A Half Ironman..
in January..
in Canada.
Gosh, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I think I came up with the idea last October. Back then, Jan 26th seemed like an eternity away. Well Jan 26th is now two days ago...
The inaugural Alton Half Ironman took place on Saturday. The event is currently capped at 5 participants, of which 3 actually took part. Very cosy, and at least this way everyone who participated is gauranteed at the very least a bronze medal. Now if only there was hardware available... Bah! Who needs a medal? Swag .. now that's something I'll have to work on for next year.
Moving right along. Aaron (who is quite the bad ass blogger - go read is his race report!) and hardcore Cliff were the only ones who actually thought this idea merit. Doh, they called my bluff.
The transition zone opened at 7:30am and naturally Aaron arrived exactly on time and Cliff arrived exactly when he was suppose to. (8am). We do a quick setup of the bikes in from the of TV. (HAHA.. you thought we were going to bike outside? -ok we maybe Canadian, but we aren't THAT stupid). We grab our swim gear and head to the pool. (nice deal on the pool, we get our very own swim lane and it only cost us 18 bucks - score!)
The swim.
10X 200 on 5 minutes. Lots of rest.. well cause we need it. This was my first swim since IMLP .. a mere 6 months ago and Cliff and Aaron aren't in any better swim shape. So this was clearly about ' just git er done'.
T1
~35 min. A bit long, I know. But by the time we changed, drove back to my house and got on our bikes, 35 min elapsed. Oh well. I guess no sub 4:30 HIM for me today.
The bike.
3 hours of Coach Troy. We were doing his "Tough Love" video and I had completely forgot how much he likes us out of the saddle. Felt like a bunny rabbit, up out of the saddle, down in the aerobars .. repeat... repeat. Well after two hours quad frying saddle jumping, we toasted Coach Troy and instead watched the 2007 Ironman World Championships, which was, as usual, highly entertaining AND allowed us to do some 'steady' work.
T2
~10 min. The 3 of us, 'dry out', as in towel off the sweat that 3 hours of indoor riding will do to you, eat and get dressed for the run.
The Run.
Muahahaha.. The evil imp that sits on my left shoulder took over and make a 'challenging' run. Challenging as in hilly. It was SO hilly, that Cliff actually got a nosebleed!! (true story!) Luckily, my beautiful wife, Sally, was driving the 'sag' wagon and came to Cliff's rescue. Naturally, he soldiered on.. tough guy.
Aaron was running well. I'd stop for 10 sec to talk to Sally and get a drink and it would take me 15 min to catch him.
In the end, I ground out the required 21+k and the legs are hardly complaining - some residual soreness, but that's OK, because this week is a scheduled EASY week.
Yes!
In other news...
(my God, is this guy going to ever shut up??)
Race Sched is now set.
Sporting Life 10k
Mississauga Half Marathon
Muskoka Long Course Tri
Peterborough Half Ironman
Owen Sound Olympic Tri
Guelph Lake Tri
Musokoka 70.3 Ironman
All registered and ready to go. Yiiihaaa
Last weeks mileage
swim 2k (yes! 1st swim of the year!)
bike 8+ hours
run: 57k.
Ok, I'm done. Cya.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Uncomfortable is only a state of mind.
Ya, that was my mantra. Anyone who did some sort of extended outdoor activitity on the weekend knows first hand how uncomfortable it was. The temp was on the chilly side, but in truth, it was the wind. I'm guessing with the wind we were flirting with -20 to -25C windchills. Uncomfortable. My long run was in these conditions and I'm sure most people who saw me were shaking their heads.
Being uncomfortable is just a state of mind.
Oh sure, you can resign yourself to grumbling about how bad you got it and woe you are, or how the world owes you and to being miserable. But that's your choice. If you choose that direction, it so shall be.
Being uncomfortable is just a state of mind.
So that obviously ended up being my mantra during my long run. Crazy enough it worked. I ended up having one of my BEST long runs...
ever. (24.5k in <1hr 53min with an avg HR of 146.) The mind is powerful thing.
The rest of the stats for the week:
Swim: goose egg!
