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. :)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
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.
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