 10min
What? No running??! Yes, the running mileage has taken a severe beating in recent weeks. Sickness, snow storms and minus 25C windchills = no running for me! Decent spin time though and the extra time on the bike should help my muscle endurance. (which, in my opinion is my primary limiter for an Ironman) Which brings me to bye bye California, hello Arizona:
I'm slowly plugging away on the Race Across AMerica (RAAM) on my Computrainer. Curently, I'm on stage 8 out of 57, which puts me pretty much smack in the middle of Arizona. Depending how much RAAM riding I do, I should be in Utah by next week sometime.
So what's the plan? Ahhh, the 'plan', is always dynamic, but here is it's current incarnation. A 3 or 4 week build phase, followed by an easy week, followed by a big bike week, followed by an easy week. That'll put me into the beginning of April. Gotta get the running legs back, that's a priority - just consistent mileage and getting out 5 or 6 times a week. I had a scheduled 'A' race in the beginning of March, which actually sold out before I registered. I'm on the waiting list, if I'm offered a spot I'll take it, but it sure won't be an A race - it'll just be a good hard run.
That's all for now. Cheers!
The last 2 weeks, I've been rather hamstrung by a nasty little bug that is being rather persistent. Last week I was going to 'get back at it' - and to a certain extent I was successful, but I was lacking heart. Things weren't still at 100%, so I kept the intensity down and just concentrated on getting back to being sick-free. Here is what I ended up doing last week:
Swim 5.9k
Spin: 9hr 10min
What? No running??! Yes, the running mileage has taken a severe beating in recent weeks. Sickness, snow storms and minus 25C windchills = no running for me! Decent spin time though and the extra time on the bike should help my muscle endurance. (which, in my opinion is my primary limiter for an Ironman) Which brings me to bye bye California, hello Arizona:
I'm slowly plugging away on the Race Across AMerica (RAAM) on my Computrainer. Curently, I'm on stage 8 out of 57, which puts me pretty much smack in the middle of Arizona. Depending how much RAAM riding I do, I should be in Utah by next week sometime.
So what's the plan? Ahhh, the 'plan', is always dynamic, but here is it's current incarnation. A 3 or 4 week build phase, followed by an easy week, followed by a big bike week, followed by an easy week. That'll put me into the beginning of April. Gotta get the running legs back, that's a priority - just consistent mileage and getting out 5 or 6 times a week. I had a scheduled 'A' race in the beginning of March, which actually sold out before I registered. I'm on the waiting list, if I'm offered a spot I'll take it, but it sure won't be an A race - it'll just be a good hard run.
That's all for now. Cheers!
Friday, February 09, 2007
I've been sponsored and smoted!
The BIG news first. My employer, Canada Post, has agreed to sponsor me for 2007! I had some wacky promotional ideas, (carrying a letter around during the course of an Ironman was one..), that luckily they aren't going make me do. (I'm still not sure the best place to put the letter during the swim portion...) Bascially it boiled down to this, we like what you did you last year - keep up the good work. Hey! I can live with that. I've provided a nice helpful link to the Canada Post website on the left of your screen, so go click on it and buy a stamp or something!
And now for the 'smoting' part of today's post. It appears that the Super Bowl Gods weren't too fond of last Friday's mini rant against their game, by Monday I was sick as a dog - I've been smoted. I don't get sick often, but when I do, I usually go down for the count. So my workouts for this week look like this:
Monday - OFF
Tuesday - NADA
Wednesday - ZIP
Thursday - Z-E-R-O
Friday- run 7k and hack a lung out. (nah, it wasn't that bad)
So I'm starting to feel better today and did get a short run in. It's funny, being sick makes me depressed in ways like : 'I don't want to workout' or : 'I don't even feel like working out' or 'Bah, I've already lost fitness.. missing another day won't matter'.
That's the bad side...
The good side is: 'ahhh a forced rest, time for some extra muscle repair, so I can really start to rip it up' or 'this rest will make me stronger for later..'
Naturally, I side with the good, a forced rest this early and after some pretty good mileage for Oct, Nov, Dec and Jan is probably good for me. Either way, I'm looking forward to getting back to 100% so I can assauge some of this guilt of missing 4 days in a row! My recipe for getting well: rest, quality food, rest some more, get active when possible and just 'focus on getting well.'
Oh yeah another thing, I'm down to 156 pounds - that's only 5 pounds away from when I used to swim seriously, a mere 20 years ago! I think my new race weight will be 155.
Ok, I must go nap now. Have a great weekend!