Bike: 7 hrs
Run 66.5k
The plan. Basic structure:
Mon: off/or easy swim
Tue: run 1 hr// hard bike. (LT work)
Wed: swim// easy run
Thu: run 1hr (Zone 2) // bike (strength work)
Fri: swim// easy run
Sat: long bike// easy run
Sun: long run.
Currenlty I'm substituting the swimming with extra biking and running. I did this plan last week and it seems to work well. The one major difference of this plan over last year's plan is the extra speed work. I will NOT be afraid to occasionally go into higher heartrate zones. The last couple of years I was primarily concerned with going long as much as I could handle, which meant ALOT of zone 1 work. The foundation has been laid, the cake is baked, going to put some icing at that bad boy this year. Let's see what happens.
FIVE days until the Alton Half Ironman...
Next weeks update should be a dousy.
Cheers,
Darren
Being uncomfortable is just a state of mind.
Oh sure, you can resign yourself to grumbling about how bad you got it and woe you are, or how the world owes you and to being miserable. But that's your choice. If you choose that direction, it so shall be.
Being uncomfortable is just a state of mind.
So that obviously ended up being my mantra during my long run. Crazy enough it worked. I ended up having one of my BEST long runs...
ever. (24.5k in <1hr 53min with an avg HR of 146.) The mind is powerful thing.
The rest of the stats for the week:
Swim: goose egg!
Bike: 7 hrs
Run 66.5k
The plan. Basic structure:
Mon: off/or easy swim
Tue: run 1 hr// hard bike. (LT work)
Wed: swim// easy run
Thu: run 1hr (Zone 2) // bike (strength work)
Fri: swim// easy run
Sat: long bike// easy run
Sun: long run.
Currenlty I'm substituting the swimming with extra biking and running. I did this plan last week and it seems to work well. The one major difference of this plan over last year's plan is the extra speed work. I will NOT be afraid to occasionally go into higher heartrate zones. The last couple of years I was primarily concerned with going long as much as I could handle, which meant ALOT of zone 1 work. The foundation has been laid, the cake is baked, going to put some icing at that bad boy this year. Let's see what happens.
FIVE days until the Alton Half Ironman...
Next weeks update should be a dousy.
Cheers,
Darren
Monday, January 14, 2008
Pen to paper
Weekly recap:
Run: 66.5k
Spin: 6.5 hrs
Yea babay, back in a solid groove and feeling good. Highlights: Tuesday: LT test on the bike. 30 minutes max effort. It really is a hellish experience.. I think the "One more minute" game started at about 4 minutes in. Went out a tad hard and faded at the end - not exactly what your suppose to do. Ended up averaging 291 watts for the duration. Heartrate was 174 from start to finish, so I did get good data there. Completely and totally fried my legs and almost needed a bucket. Haha.
Highlight number 2: Ran with Aaron on Saturday. Anytime you get to train with a partner, it's gravy. Just knowing someone is right there beside you always seems to lift your spirits. Before you know it we banged off 23k. (although I bet if you looked in his log, I bet he wrote down 24k..)
Highlight number 3: Zoinks. Three training highlights in ONE week. Yesterday I did 2.5 hours on the bike. Yup, it's that time of the year.. Lord of the Rings. So I stuck in LOTRO, put the computrainer in Erg mode and pedalled away. I kept going back and forth between 220w and 240w, 15 min in at each wattage. Awesome ride! The really cool thing about putting your Computrainer in erg mode is that no matter what gear you are in or what cadence you pedal, you HAVE to do the watts. There is no cheating. There is no coasting. You always always always gotta push the watts. Defineately a premium work out.
In the vain of Slowtwitch, critique my trainer dungeon!
I've been doing a bit of research on cycling and increasing functional threshold power (FTP). As usual, the more research you do, the more you begin to realize there is no ONE way. However, the one thing you have to do to become a faster cyclist is push the watts. Some do it by the tried and true 2X 20 Zone 4 workout and others do it by low cadence/high watt drills. Personally, I'm thinking of adapting both and alternating each week between the two.
So the plan is starting to come togethor, once I've actually committed pen to paper, you'll be the first to know.
Cheers!