And now for the 'smoting' part of today's post. It appears that the Super Bowl Gods weren't too fond of last Friday's mini rant against their game, by Monday I was sick as a dog - I've been smoted. I don't get sick often, but when I do, I usually go down for the count. So my workouts for this week look like this:
Monday - OFF
Tuesday - NADA
Wednesday - ZIP
Thursday - Z-E-R-O
Friday- run 7k and hack a lung out. (nah, it wasn't that bad)
So I'm starting to feel better today and did get a short run in. It's funny, being sick makes me depressed in ways like : 'I don't want to workout' or : 'I don't even feel like working out' or 'Bah, I've already lost fitness.. missing another day won't matter'.
That's the bad side...
The good side is: 'ahhh a forced rest, time for some extra muscle repair, so I can really start to rip it up' or 'this rest will make me stronger for later..'
Naturally, I side with the good, a forced rest this early and after some pretty good mileage for Oct, Nov, Dec and Jan is probably good for me. Either way, I'm looking forward to getting back to 100% so I can assauge some of this guilt of missing 4 days in a row! My recipe for getting well: rest, quality food, rest some more, get active when possible and just 'focus on getting well.'
Oh yeah another thing, I'm down to 156 pounds - that's only 5 pounds away from when I used to swim seriously, a mere 20 years ago! I think my new race weight will be 155.
Ok, I must go nap now. Have a great weekend!
Friday, February 02, 2007
SUPER January totals..
Hi, my name is Darren and and I couldn't care less that this weekend is super bowl Sunday. Can't stand the game. Can't stand the hype. Can't stand the hooplah. You couldn't pay me to watch it. I suppose many would consider that sacrilege and blasphemous, ahh well, to each his own. I do like the junk food though.....
Ok so the January totals aren't SUPER, but they aren't bad either - here ya go:
Run: 255.5k
Spin: 31 hrs 15 min
Swim: 15.65k
Failed to meet my monthly run goal of 300k, but I smashed my projected bike time. That was mostly due to my bike focus week where I did 16 hrs in 8 days. So even though I missed my run goal, the extra time on the bike made up for it.
As for swimming, I'm just getting back into it and progress has been good. Example: when I first got into the pool, I was winded doing a 5X200m on 3:15, coming in on 3:00. Today, I did the same set coming in sub 2:50's and more importantly it felt better. I think by mid March swimming will be back to normal.
I tried to sign up for my early season "A" race - The Chilly Half Marathon and it's SOLD OUT. Doh Doh Doh Doh Doh. I'm on the waiting list, so I'm hoping between that and me begging the race director I'll get in. I can't believe it sold in January - is this running thing catching on or what?
The weekend plan: Sat: spin 3 hrs or so. Not sure if I'm going to do Lake Placid or another leg on the RAAM course. Sunday: run. A cold run according to the forcast - oh joy.
Here's hoping you have a SUPER weekend! :) Cheers!
Ok so the January totals aren't SUPER, but they aren't bad either - here ya go:
Run: 255.5k
Spin: 31 hrs 15 min
Swim: 15.65k
Failed to meet my monthly run goal of 300k, but I smashed my projected bike time. That was mostly due to my bike focus week where I did 16 hrs in 8 days. So even though I missed my run goal, the extra time on the bike made up for it.
As for swimming, I'm just getting back into it and progress has been good. Example: when I first got into the pool, I was winded doing a 5X200m on 3:15, coming in on 3:00. Today, I did the same set coming in sub 2:50's and more importantly it felt better. I think by mid March swimming will be back to normal.
I tried to sign up for my early season "A" race - The Chilly Half Marathon and it's SOLD OUT. Doh Doh Doh Doh Doh. I'm on the waiting list, so I'm hoping between that and me begging the race director I'll get in. I can't believe it sold in January - is this running thing catching on or what?
The weekend plan: Sat: spin 3 hrs or so. Not sure if I'm going to do Lake Placid or another leg on the RAAM course. Sunday: run. A cold run according to the forcast - oh joy.
Here's hoping you have a SUPER weekend! :) Cheers!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Monday weigh in..
Bike focus week is done. From Saturday the 20th to Saturday 27th a total of 16 hours on the trainer, that's the equivalent of 500k -not too shaboo for January! Lesson learned: due to easier/faster recovery the key for building muscular endurance is to log lots of cycling miles. I mean lets face it, you can be great runner but if you don't have the cycling miles in your legs, you will not run well after a 180k bike in an Ironman!
So here are my Monday to Sunday totals:
Swim 5.85k
Spin: 10 hrs
Run: 42k
Weight: 160
Swimming is coming along ok, the stroke is slowly starting to feel better, which is pretty cool because today was only my 6th swim since IMC (Aug /06) - so it's only natural I'm going to be a little rusty in the water. I'm still just focusing on drill work, some pulling and the odd 5 X 200.