Run: 66.5k
Spin: 6.5 hrs
Yea babay, back in a solid groove and feeling good. Highlights: Tuesday: LT test on the bike. 30 minutes max effort. It really is a hellish experience.. I think the "One more minute" game started at about 4 minutes in. Went out a tad hard and faded at the end - not exactly what your suppose to do. Ended up averaging 291 watts for the duration. Heartrate was 174 from start to finish, so I did get good data there. Completely and totally fried my legs and almost needed a bucket. Haha.
Highlight number 2: Ran with Aaron on Saturday. Anytime you get to train with a partner, it's gravy. Just knowing someone is right there beside you always seems to lift your spirits. Before you know it we banged off 23k. (although I bet if you looked in his log, I bet he wrote down 24k..)
Highlight number 3: Zoinks. Three training highlights in ONE week. Yesterday I did 2.5 hours on the bike. Yup, it's that time of the year.. Lord of the Rings. So I stuck in LOTRO, put the computrainer in Erg mode and pedalled away. I kept going back and forth between 220w and 240w, 15 min in at each wattage. Awesome ride! The really cool thing about putting your Computrainer in erg mode is that no matter what gear you are in or what cadence you pedal, you HAVE to do the watts. There is no cheating. There is no coasting. You always always always gotta push the watts. Defineately a premium work out.
In the vain of Slowtwitch, critique my trainer dungeon!
I've been doing a bit of research on cycling and increasing functional threshold power (FTP). As usual, the more research you do, the more you begin to realize there is no ONE way. However, the one thing you have to do to become a faster cyclist is push the watts. Some do it by the tried and true 2X 20 Zone 4 workout and others do it by low cadence/high watt drills. Personally, I'm thinking of adapting both and alternating each week between the two.
So the plan is starting to come togethor, once I've actually committed pen to paper, you'll be the first to know.
Cheers!
Monday, January 07, 2008
Upside down pyramid.
I truely think that when you 'seriously' start to pursue triathlon, there is no 'correct' way. Each individual is basically human guinea pig that struggles to find out what works best for them. Some are more successful than others and having a coach to help you navigate those waters would be a big asset. I actually enjoy being self coached, there is a personal satisfaction in researching, following a protocol, laying out and following plan and having a modicum of success in doing so. A couch would tell you "Do this" and you'd do it. Personally, I want to know the why's - it's only through exploring the why we something - is when I believe or not it will work for me.
An example is the pyramid approach to training. Many athletes approach their training in a typical pyramid fashion. Big base building hours in the early season, followed by some shorter more intense session as the season progresses. In my mind, this makes most the sense. The base period helps establish an aerobic engine in which the body has time to adapt and strengthen. This will put in you a much better physical state for when the time comes to do the harder/intense sessions.
The upside pyramid approach basically flips this idea around. ie: Do your more intense/interval training early in the year and your longer type stuff in the mid/late season. From a northern climate perspective this can make alot of sense, the reduced day light hours and dealing with lousy weather can put a damper on the hours one wants to train. However, from a physical stand point, I tend to agree with the standard pyramid approach to training. Always be working on the aerobic engine, but do the fine tuning later in the season. You can always incorporate some 'steady' state stuff to help alleviate the boredom, but save the interval training for racing season.
No one approach is 'best'. It's a matter of figuring what works best for you. The one universal truth that matters is consistency. Be consistent in your training and make sure you get enough rest. Ok, I guess that's two truths.
Last weeks hours:
Run 61k ( must... run... more...)
Bike 7.5 hrs (nice!)
Cap it off with two wieghts/core session and my regular stretching and you have the makings of a decent week.
Cheers!
An example is the pyramid approach to training. Many athletes approach their training in a typical pyramid fashion. Big base building hours in the early season, followed by some shorter more intense session as the season progresses. In my mind, this makes most the sense. The base period helps establish an aerobic engine in which the body has time to adapt and strengthen. This will put in you a much better physical state for when the time comes to do the harder/intense sessions.
The upside pyramid approach basically flips this idea around. ie: Do your more intense/interval training early in the year and your longer type stuff in the mid/late season. From a northern climate perspective this can make alot of sense, the reduced day light hours and dealing with lousy weather can put a damper on the hours one wants to train. However, from a physical stand point, I tend to agree with the standard pyramid approach to training. Always be working on the aerobic engine, but do the fine tuning later in the season. You can always incorporate some 'steady' state stuff to help alleviate the boredom, but save the interval training for racing season.
No one approach is 'best'. It's a matter of figuring what works best for you. The one universal truth that matters is consistency. Be consistent in your training and make sure you get enough rest. Ok, I guess that's two truths.
Last weeks hours:
Run 61k ( must... run... more...)
Bike 7.5 hrs (nice!)
Cap it off with two wieghts/core session and my regular stretching and you have the makings of a decent week.
Cheers!
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Hello '08!
Just like that.. '07 is out the door and big hello goes out to '08! As a bonus, it's an Olympic year, love the Olympics, love the motivation and inspiration it provides.
Lots of catching up, so here the abbreviated version of the last 2 weeks of training.
- injured on Dec 18th. Had a fall work.. (people PLEASE shovel and salt your driveway and walkways!!) Fortuneatly, it wasn't too bad, but just to err on the safe side, I only ran twice for that week.
- mileage total for week of Dec 17-23: run: 23k spin: 4.5 hrs.
- mileage total for week of Dec 24-30: run: 59k spin: 6.25 hrs. The knee is back to 100% and I'm feeling good.
- consistently stretching for 20 minutes a day and doing two sessions of weights and core work every week. Yup, the addiction is back.
Speaking of addictions, I suppose a few of you may have made a New Year's resolution to get fit, lose weight etc.. Here's a little trick that worked for me. Tell yourself you just have to workout for the next 6 weeks. Weeks 1 and 2 are easy, you are all gung-ho and ready to rock. Weeks 3 and 4 are more challenging, the gung-ho-ness is gone and it's much more of a challenge. Weeks 5 and 6 are make or break time, tough it out - it's only 2 weeks. After week 6, things will get alot easier. Why? Because you just made a habit. Go ahead, give it a shot, see what happens, afterall it's only 6 weeks - you can do *anything* for 6 weeks.
The January agenda.
-very similar to my last week of December. Looking to get 12 hours of aerobic activity in each week. Basically half running and half biking. Mondays are still my off day.
-the Alton Half Iron is scheduled for Sat the 26th. Space is limited and is selling it out very fast. I have a feeling the people that have been invited are beginning to have second thoughts about the wisdom of doing a half ironman in January. To them I say: muaahahahaha... :)
I feel the urge to soemthing sorta epic today... I'm thinking the ErgVideo Lake Placid loop... I guess that means it's time to
HTFU.
Cheers gang and Happy New Year!
Lots of catching up, so here the abbreviated version of the last 2 weeks of training.
- injured on Dec 18th. Had a fall work.. (people PLEASE shovel and salt your driveway and walkways!!) Fortuneatly, it wasn't too bad, but just to err on the safe side, I only ran twice for that week.
- mileage total for week of Dec 17-23: run: 23k spin: 4.5 hrs.
- mileage total for week of Dec 24-30: run: 59k spin: 6.25 hrs. The knee is back to 100% and I'm feeling good.
- consistently stretching for 20 minutes a day and doing two sessions of weights and core work every week. Yup, the addiction is back.
Speaking of addictions, I suppose a few of you may have made a New Year's resolution to get fit, lose weight etc.. Here's a little trick that worked for me. Tell yourself you just have to workout for the next 6 weeks. Weeks 1 and 2 are easy, you are all gung-ho and ready to rock. Weeks 3 and 4 are more challenging, the gung-ho-ness is gone and it's much more of a challenge. Weeks 5 and 6 are make or break time, tough it out - it's only 2 weeks. After week 6, things will get alot easier. Why? Because you just made a habit. Go ahead, give it a shot, see what happens, afterall it's only 6 weeks - you can do *anything* for 6 weeks.
The January agenda.
-very similar to my last week of December. Looking to get 12 hours of aerobic activity in each week. Basically half running and half biking. Mondays are still my off day.
-the Alton Half Iron is scheduled for Sat the 26th. Space is limited and is selling it out very fast. I have a feeling the people that have been invited are beginning to have second thoughts about the wisdom of doing a half ironman in January. To them I say: muaahahahaha... :)
I feel the urge to soemthing sorta epic today... I'm thinking the ErgVideo Lake Placid loop... I guess that means it's time to
HTFU.
Cheers gang and Happy New Year!
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