The goal for this week is to bring back up running frequency and mileage, log around 5 to 6 hours on the trainer and swim twice and take two easy days. (Monday and Friday).
Still no word on sponsorship, I'm hoping to get news in the next week or two so I can update my '07 race schedule. I'll keep you posted.
The 50/50 draw at work is progressing well - closing in 600 bux for the kids - good stuff.
Must... go.. make... dinner.. hmmmm... foooooooooood.
Cheers!
So here are my Monday to Sunday totals:
Swim 5.85k
Spin: 10 hrs
Run: 42k
Weight: 160
Swimming is coming along ok, the stroke is slowly starting to feel better, which is pretty cool because today was only my 6th swim since IMC (Aug /06) - so it's only natural I'm going to be a little rusty in the water. I'm still just focusing on drill work, some pulling and the odd 5 X 200.
The goal for this week is to bring back up running frequency and mileage, log around 5 to 6 hours on the trainer and swim twice and take two easy days. (Monday and Friday).
Still no word on sponsorship, I'm hoping to get news in the next week or two so I can update my '07 race schedule. I'll keep you posted.
The 50/50 draw at work is progressing well - closing in 600 bux for the kids - good stuff.
Must... go.. make... dinner.. hmmmm... foooooooooood.
Cheers!
Friday, January 26, 2007
Focus & Bonking
Note there is no 'i' in the title.
'Bonking' occurs when you deplete your energy stores, you are basically trying to complete a workout or race with the needle below empty. Generally, it's not a fun experience, power output is minimal and all you really want to do is curl up somewhere, eat some food and grab a nap.
Why am I talking about bonking in January? Usually this only happend during a long bike ride... Well, funny you should mention, but this is a bike focus week. I've been logging some good hours on the Computrainer this week and yesterday's workout was a douzy.
Let me recap the week thus far: Tues: Run 11k (25 min @tempo), 2 hours on the trainer. Wed: Run 9k (trails) 1 hour spinning. Thurs: a 3.5 hour trainer session. (new record!).
The thing about yesterday's workout was not only was it long, it was hard. I downloaded all the RAAM courses for the Computrainer. What is RAAM? Oh, it's a little race where people Ride Across AMerica.... on their bikes. Yea, it's whole new level insanity, which we can discuss at another time. So my thinking is
'hey, over the next little while, I'll plug away on the RAAM courses and eventually I'll be able to say I rode across America in training - so it's virtual riding, but it still counts. So I fire up stage one, (there are 57 in total) and holy crap it's HILLacious. I got more than I bargained for: net elevation was over 1100 meters and that's just net elevation, not even including all the ups and downs on the way. Zoinks. ALOT of hard climbing, I'm talking 15% grades up and out of saddle climbing. Wheeeee!
Average speed for the whole workout was a mere 24kph! Did I bonk? No, but it was close - power output was low and I feeling a little grumpy by the end, but at least I finished that sucker!
So, since Sat, I'm at 12.5 hours of trainer time and I still have 2.5 days to go...
That's all for now. Cheers!
'Bonking' occurs when you deplete your energy stores, you are basically trying to complete a workout or race with the needle below empty. Generally, it's not a fun experience, power output is minimal and all you really want to do is curl up somewhere, eat some food and grab a nap.
Why am I talking about bonking in January? Usually this only happend during a long bike ride... Well, funny you should mention, but this is a bike focus week. I've been logging some good hours on the Computrainer this week and yesterday's workout was a douzy.
Let me recap the week thus far: Tues: Run 11k (25 min @tempo), 2 hours on the trainer. Wed: Run 9k (trails) 1 hour spinning. Thurs: a 3.5 hour trainer session. (new record!).
The thing about yesterday's workout was not only was it long, it was hard. I downloaded all the RAAM courses for the Computrainer. What is RAAM? Oh, it's a little race where people Ride Across AMerica.... on their bikes. Yea, it's whole new level insanity, which we can discuss at another time. So my thinking is
'hey, over the next little while, I'll plug away on the RAAM courses and eventually I'll be able to say I rode across America in training - so it's virtual riding, but it still counts. So I fire up stage one, (there are 57 in total) and holy crap it's HILLacious. I got more than I bargained for: net elevation was over 1100 meters and that's just net elevation, not even including all the ups and downs on the way. Zoinks. ALOT of hard climbing, I'm talking 15% grades up and out of saddle climbing. Wheeeee!
Average speed for the whole workout was a mere 24kph! Did I bonk? No, but it was close - power output was low and I feeling a little grumpy by the end, but at least I finished that sucker!
So, since Sat, I'm at 12.5 hours of trainer time and I still have 2.5 days to go...
That's all for now. Cheers!
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